On if Josiah-Jordan James will play against Alabama and what the team misses when he doesn’t play:
“It’s day-to-day right now. We didn’t do anything other than scrub the game out yesterday, and we did some things in the weight room, just getting our bodies back. I just saw Chad a little bit ago, and he said he would go out and do a little bit. We won’t do much today, but it’s just a day-to-day thing to see how he responds to it. He had really hoped to try to play last game, but he just couldn’t do it. We’ll see how these couple days off have helped him. What we miss is, he’s a guy that rebounds the ball well for us, he comes down from his position and he does that. Defensively, there’s a lot of things that we miss with him not being out there. Certainly, his physicality and the way he can go help us rebound and that’s where we’ve been hurt some lately.”
On what is the most difficult part of Uros Plavsic and Santiago Vescovi getting acquainted to playing:
“I think they’re both in different situations. To be quite honest with you, it’s pretty impressive when you think about what Santiago has been able to do in a month and a couple of weeks. It’s really amazing, but I do think from his point of view, he is adjusting. I think he’s understanding the game more, I think he’s starting to figure out more and more of as a team what we need him to do and how we need him to play. He’s moving the ball better; he is really starting to get an idea of what we’re trying to do overall from every position. Uros is simply, he’s played five games now I think, five or six games, his is experience and just getting out there. Again, those guys didn’t have a chance to play any of the games that we played earlier in the year, so they’re learning at a time when it’s a very difficult time to learn that. But, the only way they’re going to learn it, is that they’re going to have to play through mistakes, and we’re going to have to let them play through some of those mistakes.”
On how much the sense of urgency has risen and how much it impacts a young roster:
“I don’t think we’re really that much different than everybody else right now. When you look at the league and where we are, there’s a sense of urgency for everyone in the league and I think we all realize that. This is the month where things start separating. But, probably the most important part of that question is with a young group of guys that have never been through it. It’s something they’re going to have to experience, and what they’re going to realize as they continue to go through this, is just how difficult it is to win basketball games this time of year. That’s something where we’re going to have to keep grinding, we’re going to have to keep working, and find a way to break through. But, again, I think every team this time of year, we’re all trying to continue to figure it out and see what we can do as we head down the home stretch.”
On what has allowed Jalen Johnson to settle in and progress:
“One, Jalen does know what we’re doing. He does understand the scheme, and I think him getting out there and playing, he’s getting more comfortable too, and the fact is, he’s been so much better in practice where he’s one of those guys that is starting to understand that, as much as anything. I think he’s also been able to understand where his weaknesses are and how he has to work each day to try and get better with them. He’s still working to understand a lot of things from the team defensive standpoint. He and ticket (Davonte Gaines) both were in a tough situation where they were the ones down low really not helping our post players the other night when they were getting the ball on the side. That was new for both of those guys, even though we had talked about it, executing it is another thing. The fact is, he’s still learning a lot too, as you said with the extended minutes that he’s getting. But, one thing that we know, he’s laying it out there, he wants to win, and he’s wanting to do the things that he thinks that can help us win.”
On Alabama’s backcourt and Nate Oats:
“I think he’s got his system implemented where they are one of the fastest teams in the country. Their guards are some of their leading rebounders. They get the ball and go with it. They have a number of guys that can turn it into a one-man fast break if they need too. They are going to shoot 30-plus threes. If you look at the shot chart on them, it’s either a three or they try to get the ball to the basket for shots at the rim. They really drive it hard. They know what they are looking for. I mean they are fast. On a bad day for them, they are making like nine threes. They are going to continue to shoot them, and they are going to come at you hard, they are going to come at you fast and quick. Transition defense is a big part of any game, but it’s going to be very important in this game.”
On players that have not played extended minutes:
“We got beat Saturday by a team that played well. We were disappointed in our defensive effort. It’s not a matter of hitting a wall, it’s a matter of understanding how hard it is to win at this level. You have a couple guys that are in roles that they have never played before. Jordan Bowden and John Fulkerson are in roles that they have never been in. Some young guys are going through it for the first time and some older guys are going through new rules for the first time. Fulky (John Fulkerson), for whatever reason wasn’t feeling well and it showed up in the way he played. He wasn’t a factor on either end. My concern isn’t about hitting a wall; my concern is more that we continue to have the idea that we have to get better. We have to understand that we have to play really hard basketball for 40 minutes. When the intensity level of the game goes up, we are going to have to bring it up. That is one of the hardest things for a young team to understand. You could tell when Mississippi State came out, they did exactly what Coach Oliver told them to do in terms of approaching the second half. And we didn’t answer the way we should have. We have to believe our older guys can do that, but they can’t do it themselves. It’s a mindset about understanding when you have to raise your intensity. You like to think you’re playing at a high level all the time, which most of the time you are, but when it gets down to those certain phases of the game where the other team is making a push or getting in rhythm, you have to be ready to answer that.”
On if he’s surprised about the inexperience of the team deep into the season:
“Not really, not with what has happened to our team. I just mentioned Santiago (Vescovi). He’s a guy that’s been out there. Josiah (James) missed early season practice. Lamonte (Turner) was there, he’s not there anymore. I think when you have three guys that have played important roles, I’m not surprised. I really want to look at it from a reality standpoint. We have had so many times where we have had to start over and do different things. With that said, I do feel like we are moving in the right direction with what we have now. That’s the one area where I feel we should cut down on. We should have more familiarity now with more guys getting the time they’re getting and rotations being what they might be. With all that’s happened with Lamonte, Josiah’s injury, and Santi coming in those guys are the main ball handlers.”
