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EA SPORTS MAUI INVITATIONALNovember 25, 2014Rapheal DavisJon OcteusMatt PainterBasil SmothermanLAHAINA, HAWAII Purdue – 82 THE MODERATOR: Coach, opening comments about today's game? COACH PAINTER: Thank you. I thought our guys were ready to play. I thought we did a good job on the glass, and then defensively thought we did a good job of keeping the ball out of the interior for Missouri. We were able to get on the break and kind of steal some points. Also, I just thought we executed well in that first half. So having to wake up and both teams lose and being able to play at 9:00 a.m., I thought our guys responded. Q. You obviously embraced a big leadership role with this team. How did you process the disappointment yesterday and how did that fuel you coming into today? It seemed like you tried to set a tone defensively? RAPHEAL DAVIS: I put a lot of yesterday on my self. Being an upperclassman, I played like an underclass man. I played softer than I should have played. I didn't play as hard as I could. I had a long talk watching film with Coach, and last night I had a long night thinking about last night's game. They be I realized it was over and there is nothing I could do about it. Just go into this game and play as hard as I could, and help us lead to victory? Q. Jon, you really seemed to, your whole team seemed to take them out of what they wanted to do offensively. Where did that effort come from in the first half? JON OCTEUS: We watched film yesterday, and we kind of saw that we didn't play hard. And that is one thing that's unacceptable. You never want to say we lost the game because we didn't play hard enough. So we just took that approach. Did a good job scouting them. We knew what was coming and it was going to come down to a ball screen and staying in front of them. So that's what we folk used on. Q. Rapheal, yesterday it seemed like you had difficulty kind of getting into the game. Today you were very aggressive. Got to the free‑throw line a lot. Just what was the difference today? RAPHEAL DAVIS: I just was talking to our other captain today, Neal Beshears, and just talked about going out and playing as hard as I could. Not worrying about nothing else but the scouting report and playing as hard as I could. That ended up getting me to the free‑throw line and getting me aggressive. Q. Basil, we talked all summer about your role on this team to potentially be running the floor and playing with a lot of energy. It seems that's exactly what you did today. Could you talk about the ways you feel you impacted this game? BASIL SMOTHERMAN: I feel like I impacted the game today just by my energy and kind of just being out there and talking on defense and kind of having guys back when they got beat. Coming on help side a lot. And Jon Octeus told me you're our energy guy, and that's what I did today. Just kind of running the floor. Coach Paint tells me all the time just to run to the basket when I'm on a break or something like that, and that's what I did. I kind of just played off my energy, and just fed off of everybody's energy today. Q. Jon, in what ways did Rapheal come out and set a defensive tone today? In what ways did defense fuel everything that you guys did in sort of taking over in the first half? RAPHEAL DAVIS: He started off on one of their best players, kind of knocked him out in beginning. He had a hard time scoring the ball. He everybody did a good job of understanding the scouting report, and it all goes back to playing hard. We got back to playing hard, and it showed today? Q. Rapheal, in the way you guys responded from yesterday, what do you feel you learned about your team today? RAPHEAL DAVIS: We set a new bar for ourselves being able to wake up this early in the morning, eat breakfast and come to the gym and being at a place to play as hard as we did. Especially in the first half, and being so early, and the time difference being back home. It showed us how hard we can play and how hard we can continue to play and keep setting new bars for ourselves. Q. Basil, put you on the spot because you're sitting next to him. But how has it impacted this team to have Jon sort of fall into your laps right before the season started and make this kind of impact? BASIL SMOTHERMAN: It was an early Christmas present for us. He's a great kid. He's a great player on the court. He's a leader. He's an old man, kind of. He's old man on the team. He just came in and didn't hold back. He just kind of embraced the leadership role with Neal, and he's just been great for us. Bringing energy every day and guarding and jamming and just giving 110% every day. That's great. He learned everything quickly, so that was great for us. Q. Rapheal, what has Isaacs personality, sort of the physicality he plays with, sort of the intensity he's been playing without here, what's that brought to your team? RAPHEAL DAVIS: Just a physical presence. I actually heard Missouri players getting down there, I heard them huddle up one time and they were talking about they didn't know what to do. They felt he was hitting them in all types of ways they'd never been hit before. So him being that physical was just a boost to our team and adds that physicality that we need. