February 29, 2000
On winning final two games:
"We would like to just finish up strong. It would be nice to get a couple of wins heading into the conference tournament. We'd be happier if we did because we would have a chance to finish as high as eighth in the conference, but then again we're not even focusing on that. We mentioned to the team that this was something we could accomplish, but I'm not going to dwell on it."
On the status of Aaron Jack:
"He practiced Monday. We look for him to be able to go on Wednesday, but he probably won't be 100 percent."
On what Jack's return means to the team:
"It means a lot to us because, once again, we're dealing with lack of experience and depth anyway. When you take him out, that really puts us at a disadvantage. We know Aaron Jack will always give us 110 percent. This team needs that."
On last year's defeat of Oklahoma at Reed Arena:
"I know they will have memories of that, knowing that they want to come in and make sure that doesn't happen. That means this will be a bigger challenge for us than when we may have caught them off guard a little bit last year. I don't think that will be the case this year. We've got to be ready to play."
On being capable of beating good teams any given night, but losing to lesser ones:
"It shows our immaturity. We get ourselves ready to play against good teams better than we do against an opponent that I may think we have a better chance of matching up and actually winning the game against. That is just immaturity there. We've got to know that you've got to come out and be ready to play every game and that's something we've been working on."
On the progress of A&M's young team:
"They're up and down some. I've seen us getting better in some areas. Our execution has gotten better than it was. I've seen individuals getting better. But we're just missing so many things in terms of our maturity when it comes to this game of basketball and the preparation. It's difficult with so many new faces. We still expect results, but realistically these kids, doing it night in and night out, may have a little more than they can handle right now."
On this week's opponents:
"Oklahoma is obviously an NCAA team and surely they will know what's at stake because I think they're still jockeying for that fourth seed. They need to get this game. That means they're going to come in and be ready to play. They have the components to beat you pretty bad, so we definitely have to try to make sure we have everybody on the same page in that game.
"Nebraska is somewhat like us. They've played up and down. At moments they've played some good basketball. For us every game is a challenge. We expect those guys to give us all we can handle on Saturday afternoon."
On guarding Oklahoma's Eduardo Najera:
"There will probably be some double teams coming at him because we can't match up with him man for man. It just wouldn't be to our advantage. We may start out that way, but before the game's over with, you're going to probably see us trap some and zone some just to try to throw him off balance."
On Andy Slocum's progression:
"He started off slow, but most big kids do. The biggest thing with him is to try to keep his confidence up. He's beginning to gain some confidence now that he's put a couple of games back-to-back that have been pretty good. He's beginning to see his upside that we saw a lot sooner than he may have. When you go back to the Texas game, he was our leading scorer with 14 points and that's going against a lot of good big men without Aaron Jack to take some of the pressure off of him. He was left alone to battle for himself. That is what I wanted to see in him and that is what I wanted to see in all these young players. If you gain some confidence through this tough year, knowing that you can compete at this level, it will benefit you greatly. I think Andy's done that."
On Bernard King:
"I think Bernard should definitely be conference freshman of the year. I'm probably a little biased in that statement, but I think he has really stepped his game up and he's a young man who we've put ourselves on his back quite a few times. That's a lot to ask of a freshman, but he's been there for us."
On Early Signees Trayvean Scott and Nick Anderson:
"They both are having excellent years. They should once again win the state championship. Nick just recently missed making the McDonald's All-American team. He's had a super, super year. People are even saying he may be even in contention for the Mr. Basketball title for the state of Louisiana. When I first saw him, I didn't think we'd be able to get him. The talk was of him going to Arizona, but Tom (Billeter) and Lew (Hill) got involved there and did a good job."
"LSU wanted Trayvean more than they wanted Nick. They liked his defensive intensity and how he runs the team. They were trying to get him. We had to beat LSU to get him more than we did for Nick Anderson. They felt like they had a kid at that position so they didn't recruit him."
On Early Signee Nolan Butterfras:
"He got hurt at the beginning of the season and really messed his ankle up and struggled the whole year. He probably came back a little too soon, but he just wanted to get back out there and play. He didn't have the type of year that I think he would have anticipated having. When we recruited him, we knew he would come in and be a complimentary player for us. We don't expect him to come and all of a sudden set the world on fire. We liked his up side, whereas Nick has the potential to come in and make an impact just like Bernard did."