Mt. Olive Recap: Gaudio Quotes

Q&A from Dino Gaudio after Thursday's exhibition affair against Mt. Olive. Wake Forest beat Mt. Olive 97-62.

Opening Remarks:
"That was a great success because nobody got hurt. I thought after the first 8 minutes when it was 16-14 we settled in a little bit. There was a point in the first half where we had 12 straight stops and we went on a little run which was good. We are concentrating this year on defense not giving up the threes and funneling everything else to our big guys. For the first time in a long time we have some shot blockers. I also told the kids, in my 8 years here, I don't know if we have ever shared the ball as well as we did tonight. I was real pleased with that."

On the offensive rebounding:
"We are really focusing on the offensive boards. We are not the great three point shooting team in the world and when you have Farouq, and James and the other bigs we need to hit the boards. Farouq has a proclivity to get rebounds. He is always around the basket. Rebounding has been a point of emphasis in the preseason."

On James Johnson not playing:
"It was something that happened this summer and I am going to be really tight with the young guys. I'd rather be stricter with those guys than not. It's nothing grave. He is a great kid. We just want to keep things tight with this young group.

What about the play of Tony Woods? "What you saw tonight is what we have seen all pre season. He is a low post player that goes block to block. He rebounds well and tries to dunk everything. Some big kids try to come out and hit 12 foot jumpers and threes and want to be point guards. He knows who he is which is encouraging. He has practiced very well and we are pleased with him."

On the depth of this team: "Coming in I would like to think we can play 10 guys. Maybe we end up playing 9 but as long as they keep working hard and producing then we will keep putting them in there."

On the play of Al-Farouq Aminu:
"I don't think Farouq played well and he had 15 and 12."