Good convo with the head basketball coach this afternoon. Here are the highlights...
Opening Statement: "I'm excited about the opportunity to be back at the United Supermarkets Arena on Saturday, playing against a tremendous Iowa State team, TJ and their staff have done an awesome job. Last year they had one of the best defenses in the country, and this year, they have one of the best offenses and defenses in the country. So their improvement, their maturity, their experience, their size, their versatility, their physicality, they just got a great basketball team that's playing great basketball and we look forward to the opportunity to compete and protect home court, because you have to in this league if you want to play for championships."
Could you touch on the ball pressure that the ISU guards put on you defensively?: "Yeah, I think a key to our team is how well we've handled the ball and not turned it over just and it comes down to not trying to make too big a play and just making the next simple play. And I love what Elijah's doing at the point, because he's letting the game come to him, and he's just sometimes he could have made some really tight window passes, and he's just elected to try to make the next action as opposed to put something that could be amazing, but also could turn catastrophic and give up layups. And I think we'll get to the point where he's got more confidence in making some of those tighter passes. But really the advantage of our team is, how do you give it to the next player that's open? Because that guy is really good, and that's kind of been the positives of our team, and specifically Iowa State's ball pressure, their defense. I mean to me, it starts with Lipsey. He's obviously an all league player, and especially such a great defender, but all their guards are great defensively, and they really can pressure the ball, and probably one of their best versions of offense is turning you over and in scoring on in transition. So our ability to handle pressure is going to be huge."
Going back to what D5 was able to do late vs. BYU, how have you seen him grow late in games compared to earlier in the season: "Well, I'll tell you, the truth is, our team's always looked at him as a leader, and he's got such versatility. Take the last few possessions too, when they jumped in that zone, and he had a couple of times where he could have shot and shot faked him threw a great bounce pass to Chance going to the basket. His ability to pass, he is one of the best assist percentage guys, and he's one of the best assist guys on our team. So I think where he's finding that balance is, it's what I described to you earlier. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing play. I mean, some of the results of the plays can be okay with get out there, stop pivot, and make the hockey assist that gets to the next play. And I think that's the balance of being a go to guy. Is what does it feel like when you're the one that needs to make the right play? It doesn't necessarily need to be the home run. You can hit the single. And that's where I thought he made the biggest (growth), his patience. He didn't put his head down and take one dribble and try to get a shot. And I think that's the maturation of his ability to be a go to guy in crunch time is just and I thought it was on full display at BYU. I mean, you really didn't rush it, but he played it aggressively. It just wasn't an all or nothing mentality. It really was simple. And to his credit, he's, he's anchored that. But I will say the area that I think even the last three games he's made the biggest jump is, I think there's been an attention to even when it doesn't go well offensively, he can guard and find a way to rebound. I thought like, the way he came up with a few of those 50-50, plays, got back to like, this is how you win. It's not just when you add the ball. It's like, how do you make a make a big play on a rebound. Or how do you make a big play on getting that jump ball you know, on them and collapse a gap better and his, his effort defensively has really been as good as his, his go to mentality and crunch time."
What will be the challenge of dealing with ISU's size?: "Yeah, and that's where I love our team this year. I think we've got the right depth at different spots, and we can play big, and we can put different guys out there with size. Jefferson's one of the best scorers around the basket, and really difficult to defend. I mean, I think just in watching him play, he's been tremendous and and then they've got great offensive rebounding. I mean, Chatfield's been huge on the glass. I mean, they just, they're still putting pressure on you in a lot of ways. Jackson's been good. They've got a lot of different guys that can score down there and create advantages off offensive rebounds. So the biggest thing for us is, one, how do you control the glass? And then two, how do we do a better job of guarding people and not putting ourselves in foul positions? And that's where we've made an emphasis in practice is being physical without fouling, and we've kind of gone through this phase where now we've been physical, but we've fouled, and we've increased that, and I think we're coming out on the other side of it. Where we're starting to see how you can continue to be strong and physical defensively and don't have to leverage yourself by by reaching and making a bad play."
