November 28, 2005
Head men's basketball coach Billy Gillispie met with members of the press Monday at his weekly media luncheon held at Cain Hall.
Click the link to the right to listen to the press conference. A transcript is posted below.
Billy Gillispie Media Luncheon Quotes
On feeding the ball to Joseph Jones...
"We should throw it down there every time. We have a really good player down there. That is the way that things are designed to work, we are going to work inside out. We are getting better at it, but we are still not good enough. Tulane has a nice team and I think they played extremely hard. They had some really big bodies. It was good for Joseph to go up against some big bodies. He hadn't had to do that thus far. I thought he responded very well. He had 20 points and seven rebounds. He needs to do that for us and I think he will. When we throw the ball inside it opens everything up for everybody. I think that Eddie Smith and Josh Carter become better shooters. It makes Acie, as good as he is offensively, even better. Dominique Kirk becomes a shot maker, so we have to play inside out.
"Regardless of whether you throw it in there and they put a double team on him, most teams are going to double him. If they don't double-team him he is going to have a pretty good night offensively. If they do, he is a great passer out of the post and it opens everything up for everyone else. The games that we have played so far they have had to put an extra guy on Joe and that is why we are able to shoot from the top of the circle so many times. You have to pick your poison. If we reverse the ball like we should, with quick ball and player movement, they are forced to guard Joe with a helper if they help then we are going to get a wide open shot at the top. If they don't then Joe is going to have a one-on-one opportunity and we will be throwing a lot of passes to him. Because of the way he plays it really forces people to guard him with more than one guy."
On defensive strategy...
"We play full court man every game. Time will tell if our depth will help us pressure more. I am not big on depth. I am big on quality and I do think that we have quality depth. Every game we have played we have started out full court man. It is no secret that we are going to play full court man on makes and half court man on misses. That is what we have done in the thirty-something games since I got here. We have more potential this year for quality depth. Because we don't have a guy like Antoine, you know that Antoine is going to play 32 minutes. This year it may be 10, 10, and 12, I don't know we are still trying to figure it out. I do think that last year and this year we have been able to pressure teams. It has a major effect in the latter stages of the game. I am not big on giving my teams nicknames. Your play defines itself, a nickname you give yourself doesn't make you what the name is. I would rather your opponents nickname you what you are, and hopefully it is not soft."
On progress of team through three games...
"Our guys have done well. I think they are ahead of the game defensively right now. Our problem is our physical size. We are a little bit light in the pants on the perimeter as far as comparing yourself to Big 12 teams. On Saturday night those guys were a lot bigger, stronger, and more physical than us. We did a really good job on the defensive boards on Saturday, but doing that over the course of 25 or so games is something that you are concerned about. I like our defense. I think our transition defense has been fantastic for this time of the year. I think that offensively we move the ball well for this early in the season. We played Miss. Valley really well. We didn't turn the ball over much against their pressure. We played a very physical Tulane team that tried to knock us around and we didn't turn it over much. Our guys share the ball. They are a real team and they help each other offensively and defensively."
On number of fouls against Tulane...
"I guess both teams were playing pretty rough in the referees' minds. I don't know, I thought our guys were doing much, much better. I watched the tape and still think they did much, much better. That is just the way the refs called. I don't think they are playing too aggressively, because we won. I don't want to foul. I think our guys are doing a much better job of playing what I consider good defense without fouling. We have to adjust to the game is called. We haven't done that well yet."
On Josh Carter...
"He is in there because he can shoot it. He is a fantastic passer. His defense is not where it needs to be, or can be. But he is way ahead of the game because of his understanding of basketball. He does a great job of allowing someone to coach him. He takes correction and corrective measures. He really knows how to position himself. We are asking him to do something that he is not ready physically to do right now, pressure so much. But that is the way we play and you can't do it unless you try. He is a reallyl smart basketball player. He thinks two plays ahead. He is tall and can shoot it, he is going to be a great player for us. The other guys that should be starting at that position for us are still trying to make the quality plays that he is making. He has been a major surprise to me. I always thought he was going to be a good player. But you never think you are going to be counting on a freshman as much as we are counting on him. He has done some good things for this team already and he is going to get better. He has been a surprise to his teammates and me. I think he will have some difficult time because of his size and lack of strength. Josh is so smart he will find a way to make up for his shortcomings."
On Martellus Bennett...
"At Illinois we had a football player come in and we went four and five. We were the No. 1 team in the country and we started four and five in conference. He hurt his knee and we went on a seven game win streak. I don't know how Martellus will adjust. He will come in and work hard like everyone else. I know that he is a very good person and a very competitive guy. If you had to profile a guy to play on our team, he would be a very good person to measure that too. He would be competitive, tall, strong, and athletic and have a big body. He definitely fits the profile. Anybody would like that kind of guy. The intangibles will be the things that determine how quickly he will be able to make a big impact on our team. He is definitely capable of doing that. As far as working him in, you start off as fast as you can and gradually increase the speed. He will do fine. The team is anxious to have him as their teammate and I think he is too. He will hit the ground running. He can help us, and we can help him. I don't know anything about football, except that I like to watch it. I think a guy that gets that much attention and is that highly recruited and watched, you would think that the only thing he wants to do is catch the football or something like that. You would assume, in basketball, all he would want to do is score, but from what I have understood, and what he has done. He takes care of the little things, and is competitive. Those are the kind of guys that we like. Guys that do whatever they can to win, and it sounds like he is an unselfish player and wants to do well for the team. I wouldn't assume he would be a selfish guy, but when you have a guy like blocking that well, that is probably not something he had to do a lot in high school. For him to do that probably meant a lot to the coaches and teammates. I don't think it is going to take a long time for him to adjust to playing, but I don't know. I think he is coming to practice today, but that is up to he, his family, and coach. We have tried our best to support everything, and that is the way that I think you should do it. Whenever he comes back we are going to try to coach him. I would assume that is today."
On Marlon Pompey...
"I thought Marlon would have a good season. He has worked really hard and was playing very well at the end of last year. He matured quite a bit as far as the summer. He always has worked hard at practice, but I don't think he had taken his game seriously enough during the off-season. That is when you see so much improvement. I was expecting him to have a good year. I think he has played very well in every aspect except defensive rebounding and even offensive rebounding I don't think he is getting as many boards for as athletic as he is. He has to change that. He has become more of a team leader. He is important to us in that respect. Every part of his game is better, but it is just not as good as it has to be for us to win. We saw him a long time ago, we didn't recruit him, but we saw him in the summers. He was very athletic, tall, didn't know what position, competed, not consistently, but competed. Today, you would say very athletic, tall, don't know what position, and he is more consistently competing. And he is much more skilled than he was. He shoots the ball pretty well now. He lacks a little bit of confidence; I wish he would jump up and shoot it a little bit more. He can make that shot from the top of the circle."
On Brandon Webster...
"Happy to have him, I think he is an improving big guy that is going to have a great future. His plans are to attend prep school next year. It will be a while before we see him on our campus. But he wants to be apart of the A&M basketball program. He just turned 17 years old and the sky is the limit for him. In time he has a chance to be a great player. He can run and jump and block shots. He is really improved. I am excited about him. I think the scenario that he and his coach and family chose to take the route of prep school will definitely benefit him and us in the long run as well."