Found these quotes on the Wake Forest site just now. Interesting comments as always from Devin Thomas.
Wake Forest Head Coach Danny Manning
Opening Statement…“We feel very fortunate to come away with a win. I thought we did some good things throughout the course of the ball game. We have to be a little bit more consistent, but at the end of the day, when you can get a win on the road against a Power Five conference team, you got to take it. We’re definitely going to take it and go home and try to get prepared for a tough ACC conference.”
On LSU’s struggles beyond the arc…“We wanted to guard them. I think we can do a better job of guarding. I think at halftime they were shooting about 50 percent from the field, and that number is entirely too high. I thought we did a better job of being in strong defensive help and corralling the ball at times. They probably missed some shots that they normally make but so did we. That’s kind of the ebb and flow of the game.”
On Ben Simmons taking only one shot in the first half...“How many free throws did he shoot (in the first half)? Some of the seven (attempts) were shooting attempts. We just tried to make him work. We threw a lot of different bodies at him. We had big guys and small guys on him, and we just tried to make it a night for him where he’s not very efficient. When you look at the efficiency ratings, he’s off the charts. We knew we weren’t going to stop him from scoring; we just tried to make it difficult, and we tried to slow him down a little bit.”
On how big a key rebounding was for the team…“We’re one of the better rebounding teams in the country when you stack them up. I think we’re definitely one of the top 100 for sure. That’s just kind of our MO and who we are. We need to do a much better job of guarding the ball and not turning it over as much. We had 18 turnovers and quite a few of those came late.”
Wake Forest Senior Forward Devin Thomas
On how comfortable he believes his team plays on the road…“It’s still early in the season. We don’t feel like we played that well as a team, but this was a good win for us. Coming off our loss last game against Xavier, we needed to get back on track. Now all we can do is look forward to Louisville.”
On his team’s patience in the second half…“I was calling for the ball all second half, and I didn’t get it until late in the second half. Our team stayed patient and really tried to get the ball inside. When we were able to get it inside, we executed. We took advantage of our opportunities inside, and that is why we were victorious today.”
On what this does to the team’s confidence…“It is always good to get a win, but we can’t get complacent. I think becoming complacent is the biggest fear on this team. We feel that we should be on a seven game winning streak instead of a one game winning streak right now. We were complacent last game against Xavier in the second half and ended up losing. We just need to make sure that we’re practicing hard. We play in the toughest conference in the country so we need to come ready to go every game."
Wake Forest Head Coach Danny Manning
Opening Statement…“We feel very fortunate to come away with a win. I thought we did some good things throughout the course of the ball game. We have to be a little bit more consistent, but at the end of the day, when you can get a win on the road against a Power Five conference team, you got to take it. We’re definitely going to take it and go home and try to get prepared for a tough ACC conference.”
On LSU’s struggles beyond the arc…“We wanted to guard them. I think we can do a better job of guarding. I think at halftime they were shooting about 50 percent from the field, and that number is entirely too high. I thought we did a better job of being in strong defensive help and corralling the ball at times. They probably missed some shots that they normally make but so did we. That’s kind of the ebb and flow of the game.”
On Ben Simmons taking only one shot in the first half...“How many free throws did he shoot (in the first half)? Some of the seven (attempts) were shooting attempts. We just tried to make him work. We threw a lot of different bodies at him. We had big guys and small guys on him, and we just tried to make it a night for him where he’s not very efficient. When you look at the efficiency ratings, he’s off the charts. We knew we weren’t going to stop him from scoring; we just tried to make it difficult, and we tried to slow him down a little bit.”
On how big a key rebounding was for the team…“We’re one of the better rebounding teams in the country when you stack them up. I think we’re definitely one of the top 100 for sure. That’s just kind of our MO and who we are. We need to do a much better job of guarding the ball and not turning it over as much. We had 18 turnovers and quite a few of those came late.”
Wake Forest Senior Forward Devin Thomas
On how comfortable he believes his team plays on the road…“It’s still early in the season. We don’t feel like we played that well as a team, but this was a good win for us. Coming off our loss last game against Xavier, we needed to get back on track. Now all we can do is look forward to Louisville.”
On his team’s patience in the second half…“I was calling for the ball all second half, and I didn’t get it until late in the second half. Our team stayed patient and really tried to get the ball inside. When we were able to get it inside, we executed. We took advantage of our opportunities inside, and that is why we were victorious today.”
On what this does to the team’s confidence…“It is always good to get a win, but we can’t get complacent. I think becoming complacent is the biggest fear on this team. We feel that we should be on a seven game winning streak instead of a one game winning streak right now. We were complacent last game against Xavier in the second half and ended up losing. We just need to make sure that we’re practicing hard. We play in the toughest conference in the country so we need to come ready to go every game."
