Walk-on Harrison Prieto posts double-double in loss to Wake Forest

oh fellas you guys here coach i kind of lost some my voice i was communicating with the referees probably asking them what they wanted for their valentine present so um that was uh i got i got a little loud so i think i sent them all a bunch of chocolates with a big ribbon on this was a a game that was very important to us i thought our guys played with a sense of urgency i have never seen us have so many open looks in the first half uh that as we had i mean point blank layups but i think that comes as a result of them putting a lot too much pressure on themselves i thought they were very anxious realizing that we were short-handed and i thought they put a lot of pressure on themselves to go out and perform very well and i thought maybe they were a little tight in terms of finishing their plays and and knocking down their open looks on the defensive end i thought that we were able to get deflections and steals and be extremely aggressive that gave ourselves opportunity but unfortunately um we were a little [Music] tight i thought on the offensive end and we just didn't finish some of those great plays but we executed very well offensively and defensively um they they made us play for every open look that we gave them in the second half and i thought that was the biggest difference in the game uh and we both shot similar position i mean percentages i thought maybe we would give ourselves a chance but unfortunately we came up short tonight forced him into 26 turnovers because he was extremely aggressive on the defensive end but on the offensive end we're still aggressive and probably relaxing enough to finish some of those plays leonard what happened to what happened to john butler there in the first half that prevented him from returning to the game uh he sprained his ankle we thought he was going to have and that was the diagnosis that i got from the doctors so he tried to come out and warm up the second half but it was it was too sore for him to uh you know to uh to finish the game it's unusual that you have these many injuries back to back to back but we but all coaches if you coach low enough you'll have these you'll go through these periods where you just shake your head and you'll wonder what these basketball where these basketball demons are coming from but but more than anything else it gives some our young team some of our young players an opportunity to to step up and have up have this opportunity to go out and and fill in for some of the more experienced players um i thought everybody stepped up a little bit with the energy i thought that we came up with shortly against a really big older more matured team that did not seem to rattle uh even though they had 18 turnovers in the first half i thought they came back and executed a little bit better offensively and i thought that defensively that would appear in the game when we had a lot of possessions when we didn't it wasn't productive and i thought that that would that was our demise leonard what did you think of harrison's performance i mean he had a double-double 26 minutes which is a lot for him obviously a career high what did you what did you think you got from him overall well the first thing i want to know harry is always ready he he conditions himself even though he hasn't played he does a lot of extra running a lot of time he's on the green team preparing us for the other team but as it shows how much savvy he has how intelligent he is he's been here for a while he understands what we need he got 13 rebounds not because he was not jumping anybody he was putting himself in the right positions uh he shows how much he's learned and how much he's brought and unfortunately we're going to need him uh in that role down the stretch here and he stepped up the night and gave us great leadership i can't say enough about how proud i am of him at the end at the at the end of the day it's it's a loss but you know with all the injuries to cut it to one with about three or four minutes to go you know what does that tell you about the guys you have who are able to play right now well that means that we're staying focused i mean that we're not giving in to uh having a pity party that means says that we you know we still are determined i remind that guys we were 99 and won the acc uh tournament and um went to i think the elite eight or 316 one of them so you know we still got life in us we just gotta keep positive and not allow the the challenges of the injuries to um become a negative force we gotta stay positive coaches james hill uh great foundation for a winning season a lot of games left and again you guys control your own destiny can you just talk about moving forward and a lot of games left well we have how many conferences we have eight conference games left and gosh in order for us to have some pro season life available for us at the end of the season we need to win our share and go into the acc tournament and and and be productive but the only thing we can do is don't take it one game at a time you know we got to evaluate today's game we came up a little short we got to evaluate then we got to go back to the drawing board and see can we see we put out some pictures here of those eight games that we have arranged any more questions for coach all right thank you very much fellas money i'm putting my mask on where's your uh you guys will take questions for harrison please harrison obviously you practice a lot and you guys practice really hard but what does it feel like after playing 26 minutes in a college basketball game does that feel different than anything you've experienced in your career here uh in my career here yeah i feel like i need to get in the cold tub the only kind of similar feeling i think i've ever had uh is after like a big swim meet or something when i swam in high school um that is a pretty similar you know feeling of fatigue to this and i i guess what what is your mindset you knew you were gonna have to play it today a lot and then john goes down and that makes it even tanner tanor goes down very early so you're in the game very early uh coach talked about you always staying ready um i guess what talk us through that mindset of being ready to go out there and take advantage when you're called upon yeah i mean i i know pretty much the game plan before we even do it and i i know our system inside and out so it's not so much of a thinking about like what i'm gonna do it's it's more just hyping myself up to be ready to fight and play as hard as i can