Oct. 28, 2010
College Station, Texas - Head Coach Mark Turgeon and members of the Texas A&M men's basketball team met with the media today at Reed Arena to talk about the upcoming 2010-11 season.
The Aggie Basketball team holds its Maroon and White Game scrimmage this Saturday, Oct. 30 at Reed Arena prior to the Texas Tech football game. Tip time is set for 11 a.m. and admission is free. Fans are encouraged to stick around after the scrimmage to meet with the team.
The season unofficially tips off this Tuesday, November 2 with an exhibition match against St. Mary's, scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. CT. Regular season play begins November 12 at home against Alcorn State.
Non-conference individual game and season tickets are available through the 12th Man Foundation. Click here to get yours today!
Audio from today's press conference is available to the right in MP3 format, quotes are available below.
HEAD COACH Mark Turgeon
On the progression of practice... "We've had good days. What we've really been stressing over the last 10 days is individually guys trying to get better, whether it's getting through screens, boxing out, running through the break, whatever it is. As we've watched film and as we are getting closer, you can see improvement individually. We've worked them pretty hard. We've done a few two-a-days. We've put a lot in the last five or six days. Offensively we've added some different things, as well as defensively. Not only has it been challenging physically for them, but mentally as well. For the most part, they've been pretty good, and I think our leadership for the most part has been pretty good."
On anyone making big strides... "I tell you (the guy) who I've been on pretty hard is Naji Hibbert. I've been on him pretty hard because we need him, and he's really talented. He's made huge strides. He's got a long way to go, but he's made huge strides over the last six days. I expect everyone that's there Saturday and Tuesday to see major improvement from where he left off last year. My seniors are really playing well. Nate (Walkup) and B.J. (Holmes) are playing well in practice. They've been good for us. There are a lot of guys coming along. Keith Davis has come a long ways. Kourtney Roberson has come a long ways. Ray (Turner) shows flashes of being really good. The thing we're really pushing with these guys is being more consistent."
On the competition down low... "It's been good. (It's been) real physical, which I like. Kourtney and Keith probably are behind the rest of them just because of where they are in their careers. But no, the competition is there. I don't want to speak out of turn, but we have a chance to have more depth than we've had here since my first year. My first year, we had tremendous depth everywhere. In the last two years, with guys leaving, injuries, and different things, we really haven't been as deep as we needed to be. We were able to overcome some of things. But we have a chance to be a really deep basketball team this year across the board, if everybody continues to improve and remain coachable--which they are all really coachable right now. We could have some really good depth, which is nice."
On Dash Harris' health entering the season... "I think he feels pretty good, but he's still rusty. He's not Dash yet. We got up and down yesterday towards the end, and he's in better shape than a lot of the guys even though he's rusty. He looked a little bit more like 'Dash' yesterday. He's going to have a phenomenal year, I just feel it. But he's not there yet. We've got a couple of guys that we're really counting on who aren't anywhere where they need to be, and he's one of them. But he's got a pretty good excuse. He was hurt for a long time."
On David Loubeau... "He's been good. There have been days where he's clearly the best player on the floor and been dominant, and other days, not as much. But defensively he's come so far. Team defense. It's really great to see. I think he's ready. I think a lot of the guys are ready to play a game. They're looking forward to Saturday, that will be fun for them. And they're looking forward to Tuesday."
On what he wants to see out of Tuesday's exhibition... "We'll have to have more consistency. That's something we'll definitely be looking for. Of course defense is always something (we look for). I've told the guys, 'You can mess up offensively this time of year, but not defensively'. Hopefully we'll be pretty solid on defense. We're not a great rebounding team right now. We're really struggling rebounding the ball in practice. Hopefully we'll take a step forward there on Tuesday night. Our execution hasn't been (great). We've thrown a lot at them, so hopefully our execution will be good in certain groups on Tuesday. Hopefully we'll get better. The great thing about playing somebody else is you can really learn from it. You can really go and watch the film and really learn, and instead of watching 10 guys, you're watching five. I think we can really learn from Tuesday night's game and we'll be a lot better the next time out."
SENIOR F Nathan Walkup
On the excitement of starting the season... "I'm really excited. The whole team is excited. We've still got a bad taste in our mouth from after the Purdue game, and we're ready to go out and do it again."
On last year's second-round loss to Purdue still stinging... "Yeah. That's our last game. That ended our season last year and we want to come out and prove a lot of people wrong. A lot of people are doubting us after we lost (Donald) Sloan, (Derrick) Roland and BD (Bryan Davis), so we're ready to prove people wrong and show that this team can play."
On replacing those three both on and off the court... "Well, BJ (Holmes) and I took on that leadership role. But filling their role statistically is going to be a team effort. We'll have to find that person to take that last shot at the end of the shot clock. A lot of plays (last year) ended with (Donald) Sloan creating the play. But we have a lot of playmakers. Dash (Harris) is really distributing the ball well, BJ is a good playmaker and (Andrew) Darko is starting to make a lot of plays for us at the point position."
On the team taking the next step in the NCAA Tournament... "Yeah. The ultimate goal is to make it to the Final Four in Houston. I think that'd be awesome. But you've got to take it one step at a time. The first thing is the Big 12 regular season. You try and finish at the top of that, and move on to the Big 12 Tournament. Getting that far should get you to the tournament. We've got to get past that second game. We had two tough draws against a No. 1 team...we should have beaten UCLA (in 2008) and we lost badly to UConn (in 2009). We're ready to make that next step, go to the Sweet 16 and just push on past that."
JUNIOR G Dash Harris
On his summer and getting healthy... "I was here pretty much the whole summer. I'm happy I'm out of the cast, but I wouldn't say I'm fully healed just yet. Any one of these falls could set me back a little bit so I'm just playing real careful right now. But I'm doing a lot better. It feels real good to be able to shoot again and be back out there playing with the guys. I'm just looking forward to the season. Hopefully I can stay injury free."
On taking on the role of defensive "stopper" for the team... "It's mainly just an attitude. Those are guys that are recruited to come here. With the way we practice and the way we go about things, defense is our identity at Texas A&M. We play great team defense but there's always going to be an individual that stands out on the defensive end that takes pride in their defense. It's pretty much an A&M tradition. Guys will come along after me and D-Ro (Derrick Roland), and they'll be doing the same thing."
On getting back on the court Tuesday night... "It's going to be real big. I'm just looking forward to it. I'm not putting too much pressure on myself or the team, I just want to go out there and do the things I did last year--lead the team, be a vocal leader, have a defensive presence and just let the game come to me. I've been shooting a lot lately, knocking down some shots, but I'm not going to go out there and try to force anything. There are a lot of games this season, I don't want to go too hard and have something happen. I will just let the game come to me."