Will get the full transcript of Grant’s postgame interview up sometime tonight but here’s what he had to say about Elijah Hawkins and Christian Anderson…
“Honestly, I do think those guys can play. They can play, you know, in a way, and it's just it. There's no reason to get somebody out there and just try to put us in a little bit better position when we can get them all the way to the best they can be, and then we don't have to hold anything back. We can just, we can go, if they want to play 40 minutes, they can play 40 minutes kind of mentality. And that's the approach we're taking with this. And you see them warm up, they're out there, and, you know, they're involved in practice, so I would anticipate it's just a matter of time, and it's going to be sooner rather than later.”
Updated 11:30 p.m. Nov. 8. Here is the key takeaways from McCasland's conversation with the media postgame.
Opening statement:
“Give Northwestern State and coach Cabrera a lot of credit. I thought their team was prepared. You could tell that they played with a lot of energy. This game meant a lot to them. I know everybody on that staff. I respect them. Those guys have been winners everywhere they've been, and I thought they played that way tonight. They've got a good team. They'll be good this year. I mean, in the film that I watched in preparation for this, and I don't, I don't say that lightly. I mean that. And, you know, they, they caused us some problems with, I thought them playing depth, you know, they didn't have anybody play more than 28 minutes, and you could tell they just had more energy. And we struggled to rebound the ball. We didn't rebound it well enough. We struggled at times to guard the three point line and give them credit too, they made some difficult shots. But we've got to, we've got to be more resilient in those areas. Thrilled with the way our guys competed to finish the game, though. I mean, you could cut it to 10 and we stretch it out to finish it. And I thought Kevin Overton had a different look to him defensively at the top. I mean, he finally kind of settled in, and he's the defender. I think that can be a difference maker. Chance McMillian was tremendous on the glass. Led us on rebounding. Darrion Williams played an awesome floor game passing the ball with a career high 11 assists. And then JT Toppin, if he didn't get in foul trouble. I mean, he can really, really score. I mean, didn't miss, missed a shot and 25 points and 20 whatever minutes. So, man, I love our team. We'll keep getting better. And tonight was kind of a figure it out game, you know, like, find a way to win the game in a gritty way. And let's get on to the next one.”
You mentioned Kevin, didn’t play a great game Tuesday but came out and was more aggressive, did you see that from him tonight?
“Definitely. I mean, he got to the free throw line nine times. And for us, the big stat for us is like, let's make more free throws than the other team attempts. And we were right at that number with 22 makes to their 22 attempts. And I thought he was a big part of it. I mean, he just got in the paint. He had a few transition finishes that got to the free throw line, and then you can see him. He's a great athlete. He's got good body control, and he's got good touch, and he, you know, the possessions where he struggles, he settles, you know, settle for a mid range jumper over a contested length, and you just gotta keep growing in that area, and he hadn't played enough college basketball in a play making role to really understand it all. But man, he keeps taking strides and I love his upside.”
How much of the rebounding effort do you attribute to tired legs?
“We're playing seven guys and in this league and in these games and against teams that have a lot to prove, you've got to not only be great and physical playing defense. And I thought we had our stretches where we were really good defensively, and I thought if we had stretches where we were soft defensively, but you got to finish them with some physicality. And we watched it at halftime, three or four possessions where we didn't box out. That's where I thought chance really gave us a lift. I mean, every time you looked in there D5 and Chance were really helping out. And you know, we've got to get more from other guys in regards to rebounding.”
What do you feel like it will take to be better defensively?
“You know, we held them to 37% from the field, and a big part was just letting them get a few broken play threes. They just can't give those up and from a team communication standpoint, I think our point of attack defense was better. But you do see sometimes where people are making layups at the basket and we don't have enough, we're not, we're not meeting them with enough resistance. Obviously, it's kind of like we're backed up, and it got to be more aggressive and help, and a big part of that is just making sure we don't have guys just driving it quickly down the lane where you have to over help. And team defense is about everybody doing their job. And I can tell you, it feels like we're missing a little bit of the extra effort, and you know, a lot of that is playing guys too many minutes and not getting them out quick enough. I mean, you know, if you're going to win this league, and everybody that does, you may get to a point where you have to play guys these minutes, but you can't do that as you for the season. I mean, you can't hold up with the physicality to do this thing consistently. No one can and win at the rate we want to win. I mean, we won it. We'll win today by 20, whatever it was. And I’ll you tell you our locker room is disappointed, you know, and when that's that way, then we're moving in the right direction. And a lot of it has to do with, let's get some guys healthy so we can sustain more of an effort that we want defensively throughout the game.”
With JT and Federiko both in foul trouble, how did you feel they handled themselves?
“I think if there’s anywhere we have quality, it shows there. Federiko had a dunk in transition and I thought his ball screen defense was really good. When he was out there I felt like we had them on their heels. He had a couple of good rebounds over the course of the possession. Unfortunately he was one-for-five, he's working on that. I do believe he'll get better, that he spends a lot of time figuring that out. You know, he's, he's one of those guys, and we can throw Dev (Cambridge) out there too. And I think Dev's just finding his way. I mean, right now he's kind of lost in between, like, how do you make an impact that you want to make? And you know when, when we've got Darrion Williams out there, who can make so many different things happen, and you can kind of play that mismatch, small ball with him, you know it, it does make you need to have more guard play. And so that's where we've got to find a balance with that. But, I mean, I felt like those guys really picked each other up. That's a heck of a rotation when you got Dev, D5, JT and Fede, I like that group. And I think they were solid. We need more experience together. I mean, obviously Fede and JT, you can see they still don't know a lot of what this is really going to take. I mean, you see the flashes of what they're capable of. But we've got to, we've got to improve in and just some like, maturing and how physical we play every possession and, like, just not standing up for a half second, the next thing you know, they get dunk in and just little things that maybe we don't completely understand. We'll get there, and these guys want to and, man, I love coaching them every day. I mean, they're tremendous, they're awesome, awesome, and they've got a lot of natural talent. Just gotta be prepared for what the Big 12 is, not be prepared for what we're seeing right now.”
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