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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: NEW ORLEANSMarch 20, 2010Dino GaudioIshmael SmithNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA Kentucky – 90 MODERATOR: Coach, your thoughts on the game. COACH GAUDIO: I told our kids after the game I'm really proud of them the year that they had. No one expected them to be where they are. I think we were picked six or seventh preseason. We lost two underclassmen early to the draft. But our seniors did a great job this year. I'm really, really proud of them. What they've accomplished this season despite the losses that we incurred. The other thing I'm really proud of, and nobody cares about this, unfortunately, is those four kids on May 17th will pick up their diplomas and it will be 21 seniors, 21 kids graduated in the ten years that we've been here. I think that's who we are at Wake Forest. That's what we're about. But I told John after the game his kids played really, really well. I've been in the ACC ten years; that's as good a basketball team as we played against in the ten years I've been here. I think the thing that hurt us a little bit is Al-Farouq only plays six minutes in the first half. He doesn't play 14 minutes of the half. And I think with six minutes to go we're down 29-24, and it sort of snowballed on us a little bit. And it got away from us. Defensively, they change and altar so many shots. They're really -- alter so many shots. They're really, really good defensively. And, boy, they have some skill guys on offense. If we were going to win the game, because we are a little bit offensively challenged, we were going to have to try to keep them 65-75. And we obviously didn't do that. Proud of our kids. Very, very disappointed in the loss, but we just had great leadership this year. And the guy on my left just did a terrific job for us for four years as well. MODERATOR: Questions for Ishmael Smith. Q. Talk about their height inside, those drives that you're used to getting to the basket. Had to go a little higher, little further out today than they have in the past? ISHMAEL SMITH: Absolutely. But I think the biggest thing is, you know, I look at it, I shoot 1 for 9. You hate to have a tough shooting night that I did, especially the caliber of the game, of the team, and what's at stake. Obviously, we play tall guys. Coach mentioned to me on the bench it's kind of Florida State-ish, how tall they are. And that game I played a little bit better than this game. It was just shots weren't falling. Obviously, we have some tall and athletic guys, so it doesn't hurt. But it did alter a little bit. As far as you say, I was getting to the paint, but those floaters were a little higher. Those jump shots, those lay-ups were a little higher. So it was a tough night. Kentucky's a heck of a team. I would not be surprised to see them in the Final Four, and probably win it all. If they continue to play like they're playing tonight. They shot the ball and played some great defense. Q. You guys obviously looked at the film. You've seen them play on TV. Were they better when they got going after Al-Farouq picked up his third foul and you guys stumbled there? Were they better than you expected in terms of how quickly they were able to get down there and get points? ISHMAEL SMITH: I thought we did a pretty good job in transition. What happened was I would get in there and some of the shots were going long and they were run outs. They got some run outs, and maybe it was kind of 50-50 ball. Both our bigs would go up for the rebound. Their bigs would get the ball, and then it was a runout. I think they do a great job of making your turnovers or your missed shots and turning them into points. I thought we did overall in transition getting back, we did a great job of that. But they're a heck of a team. As far as what we see on tape, are they different? Obviously you do get a better feel of a team when you actually play them. I do think they're every bit as good as deserving, and all the accolades those guys get. They deserve every bit of it. So like I said, kudos to Coach Calipari and their team. I wish them the best. Q. Obviously this is a tough way to end the season and end your career. But the fact that you guys got to the tournament, you beat Texas. Do you take something away from that leaving having done that? ISHMAEL SMITH: Absolutely. One thing I wanted to do this year, I know all the seniors and everybody talked about it, was we wanted to change the culture of Wake Forest. Obviously people have put a staple on us that we're a heck of a regular season team, but in the postseason we kind of stumble a lit bit. But this year we beat a heck of a Texas team. We just ran into a really, really good Kentucky team. So it is a good way to leave it. I talked to the freshmen in the locker room and told them know this feeling and know that you want to get back. Don't let up. Know how hard you've got to work. I'm just thankful for Coach Gaudio. I remember when he recruited me. He came to my high school gym, and Coach Prosser and Coach Battle. I can keep naming all the coaching staff. They've been unbelievable if for me. It never hurts to lose to the No. 1 team in the country now