Turgeon Meets Media at Weekly Luncheon

January 03, 2008

Head basketball coach Mark Turgeon met with the press on Thursday at his weekly media luncheon in College Station. Click the link to the right to listen.

The transcript:

Question: Coach I know you have a lot of guys that played LSU last year, what is it like for you getting ready for this game?

Coach Turgeon: ?Well they are different than they were last year, everything was around Big Baby (Glen Davis). Last year they were a power team, I like to think of them more as a finesse team this year. They have some really long, athletic shot blockers. They shoot the three a lot more this year than they did in the past. They have always been very athletic and they are very athletic again. He has a feel for the way he wants to coach and I have a feel for how I want to coach and that familiarity will help each coach prepare for this game.?

Question: Did they loose Chris Johnson last night?

Coach Turgeon: ?I don?™t know if he hurt. I know he didn?™t play in the second half. Coach Brady made the comment that it didn?™t look good so we will be on the internet today trying to find out but I don?™t know for sure. Maybe he will miss one game.?

Question: What does (Losing Chris Johnson) do to you guys in terms of preparing for LSU?

Coach Turgeon: ?It doesn?™t matter. If they had Shaq back we are still going to prepare the same way. We are just worried about us right now. I keep saying that. We have a young team that is getting a lot better. We did everything well against Rice except for put the ball in the basket. That was the best game we have played defensively, executing and sharing the ball that we have had in a long time. We have had a great week of practice too. We are still just worried about us. We don?™t put a lot into scouting right now and it may be a little bit different but that is the way I was taught. When I played for Larry Brown he never gave a scouting report. Roy Williams didn?™t really give very many either. We are a little more in depth than those two guys but it?™s more about our team and trying to get prepared for the Big 12.?

Question: What worries you most about your team closing out the non-conference?

Coach Turgeon: ?Just consistency. One day this guy plays well and another he doesn?™t. One day we defend, another we don?™t. I would like to be able to sit on that bench each and every night and know that we are going to guard and get help side and box out and guard the ball and talk on screens and guard screens the right way, do those thing every night. Then you know you have a chance but sometimes you have to beg them to do it or get on them to do it. Consistency is what I am really concerned about. Then just getting better in our half court offense because we haven?™t really had to be great in our half court offense. The UTEP game we had to be and we really executed at a high level during that game. At Arizona we had to be and we didn?™t execute at a high level. I know over the next month or two we are going to have to be able to execute our half court offense so we are putting a lot of effort into those two things this week.?

Question: How pleased were you with your defensive effort against Rice?

Coach Turgeon: ?It was a great lesson for us. We were in a little bit of a panic, balls were rolling out, we were missing layups and open shots so I just told them okay guys this happens, this is why you guard. It was a great learning experience for us that we could not shoot the ball well and still have control of the game. Now we are going to play obviously better teams than Rice but it was obviously a great learning experience. It was our best defensive effort so far. Our grade was like 180 good defenses to 59 bad and I know those are just numbers to you guys but our numbers haven?™t been like that. I felt that way after the game and then after watching the film I was even more pleased with the defensive effort. Across the board guys really stepped up and did what they had to do defensively.?

Question: When you talk about not getting the consistency that you want, is that as a team or is it certain players? I know those guys like Joe (Jones) and Dominique (Kirk) are used to doing it every game.

Coach Turgeon: ?Joe hasn?™t been as consistent, we haven?™t had to rely on him as much as they did in the past either. No, I think it?™s more team. You know, coach isn?™t going to find something to complain about so I?™m going to complain about consistency and just staying focused. What happens is we get a little bit of a lead and all of a sudden you see our guys standing straight up instead of getting in a stance. All of a sudden they?™re not talking on that screen because they thing nah we?™re up 22, and that?™s hard with 18-22 year old kids to keep them focused. That?™s more of what I?™m talking about and I know they are tired of us being on them about it. They responded much better against Rice.?

Question: Do you think the teams that you have on your upcoming schedule will keep your guys a little more focused?

Coach Turgeon: ?Yeah our guys, you can see it, they are starting to get a little more excited. Kids hate practice and to have three days to prepare for LSU, no one wanted to practice yesterday. You get on them pretty hard and as we get closer to the LSU game they will dial in pretty hard. All I know is that when these guys had to step up in the early part of the schedule when it was tough, they did. We have continued to get better during this last stretch of the schedule. Knowing what I know about these guys, I don?™t know them as well as I am going to but they are competitors and they step up and I know they will as we head into Colorado.?

Question: Is it puzzling to you that you have a team that is second in the league in field goal percentage and last in the league in free throw percentage?

