Penn State Men's Basketball
Wake Forest Head Coach Danny Manning Postgame Press Conference
vs. Wake Forest – December 4, 2019
Opening Statement
We definitely have to give Pat [Chambers] and his team credit. They came out and delivered the first blow. You know, we have to do a better job of taking care of the basketball. We had 20 turnovers, which led to a lot of early run outs for them in transition and then keeping the ball in front of us. They got to the paint for too many times to finish at the rim. So those are two things that jump off at us right right off the bat. Then offensively for us, this was obviously not a good shooting performance night for us, so we have to do a better job of continuing to attack the paint. When we got to the free throw line, we made a decent amount, you know for the throughout the course of the ballgame, but not a lot of fouls called. When you're shooting the ball like we shot it tonight, we have to put more pressure on the opposing team and the officials to be honest with you and get into the paint and try to get some whistles.
Q: Do you have an appreciation for what Mike Watkins can do on the floor? Without scoring a lot, he took six shots but it looked like he was a huge factor in this game.
A: It was a huge factor and I got appreciation of everybody that plays, especially big guys. That's what I was, so you know. We knew going into the ball game, the type of presence that he would command in the paint. You know, defensively he's one of the best shot blockers in the country and tonight he had five. That was something we talked about going into the game, not getting too deep and in making a decision right below the free throw line. He's really active, you know, he had three steals as well so you know he's a talented young man no question about it. You know, when you get 16 rebounds and you score seven points and you have five blocks in 24 minutes, that's a huge presence and that's a tremendous ball game.