March 14, 2011
College Station, Texas - Head coach Mark Turgeon and members of the 21st-ranked Texas A&M men's basketball team met with the media today to talk about the upcoming games in the NCAA Tournament.
The Aggies (24-8) were awarded the No. 7 seed in the Southwest Region and will face No. 10-seed Florida State (21-10) on Friday at the United Center in Chicago. The game will tip 30 minutes following the end of the Notre Dame/Akron game, which starts at 12:40 p.m. (CT) (approximately 3:10 p.m.). TBS will broadcast the game nationally.
For ticket information fans are asked to visit www.12thmanfoundation.com. Information will be updated there as soon as it becomes available.
For full NCAA Tournament coverage, visit the 2011 Tournament Central page.
Audio from today's press conference is available to the right in mp3 format.
HEAD COACH Mark Turgeon
How much more do you know about Florida State since last night?
"Not a lot. (Associate Head) Coach (Scott) Spinelli briefed me. I haven't watched any yet. I'm more worried about us today. We're going twice today and trying to get better. We know they're really good defensively. We worked today on some of the screens they set offensively, guarding them, but not a lot more. We just know they're a good team."
Talk about the development of Khris Middleton as the team's go-to scorer...
"Well, we go to like three or four guys late in the game, depending on who's playing well. Mostly David (Loubeau) and mostly Khris, but Khris has developed there's no question about it. He's getting everybody's best perimeter defender on him, so he's earned that respect. We try to put him into positions to make plays for himself or for the team. He's been able to handle it pretty well for us. We're better when we don't have to go to one guy. We're better when we can just play basketball and let guys make plays, and run our system, and not put that kind of pressure on one guy."
What do you like about your team going into the tournament? Is it different from the last couple?
"What I like is I don't think we've played our best basketball yet. I really don't. I think this team has been so young and a little bit inexperienced, and there's just room for growth every day. Now, whether we'll get it, we'll see with these guys. Ray Turner has showed signs of looking like the Ray Turner of last year-even though he fouled a lot in the (Big 12) tournament-which we haven't seen for two months around here. He had a great practice this morning. Guys like Kourtney (Roberson) can just get better. Khris can get better...all our young guys. And hopefully Dash (Harris) is going to have a good tournament for us. That's the exciting part. I think we can play better than we're playing. If we 're just really dialed in and do what we're capable of doing I think we can play at a higher level. That's what I'm striving for as a coach. I'm just trying to squeeze as much as I can out of them and hopefully we can play our best basketball this weekend."
What have Nathan Walkup and BJ Holmes meant to you this year?
"They've been unbelievable. They could have gone somewhere else when I took the job here. And for them to stay committed to A&M-and I know it was more to A&M than it was to me, I understand that-but these two have had tremendous senior years. I have said this repeatedly, but I thought for us to be where we are-and I'm really proud of this group-that our sophomore class would have to have a great year. And quite frankly they haven't. Khris has gotten better, but the reason we are where we are is because of Nate Walkup and BJ Holmes. They've had fantastic years. Their toughness and their day-in and day-out work habits and their leadership have just been off the charts. We're not the most talented group, but these guys just came to work and those seniors have had just fantastic years."
What is your favorite part about the NCAA Tournament?
"I love everything about it. It's been such a big part of my life. I was fortunate enough to play in it and coach in it when I was young. I love the music. I love everything about it. For the rest of my life, whether I'm in coaching or not, on the first round of the NCAA Tournament I won't work on that day. I promise you. I'll be watching the games somewhere. I love that you're in it and you've earned it. I'm getting really tired of everyone saying how bad college basketball is this year, because it looks pretty good to me. They're not in our shoes. I think to be a part of the NCAA Tournament is special. But better yet, to make a run is even more special. And we haven't been able to do that since I've been the coach here as far as I'd like. We've won games every year, which is hard to do. But I want our kids to experience a run. This team's capable of doing that. So I love everything about it."
Do you feel for Colorado and Coach Boyle?
"Yeah. I made the comment last night that I was probably more upset for Colorado than I was happy for us, because I expected us to be in. Yeah, I felt for him. I'm not going to sit here and argue for him, I don't like doing that. He played well down the stretch and to me that's a sign of good things, to beat Texas and K-State. If K-State's a 5, then Colorado should be in. If they've got that much respect for K-State, then they should have respect for Colorado. We just want consistency, because it's hard. I talked to Tad last night. He had kids crying. They thought they were clearly in. As an adult, as a role model, and a father figure for them, to have to handle that moment is pretty tough. I felt for him."
If you go up to Chicago and earn two victories, do you like the idea that you'd be back home in San Antonio?
"Yeah, we had this opportunity last year (Houston). We'll see. We've just got to figure out a way to beat Florida State and see what happens. But yeah, it'd be nice. It would be fun to come home and play and all that. But we have to win two tough ones. The whole thing I look at is I just want our team playing well, and I think we're starting to peak and starting to play well at the right time. If we go up to Chicago and play as well as we can and don't come out with two wins, I'm going to be happy. I really will. As a coach you just want to get the most out of your team, and I'm trying to do that with this group."
Have you guys discussed Chris Singleton's status and how to prepare for that?
"Well, we'll prepare for their system first. We'll start working extensively on Florida State on Wednesday and we'll work on us the next two days. I've heard him say he's going to play. The fifth metatarsal is what he broke, and that's an 8-week injury. I've had a lot of those in my career as a coach. He's either an unbelievably quick healer or he's going to risk breaking that again. We're going to prepare for their system. For him, I hope he plays. He's their best player. He deserves it. He's helped get them where they are, and for him I hope he plays. I really do. But we'll see."
