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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 11, 2013Steve DonahueCOACH DONAHUE: Obviously played a tough game last night. I thought we played a really good basketball game for 40 minutes. I thought Duke made plays down the stretch, deserved to win, but I'm very proud of our guys and the effort we gave. Earlier in the week we played Miami, and I wouldn't say we played that bad. I just think Miami is; one, extremely talented; and two, playing great basketball now. But pretty much pleased with our development throughout the season. I think we are playing pretty consistent basketball. Unfortunately we have been very unfortunate at the end of basketball games, not able to get these wins, otherwise we'd be closer to .500. But that's what it is. But pleased with our progress and going to keep working hard to get better. Q. Wake has beaten you three in a row. What difficulty do they present? COACH DONAHUE: I think Wake, probably more similar to us than other teams in the league. I think Jeff does a really good job of running offense. Not that other teams don't; it's just different. They share the basketball. They spread you out, and I just think McKie and Harris, older scorers in this league, I think that we have a little less physicality than other teams at this point in our development. So I think that they can get those plays off. They certainly did last year. We had a hard time covering those two guys in particular. Down there, that was an even game; just they won at the end. I just think they run good offense. Those two in particular have been difficult for us to guard. Q. Some of their younger players who have gotten a lot of minutes and been successful this year, one of those is Devon Harris. What have been your impressions of him so far? COACH DONAHUE: Devin Thomas. He plays with a lot of injury. What he's done in the league in terms of being on the offensive glass and blocking shots and playing with great energy, I think it's been pretty remarkable. His play has improved as he's gotten to the league and Devin has proved that he can peak physically. He's not an overpowering athlete and he's not a great‑sized kid, but he's done a terrific job of really competing physically. Just real impressive, you look at 39 offensive rebounds in 11 ACC games as a freshman and almost averaging ten and ten, is pretty impressive for the kid. Q. I know it's typical of freshmen to have up and down spurts. Just looking at your two freshmen guards, it's really odd, it seems like one usually plays real well and the other, at least statistically struggles a little bit. I know Oliver (sic) played great last night and Joe had a few problems. Can you talk about getting those guys in sync? Am I seeing it wrong? Have there been games where they have both played very, very well? COACH DONAHUE: Well, I think with Al‑‑ it's Olivier. Q. Olivier, I'm sorry. COACH DONAHUE: It's okay. I think that everyone thinks I'm mistaken. Obviously I want people to know his name and make sure the media down there know him, because obviously he's having a terrific year. I think you are not off in terms of the offensive flow in one kid playing well and the other not. They are both really good with the basketball. Earlier there was times where Joe had it more. I think Olivier has it now. I think the one thing that's probably stopping both of them from playing well: They just have not been consistent shooters from three. And I think they are both going to be 40 percent three‑point shooters when it's all said and done. Just had a lot on their plate playing 38, 39 minutes, guarding these kind of guards, getting worn down, inconsistent, mental fatigue has a little bit to do with shooting the ball from a distance. If both were consistently shooting the ball like they can, you would say they are both playing really well. Joe Rahon played a terrific game at Miami; he didn't score. Made every right decision. He guarded; he rebounded. He's our leading rebounder. He's going to do those type of things. His inconsistency with shooting has just been his Achilles heel this year, two games where he's made six three,six for six and seven for seven. In practice, and when he's looking for his shot, he doesn't miss it. I just think that's more of what you're saying. All those other things that come into play and just inconsistent shooting more than their overall play with both of them. But obviously I see what you're talking about when one guy is playing well one game and the other guy isn't. Q. Last night, obviously Hanlan (ph) played very well, did you put the ball in his hands for the last play? He got a very good shot. Or was that the way the defense played him? COACH DONAHUE: Typically I would run another quick hitter where we go through post and do some action. Duke was doing such a good job of not allowing us to enter the ball anywhere near the post, to the elbow‑‑ run it to Ryan and get some action going. Didn't want to risk that. I also thought if they switched out, which they did, with a bigger guy; and I think Mike ‑‑ I didn't read his comments but he switched Plumlee off Anderson. So the switch would be Olivier going against Plumlee; it was Olivier going against Sulaimon, and that was a good move. I still thought Olivier had the advantage, and he got in the lane. He's very good at those shots, just he didn't knock it down. Q. Wake Forest has had such drastically different results home and away, do you look at coming to your place what they have done? COACH DONAHUE: I think everybody has really had a hard time on the road this year. Typically it's difficult anyway. Historically if you look at this league, people say, why does it happen‑‑ when I got here, I looked and there was three coaches in this league that had winning records on the road. I'm going to say that Gary Williams was just over .500 but it's Carolina and Duke and no one else. Wake probably has more youth, and they feel really good at home. I think we are more consistent team in terms of how we play at home and the road, which I'm glad we do that. But I don't know if I can bring this up at all, Wake is a team that obviously we have revenge for and we want to play really well. We didn't play well enough to win the game there and that's more my focus than my focus is, hey, they don't play well right now. That's not my focus. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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