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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE OPERATION BASKETBALLOctober 29, 2014Codi Miller-McIntyreAaron RountreeCHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA Q. Codi, obviously the elephant in the room is this is the first year under the new coach, Danny Manning, and the change in philosophy from what you had with Coach Bzdelik. CODI MILLER‑McINTYRE: Coach Manning is very assertive, which is a different feel that a lot of us haven't had. He is very, like‑‑ he's very oriented around attention to detail and intensity, meaning in practices and workouts, everything is back to back to back, and pays a lot of attention to details, and that's one of the biggest things that as a group and as a team that we have to focus on is details because that's what wins games. He is also very humble in a sense, but he will get on us like no other, and that's definitely a big difference for us because we never really had something like that, and the fact that he's played in the NBA for the amount of time that he has and has succeeded there, great college player, obviously, when he tells us something, it's almost like, okay, we have to listen, not just because he's our coach but because if we have any dreams of going anywhere farther than college with basketball, out of anybody that we know, he is a person that would know how to get us there. Q. Codi, when you look at Danny Manning, what's he done to change the environment for Wake Forest, not just on the court but off the court, as well, as a leader for you? CODI MILLER‑McINTYRE: Well, one thing that I see with Coach Manning is he is a people person. I say that because I've been walking around campus with a group of friends, and he will come up and sometimes won't even speak to me first. Won't even say what's up, Codi. He'll introduce himself to my friends and ask them about their majors and little things like that. I think that's one big thing that he does which will get the community more involved and coming out and supporting because now the fans aren't really looking at him as this is Danny Manning. It's more, okay, I met him at subway or met him at Benson or in The Pit or little things like that. Q. So much was made of your freshman class, and there's been a lot of change, obviously, in the last two years. How do you see your progression? How do you see your evolution both as a person, a basketball player? How have the last two years been for you? CODI MILLER‑McINTYRE: The last two years have been full of good and bad experiences, which ultimately allow me to mature as a player and as a person off of the court. With the group that we came in, we were all freshmen at the time, we really didn't know much. We had the fact that we were freshmen as an excuse, but going to the ACC for two years and having the ups and downs of it now as juniors, we've matured so much, which means little things don't affect us the way it did, and now that we attack the court, we come on the court and we have certain games, it's more of a business feel now, it's not just we're just playing just to play and we can lose today and tomorrow come back and win. No, it's more of, no, this is what we have to do. If we want to get to where we want to be, we have to do certain things. Q. How different is the offense that you'll be running this year than what you're used to? CODI MILLER‑McINTYRE: Right. Actually it's very similar. The biggest difference is that we're going to try running a little bit more‑‑ we're actually going to run a lot more and get up and down the court more, and now with Coach Manning, one thing he's big on is taking the thinking aspect out of the game where we don't really contemplate, we just go out and play. If we make the wrong pass in a set that we call, there's an option that we can run into automatically. We don't have to make the wrong pass and reset a different offense. I think that's one of the biggest differences is that now we have that option of, okay, let's say we messed up and I forgot to play, but now it's an action if I pass it here and everybody on the team has to know that action. Q. Not only do you have to get adjusted to the new style of coaching, you've got a group of freshmen that have to get adjusted to the new style of life, so you have to watch out for yourselves and the freshmen. How is that merging going? CODI MILLER‑McINTYRE: It's going a lot easier than what I first expected because now it's been two years on and off the court at Wake Forest, and I've found the way to balance basketball, school and social life, so it's easy for me to do that without really thinking about it, and now that I have freshmen, it's almost like they're like my little brothers, which is weird to see, and I can help them, teach them things that I did to help me get by from day‑to‑day. Q. What are some of the growing pains associated with having a new coach come in midway through your college career? CODI MILLER‑McINTYRE: The biggest thing with me was the relationships. I try to build strong relationships with anybody who's close to me, so seeing the coaches that gave me the opportunity to come into Wake Forest, allowed me the chance to play in the ACC and seeing them leave kind of hurt a little bit, but at the same time we also understand that it's a part of life. It is a business, and that's one of the things that hurt the most, but at the same time being able to learn, learn from new people and get to know new people is also a very good thing. THE MODERATOR: Aaron Rountree now with us. Q. Aaron, Danny Manning, what he's meant. You heard your teammate talk about him, but what he has meant to you and what you feel the environment of Wake Forest has been since Danny has gotten there. AARON ROUNTREE: Well, Coach Manning has instant credibility. He's the national player of the year, won a national championship, Danny Manning the Miracle, the list goes on and on. But for us he's just brought in a winning culture and just a new level of excitement, almost like a breath of fresh air. Q. Following up on that breath of fresh air, how badly was that needed? It seemed the last couple years under the previous regime it was a little stuffy. AARON ROUNTREE: It was a lot of things going on outside of basketball that were completely outside of our control as far as basketball players go, but we were just trying to focus on basketball, and now it'll be a little bit easier to focus on just being good and trying to win every game that we go out and play. Q. What have you been doing to show that you belong on the court for more minutes at a time? Last year two minutes here, three minutes there, but rarely long stretches, so what are you doing to get on the court and stay there for stretches? AARON ROUNTREE: I think a big difference between this year and last year, last year I played behind Travis McKie. There weren't very many minutes to be had as far as him coming out of the game, and also I've just been working on developing on the offensive side of the ball and just working on taking shots when I'm open and knocking down shots and doing what I do best, getting to the rim and offensive rebounding. But also stay aggressive on defense and being disruptive on that end like I've been my first two years. Q. Does Wake have anything that they have to prove this year? AARON ROUNTREE: I don't think we have anything to prove to outside people.  I just think the most pressure put on us is internal pressure. We just want to go out and be the best team and give wake the product on the floor that the fans and the student body deserves and keep up with the tradition that Randolph Childress and Chris Paul and Tim Duncan created. Q. How will you know if you're successful in all that? AARON ROUNTREE: I think a benchmark of success would be making it to the big dance. That's obviously the goal for every team is to make it to the tournament, and then anything can happen from there. That's our goal, to go out there and be as good as we can be every game and make it to the tournament. Q. What do you like about your college experience to this point? AARON ROUNTREE: As far as college experiences go, college has been great for me. I've had a chance to meet new people, play in some of the greatest basketball coliseums in the world, travel to the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, and I've just enjoyed college basketball and playing in the conference that I grew up loving. Q. You were asked about playing behind Travis and the minutes weren't there. Those minutes will be there now, but you lose so much in leadership. How do you replace that void from Travis? AARON ROUNTREE: It's definitely a void to be replaced. Travis was a big time performer in the ACC for four years, but I spent two years learning as much as I could from him, and we have five juniors that are still on the team that have all played in meaningful games and played a lot of minutes. Just trying to take everything I watched and learned from him and pass it on to the younger guys on our squad. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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