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Jan. 2, 2005
VIRGINIA HEAD COACH Pete Gillen
Wake Forest has an outstanding team. We didn’t have the answers for Chris Paul tonight. A few of our guys didn’t show up tonight and we didn’t play our game. I’m disappointed that we didn’t play the way we’re capable.
We weren’t aggressive tonight and we were very tentative. We weren’t cutting hard; we seemed dazed. I was pleased with Gary Forbes tonight and Adrian Joseph did a good job. J.R. Reynolds gave us some good minutes.
Wake Forest is hard to defend in their transition offense. Chris Paul comes at you and just pushes the ball and he’s a great player. We tried to get in front of him, but we couldn’t. We tried and got a few fouls called on us.
Defensively they doubled Elton Brown to take him out of his game, but he missed some shots and some free throws. Elton seemed very unsure tonight.
We had our chances tonight, we came back and were down seven or eight, but we didn’t get the play from all of our guys when we needed it. The crowd was great tonight, but we couldn’t get enough from our guys. We couldn’t stop Chris Paul or Eric Williams tonight.
WAKE FOREST COACH SKIP PROSSER
That was one of our best games against a quality opponent in a difficult venue. Any win in this league is something to treasure. To win on the road is especially treasure-worthy.
Our assistant coaches came up with a game plan to try to limit Elton Brown’s touches as much as possible. Devin Smith’s absence helped make that possible. It’s tough to take everything away. Brown has always had his way with us. What we did today was successful, but he may have his way with us again next time.
Adrian Joseph was 2 for 11 shooting threes coming into the game. That’s not really enough shots to really be able to tell how good a shooter he is, but we were going to make him prove it, and he did.
Vytas Danelius is the barometer of this team. He’s been playing with confidence in practice, and it’s gratifying to see him contribute like he did tonight. Virginia was shot out of a cannon at the beginning of the game, and Vytas allowed us to stay close.
Chris Paul is very cognizant that he has to play well for Wake to play well. We’re very comfortable when Chris has the ball.
