Texas A&M Basketball
“First of all, we’re glad to be home. We had a good trip to New York City. We learned a lot about our team against Mississippi State and made some adjustments against St. John’s. We found out that we do miss Khris (Middleton). We struggled scoring but we were glad to see our post guys step up. Developing them through this process of Khris being gone is going to help our team in the long run. We’re glad to be home this week to be able to put in a lot more offense, get better and get my system more in place. We’ve got some time to do that and that’s what we’re excited about at this time.”
You said you learned a lot. What specifically do you think you gathered about the team?
“We’ve got to do a better job of guarding the paint. Also, our perimeter play is really key defensively to guarding inside the 3-point line. We wanted to pressure more and score more off our defense, but against Mississippi State we really struggled doing that. We’re going to have to control the paint more and hopefully not foul as much. You look at two categories that we need to get better in…1, teams are getting to the free throw line. And 2, taking care of the ball, having consistent play from our guards on the perimeter.”
Who have you been impressed with in Khris’ absence?
“I think Ray Turner has made himself more effective around the basket. That has helped us to really have a post emphasis, to go inside and not just rely on David (Loubeau) all by himself. I think he has stepped up. I thought Dash Harris against St. John’s played a much better game on both ends of the floor. Those two, probably the most. Elston (Turner) is still getting a feel for what his role is going to be, but offensively he’s been consistent. But we’ve got to get more consistent play out of some of our other guys.”
Was it good though to have Elston step up and make the last play and take it upon himself to make that last basket (against St. John’s)?
“Yeah. We wanted to get him the ball and give him the opportunity somewhere out front to make the play. Fortunately he was patient enough when they took it away the first time to give it up, and I was thankful that Jamal (Branch) gave him the ball back. We wanted him to get the shot. Right now offensively he’s been our best perimeter guy, he’s our most experienced perimeter guy that can score. And fortunately he made a shot.”
Do you see this as a big week as far as the guys seeing what they need to fix after a trip like that and having a week to work on it?
“Yeah, I hope so. This will be my second full week of practice, basically, so I’m gaining some strength and confidence in knowing our team and knowing what we need to do to get better. We’re adding some things every day and I think these guys realize that this is an important week for us to get better.”
How are you doing?
“I’m better. It’s day to day. Every day I get a little stronger, get a little better. Fortunately I have great assistants that can pick up in any area where I’m not as strong in at this point. Yesterday I thought I had my best day of practice, I felt a lot better and (I’m) continually improving. As long as I’m getting better…it’s slower than I want, but I have to be patient and let it come when it comes.”
What’s been the biggest challenge in missing some time and then coming back?
“People don’t really recognize that we have a whole new program, a whole new staff and a whole new system. And I missed some valuable time with my assistants to get my system in with them, not to mention getting the system in with our players. So for us to be in this position at 3-1 and to stay together and still have a lot of energy and enthusiasm (is big). Our guys bounced back against St. John’s, and that’s a lot of credit to our assistant coaches and our team and our experience. We’ve got a ways to go, we’re a work in progress. And then losing Khris doesn’t help, one of the leaders on your team and your leading scorer. But we’ve been able to maintain, keep going forward and pressing on. It’s worked out fine at this point. We’re disappointed that we lost to Mississippi State but I think people recognize now that Mississippi State is a very, very good basketball team.”
Coach Cyprien said he wanted to try to maintain your vision for things while you were out. Do you think he was able to accomplish that?
“Yeah, I think so. We wanted to be up tempo, and we’re going to continue to be up tempo. We have to be a little smarter when we’re up tempo because our margin for error on the offensive and defensive ends is small. We also want to be defensive oriented, and that’s what we spent the most time on the last few weeks. Now we have to add to the other phases of the game to get better at those.”
Do you think you will look back on all the events in a few months or so and say that was big for the growth of the team?
“Yeah, I hate growth times, for me. But it is a time that I think will help us in the long run of our program. You never want to go through something like this, but I think these guys recognize coming in that each day is a new day and you have to live day-to-day. Sometimes we get too far ahead of ourselves. I know I’ve learned that through this process and hopefully I can convey that to our players—that every day you come in you have to try and get better, and it’s one day at a time.”
Do you feel like it took the team a while on Thursday to get used to the surroundings of Madison Square Garden?
“I don’t know. We have a lot of veterans and I don’t know if that was that big of a deal. They’re still learning how I’m going to coach them. Then Mississippi State, I have to give them credit. They came out the first five minutes and anything they shot, they made. They got a lead against us, and we tried to come back too quick and didn’t run offense. That’s something we have to get better at.”
