Once again courtesy of our guy @C. Level's postgame conversation with the head coach on Double T 97.3. Let’s dive in.
75-58, road wins are never easy and I think you can win games at different times, I felt like you kinda won this game in the first half.
“We definitely set the tone in the first half defensively, and give our staff a lot of credit man, and our players, because we’ve worked diligently the last couple of weeks of fine tuning this in a way during the season that’s not easy to do. I mean, at this point, sometimes people measure themselves. We’ve gone full tilt trying to figure out a way to get better defensively and holding them to 21 percent, 7 percent from three, I thought that was indicative of the effort we put in for the last couple weeks."
This was a game where there’s not a lot of folks in the stands compared to how it normally is. You kind of had to bring your own energy, your guys seemed like the most excited team to play tonight.
“Yeah it definitely felt like our guys understood that there’s going to be an energy that comes from everybody. And honestly, we just talked about not letting them be comfortable, because they’ve shot it well in this building. And they’ve made a game and our guys knew they had 80 points against Oklahoma. They’ve had games where different guys shot it really well in this building that aren;t necessarily great three point shooters, percentage-wise. So our whole deal was like, make them uncomfortable, make them uncomfortable and I felt like we did that to start the game."
I am watching you kind of teach your kids almost how to get to the end of a game and managing it and slowing it down a bit. Just understanding what it takes to win at this time of the year when you don’t have to hit a home run every time.
“We wanna play the game in an aggressive way. We’ve scored on people at the end of games when it’s close by pushing the basketball. I mean, we did it at Oklahoma. We’ve had some moments when pushing the basketball at the end when it’s been close and our guys are comfortable playing that way. But when you do the math, and it’s a 20-point lead, and there’s time, you just got to play the numbers in that situation. So we’ll continue to grow in that, we haven’t had a lot of these huge leads going into the end of games. Definitely a learning experience for everybody."
Gotta ask you about Pop and D5, Pop with 19, D5 with 18 and 9, it seemed like they just kind of continue to give you something productive every night out.
“What a kind of together way to play the game, and that we got five guys-ish in double figures and I think that’s where we’re at our best. And tonight we had three and then you got Rob with eight and Joe with eight. So that’s kind of the formula for us. We need there to be some consistency across the board. There’s a couple possessions that were awesome. And I thought Pop and D5 were in the middle of multiple penetrations, multiple paint touches. That’s what I challenged them with at half, like Pop, how can we get multiple paint touches in a possession and really trying to gut them in the way we play offense, not just defense."
Chance has 14 in the second half, didn’t score in the first half, 14 in the second kind of set the tone in the second half.
“He definitely had that look to him coming out of halftime. Started the game a little bit on his heels and you could tell he had settled in well and was excited to play tonight."
You’re without the big fella again but Robert-EY combo gets you 12 and 11 as a combo, fun watching them kind of get some extra minutes and be a big part of this thing.
“You know, I think their willingness to do whatever it takes to help the team win is what’s at the forefront of our success. I think the bench energy and those two guy’s energy, it just keeps getting better. And that’s what you want to do this time of year is find a way to get a little bit better. And those teams have the most success in March.”
75-58, road wins are never easy and I think you can win games at different times, I felt like you kinda won this game in the first half.
“We definitely set the tone in the first half defensively, and give our staff a lot of credit man, and our players, because we’ve worked diligently the last couple of weeks of fine tuning this in a way during the season that’s not easy to do. I mean, at this point, sometimes people measure themselves. We’ve gone full tilt trying to figure out a way to get better defensively and holding them to 21 percent, 7 percent from three, I thought that was indicative of the effort we put in for the last couple weeks."
This was a game where there’s not a lot of folks in the stands compared to how it normally is. You kind of had to bring your own energy, your guys seemed like the most excited team to play tonight.
“Yeah it definitely felt like our guys understood that there’s going to be an energy that comes from everybody. And honestly, we just talked about not letting them be comfortable, because they’ve shot it well in this building. And they’ve made a game and our guys knew they had 80 points against Oklahoma. They’ve had games where different guys shot it really well in this building that aren;t necessarily great three point shooters, percentage-wise. So our whole deal was like, make them uncomfortable, make them uncomfortable and I felt like we did that to start the game."
I am watching you kind of teach your kids almost how to get to the end of a game and managing it and slowing it down a bit. Just understanding what it takes to win at this time of the year when you don’t have to hit a home run every time.
“We wanna play the game in an aggressive way. We’ve scored on people at the end of games when it’s close by pushing the basketball. I mean, we did it at Oklahoma. We’ve had some moments when pushing the basketball at the end when it’s been close and our guys are comfortable playing that way. But when you do the math, and it’s a 20-point lead, and there’s time, you just got to play the numbers in that situation. So we’ll continue to grow in that, we haven’t had a lot of these huge leads going into the end of games. Definitely a learning experience for everybody."
Gotta ask you about Pop and D5, Pop with 19, D5 with 18 and 9, it seemed like they just kind of continue to give you something productive every night out.
“What a kind of together way to play the game, and that we got five guys-ish in double figures and I think that’s where we’re at our best. And tonight we had three and then you got Rob with eight and Joe with eight. So that’s kind of the formula for us. We need there to be some consistency across the board. There’s a couple possessions that were awesome. And I thought Pop and D5 were in the middle of multiple penetrations, multiple paint touches. That’s what I challenged them with at half, like Pop, how can we get multiple paint touches in a possession and really trying to gut them in the way we play offense, not just defense."
Chance has 14 in the second half, didn’t score in the first half, 14 in the second kind of set the tone in the second half.
“He definitely had that look to him coming out of halftime. Started the game a little bit on his heels and you could tell he had settled in well and was excited to play tonight."
You’re without the big fella again but Robert-EY combo gets you 12 and 11 as a combo, fun watching them kind of get some extra minutes and be a big part of this thing.
“You know, I think their willingness to do whatever it takes to help the team win is what’s at the forefront of our success. I think the bench energy and those two guy’s energy, it just keeps getting better. And that’s what you want to do this time of year is find a way to get a little bit better. And those teams have the most success in March.”
