Smith Says It’s Fun to Run
Wake Forest’s lone victory in the last month came against a team, Clemson, that pushed the tempo and allowed the Deacons to get out and run. Texas, Thursday’s opponent in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, ranks seventh in the nation with a 81.2 points a game. So Ish Smith of the Deacons, for one, is happy he won’t be facing a team trying to slow the game down.
“As you know it’s going to be a track meet,’’ Smith said. “So we’ve got to convert in transition, like Coach said we’ve got to shoot the ball and we’ve got to play great defense.’‘
The Deacons didn’t look like a team having much fun down the stretch, especially during their ACC Tournament cameo against Miami. But Ish Smith likes to have fun and he likes to win, and he’s pretty certain that one leads to the other.
“More than anything we have to play with energy and play with emotion and play kind of like – I hate to steal the thunder from Miami – but how they came out,’’ Smith said. “They didn’t care whether they won or lost. If you play with that kind of freedom, if you play with that kind of looseness, those three balls start falling, those free throws start falling. It doesn’t snowball. Those runners start falling.
“All those things start falling because you’re playing in a relaxed state.’’