Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Basketball Postgame Quotes
11/26/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Head Coach Dan D'Antoni
Opening Statement
"I just felt like the first half, we weren't ready to play for whatever reason. I don't want to give an excuse because there is no excuse for letting a team play harder than you. That's kind of what happened. The second half I thought we picked up our effort. We put ourselves in too big of a hole for a young team and we weren't able to claw back. We had free throws missed, which we will have to make sure we step up in the big times and make those free throws. Like I said at the beginning of the year, this is going to be a learning process. There are going to be a lot of bumps. We are a developing team and as we go through the year, we just have to keep trying to push forward and get better game to game."
On not being able to come back
"I just think we haven't done it enough and teams find ways after a while. Every team I've played on and every team I've coached, it was players playing inside the perimeters of what we do and finding ways to win. We aren't there yet, but we're working at it. Like I said, it's a long season and we'll try and bounce back. This was a good team. They shot the ball extremely well. They're quick, they're seniors, and they've played a real tough schedule. They were much more prepared for this game than we were. We just have to get better."
On Morehead making threes
"We didn't do a very good job guarding the corners and staying with our technique. Our whole thing is, the guy guarding the corner stays in and doesn't let allow that three point shot. We defended with the help coming from the back side for whatever reason. It's like you know it's happening to you but don't know exactly why. You need film really to see exactly why. But for some reason we were biting on the penetration and leaving the corner. We talked about it at halftime. We said, 'you're going to lose this game if you allow corner threes.' If you haven't done this before and a team plays this well, it takes time to understand where you're supposed to be and how hard you're supposed to play. What we have to do is correct and make sure that our strength is a team strength. We need a bond between all of us that does not allow mistakes to be made from lack of focus or effort. I don't think we've grown into that yet. The reason I'm late coming in here is that we had a fairly lengthy discussion on that. There's a big step between high school and college and sometimes if you rest on your laurels and think you were good in high school, you'll miss the boat in college. Somehow, somewhere, we have to find a stronger, inner strength among our teammates about being positive and about pushing forward with effort. That starts every day, at every practice, in every drill. If you look at our first two games, we won by 20-some, but we didn't put them down. We had a chance and maybe I said, 'well winning is still pretty good.' I have to be tough as a coach to demand every play from them at every practice at every game. Hopefully they will follow that lead, and if they do, we will grow that inner strength and we'll win some games. Although, we're going to lose some games too. That's part of basketball. When you play 30 games, and have a developing team, we just have to be patient and give them a chance to find their way."
On our shot selection
"We're a quick shooting, fast paced team, so it's going to be like that. Whatever it was, we shot 36% for the game. We played a poor first half and shot 40%, 30% from three point range and played a pretty good second half and shot 31%, 18% from three. [Statistics] look all good and give you guys something to write about but it's not the end-all, tell-all of basketball, or any sport. It doesn't matter. Obviously you want your stats good and they do play a part, but it is not the tell-all in any game."
On free throws
"We had one game where I think we shot 80% in the game, but again I think that's all part of what I've been talking about. It's a spirit to find ways to win and we aren't there. We aren't a mature team that does things at the right time to be successful. It's not a physical thing. If you want to go out there and find a coach that says, 'keep your elbow in, follow through, and let it come off your fingertips.' Everyone knows that. It's not about that. It's about a spirit and a confidence and a swagger that when you step up in there, those [free throws] go down. We haven't found that on this team yet. We sometimes make excuses for ourselves. We sometimes like to point the finger. We sometimes like to think, 'I should be playing and someone else shouldn't.' Until that goes away, you find ways to lose. It's the losing mentality. When you don't have that winning mentality, you'll find ways to lose ball games. We have to shore up, start at 9am tomorrow. It's going to be hard on them and they can make excuses all they want, but we've got to get out there, start tomorrow and build again. It's a long season and I think that we will be fine. I think the kids will buy in. I think they want those things, but sometimes it takes a while to grasp the concept and we'll see if we can't get it done."
Ryan Taylor, RS Sophomore, Forward
On Morehead State taking an early 16 point lead
"We just came out flat. We didn't come out ready to play, and didn't have any energy or sense of urgency. We knew, coming into the game, they had close games with UNLV and Cincinnati and they were a hungry team and they would fight for all 40 minutes. We took that for granted, and dug ourselves a big hole."
Austin Loop, RS Sophomore, Guard
On what the players need to do to find 'ways to win'
"We need to find it within ourselves. The coaches can only do so much, they can't play for us. He [D'Antoni] is relentless; he stays on us and he's not going to stop coaching us. He wants us to be the best and play to the best of our abilities. That's on us, we need to find that. We need to go out and play hard every night, and he shouldn't have to coach that, that should be expected."