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Painter. Q. You said Sunday that you thought that Kansas State could in some way benefit from that first loss. Sometimes you benefit from that first loss. Do you feel like that happened with you guys at all? COACH PAINTER: Well, we were shell shocked in the first half of our Kansas State game. We threw the ball to Kansas State. Just threw the ball to them on the press a couple times. They didn't trap us. They didn't run at us. Just gave them easy baskets. Then we had a five second count where guys didn't cut hard. We had faced a team in Samford that pressed the whole time. You know, Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith type background and the way they pressed. Our guys did a great job and handled that. And Kansas State that's not really their blueprint; they'll mix it up and throw something at you. Then they were able to smell blood in the water and they pressured us into some turnovers. I thought once we calmed down we were a lot better. We still couldn't stop them in the second half after scoring 55 points. But we competed in the second half. I thought today we were ready to go and we really competed. But I think them getting beaten by Long Beach State has got you on edge. You can learn a lot from one loss. There is no need to have two losses, but you can learn a lot from one loss. Q. What thank you learn about your team today in the way it responded to yesterday? COACH PAINTER: It was very similar to when we were in Maui eight years ago. I thought we had a pretty good effort against Georgia Tech, and we were able to bounce back in the 9:00 a.m. game the next day and be ready to play. Anytime you have to wake up 6:30 in the morning, you're not used to it. And get prepared for a basketball game and play, I think it shows the character of your team. We had some guys that want to understand the game. They want to win and put in a lot of time. But still need to play under these circumstances, but they were able to step up and play well today. Q. The job that Rapheal did today was a tone setter. It seemed he came out with a lot of intensity, and that sparked the offense? COACH PAINTER: I think anytime you have big posts and you get those guys to really post strong, even when they don't get the basketball, they take on that back line help. So Rapheal was able to get past his man, and he got a lot of fouls called that way for him. And he was able to make his free throws. That was great. Rapheal really just capitalized on some opportunities, getting in transition and breaking people down and finishing at the basket. Most of his points came from the free‑throw line. Q. Do you feel this is a team that could generate offense off of defense or was tonight an outlier? COACH PAINTER: I think so. The one thing we struggled at Kansas State is we had some opportunities and then we just didn't finish. You can't come away empty handed when you get into primary breaks. You get into a two on one or three on two. You need to get two points, or three points or get fouled. We had too many of those possessions and opportunities where we didn't get anything. I think we've got to continue to do that, but we have to be solid. We have to be solid on defense and be able to take what they give us. If they don't give us anything, anytime we gamble, they made us pay. That's the type of defensive team we're going to be. Q. How did you feel your team responded to yesterday's result and just kind of what are your thoughts now 24 hours later? COACH PAINTER: I thought they did a good job. They responded. Both teams are in the same position where they lose a game and they have to play the early morning game. They played the game after us yesterday, so they didn't have as much rest. I don't think that matters. It's still waking up and having a focus. Our guys are ready. I thought we rebounded the ball well. Our guards took care of the ball in the first half. Our guards only had two turnovers in the first half, and that was an important part of the game. Q. I think you made 15 straight free throws there at the end. What's that say about your team's concentration? It's poised in a big moment. COACH PAINTER: Obviously, it's not a possession game or anything and they're making them. You're up 20 points or 25 points. It's good to make free throws because that's what wins or loses games. So we lost a handful of games last year where you can simply earmark the free throw category that beat us. Now if you can do those things, you're going to put yourself in a better position to hopefully win those. Q. Gill‑Caesar came in as their leading scorer. Was he a point of emphasis in your game plan? COACH PAINTER: Without question. We recruited Techie and went to Canada and met with his family. Just a tough match‑up with his size, his athleticism, his strength. He can post you up. He can play on the perimeter. He can drive it. He can shoot it. And that's Rapheal Davis I think kind of got himself going today. We didn't want him to catch it in the post. We wanted to keep it in front of us. I thought Rapheal did a good job. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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