Fun one for the Red Raiders...notes from the head coach...
Opening Statement:
"What can you say about that atmosphere and one remarkable day what a great weekend, Saturday, we win at home, I thought the atmosphere was amazing. Then we get a Mahomes win yesterday, Red Raiders are on fire right now. Just the love and the fight that our guys have for each other was on display. This guy (Darrion Williams) was in the middle of all of it. You know, in a game where we knew they were short handed we felt like protecting the paint would be a big deal and not letting em get anything close to the rim. And the game plan by the staff was amazing. Matt Brauer, Luke Barnwell, AC, the one and only Dave Smart, Clay Wilson. what a game plan to be able to limit their angles. And they're such a good team when they get angles. And then the guys believe in it. And this guy was in every time out is scoring, but only talking about defense. And I felt like that was the difference. I mean on a night where we were good defensively. We did make them miss some shots, and they're shorthanded and let's be honest, but they only got four offensive rebounds. So that to me, says that our team just continues to improve and what a remarkable night to be to be a part of a great team."
What pleased you the most tonight?:
" I think it's that we didn't shoot it great in the second half but we still found a way to get stops and held em to only four offensive rebounds. don't know what the number was at the half. That they had an offensive rebound. Maybe it was one somebody can correct me but to me, we've left missing some threes affected the defense and I didn't think we let that happen. We stayed engaged. And we allowed just the grit of our team to continue to show. 28 points in the paint over the course of the game against the team that does that good size, turned Baylor over 21 times in their last game. And you know our ability to limit turnovers in the second half. I don't think we had very many in the second half. We just limited turnovers got to the paint win ball when the ball wasn't going in from three and I thought we got some pretty good looks too. These guys make em when it matters, so how do you not allow that to impact the way you play defense and for the most part our grit was good when we weren't shooting it."
On Jennings:
"Yeah, Rob Jennings. He's an awesome guy, man. He's a great teammate. Every day comes in and he's like, you know, we'll get better coach today. Oh, we got to get better. I mean, he really has that kind of attitude. When you're that way. You're going to be great. It's just a matter of time. And with Rob, he had been getting discouraged when things have gone his way. He's hung in there. He had a couple of miscues but I thought those timeouts those guys were telling him, 'you're going to be alright,' and he was. He stood his ground against an elite offensive plater and he just was highly competitive in the right way. And that's how the thought that's how you got to do it. You got to stand your ground against great players. And then you got to you got to be relentless and the way you do it, I thought Rob was relentless. And I think that's how he's approached every day is really been positive and relentless in his approach to improvement."
On Darrion's firey performance:
"He's a tremendous guy. That's what I love about these guys. Say what you want, man, when you're a part of something that you love each other and there's like a real great way to you it's fun. I think he can build. He's one of those guys that brings life and it's obvious when he is. He's taken ownership when things haven't gone well. And in life, people. When things don't go your way you can deflect you can feel shame. You can be embarrassed, and he started to look at me every time something didn't go right and you can go he's like, I gotcha coach. We'll fix it. And it's just a beautiful picture. Think of like how we got to live. And he's limited on the basketball court which I think is allowed him to keep moving forward in a way that he can make these kinds of impacts, because he wasn't trying to be perfect. He was trying to win. And when you play that way, you get rewarded, and I honestly believe it's our work plus his belief and moving forward in handling things that don't work is allowed him to have this night."
On his respect for Self:
"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Self. I played the Big 12 and I was an assistant coach and that was the scout that I was in charge of. I've seen them whip people, I'm talking like the what they do at Kansas and our relentless their effort is in their championship mentality. We wanted to compete for that. You know, like who wins loose balls go wins rebounding and like to have an atmosphere like this that gives you the lift to be able to do it on every possession is unique. And I've played a lot of buildings, but this is one of the kind."
On how memorable tonight is:
"We got more memories and make we're not entered into trying to figure that out right now. We just want to be at our best and figure out a way to win the championship."
On improved perimeter defense:
"There's a relentless way that you have to prepare scouting wise and that gives you the best chance to know personnel and who you want shooting and where you want to shoot and why you want to shoot and our guys have really bought into the to the belief of understanding personnel first and foremost. And then secondly, I think on actions we've gotten more physical into the ball and it's created a an ability for us to back people up a little bit. And that's where we're better when people can get down hill and attack the paint we've really struggled. And when our ability to kind of keep the ball pushed out today I thought helped us."
On paint defense tonight:
" I mean, you know, they're missing a pretty significant piece of their roster. So let's be honest about all of this. It's we caught them at a good time and but loading the paint against that kind of physicality. And one of them was like a rub screen where Furphy got that layup right at the end. Like we just didn't get any angles. I mean, everything we had to shoot was through bodies and I thought that was really, you know, our guys locking in and and knowing personnel and knowing how we wanted to defend it just as a physical way to do it."
