Coach Bob Huggins News Conference
October 12, 2011 03:03 PM | General
Coach Bob Huggins News Conference
October 12, 2011
Morgantown, W. Va.
On progress after trip overseas…
Obviously I hope we are further ahead. I think they have familiarity with some of the things we want them to do. They are not very good at it though. At least they are familiar with it though.
On improvement since summer…
It is just like anything else. Some pick it up quicker than others do. Some of them still kind of struggle with things that we have done every day. Those guys probably won’t play very much. When you have eight newcomers, there are bad things gone on everywhere. When you have two or three freshmen, it’s not too bad. Kevin (Jones) knows what he is doing, Truck (Bryant) knows what he is doing and Deniz (Kilicli) knows what he is doing. When you have a young team, there is just bad stuff going on everywhere and you can’t correct it all at one time. Three years ago, we had three freshmen in our top six. If it is just three freshman in the top six you can figure it out. It is just kind of difficult right now.
On comparison to first year at WVU…
It was different because those guys were coached before. They had a great understanding of how to back cut. They did different things with screens, but were very familiar with them. They did a great job of making the extra pass. John (Beilein) coached them. John is a heck of a coach. They were also a mature group. They had played before and played in big situations. Some of them had played in the NIT Championship game. Those guys were much better prepared than these guys are.
On view of talent of his team versus others…
It is a comforting feeling to think you are better than the other team. It is going to be a challenge. I have talked about this a bunch, but different people learn different ways. Da’Sean Butler had a great aptitude to learn basketball. Devin Ebanks had a great aptitiude to learn basketball. John told me one time that Da’Sean picked things up faster in his system than anybody had before. We all have different aptitudes. It is hard to tell that when you go watch guys in the AAU circle. It is hard to tell which guys have that great aptitude. They are all going to learn. It is just a matter of how quickly. Our schedule is hard. Oral Roberts is good. They have their top six scorers back this year. Their second leading scorer is back after hurting his foot. They think this is one of the better teams they have had, and then we go against Kent State.
On his patience with the team…
As usual, I am not like everybody else. I have more patience with some stuff as I get older in certain areas, particularly on the floor areas. I had no patience when I first started. I thought everybody should know what I know. I have since learned that they don’t. Really, we have had a lot of patience with them to this point.
On the use of Truck Bryant…
We don’t really have positions, but I would like him to have the ball less. I would like to him to be a receiver. I would rather him be a catcher than a pitcher. He is our best perimeter shooter. He will be our most consistent perimeter shooter. He was miserable from the field to start the BIG EAST. He was shooting around 19 percent somewhere in there. When we got him off the ball and gave it to Joe more, he started to make his shots. He just has less things to worry and think about it. He and KJ still have to get people where they need to be. He is going to be a more productive force offensively without having all the responsibilities of a point guard.
On Jabarie Hinds…
Jabarie really wants to learn. We have been very fortunate with the three guys we have from Mount Vernon. They are great people and great teammates. He is catching up. It is just hard because the other guys have had 10 practices along with the five games we had. He is behind, but he is picking things up.
On playing more up-tempo offensively…
We run faster, but we are trying. That remains to be seen. It would behoove us to play that way because we would be able to score better that way and use our athleticism. Our league ends up being a grind it out league. If you look at the people who led our league in scoring, they end up being at the bottom of the standings. We are going to have to get better at the grind it out play and making easy baskets.
On Pitt and Syracuse…
From the way I understand it, they are going to be in our league for a while, so it doesn’t change from our standpoint. We will play them this year and next year.
On the potential BIG EAST breakup…
In my first eight years at Cincinnati, I was in three different leagues, so I am a veteran when it comes to league switching. When I was at Akron, we went from the Northeast Conference to the Mid-American Conference and never played a game in the Northeast Conference.
On if it bothers him that football drives realignment…
It is all our own fault. When you put basketball coaches in a meeting, we can’t agree on anything. We have Division III coaches in our meeting that don’t have any idea what we do. We have Division II coaches in our meeting that don’t have any idea what we do. Then you have so called low majors, mid majors and high majors, which all are different. Seemingly, everyone protects their own interest. We haven’t done a very good job of that.
On fair expectations on Kevin Jones…
He is playing well. He is going to be our leader. There is no doubt about that. He just has to continue to do what KJ does, and that is making open shots and rebound the ball. He is our best defender. He is a three-man that can guard the five. He has to continue to do what he does. He can conceivably be in the top 10 in scoring and top 15 in rebounding. He could be the best offensive rebounder here. That is pretty good, especially at a place like this that has had some good guys play here. That is a heck of a career.
On Kevin Jones adjusting to his role…
He is more comfortable. Da’Sean went through the same thing, and Joe Alexander went through it before that. Everybody wanted him to be Da’Sean, but he wasn’t Da’Sean. Everybody has their own things that they do well and they have to stay away from the things they don’t do well. If everyone does that, then you generally have a pretty good team.
On Deniz Kilicli…
He is a lot better. He is in so much better physical condition. His skill level is better. Deniz just needs to continue to buy in. He needs to continue that process. He had to make stride in rebounding. Jerry West’s statue had as many rebounds as him. We need him to go to that next level. He needs to pull down seven rebounds a game. KJ will get us seven or eight a game.
