February 08, 2005
Texas A&M men's basketball coach Billy Gillispie met with local and state media members for his weekly media luncheon on Tuesday at Cain Hall. Here are excerpts:
Opening Statement
"It was a good win for us on Saturday. It was about as good of a half as I've been a part of. We had a couple games like that last year where we made everything we shot. I've never seen a team make nine threes in a row and I doubt if we'll ever see that again. I would like to as long as it's our team."
Is Dominique Kirk becoming more comfortable?
"I don't think it has anything to do with being comfortable. I think he's been comfortable all year long. I think the competition in the Big 12 is very difficult and he's not a very strong guy right now. He'll be strong. His will is as strong as any I've seen. He never worries about if he made his last shot. That's an awfully hard thing to do as a freshman. He never worries about the last play; he always focuses on the next. I think he's been comfortable all year long. He is a very good shooter even though his numbers might not say that. I never worry when he shoots it because when he shoots it I think it's going to go in. He's a smart player. He's a tough player. He's a bounce-back guy."
How pleased have you been with your two freshmen, Joseph Jones and Dominique Kirk, being able to step in and start every game?
"Not too many of us in life have that ability. Those guys are special guys in that respect. It's hard to stay confident in the Big 12. It's hard to stay confident as a senior and it's definitely hard to stay confident as a freshman. Nothing seems to bother those guys. We have rough roads ahead. I understand that. We have an extremely hard part of our schedule coming up. We only have three home games, four on the road. The home games that we have are teams that are playing as well as anyone in the league. We have a lot of work to do. We usually start playing our best offensively around the first of February. We practiced Thursday and Friday like we played Saturday in the second half. We made everything we shot. You never expect that to happen because it's not very common, but they practiced like that. You look at Coach Self's team, I promise they're about to hit their stride right now. Our teams are always pretty good defensively for the whole year, but really start hitting their offensive stride around the first of February. I don't know why it's like that."
Are you glad to have a week between games right now?
"We need some rest. We need some physical rest. Acie's ankle has still been messed up the entire conference season basically. We were off two days in a row, Sunday and Monday. We've never done that before. I think we have different circumstances with freshman playing a lot of minutes. We're not playing a ton of guys and I really think it helped us. It doesn't matter if you play Wednesday or Saturday, when you play Oklahoma State you have to play your absolute best. They're playing great right now. They are a great team. I think we need as much energy and rest as we can get. They're as good a defensive team as I've ever seen. They average twenty-three and a half years of age and they have six seniors. They went to the Final Four last year and they're very talented. What more can you say about them? They're great."
Have you discussed any postseason scenarios with your team?
"I'm not talking about postseason too much right now. We're just talking about day-to-day, just like we always have, and we'll add them up at the end and see where we are. I think the experience would be something great, but again, we're not confused. We are a hard-playing, blue collar team. We could play our absolute best the last seven games of the season and not win any of them. People probably don't think that's possible. It's very, very possible. We have to not get ahead of ourselves or anything like that. We can't think that we've done something special. What we have done special is play hard everyday and become a very close team. Hopefully, that focus stays there. If you go to practice, you know that they're not going to get too far ahead of themselves. We take every possession like it's our last. These guys have bought into that and accepted that. They are a very, very close team that plays extremely hard together. They've maximized their abilities thus far. If you do that, win, lose, or draw you're okay. Hopefully, we'll keep doing that until we can improve our roster. We're happy with the guys we've got but we've got to have more guys to be able to do well in this conference."
Talk about Antoine's play in the second half against Missouri...
"I thought he played fine in the first half. He's been aggressive all year long. He finished plays better in this game. Antoine has been great. I haven't seen him play better than he did in the second half on Saturday. Bobby (Leach) couldn't have played any better. Dominique (Kirk) was very good. Joseph (Jones) kept us in the game in the first half. I think Antoine has learned how to make better decisions on when to drive and when to shoot. I want him to shoot more. We've been telling him that all year long, but he's always concerned about being unselfish and those things. I think he's really starting to put it together. Acie Law was as good as he could be. He had 10 assists in the second half. Our team had 19 assists and 2 turnovers in the second half. That's not very common in a Big 12 game. Hopefully, that will happen again. Everybody was playing their best games of the year at the same time. Again, that doesn't happen very often."
Have you seen increased interest in Antoine by the NBA scouts?
"Well, they're all showing up right now. I think that there was a time when they didn't think quite as much of him as they do right now. I think they think very highly of him, as they should, because he's really a good player. I think the things that he's gained through maturity and the things that we're the most proud are that he's become a great teammate. He's a very, very good leader and he's one of the hardest working guys we've got. When you have a very talented guy like that and he works that hard, nobody has any reason not to work that hard. I think (the scouts) see that. Everybody has bragged about all those kind of intangible things. Everybody knew he could play, but he's putting it all together right now. We'll talk about all that (draft) stuff when it comes time."
Is it fun coaching against so many Hall of Fame coaches in the Big 12?
"It's not any fun at all. It's an honor to play against those guys, but it's not any fun because they don't have any weaknesses and their teams play without weakness. You have to be so good and so lucky just to win a game. There are so many good players and so many home courts that are hard to win on. No, it's not fun. Every team in the Big XII is unbelievably well coached."