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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE OPERATION BASKETBALL

October 26, 2016

Charlotte, North Carolina

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Bryant Crawford.

Q. Keyshawn Woods is a new player. Talk about how he's helped your team and what you expect from him this year as well as the rest of your team?
BRYANT CRAWFORD: Keyshawn has brought experience to our team. He transferred last year and took a red-shirt. But although he wasn't playing, he was helping us as a team by competing and maximizing his red-shirt year last year. So with him finally being able to step on the court, it will definitely make things easier and open up the court for us. Because he's a great shooter and he can score it at will, too.

Q. Just so you can say, two-parter, first on Coach Manning, and what he's been to this team, and secondly, how you define this team this season?
BRYANT CRAWFORD: Coach Manning is definitely a great coach. He puts us in the best position for us to win, and he does his job, trusts in us, so we've just got to trust in him. As a team this year, we've just got to compete. We're a young group of guys, but we're also talented and I feel like we can compete with anybody in the country.

Q. Describe where you were last October as a student-athlete, and where you are this October?
BRYANT CRAWFORD: Last October I would say I filled the role of a student both on and off the court, and this year I'm still a student in the classroom, but I fill the role as a teacher to the younger guys and the new members of the team this year.

Q. So what is your style of teaching? Are you a loud one? Are you a quiet one? Show by example? Who are you?
BRYANT CRAWFORD: It depends. It depends. Talking to some guys I've got to lead by example, some guys I've got to get on their back. Sometimes I've got to just lift other players up.

Q. Wake Forest is a team that's still in transition. Obviously championships and titles are great to have and to be able to measure success by the end of the season. But do you have to lift a trophy to be able to call yourself successful this year?
BRYANT CRAWFORD: No, but that is one of the goals to lift the trophy this year. I mean, we just want to build on the season we had last year. We didn't have too good of a season last year, so we just want to improve on our record last year and put ourselves in the best position to compete for those titles and championships and be able to raise some trophies at the end of the year.

Q. If you think of the seasons as being four quarters, the first quarter of the season, what has to happen, do you think, to set the tone for the rest of the season?
BRYANT CRAWFORD: Not play down the competition. Step on the court ready to compete, not and not look at any team as any less than we'd look at the best team, and just win.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Austin Arians. Austin Arians is a transfer graduate student finding himself in Winston-Salem these days. Questions for Austin as we finish our time with Wake Forest.

Q. What's it been like?
AUSTIN ARIANS: It's been a lot of fun. These guys have been really accepting of me, the coaching staff as well. I just look forward to this year.

Q. Austin, what is it about Wake Forest that made this the right fit for you? And what can you say about graduate transferring? It's happening a lot these days, and obviously you took advantage of it.
AUSTIN ARIANS: So what drew me to Wake was the family atmosphere. That's one of the things at my last school that I really enjoyed about it. The team chemistry and when I came to Wake I felt it was the exact same. There was no transition. It was just these guys are all about the team, the coaching staff and family atmosphere.

And as far as a graduate transfer rule, the situation that some student-athletes are in isn't good. Some student-athletes have it fine. But I'm just really excited to be with Wake Forest.

Q. You've been around college basketball for obviously several years. I wanted to hear your assessment of the young big guys who you're playing against every day in practice.
AUSTIN ARIANS: They're very talented, they're very big, and they're very athletic.

No, but they battle each other really hard. We have a new younger guy, Sam, who is fighting pretty hard with those guys too. But that was one of the things that I had to get used to when I transitioned to Wake Forest was being able to play with athletes like that. Couple of my lobs are too low for them. I don't know if you can throw too low of a lob, but some of mine were.

Q. When you were thinking about using that last year of eligibility, in a sense you were scouting programs in which to go to. How did you find time during the course of your last 18 months or so to realize where it is you wanted to finish up?
AUSTIN ARIANS: When I asked for my release, you know, a bunch of schools reached out to me, and Wake Forest, Coach Manning, Coach Childress. I heard from them a lot. So they really convinced me to take a visit. Once I took a visit and found out how the team was, the family atmosphere and all that, I really felt like Wake Forest was the right fit for me.

Q. Other than providing some really good lobs, what's going to be your contribution this year to the team?
AUSTIN ARIANS: Three-point shooting. That's one of my strengths. That was one of the things that Coach Manning and Coach Childress when they recruited me, they were telling me that they need help in. So I'm just hoping that I can add some three-point shooting.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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