Billy Kennedy
Gary Blair
Texas A&M Basketball
You talk about depth…being halfway through the year, where do you see it coming from? Or are you going to have to play the starters a few more minutes?
“Well, we put David in, he’s a senior, with two fouls when the game was getting out of hand, and he picked up his third right away. Just a reaching foul. That can’t happen. We played Khris with two fouls, which I usually don’t like to do. As long as we could stay close I didn’t want to have to play him. We’ve got to get our bench better, but we’re down to 10 scholarship players. We’re limited, but we have to be a lot smarter on the offensive end, smarter on the defensive end and be more efficient. I know our bench is better than their performance last night. Keith Davis was really good off the bench. Defensively he did a lot of good things for us.”
Talk about the effort of Daniel Alexander last night…
“He competed. He gave up some size against them but he competed. Offensively he’s better than what he’s playing. He can definitely shoot the ball and stretch the defense a little bit. But he’s a freshman, a redshirt freshman who hadn’t played a lot. So it’s just going to take him a little more time getting comfortable playing in that kind of atmosphere and against that kind of talent.”
You talk about timid, was Jordan Green one of those? He did not play much last night…
“That wasn’t a game that’s Jordan’s strength, with the zone. He played about 14 minutes I believe, so he had some quality minutes, but against a zone he’s got to learn and get better and get more experience against that.”
Is Elston the guy that’s going to back up Dash Harris?
“He’s the plan right now. He’ll back up at the 1. You can see that’s not a natural thing for him, and he’s got to get better at it. But I thought he did some good things for us. As time goes on he’ll get better getting the ball up the floor. Hopefully we can have a plan C, a third option, that we’ll have to develop in the next couple of weeks.”
Was part of the timidness you talk about bringing the ball up? It seemed in the first half there was trouble doing that…
“Yeah, I don’t know if it was so much bringing the ball up. Again, it was our first true road game. We talk about being an experienced team, but if you look at our team, we really only have three guys who are that experienced—Dash Harris, Khris Middleton, and David Loubeau. Everyone else was a backup player in some program, whether it’s Elston at Washington or Ray Turner and Keith Davis (here)…they didn’t play quality minutes last year. I just think those new guys were a little intimidated.”
When you hear a guy like Elston say he was in awe a bit, how do you react to that?
“I knew he was telling the truth, that’s the great thing. And if you recognize that, you can embrace it and improve on it. If I asked some of the other guys who I thought were really intimidated, they would probably say, no, I just didn’t play well. And Baylor gives you problems, we didn’t beat Baylor last year. Everyone knows the hype, they are undefeated. There were a lot of things that were a factor. The main thing was that they are pretty good.”
What kind of challenges will Iowa State present?
“They’re talented. They had some guys sitting out last year. They play pretty good defense, mostly man. We’ve got to do a much better job of taking better shots and then making the open shots we get. I think those are some of the challenges. Again, we need to be better ourselves before we’re capable of beating some really quality teams. (Monday) we cut it to 10 I believe, and we came down and Khris had a turnover that was unforced. Those are some of the mistakes that we can’t have from our upperclassmen. So I’m more concerned about us getting better, adjusting to Elston bringing the ball up, our bench playing with some confidence, our bench coming in and giving us a lift.”
Will it be nice to get on your home court for a Big 12 game on Saturday?
“Yeah, no question. It’s great to be at home. It’s a big game for us against a team that’s better than they were last year, and a team I think we’re capable of beating if we do what we need to do.”
How does that change your rotation?
"(Alexia) Standish has been shooting the ball well in practice, and it'll be Skylar (Collins) and Cierra (Windham). They'll have to rotate in. Cierra had a good ballgame the other day. The last ballgame, Skyler couldn't go. She's back practicing hard and she'll probably be the first kid off the bench. Depending on the size of the team we're playing, though, I really like Standish at the 2 if — IF — Pratcher is playing well. Standish is playing well in practice and she'll be given the opportunity."
On K-State's style of play...
"Their style of play is don't turn the ball over when they play us. Their point guard's going to handle the ball for 25 seconds and then they'll run a flare screen for Chambers or she'll come off a high ball screen. We've had trouble with those all year long, but we practice it every day and we're getting better. We could throw Adaora (Elonu) at the 3 position, but she didn't play well there against McNeese. We need to put her where she's more comfortable, at the 4."
