UC Head Coach Wes Miller Discusses 85-73 Win Over Eastern Washington
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00:00 in the game against Ole Miss Friday night
00:01 after our game against Detroit going,
00:04 "Who the hell's the head coach that scheduled this game
00:06 to start the year?"
00:07 I mean, that's a really good basketball team
00:11 that has a system and identity.
00:14 You know, their system and their identity fit the parts.
00:17 Like, it's a program.
00:18 And then you look back, and they won 18 games in a row
00:20 at one point last year and won their league.
00:23 They're a good basketball team.
00:24 So forget the name.
00:25 It's a good basketball team.
00:26 When you beat a good basketball team by double figures,
00:29 that's a good win. So I'm pleased with that.
00:33 You know, obviously, I'm glad Victor decided to show up
00:38 to play for us this year in the '23-'24 season.
00:41 I'm saying being sarcastic,
00:42 but he had a really good preseason
00:44 and a really good offseason.
00:46 He's really improved, and I've got to see that
00:48 most days in practice.
00:49 I'm glad everybody else that was watching
00:51 got to see that today.
00:52 So I was pleased with his performance.
00:56 I thought Gisle gave us some really meaningful minutes.
00:59 I think at times the first two games,
01:01 you're going, "Come on, Gisle.
01:03 I don't want to play you to give you experience.
01:05 I want to play you because you helped our team."
01:07 Today, he helped our team.
01:08 It wasn't just getting a freshman-point guard
01:09 some experience.
01:11 He helped our team today, and that was really good to see.
01:14 I could keep going kind of down the list,
01:16 but I thought it was a good win.
01:20 I thought we had a chance, you know,
01:22 to really bust it open up into the 20-point-plus lead there
01:26 and just made some silly plays defensively.
01:29 You know, couldn't convert a couple shots
01:31 or easy shots around the basket.
01:34 You know, so that was a little bit disappointing.
01:36 We weren't great on the free-throw line.
01:37 I hated this on the offensive board tonight.
01:40 We only had three at halftime and three of them,
01:42 and those were all three victors,
01:43 so everybody else had as many rebounds
01:46 as I did on the offensive board in the first half.
01:48 So I was just pleased with that,
01:51 but I think with this new team and young team
01:53 and without two really key pieces
01:55 that aren't playing for us right now, you know,
01:58 I was pleased in the short turnaround
01:59 to come out and put it together for us.
02:04 Defensively without, as you feel, is there a different --
02:08 you have to shift the mentality, the focus.
02:11 It looks like running teams off the line,
02:14 like being a little bit more aggressive on the perimeter
02:17 has been in play in the first couple games.
02:21 Well, I think if people have followed the teams
02:24 that we've coached for now a significant period of time,
02:29 we've always placed a huge emphasis
02:31 on guarding the three-point line.
02:32 You can look at the --
02:33 I'm not giving anything away
02:36 as anybody that just looks at the numbers,
02:37 but we've made an emphasis of that for a long time.
02:40 It's a lot easier when you have Victor --
02:43 I mean, when you have Aziz and Jameel
02:46 as a part of your front line with Odie and Vic
02:48 because when you're running people off the line,
02:50 it's a hell of a lot scarier with those guys
02:52 standing down there.
02:53 So I think that's something we value defensively.
02:57 We value it in recruiting, which is why we recruit guys
02:59 with great length and timing and size,
03:02 not just at the front court positions,
03:05 at all positions, to be quite honest.
03:08 And so, yeah, I think it'll be a lot better defensively
03:11 if Victor -- I mean, I'm sorry,
03:12 if Aziz and Jameel were out there.
03:15 It might as well tonight, with solid defense
03:18 as well as kind of the whole package of team
03:20 that you're expecting to see from the offense.
03:25 Well, I thought the first thing with him
03:28 was he finally established himself
03:30 around the basket tonight, early in the game.
03:33 That's the thing that we all know he can do.
03:36 He finally did it, scored around the basket,
03:39 got the three offensive rebounds in the first half.
03:42 And so that's the one thing that I've been really frustrated
03:44 in the first two games.
03:45 I actually called him a couple days ago
03:48 after our first game against UIC,
03:51 and I said, "We're up here having arguments as a staff
03:54 of different plays.
03:55 We got a call to get the ball inside."
03:56 And I said, "We don't have time to put new plays in right now."
03:59 I said -- I finally just called him.
04:00 I said, "It's a stupid argument we're having as a staff.
