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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 11, 2013Jeff BzdelikTHE MODERATOR: Welcome to today's basketball teleconference. We'll start things off with Wake Forest head coach Jeff Bzdelik. A few comments about your team and then we'll open it for questions. COACH BZDELIK: Ready for questions. Thank you. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions. Q. I want to ask you about the matchup with Boston College. You played them once before. They're in a mode where they're playing essentially one big guy and four guards. Is that tough to match up for or can you use your better front‑court people to impose some will on them? COACH BZDELIK: Well, the way we start with Devin Thomas, he really is a lot like Ryan Anderson. They're both a little undersized but both very, very, very good players. So I think that is a matchup, they're both very similar, tough‑minded, fearless, forceful. Starting Arnaud Adala Moto, he's athletic, undersized as well. We really kind of match up well with them initially, to be honest with you. We should be okay in terms of the matchups, but Boston College starts small. If they start big with Clifford, Devin Thomas is used to bigger guys, Arnaud is used to playing bigger guys as well. We should be okay. Q. You also have Travis, who is a guy that might be tough for them to match up well with. COACH BZDELIK: Exactly. What's really important for us is to make sure we're not settling for jump shots. You're right in terms of looking to make sure that we get that ball close to the rim because they'll be a little bit quicker, but we should be a little bit more forceful in terms of our size and strength. Q. Can you talk a little bit about of development of Moto after the last month or so. Looks like he's really beginning to catch on to what you're doing. His athleticism is really something. COACH BZDELIK: Yes, it is. Again, he's a young player. It's even a harder adjustment for him. I mean, the young man only sees his family once a year. So you talk about even a tougher adjustment for a young player, it's tough enough with school, socially, basketball‑wise. Now you throw in another dimension for a young man like Arnaud. I had a discussion with him just the other day about getting his rest. Many times he'll Skype his family back in Africa, but in order to do so, to catch them at a time they can do that, he has to wake up in the middle of the night so he can look at his family and they can look at him. Everything is an adjustment. No excuses. Not making excuses. I think people sometimes forget that they're young people and there's a lot of different dimensions, aspects going on in their life. That's another one for Arnaud. But, yes, he's playing very well right now. He's finishing better. I know in the Carolina game, even though we got beat soundly, he converted on all three‑point play opportunities. He's scoring more around the rim. He's understanding how to finish down there. He's a tough matchup because he's very quick, very strong.  He can drive the ball. He can make a midrange shot. He's getting to the free‑throw line on a very frequent pace for the minutes he's played. A lot of good stuff there. That's another really high‑quality young player for which we can build this program on. Q. How long has he played basketball in the U.S.? COACH BZDELIK: That's another great point. He's only played I think four years, three or four years. A lot of terminology is new. Everything's new to him. It's unlike a young man who grew up here in the Carolinas watching ACC basketball since elementary school. Arnaud, yeah, I believe he went to high school for three years in the States. So everything is new to him. He grew up playing soccer. Everything is different. I remember talking to his mom during the recruiting process. She really didn't know of the ACC. She wasn't aware of basketball in the United States. All she made me promise was that he'd get a great education, which he will get at Wake Forest. That's her only concern, is the ability to get an education at a high level. School is a four‑year investment in the next 30 to 40 years of his life. That was her only concern. Q. Jeff, I'd like to ask you about a player, Andre Washington. Looks like he got a lot of minutes in the Maryland game. What has his development been to this point? COACH BZDELIK: His development is getting better all the time. He's working extremely hard. He's lifting four, five, six times a week. He's eating as much as five, six meals a day. He's gaining weight, strength, developing his game. I think if you looked at his stats over the last several games, he's getting more and more minutes. He's gaining great confidence. In the minutes he's playing, he's starting to make an impact on the game. When we recruited him we told him simply if your head and heart stay true, if you remain humble and hungry, you're going to be an impact player in this league in due time. It's going to take time. He understood that. He works extremely hard on a daily basis. Like I stated, his minutes are getting more and more, and he's getting into games now. We have great confidence in him and his ability to have a positive impact in the minutes he plays. Q. Relatively speaking, what are the strengths of his game at this point? COACH BZDELIK: Number one, he's got really good hands. He has a really good shooting touch. You look at his free throws. For example, he's 7‑10. He's a legit 70% to 80% foul shooter. So it's hard to find young people that have his size. He's a legit seven feet. He's a very smart young man. Has a great attitude. He's got great hands. He can catch it, shoot it, and pass it. He just needs to have his body physically catch up with those skills. That's why I refer to the strength training, the eating, so he can gain strength, gain endurance. Once that body catches up with his skill, he's really going to have an impact, I believe, in this league, because he is legit seven feet. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for taking time being with us today. COACH BZDELIK: Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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