On Syndey Carter...
"You play with pain, as tolerated, if it's not a stress fracture. Sometimes it stays with you the whole season, like plantar fasciitis, but you've got to be smart. I don't think we have to worry about Carter losing her conditioning. We have to monitor her time because of how hard she plays. She never takes a play off. Even when she's beat, she's usually overplayed somebody ... she never takes a play off. Who's going to guard Chambers? Who knows, because we switch guard to guard. We need to get through the screens. A lot of times it'll be Pratcher or Standish."
On matching up with the Wildcats...
"K-State will play a 2-3 zone or a flat 3-2 zone, but they will play five people inside the arc. They'll guard the ball. Right now we're the two worst three-point shooting teams in the league, according to the stats. In fact, both teams are ninth or 10th in a lot of stats, but that's because of the strength of schedules. We haven't played a soft schedule, so the stats are skewed that way."
"We're trying to adjust some, but Coach Schaefer hasn't adjusted out there, he's just trying to get us better (chuckle). And sometimes it takes a while to get better. When Danielle Adams first got here as a junior she couldn't guard you. But she's learned. We've got to learn to make our defensive system work by playing harder and trusting the defense behind you. That's the way we've always played. That allows us to put so much ball pressure and overplay the wings. What's hurting us right now is we're not playing as hard on every possession as we need to. Hopefully that'll come in conference play."
Much more from Coach Blair in the video.
Quotes & video from basketball press conference
Billy Kennedy
“After reviewing last night’s game, I was proud of the way our guys competed. I was disappointed in our bench play, and I thought some guys came in and were a little timid. I don’t ever want to have a team that has anything to do with being timid. Those are some things we have to get better. Our main guys have to do a better job of staying out of foul trouble and taking better shots. I thought we took some quick shots. Shot selection wasn’t great. We have to be a lot more efficient on the offensive end to beat some of the teams we have to play the next few weeks.”You talk about depth…being halfway through the year, where do you see it coming from? Or are you going to have to play the starters a few more minutes?
“Well, we put David in, he’s a senior, with two fouls when the game was getting out of hand, and he picked up his third right away. Just a reaching foul. That can’t happen. We played Khris with two fouls, which I usually don’t like to do. As long as we could stay close I didn’t want to have to play him. We’ve got to get our bench better, but we’re down to 10 scholarship players. We’re limited, but we have to be a lot smarter on the offensive end, smarter on the defensive end and be more efficient. I know our bench is better than their performance last night. Keith Davis was really good off the bench. Defensively he did a lot of good things for us.”
Talk about the effort of Daniel Alexander last night…
“He competed. He gave up some size against them but he competed. Offensively he’s better than what he’s playing. He can definitely shoot the ball and stretch the defense a little bit. But he’s a freshman, a redshirt freshman who hadn’t played a lot. So it’s just going to take him a little more time getting comfortable playing in that kind of atmosphere and against that kind of talent.”
You talk about timid, was Jordan Green one of those? He did not play much last night…
“That wasn’t a game that’s Jordan’s strength, with the zone. He played about 14 minutes I believe, so he had some quality minutes, but against a zone he’s got to learn and get better and get more experience against that.”
Is Elston the guy that’s going to back up Dash Harris?
“He’s the plan right now. He’ll back up at the 1. You can see that’s not a natural thing for him, and he’s got to get better at it. But I thought he did some good things for us. As time goes on he’ll get better getting the ball up the floor. Hopefully we can have a plan C, a third option, that we’ll have to develop in the next couple of weeks.”
Was part of the timidness you talk about bringing the ball up? It seemed in the first half there was trouble doing that…
“Yeah, I don’t know if it was so much bringing the ball up. Again, it was our first true road game. We talk about being an experienced team, but if you look at our team, we really only have three guys who are that experienced—Dash Harris, Khris Middleton, and David Loubeau. Everyone else was a backup player in some program, whether it’s Elston at Washington or Ray Turner and Keith Davis (here)…they didn’t play quality minutes last year. I just think those new guys were a little intimidated.”
When you hear a guy like Elston say he was in awe a bit, how do you react to that?
