|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2012Mike AndersonMardracus WadeB.J. YoungNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA CLAUDE FELTON: We'll take questions for coach and then take questions for the student‑athletes after coach's opening statement. COACH ANDERSON: Obviously it's a time of the year where the records are 0‑0 and everyone's trying to get that automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. So the SEC tournament is a huge, huge event for all the teams that are involved in it. So we're excited to be here and playing against an LSU team that we faced earlier in the year. We split, so it should be I think a competitive game, where guys are going to get out there and leave it on the line. Right now it's a one‑game season and we know that. And I'm sure all the teams in here know that. So we'll come out and hopefully put one of our better performances together. This is when you want to get on a run and play some of your best basketball. We have had periods during the year, and hopefully this will be an opportunity we can really put some things together. CLAUDE FELTON: Take your questions for the student‑athletes. Q. B.J., just wondering if you could talk about being second‑team all conference, I guess you're only fifth Razorback to ever get all‑freshman and all‑conference recognition in the same year, and also talk about maybe from the freshman standpoint, the excitement of the tournament. This is the first time you guys have gone through this. B.J. YOUNG: I'm just thankful for the opportunity that the coaches in the league thought I was good enough to make those teams. I'm just thankful for that. This is a great opportunity for our team to make some noise in the conference tournament. It's a one‑game season, like coach said, and we have come down here focused and ready to get a win. Q. You guys haven't played your best basketball down the stretch, but like you guys talked about, there's new life right now. What gives you guys confidence, makes you think you guys can pull off something here. MARDRACUS WADE: I believe in this team, this style of play, I believe in the coaching staff, and I believe in each and everyone of us. We go in and work hard every day and we practice how we play. And I just have just a belief in these guys that now that they know it's 0‑0 coming into this tournament, they're a little more hungry, and they want to win. I'm excited for my team and we are anxious to get out there and show the world what we can do. B.J. YOUNG: It's a great opportunity for our team and it's new life. And the style of play we play, we can beat anybody and we can jump out to early leads and just control the game from there. So that's what we're going to try to do, start fast and just take control of the game. Q. Baton Rouge is 70 or 80 miles away, LSU's obviously playing in their home state. Do you feel like the visiting team for tomorrow's game? MARDRACUS WADE: Not at all. This is on a neutral floor and anything can happen. And we just come in just feel like this is our house. No matter where we play, when we play on the road, we feel like this is our house. And we got to go in tomorrow and play like this is Bill Walton Arena or any other place, and I think if we can come in and play like that, we can come in and get a W. B.J. YOUNG: They kind of have a home court advantage in their state, we don't look at it like that. It's just another game on a neutral site. We are here to win and do our best efforts and do what we do best and play fast and take it from them. Q. You lost 7‑9 down the stretch, but you put some stretches earlier in the year where you played some good ball. What was the difference in the losses lately and what do you need to do to get back to playing to like you were? B.J. YOUNG: We got to close out games. I think we control games through the whole game and sometimes we just kind of fall apart toward the end of the game. But we have been playing well, we just got to figure out how to close out games. And I think we'll work that out in practice. We're ready to show that we worked on it. MARDRACUS WADE:  I feel like sometimes we get early leads or get leads and we just play the player instead of playing to win. And we got to turn it around and we got to play to win, finish out games, no matter what or who we're playing, we got to step up, make good decisions, just got to keep the tempo up. We start playing fast and then we try to slow it down, try to run stuff and that's not how we play. You ever see us play, we're full‑out 40 minutes. We can't have spurts. We got to play like this the whole time if we want to win. And I think we have the key players that can do it. I believe in the coaching staff, I believe in everybody in this team, that we can come in here and get it done. Q. After playing LSU twice, splitting home and home, just what are your thoughts on LSU, what kind of team they got what you got to do tomorrow. B.J. YOUNG: They have a pretty good team. I know we beat them at home and they beat us at their place, but we played really good at their place. And we had a chance to win that game, but we just let it go at the end of the game. But, um, they got good players and I think if we play our style and just play how we play, we can control the game with our speed. So, yeah. MARDRACUS WADE: I think we just come into this game and just focus with the right mindset, knowing that we come in play how we play, that we can come in and win. LSU obviously is a good team. They have good players, have good freshman. They have the Stringer kid, Ralston, Hamilton. We just got to work on the key factors on those teams, and we got to try to cut off the head, which is the point guard, and slow him down and get him playing how we play and make him uncomfortable. We're not trying to steal the ball. We're trying to make him uncomfortable and play our way and how we want to play. CLAUDE FELTON: We'll excuse the student‑athletes and take questions for coach. Q. You've been kind of critical of your defense down the stretch here, particularly in the half court. What are you guys working on and what makes you think you can play better defense? COACH ANDERSON: First, I think we get some guys back healthy. I