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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 11, 2013Mark TurgeonCOACH TURGEON: Proud of my guys' effort last night, came up short. Gained a little confidence. We are getting better. Looking forward to the ACC tournament, getting down to Greensboro. It's always a lot of fun. It's a great time of year, so I know our guys will be excited to get down there and hopefully play well. Q. You can't turn on the TV o pick up a sports page without reading about bubble teams and pressure and everything, and the first four out and all that kind of thing. How do you approach that going into the tournament and constantly being talked about as a team that's on the bubble? COACH TURGEON: We never talk about it. We just try to get better. You know, if you play well, things will take care of themselves. You know, I think we have been way below the bubble for a couple games now. If we win last night, we are probably back on the bubble, have a chance going to Greensboro. But we are just trying to get better. We have a young team. We played exceptionally well last night, came up one stop short in regulation, and so that's really what we are concentrating on. We are trying to build a program here. I was down to six players on day two of the job, and we are trying to build a program, trying to do it the right way. So we are just trying to get better. Hopefully we'll go to Greensboro and play well. Q. Is it possible for a team, it's never happened in the ACC, for a team to win four games in four days? COACH TURGEON: It's definitely possible. I think North Carolina State as a five‑seed has a really good chance of doing that. You know, their lack of depth will hurt them but talent‑wise, they could get on a roll in Greensboro and do it. But it's hard. It's hard. You've got to be really good and you've got to be really lucky. Probably going to be a few upsets along the way on your path. But obviously it's been done before, not in the ACC but other conferences and I'm sure it can be done. We have more depth this year from top to bottom, there's just so many better teams, so it just makes it hard on everybody, and we have to play Duke if we are lucky enough to win our first game. But we put ourselves in this position, but we'll just take it one at a time. We have some good depth, we can play a lot of different ways. We have gotten better at playing a lot of different ways as the season has gone on. It's been a struggle for me to figure out exactly how to coach this group. I feel like we are getting better. I feel like we are peaking. Even though we have lost in our last two games, I just feel like we have gotten so much better. We have become a much better road team down the stretch here, which, you know, a lot of our games‑‑ won't be true road games, but I'm sure we'll be out‑numbered in the stands. You know, we have a chance, and we are not going down there to not try to win four. We are going to pack for five days or whatever it is and see if we can get on a roll and get it done and get some confidence as it goes along. Q. Going back to last night's game for just a second, you get a basket by Alex with about 16 minutes left to go up by 13 and then you get a technical foul in the same play. What happened down there? Did you get an explanation for that? COACH TURGEON: I have not got an explanation yet. I got a call in, I got to watch it‑‑ I got the referees explanation, I don't think it‑‑ you know, I've got to be careful. I can't say. I'll let the league try to handle it and say. Q. The game went into overtime‑‑ COACH TURGEON: And the next foul put them in the bonus, seven fouls with about 14 minutes ago. And we are a team that likes to play without fouling. So it was just‑‑ you know, on the film, you could see Pe'Shon waving and being a kid, you know, getting excited. So you know, I heard the referee's explanation, I got a call into the office, and I'm sure they will talk to the referees. Q. Nothing physical like pushing? COACH TURGEON: No, no, absolutely not, no. I've got to be vague and I just‑‑ you know. Q. With how much more physical college basketball has done, have you had to change your coaching style with the way the game is being officiated? COACH TURGEON: Well, I do think it's physical. You know, it's a hard, hard game to referee, really hard when you watch it. You know, is it any more physical than it was seven or eight years ago? I don't know. I don't think so. Guys just might be bigger, stronger and faster across the board. But you know, I do think that the coaching is better. I think defensively the coaching is better and the game planning is better. And you know, maybe there's not quite as many shooters as there used to be. But it is physical, but I don't know if it's any more physical than ten years ago, and like I said, I do think it is a hard game to referee. Guys are just so athletic and move so fast. Q. Is there anything that could or should be done to open the game up a little bit? COACH TURGEON: Well, I just think off the ball, I think we have done a better job with it. It just chucking cutters, I think that's one thing. You know, just that you should be able to chuck cutters. I think they have really tried hard to clean that up. I think it's a lot better than it used to be. Some teams still do it, still teach it, which you're asked to not teach it and then you get hurt by not teaching that. But chucking cutters is something that helps with the freedom of movement, which I think would be big. And then I guess just a hand‑check rule, putting two hands on the dribble is a call that they just have to make and I think that would open things up a little bit more. Q. I was just wondering about Shaq Cleare and how he's doing? COACH TURGEON: Why are you asking? He's been doing well‑‑ just because he didn't play last night? Q. Was that a matchup thing or what? COACH TURGEON: Shaq's fine. Shaq's a great kid. Shaq wants to win. We went small lineup, really helped us. You know, I had no intentions of not playing Shaq last night; as a coach I probably should have put him in at the 16‑minute mark in the second half and when they went big lineup and got him in there and got a little sweat going. I didn't do it. And I felt like as the game went on, it wasn't fair to put him in because it was such a possession by possession game down the stretch. It was the first game Shaq has not played in, but I promise you he'll play Thursday. Q. First game against Wake Forest you handled them pretty easily. Second game was much tighter. What do you expect this time around? COACH TURGEON: I don't know, I'm still licking my wounds from last night and trying to get over that. You know, we'll dive into Wake Forest. Hairs is key and McKie is key for them. We really have not had an answer for the Thomas kid. He's been‑‑ you know, just been real aggressive and good against us. It's another game, they will be fired up. It's a brand new season. Hopefully we'll be fired up and confident going into Thursday. We'll figure that out by the time we get there. I might be able to answer that question a little bit better on Wednesday. Q. You say you like the way your team has improved, even though you've lost your last couple of games, what things do you see that are encouraging signs to you? COACH TURGEON: Just playing smarter. We just haven't played smart all year, and we fight them on it. We are just playing smart. We are taking care of the ball a little bit better. Our shot selection is better and then our attention to detail defensively just is getting better. So we are getting there. And guys are feeling comfortable and our guys are hungry. They still want to win. They are determined. That's good to see. So we have had good practices and we just keep talking about building the program, building the program, building the program. We don't talk about NCAA Tournaments or whatever it is. We just try to become the best team that we can. Last night, that would have been such a good road win against a team that's really good at home in our league and so that's another step for our program. Came up a little short and we'll have to do it next year. But that said, we've got our guys are just focused on‑‑ we are so young. We are focused on building a great program and we are not accepting losing. We're not accepting where we are. We are trying to get better and that's all you can ask as a coach. They are finally starting to buy into that, which is great to see. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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