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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 12, 2013Chris WalkerKANSAS – 60 COACH WALKER: First of all, it was certainly for our guys a big step, giving them a chance to play against a team of Kansas' caliber. We played on Tuesday night, and I promised everybody that that was not the Texas Tech team that we had been working with the last couple of months. It was a hiccup. I think the guys came out and showed they could definitely compete at this level. Obviously, there are some things that we need to continue to work on, and Kansas say team that you just can't make mistakes. They have a lot of senior leadership and they just take their time and take advantage of every mistake that you make. I think being a young team and inexperienced team, I thought that our guys handled a couple of situations well. They played particularly well in the first half. If we could have gotten to the foul line just a little bit, that would have changed the game somewhat if we could get some free throws because we haven't been shooting the ball well. They're pretty athletic, and they didn't let our three‑point shooters get loose. Couple turnovers here and there, and couple end of the shot‑clock plays here and there. We need everything to go right for us to beat a team of that magnitude, but there were signs of growth. There were signs of competition, and I think that going forward we have something to build on. Q. Ben McLemore came out with a 33‑point game the other day, and you defended him better than anybody has so far. Why do you think that was? COACH WALKER: We just wanted to limit his touches. He's a great player, taking nothing away from him. He didn't take as many shots as he had normally taken. I don't know what their game plan was for this game. We just didn't want to let him have clean looks. That was our number one goal. Not let him have clean looks, and to push him up a little higher, really stay on his dribble and force him to drive the ball, because he's really good with space. I don't know if it was us or him today, but we did slow him up. I think our guys did a good job on him. Q. Jamal hit three free throws and the crowd gave him a standing ovation. What was the feeling at halftime? COACH WALKER: The feeling, as I told our guys after the Baylor game, said, guys, we are a good team. There are sometimes when we're a going to play good and sometimes when we're not going to play good, bottom line is how we respond from those situations. I wasn't surprised by the first half and the way we played, because I know their focus level. The bottom line is a team that's young and inexperienced, it's just keeping their attitude to the point where they can come back from adversity, or when they have some success, how they handle it and keep them focused. So now we had that situation, and I called it a hiccup, versus Baylor, we had their attention. We had a chance to prove that we're not that team that everyone saw on Tuesday. I think those guys did that. We didn't get the job done today. We're not satisfied with losing. The objective is to win the game, but I think we played with more pride today. Q. (No Microphone)? COACH WALKER: You know, Jaye played as a team player today. I'll give him that. He played defense. He played very hard in these games as we play Big 12 games, it depends on the match‑up. I thought we had a particular match‑up today with Withey going out of the game and going big, big, and we exploited that with Tolbert and Kravic. And Jaye's going to get his points. We need Jaye's leadership and to keep us calm on the court. He's going to do more than his share in games going forward. Q. How much did not having Trency (Indiscernible) when do you expect him to return? COACH WALKER: You know, we had another game that we played this year when Trency didn't play and that was the second half of Alabama. Everyone always talks about how they were proud of the way the team played that game. All I will say with that matter is we're going to play with the guys that are there, and that's all I'll say about that. Q. Jamal coming in, kind of giving you a scoring punch, which obviously is something you guys need. What are your thoughts on him? COACH WALKER: You know, he's been hurt. So you really don't know, and, obviously, Trency's not playing. He had to play more and he was hurt. And I think that Jamal played well. He had a couple of plays because of rust, and he hadn't been out there for a while, that he made. But for the most part I was happy with his energy level. He really took it upon himself and wanted to guard McLemore and did a good job with that. It's just a matter of him getting back into the groove of things and back into the swing of things. He's usually a more solid guy, and he made a couple of nice plays today. Made a couple of tough plays, but that's to be expected. But again, going forward, him getting more minutes and getting his win back and getting just accustomed to playing and practicing every day will be very helpful. Q. Talk about what the D‑line did for your team playing with so much energy? COACH WALKER: It comes down to habits. That is the thing that we keep preaching. If we can get our guys to follow the game plan as they did today and value the ball. It comes down to us turning the ball over. A young team that doesn't make threes, we can't turn the ball over because every possession is valuable to us. That makes it harder on a coach when you can't make threes, because it's really good to have guys that can make a couple shots. But, nevertheless, the way we're going to counteract that is to get to the foul line a lot. There are a lot of things going on. I think the ceiling, as you mentioned, that could be anything that could happen with these guys. You know, we've obviously seen them at their worst on Tuesday night. But to be honest with you, I haven't seen them at their best, because I don't think this was their best today. I think we can go even higher. Q. Baylor and Kansas play each other Monday night. Would it be a mistake to look at the comparative score and try to figure out who the better team is? COACH WALKER: Most definitely. I wouldn't even comment on who is the better team. First of all, it's in Lawrence, I believe, and that is something in and of itself. And Kansas has guys that played on the championship game this year. They have four seniors and juniors and a guy predicted to be a lottery pick, and Baylor has pros on their end too. So it's going to be a heck of a game with a lot of future NBA players on the floor. Q. You guys played two great defenses in the first two. But what do you look to to increase the scoring punch a little bit? COACH WALKER: I wouldn't say it's a struggle. Maybe against Baylor it was a struggle. But with this game plan, we wanted to take our time, pace the game, work to our advantage. And we didn't want to get them in a run‑and‑gun game because that gives them more of an advantage as the game gets up and down. So as we slow the game down, take advantage, and get the plays that we want to run, and we've had some issues with turning the ball over as we started faster. Now we won't be able to play in the 40s and win games. I mentioned before, we played two of the best teams in the league, so we've got to try to play those guys to win the game. I don't think there are two teams that are close to those guys in the league, and we may open it up more. But we're playing to win the game, and it was just my decision that that was the best way for us to be competitive today. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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