On what is more challenging with a young team, offense or defense...
It is both really. The hard thing about our game is that everyone just wants to talk about offense and defense. You have press offense, zone offense, transition offense and then all those things defensively. You have to do all that breakdown and teaching. Then you have to do all the out of bounds things. If you screw up an out of bounds play, you can lose a game. If you can’t get the ball in bounds, you can lose a game. How many times do you see a team is in charge of a game at the beginning of the year, and someone throws up a press and the team doesn’t respond to it very well. It is because you haven’t practiced that and guys don’t know what they are doing. It is even more difficult for us because things aren’t defined. I want to teach them how to play. That takes time to do and doesn’t happen overnight.
On if the athleticism will be seen early in the season…
I don’t know how much we can teach. I firmly believe that you build defense from the basket out. We will teach it that way, and I don’t know how far out we can go. It depends on how quickly they can pick things up. We were probably the best pressing team in the early 1990’s, but what people lost sight of was our half-court defense – that was our base. We then extended out from there. If you extend your defense, then you create holes and gaps. You have to be able to rotate.
On the team’s half-court play…
I haven’t seen any good half-court stuff on either end of the floor. I think we went five minutes without getting a shot, both teams without a shot. It is hard to win like that.
On getting players ready for BIG EAST play…
We are going to try to win. When this all shakes down, you are going to see that our non-conference schedule will be one of the best in the country. We have a whole bunch of teams that are potentially top 100 RPI teams. For as much as they say get a harder schedule, get a harder schedule, and you will be rewarded for it. If you win, then you are rewarded. If you don’t win, that is the risk you take with that type of schedule. You are supposed to win against the so-called mid-majors because they really help you RPI-wise, but if you lose, it is just another loss to a top 100 team, which isn’t very good. We have got to win.
On Aaric Murray and Juwan Staten…
Juwan is really good because he puts a lot of pressure on the ball. We need those guys because they get everyone a little more game ready. They kind of understand what it is like having someone run downhill at you. Aaric is good. He rebounds and scores, but is learning how to defend. He makes plays because he is so long and athletic. KJ is not going to play against anyone a whole lot more talented than him. It will really help.
On keeping Murray and Staten motivated despite not being able to play…
Not at this time of the year. It gets tougher later in the year. Everybody is fine now, because no one knows who is going to play. It is when you put five guys out there and the rest are just standing there. In Italy, we played everyone.
On how the BIG EAST will shake out…
I don’t have any idea how it will play out.
October 12, 2011
Morgantown, W. Va.
On progress after trip overseas…
Obviously I hope we are further ahead. I think they have familiarity with some of the things we want them to do. They are not very good at it though. At least they are familiar with it though.
On improvement since summer…
It is just like anything else. Some pick it up quicker than others do. Some of them still kind of struggle with things that we have done every day. Those guys probably won’t play very much. When you have eight newcomers, there are bad things gone on everywhere. When you have two or three freshmen, it’s not too bad. Kevin (Jones) knows what he is doing, Truck (Bryant) knows what he is doing and Deniz (Kilicli) knows what he is doing. When you have a young team, there is just bad stuff going on everywhere and you can’t correct it all at one time. Three years ago, we had three freshmen in our top six. If it is just three freshman in the top six you can figure it out. It is just kind of difficult right now.
On comparison to first year at WVU…
It was different because those guys were coached before. They had a great understanding of how to back cut. They did different things with screens, but were very familiar with them. They did a great job of making the extra pass. John (Beilein) coached them. John is a heck of a coach. They were also a mature group. They had played before and played in big situations. Some of them had played in the NIT Championship game. Those guys were much better prepared than these guys are.
On view of talent of his team versus others…
It is a comforting feeling to think you are better than the other team. It is going to be a challenge. I have talked about this a bunch, but different people learn different ways. Da’Sean Butler had a great aptitude to learn basketball. Devin Ebanks had a great aptitiude to learn basketball. John told me one time that Da’Sean picked things up faster in his system than anybody had before. We all have different aptitudes. It is hard to tell that when you go watch guys in the AAU circle. It is hard to tell which guys have that great aptitude. They are all going to learn. It is just a matter of how quickly. Our schedule is hard. Oral Roberts is good. They have their top six scorers back this year. Their second leading scorer is back after hurting his foot. They think this is one of the better teams they have had, and then we go against Kent State.
On his patience with the team…
As usual, I am not like everybody else. I have more patience with some stuff as I get older in certain areas, particularly on the floor areas. I had no patience when I first started. I thought everybody should know what I know. I have since learned that they don’t. Really, we have had a lot of patience with them to this point.
On the use of Truck Bryant…
We don’t really have positions, but I would like him to have the ball less. I would like to him to be a receiver. I would rather him be a catcher than a pitcher. He is our best perimeter shooter. He will be our most consistent perimeter shooter. He was miserable from the field to start the BIG EAST. He was shooting around 19 percent somewhere in there. When we got him off the ball and gave it to Joe more, he started to make his shots. He just has less things to worry and think about it. He and KJ still have to get people where they need to be. He is going to be a more productive force offensively without having all the responsibilities of a point guard.