On if Alabama is tough to defend:
“Yeah, when you’ve got a lot of guys you’ve got to defend behind the 3-point line, open up the court, they move the ball well, they really do a nice job of moving the ball and attacking that way. I think any time you’re playing against a team that they can put three or four guys out there that can go for big numbers, it’s a concern.”
On breaking the tendency of ball-watching:
“Well, it is a habit you have to break. I can assure you; Jordan Bone had to break it, Jordan Bowden had to break it when they were younger. All those guys went through it. They’re freshman and they’re going through it. We tell them going in that if we talked to our team, if we were playing against us, areas that we would look at attacking guys individually. We have a lot of respect for the coaches that we coach against that they are going to look at the same thing that we look at and say, ‘we can take advantage of that.’ But sometimes it takes a player getting burnt a couple times to learn. You hope it’s only once but you hope it’s not any, sometimes until they put their hand on the fire and get burned they’re not going to think about it as much. We did have some guys doing that. There is no question about that. We have to get better with it and as individuals we have to get better.”
On if will Uros Plavsic stay in the starting lineup with Josiah-Jordan James out:
“No, we will probably go the same way we went the other night.”
On if he does anything different for the international guys:
“No, I don’t think of any of it in terms of international guys. We don’t. They’re here because we think they’re good players and they can help us get where we want to go with our program. We want him to be more aggressive, we want him to be more physical, we want him to rebound better, we want him to be a shot blocker. And again, he’s waited a year and a half to play. He’s played five or six games. But he’s been here a year and a half in the United States wanting to play. I do think his first time out he was a little nervous, but he’s starting to settle in. We’re not going to coach him any different than we have. Our expectations for him are probably higher than what he has for himself right now, and that won’t change and it won’t change for any of our guys because we think we have guys that we know they work hard and when we play we expect a lot from them. I could even say at times, I don’t want to say he’s ball-watching as much as he’s not getting himself in position on ball screens, where he’s two steps back or not where he needs to be. But again, that’s game-experience. He’s out there, and again, you get burned a few times and we’ll see how long it takes for him to figure it out.”
On the issue of rebounding the last few games:
“Some of it is that we are playing against teams that put an emphasis on that and sometimes rebounding can be skewed too in terms of how you look at high-possession games or low-possession games. The fact is, when we rebound well, we have to do it as a group. What we get, and again, it goes back to younger guys, mostly, where they just turn and watch the ball and walk underneath the basket. They allow balls to bounce over their head as opposed to checking to see if their man is coming and sometimes you have to step in front of him to create some space but you have to go get the ball. You just turn and start running to the rim you are going to give up rebounds and we do that too much right now. It’s mostly young guys, it really is. We’ve got a free throw line situation the other night and John Fulkerson let the guy spin by him and go get the ball. Those are the ones that are tough because these older guys have played enough to know the importance of rebounding.”
On what makes Coleman Coliseum a tough place to play:
“I don’t really know how to fully answer that. They have good players and they’ve had good coaches. I don’t know how to answer that. It doesn’t make sense. There isn’t a tougher environment than the one we went into at Kansas. I think it’s focus. I think when you’re on the road and things go against you, you’ve got to let it go. You’ve got to get on to the next play. Young teams normally don’t do that and young players normally don’t do that. I think you witnessed it last night in the Super Bowl. Everyone talked about how good the quarterback for Kansas City was, yet the entire broadcast Troy Aikman was saying how poorly he was playing. But, when he was walking to the sideline Andy Reid kept telling him to trust his eyes and his arm. He ended up turning it around and a lot of that comes from experience and talent. So, I think when you go on the road you have to have the ability to do that. When the crowd gets going and gets behind their team can you stay focused, can you trust what you’re doing, what you’ve practiced and trust your teammates. That what we showed our guys yesterday. When Mississippi State started coming out and making shots, did we get open shots? Yes, but when you miss them and there aren’t guys in position to get a second or third chance and they get run out and get easy baskets it can knock you back unless you’re mentally tough enough. That’s what these guys are still learning about how the ebs and flows of a game can quickly shift on you.”
On what the Vols do in practice to prep for close games:
“We have our special situation stuff. LSU’s staff doesn’t do anything that any other coach doesn’t do. All coaches have things that they work on. When you have a group of older guys you can move a lot quicker in a lot of areas. When you have a young group of guys I can sit here and tell you there are thousands of things we’d like to have already done, but we can’t because we’re still trying to implement basic things. But, when you have a lineup that’s changed as much as ours has there’s a lot of things we’d like to do that we can’t. I think every team is different and I think all coaches know what they want to get done. You also need to have players that can execute it and make shots for you when things happen.”
On challenges for younger guys in the post to learn in games in comparison to the guards:
“I think it’s the same. If you go back and look at how Santiago’s had to handle people coming after him, hard pressure and double teaming him. Uros made a few nice plays and all at once they sent a guard on top of him. If he continues to score down there he’ll have to learn how to play against more physicality. What he hasn’t figured out is knowing where he wants to get his space on the floor. He’s just content to just run down to a spot with no purpose. Guards can do that to on the perimeter. They can play with no purpose in terms of what are we trying to do and where should I put the ball? That is where I think we’ve gotten better. We’re starting to look for the things we’re supposed to be looking for. Again, if Uros continues to score he’ll have to do learn to deal with double teams and that sort of thing. Mississippi State did it once to try to get it out of his hands.”
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