Texas A&M Basketball
“I got a chance to review the tape from our game the other day. As a coach you either feel good about it or you feel bad about it. To be honest with you, I saw a lot of good things and things we got better at. I had to look at the tape to figure that out after the game to make me feel a little better Saturday night. I like the play of Jordan Green, I think he’s starting to understand his role and getting comfortable in what he brings to the program. Elston Turner is continuing to be consistent. I thought defensively, to hold a team to 16 points and 27 percent field goals in a half, we did some positive things. Offensively we’re a work in progress. 12 turnovers in the first half is unacceptable. You’re not going to win many games against the level of competition we’re going to play with those kinds of decisions. That’s something we have to improve on.
You’ve mentioned Jamal is a “typical freshman” that makes great plays but also makes a lot of mistakes. Where would you say he is at this point?
“I just think he’s still learning. He’s very talented. For us he’s going to have to play a lot of minutes, because we really only have two true guards in our program, when you talk about a guy who’s a 1 or a 2. The rest of our players I consider wings. Elston can play the 2, because he’s skilled enough, but he’s also got good size to play the 3. With Jamal, it starts in practice, if he gets more consistent in practice. He’s been banged up some, he missed some of the preseason workouts. He’s just catching up and game experience is going to help him. We’d like to put guys on the bench and have to sit them a while for them to learn sometimes, but we’re not in that position at that spot right now.”
Have you seen a freshman with the court vision that he has?
“He’s got great vision and he can make the spectacular play. We want him to focus on making the simple play. That’s the plays from our guards that we’re not making--decisions like, okay, we don’t have the break, let’s back it out. Okay, we don’t have primary break, we’re in secondary break, let’s get the ball reversed. Let’s back it out and get in some offense. Let’s not try and thread this needle and kick it ahead, because it’s a little dangerous. Let’s get a little more solid and disciplined. But he really does have some good vision and great court awareness in passing the ball, especially in transition.”
Is that what Elston was talking about after the game Saturday, that y’all are trying to hit too many home run plays?
“Yeah. And Elston has a great feel for basketball. He understands the game as well as anybody on our team. That’s how we are. We’re taking too many chances. You want to play a little faster, but when you do that you have to know when to back off. And we haven’t figured that out yet.”
What have you specifically liked about Jordan Green’s play so far?
“Just his effort and attitude. He’s bought in 100 percent to what we’re trying to get accomplished and he’s trying to understand his role. Defensively as a freshman we are asking him to guard the other team’s best perimeter player sometimes, and he’s taken that as a challenge, trying to accept that responsibility of what we ask. That’s unique for a freshman coming in this early.”
How do you feel Dash is getting used to your system?
“I thought against St. John’s he did a lot of really good things for us. I think the first 7 or 8 minutes of the game the other day he played too fast. He’s got to know when to slow down. That’s an adjustment and it takes time, when adapting to a new system and just knowing what we want. We need to do a better job of defining that for him.”
When you say a work in progress offensively, how much of that is because you’re missing Khris (Middleton)?
“This is a totally different team than last year’s team, but last year’s team struggled scoring and we’re missing our leading scorer. It’s a new staff, a new system, a lot of new things. Obviously we miss him, and we’re trying to figure out who else besides Elston on the perimeter is going to step up for us. David and Ray, our post guys, have brought the difference. We haven’t had a consistent effort from our perimeter play other than Elston.”
How much of a luxury is it to have a 6-foot-7 3 player who can play outside like he does?
“It’s really good because he sees the floor so well. And I haven’t coached him very long. I missed most of the time when he was practicing before. But I know when you put two shooters on the floor it opens things up inside and makes it easier for maybe (David) Loubeau. Watching a lot of tape from last year’s team, Nathan Walkup…people had to guard him. They’re not having to guard our other post guy and they’re not really guarding or are highly concerned with our other perimeter guy. So it’s putting a lot of pressure on David and it’s made it more difficult on him.”
What will Alcorn State bring to the table on Wednesday?
“They play some zone. They have played a tough schedule. I haven’t watched a lot of film on them yet, to be honest with you. I’m really focusing on our team. We’ve got to get better in so many areas that I haven’t spent as much time with our opponent. Stephen F. Austin on Saturday presents different challenges. But we still have to get better. We’ve got a lot of things we have to improve on that we’re not really focusing on our opponent as much as we will when we get into conference play.”
What are some of the things you saw against A&M-Corpus Christi that you really need to work on?
“Again, taking care of the ball. Valuing the ball. Making the most out of each possession on the offensive end and then defensively having a consistent effort of guarding the dribble and keeping teams off the free throw line.”
You’ve mentioned Jordan missing some practice time, Jamal missing some time, and then with your situation and Khris being out…do you finally feel like things are slowly starting to get back into a rhythm?
“All those things were factors. For me, it’s more getting used to and figuring out what we have and how we need to play at a time where you want to do that a few weeks earlier. We have to focus on excellence in the game and not just the results. We can’t get too beat up. We won by 13 and our guys weren’t too excited that we only won by 13. Well, we played a lot of people, we played Daniel Alexander at the 3 which we’ve never done. We’ve done a lot of experimenting throughout the games in trying to figure out what the best combinations are. So we are behind in some areas because of those reasons.”
