Hopkins on Defensive Success Against Stanford

  • 8 months ago
Huskies head coach shares his thoughts on six different players forcing a steal against the C
Transcript
00:00 >> I can't, that's a hard, I don't think so.
00:06 I mean, I can't go back on my memory, I don't think so.
00:09 But he just had that look in his eye, he was good from all different levels.
00:14 He finished at the rim.
00:15 The thing that I've been most proud of about Corbin before this game is his play
00:21 making ability for others.
00:22 Cuz he has the ability to break you down and get in the lane.
00:25 And when you have two guys on the court like him and saw him, now three,
00:28 when you have Paul, they can not only get in there but make other guys better.
00:32 It's pretty good, and then he's making shots at that level.
00:34 If we can get consistently, you're not gonna get 30 consistently,
00:40 but you can get in that 15 to 20 with the ability to go further.
00:45 That's a great thing where we are in the season right now.
00:48 >> Did you think that you could take these guys off of the dribble in the hand
00:51 like you've been around?
00:52 >> Our advantage was our speed, our disruption.
00:55 Their advantage was their size and their shooting.
01:00 We were able to play at our advantage tonight.
01:02 We wanted to control the tempo, we wanted to play fast.
01:05 And we were able to play our game.
01:08 >> Having six different players force a steal,
01:10 just talk about the defensive element of that.
01:13 >> Well, it's like Paulie today.
01:14 He took the challenge.
01:15 Like Jones, he didn't play against Washington State.
01:18 And then when we played him, he had nine.
01:20 He made a contest of threes.
01:22 That was one guy that we were gonna make sure we had.
01:25 We have so much respect for him.
01:26 He's such a great shooter.
01:27 And he doesn't just make open shots.
01:29 He makes them if you're in his face.
01:31 Shoots it behind, he's big.
01:33 And I thought Paulie did a great job of being physical,
01:35 being there on the catch, made it very difficult for him.
01:39 And I thought that was a big part of the game.
01:42 Braxton had 13 rebounds in 25 minutes, which when he's on the court,
01:47 he brings size.
01:47 We were able to bring him in when they had Rayneau in the game when they were big,
01:52 when we felt they were a little bit smaller.
01:53 We were able to go with our small lineup, I thought was really good.
01:57 Tonight with Keon Brooks and Anthony Holland and Moses,
02:01 saw either Paulie or Corn.
02:04 So that was really good for us too.
02:06 >> Are you a little surprised that you guys only took seven free throws?
02:10 You have seen that you attacked the basket.
02:12 >> I thought so.
02:14 But you know what?
02:15 I've been, and again, I haven't said this my whole career.
02:19 I've been, even in a couple of the losses that we had,
02:22 I think the refereeing has been really, really consistent and good.
02:26 And I think they've let a lot of physical play.
02:29 There's been good flow to the games.
02:32 They're not, they're human, right?
02:33 There's some mistakes here and there, but
02:35 it feels very fair with how they call the games.
02:38 I just think we had one of those games, Corn got really hot.
02:44 He was the separator.
02:47 We were able to get steals in the second half to get us that 10 point,
02:51 12 point lead right at the start of the first half and then we never went back.
02:56 >> You never really had that low in the second half where you guys tend to,
02:59 you'll get a big lead, then sometimes teams kinda creep back in.
03:01 That never really happened.
03:03 Did you sense that coming into the game where they, those teams-
03:05 >> Well, you know what?
03:06 They're young men, so 18 to 22, you don't know what you're gonna get.
03:12 Our thing was, what I got a little frustrated was, is we were rolling,
03:16 we were rolling, and then we had four straight turnovers in transition.
03:20 So I'm thinking, two minutes of game time and we didn't even get a shot.
03:25 The one thing that I was, when you look at it,
03:28 they were trying to make unselfish plays in transition for each other.
03:31 So there's the catch 22, but how we execute demonstrates,
03:36 that's how you win in February and March, is execution.
03:41 We're playing hard enough, we're rebounding the ball,
03:43 our defense is becoming better and more disruptive.
03:45 Those are huge things.
03:49 Now it's how do we execute on the offensive.