because i mean at the end of the day i have a distinct just you know athletic disadvantage compared to a lot of the guys out there and so i want to make up for that by playing harder than anybody else on the court um so that's just kind of my you know self-talk before i go in harrison you've been here a long time been here for a lot of good times some bad times what are you telling the guys in the locker room especially those younger guys that are experiencing the ups and downs especially the current stretch of the last four games well look i mean you know in the in the middle of the game what i'm telling him is we we can win this game you know because the first thing we got to realize is that we're in the game we can win it and then when we get in the locker room i think the thing we need to realize is that this is just the process of learning how to win you know we're down three really important pieces to our team right now but if we can compete and win some games now and rattle off a couple wins like that's gonna be huge for the program in the future so just take what you know the situation is it is what it is we can't change it um and just learn from it that's the best we can do i know but but how i mean how exhausted how tired were you guys at the end there the final three or four minutes because usually you guys have a rotation of 11 and in the second half it was about seven so i guess how tired you and what what role do you think that played there down the stretch and trying to get stops i'm sure i mean i'm sure it did play a role i i can only speak for myself and that i i was very tired towards the end of that i remember thinking with about two and a half minutes left like i could feel the brick wall coming and then i think i ended up getting on the bench a little bit after that um so that got taken care of but um yeah i mean i'm sure that that fatigue and and just being tired down the stretch is going to make it a little harder to get stops but again it's more important that this team learns how to fight through whatever adversity we're going through right now hey here you lead the teammates you've got several games left and again you guys can control your own destiny and the foundation is there for a great season just talk about moving forward yeah i mean again i i think i think the biggest thing for this team is just learning how to to whatever the situation is we've got to adapt play hard play through it and try to fight for wins no matter what we can't lay down and you know that that's got to be our mindset the rest of the season there's no laying down in our locker room at all we can't we just can't let it happen so we're going to fight you led the team did you ever have a double double in high school yeah i had double doubles in high school and i was going to ask uh would you personally grab high school oh there you go nice good so you did you're an old hat for you um so how gratifying was it on this stage i know it's a loss and you don't take solace and losses for you to play like that um when you got that opportunity i mean i don't i don't really care because like at the end of the day like i don't care what my stat line is i just want to win like i told lane earlier like the thing for me is that like our coaching staff took a chance on me six years ago and i'm gonna give them everything i can give the guys in the locker room everything i can if that means i end up with 13 points and 13 rebounds and so be it but i'd rather contribute positively to the game and put us in a position to win the game that's i that's literally all i care about at this point uh kurt i know you have a question so i appreciate it um you you talked about it i'm not trying to dog you might even talk about maybe not being the athletes one of those guys out there you led the team in rebounds today coaching kind of talked about it you just seem like you're naturally know where the ball rebounds going to go where the muscle go is that something you just think you naturally have is that something you can study to get better at i guess what do you attribute that to well usually um there's something in physics coach jones talks about it all the time called the law of reflection and so if it hits the basket from one angle of the court it's gonna go the other direction on the other side of the court all i'm going to try to do is get on the opposite side of the basket and make as much space as possible and if the rebound comes to me it comes to me that's it but how big of a part is physicality in that you're getting position i mean yeah it's huge uh definitely huge i guess being a two or six years i know how to move my body and we kind of joke about it all the time in the locker room but i'm 23 years old uh i've been in college weight program for a long time i'm not gonna get pushed around by anybody out here i know that i'm just gonna kind of try to make you know wedge myself in there clear out a little bit of space and if i can get a rebound i'll get a rebound i i can't imagine there are many uh sixth year walk-ons this but you know you i know you took advantage of the coveteer kind of came back for one more i guess the season may not be what it could have been so far but i guess how validated we've been by your decision i mean i was going to be here anyway for school right so i i'm getting my master's in meteorology right now basically the only question was whether my academic schedule was going to allow me to play basketball and so i've been fortunate enough to where i've been able to make it work and so yeah it's been gratifying of course like you come in and every walk on stream when you get to college is to like make a basket right like that's the most basic goal that a walk-on has it's like i just want to score the ball all right well you check that off at some point and then what's the next step what i'd like to play a meaningful minute or two every now and again well that's happened and so i guess yeah contribute like that's that's kind of the dream i guess of a walk-on but and this has been a dream come true but at the same time like i it has to be kept in perspective like we have to if i can contribute then i want to contribute positively toward the team learning how to win that's that's got to be it down the stretch everybody else said thanks man thank you thank you all right thank y'all [Music] hey do you guys want caleb are you guys good yes you want him or you don't know i'm good good i think we're i think we're good it was good you can have a night off thanks everybody dude am i not thank you