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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 6, 2012Jim LarranagaCOACH LARRANAGA: Well, I was very, very proud of my coaching staff this week. I was under the weather. I had the flu and they did a great job of helping us prepare for the Maryland game, which we won in double overtime then our preparation for the Duke game, which we won in overtime. For us, it was a very good week and a major step in the right direction. Q. I wanted to ask you about the reception you got when you guys came home. I even saw a picture, I think, there were some students waiting for the bus. What was the mood on the plane and arriving in Miami? Just what kind of confidence do you think a win like that plus the double overtime with Maryland gives the team? COACH LARRANAGA: Well, all these conference games are so close, and it always makes you feel better when you come out on top. I think your confidence grows from those victories. Having the students come out is a whole other area of growth for our program to have the students that excited, especially on Super Bowl Sunday where everybody's tuned in watching sports. So it was great for our players to see that enthusiasm and we just hope that we'll get a great student turnout for our game on Thursday night against Virginia Tech. Q. How do you bring them down a little bit from a game like that? You've got a tough three‑‑ well, the whole rest of the season, but the next three games are tough. How do you get past an emotional win like that that drains so much energy out of them? COACH LARRANAGA: Well, I thought the players did it already. After the game they were excited, but they understood that this is a long conference race. That was one game. It was a great win, but so was the one against Maryland. You've got to put those games behind you and start the new week and prepare just like you did the week before. As I said, I thought my coaching staff did a great job preparing the team for each game. And the players, I'm very proud of them for executing under extreme circumstances. When you have a 16‑point lead in both games, you lose that lead and end up going into overtime, it appears the momentum has shifted. You have to keep your poise and to recover and make some big plays and end up with a W is a major step in the right direction for us. Q. You guys had gone on this four‑game winning streak with Shane Larkin in the starting lineup. Are those two things related the way you guys have been playing, Shane in the lineup? COACH LARRANAGA: Well, I certainly think Shane has impacted many statistical categories for us. He's been able to add some things tangibly and a lot of things intangibly. But I think a lot of it has to do with we're getting healthier, having Reggie back full‑time and practicing a lot. Last week we did not have Kenny Kadji for the Maryland game because he got hurt. But when you get your whole eight‑man rotation, nine guys healthy and practicing for an extended period, then you're bound to improve it was the first time this season we were able to do that for a five or seven‑day period, and that was just prior to our four‑game winning streak. Shane has had a great impact because he takes some of the ball handling responsibilities away from Durand and Malcolm, and that allows them to free up and spend more of their energy on basically defense and scoring. Plus, Kenny and Reggie are finding great ways to help each other when you get good balance in your scoring and get good bench play like we've been getting, you get better results. Q. I wanted to ask you about Kenny Kadji. Any part of his game been a surprise? At Florida, he didn't get as many opportunities as he's had here. But obviously the scoring and rebounding and he's doing a lot of things for you. Any part of his game this year instead of how well he's played been a surprise to you or was it expected? COACH LARRANAGA: I never saw Kenny play. He was never on any video that we had from last year's team. So the first look, really we got of Kenny was in September. He's obviously very tall. He's got a lot of length to him. He's a good athlete, and he jumps very well. But probably the most impressive thing was his shooting ability. Then when he started the season he was a little rusty. He had sat out for so long. But when Reggie came back and Kenny was moved over to his natural forward position, he was just more relaxed, more comfortable with himself and what we were asking him to do and he's really elevate his game. He's been a very consistently high performer throughout the conference race. Q. How are you feeling? Are you 100% now? COACH LARRANAGA: I'm feeling much better. I was bad. I was in the emergency room Saturday morning. I was feeling so bad, but I was able to recover enough to get on the plane and go with the team. I was really happy I did. Q. Coach, could you imagine getting a win that big with your two veteran guards combining to shoot four of 21 from the floor. What are you going to be like when they get back on track? COACH LARRANAGA: I don't know if it's getting back on track. One of the things that is very obvious in this league is the great defense that's being played by so many teams. You know, Malcolm and Durand are high octane players. They're going to have days where they shoot the ball extremely well and some days when they don't. But I think some of their effort at the defensive end of the floor which has really been the defense of how we've been able to win, impacts their offensive effort. They don't have as much juice as they would if they were resting on defense. So even though they didn't shoot the ball as well, their defense was very, very good, and we're very, very pleased with that continued improvement in that area. Q. We're a week into February now. Is it too early to start talking about this win putting you on the bubble and finally getting you from the bad side to at least on the bubble? Can you start thinking about putting together a resume that can get you in? COACH LARRANAGA: I think we've played 21 games at this point. It's a 30‑game test. You don't know what your final grade is until you've answered all 30 questions. It's going to be the next nine games that really determine what kind of year we've had. We've got a lot of very talented opponents coming up very quickly. Q. You talked before the season about how we have one plan for this particular group of players and another plan for when Reggie first comes back and another plan for later on. Are you finally going to plan three? Is this kind of finally the group and the performances that you've been waiting for? COACH LARRANAGA: Yeah, it was what we were anticipating, what we were hoping for. So basically the answer to your question is yes. Q. So no surprise to you? COACH LARRANAGA: I don't know if anything is a surprise. It's more a work in progress. We're certainly not where we'd like to be. We would like to be shooting the ball better, rebounding better, defending better, just do everything better. The guys are working on it, and we are improving. But you can always get better, and that's what we're working at right now. Q. I want to know what you told the team in the locker room? What was the mood and the message you gave them after that win? COACH LARRANAGA: I basically just said that they should be proud of themselves. That they held their poise. They played very, very well for extended minutes to earn a 16‑point lead. Duke played great to erase that 16‑point lead. And it took an awful lot of resiliency to hang on and continue to fight in the overtime and come out on top. That they needed to enjoy it, but for only that day. That game is behind us now just like the game on Wednesday against Maryland. It was a great game. You won in double overtime, but you have to put it behind you very quickly and get ready for the next one. That's what we're about to do now. Put those two games behind us and get ready for Thursday. Q. When your bus pulled up and you saw the students, how did you feel about that? Seeing anybody waiting for you guys is probably not a typical situation. COACH LARRANAGA: I thought it was very symbolic. You look for growth in certain areas with your team. But also with the support of your program. The greatest thing for us is to get our students to rally behind our program and to get the students excited about coming to the Bank United Center and filling up our arena. If a game like yesterday can be the motivator where the students start talking about our basketball team and wanting to be a part of it and feel the excitement, then they'll turn out in large numbers and that creates the electricity in your arena, and then other people will want to be a part of it. When the pep band is playing and everybody's going wild, you see what happens when you go to Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Cameron Crazies are there hours before the game sleeping over in Krzyzewski‑ville. We're in the best conference in the country. We want our students to feel very much a part of it. This is their program. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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