that Kansas has lost. MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Gaudio. Q. I know the game plan is get Ish in the lane as much as possible. But it almost seemed like they got too far into the lane and got into a world of trouble trying to find their way back out. COACH GAUDIO: What we needed to do is we want to penetrate. That's who we are. But we needed to play off two feet when we got into the paint. We needed to sit down. You know, we were playing a little bit too much off one foot. Shooting the runners and the floaters. When he came to the bench one time I said, Ish, it's a little bit like Florida State. They've got some really long, tall guys. We might have to sit down there, pump fake, and maybe dump it down to the big guys. The other thing I wish we did a better job of, as we are penetrating, Ish got in there a couple times, C.J. got in there a couple times. When Kentucky's bigs rotated up to contest shots, we needed to do a better job of is they lifted off the baseline to contest their shots in the lane. Then our bigs had a free avenue to offensive rebound and we didn't take advantage of that. There were a couple balls that were on the rim and we'd get one hand on it instead of grabbing it with two. That hurt us a little bit. Q. How were they able to get into your defense the way they did? They get the first 11 shots in the second half. Then how do you see the program going forward after tonight? COACH GAUDIO: The first question, we just didn't do a good enough job of guarding the ball. Then their ball screens really hurt us. Now, you know as well as I, we're not a zone team. But to try to protect Farouq a little bit. He had three. Was afraid John was going to go at him a little bit. Came out the half and ran one play at him. So I said, Listen, let's try to play zone to protect him a little bit. And that's really not what we do. They hit a couple threes. We weren't where we were supposed to be because we spend probably, you know, 15 minutes a year on two-defense. They're really, really good. They're really good. They played very hard, very hard on offense. A lot of teams don't play that hard on offense. They really challenge your transition defense. They really challenge you on the backboard, and they've got a lot of guys that can really score the ball. You know, next year I think will be a transitional period for us obviously, with as many young kids coming in. You know, with Ty and Tony back. Gary being the lone senior, Gary Clark. Ty and Tony. And I'm going to talk to Farouq, let him get back into class, but see what his intentions are. I'm really, really happy with the year that C.J. and Ari had. So it will be a little bit of a transitional period being as young as we look to be. But I'm excited about it. I'm looking forward to it. Q. Talk a little about how big -- I know you touched on it before -- how big it was with Al-Farouq picking up his third foul so early in the first half then going on to a big run after that. And what do you think he's going to do and do you think he's played his last game as a Demon Deacon? COACH GAUDIO: He was big. He's one of our better players. He's one of the best players in the ACC. And to play 14 games without him was big. We weathered the storm for a while. Like I said, it was 29-24 with six minutes and some change. They ran on a little run, and we couldn't stop the bleeding. But trust me, Farouq playing 6 minutes in the first half was not why we lost. But I'm not sure what he's going to do. I'm going to sit down with him. I'm going to tell him if he's a top 15 pick that he should go. He should go. Great kid. The one thing about that young man, he never talks about that stuff. He doesn't talk about it in the locker room. Doesn't bother him. I think if you went in there and said where does NBA.com and draft.com and all the nonsense -- he couldn't even tell you because he doesn't care. He's been a great kid. He's been a great locker room guy. He's been a great practice player. So when the smoke clears, we'll sit down. The big thing for us is we missed four days of school this week. We had every intention of flying out on Tuesday after classes and practice. But we had to depart at noon. So the biggest things for these kids right now at a really challenging academic school is to get back into class and get back to where they need to be academically. Q. You sat Chas for the last eight or so minutes of the game. Was that related to the intentional foul? Also with him seated, Ty Walker came in and put in some solid minutes. Were you encouraged with the way he played? COACH GAUDIO: Very, very encouraged with Ty. Very encouraged with Ty. I thought let's give those kids a taste of the NCAA Tournament, you know what I mean? Ty swatted some shots and did a good job there. He blocked three shots. Three for four from the foul line. The whole thing with Ty is I want him to compete in practice and go hard, and then he'll continue to get better and continue to grow. He did that these latter two weeks. So we put him in there. I grabbed him as he was walking out the door and I said, Hey, come over here. I'm proud of you. You hung in there and you played well. End of FastScripts |
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