If you missed coach Paul Johnson on the Sportsnote all year here is a transcript of his appearance on the Wolfpack coaches show Herb Sendek Live!

Interview by Don Shea

DS: Coach, thanks for joining us, how are you?

Coach Johnson: Thank you, how’re you doing?

DS: How ‘bout giving our listening audience an overall assessment of your team, and are you playing your best basketball right now?

Coach Johnson: I think we played very well in the Sunbelt Conference Tournament. Our team is made up of a variety of different types of players and different backgrounds that have come to Louisiana. We’ve got several transfers that have come in and done an outstanding job for us, and three of the four seniors we’ve got with us have been with us from day one. They’ve done a very good job stepping up, especially early in the season when we had several players out, either to academic problems or fulfilling their transfer one-year residency. Once we got to conference we had a couple of players become eligible—a guard from the University of Florida in Orien Greene who did a very good job for Florida for two years and we also had another guard from Auburn that transferred that have done a very good job for us. We’re a fairly athletic team. We like to get up and down the floor, and we have to use that to our advantage. We’re not the biggest team in the country, by far, but we can go bigger is we want to but that’s not what our strength is. Our strength is pushing the ball up the floor and pressing teams and getting them into more of an up-and-down game than a half-court game.

DS: On the flip side, what’s your assessment of the Wolfpack?

Coach Johnson: I think the Wolfpack’s very strong. Obviously if you finish second in the ACC you’ve done your job. I was looking over their schedule and in the games that they lost, especially since the new year, I think they’ve lost by an average of about two points per loss. They’ve been in every game, even the ones they did lose. The thing that’s going to give us difficulty is that they’ve got good size. They’re similar to us in that they are perimeter oriented and that they’re posts can step out and shoot the three and they can take you off the dribble. They’ve been in great atmospheres and different environments in the ACC, and we’re going to have to step up to that level if we’re able to compete.

DS: Coach, it’s been written in the local newspapers and on television that your win over Valparaiso was the Cajuns’ best of the season. Do you agree with that statement?

Coach Johnson: I thought we played well against Valparaiso but I don’t know if that was our best win of the year. Obviously we didn’t beat Arizona, but I thought we played better against Arizona, in front of 15,000 and the score tied with nine seconds to go. We were right there. We still weren’t full strength as far as our team goes, but we played very well. We had some strong showings, beating some teams on the road, going into Western Kentucky and winning on the road there.

DS: Well, this is the first time the two schools have met on the basketball court, but it’s my understanding that you’ve been on the NC State campus before.

Coach Johnson: I have, I used to work with Les Robinson and his staff during the summers with his camps. I’ve followed NC State, and I’ve always been a fan of NC State, but obviously come Friday afternoon I’m not going to be a fan for a couple of hours hoping that we can do our job better than they do.

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