March 10, 2011
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THE MODERATOR: We're joined by
Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon and
student-athletes B.J. Holmes, David Loubeau and
Nathan Walkup. Coach, opening comments.
COACH TURGEON: Well, we were good
from the beginning. I thought defensively we really
played well. They were missing jump shots, and
our whole thing was trying to make them shoot
jump shots overhand. They started cold and didn't
do a very good job guarding the ball. We fouled
them way too much. They shot 37 free throws.
Our defense was good. Our rebounding
was pretty good and execution was at a pretty high
level. We made shots. When you make shots,
you look better. Didn't really let them make a run,
which when you play Missouri you worry about
that. But I think our defense had a lot to do with it.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the
student-athletes.
Q. David, six of eight from the field, eight of nine at the line and started out so well, talk about your mindset early on to start off well and give this team a lift early?
David Loubeau: Really, it was B.J. and
Dash driving to the hole. I was ready to finish and
we've been driving the ball lately more. So that's
been a plus in our development.
Q. B.J., can you talk a little bit about
how you handled their pressure especially in
the first half? Coach talked about no runs and
that's probably the biggest reason that
happens.
B.J. Holmes: We knew coming into this
game that they was going to press us and try to
trap us and try to get us out of our offensive
rhythm. We just tried to stay calm and poised and
try to execute as best we could. And I think we
were able to do that tonight.
Q. Nathan, can you tell me, you guys
get another crack at Texas now. What do you
guys have to do differently to kind of shake the
result of the last two times?
Nathan Walkup: We're a little bit
different team now. We're playing more physical.
We just gotta get after it. We have to step up to
the challenge and individually, the man you're
guarding, and as a team. We have to step up and
we've got to make plays and we've just got to play
well. It's going to be a good game, I think.
Q. B.J., with David's hot start, how did
that really help open things up for you? I
guess about six or eight minutes in you got
hot.
B.J. Holmes: You know, the whole
season they've been doubling Dave and trying to
open it up for more of us on the perimeter. Today
Dave started off hot. They started doubling him.
We swung the ball, shared the ball tonight, and got
a lot of people open shots not just myself, and we
was able to make some.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
Questions for Coach.
Q. Coach, I believe Khris goes
scoreless in the first half yet you play maybe
the best half of the season. Break down the
first 20 minutes to set the tone.
COACH TURGEON: We were good
defensively in that stretch, and then David and
Dash kind of carried us through the first half. I
think they had 36 or 31 of our 41 points. I'm not
sure what we had at half, 46.
So, yeah, we were in a lot of foul trouble
tonight. And I imagine they were, too, because it
felt like the whistle was blowing a lot.
But we tried to piece it together as best we
could. We had guys step up. We've really been sharing the ball in practice really well. And you
knew it was coming at some point, sharing the ball
like this, and it's been getting better and better.
But, yeah, it was good to play well without
Khris, and I thought Naji gave us pretty good
minutes tonight. And I thought Darko gave us
good minutes and I thought Derrek helped us, too,
when he went in there too.
Q. Coach, now you get Texas. You lost
to them by a combined 41 points. What's going
to be different?
COACH TURGEON: By how much?
Seemed a lot worse than that, trust me. We just
have to play better. I think we've become a better
team. We changed the way we played since the
whipping at home. It umbled all of us and we
became a better team. I didn't watch them tonight.
I heard they were really good. They're probably 1
or 2 seed probably right now in the tournament.
I just hope we play well. They whipped us both times so hopefully we'll play well. That's all
we want to do.
Q. There was a lot of substituting. Did
you do that because of the foul trouble, or was
that trying to like slow the pace, keep the flow
from the game?
COACH TURGEON: No, it was foul
trouble. Then we were doing offense/defense
subs with nine minutes to go in the first half, which
you don't usually do. But I felt like I had to, to just
keep Khris in some type of rhythm and keep Dash
out there. We flow a little better with Dash out
there.
That's why we were trying to do it. We
were just trying to keep guys fresh and knowing
we've got another game tomorrow night. So I hink
we shared the minutes pretty good.
Q. Can you talk a little bit more about
the strategy behind your defense tonight?
Obviously the big thing was keeping Mizzou
out of the transition game, keeping them from
running. Talk about, other than just the fact
that you're making the shots a whole lot, what
you were able to do to keep them out of that
transition game.
COACH TURGEON: I don't want to take
anything away from what we did, but Mizzou had a
tough game last night. And I think it showed a little
bit. Jump shots were short. They got to the foul
line. And I think that was a heck of a game last
night, and I think that had a lot to do with their play.
Mike's gotta tell you that. I'm sure he won't
make excuses. But just seemed that way. And
came out a little bit flat not hitting shots, and it kind
of just helped us make them continue to shoot
jump shots overhand.
But with that said, our defense was pretty
good. For the most part, I know we had 18 turnovers. Felt like we took care of the ball pretty
well, especially against the press. Our turnovers
didn't lead to layups, maybe six points of layups.
So it was a combination and we were
pretty good and I think they just had a really tough
game last night.
Q. Sticking with the defensive theme, what about against Ricardo Ratliffe?
Specifically, only got six points, only took five
shots all night.
COACH TURGEON: I don't know. I
thought David did a good job. Ricardo just kicked
our tail in College Station, and physically kicked it.
I thought physically they manhandled us in College
Station. So we talked about being a little bit
tougher tonight. And I think we were -- we knew
Ricardo Ratliffe was good. We had no idea he was
that good when we played him in College Station.
So we were really dialed into him pretty good
tonight.
Q. Mark, it was physical all night long,
but were there times when you thought it just
moved to brutal on either side?
COACH TURGEON: I'm not sure I can
answer that. There was a lot of stoppage. Of
course, I want to get home to get to bed because
we play again tomorrow night. And it was tough. It
was tough on both teams. It was easier for us
because we had the lead.
Yeah, the no flow really helped us against
Missouri.
Q. You touched on it a little bit, but can
you talk a little bit more about the way you closed them out, didn't let them make the run
in the second half to even get it into single
digits.
COACH TURGEON: Once again, they
weren't making shots. And our defense was pretty
good. They missed a lot of shots around the rim.
We rebounded well. We kept scoring. We
executed. 86 points, that's like 120 for us.
And it's been hard for us to score. So it
was really good to see that. It was just a
combination of a lot of things. We were pretty
good tonight. And they might not have been at
their best.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.
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