BROOKLYN, NY – The 2022 ACC Tournament tipped off Tuesday and runs through Saturday night at the Barclays Center. There’s been plenty to talk about so far.
From Duke’s championship push in Coach K’s last year and UNC’s late-season resurgence to Wake Forest’s Steve Forbes engaging in Steves Forbesisms and everything else in between, check back here through the week for a running list of notable and quotable snippets from the tournament’s postgame news conferences.
Table of Contents
The Buddy Boeheim snafu
Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim on the first-half play in which his son, Buddy Boeheim, appeared to punch FSU’s Wyatt Wilkes in the stomach while getting back on defense: “I saw the play. The kid pushed him twice, and he swung around and hit him. I think it was inadvertent, but that’s okay.
After a follow-up question: “No, I don’t think he hit him. He just swung around and there was contact. The kid pushed him twice. You can’t just let people push you around.”
Related reporting:Duke will face Syracuse in ACC quarterfinal. Will the Orange have its best player?
FSU’s reaction
Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton came to Buddy Boeheim’s defense after Wednesday’s loss to the Orange: “I saw the play. First, let me say this. There’s not a better kid in the ACC than Buddy Boeheim. He’s a class kid, tremendous character. He’s a young man who’s competitive, like everyone else, and I don’t want anything to take away from how well they played and what type of fine young man he is.”
“The game is physical. You expect guys to go out and bang and be aggressive, and if something inadvertently happens, sometimes we want to categorize it in one way or another. I’ve lost my composure at some times. I’ve made some mistakes. If there’s anybody in here who has not, I’d like for you to raise your hand.”
“I understand you’re asking the question, but I know his family. I know his mother. I know Jim. I know what kind of kid he is, and we’re going to move on and let how well they played be the information we need to talk about in relation to this game.”
Blue-collar Yellow Jackets
After reigning ACC champion Georgia Tech lost in the first round, coach Josh Pastner broke down how his team mirrors the overall student body at the Atlanta school:
“Because to be at Georgia Tech, to get a degree from Georgia Tech, to be a student at Georgia Tech—forget being an athlete, just a student—it’s really hard, one, to get into school, and two, it’s hard to even get through the four years because it’s such a rigorous curriculum, maybe the toughest in all of America, and that includes the Ivy League schools and everything else.”
“So I really believe our program mirrors the students, meaning that you’ve got to be blue collar. You’ve got to have a grind mentality. You’ve got to have a toughness about you to be able to manage and be able to get through Georgia Tech academically.”
Permeating calm
Louisville interim coach Mike Pegues with an interesting riff on his coaching philosophy during a turbulent season: “I’ve coached for long enough to that, when things get tough, you can either permeate panic, or you can permeate calm. to permeate calm and let our guys know that we’re fine and we have to stay stable and locked in and get back to the basics … they did a great job of accepting that message.”
Wolfpack emotions
NC State coach Kevin Keatts after Tuesday’s first-round loss to Clemson: “I’m not relieved, and I don’t think (the players) are. I should allow a camera crew in my crying locker room. were guys with disappointment. Ernest Ross is crying, and he didn’t play.”
Capel the realist
Pittsburgh coach Jeff Capel keeping it simple after his struggling program bowed out of the first round Tuesday: “Just today and really the last couple of weeks since we beat North Carolina, we’ve come up very, very short.”
Adam Smith is a sports reporter for the Burlington Times-News and USA TODAY Network. You can reach him by email at asmith@thetimesnews.com or @Adam_smithTN on Twitter.
David Thompson is an award-winning reporter for the USA Today Network covering NC State and Duke athletics. He can be reached at dthompson1@gannett.com, at 828-231-1747, or on Twitter at @daveth89.
Chapel Fowler is a recruiting reporter for The Fayetteville Observer and the USA TODAY Network. Reach him by email at cfowler@gannett.com or on Twitter at @chapelfowler.