think if you know our team, we have had guys going down and we go down to eight scholarship players. Marvell was out for awhile, Michael Sanchez was out for awhile, and I think that those guys are very, I think, instrumental in what is taking place. When you talk about the early surge when we were playing well, what they brought to the table was very important. Mike's physicalness, his toughness, Marvell's athletic ability. So now we're starting to get those guys back a little bit more healthy. So with that being said, I think in this particular game I think our defense is going to have to be the difference. I think it's energy and defense right now. We got to be able to rebound the basketball. I thought at their place, they did a good job of controlling the glass, especially in the second half. We had some unforced turnovers where there would be charges or just playing in a big hurry. And I think that's the thing with a young basketball team is that they have periods where they kind of panic a little bit. And that's what they talked about, not closing out games. So I think we're a little bit better in that department. Even as we come into this tournament, we kind of limp a little bit. With Julysses Nobles, he kind of tweaked his ankle in the last game at Mississippi State and hadn't practiced the last two days. So it will be interesting to see how we come out. But I still like the mindset of our guys. I think there's no quit in them. I think they're continuing to work hard and I think defensively we will be a lot better in this tournament. Q. I know you haven't had all the pieces and players you hoped to have this year, but just how do you feel summing up where you are compared to maybe what you thought it might be like this first year back at Arkansas? COACH ANDERSON: Well, one of the things coming in, there was a lot of question marks. There was a lot of unknowns. I was in a position where I had a lot of no one's at Missouri, but I came into a situation where there was a lot of unknowns. So through the spring and through the summer and even through the fall, you find a little bit more about your players‑‑ but I don't think you really find out more, you find out really about them when the season is on. And I think these guys have given me everything they got. Obviously we don't have all the pieces right now, and that's the thing to me is that, as we put more pieces together, I think you're going to see a team that I think people will kind of be leery of playing. Marshawn Powell going out was huge for our basketball team. So it's been a team‑‑ it's been a year of kind of adjustments, making adjustments. But I think when you talk about the youth of this basketball team, four of your top players are freshmen. They were in high school. I think they have done a remarkable job. The thing you want as a coach is to see them finish it out, and that's what we haven't done. When you talk about the last seven out of nine games, they are games where we have been in and where we just didn't finish, we didn't play well, we didn't execute well. Understanding what it takes to win on the road, we finally got over that hump against Auburn. So coming into this tournament, this provides us another opportunity to see where we are, not only this basketball team, but even as we move forward our program. But I think there's been progress made and I think changing the culture is changing the mindset, let. Me put it this way, there's hope again. There is hope again. Q. Justin Hamilton had a big game against you guys both times that you played this year. What are your thoughts on the impact he's had his first year in the league? And also what are some things you think your team can do differently against him this time around? COACH ANDERSON: I tell you what, he's a very good player. He's 7 foot, he's pretty versatile. And he's an experienced guy. You're talking about a four‑year junior? Played against him at Iowa State. He's long. He's gotten stronger. But I think what you got to do is keep him guessing where people are coming from. I think the times that we have been successful against him we have been pretty active, whether you got one or two people coming at him. But I think the first thing, you got to keep him off the boards. I thought he did a yeoman's work at their place. I thought in the first half at our place, we did a very good job and we got a lead and I thought all of a sudden I think Hickey did a good job of getting the ball to him and the screen and roll. At their place, I thought he did a good job of really attacking the glass. And he and Johnny O'Bryant. So that's going to be our task right there is keeping those guys off the glass. Their best offense is to shoot it and go get it. I think that they prefer a half‑court game, and we want to be up tempo. But I think our defense is the thing that's got to be solid, and we have got to put bodies‑‑ that's why I say, a guy like Michael Sanchez is important to our basketball team. It's important for Devonta to give us that physicalness. As well as now we have a guy by the name of Brandon Mitchell who is starting to play and playing awful well for us, helping us off the football team. So he provides a level of toughness. I think this time of the year you got to have toughness. Not only do you got to have guys that can play, you got to have a toughness. Because people are so familiar with one another. Q. Wade improved his 3‑point shooting to 27 percent this year from like 20 to 47. He's leading the league. Did you see that coming? What are your thoughts on that? COACH ANDERSON: Well, I think that a lot of it has to be attributed to Mardracus. I think he really put the time in. We talked about coming in, the style of play, and I think for a guy like him, it's going to free him a little bit. Because if you are attacking, especially offensively, your big guys running the floor, you're pushing the ball, that defense is not back. So it gives him an opportunity to knock some shots down. I think on any team you got to have somebody that can knock shots down. Every team I've had, I've had guys that can. You got to. You got to find them, whether you're in a man, zone, but I think a lot of that goes to Mardracus, because