On what he is working on to overcome a slow start to the season:
“Like you said, the season hasn’t gotten off to the start that I wanted personally, but for me, [I need to] just keep fighting through that adversity. All players hit a wall at some point in their career. This happens to be my wall and I’ll find a way to get over it, doing whatever it takes. [I’m] really not focusing on me. I’m just focusing more on what I can do to help get our team better.”
On what he feels like he has struggled with on the court this season:
“It’s just one of those times. For me, it feels like every shot I take doesn’t go in. It feels like the game is moving faster than me right now, I could say. Like I said, right now I’m doing whatever I can to help our team better – win games, leading the younger guys on the floor and my game will come back around.”
On how it affects the team to prepare for a game before it is postponed:
“It hurts every time….Really just snatching that rug from underneath us. We’ve been preparing. For the Pitt game, we prepared two-three days before, getting ready for the game and after our last practice, before our game prep, we found out that we weren’t going to play. It stings every time. It really never gets any easier – all we can do is just move forward and look forward to the games that we will have.”
On the Duke women’s basketball team’s decision to opt out of the rest of the season:
“I could say for us, we haven’t really talked about it much. That was a decision that they made as a team and they felt it was the decision that was best for them. We stand behind them 100 percent. We support our girls’ team. It’s a hard time, so they had to make a tough decision to better their program.”
On if being able to go home after the Notre Dame game was beneficial for the team:
“Yeah, I’ve definitely seen some benefits from the break. Not only was it a mental health thing, as Coach liked to call it for us, but it also gave us time for rest. We’ve been here since August 2, practicing every day, getting ready for every game, and sometimes it’s nice for us just to get a couple days to ourselves. I think Coach made that a really big point. He just wanted us to get time away and get our bodies and minds rested for the rest of the season that we have coming up.”
On why the team played better offensively at Notre Dame and what it has done to build on that performance:
“I would say our preparation was really good for that game. Coach [Chris] Carrawell came with a great scout of their offense and defense, and the main focus for us recently has been our half-court offense and our execution. We were able to do things on that end a lot better. Like you said, [we were able to] keep the turnovers down, take better shots, get teammates open. For us, that’s been a big focus and I think we’ve been improving on it greatly.”
On if he believes he will be guarding Florida State freshman Scottie Barnes and how the team is preparing for the Seminoles’ size:
“As for the matchup, if Coach allows me to get that matchup then I’m definitely going to prepare for that. We’ve already been preparing for them as a team. We know their scout. We’ve been going over it the past couple days, really just preparing our normal way for any type of game. I think the team will be ready. The team’s been getting better ever since we got back, getting back into shape and just going over everything we need to go into that game. We know that Florida State is a physical team. They like to switch one through five – they’re all the same size. For us, we know it’s going to be a fight going into it, so we’re going to be ready.”
On how he spent his time over the break:
“I think for me at home, it was more about spending time with my family. We did a lot of things together, we stayed in the house and just hung out a lot. When I was able to get in the gym, I got a chance to make a lot of shots and see the ball go through the rim. It’s really nothing for me – I can work as much as I want, but at the end of the day it’s about the ball going in the rim. For me just seeing the ball go through the rim a couple times, it kind of gave me confidence that I felt like I was missing before.”