Murray State University Athletics
Kennedy Seeing Improvement From Young Racers
11/20/2006 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Monday Murray State Head Men's Basketball Coach Billy Kennedy met with members of the media for a weekly question and answer session. The Racers are preparing for Saturday's Ohio Valley Conference opener against Eastern Illinois. The game will mark the Racers earliest league opener. MSU played Sunday and lost a 62-46 decision at Southern Illinois. Here are some of Coach Kennedy's comments.
Playing an OVC game so early in the season, how do you prepare for it this week?
What is the biggest negative surprise you've had this season so far?
I'd say trying to get 10 to 13 new guys to buy into our defensive style of play. One thing I've taken pride in with the teams I've had as a head coach is that early on we might not be a great team but we always played with great effort and played great defense. We got better at SIU, but we're not playing with the effort I want us to play with yet.
What is the biggest positive surprise you've had this season so far?
The talent that we have with the players we brought in is very good. Usually when you sign kids it might not work out. Our new kids all have some ability. I saw progress in Danero Thomas and Daniel Ard in the SIU game and I think they're going to help us.
MSU has been in a lot of foul trouble, what do you think about it?
Some if our foul trouble is from inexperience. Some of it is trying to compete and not knowing how to do it in the right way. When you play SIU with their aggressive style of play, they get the benefit of all the tough plays, we're not there yet but that's where we want to be. Right now when we hand check somebody it's a foul, most people who go into SIU will have more fouls. SIU plays great defense.
What was your overall impression of the Racers game at SIU on Sunday?
All you had to do is watch the first two minutes, they got every lose ball. They were coming at the ball like missiles. That's a championship program, we watched the tape and it pretty much shows what a championship team has to do. Matt Shaw (SIU player) almost took me out and our whole bench out diving for a lose ball, I'm glad our team got to see that effort, that's what we want to be like.
When can we expect Kevin Thomas to play after his knee injury?
By the end of the week start we expect him to begin jogging some. We took him with us on the SIU trip to motivate him. We got him hurt in practice when he was taking a charge. Kevin brings toughness to our program, now whether he can do it after being out I don't know, we're going to ask him to. He may start practice at the first of December and maybe begin playing in the middle of December.
What are your thoughts on the MSU center position?
Everyone of our post kids don't bring true experience. Tony Easley is not ready, we're playing him because he's working hard. George Fotso is not ready and Curtis Parker is not ready. Rob Kennedy has the most experience, he's been in the game before at this level, he's more ready than the others. If we can slow him down and teach him what we want, maybe he can help us in the OVC.
What about the
They have a lot of new players, some young players, but this is the second year their coaching staff has been together. I watched them verses
The team has about a week break, is this welcome?
Yes, it is great for us. We needed a day off after playing five games in less than 10 days. We've got to get into practice and we'll workout two per day a couple of times this week. We'll work on some things we haven't had the chance to work on. I want to put them into some game situations and then work on the game plan for
Give us your thoughts on recently signed recruits Jewuan Long of
Long is a lot like Tony Young of SIU. He can defend and can get up in the opponent and really aggravate them. His defensive toughness is what we want and what we lack right now as a team. Fraliex is not afraid to shoot, and has good size for a guard. Jewuan and Matt will be two people our fans can be proud of. We're still looking for one more player who has a low post presence, because we're going to lose Shawn Witherspoon.