What was the biggest progression from the Utah trip?: "The biggest for me has been our ability to play at a pace that I think is comfortable to us and what we need to do to win, and then the patience that is required to get a great shot so you don't put yourself in bad positions. Transition defense wise, just making people earn baskets through through a set defense is pivotal in our progression, because our defense needs to improve. And you can't give up baskets where you turn the ball over and give up layups, which we did against UCF. You can't give those transition baskets up because we've got to improve in the half court. And the other thing would be, and the biggest probably, being just our ability to team rebound and rally in possessions. How do you keep rotating after you've done a decent job of guarding the ball and then they move it to the next action? How do we keep moving in rotations? And our rotations, I thought, got better in the second half of the Utah game and progressed through the BYU game."
How has Hawkins' breakout elevated the offense as a whole?: "Yeah, I'll tell you, the area that he's really elevated his game is just as a floor leader, setting the table for our offense to be great, maybe not to make the biggest assist play. Then his ability to space the floor and make threes with so many different guys that we have that can score or can put leverage on the defense, has put us in a different category offensively. He's always been able to shoot. You can go back and look at when he was Howard. He shot threes at a percentage, but he was always looked at as a playmaker, and he came here looking for the opportunity to make plays all the time, which I think he can, can continue to do that, but it doesn't have to be all on his shoulders. And I think early he was trying to put it where he was making all the plays. And it's not at his fault. It was more out of his impact that he felt like he could help our team. And now he's seeing all the different pieces. And it's not one move. He's seeing three moves. And it is the truth of chess and checkers. I mean, I think he's got one of those mentalities where he was looking at it early as just checkers, like, this is one piece, this is one move. And then I think now he's seeing like, now, if we move these two pieces, then I can get this third piece where I need to and that's really a credit to his investment in learning the game and how we need to be great as a team, not just how he needs to play great."
How do you feel the trip did for your team defensively?: "It started with me just holding people accountable and making sure that the areas that are important going into it from a scouting report that, look, if you're not going to do it, you're not going to play. That would be one, and two, I think our team is embracing the ability to guard the ball, but also, how active can we be in help? And then that UCF game, our activity level off the ball wasn't very good. And honestly, to start the Utah game, our activity was actually pretty good. It's just that we didn't communicate it well enough, and we had too many people going to help, and we had the right scheme. But it took us about a third of the game to finally get that into play because of our inexperience together. So what I will tell you is I thought we made a big jump from the second half of the Utah game to the BYU game, and our ability to communicate and be active and help, in addition to our ability to improve on guarding the ball, and anytime your communication improves and your activity level improves off the ball, then I think you can see an improvement. I'm anxious to see how we improve. And like we did in the first half of the BYU game, we weren't great offensively to start that game. It's easy to play better a little bit defensively when your balls going in. And for me, what I thought was the most improved part of it was against BYU, we didn't play great offensive, but I thought our scrap was what it needed to be defensively. Finally, we broke the seal on it, that second half, when Chance made a couple of those threes, and then we started rolling and D5 was un-guardable there through that stretch."
Have you spoken with Federiko about using that new waiver for him to get another year?: "Yeah, you know, honestly, there's so many things in the hopper in regards to eligibility, but specifically, when it comes to Federiko, we have. We're progressing in that area, trying to make sure that we we get any of these guys that are on our roster more eligibility time. Him specifically, yes."
We are a local Farmers Insurance Agency located in Lubbock, Tx that is Red Raider owned and operated! We serve the entire state of Texas offering Auto, Home, Life, and Commercial products while striving to educate and help provide our clients with the correct amount of coverage for their needs, at an affordable price!