How is Khris Middleton progressing in his rehab and do you have a revised timetable for when he’s going to come back?
“I don’t have a revised timetable but he’s doing extremely well. I would say he’s a lot stronger than we thought he would be at this point, but it’s still too early to designate exactly when he will come back.
Anything in particular you want to see from your team this weekend against A&M-Corpus Christi?
“Just more consistent play offensively, and some ball movement. The ball seems to get stuck in our point guard’s hands way too much, and we need to be able to reverse the ball and work with our post guys and guards in just moving the ball a little bit on the offensive end. And then defensively, not fouling as much and keeping people out of the paint. We’re not very athletic on the perimeter, especially without Khris, so we have to be a little more solid fundamentally to keep guys out of the paint.”
Were you pleased with what you have seen out of your two freshmen?
“Yeah. Jordan Green is 7-of-10 from the field and is taking good shoots offensively. He’s making great effort defensively. Jamal (Branch) plays like a typical freshman, he’s very inconsistent, but the point guard position is a very difficult position to play. We’ve got to get him more sound on both ends of the floor, and that’s one thing we’re working on this week. I am pleased with them though, they’re getting to play major minutes in critical times—which is good for their future but sometimes that’s hard on our team.”
When teams go zone, how important is it for guys off the bench to come in and make shots to take pressure off the bigs?
“Well, right now Elston Turner is the only one shooting a pretty good percentage from the perimeter. I expect to see a lot more zone, especially with Khris out. We’ve got to have perimeter guys step up and be a threat. You can’t just have one shooter on the floor. Our post guys are rebounding—we had 16 offensive rebounds against St. John’s, which is big—and they played zone. We made shots early in the zone to maybe get them out of it. That’s a concern, and it’s something we’ll work on. We’ll get more shots up this week, but we need to have a second or third guy who can make a three.”
Did you and (St. John’s) Coach (Steve) Lavin have a chance to discuss health last week?
“No, we were both glad to just be coaching. I’ve known him a long time. He was at UCLA when I was at Cal. He’s battling a different type of illness. But it was good to see him back on the sideline, and that helped motivate me to want to get back on the sideline when I knew he was coming back, because of what he’s been through.”
Billy Kennedy attends weekly press conference for first time
Quotes
Opening comments…“First of all, we’re glad to be home. We had a good trip to New York City. We learned a lot about our team against Mississippi State and made some adjustments against St. John’s. We found out that we do miss Khris (Middleton). We struggled scoring but we were glad to see our post guys step up. Developing them through this process of Khris being gone is going to help our team in the long run. We’re glad to be home this week to be able to put in a lot more offense, get better and get my system more in place. We’ve got some time to do that and that’s what we’re excited about at this time.”
You said you learned a lot. What specifically do you think you gathered about the team?
“We’ve got to do a better job of guarding the paint. Also, our perimeter play is really key defensively to guarding inside the 3-point line. We wanted to pressure more and score more off our defense, but against Mississippi State we really struggled doing that. We’re going to have to control the paint more and hopefully not foul as much. You look at two categories that we need to get better in…1, teams are getting to the free throw line. And 2, taking care of the ball, having consistent play from our guards on the perimeter.”
Who have you been impressed with in Khris’ absence?
“I think Ray Turner has made himself more effective around the basket. That has helped us to really have a post emphasis, to go inside and not just rely on David (Loubeau) all by himself. I think he has stepped up. I thought Dash Harris against St. John’s played a much better game on both ends of the floor. Those two, probably the most. Elston (Turner) is still getting a feel for what his role is going to be, but offensively he’s been consistent. But we’ve got to get more consistent play out of some of our other guys.”
Was it good though to have Elston step up and make the last play and take it upon himself to make that last basket (against St. John’s)?
“Yeah. We wanted to get him the ball and give him the opportunity somewhere out front to make the play. Fortunately he was patient enough when they took it away the first time to give it up, and I was thankful that Jamal (Branch) gave him the ball back. We wanted him to get the shot. Right now offensively he’s been our best perimeter guy, he’s our most experienced perimeter guy that can score. And fortunately he made a shot.”
Do you see this as a big week as far as the guys seeing what they need to fix after a trip like that and having a week to work on it?
“Yeah, I hope so. This will be my second full week of practice, basically, so I’m gaining some strength and confidence in knowing our team and knowing what we need to do to get better. We’re adding some things every day and I think these guys realize that this is an important week for us to get better.”
How are you doing?
