January 24, 2005
Coach Billy Gillispie met with local and state media members for his weekly media luncheon on Monday at Cain Hall. Following are excerpts:
Before you get started on Nebraska, talk a little bit about Bobby Leach. It seems like you've shortened your bench a little bit. Is that because of Leach, or is he just one of the beneficiaries? The last four games he's been right at double figures, or just below.
"He's been great for us. He's been good all year long. I really do think that when Big 12 play starts, you have a hard time surviving without experience. Bobby is the only senior we have on our team. We only have three or four guys that have played at that level going into conference, so I do think that he's been around a little bit and seen some things. His experience has played a major part in him playing well. He really knows how to play and is very efficient. Right now, he's not turning over the ball. He's making sure we get a shot at the basket when he's running the point. He's usually guarding a bigger, stronger, more athletic guy. He's been fantastic for our team."
You talked about how at the beginning of the season he really didn't think his shot was going in and worked real hard to get confidence in that. Is that the senior going the extra mile for you, and what you need to see from those experienced guys?
"The reason his shot doesn't go in is because it's got a sideways rotation, but he makes big shots and I feel confident when he shoots that he knows how to get in the mid-range area. He's got a real old-style, slow game, but I think a lot of people can learn by watching Bobby. When we make mistakes, it's usually because we're rushing things. Bobby's slow, but his pace changes all the time. That's what really good players do. They don't always go one speed because it makes them easier to guard. But his shot is going in because he's hustling to spots to get open shots. He can make the open shot when he can get it. He has to keep playing well for us. Again, our margin for error is very small. We have to have him play well. We have to have Edjuan Green continue to get better. We have to have Marlon Pompey give us what he can, and we need to find another guard that's going to give us some production off the bench."
You played eight players the other day. Is that a little low for you? Is that why you need somebody else off the bench to maybe get to nine or maybe 10 players?
"I think most coaches in conference play would probably play nine. You play as many good guys as you have, as many guys that are capable of playing in that particular game. You'd like to play more, because guys deserve to play because their practice effort and habits and those kinds of things. But at the same time, you can't afford to give up a basket. We've had some guys come off the bench before and not even know who they're guarding and they give up a basket. They don't understand that most games in this conference are going to come down to one or two possessions. You can't give up a basket. They have to earn every single thing that they get. Until they earn their spot, they're not going to get playing time. But hopefully we're going to get more guys playing more minutes."
Acie said that you didn't want to call Kansas State a must-win but now looking at it, how important was that win to stop a two-game skid and keep momentum going in conference play?
"I don't think any win is a must-win. We don't have a must-win for our team this year. We need to continue to get better. That's what I told those guys. It's a must-continue-to-get-better for us everyday. I know that's boring or whatever. We won't get confused, we haven't been confused, we're not confused now in where we are. The expectations are not going to destroy this team and they're not going to engulf this team. What we do is we expect to work hard every single day in practice. With my experience, I know that your team is going to continue to get better if you do that. I have no doubt that we're going to continue to do that. I heard that Acie said it was a must-win. Those guys, I believe, have gotten into the habit of working hard every single day. If we had gotten beat, I think they would work extremely hard today in practice. We won and I think they will work extremely hard today in practice. That's what I want to be able to do this year -- practice really hard all year long and continue to improve. There's only one must-win, and that's when you get into conference tournament or you get into postseason play. If you don't win then, you don't get to play anymore. We must play well, though. That's the way I look at it."
You talked about them doing the process of winning and not focusing so much on just winning. What was that?
"The way we defend is, I think, the way that you're supposed to defend. You know we had some breakdowns, like everybody does, because Kansas State ran a really difficult offense, and they've got really good pieces. They've got really good players. I think they've got 10 players that are Big 12 caliber players, in my opinion, and so I really do think that. Ithought that we played as hard as we could possibly play against Oklahoma. I thought that we played very hard against Texas Tech. Those teams are really good teams, as we're seeing. Oklahoma is undefeated and Tech could very well be undefeated. Someone said this morning in the conference call, 'your team got off track.' We weren't off track. I mean, let's give credit where credit is due -- to our opponents. We have to keep on getting better to have any kind of chance, but I do think they have learned that if you practice hard everyday, you play hard, you play smart, you play together, then you're going to have a chance to win. If you've got the best roster in the country, you have to do the same thing. If you've got a challenged roster, you've got to do that to have a chance to win. I think they're taking those things to heart. It's easy. I mean, we all want to win. The reason they keep score is because you want to try to win. I think we all want to win."
How big was Bobby when Acie went out, just keeping everybody calm?
"It was big. Acie's been out before and Bobby has come in and played very well. You don't want Acie going down with an injury right at the start of the game and we dealt with it for 10 minutes or whatever, but luckily he was able to come back in and played outstanding. But having Bobby there, a senior backup guy like that who you can depend on, is a really nice luxury."
Is it better for you, or worse for you that Nebraska has already played Kansas? Does that help you or hurt you, because you are playing a similar style, and a similar system to what Kansas has already played against them with?
"It's not about plays, it's about players. We may run the same plays or whatever, but as much as I love our guys, defending our team and defending their team is not even on the same planet. I love our guys, but we don't have a roster like Kansas has. They could have played them or not played them. It makes no difference. Every coach in this league is going to have his team prepared to play any X's and O' that you might throw at them. I wouldn't think that gives them an advantage or gives us an advantage either way."
