ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 10, 2022

Jim Larranaga

Jordan Miller

Charlie Moore

Barclays Center

Miami Hurricanes

Postgame Press Conference

Miami - 61, Boston College - 59

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by head coach Jim Larranaga. We have student-athletes Charlie Moore and also Jordan Miller. We're going to ask Coach for an opening statement, and then we'll take questions.

JIM LARRANAGA: Of course it's the ACC tournament, it's March Madness, and all of these games are fantastic. Now, the game last night, Virginia Tech wins at the buzzer, Virginia wins by one. This afternoon Syracuse plays a great game, and this afternoon, Boston College played a terrific game.

They did a lot of things very, very well. It was very challenging for us to get any kind of rhythm because they did something we haven't really seen that much this year, and that is they kept changing their defense from man-to-man to zone. That did impact the rhythm of the game. They also spread us out, and it was really difficult for our guys to really apply the pressure.

We tried, and Kam McGusty was putting tremendous pressure. The court was big enough, and they were hanging on to it.

You've got to give credit to our guys. They never hung their heads. I think we were behind by six to eight. We came back, took the lead, then it goes into overtime. Some huge plays, obviously the most important being Jordan's made lay-up. Charlie, did you get an assist on that?

CHARLIE MOORE: Yes, sir.

JIM LARRANAGA: Nice assist, nice lay-up. Like an idiot, I was about ready to call a timeout. I saw Charlie get the ball. Time-out -- no, better not. We get a chance to move on and play again tomorrow.

Q. Jordan, can you take us through that final play? Just take us through step by step, please.

JORDAN MILLER: Yeah, so we got the rebound. I went to Charlie, and I saw no one was really near me. I was going to sprint the floor. I was hoping Charlie would actually look at me. He did, and he delivered a great pass. As much as that lay-up was important, his pass was just as important.

Today was a great team win. Like Coach L said, kudos to Boston College. They really came out and played their best.

Q. Coach, congrats on the win. Can you talk a little bit about your team's defense in that overtime period.

JIM LARRANAGA: I can't see you. Where are you? He's on Zoom? Can you repeat the question?

Q. Can you talk a little bit about your team's defense in that overtime period.

JIM LARRANAGA: I think one of the things that this team has done very, very successfully throughout the season is figure out a way to get stops. Sometimes it's with a great rebound like Sam Waardenburg got. Sometimes it's forcing a turnover and getting a steal. But these guys are very confident. They play very, very hard. And at the end of the game, we were switching -- we were doing a lot of switching and that requires everybody to play great defense because you never know one of their players is going to be on the attack.

I look at things -- I mean, we were 30 for 56. They were 29 for 57. Both teams really shot lights out. They shot 51 percent. We shot 53 percent. So maybe it was more of an offensive performance by both teams, but in the end, it was the one defensive stop we needed to win the ballgame.

Q. Jordan, were you aware of how much time was on the clock in that last moment? And also describe the thrill of scoring the winning basket in an ACC tournament game.

JORDAN MILLER: I looked at the clock before I took off. I was really hoping Charlie would find me, and he did. When I laid it up, it was nothing but thrills. The ACC tournament, it's up and downs, it's March. This win's huge, but also we're not done yet. We're not finished yet. We've still got a lot of games moving forward that we need to be prepared for.

As nice as this win is, we're still locked in for the upcoming games we've got.

Q. I'm curious. This is for any of the three of you. Did you guys watch Wake-BC live and did you learn anything about Boston College watching that game?

CHARLIE MOORE: Actually, we were in practice, we were just in the practice, and we seen like the end of the game. Obviously, we seen that Boston College, we know they're a different team. They were playing hard. They were playing like they had nothing to lose out there. So we knew it was going to be a hard-fought game, a battle to the end, like it was tonight.

I feel like we just had fun. Jordan hit the game-winning lay-up. We played great defensively and offensively as a team. We ended up getting the win.

Q. I was just wondering if you could comment on the little things that Charlie Moore did down the stretch like a big offensive rebound and a put back at the end of regulation and his big pass, of course, to win the game, as well as the big steal as well. Why is he so good at those little things that help you guys win?

JIM LARRANAGA: The first thing I would say, I think that's Charlie's first offensive rebound basket this year, but he does whatever it takes to win the ballgame, whether it's hit a long-distance three, like he's done so many times this season, getting assists, getting to the paint, and find an open man, or drive the ball to the basket and shoot one of these high arching lay-ups or get a steal. He leads the league in steals.

He just is an incredible competitor, and he competes at everything. I mean, like everything. I think he has made my life very enjoyable because he gives me tremendous confidence in knowing that he's going to make a lot of great decisions throughout the game.

He's such a great teammate. We talked about it last night. These guys really are great teammates and friends to each other on and off the court. Charlie does whatever he's asked to do.

Q. Jim, can you talk about what was the play, what was the plan on the final possession of regulation? And then what do you expect from Duke tomorrow night in the semifinal?

