November 27, 2000
(On Monday morning's 5:30 a.m. practice)
"Everybody showed up and listened to what I had to say. It was kind of what you might call gut-check time. That's the good part of it. Actually, it was just one of those in-house meetings where we watched tape and just aired out a lot of things. We've got some things going on with the team. And I'm not going to get into all that, but we've got some problems we're trying to rectify right now. I got a very good sense that they [the players] were receptive, but as I have always said, talk is cheap. Now, we need to see some things played out into the practice environment and then, of course, out onto the playing floor. Some good things were said from some of the right types of people. I will say that. But, there again, it's talk. We have to show it on the court."
(Is Wednesday's game against Morris Brown a must-win, or must-effort game?)
"It's a must-effort performance. Otherwise, we haven't accomplished anything. It should be a different basketball team on the floor come Wednesday night than we saw in our last outing. "
(Was the loss to Birmingham-Southern a result of the problems you mentioned?)
"It's a combination. I can't say there's one thing. We've been having some bad practices and we came out and played like we've been practicing. That's kind of the biproduct of what's been going on from not just last night, but for a little while now. Trying to create the competition in practices has been very difficult."
(Do you have a finger on why that is?)
"We look at it, and we've got eight scholarship athletes right now that we pretty much use. Our numbers are down, we've got some injuries and so players can look around and say 'I'm going to play no matter what.' Now, I think that's taking advantage of an opportunity. But players do that. Kids do that. We surely don't appreciate that and so we're trying to address some of those issues."
(You're pretty much a soft-spoken kind of guy. You're not someone who yells or thumps his chest a lot. But, I get the idea that you might not have been quite as soft spoken this morning as what we're used to seeing?)
"Right. I'm one way with my team and probably another way with the general public. Because I tend to be a private person I tend to do things with the team that I don't want to be public. And even now, I am not going to criticize any particular player. Those are the type of things that I take responsibility for. We talk about having a family environment and I think that some of those things are best to be kept in-house. It could come to a certain point, when that may not be the best. Where we are now with some things, we've got to work our way through. By no means, am I saying to panic and just toss the season in. But surely, there are some things we've got to address and do it within and take responsibility and ownership to some of the problems that we're having."
(Yesterday was the type of game you hope you are past?)
"Yes, sure. Not to take anything away from Birmingham-Southern, but that's a game that we should win no matter what when you look at it in terms of the road ahead of us and the type of competition ahead of us. But at the same time, I'll tell you that if you come out and play with no emotion and with no passion, anybody can beat you. We are not a team that's deep enough nor good enough to just roll the balls out and play. And last night we tried to do that and we saw the results. Our kids felt it, too. They felt it at the end. But once again, we thought that we could just come out and say eeYeah, I'm ready to go coach.' But our body language and our actions did not say that once we got into the game.
(After the North Texas game, you talked about how you were proud that it was a game that the team might not have won last season and that they couldn't maintain it at that level. What's it going to take if the team picks up the effort come Wednesday, to maintain it for the rest of the season?)
"The answer to that is something on-going. I don't know that it's one thing that we will put our finger on. It's something to where we will constantly have to remind certain guys or stuff that we will constantly have to talk about now and make sure that we deal with those things when we see them pop up. It's a situation where we've got some problems with leadership or lack thereof, camaraderie and those things that I know you need to have a good team. It has nothing to do with talent. We've got some talent. But talent doesn't win ball games. You've got to have a kid, and you'd like to have more than just one, that you know is going to lay it on the line every night."
(Were you bothered watching the game and game film?)
"I was bothered watching the game and the film. This morning came at 5 a.m. and I was still up. I haven't been to bed yet. It bothered the heck out of me. I can handle a loss. But when you give no effort and you appear to just not care, that really bothers the heck out of me. That's why it's such a difficult loss because I feel like we gave no effort."
(Have you ever had that kind of loss that has had that kind of effect to the point that would make you stay up all night?)