Quotes & video from Billy Kennedy press conference
Quotes
Opening comments...“I got a chance to review the tape from our game the other day. As a coach you either feel good about it or you feel bad about it. To be honest with you, I saw a lot of good things and things we got better at. I had to look at the tape to figure that out after the game to make me feel a little better Saturday night. I like the play of Jordan Green, I think he’s starting to understand his role and getting comfortable in what he brings to the program. Elston Turner is continuing to be consistent. I thought defensively, to hold a team to 16 points and 27 percent field goals in a half, we did some positive things. Offensively we’re a work in progress. 12 turnovers in the first half is unacceptable. You’re not going to win many games against the level of competition we’re going to play with those kinds of decisions. That’s something we have to improve on.
You’ve mentioned Jamal is a “typical freshman” that makes great plays but also makes a lot of mistakes. Where would you say he is at this point?
“I just think he’s still learning. He’s very talented. For us he’s going to have to play a lot of minutes, because we really only have two true guards in our program, when you talk about a guy who’s a 1 or a 2. The rest of our players I consider wings. Elston can play the 2, because he’s skilled enough, but he’s also got good size to play the 3. With Jamal, it starts in practice, if he gets more consistent in practice. He’s been banged up some, he missed some of the preseason workouts. He’s just catching up and game experience is going to help him. We’d like to put guys on the bench and have to sit them a while for them to learn sometimes, but we’re not in that position at that spot right now.”
Have you seen a freshman with the court vision that he has?
“He’s got great vision and he can make the spectacular play. We want him to focus on making the simple play. That’s the plays from our guards that we’re not making--decisions like, okay, we don’t have the break, let’s back it out. Okay, we don’t have primary break, we’re in secondary break, let’s get the ball reversed. Let’s back it out and get in some offense. Let’s not try and thread this needle and kick it ahead, because it’s a little dangerous. Let’s get a little more solid and disciplined. But he really does have some good vision and great court awareness in passing the ball, especially in transition.”
Is that what Elston was talking about after the game Saturday, that y’all are trying to hit too many home run plays?
“Yeah. And Elston has a great feel for basketball. He understands the game as well as anybody on our team. That’s how we are. We’re taking too many chances. You want to play a little faster, but when you do that you have to know when to back off. And we haven’t figured that out yet.”
What have you specifically liked about Jordan Green’s play so far?
“Just his effort and attitude. He’s bought in 100 percent to what we’re trying to get accomplished and he’s trying to understand his role. Defensively as a freshman we are asking him to guard the other team’s best perimeter player sometimes, and he’s taken that as a challenge, trying to accept that responsibility of what we ask. That’s unique for a freshman coming in this early.”
How do you feel Dash is getting used to your system?
“I thought against St. John’s he did a lot of really good things for us. I think the first 7 or 8 minutes of the game the other day he played too fast. He’s got to know when to slow down. That’s an adjustment and it takes time, when adapting to a new system and just knowing what we want. We need to do a better job of defining that for him.”
When you say a work in progress offensively, how much of that is because you’re missing Khris (Middleton)?
“This is a totally different team than last year’s team, but last year’s team struggled scoring and we’re missing our leading scorer. It’s a new staff, a new system, a lot of new things. Obviously we miss him, and we’re trying to figure out who else besides Elston on the perimeter is going to step up for us. David and Ray, our post guys, have brought the difference. We haven’t had a consistent effort from our perimeter play other than Elston.”
How much of a luxury is it to have a 6-foot-7 3 player who can play outside like he does?
“It’s really good because he sees the floor so well. And I haven’t coached him very long. I missed most of the time when he was practicing before. But I know when you put two shooters on the floor it opens things up inside and makes it easier for maybe (David) Loubeau. Watching a lot of tape from last year’s team, Nathan Walkup…people had to guard him. They’re not having to guard our other post guy and they’re not really guarding or are highly concerned with our other perimeter guy. So it’s putting a lot of pressure on David and it’s made it more difficult on him.”
What will Alcorn State bring to the table on Wednesday?
“They play some zone. They have played a tough schedule. I haven’t watched a lot of film on them yet, to be honest with you. I’m really focusing on our team. We’ve got to get better in so many areas that I haven’t spent as much time with our opponent. Stephen F. Austin on Saturday presents different challenges. But we still have to get better. We’ve got a lot of things we have to improve on that we’re not really focusing on our opponent as much as we will when we get into conference play.”
What are some of the things you saw against A&M-Corpus Christi that you really need to work on?
“Again, taking care of the ball. Valuing the ball. Making the most out of each possession on the offensive end and then defensively having a consistent effort of guarding the dribble and keeping teams off the free throw line.”
You’ve mentioned Jordan missing some practice time, Jamal missing some time, and then with your situation and Khris being out…do you finally feel like things are slowly starting to get back into a rhythm?
“All those things were factors. For me, it’s more getting used to and figuring out what we have and how we need to play at a time where you want to do that a few weeks earlier. We have to focus on excellence in the game and not just the results. We can’t get too beat up. We won by 13 and our guys weren’t too excited that we only won by 13. Well, we played a lot of people, we played Daniel Alexander at the 3 which we’ve never done. We’ve done a lot of experimenting throughout the games in trying to figure out what the best combinations are. So we are behind in some areas because of those reasons.”
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