Some notes, first from Pop Isaacs from tonight's press conference.
On how he turned it on in the second half:
"I mean, I just know it was a must win game for us playing in the Big12 hard, super hard conference like this where every game is tough. Obviously, we're all paying attention to the games and stuff and I mean, I'm not sure if coach pays attention to it, all of us do, we always want to stay a step ahead. You're gonna get your bumps and bruises on the way but I mean, I just didn't want to let us lose this game. That was my biggest thing. Anything you know, it was gonna take to win. That's what I was just trying to do it. No, it was a great atmosphere. And I usually you know, just have fun playing."
On this team's confidence coming out of the half:
"We knew we were gonna start scoring. I mean, we're gonna make shots. We just have to find openings and we knew their defenses gonna break eventually. So we weren't really worried about the offense but we knew they had a 10 threes the first half like that's unacceptable and they had damn near 50 points. So we just knew that if we were going to you know, even get back in the game, we have to start guarding and that's what we did."
Now to the comments from McCasland...
Opening Statement:
"What a remarkable atmosphere it was. today. I thought the energy in the building really willed us. One moment to me, that will always stand out to me in being a part of this, was walking off the court at halftime and I don't know maybe he probably got a reason to boo, the way we played the first half. But I mean, there were people cheering for us. And I thought, Man, what a great what a phenomenal place to play basketball. Where you don't play your best but you got people cheering for you, you know, and and, you know, our guys didn't panic. Pop, I thought just like the other day wasn't gonna let us lose this basketball game and then timeouts and at halftime, communicating those things that you needed to get better at, and I thought we improved over the course of the game to hold them to 15% from three in the second half, and where they started out with 10 and held with three and then just our competitiveness and our ability to get out and score some easy baskets and get ourselves back in the game."
On how they defended the three in the second half:
"Yeah, you know, the game felt very similar to the Northern Iowa game almost identical in regards to the pace that they were attacking us. And it's hard to replicate it with that many guys that can shoot in the close outs in a short turnaround much like that game. I do trust our work. I can tell you this we practice really hard. So at first, we got caught really personnel wise a few times not doing what we were supposed to do. The pace of it causes those problems because they were moving so quickly and the actions happen so fast and then they made a few threes. And then you feel like you're on your heels. I did feel like once we settled in and started playing personnel better it made a big difference. And I did feel like our physicality at some point would could play a big factor like how how long can you keep this up like this movement this pace this physicality? We trusted our guys, we said at halftime, we did a few things different. But the biggest thing was like let's just make sure we get all these personnel reads right but sort of chasing the guy that we feel like is a better driver over the top. Let's make sure to go under and give space and stay in between him in the basket."
On the eight turnovers:
"Well, we went under the screens we were supposed to go under. And we got helped on guys that we felt like we give us an advantage. And then Warren played up and back and I think Warren got fatigued and hit the bottom a little bit in the first half. And so then he started kind of chasing his man and you got to be a great helper and yet be super active. And Warren learned in the first half like this is what I need to do, but it's hard to replicate it. When you're in practice. You got to go get out there and experience it to know how many different actions they put you in one possession. all of a sudden, Warren's got to move for different directions with ball pressure. We just don't do that a lot. And I thought Warren learned as the game went on and then the game slows down a little bit more. You start to see what it is that you're playing against. And you start to make it more difficult on them. And then the biggest thing was we just couldn't rebound. And that's what they do great. They push it underneath the rim and go grab it when it comes off the rim. They just collapse the the the box outs. I just told them like that's where we tend to get better because our team got better defensively but even down the stretch. We came up with a few in the last couple minutes but they kept getting offensive rebounds."
On offensive attack and how he felt they executed:
"Yeah, it's a great defense and the same thing early in the game. From an attack standpoint, we did some things that were uncharacteristic of what we needed to do to win the game. and part of its atmosphere and part of it is with that deep drop. It looks like there's a lot of openings down there and they bait you into some semi decent shots when you can if you keep attacking you can get better looks. I felt like we were more patient as the game went on and started figuring out where the angles were and what we're trying to get then obviously, we put the ball you know in different scenarios. In the second half that gave us some different leads, and I thought pop took advantage of that."
On Khalifa's offensive impact:
"I think that's where you that's where you trade, maybe some threes for some twos. And what you give up when you're trying to take away threes uses maybe some contested twos. I just thought we left our feet and our rotation wasn't as tight as it needed to be down the stretch. But we did make it difficult over the course of the last 20 minutes to where the advantage was taken away."
On how this team plays it's best basketball with it's back against the wall:
"Yeah. Just a resilient group that gets challenged every day and they accept the challenge. And it's not fun to get challenged every day. You don't want people telling you like, this isn't good enough. It's not fun. But these guys embrace that and honestly it's brought them closer together, where when you get in our practices and you've seen them and you're around our guys, they're really accepting of it being difficult. And that's why I was staring out and when we came out, came out with a half I mean came out of a timeout at Houston, like nine minutes to go and it kind of start to get away from just looking at them on like who really likes this, who likes it when it gets hard. And those guys end up winning. And so just to challenge them in that regard and you guys love it, but I do believe in it. And it's fun to watch them feel like we're still going to win no matter what the what the odds are against us, score whatever you want to call it physicality. three pointers get rained on your head. I mean, just who wants to fight. I told em at halftime, this is fun, if you don't like this, you should go sit in the stands. So what we didn't play great defensively, let's go find a way to win this game and that's what these guys do."
Founded by a Red Raider, All Hands Craft Cocktails is proud to announce their partnership with RedRaiderSports.com. Try these bar strength, ready-to-drink vodka cocktails at Jones AT&T Stadium this football season or find them at a retailer near you. Cheers.
