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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 7, 2013James JohnsonJAMES JOHNSON: Well, I think coming in right now 9‑5, it's a new season, and we're 0 and 1 in the league after a tough loss on the road at Maryland. Got a short bench, got one guy playing extremely well right now, and got to get some more guys going with him and just not playing consistent basketball right now on either end of the floor, and that's not a good combination. Don't have enough guys playing well, and not playing consistent basketball on either end of the floor is not good, especially going into ACC play. Q. Is there any update on the situation with CJ? What are your plans for him against Boston College? JAMES JOHNSON: CJ, right now he's competing in practice for playing time just like the other guys are. We did a few things yesterday, not competitive enough for me to tell right now. But he's available just like he was available last game. And right now the front line is Raines and vanZegeren and Beyer and Barksdale. Where we are with those four guys, it depends on match‑ups and depends on who's playing, who's playing well, who's giving me effort right now, who's rebounding the basketball and defending. Q. Have you talked to him postgame, and what was his reaction to not playing a single minute? JAMES JOHNSON: I did talk to him postgame. I talked to all those guys and let them know that the production needed to be better. The production needed to be better, and again, I'm trying to build a program there, and I've told those guys‑‑ first of all, I told everybody, be prepared to help this team win a game at some point, and I'm going to use as many guys as I have to, scholarship or non‑scholarship, if they're competing and giving me effort, do what we need done to help the team win. Q. You'd be probably better using all your guys. Why was benching CJ sort of good for the program going forward? JAMES JOHNSON: Well, I've got to set the tone of what's wanted and what's needed for the team, and effort is one thing. Effort is one thing. Playing hard is one thing. And if I've got a starter that's going out playing 20 minutes and getting one rebound, that's not feasible to the program. That's not what I'm looking for at that position, when I got another young man coming in getting nine points and 11 rebounds. Q. The guy you just mentioned with nine points and 11 rebounds, can you talk about Beyer as a walk‑on? Was he a recruited walk‑on or was he just a guy that showed up on campus? JAMES JOHNSON: He's a guy that showed up on campus. He emailed saying that he was going to be at school and would like to try out for the team. He was actually on the team with the previous staff and didn't like the way things were going and quit the team, and then when I took the job, he decided to come back and be a part of the team. And now he's contributing and playing well right now. Q. What does he bring? He's 6'7", fairly slender, right? JAMES JOHNSON: He brings energy. He brings effort. He just plays hard. You don't need to bring anything but effort. He's 6'7"‑‑ you can be 6'7", you can be 6'1", you can be 6'9". And if you play hard, you don't play hard. If you play hard and you give effort, it doesn't matter how big you are and how athletic you are. And that's what he does, he plays hard. Q. I just was curious because I don't get to see guys a lot, overview, though, you started the season plan so well, even towards the one‑point loss to West Virginia. As things have gotten away from you a little bit, what's changed from the first month to now? JAMES JOHNSON: Well, I don't‑‑ you know, we were making shots, and when you're making shots and did a lot of things get looked over and looked to the side, but as it stands, the head coach and as a staff, when we're looking at the film, we see different things, and the things are‑‑ we're not making those shots now, so now all the things that we're doing, the lack of rebounding and the lack of defense is being manifested right now when we're not knocking down our shots right now. And we're not getting multiple guys playing on the same night. We had guys, three guys in double figures, Green along with Brown and Eddie, and those guys were scoring consistently on the same night, and we're not getting that now, and we have to be a team now that if the offense is not working for us, we've got to do a better job on the defensive end at rebounding the basketball, which we're not doing, which I'm not happy with, and that's why a couple of changes have been made. Q. The one guy that obviously is giving you pretty good production every night is Erick Green. Is the pressure on him? I notice his shooting percentages are still very good for a guard. Is he doing a good job of not forcing too much, knowing he's got to be the guy that's the big scorer? JAMES JOHNSON: Oh, definitely. He's letting the game come to him. He's not taking a lot of shots. He took 18 shots in the Maryland game and Robert Brown took 15. I mean, here's a guy that's leading the nation, second in the nation in scoring, is taking three more shots than the second guy on our team. He's definitely letting it come to him. He's playing under control, taking good shots. That's why his percentage is good. He's making the right reads. His assist number would be up if guys around him would be hitting shots right now, which I think will come at some point, it's just right now we can't seem to find the basket. Q. Have you had a chance to look much at Boston College, and can you give me any kind of a scouting report? JAMES JOHNSON: Well, they've got two very good guards. They've got all three‑point shooters. They're going to have four three‑point shooters on the floor at one time, and that seems to be‑‑ our defensive field goal percentage, three‑point field goal percentage, percentage‑wise, it's not the type of team that shoots the basketball against us for some reason, but they shoot the basketball very well, and like I said, after the Maryland game I thought a lot of those shots were contested. We gave up some in transition, but I thought a lot of them were contested and guys were hitting shots. We're going to have to take away the three‑point shot with those guys. They're making seven threes a game, they're shooting 33 percent from there. But I think they're a better three‑point shooting team than even their percentage, and they've got a lot of guys that can make shots, and they run that what I call Princeton style offense. We've got two days to prepare for it, so it's definitely a team that I'm concerned about. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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