MAUI JIM'S MAUI INVITATIONAL

November 23, 2021

LaVall Jordan

Butler Bulldogs

Postgame Press Conference

Texas A&M - 57, Butler - 50

LAVALL JORDAN: Look, obviously it was a heck of a battle by them. Give credit to coach and their team. And it wasn't necessarily a pretty game on either side, but I thought both teams battled hard and played through some mistakes.

And we had some opportunities there and didn't capitalize on some of the opportunities and they capitalized on some of the opportunities they had. A couple big shot clock shots that they made and that's what, sometimes that's the difference when you go back and forth and are both trying to figure it out in terms of the offensive side of the ball.

Look, we got things to figure out for certain and excited about this group's potential. The potential is just a word. There's things we got to do together. Take a look at ourselves in the mirror tonight and move on to the next opponent. Obviously taking care of the basketball is a big deal right now for us, a big, big deal. They got 21 points out of our turnovers so we have to figure that out.

But as I told the group in the locker room, there are certain things that are required to win and you got to be tough to do those things consistently and we've had good stretches where we've done it and now it's just consistent stretches and a consistent group that's doing it and we got to be better moving forward.

We weren't good against the zone in terms of me giving them a good plan to attack it. Bounced back a little in the second half but just weren't consistent enough.

Q. It didn't look like that it was any one thing it was several things. Can you explain what it was, what maybe one of the one troubles was with finding each other and that?

LAVALL JORDAN: Yeah, they had a lot to do with it. The activity itself was good. They were long. A couple we just had poor deliveries. It was the right read, just not the right delivery. I think a couple were, we just weren't strong enough with the basketball. Get around the paint, fly in. You got to play off of two feet and make sure passes and clean passes out.

Yes, they make it difficult. That's why you have competition. So we got to be able to execute in those moments. So it wasn't necessarily one thing, but the culmination of it, obviously six assists and 19 turnovers impacted us.

Q. Yesterday the emphasis was energy from the team and how the team came out. They seemed a little bit better today. How did you feel about their overall energy level?

LAVALL JORDAN: Yeah, that's something that we have to have. If you got a Butler jersey on, you got guys in the locker room that you've been grinding with, you're playing for them, you're playing for a lot of the others that have been here before and so that motivation, we don't need to spend a whole lot of time doing it, just find a group that appreciates the opportunity. So I do think that they got the message in terms of that and the execution has to go along with it now, in terms of putting it all together for this group.

Q. Going back to taking care of the basketball, what sort of things do you do to improve that as far as taking care of the basketball? What kind of things do you work on in practice?

LAVALL JORDAN: Yeah, we do a lot of as much passing and catching and all that as anybody. It's not really that, it's more a mindset to be honest with you. The worst player out there can hang onto the basketball and call timeout and not throw it to the other team. So we just got to be comfortable as much as anything. Some of it, again, right, the zone, the execution, guys cutting and the deliveries, but it's more of a mindset than a skill set.

Q. I don't know if I've ever seen you sub so much in a single game. Are you trying to find a combination that's working, were you trying to do matchups and I guess were you satisfied that the team maintained the continuity through the different combinations?

LAVALL JORDAN: Yeah, certainly. You try to find a group that could sustain for a stretch was a part of it. Obviously playing yesterday and coming right back today, trying to keep fresh bodies, fresh legs was a part of it as well. But as much as anything a consistent group in terms of both sides of the basketball. We found a good group, Wilmoth in there in the second half, carried some energy off the bench with Jair, with that group with Ty and Aaron and Jayden where we made the run and then kind of cut into the lead. So it's just trying to find a group that could connect on both sides of the ball. They say two-way players not used to just be basketball players but play offense and defense that makes you a basketball player. So that combined with trying to keep fresh guys out there.