Only one more home game remains for Texas Tech in the regular season, a matchup against Oklahoma State Saturday. Mark Adams spoke to the media today to discuss the Cowboys.
Adams’ opening statement:
“We’re playing a team in Oklahoma State that I think has the best athletes in the league. Definitely the best shot blockers with Boone and Cisse, and also Smith. So we’ll have to do a really good job around the basket shot faking before we go up. And then they’re extremely good in transition because of their athleticism, they get up and down the floor very quickly. That was one of our challenges in Stillwater, was getting back seeing those things, and guarding those post players that went inside and hurt us quite a bit.”
On losing to OSU at the buzzer and other close losses in recently:
“Right there, being close, has kind of been our theme throughout the Big 12. We’ve been in just about every game except for two, and in the last minute they’ve been a one or two possession game… We played one of the best teams in the country in Kansas, and two very close games here and there and it came down to the last 30 seconds. That’s something also to build on because we know we’re good enough to beat anybody. Just gotta close that margin, that very thin line between winning and losing.”
On preparing for OSU’s Bryce Thompson, John-Michael Wright and co.:
“Well we’re playing a veteran team, they’ve got older guys, half of their team is back and four starters, they’re a real good team and they’ve proven that throughout the year. Thompson got loose on us in the first half and we were able to contain him in the second half, he can score on all three levels. He’s a guy that’s really good off the dribble and has got maybe the best pull-up in the conference. He can score when he wants to. We’ll just have to keep him from getting to the paint and getting to where he can make shots… they’ve also got two or three really good shooters that we’ve got to stay locked in on.”
On the attitude going into March:
“Every coach in the country is talking about March and a new season. We'd like to springboard and win this game going into the conference tournament. Once that starts then records don’t matter and then it’s just winning. We need to have a good game on both ends, play good defense, play together and offensively share the ball. Hopefully we can build off of that going into the Big 12 Tournament.”
Adams’ opening statement:
“We’re playing a team in Oklahoma State that I think has the best athletes in the league. Definitely the best shot blockers with Boone and Cisse, and also Smith. So we’ll have to do a really good job around the basket shot faking before we go up. And then they’re extremely good in transition because of their athleticism, they get up and down the floor very quickly. That was one of our challenges in Stillwater, was getting back seeing those things, and guarding those post players that went inside and hurt us quite a bit.”
On losing to OSU at the buzzer and other close losses in recently:
“Right there, being close, has kind of been our theme throughout the Big 12. We’ve been in just about every game except for two, and in the last minute they’ve been a one or two possession game… We played one of the best teams in the country in Kansas, and two very close games here and there and it came down to the last 30 seconds. That’s something also to build on because we know we’re good enough to beat anybody. Just gotta close that margin, that very thin line between winning and losing.”
On preparing for OSU’s Bryce Thompson, John-Michael Wright and co.:
“Well we’re playing a veteran team, they’ve got older guys, half of their team is back and four starters, they’re a real good team and they’ve proven that throughout the year. Thompson got loose on us in the first half and we were able to contain him in the second half, he can score on all three levels. He’s a guy that’s really good off the dribble and has got maybe the best pull-up in the conference. He can score when he wants to. We’ll just have to keep him from getting to the paint and getting to where he can make shots… they’ve also got two or three really good shooters that we’ve got to stay locked in on.”
On the attitude going into March:
“Every coach in the country is talking about March and a new season. We'd like to springboard and win this game going into the conference tournament. Once that starts then records don’t matter and then it’s just winning. We need to have a good game on both ends, play good defense, play together and offensively share the ball. Hopefully we can build off of that going into the Big 12 Tournament.”
