Notes from the post game.
McCasland gives a ton of credit to SJSU:
"San Jose State what a great team. I mean, they came in here I thought with a great plan. They've got an experienced guard. Coach miles does a tremendous job in preparation. They make you defend, you know, constantly through physicality and a lot of different actions. We wanted to tell our guys to do a great job over the course of the game because we have respect for them, but we felt like if we could keep pushing it on them and even though it didn't benefit early, it finally did break open late."
On shot quality:
"I thought it was just okay to be honest, and not enough sharing, where we knew the help was coming from and it'll be a great learning experience. They gap helped a lot on the nail on penetration and the play was to move it and then attack, and we struggled to do it, honestly. I loved the fact that we were able to get 38 points in the paint that kind of felt like, hey, how do you go get paint touches when you're not making threes."
On defensive performance:
"When you hold a team under 34 percent (field) and 16 percent (three) and they only get to the free throw line six times. I mean, it's pretty, pretty solid defensive effort. I just thought late we found a way in a rhythm to really impact the ball and not let them get rhythm threes because when you look at their advantage, it's those two big wings on all those rolls with their forwards. They just get you in a lot of different actions where you got to make sure that you protect the paint but you close out on guys that can make threes and we did that."
On Cambridge:
"I mean, if you watched it on film if he hung around the perimeter a little more waiting for the ball to come to him. I thought today cut put pressure on the rim. Got his momentum going into the room and was able to finish. He'll play better too, he's got more to give."
On rebounding:
"It's gonna take everybody I mean pop leads us with seven, some might say that's a negative but I thought we put a big emphasis on that since the last game. How do we team rebound, you look across the board Chance had six Darrion add six I mean that's what you've got to do if maybe you lack some physicality. Maybe sometimes you just got to do your best where Warren locks up with somebody and make sure he doesn't get it and everybody else gang rebounds."
On Darrion Williams:
"I've said this all along, Darrion's the utility guy, there's nothing he really can't do. he's got a sense of urgency. I thought he made a couple of big plays. They had the momentum, he stole it and got a dunk. I mean, that's kind of his awareness of how to play the game and puts himself in the right spots pretty consistently."
On gritting through this one, learning for future:
"Yeah, obviously, you know, everybody wants to win every game and win by 50. And that's not the way it works right? And you got to learn different lineups. Not everybody got a chance to play. This is what I've told our team. It teaches you that every little possession matters. That's one and here's two. There's somebody in that locker room that didn't play very much that's going to play big minutes for us win games on the line when we come to Big 12 play. So you know, maybe it was somebody's night tonight. And then you may get another shot but every possession matters and I love games like this because it teaches that part of it."
On how this game looks in February, what this teaches his team:
"I don't know if the game will look great in March. I will tell you this when will benefit us as a team because we had to find a way to win it in a gritty game that came down to possession basketball. Wasn't just like, hey, you get to steal it and make threes in transition like hey, how do you execute when the game's on the line and it's close. How do you get to the free throw line and get to the point when you're not making threes? I think that those components will benefit us maybe more than the strength the schedule."
McCasland gives a ton of credit to SJSU:
"San Jose State what a great team. I mean, they came in here I thought with a great plan. They've got an experienced guard. Coach miles does a tremendous job in preparation. They make you defend, you know, constantly through physicality and a lot of different actions. We wanted to tell our guys to do a great job over the course of the game because we have respect for them, but we felt like if we could keep pushing it on them and even though it didn't benefit early, it finally did break open late."
On shot quality:
"I thought it was just okay to be honest, and not enough sharing, where we knew the help was coming from and it'll be a great learning experience. They gap helped a lot on the nail on penetration and the play was to move it and then attack, and we struggled to do it, honestly. I loved the fact that we were able to get 38 points in the paint that kind of felt like, hey, how do you go get paint touches when you're not making threes."
On defensive performance:
"When you hold a team under 34 percent (field) and 16 percent (three) and they only get to the free throw line six times. I mean, it's pretty, pretty solid defensive effort. I just thought late we found a way in a rhythm to really impact the ball and not let them get rhythm threes because when you look at their advantage, it's those two big wings on all those rolls with their forwards. They just get you in a lot of different actions where you got to make sure that you protect the paint but you close out on guys that can make threes and we did that."
On Cambridge:
"I mean, if you watched it on film if he hung around the perimeter a little more waiting for the ball to come to him. I thought today cut put pressure on the rim. Got his momentum going into the room and was able to finish. He'll play better too, he's got more to give."
On rebounding:
"It's gonna take everybody I mean pop leads us with seven, some might say that's a negative but I thought we put a big emphasis on that since the last game. How do we team rebound, you look across the board Chance had six Darrion add six I mean that's what you've got to do if maybe you lack some physicality. Maybe sometimes you just got to do your best where Warren locks up with somebody and make sure he doesn't get it and everybody else gang rebounds."
On Darrion Williams:
"I've said this all along, Darrion's the utility guy, there's nothing he really can't do. he's got a sense of urgency. I thought he made a couple of big plays. They had the momentum, he stole it and got a dunk. I mean, that's kind of his awareness of how to play the game and puts himself in the right spots pretty consistently."
On gritting through this one, learning for future:
"Yeah, obviously, you know, everybody wants to win every game and win by 50. And that's not the way it works right? And you got to learn different lineups. Not everybody got a chance to play. This is what I've told our team. It teaches you that every little possession matters. That's one and here's two. There's somebody in that locker room that didn't play very much that's going to play big minutes for us win games on the line when we come to Big 12 play. So you know, maybe it was somebody's night tonight. And then you may get another shot but every possession matters and I love games like this because it teaches that part of it."
On how this game looks in February, what this teaches his team:
"I don't know if the game will look great in March. I will tell you this when will benefit us as a team because we had to find a way to win it in a gritty game that came down to possession basketball. Wasn't just like, hey, you get to steal it and make threes in transition like hey, how do you execute when the game's on the line and it's close. How do you get to the free throw line and get to the point when you're not making threes? I think that those components will benefit us maybe more than the strength the schedule."
