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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 11, 2013Jim LarranagaTHE MODERATOR: We're joined by Coach Jim Larranaga. COACH LARRANAGA: Well, we had an interesting week last week. And very proud at the end of the week to be able to say that we're the regular season champions, that we've earned a No. 1 seed in the ACC tournament, looking forward to competing in the tournament against a great field of ACC teams and programs. THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. I know you were at Virginia during an era when the ACC tournament was unbelievable, couldn't get a ticket. Things have changed a little bit. Did you find it very different when you came back last year and experienced it? COACH LARRANAGA: I don't know. I thought there was still a lot of enthusiasm for ACC basketball. I don't remember what the crowd was like even. But I know our guys were very, very excited about it. We were very happy when we won the first round game and looked forward to competing against Florida State in the next round and we're very disappointed when we lost. As far as my recollection, it's still the ACC tournament is a great, great event, the grandfather of all conference tournaments. Q. Going into it this year, I mean, teams go through cycles like players get hot and cold. It seems like you guys have not played as well in the last couple of weeks as you were playing through most of the season. Is that a down‑cycle, have teams found something? Is there something that you have to change and get going better? COACH LARRANAGA: No, I think there's definitely a difference in us for a period of time. I thought we were very, very highly motivated coming into league play. Five seniors, very motivated, very focused. And then I thought after we got to 13‑0 in league play, we got a little complacent. Our attention to detail was not as good. Our defensive effort was not as good. Our communication on the defensive end was not as good and we didn't execute quite as well. But I thought in the second half of our game against Clemson on Saturday, I thought our energy and attention to detail ratcheted up back to where it had been and hopefully that will continue this week in practice leading up to the tournament. Q. You hear coaches and broadcasters talk pretty often these days about how much more physical college basketball has become. I'm wondering if in your mind that's something that has to be addressed in terms of how the game is being officiated these days? COACH LARRANAGA: Yeah, I think referees should call fouls when they're fouls. The game hasn't changed, the rules haven't changed. It's just the way the game is viewed by the people who are officiating. And they've got a very, very challenging job because the game is so fast, the athletes are so strong. But I've had friends of mine in the NBA who say college is more physical than the NBA right now. And I don't think that should be. I think the game does get more physical as you get older, bigger bodies. So if you're going from elementary school to high school, high school's more physical. You go from high school to college. College is more physical. But then it shouldn't turn around and be all of a sudden the college game is so physical that it's not as physical or it's more physical than the NBA game. Q. How do you think it got to this point for the sport and what can be done in the short term to kind of fix it, I imagine it's kind of like a thing that's going to have to be a progressive change, like it won't happen overnight? COACH LARRANAGA: I think the officiating programs that we have in place now should help. More of a national organization. There's videos that we're required to watch in the fall and the referees are required to watch that. And hopefully they have a lot of discussion about what's legal and what's not legal and the officials can call it pretty consistently. But I think one of the concerns is that you don't want games to turn into a free‑throw shooting contest. I think that's something that officials are smart enough to avoid. They don't want teams shooting 40, 50 free throws a game. But, yet, I think coaches have taught their teams to be more and more physical. I think the old theory was if we foul every time they can't call them all. Q. Jim, I realize that Reggie Johnson is splitting time now pretty much, but are you concerned that the last half dozen games or so his offense just doesn't seem to be there? COACH LARRANAGA: I'm concerned about everybody, not just Reggie, it's our whole team. A lot of times offense is about a team executing and functioning well. And I think his drop‑off is a direct result of our whole team's little lack of execution. And we talk about attention to detail all the time. And when you're not doing the little things well, then nothing really works great. And that's true for him as it's true for everybody. Q. Once you have seemed to have lost a bit of that attention to detail, how hard is that to get back, especially in a tournament situation? COACH LARRANAGA: Well, it's about practice. In our estimation, you play the game the way you prepare and the way you practice. And I saw in practice a little let‑up about two weeks ago. Maybe even longer ago. Towards the end of February. And now it's already March11th. So probably for the last two weeks or so we've been not quite as sharp. But after our loss to Georgia Tech last Wednesday night, our practice on Thursday and Friday was really outstanding and our second half performance, not necessarily the first half, but the second half performance against Clemson, I thought, was the best defense we've played in two or three weeks. Q. Having coached in the mid American in the CAA for as long as you did, I can't imagine you ever strolled into a conference tournament pretty much knowing that you were in the NCAA field, and you probably didn't last year there was at least a little uncertainty. Does that change your approach to a conference tournament this particular year? COACH LARRANAGA: Well, yes and no. Yes, because I think our players are probably going to be a little bit more relaxed this week and knowing that even if we were to lose, we're still going to be in the NCAA tournament. In years past, we never knew that. So there was an awful lot of emphasis put on advancing and winning the tournament and guaranteeing yourself the automatic bid. And this will be the first year in my coaching career that I feel pretty certain we'll be invited, even if we don't win the tournament. Q. You talked about the players being more relaxed. Will you attack practices in a different way, or will there still be‑‑ will you approach them with the same intensity? COACH LARRANAGA: We will approach them just like we do every single practice throughout the season, that this next game is the only game we need to concentrate on and we need to be totally prepared to play the best basketball we can on that particular day. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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