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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 20, 2012Jeff BzdelikQ. At this point in the season, how do you use the week off? Do you give your team a physical rest? Do you go back to fundamentals? What do you do during this long a layoff? COACH BZDELIK: Well, what we've done is we gave them Sunday and Monday off. Yesterday and today. They'll do individual workouts tomorrow, and we'll go back to team practice on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday in preparation for our game on Saturday. This is our first break in a lot of ways this year. I just think we have some guys that because they don't have a lot of depth, and I've got a couple of guys playing a lot of minutes, I think it's a much needed break for them, especially with the academics at Wake Forest. It gives them a chance to catch up and rest their body. As I told them, you might have days off, but you utilize those days off effectively to make sure that they're productive days. Days where you get in and see the trainer. Take care of the injuries that have accumulated throughout the course of the year. You eat right, you sleep right, you get in the ice bath and take one a day and make sure that you're preparing your body for next Saturday and resting your body in a way that will be beneficial to you. Again, they might be days off in one sense, but in the other sense, they need to be productive days and handled correctly. Q. With Boston College coming up, it looked like you guys played one of your best games up there. How important is it, two teams tided in the standings. It's not like you're competing for the conference title. But would it be significant to climb up over them in the latter? COACH BZDELIK: No question. We're interested in winning as many games as we can and show improvement. Obviously we need to keep moving forward in a productive, positive way and working on our game to improve individually and collectively. So, yeah, there is no question about it. We're working hard to get better. Q. You spoke earlier about plans on a nominal off day. What is your philosophy on practice at this time of the season? Longer, shorter, more intense, less intense, same? COACH BZDELIK: Well, the intensity's got to be the same. You've got to practice hard. I think a shorter practice is better. A good 70‑minute workout where you spend time watching film and teaching. But once you hit the court, it's hard, it's right, it's short, and you can take it to the point where the players have improved and gotten better. But at the same time, you take them to the edge where there's great energy. I try hard not to go more than 70 minutes at this time of the year with hard effort. In terms of getting better, running our offense, working on our defense, positioning, rebounding in special situations. But, yeah, no more than 70 minutes. That would be whether or not we have great depth or not. Obviously, there are some players that haven't played a lot of minutes that are younger that will stay afterwards and continue to hone in on their skills and show improvement from an individual standpoint. Yeah, we keep it shorter, no question. Q. I asked you last week about Chase Fischer starting in the lineup. He's coming off a pretty impressive performance. Can you assess how he's doing right now? COACH BZDELIK: I think Chase is doing a much better job of understanding how the defense is playing when he's coming off of screens, how do you utilize screens, understanding where help is coming from when he catches the ball off the screen or he puts down on the floor. He's a smart, heady player. He's showing improvement in those areas, and it showed the last game, for example. He did a great job coming off the screens to create air space. He came off a couple times and made some really nice passes to the screener who was able to create some space for. I just think that he's progressing very well as a freshman. We've asked him to play a lot of minutes, and he's been able to stay the course in his development. Usually freshmen hit a wall. He has. He's had some inconsistency in his play, but for the most part as a freshman he's done very well. He's an enthusiastic player. He loves the game. He can shoot the ball. He's heady. I think the last game he played, I don't have the stat sheet in front of me, but as I recall, he played 37, 38 minutes and didn't turn it over. Had some assists, some steals and shot it well. Positioned himself well defensively. So he's getting better. Q. Let me ask you a philosophical question. When you're in a rebuilding mode such as this. Do you ever balance decisions made for what is the best for the long‑term health of the program versus winning that game tonight, the immediacy of a single game, what tactic works there? How do you balance those two ideas? COACH BZDELIK: Well, that's a great question. But here's the way I think about it. I've got to win games. That would be unfair to the veteran players that are here now. The future is now in so many ways. Now the way our situation is, these freshmen have been thrown into a situation that they need to play. They need to produce so we have an opportunity to win. You have to work really hard and do everything you can to win every single game that you can. Along the way these freshmen, obviously, through necessity are getting much needed experience that will bode well for their future and our future. But winning now is the bottom line. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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