“I’m better. It’s day to day. Every day I get a little stronger, get a little better. Fortunately I have great assistants that can pick up in any area where I’m not as strong in at this point. Yesterday I thought I had my best day of practice, I felt a lot better and (I’m) continually improving. As long as I’m getting better…it’s slower than I want, but I have to be patient and let it come when it comes.”
What’s been the biggest challenge in missing some time and then coming back?
“People don’t really recognize that we have a whole new program, a whole new staff and a whole new system. And I missed some valuable time with my assistants to get my system in with them, not to mention getting the system in with our players. So for us to be in this position at 3-1 and to stay together and still have a lot of energy and enthusiasm (is big). Our guys bounced back against St. John’s, and that’s a lot of credit to our assistant coaches and our team and our experience. We’ve got a ways to go, we’re a work in progress. And then losing Khris doesn’t help, one of the leaders on your team and your leading scorer. But we’ve been able to maintain, keep going forward and pressing on. It’s worked out fine at this point. We’re disappointed that we lost to Mississippi State but I think people recognize now that Mississippi State is a very, very good basketball team.”
Coach Cyprien said he wanted to try to maintain your vision for things while you were out. Do you think he was able to accomplish that?
“Yeah, I think so. We wanted to be up tempo, and we’re going to continue to be up tempo. We have to be a little smarter when we’re up tempo because our margin for error on the offensive and defensive ends is small. We also want to be defensive oriented, and that’s what we spent the most time on the last few weeks. Now we have to add to the other phases of the game to get better at those.”
Do you think you will look back on all the events in a few months or so and say that was big for the growth of the team?
“Yeah, I hate growth times, for me. But it is a time that I think will help us in the long run of our program. You never want to go through something like this, but I think these guys recognize coming in that each day is a new day and you have to live day-to-day. Sometimes we get too far ahead of ourselves. I know I’ve learned that through this process and hopefully I can convey that to our players—that every day you come in you have to try and get better, and it’s one day at a time.”
Do you feel like it took the team a while on Thursday to get used to the surroundings of Madison Square Garden?
“I don’t know. We have a lot of veterans and I don’t know if that was that big of a deal. They’re still learning how I’m going to coach them. Then Mississippi State, I have to give them credit. They came out the first five minutes and anything they shot, they made. They got a lead against us, and we tried to come back too quick and didn’t run offense. That’s something we have to get better at.”
How is Khris Middleton progressing in his rehab and do you have a revised timetable for when he’s going to come back?
“I don’t have a revised timetable but he’s doing extremely well. I would say he’s a lot stronger than we thought he would be at this point, but it’s still too early to designate exactly when he will come back.
Anything in particular you want to see from your team this weekend against A&M-Corpus Christi?
“Just more consistent play offensively, and some ball movement. The ball seems to get stuck in our point guard’s hands way too much, and we need to be able to reverse the ball and work with our post guys and guards in just moving the ball a little bit on the offensive end. And then defensively, not fouling as much and keeping people out of the paint. We’re not very athletic on the perimeter, especially without Khris, so we have to be a little more solid fundamentally to keep guys out of the paint.”
Were you pleased with what you have seen out of your two freshmen?
“Yeah. Jordan Green is 7-of-10 from the field and is taking good shoots offensively. He’s making great effort defensively. Jamal (Branch) plays like a typical freshman, he’s very inconsistent, but the point guard position is a very difficult position to play. We’ve got to get him more sound on both ends of the floor, and that’s one thing we’re working on this week. I am pleased with them though, they’re getting to play major minutes in critical times—which is good for their future but sometimes that’s hard on our team.”
When teams go zone, how important is it for guys off the bench to come in and make shots to take pressure off the bigs?
“Well, right now Elston Turner is the only one shooting a pretty good percentage from the perimeter. I expect to see a lot more zone, especially with Khris out. We’ve got to have perimeter guys step up and be a threat. You can’t just have one shooter on the floor. Our post guys are rebounding—we had 16 offensive rebounds against St. John’s, which is big—and they played zone. We made shots early in the zone to maybe get them out of it. That’s a concern, and it’s something we’ll work on. We’ll get more shots up this week, but we need to have a second or third guy who can make a three.”
Did you and (St. John’s) Coach (Steve) Lavin have a chance to discuss health last week?
“No, we were both glad to just be coaching. I’ve known him a long time. He was at UCLA when I was at Cal. He’s battling a different type of illness. But it was good to see him back on the sideline, and that helped motivate me to want to get back on the sideline when I knew he was coming back, because of what he’s been through.”
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