I thought their post players did a good job of being physical with Nemanja and making him catch the ball from 15 feet instead of eight feet and in, and that was big. |
I thought we were a little sluggish early but we stayed patient on offense. To Military's credit, we didn't have that many open looks but we were able to get our inside-out game going and that was big. |
I was proud of the way we guarded and didn't give (the T-birds) too many second chances. |
If those guys return, that should probably be the best group we've had as far as a returning class since I've been here. That should get us more excited about the future. |
It affected us a lot especially in the first half where maybe we could have created some room between us and them. I also played (Smith) in one of the power forward positions which I haven't done all year long and it kind of got us out of rhythm. |
It seems like we've always been fortunate enough to bounce back after a loss this season. I thought we did a good job of playing defense for 40 minutes, which was a concern from the last outing (a 73-57 loss to Howard). We also did a good job of getting the ball (inside). |
Like most Europeans do, he shoots those 15-footers all the time. He stays after practice and keeps shooting it. Seemed all that practice after games paid off. |
Not only was he a good basketball player but he was a coach on the floor. That's the greatest compliment you can give a point guard. He was the extension of what I wanted and a lot of times I didn't even have to tell him what to do on the court. |
Once you win that, you concentrate on winning the regional championship. |
South Plains has a talented wing in Harley but it looks like they've had other guys step up and play better for them. They're a team that can only get better. Our recipe for success no matter what is to get to the block and play inside-out. |
That year he learned to take a business-like approach to practice, not just coming in some days, be good and then take some days off like some players do. He's allowed himself to be more consistent by taking that approach to practice. |
That's going to be my theme the rest of the year that we make all the plays where both teams have an opportunity to get the ball. I thought that's an area where we were exposed when we played at Howard College. |
That's where our leadership has got to come from, our sophomores. I thought he got after it and we need him to play well. |
The only thing I talked to the team about was to throw this one out. That wasn't us in the second half. You have to give (the Hawks) a lot of credit because they just came in here and beat us. |
We can still grow and get better. I feel like our team will get better over conference. Hopefully we're prepared enough to not take any lumps early. |