|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NIT SEASON TIP-OFFNovember 26, 2008Mike DavisPaul Delaney IIINEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK COACH MIKE DAVIS: I thought the first half we played well, and the last possession before the first half we turned it over, and they scored a couple easy baskets, but I think Coach Capel did an outstanding job when he went to the zone late in the game. It really hurt us. We really kind of stood around a little bit, and we had about 3 or 4 shots, I thought. We needed them to go in and kind of run it out, but you have to give Oklahoma a lot of credit. They're a well-coached basketball team, and they made plays and shots when they needed to make plays and shots. But I'm proud of my team. I thought we fought hard. There was one stretch during the second half where we didn't push the basketball. It was my fault. We came down probably about 5 or 6 possessions, just trying to set things up instead of getting into an open-court game because the Open court game is our strength. So this is definitely a game that we can learn from and get better as a basketball team. Q. Can you just talk about playing against Blake Griffin and what it's like playing against him, what he brings to the table? PAUL DELANEY III: Blake's a great player. He's physical. He did what he's supposed to do. He did exactly what our coaches tell us to do and we played certain ways and he carried his team on his back. He did a great job. Q. Have you encountered anybody else like him in college basketball right now that plays the way he does? PAUL DELANEY III: Not throughout our first four games, no. Q. Could you guys talk a little about you've been on the road for every game so far. How much will it help you down the road having played tough teams on the road and playing at home, how much you guys have bonded to become a better team? PAUL DELANEY III: I think help us become a great team. Of course we've got room for improvement but at the same time our bonding is there. Our chemistry is there. We have to clean up certain aspects of our game. When we go home hopefully we'll have all this straightened out, so we'll have a good game at home. Only one player answered questions. Q. Coach, what was the difference down the stretch in the last five minutes. You guys played it was back and forth and then they went out running at the end of the game? COACH MIKE DAVIS: I thought we missed some shots that probably should have gone in, but I thought Coach Capel did a great job of going to the zone. Once he went to the zone we kind of stood around a little bit and we didn't get the movement that we needed against the zone, and we ended up taking shots that was not high-percentage shots. So we got one attempt and they got 2 or 3, and just Blake Griffin just carried the basketball team. And Davis, number 34, made some big time shots for them, I mean really big shots for them. We doubled the post, kicked it out and during that one stretch where they were missing some open shots, we didn't capitalize on it, but he hit -- I mean the one he missed I think everybody in the crowd was kind of -- I mean the fans were kind of surprised he missed the one he missed because he had made like three and a row. Anytime you have a big time player like Blake Griffin, he's got lay ups and dunks? Q. Mike, how difficult is he to stop down low especially when he's that deep close to the basket? COACH MIKE DAVIS: I mean I hate to put a name on it. Karl Malone was a great player, I mean great player, but I mean if he reminds me of anyone, I'm not saying he's Karl Malone, but he's pretty good, the best I've seen. He's so physical. He made some shots early in the game -- he carried them. He carried them. I mean he scored -- at half time he was good. He had eight points almost at half time and he gave his teammates time to kind of adjust to our speed. I thought we surprised them early in the game at how fast our team was in transition, but he's a big-time player. Q. Coach, do you think he's the best player in the country right now? COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, he's the best we've seen. (Laughs) I've never seen a physical specimen like that in college. We've played some guys that was big and strong, but he's like, whoosh, he's like 32 years old. And I mean he's under control. He's really, really, really good, I mean really good? Q. What was your mindset defensively coming into the game? COACH MIKE DAVIS: What we wanted to do, and we didn't execute. I don't want to take anything from them. I don't because they played a heck of a game but our game plan was for the guy that was guarding them, not to let him go baseline, and if you noticed he went baseline every time. What we wanted to do was take baseline from the person that was defending him and bring the help to the top, push them to the middle so he could come right to the help. But he, spinned, spinned, spinned and he was getting layups on the baseline and we couldn't get the double team a couple times because when we were doubling from the furthest, the closest elbow and if you double from the closest elbow, you're going down on him, and so if you're going down on him you're going baseline, you don't get a double team. You want him to come back to the middle, no matter which side he was on, he was going baseline. So we just didn't execute. And that's not taking anything from him, trust me. I'm just saying we wanted him to go to the middle instead of baseline and he got baseline every single possession almost. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|