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00:00 Well, wouldn't be me if I didn't start out with welcoming Jonathan Smith. I
00:10 chanced to have dinner with him and his wife last night and I think he's very
00:17 excited to be here. I think you'll enjoy him. I think he's come up a funny way too
00:24 as a player and coach and GA and all the stuff that is good about things and I
00:32 think he's going to be an excellent addition. As far as our team, you know
00:38 it's hard to say where we are because if I looked at all the stats I'd feel
00:43 really good about us from turnovers to assists, to steals, to block shots, to
00:48 number of shots we're getting which is the most we've had in my era. And if I'd
00:54 feel bad about us it's the shooting is still an issue, getting better, costly
01:01 turnovers, not a lot of them but costly ones, and just kind of getting our
01:08 best players to play their best. I think that is a big thing. Looked at a lot of
01:13 film on the three and a half hour ride home from there and a lot of film on
01:19 Friday, a lot of film on Saturday and you know and I don't think we're that far
01:25 off from being a very good team but if you don't shoot it better that covers up
01:31 a lot of evils. The problem is the evils that normally you're covering up are
01:35 some of our strengths and the shooting which as I went back the last seven
01:41 years, I mean I think one year we were under 35% from the three and probably
01:48 three or four years we're over 40. So this is an anomaly that I think will
01:53 change and when it does I think we'll take another step. As far as Jorda
01:59 Southern, Charlie Henry's their coach, his dad coached in the state, he's been in
02:04 the state, he's been up to our place many a times, he was at Alabama, good guy, good
02:09 coach. Several new faces which is the norm for this day and age and I think
02:19 they're playing 12 or 13 players and they have Eugene Brown who's a good
02:23 player from Ohio State that transferred there has been hurt I guess and we don't
02:27 know if he'll play but he hasn't played yet. So they're a team that shoots 33
02:34 threes a game. The ball goes up a lot and it goes up from all over and they've got
02:40 a multiple number of guys who can shoot three. So concerning because anytime a
02:46 team shoots 33 threes they haven't won a game. I can't believe that after looking
02:51 at their talent and how many guys they got that can shoot the ball. I guess
02:58 defense has been a little bit of a struggle and hopefully that'll help us
03:04 in a little ways. Their best two players to me are Dean and a kid named Franklin
03:09 but they've had a couple guys sitting out for whatever reasons so I don't know
03:15 what we're gonna get or who we're gonna get if I was to be very honest with you
03:19 other than Franklin and Dean who both are averaging 12 or 13 points but
03:25 everybody's averaging that because anywhere from 8 to 12 because the number
03:30 of guys they play in number of minutes. So questions?
03:35 Well I hope I don't see similarities. I think the similarities are really
03:54 completely opposite. I mean they've been really good or haven't shot the ball
03:58 really well but they have a lot of three-point shooters. We haven't
04:03 shot the ball real well. We've been very good defensively. They have not been very
04:06 good defensively. Everybody's looking for wins nowadays. Everybody's looking for
04:13 wins but I look at the teams we played and I still say if you make
04:21 anything in that first game you win that. You're 4-2 and you're feeling a
04:25 little better about yourself but I am encouraged by some things that have
04:29 happened. I mean we have played more minutes of good basketball. The minutes
04:34 we don't play good basketball has really been costly. I don't think there's any
04:38 question that one other issue we had the other day, excuse or not excuse,
04:46 Tyson Walker was you know very poor job on my part with Tyson in that game. He
04:54 was dead, dead, dead. Didn't realize it. So I'm blaming trainers. I'm blaming
05:01 myself. I'm blaming my staff but I am blaming myself on that. After the game he
05:07 got back here his weight went down 169 pounds and I couldn't believe it. I mean
05:14 he was up to 183. So that you know from the illness and everything he was not
05:23 himself in that game. Not nearly as good defensively and so I think that had a
05:30 lot to do with it too and that falls on me more than it falls on him. But big win
05:39 you know I I think we need a win. We need to play better. We need Jaden and AJ to
05:46 play better. Your best players got to play well. We need our best players to
05:50 play well. We need to get Malik more involved. He's playing really well. He did
05:54 a good job in a lot of ways but we need to get him a little bit more involved in
06:00 the offense too. Tom this is your only game I think in 11 days. I think it is
06:06 between Arizona and then Big Ten play. How can you kind of use this time? Can
06:09 you focus on yourself a little bit more? Yeah this is a very important time. You know I'm I'm at it a lot of
06:14 people when you go through this. I don't think our scheduling has been great
06:17 either you know and how we've done it and what we've done. We got caught a
06:20 little bit and you know for a couple of reasons and but we got some strange
06:28 games and this is a different game. We Indiana State's a pretty good team you
06:33 know. Oakland we all know is a good team. So you do need some games where you know
06:40 like 90% of these teams are getting where you you know nothing wrong with
06:44 playing a tough schedule but then the other part of it's got to be you know
06:49 when you have time in between. We didn't have any time between I think it was
06:55 Butler and Alcorn and then Southern we didn't have much time either and so this
07:04 is good. We'll get some time. Now next week we get some time but it's finals
07:08 week so that's a little bit distorted but right now this has been good. We had
07:14 Friday off, we had Saturday, Sunday, today and then we'll play and then we get a
07:19 week off to hopefully get Michigan State better and and to get healthy. I
07:24 mean Tyson didn't practice Saturday, did practice yesterday, gained some weight
07:31 back but that was a tough situation on him and one that I don't think we
07:40 handled very well. I'm wondering about the slow starts because that's obviously been
07:45 something that you know since the exhibition game with Tennessee has been
07:49 an issue. Have you identified kind of what that might be and is that I mean
07:53 with a veteran group is it better to you know the second half the way they came
07:59 back you don't want to do that often but that they've shown that ability. Yeah I
08:03 think they show that ability because I think we got a really good team.
