Murray State University Athletics
Billy Kennedy Weekly Media Conference
11/20/2007 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Murray State Racers are trying to put Saturday's 87-63 loss to Western Kentucky behind them and get ready for Friday's 7 p.m. contest at home agaisnt Avila University.
The Racers have their next two games at home in the Regional Special Events Center. MSU has the Friday game verses Avila and host Arkansas State Monday also at 7 p.m.
RACERS vs. Avila (Kansas City, Mo.)
TIPOFF: Friday at 7:00 p.m. CT, Regional Special Events Cetner, Murray, Ky.
RADIO: WFGE (Froggy 103.7 FM), WNBS (1340 AM, Murray), Neal Bradley with the play-by-play - Listen Live through GoRacers.com
VIDEO STREAMING/TV REPLAY: www.OVCsports.tv, Tape delayed at 10 p.m. on MSU TV-11 cable station
LIVE STATS: link on the Men's basketball schedule page on GoRacers.com
Head Coach Billy Kennedy met with members of the local Media Monday and offered comments about the WKU game and what the Racers are doing in practice this week.
Kennedy's opening comments.
“We're in recovery mode after the
Should the Racers have been a little more patient early in the WKU game?
“I think our shot selection early was good, I think we were up 5-4, and that was it. The key in the first half was the last two minutes. I need to do a better job, we had a freshman taking the ball out with a three point lead and we turned it over. They got an and-one and it opened the game up. They scored seven points in the last minutes and I don't think we got a shot at the basket. We could've tied it or have the lead in the best case, or five or seven down, not 10.
Comment on Kevin Thomas and his start of early foul trouble.
“He's got to learn how to play against better players. Against other teams you can pressure them and get away with it, but against a kid like Tyrone Brazelton (WKU guard) you have to make an adjustment. And then once you sit 15 minutes, you have to come out in the second half and be ready to play and he didn't do that. Some of that is lack of experience, it's his first time in a high pressure game. But that is definitely something he has to get better at.”
Did you think Tony Easley put together some good minutes? And how do you feel about MSU's post play?
“He played 20 minutes, he did some good things, but he has got to stop trying to block every shot. He takes himself out of rebounding position. I wasn't disappointed in our post play, I thought they (Easley, Georges Fotso, and Tarod Sanders) did a good job rebounding and finishing around the basket. We need to do a better job of preparing the team. We worked on it all week, but when the lights came on we looked very young. There were times we just didn't run the baseline. I told our guys to eat it and take a five second call before you throw it away. We just panicked, that's a lack of experience and Western did a good job of pressuring us.”
How do you feel about
“We'll have all week to prepare for them, but we've got to get better and get better guard play. If our guards are going to be the focus of this team, they've got to be good. I thought they were against Rider. Tyler Holloway had a phenomenal game. He played 35 minutes and didn't turn it over. He's a guy who is buying into our system and good things are happening to him. We've got to get everyone doing that. We've got talent, but you have to have other things to go with it.”
Please give us your comments on the signing of Ivan Aska out of
“We're excited to have Ivan coming to our program next season. He's qualified academically, he's 6-7 about 225-230 pounds and very athletic. We really think he's going to be a good player and be a guy who can play as a freshman. Sometimes you recruit freshmen for the future, but we think he can play next year. He rebounds extremely well and has toughness and he's only 17 years old. I feel good about Ivan Aska and think he'll be an impact freshman for us next season.”
