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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 7, 2013Jeff BzdelikJEFF BZDELIK: I'll just take the questions. Q. I was just wondering what your general thoughts are on facing Virginia on Wednesday and what you kind of think about that match‑up for you guys. JEFF BZDELIK: Well, Coach Bennett is doing a great job with his basketball team. They know how they want to play. They believe in it, and they practice it. They do a great job of, I think, frustrating opponents from the standpoint that they're going to work really hard through the shot clock to move you and move you and move you, and then create an opening for an open jump shot or a drive. And a lot of teams want to play fast, and so they get frustrated by not having the basketball in their hands, and having to guard through the shot clock challenges your discipline defensively. And then they're going to give you nothing in transition. They get everybody back and back into their set defensive positioning, and they do a really good job of pressuring and staying in. We're going to have to do a great job of staying disciplined ourselves defensively through the shot clock, and we're going to have to do a great job in half court execution because transition baskets are going to be hard to come by. We were successful against Xavier. Xavier plays in many ways the same way, so we're looking forward to this challenge Wednesday night. Q. You had some stretches early in the season where Travis McKie seemed to struggle a bit. The last three games he really seems to have come along strongly. What do you see as the difference in the way he's playing? JEFF BZDELIK: Well, early on in the year we were moving him around a little bit between the 3 position and 4 position, and just adjusting to much too much in terms of am I a 3 or am I a 4, and when he would have to switch in the game between the two positions. A thinking athlete is a non‑athlete, and he's adjusted much better to when I'm a 3, when I'm a 4 both defensively and offensively, so he's much more of an instinctive player relying on his instincts now and scoring the ball at a much higher and better and more efficient rate. Q. Is he spending more time at the 4 than the 3? JEFF BZDELIK: Well, it's about 50/50, it really is. Unfortunately sometimes with foul trouble or sometimes with freshmen just being real freshmen, when freshmen have a freshman moment, you know, I can't play them. It varies, and it also varies from game to game based on the match‑up and what might be best for us at the time, whether we can go big or small. So it really strikes a balance when it's all said and done. Q. Devin Thomas obviously had a rough offensive game Saturday, but he had a second straight strong game on the boards, his two best games so far. Can you talk about his development as a rebounder and what he needs to do to take the next step? JEFF BZDELIK: Well, first of all, Devin Thomas in my mind was one of the most underrated rebounders by the recruiting experts coming out of high school. I mean, he had many 20‑plus rebounding games in high school, and even throughout the AAU season against top‑of‑the‑line competition. He's a rebounder. I mean, you saw that the other night. His last two outings against Duke and Xavier, two very good basketball teams with size. He can rebound the ball. I mean, he's ferocious, he has a nose for the ball, he rebounds outside of his area, he's an excellent athlete, plays with great force. He's only a freshman. I think he's got a chance to be one of the very special rebounders in this nation as he continues to develop. He's getting stronger, he's getting more confident. Offensively he had some opportunities around the rim. He's still learning that. We work every day on post moves. He runs the court extremely well. He's very fast, very explosive. The first play of the game at Duke, we got him the ball at the high post and told him just go, and he actually had an opportunity to score, and really he dunked the basketball right off the bat there. But just‑‑ he's young, and he just needs a couple shots to go down to get his offensive confidence to complement what he's doing defensively and on the boards. Q. And the other freshmen, actually two, seeing the game Saturday, I was interested in the way you used Codi Miller‑McIntyre and Madison Jones. What are you looking for from those two and what do you see that makes you sub one or the other, or is it just a predetermined thing? JEFF BZDELIK: Well, to me they're my two point guards, Codi and Madison, and C.J. playing the off guard position, you have two freshman point guards, and there's no big brother for them to look up to, so they're learning on the fly. You know, their decision making has to be better, something that's a work in progress, and playing off two feet and reading the defense, when to really push the ball, when not to. I know a couple of times they took the ball inside when they needed to back it out and make sure we were in a set, and sometimes that's hard to communicate, especially in a place like Cameron. They've been actually doing a very good job as of late. But in Cameron it's tough to communicate. There were times that we weren't very communicative in terms of making sure them as a point guard what everybody else was supposed to be doing and what kind of set we were in, that kind of thing. And then we've got to do a better job containing the basketball. I think Codi, he got two fouls very early in the game and then got very tentative defensively. I remember one time against Curry, he was chasing Curry off a screen, first play for Duke, I think, and he fouled Curry, and so then he got another quick foul, and then from then on out, it was as if he was afraid to touch him, and you can't play like that. They're learning. I want them to‑‑ the defense starts with them and the kind of ball pressure they put on people. They need to improve their decision making. They've been doing a better job, as I said, of that as of late, and making sure that they're leading this team. There's a lot on their plate, but they're both talented young men and very smart, and they're going to be fine. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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