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DICK'S SPORTING GOODS NIT SEASON TIP-OFFNovember 27, 2009Trent JohnsonTasmin MitchellNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Q. Tasmin your impressions of the second half? What happened to you guys in the second half there? TASMIN MITCHELL: Like Coach said, we played a heck of a 20 minutes first 20 minutes. And I think we got it -- we got lackadaisical and got nonchalant with the ball and Arizona State wanted it bad better than us the last 10 minutes of the game. Q. I think you guys went 10 minutes without scoring a field goal. Was it not getting the bounce on the rim or the choice of shots? What was it? TASMIN MITCHELL: You know, we stayed within our offense. I felt like we got good shots towards the goal. Just didn't fall. It happens to the best of us. But you know we got to convert baskets during that particular time. And we didn't. But I felt like they were real good shots. The ball just didn't go in the hole. Q. Where do you guys go from here? Obviously you go home. I think you have five games at home. Can you kind of get on the winning streak back at home? TASMIN MITCHELL: Yeah, without a doubt. Our leading point guard Bo Spencer had just told us, you know, we have to stop with the lackadaisical stuff that we do at practice. We have to come out with a sense of urgency that Coach always emphasizes throughout the year. Sense of urgency and practice, practice, practice, and let's get better. Put these two games behind us. It hurts to lose two games. We're going to bounce back real hard with our confidence and our integrity and our heart. Q. How much did it hurt not having Bo out there for you guys? TASMIN MITCHELL: You know, I think it took a little scoring drought from the point guard perspective. But I'm not going to say Chris Bass didn't do a bad job either, you know, but Bo Spencer, you can't replace him. He's a great shooter. He finds the goal. He finds players. But you know, we got to hurry up and get him back because we need him as a team. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Questions for the coach? Q. Coach, was not having Bo out there a big factor for you guys? COACH TRENT JOHNSON: First of all, I mean, we're not going to make excuses for injuries or lack of experience from the point of basketball. Let's get that clear right now. There's no sympathy for us in this situation. Obviously against a team like this, if you don't have Bo Spencer who is our leading scorer coming into the game who runs our team, not to mention Alex Farrer who is guy who can shoot the ball, that's a big loss. But it wasn't like I don't constantly talk to our team to players about being ready to step up. Chris was a different player. We had some breakdowns defensively. Glasser got going late. That's where the game was in terms of these guys working hard and understanding what we need to do to be good. For the most part, we did that. We just ran out of gas and maybe we ran out of bodies. But again, we're not going to make excuses for our lack of experience so to speak or our injuries for playing bad basketball. And we played pretty good basketball for 30 minutes and the last ten minutes we didn't play very well. Q. Who was the other person you said was injured besides Bo? COACH TRENT JOHNSON: Alex Farrer. He's done for the year. Dislocated a kneecap. Him and Bo would have been our starting guards coming into this year. The reason I'm responding to that is because I'm trying to get away from somebody asking that question. I've been answering that question for the last three weeks. Alex is not coming back. Q. What was it with your defense today? COACH TRENT JOHNSON: You know, I just thought the kids were embarrassed in terms of the way they competed versus a very, very good UCONN team. We didn't do a very good job transition D. We didn't do a very good job of rebounding the ball. Like most good kids, most teams that are young, the next time out there is going to be better. I thought for the most part we were better. Q. How do you think such an offensive struggle in the second half compared to the first half? COACH TRENT JOHNSON: Well, you know, from where I'm sitting I don't think it was a struggle. You got guys that can shoot. You got guys that can't shoot. You have guys that have roles and guys that don't have roles. Tasmin is a guy we expect to score partly 8-out-of-13. Storm was 8-out-of-10. He's a walk-on. It is what it is. You know? You lose your leading scorer. It's not going to be a struggle. From what I saw, I thought we had some open shots that didn't go down. But again, you have to take into consideration who was shooting. The kids aren't trying to miss them. I'm not going to sit up and say we struggled because I have a guy who is not a good perimeter shooter who is missing an open jump shot. They are sagging three guys on one might of the best players. When you say, "struggle," I think I want to tip the hat to Arizona State, they exploited some of our weakness and sagged off to guys that hadn't been shooting the ball very well and our role players and go from there. Q. Did Bo try to give it a shot during warmup and it didn't go? COACH TRENT JOHNSON: He tried to give it a shot. We have a long season. Last year he strained the same ankle out on the road versus Mississippi State. As opposed to three-day or four-day deal, it ended up being a two-week deal. He wasn't very happy with the coach's decision. I'm more concerned about the team and his future. I'm not going to play -- I'm not going to put a kid in jeopardy by injuries by playing him. Thanks, fellows. End of FastScripts |
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