On Jabarie Hinds…
Jabarie really wants to learn. We have been very fortunate with the three guys we have from Mount Vernon. They are great people and great teammates. He is catching up. It is just hard because the other guys have had 10 practices along with the five games we had. He is behind, but he is picking things up.
On playing more up-tempo offensively…
We run faster, but we are trying. That remains to be seen. It would behoove us to play that way because we would be able to score better that way and use our athleticism. Our league ends up being a grind it out league. If you look at the people who led our league in scoring, they end up being at the bottom of the standings. We are going to have to get better at the grind it out play and making easy baskets.
On Pitt and Syracuse…
From the way I understand it, they are going to be in our league for a while, so it doesn’t change from our standpoint. We will play them this year and next year.
On the potential BIG EAST breakup…
In my first eight years at Cincinnati, I was in three different leagues, so I am a veteran when it comes to league switching. When I was at Akron, we went from the Northeast Conference to the Mid-American Conference and never played a game in the Northeast Conference.
On if it bothers him that football drives realignment…
It is all our own fault. When you put basketball coaches in a meeting, we can’t agree on anything. We have Division III coaches in our meeting that don’t have any idea what we do. We have Division II coaches in our meeting that don’t have any idea what we do. Then you have so called low majors, mid majors and high majors, which all are different. Seemingly, everyone protects their own interest. We haven’t done a very good job of that.
On fair expectations on Kevin Jones…
He is playing well. He is going to be our leader. There is no doubt about that. He just has to continue to do what KJ does, and that is making open shots and rebound the ball. He is our best defender. He is a three-man that can guard the five. He has to continue to do what he does. He can conceivably be in the top 10 in scoring and top 15 in rebounding. He could be the best offensive rebounder here. That is pretty good, especially at a place like this that has had some good guys play here. That is a heck of a career.
On Kevin Jones adjusting to his role…
He is more comfortable. Da’Sean went through the same thing, and Joe Alexander went through it before that. Everybody wanted him to be Da’Sean, but he wasn’t Da’Sean. Everybody has their own things that they do well and they have to stay away from the things they don’t do well. If everyone does that, then you generally have a pretty good team.
On Deniz Kilicli…
He is a lot better. He is in so much better physical condition. His skill level is better. Deniz just needs to continue to buy in. He needs to continue that process. He had to make stride in rebounding. Jerry West’s statue had as many rebounds as him. We need him to go to that next level. He needs to pull down seven rebounds a game. KJ will get us seven or eight a game.
On what is more challenging with a young team, offense or defense...
It is both really. The hard thing about our game is that everyone just wants to talk about offense and defense. You have press offense, zone offense, transition offense and then all those things defensively. You have to do all that breakdown and teaching. Then you have to do all the out of bounds things. If you screw up an out of bounds play, you can lose a game. If you can’t get the ball in bounds, you can lose a game. How many times do you see a team is in charge of a game at the beginning of the year, and someone throws up a press and the team doesn’t respond to it very well. It is because you haven’t practiced that and guys don’t know what they are doing. It is even more difficult for us because things aren’t defined. I want to teach them how to play. That takes time to do and doesn’t happen overnight.
On if the athleticism will be seen early in the season…
I don’t know how much we can teach. I firmly believe that you build defense from the basket out. We will teach it that way, and I don’t know how far out we can go. It depends on how quickly they can pick things up. We were probably the best pressing team in the early 1990’s, but what people lost sight of was our half-court defense – that was our base. We then extended out from there. If you extend your defense, then you create holes and gaps. You have to be able to rotate.
On the team’s half-court play…
I haven’t seen any good half-court stuff on either end of the floor. I think we went five minutes without getting a shot, both teams without a shot. It is hard to win like that.
On getting players ready for BIG EAST play…
We are going to try to win. When this all shakes down, you are going to see that our non-conference schedule will be one of the best in the country. We have a whole bunch of teams that are potentially top 100 RPI teams. For as much as they say get a harder schedule, get a harder schedule, and you will be rewarded for it. If you win, then you are rewarded. If you don’t win, that is the risk you take with that type of schedule. You are supposed to win against the so-called mid-majors because they really help you RPI-wise, but if you lose, it is just another loss to a top 100 team, which isn’t very good. We have got to win.
On Aaric Murray and Juwan Staten…
Juwan is really good because he puts a lot of pressure on the ball. We need those guys because they get everyone a little more game ready. They kind of understand what it is like having someone run downhill at you. Aaric is good. He rebounds and scores, but is learning how to defend. He makes plays because he is so long and athletic. KJ is not going to play against anyone a whole lot more talented than him. It will really help.
On keeping Murray and Staten motivated despite not being able to play…
Not at this time of the year. It gets tougher later in the year. Everybody is fine now, because no one knows who is going to play. It is when you put five guys out there and the rest are just standing there. In Italy, we played everyone.
On how the BIG EAST will shake out…
I don’t have any idea how it will play out.
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