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SportsTranscript
00:00 [no dialogue]
00:10 What gives you hope for the last six games?
00:15 Great question.
00:16 I think the thing that gives me hope is that I see them keep fighting.
00:19 I see how hard we work in practice.
00:23 I see the camaraderie with the players, how they deal with each other.
00:28 I see a care factor.
00:30 There are points in the game where you can see we're fighting,
00:35 trying to get wins.
00:37 So that gives me hope.
00:40 Follow up on that.
00:41 What's the next step in your opinion?
00:43 This season I'm talking about.
00:45 The next step for me with these guys is just continue to get lucky,
00:50 try to get lucky.
00:51 And what I mean by that is the way we finished the game against Georgia Tech,
00:58 the second half down the stretch of the game,
01:01 there was a point where the game was getting away from us.
01:04 They had an 8-9, 10-point lead, whatever it was.
01:08 I challenged them, guys we have to do it now.
01:11 We have to start now.
01:14 And they responded.
01:16 That's the next step.
01:17 We have to consistently play the type of basketball that's down the stretch of
01:22 games where we're efficient, where we're fighting,
01:26 where we're connected on offense and defense.
01:30 Kenny, the last time you faced Pitt, they came to your home court and beat you
01:34 by 13.
01:35 What is different about your team now as you go into this matchup on the road?
01:39 And do you feel like your team can put together a more complete performance
01:42 against them?
01:44 Well, one, I didn't think – Trey White did not play in that game.
01:48 That's one major piece.
01:51 I didn't think we played particularly well.
01:55 Hopefully that's another piece that we play better.
01:58 But we did some good things in the game.
02:01 We just got to be connected.
02:03 I think we are a better team since that point.
02:06 I believe we are.
02:08 We've played better since that point.
02:11 We just got to go out and fight.
02:13 Going off that, what's your take on Pitt?
02:16 I think they're coming off like a four or five game win streak.
02:18 They just beat – they just beat at Virginia at home.
02:22 You know, they snapped a long home winning streak there.
02:24 How do you think they've grown since the last time you've played?
02:27 I think they're hot.
02:28 I think they're shooting the ball well.
02:30 I think they have a swag.
02:31 I think they have the belief factor that they belong.
02:35 And what I mean by they belong,
02:36 they belong in the upper echelon of this conference.
02:39 So it's not going to be easy.
02:42 They're playing for a lot, which is in my mind I like.
02:48 Because when teams are playing for what they're playing for,
02:50 to try to get in the tournament and try to be one of the three or four,
02:54 five best teams in the conference, if it gets tight, they may get tight.
03:00 And I'm not saying they will, but we got to help them get tight.
03:05 You know, they're a good team, they're a well coached team.
03:07 They score the ball very well from multiple spots.
03:12 They get after you.
03:13 We just got to go in there and fight and see what happens.
03:17 It didn't happen against Georgia Tech as you noted,
03:20 against the team the other night had a bad second half.
03:25 Do you see any signs, Kenny, that maybe the attrition is getting to you?
03:30 It ran out of gas a little bit or not?
03:33 Is that a factor?
03:35 No, it's actually the opposite.
03:36 I think we've been better in second halves.
03:41 I think that we at times get emotional.
03:45 We fought against Boston College, guys got caught up in the physicality
03:51 of the game and what the ref is calling and not calling.
03:55 And that made a – that took a toll on how they approached the game.
04:00 But overall, like I like what we're doing.
04:03 I just think for us, we have to stay committed to what we're trying to do
04:08 on the court.
04:09 And that's play together, play unselfish, fight, talk to each other, communicate.
04:14 And then at the end of it, you know, don't – we can't have guys not play well.
04:21 We don't have – we're down players, but nobody cares.
04:26 The other team doesn't care.
04:28 Except me.
04:30 So we have to go out and every guy that steps on the floor,
04:33 every guy that has a jersey on his back better be ready to go in and contribute.
04:37 That's important.
04:39 Kenny, what's the biggest challenge for your group defensively right now?
04:42 You take a step forward on that end of the floor at this point in the season,
04:45 what are you telling them?
04:47 Well, you know, the main thing is that you can't win in basketball
04:51 if you don't defend.
04:53 You know, I love – I really like what we're doing offensively
04:57 when we're playing together, multiple guys are scoring.
05:00 We're putting up big numbers.
05:01 But at the end of the day, if you're going to win, you got to get stops.
05:05 And that's hard for a young team.
05:09 Young team that primarily individually have been scores
05:13 and now they're being asked to defend.
05:17 To change their mentality into, I know that I've always been this guy
05:22 since I've been born, now I have to buy into fighting on defense,
05:27 keeping the ball in front, willing a guy to get a stop.
05:31 Not just being there saying it was good defense and he made a shot,
05:34 that's not going to get it done.
05:36 You have to will him to miss the shot.
05:39 They get one shot and we have to rebound the ball.
05:43 We can't give teams, you know, live ball turnovers
05:47 and they go get layups or easy threes in transition.
05:51 That has hurt us.