When Acie was in high school, I'm sure you saw him play. What was kind of the scouting report on him, when he was coming up in high school?
"He was a really talented guy with the ball. He's a guy that could create baskets. That's the thing about the Big 12, and the best leagues in the country, is you could have as many great plays and offenses and all that kind of stuff that you want to, but teams are going to scout and report all that stuff out. What it comes down to is the last 10 or 15 seconds of the shot clock. Out of 16 games, in 14 you are going to have to have somebody that can make a play on his own. Acie can definitely do that. That's what separates him from a lot of players. He can really do that. Antoine can do that. Joseph can make something out of nothing. Those are elite guys in this league and we've seen a ton like them on other teams. We have three guys, in my opinion, that can make something out of nothing. That's probably what Acie was. He could make something out of everything in high school but he'd make something out of nothing in college."
He was much more of a scoring guard in high school. He wanted to come here and he really wanted to be a point guard. How tough is that transition?
"I think it's very difficult to see if a guy can play at the Big 12 level. Some are no brainers, but the guys that have to develop have so many question marks and you're limited on how much time you can talk to them and see them. When you're talking about a point guard position, you're talking about so many intangibles that it's crazy. You're talking about being able to handle pressure. You're talking about being able to lead your team and start an offense. You're talking about, in Acie's case, a guy that has to start the offense but also has to figure out a way to score. You're talking about a guy that has to be a great leader in the locker room, on and off the court. He has to start our defense as well. It's a really, really hard position to play and not too many people master it, but he's turning into a really fine lead guard. There's just not too many of them out there. We've always been lucky to have one. We had a great one at UTEP last year. We had two or three at Illinois. We had guys at Tulsa and we had a great one at Baylor. One guy can make such a difference in your team if you have one. One guy can make a major difference in your team if you don't. Tom Brady knows how to win. I don't know anything about football, but I know that guy knows how to win. He probably can't throw it as hard as some other guys but he's leading his team every single time they get on the field and that's what we expect out of Acie."
Is winning on the road something you talk about with this team?
"No, we don't talk that much about winning anywhere. We talk about, and I know it's boring, but we talk about getting better. If you don't play great as a team, if you don't play great defense, if you don't make some shots and those kinds of things, you can't win anywhere, but especially on the road. It's very difficult. What we've talked about was being able to have the home-court advantage, because you have to be able to take care of the home court in order to have a chance to be competitive in this league. I think that we're definitely establishing a home court advantage here at Reed, but on the road, you have to play in four-minute segments and you just have to fight tooth and nail and hope that you can advance from one segment to the other. Then, hopefully, you get to halftime and not get too out of shape and then come out of the halftime locker room and take another minute at a time and try to have some kind of a chance at the end. K-State had a great plan. They got there, then suddenly we go three threes in a row. You've got to put yourself in a position much like we did at Penn State and Kansas. We were in position both of those games and then at the end of the game, Kansas makes a shot on us. At the end of the game, we make a shot on Penn State. We were heading in the right direction at Texas Tech, because we hadn't played as well as we could because of how well they were playing, but even though we were down 10 at the half, we cut it back to four or five. We just made too many fouls and too many mental errors on the road, but we had the chance to win. I think that we've put ourselves in position, for the most part, to have some kind of chance, maybe throwing a half court shot or something like that, at the end. That's what it usually takes. Until our roster changes, we're going to just have to play four-minute segments, and just hope that we can advance from one to the next. It's very difficult."
Did Joseph learn anything from playing against Oklahoma's big front line? Is that maturation process continuing the way you had hoped?
"Yes, he's getting better all the time. You don't have to tell him the same thing twice. He had some games where he didn't play as well as he could, but he usually doesn't have two games in a row. If he got whipped physically on Tuesday night, like I think he did - and those guys whip a lot of guys physically -- then you don't really have to tell Joseph that, "hey, you kind of got pushed around." He usually doesn't make those mistakes and even though K-State's front line wasn't as imposing as Oklahoma's, they had guys that were really big and strong and physical, and I thought that he battled back. If I were playing us, I'd play just like everyone else is playing us. I'd pressure the heck out of Acie. I would not let Antoine have any easy baskets and I would push Joseph around. I would make those guys really earn their points and I would hope that the other guys, the Bobby Leaches, the Chris Walkers, Dominique Kirks, Edjuan Greens, Marlon and those kind of guys, don't come in and have a career day. But going back to Joseph, he continues to get better and he was sick as a dog. He's feeling better now, but he was as sick as he could possibly be. It was all about courage on Saturday for him.
Say a little about Nebraska...
"They're good. You know I'd say that no matter what, but they are good. They run the Princeton offense and they do a really good job of exposing you. They're very efficient. You would think Princeton is used to scoring forty or fifty and all that kind of stuff. A lot of teams, like you saw North Carolina State destroy Maryland yesterday on TV, they're running the Princeton offense but they're running it at a faster pace, and they're production is very efficient. That's what Nebraska is. They really shoot the three well. You have to guard all five positions, which is a definite challenge for us because we're not as mobile as some teams are, as far as to guard on the perimeter like that, with all five spots, so that will be difficult for us. We'll have to really pressure and limit their backdoor opportunities and then contest their threes. That's hard to do. They're good. They're mostly man, but they'll mix it up some. They're very well coached. Coach Collier has done a great job over there and they're really hard to beat. I think they're a team that could emerge as one of the upper echelon teams in the league, if they continue to get better."