Murray State University Athletics
Working The Plan And Planning The Work
2/5/2007 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Murray State Racers have won their last four games and vaulted to third place in the Ohio Valley Conference at 10-5. Last week's wins over Samford, Austin Peay and Jacksonville State also have the Racers above the .500 mark for the first time this season at 12-11. Head Coach Billy Kennedy met with members of the media Monday in the Racer Room of Roy Stewart Stadium. Here are his comments as the Racers prepare to host Eastern Kentucky Thursday and Morehead State Saturday at the Regional Special Events Center.
Opening statement
I'm glad to have put the toughest stretch of road games behind us, it's all we talked about since I got the job here. We showed some toughness and maturity on this stretch of games and I'm proud of them.
Do you feel like the Racers are building momentum at the right time?
I hope so, we have five games left and the BracketBuster yet to play. I can't sit here and say we have arrived, we're still turning the ball over too much and our rebounding is sporadic.
Are the Racers peaking at the right time?
We have gotten a balanced attack of late and seem to have some pieces there. We're doing other things this time of year that you want to be doing: it's the most critical time of the season. I hope we can get better in practice and continue to improve.
MSU has turned the ball over a lot at times, how do you see it?
We're very careless with the ball at times. Ray George, Bruce Carter and Shawn Witherspoon have all turned the ball over, and the last game
How is the team approaching practice?
I'm just talking in general; we're doing well right now. It's a long season; college basketball is the only sport that covers two semesters. The teams that have some passion and are excited about going to practice are the ones that are winning. We'll learn a lot about our team in the next two weeks.
MSU recently vaulted to number one in the OVC in field goal defense, what are your thoughts?
We've gotten better on defense, no question. I thought the Tennessee Tech game when we held them to 28 points in the first half and then carried that to SEMO and then the APSU game was big for us. At the end of the JSU game we did some things defensively to win the game, we got some loose balls, so I think our guys understand that those kinds of plays can help us win.
How do you see the
Our team is so different from the first time we played them so it's hard to tell. One concern is that they're scoring a lot of points. They're a system team and running it well. For them this is a big trip and these are big games for everyone.
What can you say about freshman Tony Easley and his progress?
Tony has a lot more confidence. Even as thin as he is, he's beginning to throw his body around. He stepped up and drew a big charge on Courtney Bradley in the JSU game. Offensively, he's getting more aggressive and dunking it when he can. He had seven rebounds in 22 minutes against APSU and he didn't get in foul trouble.
Talk about
The schedule has gotten tough for everybody, but now we get to come home. Morehead has gotten the most out of their players. But none of the games have been easy in our league and I'm sure Saturday will be a tough challenge.
Shawn Witherspoon has played much better of late; his foot injury must be getting better.
His confidence is up and he's not afraid of making plays off of his foot. He's a guy who needs the practice to be good in games. There aren't many players who can miss practice and then perform in the games and most of them are in the NBA. So when Shawn gets his work in he's going to get it done in the game.
How much has it helped you as the Racers head coach to have gone through the OVC and seen every team?
That's big a plus playing a team the second time around and knowing their personnel, and the head coach. It really helped the second time around with Samford. You come into a situation as a first year head coach and most of the time you would have a team in place and be able to surprise some people in the first year. We weren't able to do that here, we had so many new people that even going to practice was a surprise every day. We've done a better job of defending people the second time around.
Is the team getting the feeling that they have to play their best every time out?
They under stand that and I am too. We're starting to appreciate more the MSU fan support and the tradition that this program has. We also recognize that we are the team that everyone looks at and wants to beat.
