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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 6, 2012Seth GreenbergCOACH GREENBERG: Obviously, we're extremely pleased with finding a way to win this past weekend after such a fine line between winning and losing in our league ourselves, like any other team in our league, we could be 0‑8 right now, we couldbe 6‑2 right now. That's just the way it is. There is a very, very small margin of error. Fortunately for us, we found a way to win this past weekend, and now we've got to hopefully build on that. We'll play an outstanding Miami team that's as good a front court as anyone in our league, is experienced and physical a perimeter game as any in our league. So it's going to be a tremendous opportunity, but a great challenge. I think we have something to build on though. Q. I don't know if you got a chance to look at the Duke‑Miami game, but your impressions of Miami coming off that? COACH GREENBERG: I think they're a terrific team.  They've got two legitimate front court players, obviously, in Johnson and Kadji. Durand Scott is extremely difficult to keep out of the lane. Grant shoots the ball in range. And Larkin is giving them really good minutes in terms of settling them down, getting them in the offense. I think they're playing really well defensively. They're just a really good basketball team right now. They play with a purpose. They're extremely well coached, and you've got to figure out how you can defend them, because they can really score with the basketball. Q. Coach, you were talking about the fine line that separates victory and defeat. How much of that is experience, and how much is confidence when you lose a couple of close ones? Does it make it tougher to get over the hump the next time? COACH GREENBERG: I think that's just human nature. But I think experience is a huge factor. You see the teams that are probably veteran in our conference right now, they're experienced, mature teams. That's just around the country, I would think. Excluding Kentucky, that's obviously in a class by itself, but your teams that win close games have been there before, have found a way to win. Our teams that have been there before, they can go and make a play, and have guys that, if they don't make a play, they can get a stop. I do think experience is a huge factor in that. Again, how do you learn to make good decisions? You make some bad ones. Unfortunately for us, that's been part of our learning curve with our young people. Q. Beyond that, is there a cumulative effect of success or failure? You say you learn to make the good plays by making the bad ones. You all have been just missing, just missing, just missing. You're coming off a game where you made the plays at the end and you got the win. Does that carry over? COACH GREENBERG: I'm not sure we made the plays at the end, quite honestly. Free throw block out, they came back and had a shot to win it. But confidence is huge in sport. Whether it's in basketball, whether it's in golf, shoot, whether it's in football, confidence is a huge factor. The more success you have, no doubt about it, obviously, the more confident you're going to be, the more you expect to win. What we've got to do with our basketball team is get to the point where they do expect to win and they are going to believe that they're going to make that play. Obviously, making it another day helps us a little bit towards that goal. But when I say you have to learn from your mistakes, that's just a reality. Young players, if they are really, really understanding the game, learn from their mistakes when they're put in that same situation next time. A year later, maybe two weeks later, all right, they're not going to make the same mistake. They're going to make a better decision against the press. They're going to switch when they're supposed to switch. They're going to make the extra pass. They're going to make sure the right guy's shooting the ball on time, on target. That's what I'm talking about. Q. Just curious about your observations about Reggie Johnson. Have you ever seen a guy that big do as much under the rim, perhaps, as he does? COACH GREENBERG: Well, he's a mountain masquerading as a man. He's a massive mass of humanity. He's got terrific hands. Again, it's like a different time zone when you get from one side to the other side. So he has the ability to create an angle and finish around the basket, not by getting up, but by creating angles because of the size of his body. A lot of times there is a direct correlation between the size of someone's rear end and their ability to score. But he's like Sponge Bob Square Pants. The guy is square. It is impossible to get around the guy. So he uses his body well. He targets well. He catches anything that's thrown to him, which is a huge asset, and then he creates angles. You've got to give the guy credit. He's really doing some special things. Q. Given that size, how important a role might range play Thursday night? COACH GREENBERG: I think range, staying out of foul trouble. With the front court of Miami, you have Kadji who can step out and post you and is tough on the offensive glass. And then you have Reggie who obviously takes up a tremendous amount of space, but yet with his strength‑‑ the big thing with Reggie, if you do your work late, you're done. I thought the end of the game, there was a segment where Duke did a great job of defending him early and getting him off the block, getting him to repost. It was easier to guard him. Even though he made that unbelievable jump hook, I think you can live with that shot. It's the ones where he carves out that space right in front of the rim. Again, you say he doesn't jump very high. He doesn't jump very high. But you're like at 6:00 o'clock, and the ball's like at 3:00 o'clock he's so wide. Q. Question about Dorian Finney‑Smith. How do you keep him at the level he was the other day? COACH GREENBERG: I'm really proud of Dodo. He's working really, really hard. Obviously, to see the ball go in early was huge for him. But he's going to be a special, special player, there is no doubt about it. Again, it's a process that most freshmen have to go through. But he's going through it with strength, repetition, by changing a couple things that we think are important for him. I think that he'll continue to get better. I expect him to continue to play and to build on his performance of the other day. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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