08:06 We just a really good team hasn't shot the ball very well and I can't even look
08:11 at turnovers. I mean we're averaging probably less turnovers than we have in
08:15 my era and we had 90 the other day but but the turnovers led to two threes you
08:23 know and layups I mean that was the killer in that game you know is what do
08:30 they lead to? Are they live ball, dead ball? But I'm pleased with that. I mean
08:37 listen I mean AJ is a good player he's got to play good and Jaden is a was one
08:42 of my best players in the last year and has really struggled from the three and
08:46 and I think it's affected a lot of his game. He's only been to the free throw
08:49 line six times and yet we've we're usually a team that doesn't get there as
08:54 much as our opponents. We're almost even and that includes the 30 to 10 Duke
08:59 thing. So there's a lot of things we're doing better which is the Doug Herner
09:06 rule when you don't make shots it makes everything look evil but the starts I'm
09:13 gonna try to rectify that. We're gonna you know see what we can do. That is that
09:19 has been on point of emphasis. It's been talked about. It's been we've wrestled
09:27 with it a little bit but that is a problem. I mean you can't start out 17 to
09:33 1. The other day it was 23 to 10. Duke was a little better but then they went on
09:43 that stretch run right before the half to take a one-point game to 10 or 11
09:48 whatever it was. Those are the stretches that a veteran crew shouldn't do but
09:53 it's partially because we're missing shots and partially because our best
09:58 players got to play way well. That's the way it is.
10:03 (inaudible)
10:05 I mean I think I think it can because they've already done it before. I mean
10:15 like I said I mean I think one time in the last six years we shot less than 35
10:20 percent from the three. We're shooting 26. I mean right now Cooper has taken a few
10:28 less but he's shooting the ball from the line better than Tyson. I mean I can't I
10:38 can't look at that and say man that guy's doing a bad job. I mean nobody's
10:43 trying to miss a free throw and nobody that is a good free throw shooter
10:47 throughout his whole high school and college career should be in that
10:51 position. It's just it is and as we know in that first game of the year three of
10:57 them were front ends of one-on-ones and it's the difference between winning by
11:01 eight and losing by one. So we're working on it. We're spending time
11:08 on it but you know that old adage the more you harp on it is that helping or
11:13 hurting but the incorrect they played the number two three five seventeen team
11:18 in the country. So I say that you know what what last night this morning was
11:24 about for me was I went back and looked at all three losses and the other day I
11:30 looked at the Tennessee game and what I see in those three losses is is the
11:37 shooting and those stretches and we just got to do a better job of that.
11:42 There's encouraging things discouraging. Tommy mentioned Jaden a couple of times
11:47 what do you think you need to what does he need to do to sort of get on track?
11:50 Is there anything you guys can do to help him? Is this a game that you look
11:53 at to try to spark that a little bit based off coming off of his second half
11:58 against Arizona? Yeah I'm anxious for you guys to watch this team warm up
12:01 because I mean I think we're talking like you know you should just go out and
12:05 blow them out and you know I I don't totally disagree with you if I looked at
12:12 their record and this and that but you know most of these teams come in they're
12:16 small these guys are 6'11 6'10 6'8 6'7 they have really good wing guards so so
12:26 it is concerning what Jaden's got to do is not let his offense dictate his
12:30 defense and he's got to shoot it better I mean I he's had shots you know somebody
12:36 would ask I thought in the last game Tyson took a few bad shots and he took a
12:40 few bad shots because nobody else was making him and we put him in that
12:43 position and then he was just worn out I mean he if you watch that film it was
12:50 four minutes into the game and he looked bad and I didn't say nothing and I
12:58 didn't think we did a very good job of figuring it out but other than that I
13:05 don't mind the shots we've taken I love the fact we're getting 61 instead of 52
13:10 from last year and we're not even offensive rebounding really well so
13:15 there's there are a million pluses there's just the two negatives the best
13:20 players playing well and making some shots where it's ugly head you know it's
13:28 my understanding that you're on the search committee for a couple of things
13:32 I know one was the football head coach mr. Jonathan Smith also as well as the
13:37 university presidential search can you kind of detail your thoughts on mr.