Coach Turgeon: ?I think it?™s two different animals. A lot of times when you are shooting a shot in the game it?™s just a reaction, you?™re not thinking about it, all of a sudden you just catch a pass and you shoot it because you are open. You get fouled oh boy you?™re walking to the line, here we go again, you have a lot of time to think about it. So no it?™s not puzzling because I think we execute at a high level, we have a big team and we are shooting a lot of shots in the paint and we are shooting wide-open threes. Our free throw shooting is getting better. I don?™t look at the number that you guys are looking at which is probably around 58 or 59%; I don?™t know exactly what it is. I?™m looking at the number of what we have done in the last few games and what we are doing in practice. In close games you just have to have the ball hopefully in the right guys hands. We will step up and make them. I think about the Washington game, it was kind of a close game and we made something like 10 of our last 12 free throws. The UTEP game was kind of a close game and we made a few late so I?™m really not concerned. I know that we are going to miss some but that is why you guard and rebound. Do I like that we are shooting that? No I don?™t like the percentage I think we need to work on it but is it puzzling? The puzzling part to me is that as a team in practice we shoot them around 80% every week. No pressure, empty gym we are shooting 4,000 free throws every week as a team. To drop clear down to 59%, that makes it tough.?

Question: What do you pinpoint as the reason for that?

Coach Turgeon: ?It?™s familiarity. I think it?™s contagious. Our big guys usually get fouled early in the game because we are pounding the ball inside and when we start out bad shooting free throws it kind of carries over. I?™ve kind of gotten used to it. I don?™t think I?™m going to form any more grey hairs over free throws. If they go in it?™s just icing on the cake.?

Question: Do you consider this as a big game for Dominique, playing against a really tall athletic defender? Last year LSU kind of used those tall athletic defenders to shut down Acie (Law IV).

Coach Turgeon: ?I don?™t think that kid will guard Dominique, I think he will guard Josh (Carter) so it?™s a big night for Josh. He (Gary Temple) is one of the best defenders I have ever seen. He shut down my two guard last year and we couldn?™t get him a shot so we just went in the other direction. My two guard last year was 6?™2?™?™ and Josh is 6?™6? so that is going to help. I imagine he will guard Josh but I?™m not Coach Brady so I don?™t know for sure. If Johnson the big kid is hurt then he might have to play some four so we will see. It?™s going to be a challenge for Josh because he has to get used to it because right now teams scout us but it?™s not a league game and Josh is always going to have the best defender on him so it will be good for Josh to have a big time defender on him.?

Question: Are you excited to see what Reed Arena looks like full and rowdy?

Coach Turgeon: ?I?™m more excited to see how we handle it. I just thank God that it?™s not a Big 12 game; you know one that really, really matters. It would be nice if the arena was full on Saturday so that we can get used to playing in a full arena before a Big 12 game. That is what I?™m more anxious about is to see how we handle it.?

Question: With the veteran team have you seen them reacting to the fact that this is January and things are about to really get going to where you don?™t have to tell them that?

Coach Turgeon: ?When you say veteran, I think of three guys, the two seniors and then Josh. They know what is at stake. I wouldn?™t say that they ever coast because when I ask them to do something they always work hard but they are not fretting it and they are out having a coke with their buddies or whatever. The freshman might be thinking about it all the time but these guys have been through it. Yeah, I think they have stepped up and then our young guys have grown up. I think Bryan Davis has matured, I think DeAndre Jordan continues to mature (Donald) Sloan is growing up and maturing, Chinemelu (Elonu) is growing up, Derrick Roland too. I see tremendous growth out of those guys. It?™s still early, to them next Saturday is so far away. They think wow that?™s at least five practices but you will see it when the time starts. Then the thing about our program and the way it was built is our guys play hard in practice and play hard in every game and that is why we have been winning by the margin we have been winning by in these games. I?™ve played a lot of guys and shared the minutes too so the scores could have been a lot worse than they were but I?™ve been on the other side so I like to sub guys and keep them focused. ?

Question: You talked about how much DeAndre has grown. What were your first impressions of him and what are they now six months or however long later?

Coach Turgeon: ?Well my first impressions were through conversations on the phone and I thought wow this is a great kid. My first impression as a player was, holy smokes if this kid is one of the top players in the country then we have problems. Everyone is going to think that Mark Turgeon is the worst coach in America. I?™m telling you the young man could not make a jump hook with his right or left hand and you have seen his free throw shooting. I was really concerned. He just kind of flopped around out there and didn?™t play with much maturity. He would start on one block and then he would end up on almost the other elbow because he would spin and fade and do all of this kind of stuff. He still brings that back a little bit but that was my first impression. With that said, he is the most improved player on our team by a landslide. Bryan Davis would be second but this kid has improved at a high level so I am really proud of him. He is even making right hand hooks now, so he has right hand, left hand hooks, his defensive grades are getting better, his awareness of staying in his stance one pass away, two pass away, help side defense, it?™s coming. I was worried sick. I was like oh man, we?™ve got a lot of work to do. He has bought into it. He doesn?™t like it every day when I get on him but he?™s getting better with it.?

Question: Dominique does a lot of things for you guys but one thing he hasn?™t done the last few games is score. That?™s not a concern is it?