05:52 We have to be more solid.
05:55 You know, there's a multitude of things that it's attributed to.
05:59 But overall, we just got to get better defensively.
06:04 You spoke about the injuries, I'm just wondering how Sky's doing?
06:10 You know, I had heard he's been in like a lot of pain,
06:13 just wondering, you know, how you see his timetable?
06:17 Well I know his day-to-day, I know a lot of it is based off his pain tolerance.
06:23 I hadn't seen him in a day, we hadn't practiced yet.
06:25 So, we'll see.
06:28 We'll see.
06:29 Has he been able to do some drills in practice?
06:31 He worked out a little bit yesterday.
06:35 You know, went through a couple of drills.
06:37 So we'll see what he's able to do today.
06:40 Are you optimistic?
06:41 I am, I am.
06:42 But I'm always optimistic.
06:46 Going back to the game you played at Pitt last year,
06:48 that was, you know, like a 34-point loss.
06:51 Is there anything that sticks out to you from that game?
06:54 You know, going in there and, you know, be it like the crowd or just, you know,
06:58 last year's team it felt like, you know, there were moments where, you know,
07:02 it kind of gave up on the game.
07:03 But, you know, this year's team seems to be very different.
07:05 But is there anything from that game that sticks out to you?
07:08 Well, I'll say this to you Brooks, I'm trying to forget about last year's game.
07:14 I want to remember, I looked at our game this year, earlier in the year,
07:19 I saw some good things that we did.
07:22 I have to build on that and not worry about, you know, a 34-point loss.
07:30 There's not much good that will be in that.
07:32 And I don't want these guys to give up on it.
07:34 I want them in the frame of mind where they're fighting to get a win.
07:39 How much does all these injuries and so forth play into the difficulty of
07:46 having a rotation and depth, any number of things?
07:51 It's everything.
07:53 You know, when you don't know who you're going to have,
07:55 when you're going to have them, how you're going to have them,
07:58 you're trying to piece it together the best you can.
08:02 And there's no, you know, set way that you can go about it.
08:06 You have to see what you got, put it together and go from there with it.
08:10 And that's what we've done, we think we've done.
08:14 I feel like we've done a pretty good job of being without guys
08:17 and we've won with guys not being on the floor
08:20 and those are integral parts of what we're doing.
08:23 Kenny, the overall feel right now in the locker room, the vibe if you will,
08:27 what is it and how do you keep these guys motivated
08:29 down the stretch here in the final six games?
08:33 We don't look at it like it's the final six games.
08:35 We look at it like it's day to day.
08:37 My message is win today, we'll worry about pit tomorrow.
08:41 So today is about having a great practice, great energy,
08:44 focus on the things that we need to focus on to prepare to get a win.
08:48 And then tomorrow we'll worry about exactly how we're going to fight
08:52 to beat Pittsburgh.
08:53 Now we'll cover and prepare for them today, but the message is win today.
08:58 I need guys that are not looking ahead saying we got six games left.
09:02 I need guys saying, I'm going to be the best that I can be today
09:07 and then tomorrow I'm going to be the best that I can be tomorrow.
09:11 As I'm sure you're aware, Pitt hit 14 three-pointers,
09:14 shot over 50% against a pretty good defensive team.
09:18 The other night.
09:19 How do you deal with that?
09:20 And they've got some inside power too.
09:23 Again, they're a very good offensive team.
09:26 They shoot a lot of threes.
09:29 We're going to have to deal with that.
09:30 At times it's going to look awkward.
09:32 We may be short-handed, I don't know for sure yet.
09:37 Going to have to mix in some zone.
09:39 Going to have to switch to keep them from getting threes
09:43 because we don't want to be in rotations.
09:45 We want to be on our man.
09:47 Again, the goal is to not let them make threes.
09:51 The goal is for them to take tough twos.
09:53 And if they beat us shooting tough twos, that's fine.
09:56 But at the end of the day, when a team that's shooting 27, 28 threes a game,
10:01 you know what their game plan is going to be.
10:05 Kenny, when Sky is day-to-day right now,
10:07 I would imagine it puts a little more pressure on Tyler
10:09 as like your primary ball handler.
10:11 You talked a little bit about how the emotions of the game can affect guys at times.
10:15 Do you have conversations with him about handling that better,
10:18 especially now when there's a little more pressure on him
10:21 that he's got to be out there more?
10:23 No question.
10:24 I think that's a part of his maturation.
10:26 That's a part of a young player learning about itself
10:29 and learning how to make the adjustments to winning basketball,
10:32 not just basketball.
10:35 This isn't high school or AAU, no disrespect to those two entities.
10:40 But this is big business.
10:42 This is winning basketball.
10:43 This program is a winning program.
10:46 And you have to play winning ball and your emotions got to be in check
10:50 in order to be steady.
10:52 We need you steady.
10:53 You are the head of the snake.
10:55 So at that position, you got to know what everybody's doing.
10:59 If you're erratic, how can we expect the team not to be?
11:04 Anything else for Coach?
11:06 All right.
11:06 All right guys.