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EA SPORTS MAUI INVITATIONALNovember 24, 2014Brandon AshleyRondae Hollis-JeffersonSean MillerLAHAINA, HAWAII Arizona – 72 THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, Coach. We'll start this press conference with an opening statement then questions for the players. COACH MILLER: Well, I thought Missouri really played extremely hard tonight, and for a large portion of the game really to me challenged us in a variety of ways, one of which is on the glass. I think if we leave this game disappointed in anything, it's that they outrebounded us 34‑32, and I only say that because that's something we take a lot of pride in, and I think we have on our side, on our team a lot of talent in that area. But when you come to this tournament there is so much building towards the first game. I think it's a tournament that is the biggest and the best. With that, that first game is always the most difficult. I think we feel good about the fact that we've won. There are a number of things that I know and I think we know we can do better. Rebounding is one of them. But just getting that first game out of our system, it gives us now a chance to take a deep breath, and obviously move on to a very, very good Kansas State team where we know we have to play even better than we did today, and hopefully we'll be up to that task. Q. It was a pretty close game early, and you guys pulled away. Do you feel the confidence of this team growing as you guys are going along? RONDAE HOLLIS‑JEFFERSON: Well, I see as the season goes along, teams build more chemistry, and would say as the year goes on we have great leadership with T.J., Brandon and Kaleb. They bring a lot out of us. We work hard in practice and that's where it starts, in practice. We've got a great coach who practices what he preaches, and it just follows in the game and transitions. You'll see it more and more as we go along. BRANDON ASHLEY: Yeah, I have to agree with what Rondae said. As the season goes along, you get more comfortable with the guys you're on the floor with, and with that comes a higher confidence level as well. Q. Brandon, it seemed like you helped get them going early. I was wondering if you could talk about that. Is it even a question any more about you playing three games in three days as far as rest and all? How do you feel? BRANDON ASHLEY: Are you talking about in terms of my foot? In terms of that, I'm a hundred percent now. In terms of the injury, it no longer bothers me. In terms of early on in the game, my teammates did a great job of finding me in some good positions. Our coach drew up some wonderful plays that ended up working really well. So, yeah, that's pretty much all that was? Q. Rondae, coming off the bench in the second half you started, does that make a difference to you? You came out and punched right away offensively at least. RONDAE HOLLIS‑JEFFERSON: No, not really. Coming into the game with the energy I always have is a great feeling for our team. We need that spark sometimes off the bench or sometimes we may need it to start with, and Coach knows that. When we're out there together, it's a great team chemistry, and we get the job done. Q. Rondae and Brandon, I'm just looking at the assist‑to‑turnover ratio you guys were 14‑6 on the positive side. You forced 17 turnovers, and they only had 7 assists. Is that a big part of your game plan and is that a key to success for you guys? RONDAE HOLLIS‑JEFFERSON: Yeah, definitely. Our coach always tells us we have to take care of the ball. We have to feed the inside. When we feed the inside, good things happen. That's what we do on defense. We pressure the ball, try to get turnovers, get stops. Being in the gap helps us a lot, and that's what we take pride in. BRANDON ASHLEY: I'm going to take something that my coach said in the past. That a good defensive team or a great defensive team is never selfish. So what that means basically, if somebody gets beat, you're going to be there to help him out. You're going to be there for your teammate on defense, and that kind of translates into offense, and we always want to make sure we're sharing the ball and everything. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Miller. Q. Does it seem like this is a familiar script for you guys or maybe you're not where you want to be in the first half or even at halftime and then eventually you kind of just pull away? COACH MILLER: Yeah, I guess now that you brought it up you're probably right. I talked a couple weeks ago about when you have a group of guys that have been in a lot of big games like we have, many times we should be like a fast starting team where you kind of see that confidence early on. Man, I haven't seen it yet. That first four minutes there's been some times this season in our first four games we've been excellent on defense. There are times when I think we've executed really well and had some great shots that we haven't made. But that initial surge out of the gate, playing really well on both ends, I don't know if we've really done that yet, which I can also flip it and make that a positive. Because like every team at this time of year, you're in search of getting better and improving. Today is another step for our team, playing on a neutral court in a big, big tournament, one that we're excited to be at. There is a little bit, I think, of a sense on our end that it's good to get that first one out of your system and be a winner, because there are a number of things that I know we can do better that we didn't do in this game. Like I said in my initial statement, we're going to have to do those things better tomorrow to beat an excellent Kansas State team. Q. Can you talk about T.J. tonight? He struggled shooting, but nine of those assists were his, and only two turnovers. COACH MILLER: T.J. is our heart and soul in many ways, one of our leaders and somebody that does it on both ends. He doesn't necessarily have to shoot the ball well to play well. He impacted today's game in a big way. But he's really become mental at this point shooting the basketball, and he's making too much of it. He just has to relax, take the shots that present themselves, and, like I've said statistically, I have more confidence in him than maybe any single player on our team from three. It's just a matter of him not making it bigger than it needs to be. We've all been there before as shooters where it just doesn't feel right. He just needs one to go down. Hopefully that will be tomorrow. But he can play an excellent game and not be a bigger scorer for us. Q. With Rondae coming and starting in the second half, was that a function of just another kind of slow start in the first half or something else? COACH MILLER: Well, it was a reward for Rondae. It's not as if we're not starting Rondae because he's not one of our five best players. I think what we've decided on a chemistry perspective and maybe getting more balance on offense, that not starting him gives us that energy that everyone loves to have off the bench, and maybe balances out, complements the starting group a little bit better. But every once in a while you could certainly see that we'd want to start him in the second half. He had some foul problems as well, and it's important that we give him enough minutes because right now no one on our team is playing better than Rondae. He's been the most consistent player from start to finish in all four games. I would say Brandon Ashley and him, those two guys have been the most consistent on our end. Q. (No Microphone). COACH MILLER: You can ask me the same question every game and you can ask me at halftime and after the game, tomorrow you can ask me it again, I'm going to give you the same answer. If you want to make a huge deal of who starts, you can keep doing it. But it's more about who plays well. I've already gone on record once, five, ten, fifteen times that the reason we're not starting Rondae Hollis‑Jefferson has nothing to do with anything he does. He's clearly a very, very talented player. We just feel that him entering the game at the 17‑minute mark helps us be the best team we can be. Now having answered that, I'll answer it again tomorrow, if you want. But I would say that we'll probably start the same lineup tomorrow that we started today. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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