13:40 Jonathan Smith and also kind of where things stand in search in terms of the
13:44 university presidential search well you know I mean I I was on both I guess but
13:52 you know I'm during season so I'm not as involved with things in Jonathan Smith
13:59 that was a decision Ellen made that I think is going to be a very good
14:03 decision I have been impressed did not know him that well talk to him one time
14:09 I have been impressed and very impressed last night getting a chance to sit down
14:13 face to face for an hour and a half I just think he brings maybe who we are
14:21 you know he's kind of a blue-collar attitude too and has developed players
14:27 and you know as kind of been the the program that nobody respected as much
14:37 with Oregon right down the road and figured out a way and how to handle that
14:42 and deal with it and so his personality and everything is as great as far as the
14:51 presidential you know we're we're supposedly down to a couple candidates
14:56 and I from what I've seen I like the candidates and we'll see who they pick
15:04 that's their selection I'm out of that now but very important to me but I'm I'm
15:11 you know I was in the committee that got it down to five and then it goes to the
15:17 board so hopefully I think our board is I mean there's no secrets it's been
15:23 crazy and a little bit embarrassing but at the same time I think when you go
15:28 through something like that everybody kind of figures out hey we're gonna
15:33 start doing what's best for the university and I think that's where our
15:38 boards at I think that's gonna really come together and and maybe you get a
15:42 president football coach we can start getting this train back on the tracks
15:47 and when it does I think it's gonna be very exciting for all of us with with
15:52 some of the other sports doing so well like you know our women's basketball is
15:57 doing well our women's soccer has done so well and Adams done a hell of a job
16:03 over there and hockey and so you know what there are brighter days coming up
16:09 it's been a little bit of a rough go but there's brighter days coming up I really
16:13 believe that. Tom Xavier Booker what is what would you like to see his freshman
16:19 year track look like from where it is now to what and how much is realistic in
16:23 terms of development within a season? You know I think this is the the hard thing
16:29 too because you want to play some guys you want to get some guys ready but you
16:33 can't play 11-12 guys you know and we all know that you could play eight nine
16:37 maybe ten in certain situations but you know Book had his best practice yesterday
16:44 and I've spent a lot of time with him spent time with his parents you know
16:52 it's the motor thing is it's just got to be cranked up yes he's not the strongest
17:03 guy but there's been other guys that aren't strong that have made it it's and
17:06 I and I think he sees it I mean the good news is I think he understands it now
17:11 what to do about it that's something else and but yesterday I you know I
17:18 called him up night before and said you know the honeymoon's over as far as
17:24 trying to delicately get you where you got to get and and last night I called
17:29 him and I said well it wasn't as easy or fun today but I thought you got a lot
17:33 more done and and you know that's just the stages these kids go through but if
17:39 you look at the freshman we were laughing today there was a 10 star guy
17:44 that's playing for a school in the pack or in the big 12 that played two minutes
17:50 last night and he's averaging about three a game and there's one guy in the
17:55 big ten that was in the same boat averaging about three minutes a game
17:58 it's freshmen just aren't playing as much and freshmen that aren't ready
18:02 because of physical matters struggle even more because of the 22 three and
18:08 four year olds that they're playing against so it's it's it's been a little
18:14 bit of a struggle but what do I see his path I see him getting better hopefully
18:19 working harder and and realizing that at this level and he's got a lot of help
18:27 he doesn't know how good he has it those upperclassmen have embraced him because
18:33 he's a good kid they've embraced him like no tomorrow I mean Malik and Madi
18:41 I've really tried to help him and the freshman I mean Jeremy is is someday
18:48 gonna be a great leader and he has really tried to help book out and so
18:56 he's got a lot of people working with him he he's got better a little bit
19:03 yesterday he's not ready yet but he you know and I guess what we do and this is
19:11 what my staff said today as soon as you struggle a little bit I don't know if I
19:16 mean like I said what would be saying if we beat GMU and we probably played
19:22 better against them than we did some of the other games but what will we be
19:25 saying if we're four and two and lose to Duke in Arizona you know I don't think
19:30 anybody be panicking so I still say we can't look to our freshmen our team is
19:39 good because our veterans are good and they are good and they're battle-tested
19:43 and they've done it before and right now they're not getting it done and maybe
19:48 the same should be said for the coach so maybe Izzo and two of my upperclassmen
19:55 need to do a better job and that's kind of what we're gonna really focus on
20:01 especially in this time where we get some time to work on Michigan State I
20:06 said all along tough schedules mean you see warts nobody wants to have them and
20:12 when you do have them you have to fix them and get rid of them and and that's
20:19 what we're trying to do to be honest with you so his progression it would be
20:25 nice he's a guy that it would have been nice to play you know three four games
20:30 early that that you could afford to play guys in maybe not just one game here and
20:37 one game here but on a consistent basis and so all those things I'm you know
20:42 gonna have to look at now as these things have changed and see what I want
20:48 to do scheduling wise not changing and the good teams we play but just maybe
20:53 how we set them in there if that makes any sense well enjoy Jonathan I think
21:04 he's on at 1230 on BTN so turn on the TV's let them enjoy themselves thanks a