Murray State University Athletics
Billy Kennedy Meets with Media
1/15/2007 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Murray State Head Coach Billy Kennedy talked with media members today. Here are his comments as the Racers prepare for a Tuesday 6 p.m. game at Austin Peay. The game will be televised by ESPNU.
MSU is coming off a rare eight-day break, how is the team doing coming off a lay off?
We're excited to be playing a game after more than a week off, it's been difficult at times to get these guys motivated because this time of year you don't expect to be off this long. We're going early to APSU to get in a good practice. We're tired of watching other people play and excited to get back on the floor. We're playing a great team with a great team with a great coach and they're playing well and have a lot of momentum. Reed, Fernandez and Babington are playing some good ball.
Going on the road at Austin Peay finds the Racers playing well away from home does this surprise you?
We've played better on the road for whatever reason than at home this season. Maybe that's because we've had more on the road.
Give us an updated on injured junior guard Kevin Thomas.
He's out for the year. If he would've played against SEMO (Jan. 8) he would've gone over the limit and missed his chance to get a medical redshirt. Ironically, about three days later over at racer arena, he slipped, it was an accident and he went down and hurt the same knee. We're hoping it's not serious, but we were real fortunate that we didn't play him in that SEMO game, with this latest setback; he would've lost a season. We'd much rather have him right now, but this is in his best interest, to have two good years left to play for us.
Give us an update on Tony Easley, Curtis Parker and others who have been sick and battling injuries.
Tony is back and practicing, he's up and down still. Curtis parker is back and has practiced well in the post. Marvin Williams has practiced well. This week off we've had a number of practice sessions and that was good. With some players it takes a while for the light to come on and they begin to understand what it takes. I'm not saying their setting the world on fire but they're improving.
The Racers are coming off a big break between games, MSU hasn't played since Jan. 8, how is the team doing after a rare long lay-off?
To lose two home games in the conference is tough. It's also been tough with the schedule we have...I've never been a situation with a schedule like this. We have breaks where you don't normally have them, we're on the road more than at home through the first part of the season and it's been hard for us with an inexperienced team to get some consistency going.
Please give an update on Shawn Witherspoon's nagging foot injury.
I don't know if he's getting any better, but it doesn't look like he's getting any worse. If you would've told me at the beginning of the year we'd be weak at the five and the four, I would've believed the five, but not the four. We were counting on Shawn in having the same or better production that he had last season, and he hasn't been able to do that. He's having a tough time with his foot going out on the floor and guarding people.
Tyler Holloway has scored more than 20 points in each of the last three games, comment on his play.
He has figured out how to get shots for himself, and now that he's doing that people are going to try and take that away from him. We've got to figure out how to get him in spots on the floor where he can be effective. He's a great shooter and is playing with a lot of confidence right now.
Holloway debuted this week in the NCAA D-I rankings for free throw shooting in seventh place, have you ever had a player that could shoot 90 percent from the line before?
We had a guy at Centenary at Rodney Rodney McCullough. He almost broke the NCAA record when he made 80 or something in a row. He's still playing professionally in
Talk about the addition of Ray George to the MSU roster.
He has helped the production of others for sure. He creates and adds another threat offensively. Now Ray is able to get in the lane and make some things happen, he's also helped Dwayne and Rob make more shots in the paint. We play him at the one and we still want Carter, Holloway and Horton on the floor at the same time. We want Ray to have the ball in his hands. This week has been good for him to work on some things. He hasn't shot the ball well, some of that is rust and some of it's his not knowing what we're trying to do on offense. We want him to shoot more and be more aggressive within the context of our offense.
Talk about the APSU game.
APSU has flown under the radar a little. They're young and Coach Loos is one of the best around. On offense they are disciplined and that's how they beat SEMO in the second half. They've been the most consistent and solid team in the league. They've had a good stretch where they've been at home five of seven and that's helpful with a young team.
They're very confident right now and they stick to their system. The bigger key is how we handle their pressure; can we handle it and not take quick shots? Can we keep from turning the ball over? Shawn and Tyler have been in this rivalry before and they certainly appreciate it. Even me, I have about 100 people tell me that this is a tough game so I hope our players can realize that this is a big game.