he's put the time in on it and he's been knocking shots down. Our guys have been doing a good job of getting the ball to him. Q. Drake talked about how this team's at its best when it's playing fast, but by the same token, you said you don't want them to hurry because of the mistakes. Is that kind of a fine line between playing fast and too fast and how do you stay on the right side of it? COACH ANDERSON: That's the process we're going through right there. We want to play fast, quick, but not in a hurry. I think that's what young guys, they think fast is really boom, just going down and shooting it and one pass. And if you've had a chance to watch any of my teams, we may push it down the floor. We pass it 12 times, we're going to take good shots. It's run and execute, it's not run and gun. But more than anything else, I want these guys, that's why I said, it's a process to understand that defense. I think defense is the thing we're going to continue to hang our hats on, we got to hang our hats on. And I think the more we learn and understand that... That's why I said the we're laying the foundation in terms of how we want to play and the things we got to do in order to play that way. And I think defense has got to be the catalyst of it and I think the offense will take care of itself. Q. Following up on what you said earlier about it being a work in progress, making progress, what are some things that your teams do well in the past that maybe you haven't had the bodies to do this year? COACH ANDERSON: I think the numbers. I think the reason why I don't think we really closed games out well, I think fatigue has been a big factor. You look at the minutes that some of these guys are playing. Mardracus Wade, Julysses Nobles, you know, it's as great as when we were on a national championship. I think the most anybody played on that team was like 29 minutes a game. Scotty Thurman, for his career averaged 28 minutes a game. So it's about efficient when you play, it's about how efficient you are. Sometimes it's not just a quantity of minutes, it's the quality of minutes. That's where we want to get our players and our program to where guys are playing quality minutes. You look at a guy like B.J. Young. I mean, here's a guy that's coming off the bench and he's your leading scorer. He's shooting over 50 percent from the field, over 40‑something from the field. I mean that's pretty good. And. So if you get more guys in that mindset, not necessarily just from the scoring standpoint, but just the quality minutes, so when you talk about the bodies, I don't think we have had the bodies that we needed. And, of course, losing a guy like Marshawn, that really hurts you because he's a guy that's capable of being a double‑double guy. And you got to have a go‑to guy. So when you look at our four situation, I mean, we're trying to do it by committee, where I think our guards, they will continue to get better. We got some young guys that are‑‑ that got a chance to be very good players, outstanding players, but they have been thrown into the fire. A guy like Hunter Mickelson, you can see the potential there, but he's been thrown into the fire. But with that being said, what you saw this year, there will be a whole lot, they will be a whole lot better next year. Q. I was going to ask you about, with a young team, a developing team, what does this event, the SEC tournament, how can that contribute to the long range goals? COACH ANDERSON: This is something they haven't experienced all year long. We had an invitational tournament, but we didn't have one of this format. So this can set the stage for what's going to take place in the future, and providing some things take place in here to another tournament, post‑season tournament. Not only that, in future years we have a tournament set that we're going to an exempt tournament that we're going to next year and the following year. So for young guys, this is the first time for them, and so that's why they're excited about it. Q. Continuing with that thought, do you feel like if you perform well in this tournament, there might be another post‑season tournament for you this season, besides running the table and making the NCAAs? COACH ANDERSON: Well, that's what this tournament is all about. It's about trying to survive each game and get through it. And the automatic bid goes to the winner of this tournament. But we want to play some good basketball I think more than anything else. Try to improve upon what we have done this year, in this particular game. I think the first game is always the most important game. So I can't see that far down the line. We're getting ready to face an LSU team that they're hungry, we're hungry, so we'll play the first game of the tournament. There's a lot of unknowns because you never know how your players are going to come out. That's the interesting thing about the first game in a tournament for any team. You don't know the psyche of your team, but I like how our guys are approaching this. Q. You mentioned Brandon Mitchell. He's going to come back home for this one. What kind of excitement have you sensed from him, and he's only 6'4", what has he done to maybe offset the size disadvantage that he has playing in the post? COACH ANDERSON: Brandon, I'm sure he's excited coming back home. He's from Louisiana and we played at LSU earlier, I don't even think he played much in that game. But I think he's in better shape now and he's starting to help our basketball team. I mean, he's a leader. I mean, he's got ‑‑ this guy plays football, so he's a leader. He's got the toughness and people don't realize he was a basketball player before he became a football player. And I think that's, to me, his basketball IQ is very high. I mean, he helps our basketball team, with the shortage of players that we do have. So I just think 6'4", his toughness and he's very athletic, too. You can put some guys out there and they can kind of mumbo jumbo everything up, but things kind of flow when he's out there. Things happen when he's out there. So I'm excited he's out here and helping our basketball team. CLAUDE FELTON: Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
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
|