Coach, the way ACC teams are really beating up on each other this year, is there a fear that could negatively impact the seedings and how many teams get in come NCAA tournament time?
Well, I think based on the past, we should always have a fear that it could negatively impact because things that we have done locally in the ACC are sometimes not embraced as that difficult of things nationally, and I don't know why that takes place. It certainly I don't think is reflected at times in the RPI and Strength of Schedule--all those things that go into seeding and making those types of selections. It should be apparent that we have the best league this year and people are going to lose games. Really you can take our first eight games where we are 8-0 and take 4 of our games, and if you take one possession and turn it the other way, we could be 4-4 or 5-3 or something like that. People nationally have to understand that is not the case in a lot of leagues. We have some of the top teams in the country. We have more top teams in the country in our league than by far than any other league. I think it will be taken into consideration if we in our local areas promote that and tell that story. Because if we don't tell that story, I really don't think anyone else will tell that story because they want their own teams in. We should get a lot of teams in the NCAA tournament. A team can have a losing record in-conference and still should be able to make it this year.
Coach I was wondering if in the last few years, going around to all sorts of road venues, whether you've seen fan bases with taunting of players becoming even more of a problem. Redick in particular seems to be really a target. Have you seen that to be more of a problem than in the past? If so, is there anything that can be done about it?
I think it's always been there. You should have traveled with us when we had Laettner and Hurley. To me, those were some of the most brutal, organized things. Taunting isn't that bad. It's when thousands of people get together and say something that is inappropriate. That I think becomes outrageous. I think if you are a competitor, you expect people to yell at you on the road. You don't want to get really out of taste. I don't see it getting any worse. I think it's just always been there. Again, in 1991-92, we've never been berated as much on the road as we were in those two years.
I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about this year's group of point guards. It seems throughout this league there have been a lot of great players at that position, some at the same time. Can you just talk about what you see out of this group?
Well, again, before you use the word great, I don't know how many great players there are, but there are really good players. One of the reasons we have so many teams ranked nationally and have done so well nationally as a conference is because our teams have good point guards, and a number of the teams have really good backup point guards--guys who are going to emerge or can give them minutes...That's why the games are so good in the conference. I think they are making each other better. Look at the kid we played last night, Shawan Robinson. In one month, I think that kid has really emerged as one of the really good players in our league. It comes from good coaching, and I'm sure he's working really hard but also the competition that he faces day-to-day. I think they are making each other better.
Mike, how have you liked or disliked the Sunday night thing over the last couple of years. Do you think that maybe have been a factor in the empty seats last night?
Well, just to do Sunday night, and not talk about the seats or whatever, I think we have to be really careful. Sunday nights are really tough for teams, fans, everyone, because it's out of the natural order of things. Usually a Sunday night is a little bit down. You're getting ready for the week, but overall I'm not saying we should never do it. It shouldn't be done with the frequency that we do it basically because of the welfare of the student-athlete. These kids then lose a weekend. This week we'll give our kids off on Thursday, but they go to school all day...It doesn't give them a break, and I think it impacts them as players but also as students--the quality of life. I think we should re-look at what we're doing there. I'm not saying eliminate it, but really take a look at how much we play on Sunday, and especially Sunday night.
Coach, along those lines, can you talk a little about the grind of the ACC schedule and how difficult it is to maintain intensity from game to game and maybe little but of what you to do to keep the team up at a certain level for each game on the schedule.
Well, it's difficult, because everyone in our league comes at you hard, and it can really get on you. When a team has any kind of a break, you have to figure out how to get breaks in this intelligently, where you don't lose your momentum but you also maintain a certain level of performance. The other thing--when you get in February, people are on different missions. Some teams are doing everything they can to just get into the tournament, some teams know that they are in the tournament, some people are struggling because it looks like there is no way they can get into the tournament.
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