Dec. 15, 2010
College Station, Texas - Head coach Mark Turgeon met with the media today at the Bright Complex to talk about the upcoming game against Arkansas in Dallas on Saturday.
Audio from today's press conference is available to the right in MP3 format. Selected quotes are available below.
HEAD COACH Mark Turgeon
On playing a neutral-site game in Dallas and the expected environment compared to last year in Houston... “I think since it's a doubleheader the environment will be better. I'm sure there will be a lot of Baylor fans there also and Arkansas will bring a lot of fans. I'm sure the atmosphere will be better. There's a lot going on with our fans right now with the Cotton Bowl. We'll see what happens.”
On being ranked going in to Saturday and having a target on their backs... “We were going to have it regardless. I'm happy for the guys because they earned it. They weren't getting any votes when the season stated and they got two good wins and have one pretty good loss, which keeps looking better since Boston College keeps winning. We're a different animal now. We were a little more fired up for Washington because they had a number in front of their name, and I'm sure Arkansas will be even more fired up because there's a number in front of our name.”
On the team's defensive effort vs Washington... “It was good. We did a lot of things for that to happen. We slowed the pace down, which I thought at the half we'd slowed it down too much and it hurt our offensive rhythm. But I thought we had a good game plan. Really, they had only about three or four really good open looks from 3. I thought the thing we did best was we kept Isaiah Thomas out of the paint. Then we were fortunate, (Bryan) Holiday got in foul trouble. I was proud of our group. They were really dialed in. We've worked really hard defensively. I didn't think we were anywhere near where we have been defensively in the past, and we stepped up that day. It was a good week for us. When you play a team like Washington, they really force you to work on things. I thought our transition defense was one thing we weren't good at, and that allowed us to get better there.”
On whether it's necessary to play games in big cities for exposure... “Well, (people in the big cities) are aware of us. They see us on national television a lot. I think it will be a big deal media-wise for those two or three days up there. It's not going to hurt us by doing it. Is it important? Do we have to do it to be successful? I don't think so. But I like to do it. I think you can play too many home games. It will be an NCAA-Tournament environment against an NCAA Tournament-caliber team. I think you learn a lot from playing those games.”
On Arkansas... “Arkansas is athletic and deeper. Their best player is getting healthy. Rotnei Clarke can really shoot it and stretch the defense. They force 19 turnovers a game which, as you know, we haven't done a good job of taking care of the basketball. They are scoring at a good pace. They're having a fantastic year so far, and it'll be a real challenge for us.”
On things the team needs to work on before Big 12 play... “We've really practiced well these last two weeks. Quite frankly, we're way ahead of where I thought we'd be right now. Our guys have figured out on game nights a way to get it done. We have to get better at our offensive efficiency. It's not very good. If you take away the turnovers, our execution down the stretch against Washington was pretty good. We just didn't finish. One thing we've always tried to do here is make more free throws than our opponents shoot, and we've done that the last three years. But we're behind that now. So we're trying to get to the line more. We worked so hard on defense last week, especially transition defense, and it paid off for us. Unfortunately we haven't done a lot since Saturday because of finals, so we'll lock in today and hopefully improve ourselves.”
On what the freshmen (Kourtney Roberson/Keith Davis) will be doing during this first winter break of their careers... “They'll do a lot. Keith will do a lot more weight lifting and stretching, things that will help him. They can watch more film over break than we can during season because of classes. I expect to see a big improvement between now and the middle of January out of them. There's not a lot of practice time in there. We've got a few days this week, then we take Christmas break. Hopefully during that time we'll get a lot better.”
On how big the game Saturday can be for the young guys... “Well, the Temple game, we didn't have the crowd but it was just a war. Saturday's game (Washington) was the same way. I think it just helps you for the league. Our league's obviously really good again, and all these games just prepare us for that. I think more than anything we won a game Saturday and we didn't feel we played great, especially offensively. We'll gain a lot of confidence from that. Our guys felt good about winning a game that way.”
On who the team's looking to at the end of games... “I think it's pretty obvious that we try to get the ball to (David) Loubeau. We couldn't get it to him as well as I'd have liked to the other day. Khris Middleton is a guy we have a lot of confidence in. We've got a lot of confidence in BJ (Holmes) too, and he'll make shots. So those three, and also depending on the game and who's playing well. But I think those three are guys we'll go to late offensively. I just think that when you have a lead like that you've got to find a way to get to the foul line and get some easy ones. That's something we've done in the past but we couldn't do it Saturday. But I feel like we've figured out ways to win close games. Our program has been built on defense and toughness over the past six years, and that's how we won the game Saturday.”
On how to improve the team's offensive efficiency... “There's a lot of little things. Our transition offense has to get a lot better. Our fast-break points have been pretty good, we've been pretty efficient there, but when the defense is somewhat set and we've gotten a stop we just haven't been very efficient. Our low-post game has not been there. We will tweak some things this week. But with that said, points off turnovers and second-chance points were the reasons we won the other day, so we've got those things down. We'll get there, it just takes time. Our offense will get better. We've thrown a lot at them and quite frankly we've worked more on defense than offense. That formula has worked so far this year, and we'll see if it works on Saturday.”
On what he'll do to continue to play tough non-conference teams now that the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series has ended... “I don't know yet. I've got two spots still open for next year. One thing is to see how we develop this year and who we sign and where we will be. We don't want to play all cupcakes, that's no fun. We'll try and do some things there. It's hard to get the home ones. Our two best non-conference home games, Arizona and Washington, were part of that package deal. Hopefully our league will keep something. I know we're trying to keep it and trying to get another challenge if we can. We'll see. I know we're talking about it. If not we have some opportunities out there we can look at. Really, the only reason we are ranked this week was who we played Saturday. I think only way to get national attention for your program is to play people. I've never been afraid to do that. I'm sure we'll add a couple of good games.”
On the difficulty of getting a “big name” program to come play at Reed Arena... “It's hard. I think it can be done though. Something can be done because a lot of people like to recruit Texas. It's finding the right ones. We have three or four BCS schools we're talking to right now that hopefully we can do a home-and-home with in the future. Of course, everyone wants to start at their place. That's the hard part. I think that can be done. I think you'll see a lot of teams in our league go out and try and get those games.”