Murray State University Athletics
Weekly Press Conference
2/2/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Quotes from head coach Mick Cronin during the weekly men's basketball press conference on Feb. 2 at Pagliai's restaurant in preparation for the Racers' Ohio Valley Conference road games this week at Eastern Illinois (Thursday, 7:35 p.m.) and Southeast Missouri (Saturday, 2 p.m., Fox Sports Net South).
Opening statement:
"I was really happy with our effort in our last two home games. I thought we got great leadership. After a tough loss like we had last Monday in Texas is when you find out what you're made of. We were able to regroup, and several guys showed some real character with the way they competed in the last two home games. That's really what I'm interested in."
"We're still in the process of building our program, even though we're 17-4, and getting the guys to play our style of basketball, which is to not look at the scoreboard. We want to be focused on all out defense, hustle, rebounding, making the extra pass and attacking. It's still a process and we do it at times, but we're still not to the point where we do it for 40 minutes. It's probably not going to happen this year because it just takes a lot of time. Their effort is there, but it's just a whole new way for them. Another thing is that I couldn't care less about the OVC standings. They have no bearing on anything on the court and sitting around looking at the conference standings accomplishes nothing. You have to worry about the things you can control like defense, rebounding, hustle, going to class and showing some character. Those are the things that I'm interested in. We're getting there, and we had some guys really respond, which was very, very positive. I really feel good about our team and our team's attitude over the last couple of games. The next test will be if we can keep it up."
"One thing I noticed about Eastern Illinois is that of their seven conference losses, five of them are by seven points or less, and two of their seven losses are to Austin Peay. They'll be a formidable opponent, and from what I understand, they have a tough place to play up there. We better be ready to play."
On the Racers' upcoming five-game road stretch in the OVC schedule:
"I don't even look at winning and losing, much less looking at a five-game road stretch as a whole. You tend to get ahead of yourself as a young coach because you want to win this and you want to win that. I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm interested in building a program here at Murray State. We're working hard every day towards that goal. We may, through the efforts and hard work of our players and coaches of staying focused on the task at hand, win a conference championship in the process. Sitting around wishing you're going to win doesn't help you and neither does looking at the OVC standings. You can't control those things. As a coach, I've got to do exactly what I'm asking my players to do and that's stay focused on the things that we can control. We just keep preparing for every game. We want to get our guys as prepared as possible and just go out and play."
"With the exception of last Monday in Corpus Christi (Texas), we've played excellent on the road. Our other two losses on the road are to Top 10 teams (Pittsburgh and Louisville) and we were down 10 less with six minutes to play in both games. Overall, we've played pretty well on the road because our guys have been pretty focused and they've competed pretty hard. Hopefully, that won't change."
On why he thinks this year's team has played so well on the road overall:
"I don't know. To me, it's more fun to play on the road and win a game. One thing I did tell the guys at TCU, after we won our first road game was that the best feeling in the world was watching the people walk out of that arena with :20 seconds left and feeling despondent. I really can't pin point why we've played pretty well on the road, but it's probably related to senior leadership. I believe the game is played between the lines. If you develop enough toughness, it shouldn't matter what some fan may have to say or how loud or snazzy the other team's announcer may be."
On the play of freshman forward Shawn Witherspoon and senior center Andi Hornig in the two home wins last week:
"I was really happy with both of them. I thought Shawn had a great game on Thursday. It was more of his type of game. It was more of an up-and-down game, and he's great in that style. Shawn was great. When we're able to press teams and he can chase the ball down, he's pretty good. He also did a good job of flashing to the middle against Eastern when they went to a zone. He's getting better every night out."
"On Saturday, I had to start Andi because he was struggling with soreness and stiffness in his back, and I was afraid if I didn't start him, he'd sit on the bench and get too sore to play. Eric Frederick (MSU trainer) did a great job of working on him all morning to get his back to loosen up. After warm-ups, I decided to put him out there and get as many quality minutes as I could in case he got to a point where he couldn't go. He responded and played tremendous basketball early in the game. I thought he had maybe his best game of the year. We look at rebounds per minute and he had seven rebounds in 15 minutes, which is almost one rebound every two minutes. He also had two big blocks and changed a few shots as well. He played extremely well."
"I was really happy for Andi because he's maintained a positive attitude throughout the season. Playing some of the time and not playing some of the time as a senior, he's continued to work hard and has been a high character guy for us. He's a guy that's come a long way from home to play ball and get an education. He's going to graduate in May, and he'll probably go home and maybe have an opportunity to play ball there. But no matter what, he's going to have a degree in international business and I'm proud for him."
On what kind of challenges Eastern Illinois will pose for MSU:
"Ball control and 26 years of head coaching experience on how to keep a team in a game. They find a way to stay close, so we're going to have to find a way to win the game. It'll probably be a challenge to get the game at our tempo in their arena. To be able to speed them up without giving up layups and speed them up into some mistakes will be key."
On the role of the Racers' press against EIU:
"We try to press everybody. The problem is you can't press when you don't score, and it's hard to press when Morehead State fires the inbounds pass to half court before you can turn around. We try to press every game, but some games we just don't score quite as much and we're not able to get into it. The reality of it is that we try to pick our spots when we press because we're running around with only eight scholarship players right now, and I don't need Cuthbert Victor with three fouls in the first half."
On whether he welcomes the idea of teams trying to play an up-tempo style with the Racers:
"It's scary. Anytime you play a team like Morehead State, who likes that style of play and has two guys that are capable of scoring 30 points on a given night, it's scary. If they do it on the same night, then you're probably in trouble. Anytime you play a team that can really score, it's scary. But then again, our next game is with Eastern Illinois, who plays amazing half court defense and is fundamentally sound, and they're going to want to control the tempo. For us, that's scary too. Different teams pose different problems. I think we need to forget about the other team and worry about how hard we're playing and what our deflection totals are. If we can stay focused on that, I think we'll be fine, but it's hard to keep those guys from watching the scoreboard. Especially Saturday when we got up by 17 because we were tired from playing four games in eight days, and we just wanted to get the game over with. I wanted them to keep pushing the pace until the clock was at :00."
On whether he thinks the upcoming five-game road swing will determine who will win the OVC regular-season title:
"No. To me, it doesn't matter where you play the game. All that matters is how you play the game. There's eight games left. We could go win all five on the road and then come home and lose. We won our first two on the road and then came home and lost, so with us, it's how we play, not where play."