“I knew he was telling the truth, that’s the great thing. And if you recognize that, you can embrace it and improve on it. If I asked some of the other guys who I thought were really intimidated, they would probably say, no, I just didn’t play well. And Baylor gives you problems, we didn’t beat Baylor last year. Everyone knows the hype, they are undefeated. There were a lot of things that were a factor. The main thing was that they are pretty good.”
What kind of challenges will Iowa State present?
“They’re talented. They had some guys sitting out last year. They play pretty good defense, mostly man. We’ve got to do a much better job of taking better shots and then making the open shots we get. I think those are some of the challenges. Again, we need to be better ourselves before we’re capable of beating some really quality teams. (Monday) we cut it to 10 I believe, and we came down and Khris had a turnover that was unforced. Those are some of the mistakes that we can’t have from our upperclassmen. So I’m more concerned about us getting better, adjusting to Elston bringing the ball up, our bench playing with some confidence, our bench coming in and giving us a lift.”
Will it be nice to get on your home court for a Big 12 game on Saturday?
“Yeah, no question. It’s great to be at home. It’s a big game for us against a team that’s better than they were last year, and a team I think we’re capable of beating if we do what we need to do.”
Gary Blair
"Since I've been here, we've only won one game at K-State, that I can remember. So it's a tough place to play. They come in, they support their team pretty well, it's a tough place to place. Snyder will be sitting right behind the scorer's bench, and I always like seeing him there. He's encouraging his team the whole nine yards. We're still banged up. Sydney Carter will play. How long, we do not know. She hasn't scrimmaged full court yet. She's only been on the half court. It hasn't developed into a stress fracture yet, but it could. Tori Scott has a concussion, she will not travel with the team. She got hit a couple times in practice on Saturday and hasn't responded, still has a headache. We're going to redshirt Rachel Mitchell. Other than that, we're healthy. We're ready to go. The hardest thing has been getting enough guards to be able to have a competitive practice. All my post players besides Mitchell are healthy, ready to go, but it's been hard. Sometimes the coaches have had to get out there and sometimes ... whoever's available."How does that change your rotation?
"(Alexia) Standish has been shooting the ball well in practice, and it'll be Skylar (Collins) and Cierra (Windham). They'll have to rotate in. Cierra had a good ballgame the other day. The last ballgame, Skyler couldn't go. She's back practicing hard and she'll probably be the first kid off the bench. Depending on the size of the team we're playing, though, I really like Standish at the 2 if — IF — Pratcher is playing well. Standish is playing well in practice and she'll be given the opportunity."
On K-State's style of play...
"Their style of play is don't turn the ball over when they play us. Their point guard's going to handle the ball for 25 seconds and then they'll run a flare screen for Chambers or she'll come off a high ball screen. We've had trouble with those all year long, but we practice it every day and we're getting better. We could throw Adaora (Elonu) at the 3 position, but she didn't play well there against McNeese. We need to put her where she's more comfortable, at the 4."
On Syndey Carter...
"You play with pain, as tolerated, if it's not a stress fracture. Sometimes it stays with you the whole season, like plantar fasciitis, but you've got to be smart. I don't think we have to worry about Carter losing her conditioning. We have to monitor her time because of how hard she plays. She never takes a play off. Even when she's beat, she's usually overplayed somebody ... she never takes a play off. Who's going to guard Chambers? Who knows, because we switch guard to guard. We need to get through the screens. A lot of times it'll be Pratcher or Standish."
On matching up with the Wildcats...
"K-State will play a 2-3 zone or a flat 3-2 zone, but they will play five people inside the arc. They'll guard the ball. Right now we're the two worst three-point shooting teams in the league, according to the stats. In fact, both teams are ninth or 10th in a lot of stats, but that's because of the strength of schedules. We haven't played a soft schedule, so the stats are skewed that way."
"We're trying to adjust some, but Coach Schaefer hasn't adjusted out there, he's just trying to get us better (chuckle). And sometimes it takes a while to get better. When Danielle Adams first got here as a junior she couldn't guard you. But she's learned. We've got to learn to make our defensive system work by playing harder and trusting the defense behind you. That's the way we've always played. That allows us to put so much ball pressure and overplay the wings. What's hurting us right now is we're not playing as hard on every possession as we need to. Hopefully that'll come in conference play."
Much more from Coach Blair in the video.
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