Coach Turgeon: ?I was begging him during the Florida A&M game to shoot the ball, he shot one shot and had seven assists. He just kept passing up shots, passing up shots. After the game I said ?'Your mom and dad are going to be mad at you for not being aggressive?™ so I thought he was a little more aggressive. He finished the break against UC Irvine he made four out of five from three but he needs to shoot open shots and knock them down and then on the break make plays. Dominique is just about winning and that?™s what makes him who he is and makes him a special person and a player but we need him to knock down shots especially if (Donald) Sloan and (Derrick) Roland aren?™t having good nights then Dominique is going to have to step up for us. He knows how to do it, he knows when. That kid is unbelievable. If I could coach him for the rest of my life I would be the happiest person in the world. He is something else.

Question: Coach you just talked about Sloan and numbers wise he has been kind of sporadic. Where do you see him fitting into the offense, does he need to score more points or?

Coach Turgeon: ?When we talk about consistency I don?™t want to pull players because I don?™t want to drag anybody through the mud. He just has to be more consistent. What I don?™t want is if a guy is missing shots then I don?™t want it to affect the rest of his game. Sloan these last couple of games missed shots and it affected his game a little bit offensively passing the ball or defensively running on the break doing different things. Sloan has to be more, he can?™t be one for five or one for six in games. He has to take good shots. The offense isn?™t set up for Sloan, it?™s set up for Joe and DeAndre and Josh Carter and Sloan has to figure out how to get his shots within our system. He hasn?™t figured that out yet and there are not a lot of plays called for Sloan. We have a few sets that we call for him but he has to figure it out on his own. The games where Sloan hits his first shot he is usually pretty good. If he misses his first three (shots) then he still has to be pretty good and figure out how to make his fourth. We also have to get him some more minutes, we?™ve been sharing minutes and his playing time has gone down but those numbers will go up here over the next few weeks.?

Question: Speaking of Josh you said at the beginning of the year that you expected his three point percentage to go down so I guess that hasn?™t come as a surprise for you?

Coach Turgeon: ?I?™m surprised that he has missed a lot of wide open ones. He was wide open against Rice and missed some. He was 2 for 10 but the good news is that he was getting 10 looks. I think he forced one against Rice so he had nine good looks. Josh didn?™t just fall of the back of the truck, people know who he is so they are trying to guard him and that means that we are doing some things right to try and get him shots. I expected it to drop a little bit and it wasn?™t just because it was one of those years, it?™s hard to shoot 50% in an empty gym let alone in games. He needs to shoot better and he keeps telling me that he is saving it for the Big 12 so I hope he?™s right.?

Question: Coach with Bryan Davis you have a guy that is a sophomore and with the highly touted freshman (DeAndre Jordan) coming in here Bryan has become your 6th man, that doesn?™t seem to affect Bryan at all does it?

Coach Turgeon: ?He has been great. He is a guy that I am on hard every day about playing hard and being consistent, he works hard about 90% of the time, he?™s got a lazy bone in him somewhere that affects him sometimes. There is a lot of fine-tuning to his game but he just has so much natural ability. I?™ve said all along that we have seven starters and he and Derrick Roland could both be starters for us but they are not, they have accepted their role. I?™ve been really pleased with Bryan. He played more minutes last game. It?™s hard when you?™ve got so many post players that are playing so well but we need Bryan to have a great Big 12 season, we really do for us to be successful.

Question: Were you surprised by Bryan when you came here? You obviously knew about Joe and you knew about DeAndre but did you know about Bryan?

Coach Turgeon: ?I had no preconceived anything when I came in here. I just came in and watched and I knew probably after the first few workouts that Bryan was going to be really good for us in my system. He went through a stage where he wasn?™t doing things off the court for me and I was starting to get down on him but then the lights turned on and he started doing them for me. I?™ve been really pleased by him from only playing a few minutes a game last year to the way that he has stepped up. He should and I told all our sophomores that this is the year that you either make or break yourself. You either do it now or you never do it. They have all done it, they have all stepped up, Derrick Roland, Sloan. Sloan had some great numbers last year and he has played some great games for this program. Chinemulu (Elonu) has stepped up also so I?™m proud of all of those guys. Bryan?™s got a chance. Bryan can score on the block too but he doesn?™t get a lot of touches. I think that as the year goes on and his career goes on that he will be a really good low post scorer for us.?

Question: You talked about Derrick Roland being like your seventh starter especially with as good of a defender as he is. Would you feel comfortable having Roland in the game to shut someone down instead of Dominique if you ever needed to?

Coach Turgeon: ?Yeah I do. I think what we have learned as a staff is that Roland is really good guarding the point guard. He can guard a two or whatever and we think that Dominique is better guarding off of screens or whatever on a scorer like that. Yeah if we do ever take Dominique out of the game then we will put Roland on that guy and Sloan would switch to the point guard. Do I feel as confident? That would be stretching it because Dominique is very intelligent, he figures out a way to get through screens. Derrick would still get caught on a few screens and lose sight of both at times. He?™s right there and I do believe that he has a chance to be one of the best defenders in this league this season.?

Question: Do you reduce your rotation when you get into league play?

Coach Turgeon: ?I don?™t know. I just coach. I just coach. I coach by feel. I don?™t write down, oh I?™m going to sub this guy at this time or anything like that. Every game is different but in a tight game in the second half if we are in good shape, yeah it will go down.?