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RIDER UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 24, 2014Kevin BaggettXavier LundyRIDER – 60 KEVIN BAGGETT: Coach Self said last week about he was hoping this was VACA. I certainly would hope the same the way we played tonight. Give those guys credit; they stepped up. We knew we were coming into a little bit of a buzz saw after the performance they had against Kentucky last week, and some of our guys, some of our key guys that we needed to step up didn't step up tonight. Q. You obviously know it's going to be tough anyway coming into this environment, but how did you prepare for that extra dose? KEVIN BAGGETT: I don't think you can. The only thing we can do is mentally talk about it. We watched enough film, we've practiced against the different things we needed to work on in terms of what we thought Kansas was going to execute. We just needed to be able to come out and take the first initial punch and we kind of got off to a slow start. Some of the guys that I needed to come out and get started right away didn't, and so that kind of set us back. Q. They put Cliff Alexander, No.2, in the game, and he had a 9‑0 run on his own. I think that stretched it out a little bit, gave them that cushion. Why was he so tough? KEVIN BAGGETT: Just a match‑up, a talented player. Again, give those guys credit. I really don't have the answer other than we really just didn't do a good enough job guarding them. Q. Can you answer the same about Cliff, No.2? XAVIER LUNDY: He's just a big presence in the paint. He's a tough kid, pretty hard to guard, and we pretty much didn't have an answer for it today. Q. What did you think of their energy tonight? Seemed like they played as hard as they played all year. XAVIER LUNDY: Yeah, I think that was the difference tonight between us and them. Their whole team played with a lot of energy, and I think some of our players didn't play up to their level energy‑wise, and I think that's what gave them the extra boost on the court. Q. Teddy scored 29 points against Lehigh on Friday, and he only scored 10 tonight. Do you have any idea off the top of your head why he struggled? KEVIN BAGGETT: I thought they did a good job focusing on him at times, trying to deny him the ball and not allowing him to get it. I thought he struggled tonight. He was one of those guys I'm talking about that we needed to have him get off to a good start and he didn't, struggled the first half, scored a little bit better the second half, but I thought the main focus obviously with the last couple games that he's played for us and done well that those guys are kind of keying on them the way that they did. Q. What do you talk about at halftime in a situation like that? KEVIN BAGGETT: We just talk about coming out with some pride, just talk about the respect that we need to go back and get that we lost in terms of the way we competed. Obviously we know Kansas is good, and they're going to be good continuing to go forward. But this is a good basketball team. We certainly just didn't play like it tonight. You've got to go back and do a pride check more than anything else. Q. Xavier talked about the difference being the energy and effort. Did you see the same thing? KEVIN BAGGETT: I don't necessarily know if it was the energy. I don't know if some of our guys were nervous having played at this level in this type venue. I think that was a little bit of it. It's hard to simulate in practice with the All‑Americans that those guys do have to be able to go up against that until you get in the game and compete against it. But again, we're going to try to get to where we need to get to to try to win our league. We certainly are thinking big term getting to the tournament and having to come back and compete against a team like this. We've got a long way to go before that happens, but this is certainly a teaching point for us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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