March 11, 2011
Recap | Final Stats
THE MODERATOR: We're joined by
Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon, student-athletes
B.J. Holmes. Coach, opening
comments.
COACH TURGEON: Too much Tristan
Thompson. Second-chance points was really the
game. And I felt like every time the shot clock
went down, we either fouled, they scored or they
got a second-chance point. We just couldn't --
when the shot clock went down, we just couldn't
get stops.
And I have to go back and watch the film,
but literally it felt like 10 out of 12 times down the
stretch when the shot clock was going own they
made a play in the last five seconds or we fouled.
And that was the difference. We cut it to
54-50, and Hamilton made -- I didn't think it was a
great shot for him, it probably is, but a tough deep,
deep 3, put them up 57-50.
I felt like we really guarded until about 30
on the shot clock, down to five on the shot clock,
didn't get it done. And J'Covan Brown was great.
He made his first one. We weren't
supposed to leave him after that. And we did. And
we just had some breakdowns. But give them a lot
of credit. They are really good, because we've
gotten a lot better. And we played pretty well,
especially defensively. We just weren't strong
enough to rebound with them.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the
student-athletes.
Q. B.J., as good as Tristan and Jordan
were, what was working for J'Covan and how
big was he, how big of a factor was he?
B.J. Holmes: You know, J'Covan is a
spark plug off the bench. We know he can shoot it
coming into the game, and we just gave him open
looks. He knocked them down and made us pay
for it. And a lot of miscommunication on our part
and can't leave good shooters open.
Q. B.J., you guys seemed like you were
going to be aggressive offensively, winning or
losing you were going go to the basket, can
you talk about that, that strategy?
B.J. Holmes: I think we was aggressive
early. Late we tried to settle for a lot of jump shots.
And that's what I think led to their run. And we was
trying to get the bigs in foul trouble in the beginning
of the game, and towards the end we sort of
slacked up, and they forced us to take some hard
shots, took us out of our game a little bit.
Q. B.J., as a senior, how proud are you
of the way you guys fought? I mean, you lost
to these guys I think a combined 41 points in
the first two meetings but really fought in this
one. How does that bode for the next few
weeks?
B.J. Holmes: I don't take no moral
victories. It's a loss. I hate losing. Whether it's by
1 or by 11. We gotta get ready for the tournament,
ready for Sunday and put this game behind us.
Q. Khris, could you speak to where you
guys are? As you head into the NCAA
Tournament, how confident you are?
Khris Middleton: Pretty confident.
After losing this game we've got to pin it back, just
let it seal in tonight, and tomorrow move on and
practice getting better and just wait to see where we're going to go, who we're going to play.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
Questions for Coach.
Q. Coach, there was one sequence
there, I think you were within about five points, and they seemed to just have the ball down
their end for a couple of minutes. And that was
when J'Covan got a 3-pointer, and Lucas took
the ball to the basket. Can you talk a little bit
about that?
COACH TURGEON: We couldn't
rebound. They were patient. But they were
patient because we were really guarding them.
But they got a second-chance point I think on one,
and then they went to the foul line and missed the
free throw and knocked it back and got that
possession, that kind of same formula we had in
Kansas.
What I said, the shot clock was going
down. We just didn't make the plays defensively.
Tristan Thompson, are you kidding me?
How good that kid is. We're trying to box him out.
He just jumps over you. And the shots he made,
he made some tough shots in the second half
when we had things going.
So they're good. They're good when they
shoot the ball. They haven't shot the ball as well
lately. They didn't shoot the ball well in the first
half, but they got going in the second half. We
picked our poison. We weren't supposed to leave
J'Covan Brown. He hurt us.
But they're a good team when they shoot it
like that.
Q. How pleased are you with the way
your group fought against this good team
tonight?
COACH TURGEON: Well, I was pleased
with the way we started. The thing I'm
disappointed in is we made the same mistakes late
in this game we made in Kansas. We had some
defensive breakdowns, didn't guard screens the
right way, we didn't recognize who we're guarding,
how we're guarding them. And you're right there, a
four-point game against a really good team, and
that's the disappointing thing.
And guys have got to grow up. And as
hard as it is sometimes for us to score, especially
against Texas, really good defensively, we can't
break down.
And you take away all the second-chance
points, a lot of that was just talent, a little bit bigger,
a little bit stronger than us. But we can't have
those breakdowns. And that was disappointing.
We did it at KU. And we did it here today.
For us to get to where we want to be as a
program and where we think we belong, we have
to beat a team like Kansas or Texas. We've got to
play 40 minutes, not 37 or 32 or whatever we've
done.
Q. Coach, you had a little bit of a
drought there in the second half on offense.
You got to the line a few times, but the shots
weren't falling in that middle section of the
second half. Could you talk about that stretch
of the game and where your priorities are on
offense going into the tournament, what you
need to straighten up?
COACH TURGEON: You just gotta make
some shots. That's the bottom line. You've got to
make shots. David's been real efficient for us.
And Tristan Thompson blocked his first shot, kind
of got in his head.
They're hard to score on. They're really
hard. I did think we missed some open ones. We
blew it right before half. We missed a couple open
shots, missed two front ends in one-and-ones.
Should have been tied at one point at half, then we
would have built that lead up.
So give them a lot of credit. I mean,
they're really good defensively and they did a good
job on certain guys. And I thought Khris had a
better second half. But Nate didn't play well. Dash
didn't play well offensively, and we just couldn't get
enough shots for B.J.
Since we were four and four in the league,
we've played much better offensively. Tonight
doesn't look good, but we were almost 60 percent last night. And I think the other -- we didn't shoot
well against Baylor, but every other game we shot
the ball well.
So I think we're headed in the right
direction offensively. It's not easy for us, but we're
heading in the right way.
Q. I know he plays good against a lot of
teams, well against a lot of teams, but you guys
seem to bring the best out of Jordan Hamilton.
Is that just a tough matchup?
COACH TURGEON: Yeah, he's tough.
He made shots early and he let us know it. He's
pretty talkative out there. He was good. He made
that big 3 late. It was 54-50. He's a good player.
One of the top 10 players coming out of high school. He's gotten better defensively. Good
player.
So I thought Naji and Khris tried. I thought
they tried to guard him. The kid's good.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.
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