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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 30, 2012Jim LarranagaTHE MODERATOR: We have with us now Miami head basketball Coach Jim Larranaga. Coach, a few comments about your team and we'll open it up for questions. COACH LARRANAGA: Well, we had two nice road victories this week. I thought our guys did a very good job of playing consistently at both ends of the court at Georgia Tech. We were able to build a double‑digit halftime lead and able to sustain that through the second half. Was particularly pleased with our defense. At Boston College we were in a dogfight. Tied at 49 all, Malcolm Grant, our leading scorer, had two points at that time. Reggie Johnson found him for an open three, opened up the floodgates. Malcolm made that shot, scored the next six or eight points and we were able to pull away down the stretch. I thought it was a great team effort with four guys in double figures. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions. Q. Jim, Wednesday night you have the leading scorer in the conference, Terrell Stoglin. How tough is he to defend and what are the kinds of things you might do to try to contain him? COACH LARRANAGA: Yeah, that's going to be a major concern of ours. He's a tremendous scorer. He is an attack guy from start to finish. In recent games we've done a pretty good job, I think Durand Scott has done a terrific job. But trying to find the right matchups, it's not just Terrell, because Sean Mosley is a big key for them. We have to figure out who can guard both of those guys the best. It's going to really take a team effort. A lot of different guys are going to have to guard both those guys. Q. He has a knack for getting to the free‑throw line. COACH LARRANAGA: The word you used is really correct. It has a way of showing up with various guys. Terrell has a 'knack' for getting to the foul line, for scoring points. He's a natural‑born scorer. Such guys have a knack for rebounding, some guys have a knack for blocking shots. Some defensive players have a knack of stopping those guys. That's what you look for as a coach. You like defensive stoppers, guys that can go in and play different kinds of guys. For us Durand Scott is that guy. It's not just Terrell. Sean Mosley is a key guy for them on the perimeter as well. We have to figure out how to match up with them the best way, keep them off the foul line. That's always been a big emphasis for us anyway. Q. What pleased you most about the way you finished off yesterday's game, having shot I guess below 30% for some of the game, but find yourself still in the game, then got it going? What pleased you most? COACH LARRANAGA: There were so many different things. I'd say first of all, Malcolm Grant I think was 1‑for‑7 in the first half. He didn't get discouraged by that. He kept looking for his shots. The biggest play of the game in my mind was Reggie Johnson throwing the skip pass to him for the open three, Malcolm making that shot. Reggie knowing that Malcolm wasn't shooting well could have forced up a post move. But Reggie's unselfish play and excellent read of the defense, Malcolm's readiness to make the shot even though he hadn't made a lot of shots before that, hadn't made a three, showed a little bit of experience. I think it also shows that the team has been practicing collectively now. We haven't had a lot of great practices until the last five or seven days with our eight‑man rotation. With those guys now practicing together and practicing well, I think we've made some strides both offensively and defensively. Once Malcolm made that shot, we became a much better defensive team. It was like that ignited us defensively. Q. Coach, this may be sort of a foolish or pointless question. With both you and Coach Turgeon being new to the ACC, I'm wondering whether there's any sense of fraternity or collegiality among the four of you who are first‑year ACC coaches this year, and also your impressions after the six games, if there's anything that struck you about competing in the ACC. COACH LARRANAGA: Well, as far as the four new coaches are concerned, I think all of us are competitors. We care far more about our own program, our players, wanting to win than we worry about the other guys. Although whenever our opponents play outside the league, we're always cheering for ACC schools to win because I think it's what's best for our conference to earn more at‑large selections to the NCAA tournament at the end of the year. Mark does a great job. We competed when he was at Wichita State, now at George Mason. We're both 3‑3, so this game becomes meaningful. We're both in the middle of the pack trying to move up. All these games become hugely important. I'm sure they'll be ready and I'm sure our guys will be ready for a hotly contested game come Wednesday night. Q. Coach, I want to ask you about Durand, what you really liked about his play yesterday, what it can mean for you guys to get that type of scoring for him. COACH LARRANAGA: I didn't even realize he scored 19 points until the game was over. His defense is what I was taking notice of. Shane Larkin got in foul trouble very early. So we moved Durand back to the point guard position. I think he just played a great all‑around game. He was very aggressive offensively. Four assists, no turnovers, hit a three from the corner in the first half, really drove to the basket, scored well going to the hoop, got to the foul line a couple of times. I think he just played a great all‑around game and rebounded well. His defense and all‑around play have been a real sparkplug for us in these recent games. Q. What is the status of Garrius Adams? COACH LARRANAGA: Garrius had knee surgery last week. He's in a rehab process. My guess is a month to six weeks of rehab before he'll be back a hundred percent. Whether he'll be able to make it back anytime during this regular season or post‑season, we really don't know at this point. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for taking time being with us and we'll hear from you same time again next week. COACH LARRANAGA: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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