February 01, 2000
On A&M's 93-62 loss to Missouri:
"Missouri did an excellent job of applying pressure. We had 29 turnovers, which is way too many. Another factor is that we were just dead tired. We get on the bus for two hours, fly to Missouri, then drive another two hours, practice that night and then we have a 12:45 game. That was just too much for our freshmen. We didn't give ourselves a fair chance. We didn't play well and they did."
On A&M's game with Baylor on Feb. 2:
"The danger is we can't underestimate Baylor. We're not good enough to do something like that and get away with it. Baylor, I'm sure, will look at their schedule and say, `Hey, if we're going to get a conference win on the road, this will be a good place to try to get one.' We've just got to make sure we come out and play. Baylor is a dangerous team for us, but it's always good to get back within the confines of your own arena and your own fans."
On Baylor's personnel:
"If you look at (Tevis) Stukes who didn't play last year, he's a dangerous perimeter player that can hit the three. He averages about 17 points a game. (Terry) Black almost averages a double-double. They've got some weapons that we've got to be concerned about. They're athletic. They're not very deep, but the five or six guys that play are very capable players."
"I would hope that they wouldn't be able to pressure us for 40 minutes like some teams have done If that is the case then it is to our advantage somewhat that we can have the opportunity to get into our offense and run our half-court sets."
"We would obviously like to establish our inside game, but I haven't put a lot of pressure on Andy Slocum to all of a sudden be a scorer down there. Aaron Jack has been somewhat consistent, but there again, I don't want to put a lot of pressure on him to all of a sudden be a scorer down there. A lot of our scoring has come from our perimeter and when you do that you rely too much on your jump shot and when you do that your results are going to be up in the air. That's the problem we have, we rely a little too much on our jump shot. In my opinion we have taken too many three's at times, but that's kind of the nature of our team right now. However when we've gotten good shots, I've given our guys, hopefully, the confidence to take those shots."
On freshman Tomas Ress:
"What's unique about Tomas is that, is that although many low-post European players have grown up playing on the perimeter, he's just the opposite. He didn't have that in his repertoire before he came here so what he's accomplished at this stage, on the perimeter, has really been amazing. I think he has a very good IQ for the game of basketball which has helped his transition out. He's always played inside before coming here."
"I think he has a chance to be an impact player for us as he continues his development. Strength training is going to be very critical for him. He already handles the ball and shoots the ball from the perimeter pretty well as it is. We surely would like to see him improve from those areas as well. As things go along, we would probably end up playing him inside some, because he has something that he doesn't get much credit for and that's a natural knack for blocking shots. He's probably better at blocking shots than anyone else on our team. He's long and has great timing. As he continues to get stronger and is able to hold his position on the blocks, we will be able to put him inside some. "
On the A&M freshman providing the bulk of the leadership for the team:
"Unfortunately that's what's happening. In the short run that causes a problem, but in the long run it means that these kids are getting the experience that we know is going to help us build this program. You really don't want to rely on your freshmen to give you that leadership, because it's just so much pressure on those kids to have them come in and learn a system and then all of a sudden be called on to give the directions out there. I have to give them credit. They've done a pretty good job."
On the revenge factor in the OSU game:
"I don't look at it like revenge. I look at it like they're going to be ready to play. The fact that we beat them here will probably add a little something to that. Good teams are going to be ready to play, because they feel like they have a lot on the line. They're going to be playing well had we not beat them here anyway. We have to go up there and try to play one of our better games."