On how he turned it on in the second half:
"I mean, I just know it was a must win game for us playing in the Big12 hard, super hard conference like this where every game is tough. Obviously, we're all paying attention to the games and stuff and I mean, I'm not sure if coach pays attention to it, all of us do, we always want to stay a step ahead. You're gonna get your bumps and bruises on the way but I mean, I just didn't want to let us lose this game. That was my biggest thing. Anything you know, it was gonna take to win. That's what I was just trying to do it. No, it was a great atmosphere. And I usually you know, just have fun playing."
On this team's confidence coming out of the half:
"We knew we were gonna start scoring. I mean, we're gonna make shots. We just have to find openings and we knew their defenses gonna break eventually. So we weren't really worried about the offense but we knew they had a 10 threes the first half like that's unacceptable and they had damn near 50 points. So we just knew that if we were going to you know, even get back in the game, we have to start guarding and that's what we did."
Now to the comments from McCasland...
Opening Statement:
"What a remarkable atmosphere it was. today. I thought the energy in the building really willed us. One moment to me, that will always stand out to me in being a part of this, was walking off the court at halftime and I don't know maybe he probably got a reason to boo, the way we played the first half. But I mean, there were people cheering for us. And I thought, Man, what a great what a phenomenal place to play basketball. Where you don't play your best but you got people cheering for you, you know, and and, you know, our guys didn't panic. Pop, I thought just like the other day wasn't gonna let us lose this basketball game and then timeouts and at halftime, communicating those things that you needed to get better at, and I thought we improved over the course of the game to hold them to 15% from three in the second half, and where they started out with 10 and held with three and then just our competitiveness and our ability to get out and score some easy baskets and get ourselves back in the game."
On how they defended the three in the second half:
"Yeah, you know, the game felt very similar to the Northern Iowa game almost identical in regards to the pace that they were attacking us. And it's hard to replicate it with that many guys that can shoot in the close outs in a short turnaround much like that game. I do trust our work. I can tell you this we practice really hard. So at first, we got caught really personnel wise a few times not doing what we were supposed to do. The pace of it causes those problems because they were moving so quickly and the actions happen so fast and then they made a few threes. And then you feel like you're on your heels. I did feel like once we settled in and started playing personnel better it made a big difference. And I did feel like our physicality at some point would could play a big factor like how how long can you keep this up like this movement this pace this physicality? We trusted our guys, we said at halftime, we did a few things different. But the biggest thing was like let's just make sure we get all these personnel reads right but sort of chasing the guy that we feel like is a better driver over the top. Let's make sure to go under and give space and stay in between him in the basket."
On the eight turnovers:
"Well, we went under the screens we were supposed to go under. And we got helped on guys that we felt like we give us an advantage. And then Warren played up and back and I think Warren got fatigued and hit the bottom a little bit in the first half. And so then he started kind of chasing his man and you got to be a great helper and yet be super active. And Warren learned in the first half like this is what I need to do, but it's hard to replicate it. When you're in practice. You got to go get out there and experience it to know how many different actions they put you in one possession. all of a sudden, Warren's got to move for different directions with ball pressure. We just don't do that a lot. And I thought Warren learned as the game went on and then the game slows down a little bit more. You start to see what it is that you're playing against. And you start to make it more difficult on them. And then the biggest thing was we just couldn't rebound. And that's what they do great. They push it underneath the rim and go grab it when it comes off the rim. They just collapse the the the box outs. I just told them like that's where we tend to get better because our team got better defensively but even down the stretch. We came up with a few in the last couple minutes but they kept getting offensive rebounds."
On offensive attack and how he felt they executed:
"Yeah, it's a great defense and the same thing early in the game. From an attack standpoint, we did some things that were uncharacteristic of what we needed to do to win the game. and part of its atmosphere and part of it is with that deep drop. It looks like there's a lot of openings down there and they bait you into some semi decent shots when you can if you keep attacking you can get better looks. I felt like we were more patient as the game went on and started figuring out where the angles were and what we're trying to get then obviously, we put the ball you know in different scenarios. In the second half that gave us some different leads, and I thought pop took advantage of that."
On Khalifa's offensive impact:
"I think that's where you that's where you trade, maybe some threes for some twos. And what you give up when you're trying to take away threes uses maybe some contested twos. I just thought we left our feet and our rotation wasn't as tight as it needed to be down the stretch. But we did make it difficult over the course of the last 20 minutes to where the advantage was taken away."
On how this team plays it's best basketball with it's back against the wall:
"Yeah. Just a resilient group that gets challenged every day and they accept the challenge. And it's not fun to get challenged every day. You don't want people telling you like, this isn't good enough. It's not fun. But these guys embrace that and honestly it's brought them closer together, where when you get in our practices and you've seen them and you're around our guys, they're really accepting of it being difficult. And that's why I was staring out and when we came out, came out with a half I mean came out of a timeout at Houston, like nine minutes to go and it kind of start to get away from just looking at them on like who really likes this, who likes it when it gets hard. And those guys end up winning. And so just to challenge them in that regard and you guys love it, but I do believe in it. And it's fun to watch them feel like we're still going to win no matter what the what the odds are against us, score whatever you want to call it physicality. three pointers get rained on your head. I mean, just who wants to fight. I told em at halftime, this is fun, if you don't like this, you should go sit in the stands. So what we didn't play great defensively, let's go find a way to win this game and that's what these guys do."
Founded by a Red Raider, All Hands Craft Cocktails is proud to announce their partnership with RedRaiderSports.com. Try these bar strength, ready-to-drink vodka cocktails at Jones AT&T Stadium this football season or find them at a retailer near you. Cheers.
