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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 30, 2012Brian GregoryBRIAN GREGORY: We have a tough week again starting on the road yesterday and then obviously playing against a team that is playing as well as just about anybody in Florida State on Wednesday. You know, so we did some good things yesterday. Obviously North Carolina is just a very, very good team, and they know exactly how they want to play, and they play at a pace. We tried to slow that down a little bit or at least contain it, and we just weren't able to do that. But at the same time I thought we did some good things on the offensive end and our half court defense was pretty good. We've got to keep making progress, and we've got another big challenge on the road on Wednesday against a team that is exceptionally talented and diverse on defense and has really‑‑ I think they're averaging 72 points a game in the league, has really kind of found their flow offensively, as well. Q. Talk about what Florida State does that makes them so tough on defense. BRIAN GREGORY: Well, they have great length at the basket, so they never give up any easy shots at the rim. With both those guys, Gibson has played an integral role in the past, and James, both those guys as seniors, and then Kreft is a senior so you have three post guys that are all 6'10", 240, or bigger, that know exactly what Coach wants them to do back there. So it allows them to push up and pressure a little bit more, even with some guys you would think wouldn't be able to do that. But they use their length for deflections and just keeping you in front, and you have to score over or through them, and that's pretty hard to do. Q. You mentioned they seem to be more comfortable offensively. You see when you look at their films any reason why they seem to be more effective than they were preseason when they scored ten points in a half? BRIAN GREGORY: Right, right. One thing is they are shooting the ball better, and that always helps. Again, you have guys that kind of know what needs to be done. Having Miller come off the bench at 11 points a game, a little bit over 11 points a game, always can give you a spark. But if you look at their‑‑ at the starters, you have three seniors, a junior and a graduate student. You know, I didn't watch as much early in terms of why they were struggling offensively, but they definitely haven't been lately. Q. You guys shot 46 percent last night against a team that blocks a lot of shots and defends pretty well in general. What do you take from that specifically? Did you see any plays or particular execution that you think you can build on for the future? BRIAN GREGORY: Well, I thought we did a better job of our pace in terms of trying to push the ball down the court. You know, we're limited in number a little bit at times, and so you have to be careful with that. But what happened yesterday is we had some presence in the low post, to be honest with you. Cam was pretty good in the low post. We got the ball in to Daniel, and Julian made a couple nice moves in there, as well, for a freshman. And whenever you have a presence at the rim around the basket, then you're going to be able to‑‑ offensively you're going to have a little better flow. You know, so it's‑‑ one kind of leads to another. We did a better job of keeping the ball on the move and not having the ball die in guys' hands. And the times that we did over‑dribble the ball, we either were forced to take a difficult shot or we turned the ball over. We're just really emphasizing‑‑ the fact is right now that sometimes offensively we make it so hard on ourselves, we don't just make the easy play, and we very rarely‑‑ and we have to get better at creating some scoring opportunities for other guys. And some of that comes with maturity and some of that just comes from becoming better basketball players, and that's what we're trying to do. Q. You mentioned Julian Royal. He didn't score a point in six of your first nine games of the season, and then in the last three games he's had 9, 11 and 9 against some pretty good competition. What is it? Is he just looking for his shot more or has he become more comfortable? BRIAN GREGORY: Well, I think as a freshman he didn't know if he was on foot or horseback when the season started. I mean, that happens. One thing that we had to do when he got here is he really did a great job of getting in much better condition than he was before. You emphasize that so much, and maybe some of the other stuff, that you're going to pick up down the road is kind of pushed to the side. Just understanding how hard he had to play, and he was our only freshman. And for us to change the program and get the program back on track, he was kind of the only blank slate that we had, and so we wanted to make sure, especially with him, that he understood from day one, these are the things that you need to do to be successful at this level. As he got more comfortable with that and understood that more and embraced that, then as he started to play better, then all of a sudden now he's doing it on a much more consistent basis. Even during that first part of the year, he had some games where he played pretty well, but then the next day in practice it was, where's Julian. And that's what happens with freshmen. You have to do that, just the intensity level and the consistency level is something that those young guys got to learn. I really like him because I think he's got a chance to be a heck of a player, but he's a very coachable kid. You can tell him something, show him something on film or talk to him during the game, and you can see instantly that he won't make that mistake again. And he got a pretty good education yesterday in terms of running the floor because those big guys at Carolina run the floor tremendously well. Julian is going to be, before it's all said and done, a guy who can do that.  So I thought yesterday he performed well. He battled. But at the same time, I think he also had some valuable lessons taught to him. Q. I hate to bring this up, but it's been nine losses in ten games and five in a row. Is there a point where you really worry about the mental aspect of how your team is handling this, and is there a point where it wears down on what you're trying to do? BRIAN GREGORY: Yeah. I mean, you wouldn't be doing your job if you didn't worry about that stuff, because I mean, losing games wears you out, and it's not just coaches, it's the players, as well. You know, as a coach, I can take a look at this schedule, the first eight‑game schedule and so forth, and look at it and say, only played three games at home and two of those three home games are against Duke and Virginia, top‑20 teams. There's a lot, there's no doubt about it. But we've talked all year long about the process of just how we've got to do things every day, this is how hard we've got to work when it comes to preparation. This is what we need to do. And we're not going to evaluate it always on what happens on the scoreboard and so forth. Well, sooner or later, you've got to have, as I always say, some tangible evidence that what you're doing works, you know, and so, yeah, you worry about that. You've got to make sure that the guys are‑‑ continue to plug along, and as you know, there's nothing better for that than to get a couple wins. As you also know, winning makes big problems look small and losing makes small problems look big, and you just need to make sure that you're constantly communicating those situations with your players. Q. Just your read on how they're handling it right now. BRIAN GREGORY: Well, again, I think at times we've handled it extremely well. I still saw some intensity level and fight in the guys yesterday. As you know, I've seen before, those games can get dramatically out of hand. I thought we did some good things yesterday. I think our half‑court defense when we got them in the half court was pretty darned good. They're very versatile, can score in the post and can also obviously make shots and create some shots with Marshall having the ball in his hands. But I thought we did some good things. I don't think we got out of sorts on offense with guys taking crazy shots and looking out for their own and stuff like that, so I thought that was‑‑ when you're in this thing and you know exactly where you're at and where you want to get to, you've got to sometimes pull out some positive signs that aren't as noticeable to other guys, and I saw some positive signs yesterday. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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