Head coach Billy Kennedy visited the Kyle Field Media Center on Tuesday to talk about the upcoming Texas A&M basketball season, which gets underway Friday at 8:30 p.m. against USC Upstate.
A summary of Coach Kennedy's comments is posted below.
Click the video above to watch.
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Exciting to finally start playing games. Good test in South Carolina Upstate, veteran coach in Eddie Payne. Well coached. Won a lot of games last year. Will have all our guys, Elijah Thomas practiced yesterday for the first time in 3 to 4 weeks. Did good things for a little while. Will be missing Jalen Jones because he played in 2 scrimmages at SMU a few years ago. Penalized by the NCAA four games. Gives our young guys a chance to play, especially the young big guys, early on.
Lineup in Jalen's absence. We're really not sure yet. Tonny Trocha-Morelos has played really well at that spot. Could play DJ Hogg at the 4. Could play Tonny or Tavario (Miller) at the 4. Will wait and see how the week goes and get a better feel for Upstate and see what matchups may be defensively and offensively at that position.
Been part of a season with so many changes in game and how to prepare for that. They've done this a couple of times before. Most rule changes that I can remember in a long time. Shot clock reduced, emphasis on calling hand-checking, taking away some physical play in the post. Been different already. Scrimmaged Utah with Pac-12 officials, that was called one way. Had SEC officials in our exhibition game and in our Maroon and White Scrimmage and that was a bit different. Will take time to see if officials blow their whistle on a consistent basis and clean up rough play in the post. Don't think shot clock will cause a big change. How game is officiated will be interesting to see how that develops.
Changes in team early due to summer work. Not really. Been a pleasant surprise, added 5 new guys who will really impact our team along with 3 returners. Alex Collins gives us a different look. True point guard, reaks havoc on both sides of floor. Pushes the pace offensively and defensively. Gives Alex Caruso some freedom. Just having Danuel House back, to have a best player so to speak, a go-to guy who will take big shots, is definitely something we need. Our team is just different. Can put 2 or 3 different looks on the floor. Can go big. Our bigs are a presence. Tyler (Davis) and Elijah (Thomas) are big men who are skilled and can score around the basket and can take up space on both sides of the floor. Changes dynamic of team in past.
Freshman with biggest impact early. Every day has been different. Against Utah, DJ Hogg had 20 points throughout scrimmage. Admon Gilder was in double figures. In exhibition, could see Tyler was presence. On (Europe) trip early on, Elijah was probably the best post player from a freshman standpoint. Collins probably has biggest impact just because he does so many things and can get us in offense.
Improving schedule. Our league was much better last year if you look at our schedule and saw the improvement from that standpoint. Had 5 teams get in NCAA tourney. We would have been the sixth but didn't do enough to get it done. This year had planned all along to play really tough schedule cause I knew we were going to be good. My fifth year, got all the guys I recruited. No player on our roster we have that wasn't part of our recruiting. Expected to play tougher schedule. Didn't anticipate the 4-game suspension by Jalen early. You look at our schedule, it's strange. Play basically 7 games in 14 days. That's a big challenge for our team to take on. Four at home and 3 teams in Bahamas. We're ready for it. This team is equipped for it. 4 seniors. Good recruiting class. Underclassmen who have played quality minutes. Excited about it.
Alex Robinson. Really trying to find his role. Had foot surgery in offseason. Missed most of summer with pretty much same injury that House had, maybe a little more severe. Played off the ball some. Played him on the ball last year. Missed practice and spring and early part of summer was just trying to catch up. Showed last year was a very good player, very talented. Think he's grown up some and matured. Hopefully you'll be able to see that in his performance.Â
A summary of Coach Kennedy's comments is posted below.
Click the video above to watch.
Â
BILLY KENNEDY PRESS CONFERENCE SUMMARY
Exciting to finally start playing games. Good test in South Carolina Upstate, veteran coach in Eddie Payne. Well coached. Won a lot of games last year. Will have all our guys, Elijah Thomas practiced yesterday for the first time in 3 to 4 weeks. Did good things for a little while. Will be missing Jalen Jones because he played in 2 scrimmages at SMU a few years ago. Penalized by the NCAA four games. Gives our young guys a chance to play, especially the young big guys, early on.
Lineup in Jalen's absence. We're really not sure yet. Tonny Trocha-Morelos has played really well at that spot. Could play DJ Hogg at the 4. Could play Tonny or Tavario (Miller) at the 4. Will wait and see how the week goes and get a better feel for Upstate and see what matchups may be defensively and offensively at that position.
Been part of a season with so many changes in game and how to prepare for that. They've done this a couple of times before. Most rule changes that I can remember in a long time. Shot clock reduced, emphasis on calling hand-checking, taking away some physical play in the post. Been different already. Scrimmaged Utah with Pac-12 officials, that was called one way. Had SEC officials in our exhibition game and in our Maroon and White Scrimmage and that was a bit different. Will take time to see if officials blow their whistle on a consistent basis and clean up rough play in the post. Don't think shot clock will cause a big change. How game is officiated will be interesting to see how that develops.
Changes in team early due to summer work. Not really. Been a pleasant surprise, added 5 new guys who will really impact our team along with 3 returners. Alex Collins gives us a different look. True point guard, reaks havoc on both sides of floor. Pushes the pace offensively and defensively. Gives Alex Caruso some freedom. Just having Danuel House back, to have a best player so to speak, a go-to guy who will take big shots, is definitely something we need. Our team is just different. Can put 2 or 3 different looks on the floor. Can go big. Our bigs are a presence. Tyler (Davis) and Elijah (Thomas) are big men who are skilled and can score around the basket and can take up space on both sides of the floor. Changes dynamic of team in past.
Freshman with biggest impact early. Every day has been different. Against Utah, DJ Hogg had 20 points throughout scrimmage. Admon Gilder was in double figures. In exhibition, could see Tyler was presence. On (Europe) trip early on, Elijah was probably the best post player from a freshman standpoint. Collins probably has biggest impact just because he does so many things and can get us in offense.
Improving schedule. Our league was much better last year if you look at our schedule and saw the improvement from that standpoint. Had 5 teams get in NCAA tourney. We would have been the sixth but didn't do enough to get it done. This year had planned all along to play really tough schedule cause I knew we were going to be good. My fifth year, got all the guys I recruited. No player on our roster we have that wasn't part of our recruiting. Expected to play tougher schedule. Didn't anticipate the 4-game suspension by Jalen early. You look at our schedule, it's strange. Play basically 7 games in 14 days. That's a big challenge for our team to take on. Four at home and 3 teams in Bahamas. We're ready for it. This team is equipped for it. 4 seniors. Good recruiting class. Underclassmen who have played quality minutes. Excited about it.
Alex Robinson. Really trying to find his role. Had foot surgery in offseason. Missed most of summer with pretty much same injury that House had, maybe a little more severe. Played off the ball some. Played him on the ball last year. Missed practice and spring and early part of summer was just trying to catch up. Showed last year was a very good player, very talented. Think he's grown up some and matured. Hopefully you'll be able to see that in his performance.Â