On what he told the players after the game…
“I didn’t say a lot to the team after the game. It is not the time or place. The bottom line is shooting-making hurt us on the defensive end. We get quiet when we are not making shots, and it was a tough night. Justin [Kier] did not make a three, P.J. [Horne] did not make a three. We were 3-25 from the three [point-line], and we were missing open looks. The frustration kicks because we are not doing a good enough job keeping the ball in front of us. So, we will have to do something different defensively there. We are not into the ball good enough or getting under the way we need to. Our guards and our bigs are not providing enough support when that ball gets driven. When we are doing that we put ourselves in a position where we are not in a position to rebound well. The rebounding was pretty equal, but at the end of the day the offensive boards they got they turned into buckets, they turned into threes. That is a problem there. But the other big problem is, throughout the conference when Toumani Camara gets into foul trouble, we are not nearly as good. It is no secret. It is hard to win when he is only playing 19 minutes. Our bigs were in foul trouble from the first TV timeout today. It is hard because he can provide a lot of things for us. At the end of the day whether you are at home or on the road you have to make open shots. We did not do that. We did not do that very well. It affected us on the other end.”
On South Carolina’s changed defense…
“I would say they did that because of the lack of respect for our shooting. They did not come up and get us at all really in that area. At the end of the day, we missed open shots and that is a factor. We were still getting looks, we were still getting shots we just weren’t knocking them down. There was some hesitancy. We were hesitating being ready to take the shot on the next pass. We just got careless in the first half with the ball. There is no doubt about that, instead of just letting the game flow. It does not matter if you are pressuring or if you are packing it in you have got to continue to cut. You have got to continue to be ready to shoot. We did not do a good enough job of that.”
On the shot selections…
“We made very conscious efforts to go inside, but you still have to make threes. It has to happen and if you’re going to win you have to make open jump shots. There were times that we really wanted to go inside, there were times we got it in there and times we didn’t. We were in the double bonus very, very early in this game. You don’t want to take their confidence on shooting the ball. P.J. Horne and Justin Kier, those guys have to make threes for us, they just have to and tonight they didn’t. You’ve still got to have outside shooting, we already have a couple guys on the court that, most times, the other team is not guarding. Then we have a point guard more often than not they’re going to back off on. So, you’ve got to move with and without the ball and you’ve got to be ready to shoot. If you think you’re just going to be ready to play the game inside the three-point line, that’s not realistic, you’ve got to be able to get it swung, go inside, drive and kick. The last thing I want them to lose is confidence, but at the end of the day the results are what they are. They’re not making their shots, it affects us on the other end and we’re not guarding the ball as well therefore we lose, tonight.”
On if they can shoot and the overall numbers…
“I’m not going to get in a debate on this one. Our three-point shooting has been better, it hasn’t been better the last two games. At the end of the day there is no alternative to that because of the way they pack in the defense. Do we make shots in practice? Do we make shots in games? Absolutely, we do or we wouldn’t take them. The bottom line is we’re not making them right now and the other night. That’s why we’ve got to get movement, make the next pass, get into the lane, drive and kick it. That’s part of how we have to play.”
On Tyron McMillan’s performance…
“Yeah, he’s got an opportunity every day—hopefully [Tyron McMillan] will take advantage of it. We’d like to get him on the perimeter a little bit more too because he can shoot the ball. Definitely, I want to be able to play him and John[athan] Ned, but again because we were getting in the bonus and rebounding so poor—or I shouldn’t saying rebounding poor, we were getting rebounds too, but they were getting put backs and kick-out threes. We tried to stay with some more experience in there, but we’re going to have to give him opportunities.”
On if he is still considering changing the lineups…
“Yeah—everything—I consider it all the time. I base a lot of things off practice and things definitely like that. So, that’s always going to be an open ended situation for me.”