January 14, 2008
Head basketball coach Mark Turgeon met with the press on Monday at his weekly media luncheon in College Station. Click the link to the right to listen.
Coach Turgeon Media Luncheon
January 14, 2008
Question: So have you heard about this Texas Tech rivalry?
Coach Turgeon: "Yeah. I think that every in-state game is a big game but I've heard that they don't like us. I have a high school buddy that works over there and he said he didn't feel that way. It will be a big game because it's two Texas schools. It will be a good experience for me.
Question: Are you kind of curious to see how your team responds on the road since it has been so long since you've played a road game?
Coach Turgeon: "I imagine that we are going to respond well because we have a certain toughness about us. We played pretty well at Arizona except for about a 10-minute stretch there in the second half. We will learn from it. We have learned all year and gotten better. We're all looking forward to getting back out there, it's been a long time, 45 days."
Question: How big of a test will this week be? You have two road games and Saturday is against Kansas State who has Wednesday off.
Coach Turgeon: "It is a huge week for our program. It's not going to make or break us just like when we had those four straight games and everybody was like well how are we going to handle it and if we would have lost all four it wouldn't have ended our season, if we would have won all four it wouldn't have made our season. It would have helped it just like these two games. We have to go out and prove that we are going to be a great road team and this week will give us the opportunity to do it. I think you have the chance to either have a special season or you have the chance to have an above average season and if you want to have a special season you have to learn how to win on the road. It's a big week for us and our young men know it and our coaches know it and so we will be prepared."
Question: Coach how much film have you seen on the Red Raiders?
Coach Turgeon: "I've watched enough. They do what they do. Offensively they are a really good motion team. They seem like they are moving faster even than they have in the past. Maybe that's just because I have to coach against them instead of just watching them on TV. They are really moving well, great screeners. They get the ball to the right guys at the right time. They will have a defensive game plan against us. You don't win that many games without knowing what you are doing and he will have a game plan and we will have to adjust to it. We will see how they guard us but we have a pretty good idea about how they want to play. We have watched them a lot. You just don't know who is going to play for them. You know (Martin) Zeno is going to play and (Alan) Voskuil and the big kid in the middle, he has played a lot of minutes. Then after that they have had a lot of different starting lineups and played a lot of people so we have to prepare for a lot of different bodies."
Question: How difficult is it to game plan a guy like (Alan) Voskuil when you know that he is going to make almost every three that he tries?
Coach Turgeon: "Well let's hope that he doesn't on Wednesday. Let's hope that he misses every three. We have some pretty good perimeter defenders and we have to communicate well and get through screens and try to make him a driver which is easier said than done. He is having a heck of a year for them and he is a big time shooter. They have a lot of good players but he is one that you definitely have to keep an eye on every time down the floor."
Question: Last year they played a lot of small ball against y'all and that was something you kind of struggled with against Colorado. Do you expect them to do the same kind of thing this year?
Coach Turgeon: "Yeah, looking at their lineups and who they are going to play, yeah. Most teams we play will be shorter than us. Yeah I expect them to go small. They went small late in the game last year against us and had some success. I never felt threatened Saturday even though I was disappointed with the way we played defensively. I stayed big because that is what we have to do. If I feel threatened we can go small but it's not what we do the best. I think we are better staying big. Bryan Davis has proven to me that he can guard certain guys. If they are going to go small then we just have to do the right things defensively and try to take advantage of that on the offensive end."
Question: Coach you have talked about how disappointed you were with your team defensively against Colorado but now that you have had a chance to watch the tape and see the game again, is it kind of hard to complain about the things you did wrong and still win by 17 points?
Coach Turgeon: "You know coaches, they don't ever look at the score. They are never satisfied. You are always thinking about the next possession or the next game or the next half or whatever. I do understand what you are saying though, I never felt threatened because we were so good offensively but the thing that was so disappointing to me as a coach you're telling them what to do to make an adjustment and they wouldn't do it right away, it would cost us another basket. He was a good enough coach in their system that when we would adjust, he would try something else and we were always a step behind because our concentration level wasn't very good. We might have a bad concentration level against someone and it could cost us a game that we should win and I don't want that to happen. That was the disappointing part. You knew our guys were focused because we had 22 assists and seven turnovers and shot 63% or whatever we shot so we were focused on one end but we just weren't focused on the other end, it didn't mean enough to them. They will pay the price today."
