Jan. 15, 2010

Head Coach Gary Williams

Opening statement

"BC is pretty interesting. They played a great first half against Duke, at Duke. In the second half, Duke made a run to start the game like they're very capable of doing. They lost Rice a great guard who didn't have a great game against us here last year. They're an outstanding rebounding team. I know that sounds old, but they're really different, they're a small team that depends on quickness instead of being a Florida State or Wake Forest team that uses their size to be a good rebounding team. They go after it really hard, they're very disciplined. They run their offense. They depend on execution in their offense to be successful. They're a solid team. They've been playing with each other for a while now. It's not like they have new guys or anything like that. This is a very veteran team in terms of playing together last year."

On playing a team after they suffered a loss

"You just figure that they're at home, they need this win as a home game and we expect that. When you're 1-2 you want to get back to .500 in the league early on and that's their situation."

On the team's resilience after losses

"It was a tough loss but we played great. We had to come back from some spotty performances last year and we played great down at Wake [Forest] and that's not hard to come back from. The feeling of losing never changes but when you know you put it out there on the floor and outrebounded a pretty big team, you feel pretty good about that. Obviously if we would have shot the ball better we would have won that game so hopefully we shoot the ball better this time. You have to regroup after that game."

On Vasquez/Mosley taking shots at the end of games

"Greivis had the ball in both of those situations and he passed to Sean who made a great move to get open at the end of regulation.  Really I'll take his shot in terms of fundamental shots. He was squared up he was solid. It just didn't go in. At the end of overtime, Greivis had the ball, drove and got it back to Sean. Sean had to shoot that shot there wasn't a lot of time left so I thought it was good that he took both shots because he had to take both those shots due to the time and score situation. "

On the BC loss to Duke

"All good teams just put it behind them. You have to handle a win and you have to handle a loss. I think that's a tough loss but at the same time they're home and you get a comfort zone. If you lost one that's on the road then going home, you feel like you have everything going for you you're ready for the next game so that's their situation. I think they'll be fine. "

On preparing against different types of rebounding teams

"You still have to do the same thing, rebounding is about going after the ball. We really went after it against Florida State and Wake and we have to continue to do that because we're not a big team and if they start [Josh] Southern like they did against Duke, they're as big as we are so we'll see how it goes. [Corey] Raji, [Rakim] Sanders, those guys are great athletes, so size is important but if you're 6-5 and get to the ball really quick that makes up for a slow 6-8 guy that can't react quite as quick. That's what they do, they depend on their quickness. Trapani is an underrated rebounder - he hurt us last year under the glass and in addition to being a good three point shooter he's a very good rebounder."

On Boston College's different lineup

"That's how much without Southern in there it's almost a four guard lineup. Trapani plays the five and he doesn't really play it like a typical post player. He's their biggest guy and that's all. We're not really sure who they're going to start so we have to be ready whether they go big or they play the lineup that had them going into the Duke game. "

On foul trouble recently, particularly relating to James Padgett

"We need four inside players and James is one of them so he has to play for us and it's a good situation because he has to play for us. If I'm James, I'm glad I'm in that situation because its valuable experience as a freshman and he's getting better. You can see it in practice he's starting to feel more comfortable with what we're trying to do. He was never a part of an offense last year and that was his problem. He used to stand in the corner and two little guys would shoot jump shots all over the place. Of course Lance Stephenson took most of the shots so James got the ball on offensive rebounds. He's learning to be part of an offense. It's really good for him because he needs that. As you grow in basketball you need to be able to see where you can get open and learn how to do that."

On fans not supporting Vasquez

"I think first, living in this area, if you can criticize the president of the United States you can criticize a basketball player. Greivis is a personality that's not afraid to show his emotions. I'm sure that's part of what some people resent because you're not a cookie cutter-type player. You don't act like people think you should act all the time but every player has a way to play the best he can play and Greivis grew up playing with a lot of emotion playing against a lot of guys who played with emotion. That's the way he plays."

On Steve Goins

"He's working on his knee to try to get it stronger. That's where he is. He's taking a course."