December 15, 2003
Coach Melvin Watkins met with members of the media on Monday at Cain Hall. The Aggies hit the road on Thursday when they meet Texas-San Antonio in the Alamodome in San Antonio on Thursday at 8 p.m. The game will be televised regionally by FOX Sports Net.
Here is a partial transcript of comments made by Coach Watkins during the news conference.
How surprised are you at how your team has played so far?
"I'm surprised that defensively we are not performing at the level I thought we would. And, quite honestly, I thought Antoine Wright would be playing better. We've got to get him playing at the level he's capable of. If we do those things, we can right the ship."
The players said all you worked on last week in practice was defense, so there has to be some frustration with how they played against Corpus Christi...
"Our defensive IQ is not what it needs to be. If you break it down to the very fundamentals of what we're trying to do defensively, we're getting beat off the dribble too much. You see teams get beat off the dribble, but we tend to make that second mistake of our back line not giving the support we need when we have a breakdown. I think it's a combination of those two things. We've got to identify those things better and if we do that, then it will turn this team around."
Are you thinking about changing some of the things you normally do defensively and maybe experimenting a little?
"We surely have. We may become more of a zone team than I would like, but we've got to find a way to be able to defend, whether that's man, or extending our defense or half-court traps. We've got to find a way to do that. So we may play more zone than I would like but if we can be more effective, then so be it."
Where do you think this team is headed?
"I still think we're going to get on track. We practiced yesterday (Sunday), which was a scheduled day off, but I wanted to come back and look in the players' eyes to make sure we haven't thrown the towel in or that we're not so down that we can't fight back and respond to the challenges before us. I still feel good that we are going to find a way to communicate some things on the defensive end and continue to do some good things on the offensive end. Basically, it's been a lack of consistent defense that has gotten us to play the way we've played lately. We've got to go back to the practice floor, we've got to identify it and we've got to get better."
What did you see in the players eyes in the Sunday morning practice?
"I saw a team that was obviously disappointed that we didn't play well and didn't get the win. But I also saw a team that was anxious to get back on the practice floor. As long as I see that, I can at least be confident that we're going to get better. We talked about what positives we could take away from that game. We got down and could have thrown in the towel, but I thought our kids fought back. In the huddle in those closing minutes were some things I want to see more of in our huddles, but not because we are down. I had kids saying 'we're not going to lose this game' and 'we're going to fight back.' That was good to see. Can we build something from that? I like to think we can."
Does Antoine (Wright) maybe feel the weight of the program on his shoulders?
"I think a lot of things are going on with Antoine. I don't know if it's the weight of the program, but the fact he's gotten so much publicity about being a (potential) professional basketball player and possibly not coming back (next year). I think some of that has been a distraction for Antoine. He's still a young basketball player who I think is still developing his game. He's not a finished product. When you start adding those factors in with people telling him this and telling him that, I don't think it's been a positive thing for him. We're trying to get him to settle down and play like we know he can play. He's not shooting his free throws well, he's not shooting his jump shot well, but still he's a very talented basketball player. Some of it has gotten to be a mental drain on him. We've got to take some of that pressure off of him as best we can."
Does Antoine need more touches offensively?
"We've talked about that and we want to get him some more touches, but some of it has to be that he gets his confidence back. He's had some opportunities where he's elected not to take those shots. That's not something we've told him to do. The other thing is that he's turned the ball over a little too much. Those were probably some more shot opportunities for him. He's just not playing as well and we know he can and as well as he knows he can. He's in a slump and he needs to work his way thorough it. We've sat down with the whole team and redefined roles. His role was that he's got to be a go-to player. That doesn't mean we want him to start taking a lot of questionable shots but for him to fit into that role, I'm going to have to allow him a little more freedom in some of his shots. We had been working with him so much about shot selection and quality of shots. That's still going to ba a part of it, but I'm going to have to give him a little more of a green light to be little bit more expressive on the offensive end. But our primary concern is defense to the point that everyone has to take responsibility of doing a better job on the defensive end. We'll continue to develop Antoine as that go-to player, but my major concern is with our defense and becoming a better defensive team."
