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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 5, 2013Erik JohnsonTHE MODERATOR: Good morning and welcome to the ACC women's basketball pretournament teleconference. All 12 coaches will be participating on this call. The ACC women's basketball tournament begins March 7th through the 10th in Greensboro, North Carolina. Thursday, Friday and Saturday games will be telecast on the ACC's regional networks. We'll first go to head coach Erik Johnson of Boston College. Erik, if you want to get and talk a little bit about your team as you're heading into the tournament this week. COACH JOHNSON: Sure. Obviously I was pleased to get a win. Every ACC win is great, especially when you're the 12th‑picked team in the conference, and Georgia Tech is a perennial power. With their athleticism, their size advantage, I was proud of our kids being able to step up and get a win. We're excited about our matchup with Virginia. Obviously that's a team that they beat us up pretty good at their place. We turned around and had a good game and nice win against them here. I feel like it's a decent matchup for us in terms of everybody has a size advantage on us, but Virginia is going to go after us inside. They've got good, solid guard play, one of the best wing players in the conference, good depth and size in the post. Us being able to mitigate their advantage on the boards. Georgia Tech beat us up on the rebounds a little bit, we try to minimize that, try to play to our advantages. Our team is coming along, moving the basketball well. We do the things we do well, which is move the ball, create shots for other, have high assists, have low turnovers. When we win we're having low turnovers. Like I said, I'm proud of our team and hope we can keep the season going. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Johnson. Q. On the two games you played this year, one was with Telia McCall for Virginia, one without. Obviously she'll be available on Thursday. How much of a difference does that make? What was the biggest difference between those two games? COACH JOHNSON: Obviously Telia McCall was a difference. It's funny, sometimes us coaches seem to make things complicated so people think we work really hard and do all this coaching. The honest truth is Virginia shot the ball well at their place and they shot the ball poorly at our place. That made a big difference. When Kelsey Wolfe isn't making her shots, Crosby isn't making her shots, it makes it a little bit easier on us. I thought that Imovbioh had a great game inside. So McCall, what she does, she's a player you have to play on the perimeter because she has better guard and perimeter skills. We have to adjust a little bit when she's in the game because she can put the ball on the floor, make good jump shots, a good passer. I do think she complicates things a little bit. She makes them better. She's one of their better players. When you have more of your best players on the court, you're a better team. They went with four‑guard lineups at our place. Now that Wolfe is out, McCall is back in, they'll go back against us at the post, putting more bigs in. That's no surprise. I don't think Joanne would have any problem telling you that as well, that has to be the game plan against BC. We have to be ready to defend their really good perimeter game. Q. What did you do defensively against Ataira Franklin? Did you do anything specifically? COACH JOHNSON: It's interesting. Kristen Doherty is probably our best perimeter defender. But she starts at the 4 for us. We're an interesting matchup for teams because we play four guards. One of our freshman, Alexa Coulombe, who is 6'3", has been coming along and playing a few more minutes at the 4 position instead of backing up Katie at the 5. Having two bigger kids allows us to put a little bigger defender on the perimeter. But Nicole Boudreau, she's really come along. I thought she did a nice job against Tyaunna Marshall on Sunday. She's had to guard the best wing players in the conference every game because often we're using Kristen Doherty to defend a 4 player. If Kristen is guarding McCall, you have Nicole on Franklin. So her ability to learn to get through screens, and those are things we'll work on in practice today, how to get through screens, keep a hand up. We made some mistakes at their place, and they made us pay every time. Virginia is a good team. Every time we made a mistake, Franklin was there to knock it down, get a kick‑out. For us, we're trying to clean up our fundamentals. I think we've been on a good path this year and hopefully we'll continue to get better this week for them and get ready for Thursday. Q. Do you look at Virginia with five straight losses or the one against Florida State? COACH JOHNSON: You can probably ask Joanne the same question about us. Which Boston College are you preparing for, the one that beat you or lost to you, the one that beat NC State and Georgia Tech, or lost to Clemson and Wake Forest. I don't know. Basketball, the season is about consistency. Coach Boyle and her team had to go through losing a couple players. Having Nicole out, losing Wolfe, it makes a big difference. Our starting point guard was out. This time of year is about keeping the bodies out there, keeping everybody going in the right direction. That's what is fun about March, it's who is playing well at this time. I know the focus in our gym is making sure we're playing our best basketball. My guess is the focus in Virginia is making sure they're playing the best basketball they possibly can rather than worrying too much about what BC team or what UVA team is going to show up. Q. Talk about Kerri shields, what she's meant to your team. COACH JOHNSON: The fun part for me as a coach is I recruited Kerri as an assistant coach when I was here from 2005 to 2008. She was our top shooter recruit as a junior. She was really ready to commit to BC when the coaching change was happening. We certainly mentioned her to the new staff. I was thrilled that that still worked out and she got to come here. So for me to get to come back and coach her, I'm so blessed when I get to walk in the interview, she was in there in the locker room. It was fun, her and her family. She's just one of the best shooters off the screens. Her footwork, there's not that many women that can come, going 180 degrees away from the basket, popping the two feet on the ground as she's catching the ball, getting off a beautiful three‑point shot. I've learned a lot about footwork watching her. She's our lone senior. Our team has been through a lot. Had a tough year last year going through a coaching change and everything. I think she's really been a great example for all the young players. Having Nicole Boudreau getting to learn from Kerri Shields, she's blessed to have a role model like that. When players like that are making plays, it makes us look like a lot better coaches. We're lucky to get to coach Kerri. Hopefully we can send her out on a good note with a few more wins here before the season is over. Q. Seeing how competitive the ACC always gets just before tournament time, the win that you had recently against Georgia Tech, but prior to that a tough game against North Carolina, can you talk about how challenging it is, but how dangerous teams in positions like yours in the 11th spot could be for teams that are above in the bracket. COACH JOHNSON: Sure. The ACC, if you're a player and if you're a coach, this is where you want to be. To me, there is no better way to learn about yourself and get better than going and playing North Carolina on North Carolina's home floor. You mention that game. They play so hard. This is one of the most physical, beat‑you‑up kind of teams that I've seen North Carolina have. Our kids just on the boards, not just boxing out, but just getting to the basket, defending cutters, defending drivers. (Indiscernible) if you're not in great defensive position, not in a stance ready to really step up and take a charge, she's just going to run you over and get the call anyway. There is so much good learning and good film from a game like that that I really believes helps our practices help get prepared for Georgia Tech. The week before we lost to a Clemson team that we had beaten by 20 at their place. I feel like that Clemson team played phenomenal. They played 25 points better than they did when we played them the first time. The lessons are you have to be able to bring it every single game. I hope we pose that same challenge for other teams. We certainly can't look ahead to North Carolina. We have to talk about Virginia right now. I hope Virginia has to prepare for Boston College, being prepared to come out and win a basketball game. You're right, you can throw out seeds because it's who is playing their best basketball. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, coach, for your time. COACH JOHNSON: We'll see everybody in Greensboro. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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