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Email: whatchett@farmersagent.com
Office- 806-771-7500
Opening Statement: "I'm excited about the opportunity to be back at the United Supermarkets Arena on Saturday, playing against a tremendous Iowa State team, TJ and their staff have done an awesome job. Last year they had one of the best defenses in the country, and this year, they have one of the best offenses and defenses in the country. So their improvement, their maturity, their experience, their size, their versatility, their physicality, they just got a great basketball team that's playing great basketball and we look forward to the opportunity to compete and protect home court, because you have to in this league if you want to play for championships."
Could you touch on the ball pressure that the ISU guards put on you defensively?: "Yeah, I think a key to our team is how well we've handled the ball and not turned it over just and it comes down to not trying to make too big a play and just making the next simple play. And I love what Elijah's doing at the point, because he's letting the game come to him, and he's just sometimes he could have made some really tight window passes, and he's just elected to try to make the next action as opposed to put something that could be amazing, but also could turn catastrophic and give up layups. And I think we'll get to the point where he's got more confidence in making some of those tighter passes. But really the advantage of our team is, how do you give it to the next player that's open? Because that guy is really good, and that's kind of been the positives of our team, and specifically Iowa State's ball pressure, their defense. I mean to me, it starts with Lipsey. He's obviously an all league player, and especially such a great defender, but all their guards are great defensively, and they really can pressure the ball, and probably one of their best versions of offense is turning you over and in scoring on in transition. So our ability to handle pressure is going to be huge."
Going back to what D5 was able to do late vs. BYU, how have you seen him grow late in games compared to earlier in the season: "Well, I'll tell you, the truth is, our team's always looked at him as a leader, and he's got such versatility. Take the last few possessions too, when they jumped in that zone, and he had a couple of times where he could have shot and shot faked him threw a great bounce pass to Chance going to the basket. His ability to pass, he is one of the best assist percentage guys, and he's one of the best assist guys on our team. So I think where he's finding that balance is, it's what I described to you earlier. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing play. I mean, some of the results of the plays can be okay with get out there, stop pivot, and make the hockey assist that gets to the next play. And I think that's the balance of being a go to guy. Is what does it feel like when you're the one that needs to make the right play? It doesn't necessarily need to be the home run. You can hit the single. And that's where I thought he made the biggest (growth), his patience. He didn't put his head down and take one dribble and try to get a shot. And I think that's the maturation of his ability to be a go to guy in crunch time is just and I thought it was on full display at BYU. I mean, you really didn't rush it, but he played it aggressively. It just wasn't an all or nothing mentality. It really was simple. And to his credit, he's, he's anchored that. But I will say the area that I think even the last three games he's made the biggest jump is, I think there's been an attention to even when it doesn't go well offensively, he can guard and find a way to rebound. I thought like, the way he came up with a few of those 50-50, plays, got back to like, this is how you win. It's not just when you add the ball. It's like, how do you make a make a big play on a rebound. Or how do you make a big play on getting that jump ball you know, on them and collapse a gap better and his, his effort defensively has really been as good as his, his go to mentality and crunch time."
What will be the challenge of dealing with ISU's size?: "Yeah, and that's where I love our team this year. I think we've got the right depth at different spots, and we can play big, and we can put different guys out there with size. Jefferson's one of the best scorers around the basket, and really difficult to defend. I mean, I think just in watching him play, he's been tremendous and and then they've got great offensive rebounding. I mean, Chatfield's been huge on the glass. I mean, they just, they're still putting pressure on you in a lot of ways. Jackson's been good. They've got a lot of different guys that can score down there and create advantages off offensive rebounds. So the biggest thing for us is, one, how do you control the glass? And then two, how do we do a better job of guarding people and not putting ourselves in foul positions? And that's where we've made an emphasis in practice is being physical without fouling, and we've kind of gone through this phase where now we've been physical, but we've fouled, and we've increased that, and I think we're coming out on the other side of it. Where we're starting to see how you can continue to be strong and physical defensively and don't have to leverage yourself by by reaching and making a bad play."
