Murray State University Athletics
Weekly Press Conference
1/18/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Questions were addressed to head coach Mick Cronin.
Opening statement: We had a really big win Saturday, got us back to the win column. We've got a big game tomorrow night, obviously, at Martin. I was trying to get a young team to understand that you can't look at a team's records; you've got to look at their home records. I tried to explain that Samford had lost only two, I believe, of their last 16 home games before we played them.
See, you have to understand that when you go on the road, you can't worry about being impressed with a team's record, because college basketball is about home games, and the reality of our conference is: Martin has only played four, Samford had only played four or five before we played them. Teams just don't get home games in December in our league. It's like I told the guys: Non-league, Austin Peay was 3-8 last year, so you have to respect everybody at this point and get ready to play, and tomorrow night's no exception.
We had a tough turnaround, a long bus ride home. We got in late -- or, let me say we got in early in the morning and did some scouting last night, some shooting. We've got practice again today to get ready to go tomorrow.
About Tennessee-Martin: Well, they won at Jax State. They seem to be playing a lot better. They've got Justin Smith back. I know they've got a lot of size and athleticism. Their size concerns me. They throw the ball inside quite a bit, more than anybody we've played in quite a while, so we're going to have to deal with their inside game.
(Jared) Newson's a tough match-up. He can play the 3 (small forward) or the 4 (power forward). He's very athletic, and he gets himself to the foul line and converts. They're shooting 84 percent as a team in conference, I just saw, from the free-throw line. Not only do they go to the rim and get fouled, they go to the line and convert, so it's just going to be a much different story. There are teams who have been struggling to get healthy and get all their bodies together. Like I said, get some home games, get some confidence going. I think they got some confidence going in their last road trip.
In our current situation of being a young team, we've just got to go find a way to get a win for us. We held a team to 37-percent field-goal percentage for the first time in a long time. We got a fairly easy win. We also out-rebounded Jax State by 13. If you can do those things, you're going to win almost every game you play. Plus-13 on the glass and hold somebody to 37 percent., you're going to win a lot of games. We also had 10 offensive rebounds in the first half, and that's why we scored 44 points.
So, we're just in a learning process, as far as getting better on the defensive end of the floor. That's the main thing for us.
On the low number of assists: The stats are misleading, because at Samford, we shot a high percentage, but we had 18 turnovers, which led to a lot of lay-ups for them. It's hard to get assists in a low-possession game. If you only get 18 shots off in a half, it's hard to have a lot of assists. We made only 10 or 11 for 18 from the field in the second half of that game, so that's a little misleading.
On the inside game: I told the guys -- my big thing is: you've got to bring defense and rebounding to the table. While you develop your offense and while you get acclimated to this level of play, you become somebody we can throw the ball to on the low post. In the meantime, you've got to be able to at least defend your position so we're not giving up 20 points to somebody's center and only getting five from ours, even if ours may be three different people at times. We've got to give up less than what we're getting, or at least, make a standoff, and then, it would be nice to out-rebound somebody at that position, which we did against Jax State.
Charles (Johnson) had double-digit points, Pearson (Griffith) had nine rebounds. And Pearson was a big factor defensively in the Jax State game. The stats, again, being misleading in that, if you saw the game, his size really bothered them. They only had six two-point field goals, and most of those were on the break: lay-ups and transition. Their post guys really could not score over him.. His presence in there really changed a lot of things for them, made it tough on them. They shot an unbelievably low percentage from inside the line, and that's why he's got to be a factor. Right now, I just want to worry about being an inside presence without fouling, and rebounding the basketball. That's the main thing. He gave us nine rebounds.
The other thing, for those guys to score, they've got to look at every shot attempt as an opportunity for them to get a basket by going to the offensive glass. When you do not have a polished scoring lineup -- and we have a young team with undeveloped talent -- we have got to get to the offensive glass, because we are athletic, and it doesn't take experience to go get it off the rim. It just takes aggression and a belief.
Some of our guys need to understand that's a way to get yourself jump-started. Shawn Witherspoon, after three or four games, he's top five in the league in scoring. It's because of his offensive rebounds and his hustle. It's not like he's standing around looking at a few jumpshots, which I felt he was doing in December too much. He's a guy on our team who is a great example of what can happen for you when you get active, especially on the interior on the glass. That goes for Justin Orr and Shane Dansby as well, and even Darnell (Hopkins) and Trey (Pearson), trying to make a concerted effort to get four guys on the offensive glass.