"We specialize in high quality autographed sports memorabilia."
Opening Statement:
"What can you say about that atmosphere and one remarkable day what a great weekend, Saturday, we win at home, I thought the atmosphere was amazing. Then we get a Mahomes win yesterday, Red Raiders are on fire right now. Just the love and the fight that our guys have for each other was on display. This guy (Darrion Williams) was in the middle of all of it. You know, in a game where we knew they were short handed we felt like protecting the paint would be a big deal and not letting em get anything close to the rim. And the game plan by the staff was amazing. Matt Brauer, Luke Barnwell, AC, the one and only Dave Smart, Clay Wilson. what a game plan to be able to limit their angles. And they're such a good team when they get angles. And then the guys believe in it. And this guy was in every time out is scoring, but only talking about defense. And I felt like that was the difference. I mean on a night where we were good defensively. We did make them miss some shots, and they're shorthanded and let's be honest, but they only got four offensive rebounds. So that to me, says that our team just continues to improve and what a remarkable night to be to be a part of a great team."
What pleased you the most tonight?:
" I think it's that we didn't shoot it great in the second half but we still found a way to get stops and held em to only four offensive rebounds. don't know what the number was at the half. That they had an offensive rebound. Maybe it was one somebody can correct me but to me, we've left missing some threes affected the defense and I didn't think we let that happen. We stayed engaged. And we allowed just the grit of our team to continue to show. 28 points in the paint over the course of the game against the team that does that good size, turned Baylor over 21 times in their last game. And you know our ability to limit turnovers in the second half. I don't think we had very many in the second half. We just limited turnovers got to the paint win ball when the ball wasn't going in from three and I thought we got some pretty good looks too. These guys make em when it matters, so how do you not allow that to impact the way you play defense and for the most part our grit was good when we weren't shooting it."
On Jennings:
"Yeah, Rob Jennings. He's an awesome guy, man. He's a great teammate. Every day comes in and he's like, you know, we'll get better coach today. Oh, we got to get better. I mean, he really has that kind of attitude. When you're that way. You're going to be great. It's just a matter of time. And with Rob, he had been getting discouraged when things have gone his way. He's hung in there. He had a couple of miscues but I thought those timeouts those guys were telling him, 'you're going to be alright,' and he was. He stood his ground against an elite offensive plater and he just was highly competitive in the right way. And that's how the thought that's how you got to do it. You got to stand your ground against great players. And then you got to you got to be relentless and the way you do it, I thought Rob was relentless. And I think that's how he's approached every day is really been positive and relentless in his approach to improvement."
On Darrion's firey performance:
"He's a tremendous guy. That's what I love about these guys. Say what you want, man, when you're a part of something that you love each other and there's like a real great way to you it's fun. I think he can build. He's one of those guys that brings life and it's obvious when he is. He's taken ownership when things haven't gone well. And in life, people. When things don't go your way you can deflect you can feel shame. You can be embarrassed, and he started to look at me every time something didn't go right and you can go he's like, I gotcha coach. We'll fix it. And it's just a beautiful picture. Think of like how we got to live. And he's limited on the basketball court which I think is allowed him to keep moving forward in a way that he can make these kinds of impacts, because he wasn't trying to be perfect. He was trying to win. And when you play that way, you get rewarded, and I honestly believe it's our work plus his belief and moving forward in handling things that don't work is allowed him to have this night."
On his respect for Self:
"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Self. I played the Big 12 and I was an assistant coach and that was the scout that I was in charge of. I've seen them whip people, I'm talking like the what they do at Kansas and our relentless their effort is in their championship mentality. We wanted to compete for that. You know, like who wins loose balls go wins rebounding and like to have an atmosphere like this that gives you the lift to be able to do it on every possession is unique. And I've played a lot of buildings, but this is one of the kind."
On how memorable tonight is:
"We got more memories and make we're not entered into trying to figure that out right now. We just want to be at our best and figure out a way to win the championship."
On improved perimeter defense:
"There's a relentless way that you have to prepare scouting wise and that gives you the best chance to know personnel and who you want shooting and where you want to shoot and why you want to shoot and our guys have really bought into the to the belief of understanding personnel first and foremost. And then secondly, I think on actions we've gotten more physical into the ball and it's created a an ability for us to back people up a little bit. And that's where we're better when people can get down hill and attack the paint we've really struggled. And when our ability to kind of keep the ball pushed out today I thought helped us."
On paint defense tonight:
" I mean, you know, they're missing a pretty significant piece of their roster. So let's be honest about all of this. It's we caught them at a good time and but loading the paint against that kind of physicality. And one of them was like a rub screen where Furphy got that layup right at the end. Like we just didn't get any angles. I mean, everything we had to shoot was through bodies and I thought that was really, you know, our guys locking in and and knowing personnel and knowing how we wanted to defend it just as a physical way to do it."
"We specialize in high quality autographed sports memorabilia."