Question: I guess you could kind of sense it before the LSU game that that game really meant a lot to these guys, do you kind of get that same feeling leading up to Tech or have you been around them enough?
Coach Turgeon: "I haven't been around them enough. I just talked to a couple of the upper classmen after the game and I was just so disappointed. Just to show you how out of it I was; there was a young man on Colorado's team that I recruited for a few days at Wichita State, I went and saw him play and he got in the game, I didn't even know it and I don't remember shaking his hand after the game. I don't get that way very often. So I'm looking at the stat sheet and I said 'This kid got in.' Then I realized that I didn't remember shaking his hand because I would have said hello to him. That's how mad I was. But I did talk to a few of the upper classmen and they said 'Coach don't worry, we will be there.' I don't worry about them though, I worry about the young guys. I think our guys will be ready for a lot of reasons. Obviously it's Texas Tech. It's a road game. The last time we went on the road we weren't very good. Then we are coming off of a game that we didn't defend very well. Now that doesn't mean that we are going to be able to stop their offense but hopefully we can do a much better job of staying focused and doing it the right way and making them earn things instead of letting them shoot 13 layups out of 17 baskets."
Question: We talk about how they were ready for LSU but really Texas Tech is the reason that they didn't win the Big 12 last year. Have y'all brought that up at all or can that be another one of those reasons?
Coach Turgeon: "Yeah, that's why it's Texas Tech and what happened last year. I don't buy into the fact that Texas Tech cost us the league championship because if we had beat Tech then we might have lost to KU or we might have lost to someone else. It happens every year where you go back and you say oh we should have won that game. It all depends sometimes what happens the time before. Our guys will be focused. I'm sure that they were focused to play Tech at home last year after they lost in Lubbock but it didn't make a difference so we will see. Hopefully our system offensively will give us a chance to be successful against them. Our guys know how to guard. Teams are shooting 35% against us, they know how to guard, they just decided that they weren't going to guard the other night."
Question: Bobby Knight is on the brink of another milestone. Do you get excited to be able to go up against a legend like that?
Coach Turgeon: "Yeah. I was lucky enough to be able to coach against Eddie Sutton and I enjoyed that. Obviously I worked for a couple of Hall of Famers. I've studied Bobby Knight. I went to his clinics. Actually I've been to two of his clinics. I went to one in Wichita and I went to one in Indiana and I still do some things defensively that he taught at those clinics. He gave the best clinics. He would put a microphone on and the best was just him ripping the players without cursing which is tremendous because he had a lot of people there. I've learned a lot from him and I have studied him. I'm not going to coach exactly like him because I'm not totally into motion like he is but I stole some philosophies offensively and a lot of them defensively. I think he is a genius defensively too. I'm excited. I know it will be an honor to coach against him. I'm hoping that they feel the pressure of 900, the kids will and that they don't play well but it will be a good night."
Question: Do you bring up 900 at all, to say lets go out and keep them at 899?
Coach Turgeon: "No. Our kids know, they know what is up there. It isn't about 900, it's about Texas A&M trying to get to 2-0 in the league, that is much more important. If we are 900 all it means is that he is a pretty good coach so it wouldn't be anything to be disgraced about. It's about us trying to get to 2-0 in the league."
Question: On Saturday you had six guys score in double figures. Are you pretty pleased with the balance that this team has shown so far?
