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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 28, 2013James JohnsonJAMES JOHNSON: Well, we're coming in off two tough losses, one here at home to our rival Virginia, and then went on the road and played a pretty good game, got behind early in the game and fought back to take the lead and just couldn't pull it out in the end. Got a tough Miami team coming in here playing what I think is some of the best basketball in the country, any team, any league right now, and it's going to be a tough task, tall task for my team here. Q. I'm curious if you had a chance to review and what you saw from the three‑point defense. I know you felt after the game that some of the shots were contested and some were late rotations. What did you see when you looked at that again? JAMES JOHNSON: Yeah, most of them‑‑ more than I thought were contested. They hit some tough shots. They hit some tough, tough shots. I think maybe a couple, KJ at the top of the key, where we just got lost, Marquis Rankin was a little too deep in the lane and didn't get it back out to him. I think that was an open shot. And then got screened in, Brown got screened in at the top. I thought maybe Jarell Eddie should have got out on the wing and maybe played that, and I think that was an open shot. But for the most part, the rest of those were tough, contested shots. The shots that I thought that we had‑‑ Eddie had better looks than what some of their shots are; they made them and we missed them. Q. And going up against Coach Larranaga, I was wondering if you could talk about your relationship with him. JAMES JOHNSON: Well, of course I've got a great relationship with him and worked for him two years and was a part of the staff that made that run to the Final Four, that special, special moment in my career, and definitely I'm sure it's a special moment in his career. But at the end of the day, he's coaching his team and I'm coaching my team, and we're both competitive and we're going to try to get our teams to play the best we can to try to come out with a win on Wednesday night. Q. Robert Brown, do you anticipate‑‑ what did you see from him Sunday, and do you anticipate putting him back in the lineup? JAMES JOHNSON: Well, not sure where we're going to go with that yet. Coming off the bench, I thought he did a good job. I thought he started out still a little slow and kind of forcing a couple things, trying to force the action to get going, but I thought the dunk in transition, gave him a great pass and the dunk in transition got him going, and he was able to get some stuff around the basket on some post‑ups and some drives to the basket. He's still got to get better, but I thought he took a step forward, and hopefully we can keep getting him better the rest of the season. Q. You mentioned earlier just kind of in general about Miami playing some of the best basketball in the country. Watching them on TV, inside and out, experience, they just appear pretty darned complete right now, especially with Reggie kind of getting his legs underneath him. Could you talk a little bit more in specifics about their personnel? JAMES JOHNSON: Well, I think they've got‑‑ it starts with the little general they have there in Shane Larkin. I mean, I think he's one of the better guards in the league. I think we've got the best guard here, but he is definitely one of the best point guards in the league, and it starts with him, and he's running the show. He's distributing the basketball, he's rebounding the basketball and almost had a triple‑double last night, and then the game before he had a double‑double. And then you talk about their size up front and Kenny Kadji, inside‑outside threat; Gamble, defense is strong, physical, sixth‑year guy who's playing some really good basketball since Johnson has been out. And then you've got Johnson coming off the bench, who's definitely an all‑league caliber player, and McKinney Jones and Durand Scott who's definitely an all‑league type of player. Very talented at every position, and then Brown coming off the bench and Jekiri coming off the bench, and then of course you've got a very good coach in Coach Larranaga coaching them up. Every position, they're deep, they've got veterans, they've got talent at every position, very, very good basketball team, and they're playing with a lot of confidence, as they should be, right now. Q. You mentioned veterans. How much of an advantage is it in this era of college basketball where youth seems to be predominant, especially with early interest in the NBA, how much of an advantage is that experience that Miami has? JAMES JOHNSON: Oh, it's tremendous. I mean, you talk about six‑year guys, Gamble is a sixth‑year guy, Kadji is a fifth‑year guy, McKinney Jones, a fifth‑year guy. Those guys have been through a lot, they're stronger, physical, they've seen just about everything you have to see in college basketball, whether it's a road game, whether it's playing No.1 Duke. They've seen it all, or having Florida State come into their building right after a big win. They've seen all of that. They've seen all of that, they've seen all the teams. Practice, the daily grind of practice every day, at this point in the season, the end of January, they've been through it. They've been through it all, and then you've got the other teams over here, guys leaving early for the NBA, and then you've got teams with an early coaching change like myself and we lose a guy like I Montrezl Harrell and Dorian Finney Smith, guys that should be in our program that we don't have, or a program like Wake Forest that got dealt all the freshmen that they have. Some guys transferred. So to have those veteran guys is a big key. Q. Could you shed some light on who you really feel your top glue guy is, a guy who kind of does some of the unheralded work? I know Eric gets a lot of attention for what he does, same with Jarell, but could you shed some light on someone who doesn't necessarily get the kind of attention for things that don't necessarily show up in the box score? JAMES JOHNSON: Well, I've got to be honest with you, that's what we're looking for. Marquis Rankin right now I think is the closest guy that I have to that, but that's what I'm looking for. The successful teams, they've all got a guy like that, and at this point I would say the closest thing is Marquis Rankin, but we really don't have a guy like that. I need a guy that's going to get in there and stick his nose in there and get some 50/50 balls and dive on the floor and get some loose balls and guard the other team's best player, just do all those little things. I'm searching for that right now. Q. Could you shed a little bit of light on what Rankin does do for you guys, just some of the things that you feel that he does do? JAMES JOHNSON: Well, he's an energy guy for us, and he's our defensive stop. I feel like when we're in our man defense I can put him on the other team's best player and knowing the perimeter and he can make it difficult on them all night. But he's a smaller guy, 5'10", 5'11", and a lot of the guys that we're playing are 6'4", 6'5" guards. But he plays with a big heart, he plays hard, so I feel like he can do that for us right now. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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