How do you teach mental toughness and leadership?
"I'm going to write a book and make a lot of money if I can figure that one out. That's something that is very difficult to do. You talk about it and try to explain it the best you can, but that is a very tough thing when you have some kids who don't already have what we call mental toughness. That's one of the things we've been searching for a little bit, to get mentally tougher. You can change practices a little bit, but some coaches want to go in there and rough everyone up and they end up getting everyone hurt. So, you don't want to do that, but we're going to be more demanding and try to make sure our concentration is there for the whole practice. Those are some of the things you can do to try to shore up that mental toughness. Every team has its leaders but we've been one that's been searching for that leader out there on the floor. I don't know that it has shown itself, even in practice, to where it needs to be. That's a by-product of us struggling right now, trying to find that leader. When you find that leader, you want it to be someone who is going to be mentally tough to get the others players to follow suit. We're struggling with that. I think Acie Law and Keith Blanks sometimes display that mental toughness we talk about. Only time will tell if the upperclassmen will follow them, but we've got to identify and find that person. We look for Antoine to be some of that, but then again, his play hasn't been as good as it should be and that hurts. Before it's said and done, it's probably going to end up being Antoine, but we've got to get him playing to his potential and that will help that process a lot more. He's a second-year player who had some success as a freshman, but he's still just a sophomore. I'd prefer it to be some of the players in our senior class who have been through the wars a little bit. But to this point, that hasn't been the case. We've got to find it and once we do, you'll see this team play a lot better."
Obviously, you want a win at UTSA on Thursday, but what else would you like to see happen?
"I'd like to see our defense become more cohesive. We've been talking about taking pride in our defense and all those things, and our practices have been weighed more toward the defensive side to the point where I get a little concerned we might start not doing some things offensively. But we're going to continue to do that because we know that's an area where we've just got to get better and we've got to get smarter. The only way I know how to do that is to keep practicing and keep drilling it and make sure the kids understand what we want."
With the loss to Corpus Christi, do you feel like you're coaching for your job?
"Most coaches always feel like they're coaching for their job. We know that we are in a situation where we need to be competitive and win ball games. Last year, we were 14-14 and that was the first time in many years that we didn't have a losing season. I still feel like I did at the start of the season, that we're going to have a winning season and a team that will be very competitive and get to postseason play. My focus is on doing the things we need to do to help this team develop to its potential. Right now, we're not playing up to our potential and it's my job and my staff's job to make sure we do that. You have to focus on the things you can control. We're 3-3 with two road losses and I thought the Corpus Christi game was one we should have won and didn't. But there are many more games left and a lot of basketball to be played. We're not playing our best right now but we can easily turn that around and start playing some good basketball. Then we can look back and say we learned something from this experience that will help us down the road somewhere. The last couple of weeks haven't been easy, but I tend to look at our team and tune out everything else on the peripheral. I look at the potential of this team and where I think we can go. I see a lot of positive things and I know we're going to turn this thing around and start winning basketball games. I haven't gotten to the point where I'm ready to throw the towel in. I still believe we can make postseason play. Once we work out a few wrinkles and get everybody healthy, we're going to be in a position to do that. Being the sixth year of our program, I think it's realistic for our fans to expect us to get into postseason play. I've been in this business a long time. You can't continue to be in programs, particularly one of this stature, and just be so-so. You've got to go out and produce. One of the ways you evaluate your program is recruiting, but above and beyond that is winning ball games and getting into postseason play."
Talk about the UTSA game...
"Right now, because of our psyche, all these teams are dangerous. What happens is that because those teams think they can beat us -- and rightfully so -- they'll come in and play us a little harder. You might say this is a big game for UTSA, but it's a big game for us, too. We need to go and get that win on the road, get some confidence and get back on track."