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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 5, 2012Mark TurgeonMARK TURGEON: Like most teams, it's a new season. We're excited about going down to Atlanta and playing Wake Forest and hopefully playing well. Guys have continued to work hard and tried to get better, and now we've got a chance to play in the tournament, so looking forward to it. Q. You've been in tournaments before both as a player and as a coach. Does your approach change at all when you go in in one of those years where you're pretty assured of making the NCAA or one of the years where you're on the bubble, or like your team, you probably have to win it all to get a bid? Does that impact or affect the way you approach the tournament at all? MARK TURGEON: I think it does a little bit. I think each team is different. You have a veteran team, you'd approach it different. You have a young team, you'd approach it different. The one thing that you always do is you just prepare for the team that you're playing. The one thing that we'll do, and I'm sure Wake Forest is doing the same thing, we're just going to prepare for Wake Forest. Playing them just happens to be a part of a tournament. We'll do everything we can to prepare well for them, and then if we're lucky enough to get a win, then we'll prepare for the next one. But I think every year is different depending on your team and depending on your circumstances. Q. Is there an intermediate‑‑ obviously you play each game as it comes, but short of winning the tournament, is there something you'd leave Atlanta feeling good about? Is it a good performance, a couple of wins? You know what I'm saying? MARK TURGEON: Yeah, yeah. Q. What would you take out of there short of a title? MARK TURGEON: Oh, I think just continuing to fight and play hard. You know, we didn't end the regular season the way we wanted to. We lost three in a row, a couple road games, and then we lost a home game to Virginia yesterday in overtime. But the guys, as long as they continue to fight, continue to get better and be together, that's really what's important, and seeing our young guys continuing to get better, that's really what's important. I'd love for the guys to taste victory one more time or two more times or whatever it is down the stretch here. They've worked hard. It's not easy to win games. But I'd like to see that. Outside of that, just competing and doing as well as we can as a team would be really what I'm looking for. Q. You haven't seen Wake in it'll be almost close to a month. How do you think they've changed since the last time you played them? MARK TURGEON: Yeah, it's been a long time. I think we played them early January, about the second or third game in the league, maybe the fourth. But it's been a while. But I don't know, I haven't watched film to be honest with you. I'm going to watch it this afternoon. They have two guys that score most of the points for them, and I don't want to mess up his name, Mescheriakov is really playing well now for them. But I haven't seen‑‑ I just asked my assistant today, he said they're playing a little bit more zone than they did the first time we played them. But plan on diving into them this afternoon, or really essentially when we hang up and getting to know a little bit more about Wake Forest and how they've changed. We've changed. We don't have Pe'Shon. We had Pe'Shon when we played them the first time. This late in the year, when you played a team in mid‑January it's going to be two different teams, really, when we tip off on Thursday at noon. Q. I wanted to ask you something about the location of the tournament. For years your predecessors at Maryland led the fight to get it out of North Carolina occasionally. Do you think the location of the tournament has very much impact on how it proceeds? MARK TURGEON: Yeah, I do. You know, I was fortunate enough to play at Kansas, and we had it in Kansas City a lot, and I thought that was an advantage for us. You know, I was just leaving the Big 12 and I was really fighting to get it in Dallas one time when I was there, and it seemed to be in Kansas City a lot, and we always seemed to meet Kansas in the semifinals. I do think it has a big impact. I do know these tournaments are about making money, though, to a point, and it's about getting the right crowds and everything. But Atlanta is a great city. I think that'll be great. Adding Pitt and Syracuse in the future, hopefully we can get it up here in the north, northeast in the future, too, which I think is only fair to the fans. But in the end, the best team usually wins. But it's nice to move it around for the fans, I think, too. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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