For you to make one of those runs you were talking about, you'll need a great effort on the defensive end. Does it seem like the team has really turned it up over the last few weeks?
"The second half of the Baylor game at home (Feb. 5) is where we really turned it up defensively. After we lost to Texas we kind of changed the way we had to play. It's resulted in more wins for us against good competition. We've had more commitment. But I said it after the game (Friday night vs Texas), we haven't done it for 40 minutes against a good team. We can overcome it against teams like us or teams that we might be a little more talented than. We can overcome a mistake. But the great teams, when you make a mistake, make you pay. Every mistake we made defensively the other night, Texas made us pay. Every mistake we made at Kansas the last 8 minutes, they made us pay. So my deal with these guys is 40 minutes of dialed in, doing it the right way. We have to do it that way. We haven't been good enough for 40 minutes defensively to beat a great team. That's what we're going to have to do. If we have any chance of advancing past Florida State and beyond that we have to be consistent for 40 minutes defensively. We all know scoring is not something that's easy for us. A lot of it is because of the way we're playing now. We've slowed it down. I don't care what people say about us, because we've run in the past and we're going to run in the future. But I wanted to be a part of the NCAA Tournament, and we were 4-4 (in Big 12 play) and I had to figure out a way to play. The decisions we made as to what was best for this team is the reason we've won 24 games. Our execution has really gotten better too. We've shot the ball really well. We're around 48 percent since the Baylor game as a team, and for the year we're around 44. So we're getting there. We're on the right track."
When you're playing a Florida State team that leads the country in field goal percentage defense, is execution the key?
"When we have opportunities we have to take advantage of them. We continue to run on misses and steals and things. We've got to be more efficient. We've got to figure out ways to score, whether it's getting to the foul line. We're going to have to make jump shots against them. They're really long and they come and support and make you pitch. So we're going to have to make a few jumpers and hopefully we will. We'll maybe have to force some turnovers, hopefully, that maybe lead to some easy ones. But it's going to be a defensive battle. I think the high 50s, low 60s, one of those type of games, which is what we've both had to do to be successful."
SOPHOMORE F Khris Middleton
On going back to the NCAA Tournament... "It's a fun time of year for us. It's also a grind time for us, where you've just got to get better and try to find a way to advance in the NCAA Tournament."
On lessons learned from last year's NCAA trip as a freshman... "Last year, my first game in the NCAA Tournament was a big game, so I can always look back on that and try to learn from it. You just have to make plays. You don't have to always be perfect to win, you just have to play hard and fight."
On getting a lot of the spotlight this year... "I'm getting used to it, but it's not that big of a deal to me."
On the team's psyche going into Chicago... "Our confidence level is pretty high right now. Everyone is just trying to get better and trying to advance in the tournament."
SENIOR F Nathan Walkup
On what he knows about Florida State... "They're big. We haven't done a complete scouting report yet, but I went and looked them up online. It looks like they're a real physical, defensive team. It'll be a physical game I think. We'll get after it and it should be a fun game."
On his reaction to seeing the Big 12 teams in the bracket... "My heart broke for Colorado. I think they really deserved it, which a lot of people have too. But what's said is said. Whether we beat K-State and they got a higher seed than us, they could be playing better basketball than us right now. That's what the committee decided. We are where we are and it's in Chicago. We're excited."
On the chance to play back home in Texas in the regionals... "It all starts there in Chicago. We've got three teams on our mind right now, Florida State, Akron and Notre Dame. So once we go there and hopefully take care of business then we would come back home to San Antonio. Hopefully we play well enough to do that and we're preparing hard for that right now."
On his advice to the young bigs playing in the NCAA Tourney... "You've just got to relax and play. Whether you play two minutes or you play 40, you have to do the same thing in order to win. I think Kourtney and Ray will both relax and just play their game and give us solid minutes."
On the NCAA experience factor for the upperclassmen... "We're definitely going to rely on that. I'm fully comfortable going in. I know BJ is. Dash and Loubeau are three years on, so hopefully the four of us can help get these young guys and tell them it's just another game. In the end, that's all it really is, just another game. We just have to get them to relax and play hard and at the same time ourselves relax and know we've been there before and go out and play well."
SENIOR G BJ HOLMES
On talking about making it past the first weekend... "The guys haven't been talking about making it to the second weekend. We're just focused on Florida State. A lot of people are not picking us to win, and we've had that since I've been here. We'll be ready come Friday."
On the importance of having experienced seniors entering the NCAA Tourney... "It's very important. A freshman doesn't have the same experience as a senior. A senior's been through the battles, been thru the different situations in games, especially late in games. Seniors know how to win and I think we have a great group of seniors. I think that will help us going in to the tournament."
On the team's play heading in to NCAAs... "I think we're peaking at the right time. A lot of guys are playing well and coming in to their own, and finding out what they do well and don't do well on this team. It's always good to be playing well this time of year."
On the benefit of the NCAA experience on the team... "I think it helps a lot, knowing what you're getting in to and what you're going to. All the guys on the team except for the freshmen have been to the NCAA Tournament, and know what it's like. They've seen the energy level and the intensity level. It's much different than the regular season because everyone knows this could be their last game playing. Nate and I have tried to emphasize that to the guys, about playing hard every possession because every possession counts."