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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 30, 2012Jeff BzdelikTHE MODERATOR: We have with us now Wake Forest head basketball coach Jeff Bzdelik. Coach, a few comments about your team and we'll open it up for questions. COACH BZDELIK:  Just the first comment would be we've taken 50 fewer shots in the ACC than our opponents. That's because of turnovers and yielding offensive rebounds. Obviously that's been a focus of ours in terms of our working to get better. We need to handle the basketball better and we need to rebound the ball better defensively and finish those defensive possessions. You're just not going to win a lot of games if you're allowing your opponent to take that many extra shots. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions for Coach Bzdelik. Q. Coach, Chase Fischer seems to have settled in a little bit, playing a little bit better. Struggling earlier. Has he seemed to find a comfort level? COACH BZDELIK: It's interesting. I think if you asked any coach, they talk about freshmen. It's just different for freshmen. It takes a period of adjustment. Unfortunately since I've been here I've had to count on freshmen. I know after one of our recent games, after the game I ran into the opposing head coach. He said, I'm not getting anything from my freshmen. I think that would be a pretty common statement for most coaches. I'm asking freshmen to contribute in a great way. Chase I think has done a wonderful job. I mean, he's very comfortable and confident out there. Yeah, he's had moments where he's been like a freshmen, he's had moments where he's been otherwise. One thing that Chase does, people talk about his ability to shoot the ball, he can do that, but he also passes the ball really well. I think he might be our best passer. He sees the floor very well. He makes some really tough passes with his left hand. I mean, he's made about five or six passes off his left hand, just dribbling with his left hand and firing the ball even cross‑court. I feel great about him. I have great confidence in him. He's got a really terrific future in this league if he gets stronger and understands positions more and gets experience. He's a good all‑around player, has a high IQ, and has really good skills. Q. I wouldn't call them secrets, but what are the elements to try to improve so that your opponents don't get so many offensive rebounds? I know there's things you have to work on and practice against that. Do you get to a point your players just need to get mad about it or what? COACH BZDELIK: Well, I think, to be honest with you, we've improved in that area. Our differential in rebounding, it's narrow. That gap is narrow. I think we've gotten a better job, done a better job of it. Again, in seven games they've had 16 more second‑chance opportunities. We've narrowed that game. We do that every day. We don't do just one rebound drill a day. We do two, three, sometimes four different rebounding drills spaced out in our practices. Our players are getting stronger. They're mad about it. They're doing a better job of it. They are. One of the things that hurts us is that we get beat off the dribble. We do have some really good shot blockers in Ty Walker, Carson Desrosiers. What happens, when you get beat off the dribble, they go to block shots to protect off the rim and early help. We have to rotate and make sure the man they just left, the opposing center, doesn't have a clear path. You think about rebounding being a shot goes up, everybody has to block off. In our particular case, and in many cases, it's because we don't guard the ball well enough that we get beat off the dribble, our shot blockers go to help, that's where our shot blockers have to do a good job of understanding, When do I legitimately have a chance to block shots as opposed to just trying to (indiscernible). That's one of the areas we have to do a better job of, is guarding the ball, that will help. We have 50 fewer shots mostly because we have 31 extra turnovers than our opponents. Those kinds of bad turnovers that we yielded, we can't defend. That's how I see our defensive rebounding. We're getting better. We need to continue to improve. That's an emphasis on a daily basis. Q. Jeff, how do you think Ty Walker responded last week after the injury? COACH BZDELIK: Well, obviously when the injury occurred against Florida State at halftime, he was evaluated. The doctors said he had a mild concussion, a slight concussion, so we held him out for that game. He did not practice the next day at all. He went through the tests that they administer when a young man has a concussion. He felt better that next day, but there was no contact, no nothing. On Friday, they elevated his heart rate when we practiced on Friday. He had no headaches, no symptoms whatsoever. They evaluated him Saturday morning at 10:00, administered another test to him. He scored extremely well and they cleared him to play. How did he respond? Like the rest of our team, we had some really good moments where we played well and some moments where we didn't play well. So he was normal is the best way to describe it. He's had a couple really good days of practice with no ill effects at all. Hopefully we got that behind us. Q. With some of the hype that North Carolina is going to have on Tuesday night, I guess is goes without saying you have guys like Tyler that you have something to match up inside there? COACH BZDELIK: Yeah, obviously Ty is one of their bigs, long and athletic. Length covers up for a lot of mistakes. Ty obviously erases a lot of our mistakes and he is a factor in there because he is gifted with his ability to block shots and protect the rim. Obviously we need to be as strong as possible going in against one of the nation's elite teams, no question. THE MODERATOR: Thanks for taking time being with us today. We'll hear from you same time again next week. COACH BZDELIK: Thank you very much. THE MODERATOR: That concludes today's basketball teleconference. Thank you for taking part. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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