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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 4, 2013Jim LarranagaJIM LARRANAGA: We played two very tough road games this past week but were very fortunate to play well and to come out on top. I think our game at Virginia Tech where we fell behind, our players really responded and were able to gut it out at the end, and then played a tremendous game in front of a fantastic crowd at North Carolina State, and it came down to basically one second, we tipped one in and they missed a three‑quarter court shot that almost went in, and we were fortunate enough to come away with the victory. Q. I'm just curious, being in the position you guys are in now at 8‑0 and with a lead here in the ACC, do you have to talk to the team about expectations, or how do you handle being in the position that you're in now? JIM LARRANAGA: Well, first of all, the only thing we're doing is talking about Boston College and getting ready for tomorrow night's game. This is a great league. The ACC from top to bottom has so many good teams, so many good players, and you've got to be ready to play every single night. Getting ready for Boston College, our focus is to try to keep improving, try to get better, because the teams in the league, a lot of them are young and improving themselves. You cannot get complacent. Q. One thing about the league this year, there's only been 15 road wins in conference play. Your team has five of them. Any reason why you guys have been able to be successful on the road in year when a lot of teams have not? JIM LARRANAGA: Well, first of all, it's very difficult to win on the road in any conference. But I think the reason that we've enjoyed this early‑season success is because we have an older group. We do have four seniors in our starting lineup, and they've been through the ACC battles for the last several years, and they know how challenging it is, and they've done a very good job of preparing themselves to play well. Q. I know people are going to look at the standings and see Boston College coming in with two conference wins, you guys rolling along. When you played them the first time up in Boston, though, it came down to the wire. What did they do well, and what problems do they present? JIM LARRANAGA: Well, I think what they did well against us is what they do very well as a team and have done very well throughout the season: They really share the ball. They have a lot of very good three‑point shooters. They're really good at getting to the foul line and making the free throws; they play a different kind of lineup. They basically play like with four guards and a forward, and they're able to share the ball well, spread you out, make threes, get driving lay‑ups and get to the foul line. That's a team that's hard to match up with. The ACC is normally a very big league, and the big guys are the ones that you have a hard time guarding, but in this particular case Boston College has so many guys who can shoot the three, it makes it hard to guard them. Q. You're coming back home after this week for two games at home after two road games in a row. We talked in the past about how you've had to change the culture down there to generate a lot of interest in basketball, and you talked about that growing. Obviously we saw it when Duke came in with the students camping out and the big crowd and everything. Was it just a one‑time thing, or has that continued? Do you see the enthusiasm grow as this team continues to be successful? JIM LARRANAGA: Yeah. We were sold out against Duke; the next game we were sold out against Florida State; I think we'll have a great crowd tomorrow night; we're already sold out for the Carolina game. I think the students have been tremendously supportive of us. We had students greet us as we arrived back from our North Carolina State game, so as the bus pulled into the Bank United Center, there were a lot of students chanting for the team. So there's a lot of enthusiasm on campus and in the community. Q. I actually talked to Shane the other day, and he said a couple of things: First was that you guys had such a good relationship going back to when he was in high school, and even when it didn't necessarily work out with George Mason, obviously you guys were still on each other's radar. I was wondering about that relationship and what made that come to fruition, and how fortunate is it that things able to pan out sort of serendipitously. JIM LARRANAGA: I think just sometimes you connect with a young man or a family. They feel like they know you. They listen to your approach to coaching, and they listen to how you develop your players and your program, and I think in Shane's case, probably the biggest thing was he is very, very close to his mom and dad, and when he went to DePaul, he was very far away from home. And I think he was just uncomfortable with that. Coming back then, trying to decide, okay, where should I go, coming back to Florida, he had familiarity with us. He might have looked at a couple of other schools in the state, but I think we were probably the one he was most interested in. South Florida was another school in state that I'm sure he took a look at, but they had already signed a point guard, and we were somewhat in need of a point guard. It kind of just worked out for both of us, I think. It's great fit for him and definitely a great fit for us. Q. He said you were in dorm rooms giving speeches and making sure the kids knew‑‑ how much does that do when you're face to face with kids and sort of building that credibility? JIM LARRANAGA: Yeah, I've always believed in stories, story telling. I think it's easy for people to understand, and so with my coaching, it probably comes from my high school coach, who I used to listen to all his stories when I was in high school, always enjoyed them and always learned a lot from them. I kind of do the same thing in the recruiting process and with my team, and kids can relate to that. Q. Are you allowing the guys to enjoy this process, or are you trying to keep them more focused on what's coming up next? JIM LARRANAGA: We want to enjoy the journey, but we also want to stay focused on our next opponent. And that's what the guys have been able to do. If you win a game, enjoy that, celebrate that for a short while, but the very next day, you're back to the office doing your job. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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