Earlier I has asked him what he thought of all the criticism rocking him and his team after eight losses in the last nine games—all of them by at least 10 points—dropped the Deacons to 7-12 overall and 0-4 in ACC play.

His response:

"You know what. You don’t always get what you want in life. Part of growing up is learning how to deal with disappointments in life. So, why is this the end of the world? Why? The doom and gloom approach from players and fans and whoever, really just blows me away. What are there, four other teams in the ACC with one win? So you win a game and you’re right up there with four or five other teams.

"It’s a new day. It’s a new game. It’s a new opportunity to grow. We’ve got this doom and gloom cloud like ` why? What? Where? How? Why?’‘’

I asked if the criticism at least complicated what he was trying to accomplish.

"You know what? I don’t dwell on negative thoughts,’’ he replied. "I don’t. What purpose does it serve? The majority of people who complain have never built anything successful because they would have known if you’re going to start from scratch you’re not going to be able to snap your fingers and have success. So the people who have had success, they know what it takes. It’s the people who have never been there, done that before – those kind of people, I could care less what they think. They don’t ruin my day, period.’‘