|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 27, 2012Mark TurgeonMARK TURGEON: You know, we've got a big week ahead of us. We get two really good teams, North Carolina at their place on Wednesday, and then Virginia at home this weekend. So great opportunities for us, and hopefully‑‑ any time a young team can play in games like this, it's good for your program, so we're looking forward to this week. Q. Your team has probably one of the most home‑road differences in the league in terms of really playing competitively with everybody at home while most, with a couple exceptions, struggling on the road. Is that, if anything, a function of a young team or is there any other reason for that? MARK TURGEON: Yeah, let me blame it on that. I don't know exactly. I don't have an answer. I'm disappointed. My teams usually are good road teams. You know, they competed at Duke pretty well until the end without Pe'Shon. We weren't very good at Virginia, tied at halftime; Georgia Tech got us the other day; we were great against Clemson at their place, up 15 or 16 until the second half. We were becoming a better road team I thought when we had Pe'Shon, starting to compete a little better. But we've had a tough road schedule, if you look at it, North Carolina State, Florida State, some teams that are pretty good at home, along with Duke, then we've got Carolina. So blame it on youth. I'm disappointed that we didn't come out with one Saturday, but we didn't deserve to win it, either. With that said, we have been a pretty good home team, and hopefully that will continue this weekend. Q. I'm just curious, and this is not‑‑ at Georgia Tech, that's obviously their home court, but it's not really a home court. How much of a home court edge do you think they have or don't have there? MARK TURGEON: Well, at the end of the year they're used to playing there now. They've played a lot of games in that building, so they're much more comfortable in that environment. I was pleasantly surprised for them at the amount of people they had Saturday, considering the year it's been. And I thought the lower section was pretty much full, in the middle and things. So yeah, it's not what it's going to be next year for them. They'll be a better team and playing on their campus. It's going to be huge for them. But I still think it's a home court advantage when you're more familiar than the opponent. Q. With senior day coming on later this week, could you just talk about what Sean Mosley has meant to the team and to you, both in terms of his game, his contributions on the stat line, but also the leadership and the things we don't see behind the scenes? MARK TURGEON: Well, Sean has had a great year. He's been really pretty consistent daily in practice. He brings it every day. He tries to motivate and lead in practice as best he can with this team. You know, for me, it's been great because he does bring it every day and he competes every day, and he prepares every day to win games. You know, whether it looks like it's rubbing off on the young guys or not, it is, and he's really the only example I have of that, a guy that's won, I guy that knows what it takes to win, and so it's been very helpful. You know, just me being my first year, he's bought in from day one, and I'll never forget that. He's helped this transition. This could have been a really ugly year for us, and it's turned out to be a pretty good year. There's still a lot ahead of us. Hopefully we can do some things. But I think the reason we've been somewhat successful is because of Sean and his effort every day. Q. And just a quick follow‑up, he is consistently positive and upbeat in talking to reporters. But I imagine he shares a frustration, as well, with his teammates or the team in general not being able to finish some games stronger. Have you detected that frustration, and how has he manifested it or handled it? MARK TURGEON: He's handled it great. You know, losing is no fun.  Going through what we're going through, even though we're going to have a winning season, it's no fun. But I think up until Saturday he handled it very well. I think he was very disappointed. But kids are resilient. I expect Sean to bounce back and be great today. Sean has had a fun year. If you ask him, are you enjoying this, he's had a blast. It's kind of been his team, and he's gotten to play a lot. I've challenged him in a lot of ways. So he's had a lot of fun, and he's going to remember this year. He's going to remember his sophomore year, what a great year that was, and he'll never forget that, but he'll also remember this year. I tell him all the time, Sean, we're going to be good in the future, and a lot of the reason is because you helped us establish a lot of things this first year. Q. In your years of coaching have you ever had a situation like you had this year with Pe'Shon Howard, here as your starting point guard, you lose him in preseason, he comes back, plays 14 games and you lose him for the rest of the season? I know other positions, power forward and guards, but point guard seems to be so instrumental in team cohesion. Have you ever had this type of situation before? MARK TURGEON: No, I've never really had one true point guard, either, on a roster. I've always had multiple. I know Terrell can play point, but it's not his true position. It's definitely not Nick's. So no, I've never been through this, lose a guy twice. It's been like coaching three or four different teams to be quite honest with you this year, which is a challenge in itself. Now, we've been able to handle the second injury, I thought, for Pe'Shon a lot better than the first time. We've adapted quicker because of Nick and the job he's done. But no, it's been unusual and difficult, and it's just where our program is right now. We couldn't afford an injury, especially to our point. That hurt us. We were really starting to play well before he went down the second time, and I was excited about the end of the season. But no, that's life, and that's what happens. Surgery went great for Pe'Shon, and he's on the road to recovery. Q. The last time you played North Carolina, obviously there was the dunk by Henson with like a nanosecond to go that I believe you said wasn't necessary. I don't know if you want to elaborate on that, but my question is about your philosophy of closing games. As I think back on early season games, your teams did not make a point of scoring an extra basket when the game was in hand, and in fact you often used that to build your depth on your reserves. Can you just talk about your feeling in college games, I guess, of fair play or sportsmanship or how you handle a game when it's clearly in hand? MARK TURGEON: Well, everybody is different, and that's old news. I don't want to get into that again. But my philosophy, 20 seconds to go and you have the ball and they're not going to foul and they're not doubling you and you're up 10 or 15, you don't shoot, but that's my philosophy. That doesn't mean it has to be everybody's philosophy. Guys can coach their team however they want to coach their team. That's totally up to them. If they want to keep trying to score, that's up to them. It's up to us to try to stop them. That's the whole thing. I've never done that. I've been on both sides. I've had good teams, I've had bad teams, so I know what it's like when you're time late in a game. I also know what it's like when you're winning. That's my philosophy. I never try to score during that situation, but that doesn't mean everybody else has to do it that way. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|