What was the biggest progression from the Utah trip?: "The biggest for me has been our ability to play at a pace that I think is comfortable to us and what we need to do to win, and then the patience that is required to get a great shot so you don't put yourself in bad positions. Transition defense wise, just making people earn baskets through through a set defense is pivotal in our progression, because our defense needs to improve. And you can't give up baskets where you turn the ball over and give up layups, which we did against UCF. You can't give those transition baskets up because we've got to improve in the half court. And the other thing would be, and the biggest probably, being just our ability to team rebound and rally in possessions. How do you keep rotating after you've done a decent job of guarding the ball and then they move it to the next action? How do we keep moving in rotations? And our rotations, I thought, got better in the second half of the Utah game and progressed through the BYU game."
How has Hawkins' breakout elevated the offense as a whole?: "Yeah, I'll tell you, the area that he's really elevated his game is just as a floor leader, setting the table for our offense to be great, maybe not to make the biggest assist play. Then his ability to space the floor and make threes with so many different guys that we have that can score or can put leverage on the defense, has put us in a different category offensively. He's always been able to shoot. You can go back and look at when he was Howard. He shot threes at a percentage, but he was always looked at as a playmaker, and he came here looking for the opportunity to make plays all the time, which I think he can, can continue to do that, but it doesn't have to be all on his shoulders. And I think early he was trying to put it where he was making all the plays. And it's not at his fault. It was more out of his impact that he felt like he could help our team. And now he's seeing all the different pieces. And it's not one move. He's seeing three moves. And it is the truth of chess and checkers. I mean, I think he's got one of those mentalities where he was looking at it early as just checkers, like, this is one piece, this is one move. And then I think now he's seeing like, now, if we move these two pieces, then I can get this third piece where I need to and that's really a credit to his investment in learning the game and how we need to be great as a team, not just how he needs to play great."
How do you feel the trip did for your team defensively?: "It started with me just holding people accountable and making sure that the areas that are important going into it from a scouting report that, look, if you're not going to do it, you're not going to play. That would be one, and two, I think our team is embracing the ability to guard the ball, but also, how active can we be in help? And then that UCF game, our activity level off the ball wasn't very good. And honestly, to start the Utah game, our activity was actually pretty good. It's just that we didn't communicate it well enough, and we had too many people going to help, and we had the right scheme. But it took us about a third of the game to finally get that into play because of our inexperience together. So what I will tell you is I thought we made a big jump from the second half of the Utah game to the BYU game, and our ability to communicate and be active and help, in addition to our ability to improve on guarding the ball, and anytime your communication improves and your activity level improves off the ball, then I think you can see an improvement. I'm anxious to see how we improve. And like we did in the first half of the BYU game, we weren't great offensively to start that game. It's easy to play better a little bit defensively when your balls going in. And for me, what I thought was the most improved part of it was against BYU, we didn't play great offensive, but I thought our scrap was what it needed to be defensively. Finally, we broke the seal on it, that second half, when Chance made a couple of those threes, and then we started rolling and D5 was un-guardable there through that stretch."
Have you spoken with Federiko about using that new waiver for him to get another year?: "Yeah, you know, honestly, there's so many things in the hopper in regards to eligibility, but specifically, when it comes to Federiko, we have. We're progressing in that area, trying to make sure that we we get any of these guys that are on our roster more eligibility time. Him specifically, yes."
We are a local Farmers Insurance Agency located in Lubbock, Tx that is Red Raider owned and operated! We serve the entire state of Texas offering Auto, Home, Life, and Commercial products while striving to educate and help provide our clients with the correct amount of coverage for their needs, at an affordable price!
William Hatchett - Farmers Insurance Agent in Lubbock, TX
Contact William Hatchett, your Farmers Insurance agent in Lubbock, TX 79423, specializing in Auto, Home, Business Insurance and more.
Cole Hatchett Insurance Agency
Email: whatchett@farmersagent.com
Office- 806-771-7500