Coach Turgeon: "Yeah we are getting there. We are sharing the ball and recognizing situations. Josh (Carter) never took a shot in the second half. That is pretty unselfish. He didn't force any, he could have forced some. He missed some in the first half that would have given him a little bit of a higher scoring day. He missed a couple of wide-open threes. I was really pleased with him. I think we are doing a great job of sharing and recognizing and executing. We ran our man offense against their match up zone and we haven't really practiced that very much because we haven't been here long enough to practice it but that is something that I have always done in the past and we did a nice job with it. I think the guys are staring to figure it out. They changed their zone a little bit in the second half and did a better job of matching up with our guys. It made us coach a little harder and we continued to get better as the half went on. I was pleased. I would like to get seven guys in double figures. I think that we can get Derrick Roland in there some games too. I am pleased with that but I am not going to get caught up in our field goal percentage our one game's scoring because that is not how you win a championship. You do it on the defensive end, that is how this program is built and for us to be successful especially on the road, we are going to have to guard."
Question: That has to be pretty hard on the opponents when you have five guys on the floor that can all be scoring threats for you.
Coach Turgeon: "I don't know if when they put this team together that is what they had envisioned but that is the way I coach and I think that you guys are going to understand the longer I am here, that is how my teams are going to play. We are going to share the ball. In certain games if certain guys are hot we will go to them. We haven't had to do that yet. I thought that in the first half we got Josh a lot of good looks against the zone. I think as the season goes on and we are going to have close games probably starting on Wednesday night, we are going to have to figure out how to get those guys the ball when they are hot whether it is Joe (Jones) or DeAndre (Jordan) or Josh or Dominique (Kirk) or whoever it is. For the most part we are just trying to play basketball and share the ball and whoever has the best shot is going to take it."
Question: Coach how important can Nate Walkup be down the stretch?
Coach Turgeon: "I'll say it again. Nate went out there and he acted like he was a fifth year senior. He wasn't scared at all and he did a nice job. They hit one bucket on him but he guarded exactly the right way which is more than I can say about some of the starters. He went over the top of the fade screen and the guy just went over the top and made it over him. He guarded it exactly the way you are supposed to do it. I was pleased with that. He is going to be big for us. It's between him and B.J. (Holmes) as to who I am going to put in and I though that game it was better to put him in and he responded. I probably should have played him a little more in the second half. I was just begging our guys to play a little better defense. Maybe if I would have sat them down they would have played a little better defense. Nate is going to be big for us and like you said, when teams zone he is going to be really big for us."
Question: How close is he coming on the defensive end to playing a few more minutes and becoming more that just a shooter for you?
Coach Turgeon: "He is getting better. He is getting better. It's not so much that Nate is not good enough to play at this level right now, it's just that he has better guys in front of him with more experience and that is a hard thing for kids to understand. There will be certain situations where he can help us more and play but I am not afraid to put him in there let's put it that way. Is just have a little more confidence in some other guys defensively and understanding if they are going to sag like you are saying or play zone you know Nate is going to be in there."
Question: What is it about Coach Knight's offense? You said that you may have stolen some things from it, what in particular?
Coach Turgeon: "They get the ball to their best players. They put their best players in position to score whether it is Voskuil or Zeno or Jackson last year, the ball will ultimately end up in those hands, if not then their screening action will allow the other guys to score because you are worried about those guys and what they are going to do to screen and get those guys open. You don't see it everyday. It's easy to say they are going to run this play and he is going to go from spot A to spot B and you can scout that. You can't scout the motion. You can break it down, you can show the angle that the screens are going to come from but you don't always know how they are going to react to the screen; are they going to curl it, are they going to fade it? It all depends on how you guard it but you can't scout it. When we were a big motion team we always had a thought for the day on offense 'Give the defense a chance to make a mistake.' And that is what his motion does. They work it until the defense makes a mistake. Then they either take advantage of it or they don't. If we made a mistake the other night Colorado made us pay. Sometimes you will make a mistake and the team will miss the shot but Colorado took advantage of it the other night and I think that's what Coach Knight's philosophy is offensively. It's good stuff."
Question: Last week you said that you kind of liked the idea of playing those two teams in a row. After Colorado did what they did does that still stand?
Coach Turgeon: "Yeah I still feel that way. It's not like we didn't know what to do, we just didn't do it. It's two completely different offenses but just spacing and five guys working together. I think we will see as the year goes on Colorado is going to give some other teams fits. They're just not deep enough right now to do it on the defensive end. They will beat somebody pretty good here before the Big 12 is over because they are hard to guard."