"No. I have had losses that have bothered me, but not to this degree because of the way we lost that game. We didn't appear to want to play at all. I know that at times you can start off real sluggish. And it may take you five minutes, maybe seven minutes to recover. But for 40 minutes, I have never seen that. I guess we all get exposed to those things. "
(This morning, other than meeting, did you actually work out?)
"Our attempt was to work out. But we never got to that point and we have some guys that have some 8 a.m. classes or we might still be talking now."
(Was the meeting more the coaches talking?)
"It started with me showing the tape right at the beginning of the game and the first mental mistakes we made. That right there says we're not ready to play. We only got halfway through the tape. We had enough dialogue and conversation from the players and coaches to last right up until their classes."
(Will you make line-up changes? Your numbers are kind of limited?)
"That's a possibility. I'm not ready to say that, yet, but it's a possibility. I really don't want to box myself into something, but it may be that it [the line-up changes] has to be a part of it."
(You said you weren't ready to give up on this season, but is this kind of a crisis situation?)
"It depends. What I hope will happen is that we will look back on this and say it was a turning point in this season. It wouldn't be a crisis, but something that we surely got a lot out of and we don't always want to lose in order to learn things. But on the other hand, because of the way the discussion went in our meetings, if we don't get the response now, yeah, it could be a crisis in terms of kids just laying down on you for the whole season. We've surely put some things out there on the table, identified some areas and personnel and made it very clear what has to happen."
(On Andy Slocum's condition?)
"He's done for the year as best we know. He had his shoulder scoped last week and that should be it as far surgery goes. He was there this morning and was in a sling and all. It looks like a red-shirt, unofficially. The good thing is that Tomas (Ress) may be ready to go Tuesday for practice, obviously limited, however.
(On Tomas Ress's condition?)
"I was told that if he starts practicing Tuesday, it will be up to him how much he can handle and for me not to limit him. That would mean he has the green light. That means he's going to play, but whether it's five minutes or two minutes, that part I don't know. But if the doctors say that he has the green light to go, he goes. They are taking out the catheter today."
(On freshman Nolan Butterfras?)
"We plan to bring Nolan along slowly. He works hard in practice, but he's not quite ready yet. Knowing that we won't have Slocum back, and if we get Tomas back, that'll help some things. But throwing Nolan into D-I games, that's not ideal right now."
(On Carlton Brown's improvement?)
"Carlton was a bright spot last night. He's playing well. Carlton alone won't help us win ball games. We're still missing that team camaraderie. Carlton is quiet and kind of an introverted person. We need Carlton to be a little bit more vocal and bring that type of thing to the team. We're a team without a soul right now. It's tough. And every good team that I have been associated with has always had that core player to be the guy. We just don't have that right now. Carlton and Aaron Jack are the captains. We need it from our seniors. This goes back to Clifton Cook (the 1999 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year who was declared academically ineligible in 1999-2000). One thing he did do, was come to practice everyday with his hard hat on. If we were able to keep Clifton and bring Bernard and Jamaal in underneath him, that might have rubbed off. But Clifton's not there. So they (the younger guys) are playing and developing bad habits and they think that's what D-I basketball is all about because they're getting to play. But that's so far from it. They didn't have that guy that they could have looked to. So now, they've established leadership in a losing program. And winning is a habit, but losing is, too, unfortunately. So some things have been created that are not necessarily good for the team. Last year, we got through it with only eight wins. Some of the kids took some consolation in that they got to play as a freshman. We've used that excuse. Now, it's about winning games. These guys are not freshman anymore."
(On Nick Anderson?)
"Nick is wide-eyed. He's looking for somebody on that team to embrace and follow. We need a guy on the team to step up and show some leadership. Who we are going to get it from, is what we're searching for. You can try to create it, but kids know if it's false. They sense it if it's manufactured or if it comes from the heart. That's priority number one. It's not out of my control, but those are things that are causing me to have sleepless nights. I'm not worried about Morris Brown, I'm worried about us. If we don't get some things worked out, they are going to beat us, too, and then you can go right down the line."