Following the Red Raiders’ loss to West Virginia, interim head coach Corey Williams spoke to the radio postgame. Here are the takeaways…
Williams on the offense going stagnant:
“I thought we started the game out well, but as the game progressed, (West Virginia) killed us on the offensive glass, we turned the ball over, they got second chance opportunities. The thing that did it on the boards is we just didn’t block out. We just didn’t do those little things. As painful as it is for me, you gotta hurt for those guys. We came in here and we got a chance to do something special, but unfortunately West Virginia was the better team today and they played like it, they forced the action.”
On turnovers making a difference in the game:
“No question. I thought it was self-inflicted too. It’s not like they did anything special to create some of those turnovers. We were just careless with the ball. Point guards got to take care of the ball, you can’t have those high level turnovers. I just thought we did not do the little things it takes to win a basketball game and we certainly turned the basketball over.”
On the difficulty of the week so far:
“It was hard for me but it was harder for the kids. I just leave me out of it in terms of things that you have to deal with in a situation like this. Like I said before, it’s about those kids and making sure I give them a fair chance to win. I wish I could have done more, but unfortunately the results are what they are. My job as the interim head coach was to get them ready to play, ready to fight, and we didn’t do that for about 32 minutes.”
On if the week left the players overwhelmed:
“I don’t know, I really don’t know. I thought our preparation was good, I thought they understood the magnitude of the basketball game. But with that said you just never know what’s going through a young man’s mind, you just have to take what you have and do the very best you can. That’s what we did, the staff did a wonderful job in this situation and helping me and making it easy on me. I want to make sure I personally thank those guys, coach Pinkins, coach Green, coach Cooper, coach Sutton, they did a great job of keeping this team together. But you just never know at the end, how much weight all of this was on the kids.”
Williams on the offense going stagnant:
“I thought we started the game out well, but as the game progressed, (West Virginia) killed us on the offensive glass, we turned the ball over, they got second chance opportunities. The thing that did it on the boards is we just didn’t block out. We just didn’t do those little things. As painful as it is for me, you gotta hurt for those guys. We came in here and we got a chance to do something special, but unfortunately West Virginia was the better team today and they played like it, they forced the action.”
On turnovers making a difference in the game:
“No question. I thought it was self-inflicted too. It’s not like they did anything special to create some of those turnovers. We were just careless with the ball. Point guards got to take care of the ball, you can’t have those high level turnovers. I just thought we did not do the little things it takes to win a basketball game and we certainly turned the basketball over.”
On the difficulty of the week so far:
“It was hard for me but it was harder for the kids. I just leave me out of it in terms of things that you have to deal with in a situation like this. Like I said before, it’s about those kids and making sure I give them a fair chance to win. I wish I could have done more, but unfortunately the results are what they are. My job as the interim head coach was to get them ready to play, ready to fight, and we didn’t do that for about 32 minutes.”
On if the week left the players overwhelmed:
“I don’t know, I really don’t know. I thought our preparation was good, I thought they understood the magnitude of the basketball game. But with that said you just never know what’s going through a young man’s mind, you just have to take what you have and do the very best you can. That’s what we did, the staff did a wonderful job in this situation and helping me and making it easy on me. I want to make sure I personally thank those guys, coach Pinkins, coach Green, coach Cooper, coach Sutton, they did a great job of keeping this team together. But you just never know at the end, how much weight all of this was on the kids.”