JIM LARRANAGA: The first part is we wanted to give Isaiah Wong the ball with a spread offense, and we did. Boston College's guards did a really good job of forcing a mistake. What I said earlier is very true. They kept changing their defense, and we felt like if Isaiah could get isolated, but that didn't materialize.

Duke, obviously, has been a top ten team all season long. They've got tremendous talent at every position. They have the winningest coach in college basketball history, and our guys are going to be very, very excited about playing them again. We played them one time earlier in the year. A lot has transpired since then.

We'll need to get a lot of rest between now and tomorrow night's tip-off. What time, 7:00? Yeah, at 7:00.

Q. Coach, this is for you, Jordan, and Charlie. On that last play, I just keep watching it over and over again. It was just such a basketball IQ play. The way you slipped behind, got back there. Post couldn't get back there fast enough to stop you. I just want you to talk about how -- do you practice that? How did you do it?

JIM LARRANAGA: I was going to say, yeah, we do that every day all the time. Five seconds left, get a rebound, pitch it out, and shoot a lay-up. That's not true (laughter). Sometimes you just have to realize players have to make plays. They have to play the game. You don't play the score. You play the game, which means when you're on defense, you defend. When the shot goes up, you'd better block out and rebound. You get the rebound, you've got to take care of it first, get an outlet, and run.

Look at the games last night, in particular the Virginia Tech win, where they inbounded to a guy, and he just went down the court and buried a three for the win. Players have to step up and make great plays, and every one of our guys did.

Just think about the stuff they did throughout the game, and then in the last possession, five seconds to go, these veteran players knew what to do. Charlie?

CHARLIE MOORE: I feel like we do work on that, Coach (laughter). We do a drill called the Celtic drill every day. We run the floor, Jordan run, Kam on the other side, just different groups. Jordan went out and made an excellent run out for the lay-up. I just happened to see him, and he caught it. Sam grabbed an amazing rebound. He was battling all night. Sam did great tonight.

I just feel, like Coach say, it was a basketball play.

JIM LARRANAGA: I do remember the Celtic drill we do every day. Honestly, Sam outlets to Charlie, and Charlie throws it ahead to Jordan for a lay-up. Every day we do it. That's what those guys were thinking. Pretty good. What did you think, Jordan?

JORDAN MILLER: Yeah, kind of what Coach L and Charlie said. Just we practice it during practice. Charlie is actually the one I was going to say who throws me the pass. I'm not surprised the pass is spot on. Charlie is just doing Charlie Moore things. Like they said, it was a basketball play. Looking forward to the next couple of games and really making a run in this tournament.

Q. Coach, congratulations on the win today. As a team, you had 18 turnovers. How difficult was that BC defense. Ahead of the matchup tomorrow, how much of a point of emphasis will limiting those turnovers be?

JIM LARRANAGA: Well, honestly, this is probably more turnovers than we've had in a bunch of games this year. The one thing the team has been very good at -- two things -- forcing turnovers, getting into the open court. You see we had 18 points off of their turnovers. They had 9 off of ours.

Then secondly, taking care of the basketball where we had quite a few more assists than turnovers. I think we lead the league in that category. Today we had 14 assists and 13 turnovers. But still in games like this, you see they had 17 assists and 14 turnovers. A lot of credit goes to Boston College because we've been forcing 15, 16, 17 turnovers and only committing 8, 9, or 10.

Man, it was a great game, an ACC tournament game. I love these games. I think they're a lot of fun.

Q. You guys got Duke obviously next game. You played them two months ago, and you guys both had great performances. Is your confidence level any different now after a big win like that? Do you think anything's a little bit different, or what are your thoughts on that?

CHARLIE MOORE: I just feel like we're going to go into this game like any other game, play our game defensively, offensively. Our confidence is always high. Coach instills it in us to play our game. So just go into this game and play a little harder than we played today, give 110 percent effort out there, see what the results come out.

JORDAN MILLER: I agree with what Charlie said. I think right now the most important thing is just refuel, rehydrate, really rest up for tomorrow because we've got a big game.

Q. Jordan, this is for you. Miami, definitely in the ACC and even in the country, plays one of the most fluidless positionless basketball type of styles. If you're a four man, you're basically a 6'6", 200-pound guard. You're so good at tip-ins around the basket, rebounds, finishing over bigger defenders. Can you speak to how prideful you are to play against guys who are bigger than you, who are four men, and if that's something that's evolved since you got to Miami from George Mason.

JORDAN MILLER: That's a good question. Every night I'm usually matched up with someone who's two inches taller than me, probably 30 pounds heavier than me. I think being able to do what I do helps us be a lot more versatile as a team. At one point in the season, I was at the five position. Most importantly, I just want to do what the team needs, what I need to do for the team to help us win, trusting the coaching staff and their game plan.

JIM LARRANAGA: Can I add one thing to that? I'd like to make a comment because very astute of your observation.

I've coached a lot of basketball players at the college level, high level, ACC, and what have you. Jordan is the best offensive rebounder I've ever coached, and he has a ridiculous talent for tipping the ball in. Just ridiculous. I don't know how he does it. But I love that he does it because it's great.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks so much guys. Congrats on the win.