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EA SPORTS MAUI INVITATIONALNovember 20, 2012Reggie BullockP.J. HairstonJames Michael McAdooRoy WilliamsLAHAINA, HAWAII Butler – 82 COACH WILLIAMS: Needless to say it was a tough night for us. We have to congratulate Butler. Brad and his staff had them really ready to play. More prepared than I had my team ready to play. They were more physical, more assertive and more aggressive, 12 points offensive rebounds in the first half to our zero. We turned it over, and again, they were physically, mentally into the game so much more, and that is the biggest part of that job to coach and get your team prepared. I think it was so easy last night that they were fat and happy a little bit perhaps to start with. They really kicked us and then early in the second half we were trying to make comebacks, and they kept making shots. Then we finally got more active. We went small and got some steals and turnovers and we made some shots. We got it to six, and I'm dumb enough to think we're going to win the game. But you have to congratulate Butler. They make 7 out of 9 from three‑point range in the second half. It's hard to come back when somebody's making 7 out of 9 from the three‑point line against you in the half. But I loved the activity of my team down the stretch. I loved the way they fought. The crowd really helped us. Our people follow us greatly. We're down 24 and make a 3 to cut it to 21, and you would have thought we tied the game up. We just dug too deep a hole against a very good team. A team that's really well‑coached and seemed to have everything in sight mentally and physically so much more than we did tonight. Q. Reggie and James Michael, what was Butler able to do specifically in the first half to really frustrate you guys offensively? REGGIE BULLOCK: Well, for me, I felt like they came out more on the defensive end of the floor. They were trying to get all up in there. Everybody practiced and competed, and I think they just start with the walk‑ons, and that's what teams like Butler do. They were pressuring us and they tried to get us out of the things we wanted to run. So I think it just starts with practice, we've just got to compete. JAMES MICHAEL McADOO: They just did a good half in the first start to stop us on our offensive break. They did a great job rebounding. Q. James Michael, after such a promising performance last night, how do you explain the start tonight? What do you think went wrong the first 30 minutes? JAMES MICHAEL McADOO: Just didn't show up ready to play. Q. It seemed offensively in the second half you found some success. I guess for P.J. and Reggie, you found some success driving to the basket and taking advantage of your athleticism a little bit. Was that a focus of yours on the sideline to do that more? REGGIE BULLOCK: I just felt like we weren't shooting the ball well from the outside in the first half. So we had to do other things to be more aggressive, because they had wings that were smaller than me and P.J., so I felt if we could get to the basket, make smart moves when we get to the basket, and make smart passes. Just in the second half I felt like my team needed me to step up, so I just tried to do anything I can to help them - If it was getting the rebound, making the extra pass, just being able to knock down a shot. But I just thought I'd turn it up a little bit on the offensive end and defensive end for my team and try to get the W. P.J. HAIRSTON: I think the key to the run we made was us being aggressive on both ends of the floor. We were doing the little things, scrambling and turning the ball over. They were getting rattled. It was just didn't drive it to the hole, being aggressive, and the way they were during the whole spurt. Like Coach said, they were just hitting shots every time we scrambled. Like I said, that's a good team and they were hitting big‑time shots. Q. Reggie and P.J., what specifically about Butler's offense gave you guys so much trouble guarding their three‑pointers? REGGIE BULLOCK: I felt like Butler did a great job at setting screens and getting their shooters open. I'm setting legal screens, some probably weren't good screens, but at the same time they were setting hard greens, and I just felt like us as a team, we see other teams setting screens like that. I just felt like we need to set screens like that to get our shooters open and our big men open. I think they were doing a great job of setting screens and getting their shooters open. P.J. HAIRSTON: Yeah, I felt like that was the difference between us and the two teams today, us playing against Butler. Like Reggie said, they set better screens on their offensive end. On our offensive end, we were setting screens, but Butler was fighting right through them, showing they were more aggressive and trying to play defense. In the second half, that's when they were one click and screens were being set, and Butler was fighting their way through them, but were still getting open shots. Q. Coach, what did you learn about your team that you can take away going forward? COACH WILLIAMS: We have to do a better job as a staff getting these guys ready to play, because I did think they were so much more aggressive than we were early. I really did think they were so much more aggressive. The kids talked about setting good, hard legal screens. We worked on that every day. Well, Butler did it tonight, and we set halfway screens. It started to be a collision and we turned sideways. We set a screen, and they'd come and hit us hard. We didn't hit them very hard. When you look at it, last year we led the nation in rebound margin, and this year rebound margin is probably 15 or something like that. They outrebounded us by 12 in the first half. We had one offensive rebound in the whole first half. So, to me, that is aggressiveness, and they showed us. I thought that we'd respond. We talked about it in the pregame that they're going to play really hard. Let's make sure that we match that toughness, and we didn't match that toughness. That's my job as a coach to make sure that I get us to that level. Q. Do you have a read on which team you guys are? More the team that started this game tonight or the one that came back in the final ten minutes? COACH WILLIAMS: I've never had a team quit. One possible exception could have been Florida State, but that's in 39 years of coaching. I knew we'd make a run. Saying when we went small acts like you should give coaching credit, and coach should not get any credit tonight, I guarantee you. We did go small to try to do a little more pressuring, and yet that hurt us a couple times too because we had bad match‑ups out there and didn't get where we were supposed to be when we did trap a couple times. But little things I think hurt us. I was really impressed with what we did at Long Beach the other night, because it wasn't going great, but we were tough enough to make some shots and get some stops. Tonight we showed some toughness, but you've got to give Butler credit. They're really good. They're really good. Brad's clubs are really intelligent. I like their toughness and their intelligence more than their talent, and I'm not trying to put down their talent. But I love their toughness and their intelligence. I put three things up on the board, and one of those tonight was having the best brains we've used all year. That shows that you're tough. It shows that you're doing your assignment, regardless how little the assignment may be, you should do that assignment to the best of your ability. To answer your question, I really don't know. I like our competitiveness. I like the fact that we're not going to quit. But as I said, I've never had a team quit. We're probably not nearly as exciting as we were last night. And I hope to Dickens we're not as bad as we were when we were down 29 tonight. But we've got to learn from this. Not just ‑‑ I think Reggie was talking about doing it in practice every day. I think we do practice well. But on game nights, you've got to step up and be a man on game night. It can't be just how many shots I've got and take the first shots you look at. You've got to be doing what we practice every day. Biggest thing for me is give Butler credit. We stunk for 25 minutes. Give Butler credit there. They have that kind of toughness and that kind of intelligence, it's pretty darn good. But 7 out of 9 in the second half is hard to beat. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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