On his third-straight 10 assist game, and how it is helping the team early on…
“I didn’t know it was three times in a row until after the game, but I think a big part of that is a product of our offense, of Coach Crean constantly preaching pace, making the next play, the open guy gets the ball and trusting your teammates. We’ve all put in the same amount of work over the year and you can see some of the players growing in front of our eyes like Toumani [Camara], Tye Fagan, those guys are playing at a really high level. We had PJ [Horn] making shots today and even Christian Brown, who had a big-time game today. We saw some really good stuff out of him. Those 10 assists, those back-to-back-to-back double double games are all a credit to them. I’m the point guard, and I’m the one who gets it running, but those are the guys who finish the plays, so they deserve as much credit as I do.”
On if he made it a point to get more involved offensively this season…
“I just made it a point to get better, to be in the gym every day during quarantine, and the results are going to show and that’s what it’s been so far. I don’t think I’ve made it a point to be more involved in our offense, but I am making a point to try and make every play, whether that’s making a play for my teammates or myself and just make the right play every possession. As of right now, it’s going well having that balance of scoring and making guys better with my teammates making shots as well.”
On how comfortable he, personally, and the team as a whole feel against a zone defense…
“I think we’re really comfortable with it, that’s something we saw a little bit of last year and I think we have players this year who are really skilled so we can move pieces around. With Coach Crean, this isn’t a “position offense”, this is an interchangeable offense where 1 could play the 5, 2 could play the point, 3 could play the 4, or 4 could play the 1. So, having guys who are skilled and can do a little bit of everything helps. Against the zone, we figured out what they were weak at, how we could exploit it. We did end up with ninety-eight points against them playing zone, and man so that’s a really good take away from it.”
On how he feels about the offensive pace this season…
“I know from a fan perspective; it has to be exciting. I love the way we’re playing right now; we’re sharing it, everyone’s involved, Coach mentioned that six guys were in double figures. That is just a testament to how we practice. We practice with a lot of intensity, and of course, this isn’t a perfect game and we’re going to have turnovers, so we have got to fix that. But overall, why would you not want to play a game that is fun and fast. Usually, those two correlate and that’s what we’ve been able to do so hopefully we’ll keep doing that.”
On tonight’s defensive intensity…
“It’s been back-to-back games where we’ve had over sixty deflections as a team, and deflections lead to good things on the offensive end, whether it’s a steal, a block, a charge, or just making the offense take a tough shot. Being that active defensively over the past two games has really helped us and allows us to show where we’re good in transition and our speed and athleticism. It allows guys to get going and we like a fast-paced game; we know if we can get stops on the defensive end by rebounding or turning guys over, then our offense is always going to come.”
On how he is able to make shots at the rim at such high speeds…
“As crazy as it sounds, I don’t really practice layups going as fast as I can go. I practice muscle memory like how it feels when I’m at a certain angle of a layup. I just take all different kinds of layups going in slow motion so that my body knows how to react when a certain situation comes. I wouldn’t say it’s a lot of practice, but I don’t go too fast all the time, I try to slow it down just so I can feel every movement. I feel what it’s like for it to go in so I know what to do and when I miss it, I know what not to do.”
On the team’s atmosphere during 24-2 run…
“That’s great to hear that we couldn’t be stopped, but I have to give all of that credit to our bench and to our coaching staff. We were locked in the whole game, the coaching staff put together a great game plan and they did a great job of reminding us by being vocal with us as we were being vocal with each other. I think that’s one advantage to not having so many fans at the games, is that we can hear. We can hear the coaches; we can communicate with each other a lot easier knowing that we can have a simple conversation without the loud sounds of the crowd. So, I would say that the bench and the coaching staff were a big part of that (atmosphere), and I think they were really good tonight which helped us.”