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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 14, 2013Mark TurgeonMARK TURGEON: Just got in late last night, about 3:00 in the morning, and got to get ready for obviously a really good team, North Carolina State on Wednesday and then another tough one Saturday at North Carolina. Played hard last night, just didn't play well all the time. Give Miami credit, their defense was good, and looking forward to this week. Q. In terms of where the team is from a confidence standpoint right now compared to where it was, with it being so young, is there concern on your part that they have to sort of muster some confidence or play with confidence, or do you think that hasn't been as shaken as much as it looks? MARK TURGEON: Well, we're not quite‑‑ obviously not as confident as we were within the league or even after the Virginia Tech game or at halftime of the Florida State game. I don't think it's as bad as it may look by the way we're shooting the basketball. You know, I think we're a team that's still trying hard and trying to do the right things. There are a few guys that aren't shooting the ball well or playing with the confidence they need to play with, but even though we lost last night, the guys tried hard, tried to execute. We've got to get it figured out. We missed a lot of opportunities, but some of it is shot selection and some of it is execution and decision making. That comes into play. But we'll be fine. Kids bounce back. Kids can lose confidence between timeouts and can get it back between timeouts. We've got a young team; hopefully we'll bounce back and be ready to play this week. Q. Just wanted to ask you briefly about Miami and how good you think they are and what makes them dangerous in your mind. MARK TURGEON: Well, the thing that‑‑ they're good, and they're playing with confidence right now. The team fits together. The little point guard is really good, Larkin. He makes everybody go. Scott didn't play particularly well against us, but we know how good he is. And then they've got the shooters around to make shots, and they've got some inside presence, and defensively they're good. They're playing well. The thing that makes them dangerous is they're old. They've got a sixth‑year senior and a fifth‑year senior and a flood of seniors and a big kid that's hopefully going to be back in a couple weeks for them that's older, too, so that makes them dangerous. And then I just think Larkin is really good. I think he's good defensively, smart, great feel, doesn't turn the ball over, and he really kind of makes them go. Q. How consigned have you been the past two games maybe with the point guard? I know if you look at the past two seems Pe'Shon and Seth have combined for I think three assists and ten turnovers. Is that something that you guys are concerned with since the Virginia Tech game? MARK TURGEON: Well, I think there's two things. There's two areas we're not playing very well, the point guard position and at the 4 spot. It's not going to change overnight. It did change overnight from good to not so good, but we're addressing it. We addressed it after the last game. We're trying to figure it out. I do think that Pe'Shon is capable of playing better than he's playing. Seth is the same way. Seth has to score for us, too. Puts a lot of pressure on him to have to score. But no, our point guard play hasn't been good enough. It's pretty obvious in our last couple games. But there's a lot of areas that haven't been good enough the last couple games, and that's why you're 0‑2 in those games. Keep addressing it and trying to get better with it. Q. Last night in the postgame press conference you really did a lot of praise of Shane Larkin. Can you talk about, one, what makes him such a special player; and two, specifically what you think your point guards need to do to improve their play? MARK TURGEON: First part, he's a big‑time athlete. He's got great feet; he's fast; he covers a lot of ground; he knows how to play, makes guys around him better; he's great in ball screens; he's great on the break; he can shoot it. So I mean, there's a lot of reasons. Last night he wasn't scoring as well, so he just‑‑ had six or seven assists and no turnovers and made guys around him better. I think your second part of the question was how am I going to make my point guards better. Just continue to watch film with them and talk to them and try and give them confidence, and hopefully‑‑ it's a long season. 18 league games, we're three in, and we've got a lot of time to improve and get better. Q. Given the point guard situation, I know a month ago you talked about how Nick was just going to concentrate on the 2. Have you thought about sort of giving him some time at the point to see how he does to see if he can settle things down and maybe score from that position as well as handle the ball? MARK TURGEON: Yeah, we've talked about it. We actually practiced Nick at point last week. It's just really hard right now, not a lot of practice time, a lot of games piling up on us. But I know he knows the position, he wants to play it, and it's something we're looking at most definitely because he's not scoring the ball. Able to get some more scorers on the floor, move him‑‑ he rebounded well for us and he can defend and just keep him on the floor maybe at that position is something that we've talked about last week, and we didn't do it last night but maybe one or two possessions, I think, but we practiced it and it might be an option we go to on Wednesday. Q. Just to follow up on‑‑ you talked last night about how young this team is. Obviously you expected some growing pains from this team as well as it started the year. Is it tough with the way you like to get things done in practice when you don't have as much practice time as you had last month to try to get this thing turned around? MARK TURGEON: We'll see. You know, I think it's more our guys know how to play. I wish‑‑ like Shaq last night wasn't himself. He hasn't practiced because of his back. And it was his time, he was coming, and so this hurts him. I think I need more practice time with some of our young guys, some of my veterans, meaning my sophomore class. I don't know if they need as much. But I don't make excuses. We should know how to play. We've had plenty of practices. Nick has got experience, so if I move him to the point, he played there last year, he'll be able to do it pretty quickly. It's just a tough part of our schedule. We let one get away at home and now we're in a tough part of our schedule. We'll see. You just go one at a time and do the best you can and hopefully we'll improve. I thought we played really hard last night, really hard. We never quit, and we rebounded pretty well and we competed on the road against a good team and just came up short, just couldn't put the ball in the basket and missed a lot of free throws. But I think it was a step in the right direction. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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