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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 4, 2013Jim LarranagaJIM LARRANAGA: Well, we had a nice win at home last week over Virginia Tech, and then a tough road loss at Duke in what I thought was a tremendous college basketball game, very entertaining for the fans. Ryan Kelly was sensational, a kid who missed seven or eight weeks of the season, to come back and play that way I thought was remarkable. But we're excited about being at home on Wednesday night. Q. I've been asking coaches about defensive players. We've got to pick an all‑ACC defensive team and I need help. A couple coaches right off mentioned Durand Scott as one of the best defenders in the league. Could you talk about him? Roy just mentioned Kenny Kadji because of some defensive plays he made against Carolina that impressed Roy. Those two guys, anybody else, and then who else around the league really impresses you as a defensive player? JIM LARRANAGA: Well, first of all, Durand Scott is just a tremendous competitor, and he concentrates more on defense than almost any player that I've had, and he just works relentlessly. He wants to always guard the other team's best perimeter player, and he takes great pride in his defense. I think Shane Larkin has done a terrific job of being our catalyst at the defensive end of the floor with the number of steals that he gets. I think he's either leading the league or very, very close to it right now. Kenny Kadji has blocked a lot of shots this year and gotten a lot of defensive rebounds. There are a lot of different categories on defense. I think in my mind Jontel Evans is a really key player for the league because he's a heck of a defender on the ball. That's where your defense begins. Joe Harris is a very good defender. You've got a guy like Daniel Miller who's a very good shot blocker, Mason Plumlee blocks shots and get rebounds. I think there's just a lot of good defense being played in our league, so you've got a lot of choices there. Q. With senior night approaching this weekend coming up, can you talk a little bit about your five seniors and how much they've meant to the program these past four or five, sometimes six years for some of these guys? JIM LARRANAGA: Yeah, well, I've only been here for two, but just being around these guys has been a real joy for me. I love coaching players who want to be coached, who want to get better, who want to improve.  I think Durand Scott has just been a treasure here. He's such a unique individual. His toughness, he just radiates confidence in himself and brings out confidence in his teammates. Trey McKinney Jones really gambled by leaving UMKC and coming to the ACC and playing at the highest level of college basketball and yet has moved into our starting lineup and done a fantastic job, can really shoot the ball, very, very high character. He's working on his Master's Degree. Kenny Kadji is also a transfer student who I think has improved dramatically throughout the course of his career and really has adjusted and made the transition to a new coaching staff very, very well. Julian gamble I think is the story of our team because of his torn ACL and not played and being in his sixth year working on his Master's Degree, and his toughness in the post defensively, rebounding wise running and scoring and around the basket has been one of the major reasons we've enjoyed the success we have. And then Reggie Johnson has overcome probably more adversity than probably any player last year and then this year with injuries, suspensions and more injuries and now having to come in off the bench for a major portion of his senior year. It's a great group of guys, and I'm very, very fortunate that I inherited them. Q. I was wondering if you could go back in time with me a little bit. You played in college if I recall correctly at the time when the dunk was outlawed and you were an assistant in the college game when it was brought back. I was wondering what your thoughts are on the dunk itself. Are you a pro or a con guy when it comes to just dunking in general? JIM LARRANAGA: Well, I'm very much in favor of the dunk. I think it really hurt my college career that I was not able to show my Dr. J‑type dunking ability. But I mean, the dunk is a major part of the game. It's a fun part of the game, and I think players enjoy it, fans enjoy it. I mean, I do. I just want to be sure that when our guys go to the basket that they take it strong, and if you can dunk the ball, you should. If you can't, you shouldn't. And you shouldn't feel like you have to entertain the fans, but you've seen players over the course of their careers, guys like Michael Jordan and LeBron James, guys like that, who are just unbelievable in what they can do in the air. So I think it's a big part of the game. I am certainly glad that we came to our senses and got it back in. Q. Do you feel as if there's a correlation between fundamentals declining over time with the current generation of players and the fact that you have more and more focus it seems, whether it's ESPN or whatnot, on kind of highlight‑type plays, including the dunk? Do you feel as if there's any correlation there between those? JIM LARRANAGA: No, not really. I don't think it has to do with that. I think it has to do with a lot of rules. We don't get a chance to coach our guys very much. Thank goodness we can now have two hours a week during the summer. But kids don't get coached very well in elementary schools and high schools because of time limitations. Don't have enough time to spend with your players. Our high school coaches only get a chance during the season. They can't work with their players during the off season. It would be a whole lot better if we treated sports like we do education. No one would discourage a student from studying or‑‑ I don't know why we discourage kids from working on their games more. Q. And you mentioned that you were against the dunk being outlawed. I was wondering if you could elaborate a little bit on that. Did that set the game back in your mind at all? And how nice was it to have it brought back? It is kind of strange as a historian looking back on some of the games where you have these incredible athletes who were not allowed to do what they could do, and that's dunk. JIM LARRANAGA: Quite honestly I believe, and no one would say this back then, but I believe they outlawed the dunk so that Kareem Abdul‑Jabbar, who was Lew Alcindor at the time, wouldn't just dunk on everybody every game and average 60 points like he did when he was a freshman playing against the UCLA varsity where he scored something like 56 or 58 points and dunked on them all the time. I think all the rules come as a result of things that are happening or are anticipated will happen in the game. They widened the lane back when it was a keyhole to prevent big guys from just dominating in around the rim, and the NBA expanded it even further to give more room for players to get to the basket. And then we added the three‑point shot to give smaller players opportunities to add something to the game that they felt they couldn't do near the basket. Big guys have always dominated the inside, and we've given now the guards opportunities to dominate the perimeter. It's developed into everybody shoots the three now, even big guys, like our Kenny Kadji. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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