Senior guard Jonathan Wallace and coach John Thompson III spoke to the press this evening about their upcoming game against Notre Dame, the emergence of Vernon Macklin and how to get the team back on track. The game is slated to start at 1 pm tomorrow at the Verizon Center.

Jonathan Wallace:

On a perceived shooting slump in the last two games: I don’t really want to look at it as a slump. I mean, I’m getting good shots, they’re just not falling. I need to find different ways to be productive when I’m on the floor.

On what the team must do to improve perimeter shooting: We are doing our same drills and routines, as far as shooting goes. We were getting the shots we wanted—we were wide open, they just weren’t falling. I guess it just takes a little more concentration and a little more assertiveness. It is kind of unheard of, with the kind of shooters we have on this team. But that’s not going to happen every night, it’s not going to be the same situation.

On a captain-called team meeting following the Pitt loss: Guys were just getting refocused—getting back to square one and focusing on what we really need to do as a team to be good on the road. It’s just being closer as a team and focusing on what we have to do.

On the slow start against Pitt: Overall we didn’t set the tone early on as far as effort and intensity, and that kind of gave them a jump and let them know they have a chance to play with us. You can’t play around, especially with good teams like Pittsburgh, on the road.

On what the team could have done better offensively: We should’ve worked the ball around a little more and been more aggressive off the dribble to create openings for guys like Roy [Hibbert], Vernon [Macklin] and DaJuan [Summers].

On being the team to beat in conference play: Coach always says that when we play teams it is going to be like their Super Bowl, so to speak. They are going to bring their best effort, and we have to play above and beyond what we usually do to match that. From the start we have to be intense.

On Vernon Macklin’s play against Pitt: Vernon played very well. It was probably the only bright spot in that game, him finding his rhythm and being aggressive.

On Notre Dame’s offense: They are probably not the best, but one of the best shooting teams in the conference, and along with that we have to regroup from what we did against Pittsburgh and guard in transition. Notre Dame really gets out and pushes the ball with [Tory] Jackson and [Kyle] McAlarney, so we have to slow them down in transition and at the same time find shooters on the perimeter.

On Luke Harangody’s emergence as a Big East power: I didn’t expect him to be the leading scorer in the conference, with some many good guys in the conference. He is a good player, and he plays within his limitations. He is really physical and he works to get a lot of good angles and positioning down-low, and he can get up a lot of good shots. We have to be physical with him and make him try to score over Roy as much as possible.

JT III:

On moving forward after the Pitt loss: At this point, I guess at any point in the year, but particularly once you get into conference play you can’t dwell on your wins or your losses that much. You have to analyze and figure out what you can do differently and what you can do better, but this league is too tough—your next opponent will always be too daunting for you to be stuck in the past. You have to move forward.

On what the team can do to improve shooting: Our guys know we can make shots. We need to do a better job of defending shots, and not giving good shooters open shots, particularly going into this game when you face a team that can put five shooters on the floor at the same time.

On transition defense: That has been a point of emphasis. We have good shooters and we are getting open shots. We are not going to stop shooting, that’s part of what we do. We are going to keep taking shots, but we have to understand what that means. We need to be much better in transition defense, and not just stopping the initial surge, but on the second initial offense. We need to work on that. We are going to need to be better at that tomorrow, because [Notre Dame] get out and go and have shooters.

On whether or not the current slump will cause players to take bad shots: No. I think we have a group that is extremely confident in their shooting ability, and each guy knows the shots that they can make. Shooters shoot.

On whether or not the slump is just an anomaly: I hope so. If not, we will make adjustments and collectively figure it out.

On who he fears most of Tory Jackson, Kyle McAlarney, or Luke Harangody: My fear is spread equally. I think it has to be, just because their team is balanced and you can go into this game and say ‘we have to stop Harangody during this game,’ then all of the sudden the perimeter guys go off. You can go into this game and say ‘oh, we can’t let McAlarney get his shot, let’s focus on him’ then Harangody and all the other perimeter guys go off. And Jackson, no one’s been able to keep their body in front of him since our Big East [Tournament] last year. Regardless of who is guarding him, he gets to the rim whenever he wants to. So, that is a dilemma. That is one of their strengths, but I think what goes under the radar is their defense.

With his fifteen-year-old alt-country outfit, the Old 97’s, releasing their seventh record in May and a solo album in the works, Rhett Miller has a lot to be excited about this year. He’ll begin a string of solo acoustic dates with a stop in D.C. at the Black Cat tonight at 9 pm. Speaking by phone from his home in New York State, Miller shared with us his thoughts on fatherhood, politics and the future of the music industry.

I know you have been in the studio recording your seventh full-length studio album with the Old 97’s; what is the status of that record now?
It’s in the mail coming to me, the final mixes … I’m not going to get into hyperbole, or, you know, build up your expectations too much I hope, but it’s the best record we’ve ever made.

How would you characterize its sound in relation to the other albums, and how do you think fans are going to react? Obviously all your albums are very different.
It’s got a lot of variety on it, but I don’t think it sounds too schizophrenic. Ken [Bethea], our guitar player … says it’s “Too Far to Care” meets “Hitchhike to Rhome,” of all things, our very, very first indie album … it’s very much a guitar record.

I know in the past the band kind of made a decision not to bring in extra musicians to the studio so you could more fully reproduce it live. Did you still consider this on the last album?
I guess it did come up a couple of times, the “How am I going to do this live?” … We worked with Salim Nourallah, who is from Dallas, an amazing up-and-coming producer … He really pushed us in a lot of ways. There are things on this record that we have never had before. There is one song that has a Hammond organ on it, which is a thing that Murry [Hammond, bass player] has always been inexorably, vehemently opposed to. Maybe it’s because he’s named Hammond .

Really, so you think is the one, this is the one where everything really came together?
Yeah, funny that you should say that. Probably I shouldn’t bring it up but right now our working title is “The One.” I just liked the positivity of it and that’s the only song that we’ve pulled from sort of our back catalog of unrecorded material, a song called “The One” that I wrote around “Too Far to Care.” At the time it seemed like “It’s sort of silly to think about this, you know, sort of cocky song about how we’re going to get all the money from the major label.” And now it’s just kind of funny because that’s not even a thing anymore, like that sort of dream of getting signed by a major label and getting rich. It’s not even really a thing anymore, whereas twelve years ago when we signed to Elektra, it was. Everybody thought that was it, that was the end goal, signing to the major label. Now Elektra doesn’t even exist.

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