Two reasons we got 44 first-half points the other night is because we got 10 offensive rebounds and we got some easy buckets on the break. It's just hard to be a great half-court offensive team without two low-post presences.
On Justin Orr getting more playing time: First of all, with his length, when he does a great job of fighting over screens, which is what most freshmen struggle with, he has the quickness -- a great lateral quickness at 6-foot-6, and a long 6-6 -- that he can give shooters trouble. And then, offensively, it's just a matter of him getting more aggressive and going to the basket and not settling for jumpshots, hustle plays, getting himself some easy baskets. That's what happened at Jax State: he had a follow-up dunk, he was part of a deflection deal and got himself a lay-up in the first half, and learning how to go to the basket stronger. He was a guy who scored a lot off of offensive rebounds in high school. We're trying to get him back to that mentality.
Look at Shawn Witherspoon. You've got to get yourself some hustle baskets, just like I've convinced Trey that you've got to shoot it when you're open. He's always trying to do one-move off the driblle. You've got to learn how to give yourself some easy baskets.
It's a learning process for a lot of guys, and Justin's a fine example of working hard, being young, showing some signs of life. As we can get more guys acclimated and producing, we're going to be able to be a little more potent offensively, especially in the second half of games; that's where we've tended to struggle.
I told him to concentrate on his defense. At Samford especially, when we make a mistake on defense, we try to make up for it on offense. For example, Shawn Witherspoon gave up a three to start the second half of the Samford game, and he immediately turned the ball over, and the line stats says it: three-Merritt, comeback, turnover-Witherspoon. Well, he's trying to make up for it.
They're going to score. You've got to have the maturity to know that. Stay with the game plan; relax. Next play: Darnell Hopkins, he gave up a three, turnover-Hopkins. It shows that the guys are trying to make up for their mistakes, and the worst thing you can do is try to make up for a mistake with offense. You've got to erase a mistake with defense and hustle. We just don't have the experience and maturity yet to relax and stay with the game plan and make the extra pass. A team makes a little run, you show some patience, and that's where we lack senior leadership.
Jax State made a run at us in the second half, and Darnell made a couple of good baskets, and Trey hung in there despite the fact that I didn't get him any rest because of foul trouble. He was in there 39 minutes, and our style is tough, especially when I'm asking him to score and get a steal and get assists. He was kind of tired on the bus ride home, I guarantee that.
On the upcoming three-game stretch with UTM, TSU and EKU: I looked at that, and the reality is, when you look at our conference, there's probably eight teams that could win our conference, if you look at it right now. SEMO almost wins at Tennessee State -- really has the game won -- and a guy hits a three to send it into overtime. Tennessee Tech, Tennessee State, Austin Peay's 3-1, Eastern Kentucky, us. Morehead wins at Martin, they've got a road win already, and they've had to play four on the road, and Samford's sitting there at 4-0. I just think there's a lot of parity. Every game, you can get a win, and then get to the next game, is going to be important.
Look at what Austin Peay did last year. Just find a way to win games, and that's what we're trying to do right now. We've got a young team trying to find a way to win games as we continue to grow up and develop some maturity.
What you can't do is snowball and spiral. That's why we've got to try to get a win Tuesday, and then, obviously, the home game is huge. I think, if you look at our conference, 12-4 might be good enough, if you look at the parity, so if you win eight at home and get four on the road, that'll get you there. So, you've got to look at every game as an opportunity to get a win.
I like the mindset of our guys. We're young, but our attitude is tremendous, and the guys are playing hard, and they want to do well. I'm just trying to show them the way, and the way for us is: we've got to get on that offensive glass, our big guys, because we don't have anyone we can pass to and say, "Go ahead and score" like we did last year. We've got some guys that need to get us some points off the offensive glass. I know everyone didn't see the game Saturday, but we dominated the game on the offensive glass. To get 10 offensive rebounds in a half's pretty strong. It's almost unheard of, and if we can continue that mentality, we're going to be all right, and we've got the athletes to do that, if we just continue that mentality that we need to do that.