04:03 You need to post harder, run the rim and post harder
04:07 early in transition, roll and seal better.
04:10 There's all these opportunities to get post catches in our flow.
04:13 You need to just damn do it so we can get back
04:15 to establishing you around the basket."
04:17 And he made a concerted effort to work on that
04:20 in practice this week, and it was good to see that happen.
04:22 Then in the second half, I told him,
04:25 I said, "I'm not going to say you're not playing hard,
04:28 but I want you to play harder.
04:30 Like, it's time for you to play harder,
04:32 and I'm talking defensively."
04:34 And then I thought Odie really set a tone
04:36 with a couple of efforts.
04:37 We got the block, and he's in the timeout
04:39 just huffing and puffing.
04:40 And I looked at everybody, I said,
04:42 "We all got to play as hard as Odie."
04:43 And I thought Vic went out after that,
04:45 and that's the hardest I've seen him play defensively
04:47 in a segment in a game this year.
04:50 And then things really came to life,
04:51 and we pushed that lead out.
04:53 And then obviously the last part of Vic's performance
04:55 tonight that I liked was, you know,
04:56 you guys have been believing me
04:58 that he shot it so well all preseason.
05:00 He finally makes the two threes.
05:01 I just wanted him to be as happy about a defensive stop
05:03 as he is about making those shots.
05:05 But it was good to see because he spent
05:07 a lot of time working on that.
05:09 Let me go around to that.
05:10 Did you see him more comfortable having that
05:12 on the field finally, or was that just the mindset?
05:17 No, I just think mindset and, you know,
05:19 being intentional about it.
05:23 Again, like we pride ourselves on being a program
05:27 that develops players.
05:30 And I think there's so much more to development
05:32 than just doing skill and drills.
05:34 And everybody does a bunch of skill development
05:36 in college basketball.
05:38 But developing players is about letting players grow,
05:41 try new things, add to their games.
05:43 Like, that's one other piece of it.
05:45 And so what's interesting in doing this now 13 years,
05:51 Vic's starting to develop a perimeter game,
05:53 shooting it, making more decisions on the perimeter.
05:56 And you see this trend all the time.
05:58 When a guy that's always played around the basket
06:01 and had success starts to add that perimeter dynamic,
06:05 they fall in love with it a little too much right away
06:07 because they've never done it or they get too focused on it.
06:09 It's a natural progression.
06:11 So it's like, okay, Vic,
06:13 you've got this extra part to your game.
06:15 You're a much better player out there.
06:17 You can shoot the ball. You can make decisions.
06:19 But don't lose what got you here,
06:21 what made you Vic Rocky.
06:23 And I think that's the progression
06:25 that I knew we'd see this early in the year.
06:28 You know, he established himself in the areas.
06:29 He's always been good.
06:31 And then now some of that extra stuff comes to play,
06:33 and he's a significantly better player.
06:35 That's part of the development process.
06:37 You talk about having a good balance right now.
06:40 Is this kind of the balance you want to come to?
06:43 Yes, exactly. Yeah.
06:45 You used to watch the biggest run by the ball.
06:48 I think that really hurt Pat.
06:50 How do you feel you're doing?
06:53 We're trying to run the floor.
06:55 And I think when we do run the floor correctly
06:58 and make the right decisions with the ball,
07:00 it looks pretty good to me.
07:02 I don't know what it looks like to all you guys watching.
07:04 But we're dynamic in the open floor on the possessions
07:07 that we do what we're supposed to do.
07:09 You know, every once in a while,
07:11 we try to do something we shouldn't do,
07:13 usually with the dribbling, the basketball, right?
07:16 Or guys don't run.
07:18 You know, you don't get all five doing their job running.
07:21 And so that's the inconsistency of our running game.
07:24 But I think what's neat is when we're actually doing
07:26 the things that we practice,
07:28 we're having a lot of success in the open floor.
07:30 We just got to get more consistency.
07:32 I know you talked about runs,
07:34 and I'm talking about our running game,
07:36 but I do think they go hand-in-hand a lot of times.
07:39 11 points, five assists for Day Day.
07:42 The talk coming into the season was he was a guy
07:44 that never yet played Division I basketball.
07:47 For three games, are you happy
07:49 with what you're getting from Day Day so far?
07:52 Yeah, and Day Day's going to be great.
07:54 I've said this every time I've been interviewed.
07:58 We got the right two guys.
08:00 They're just young and inexperienced.
08:01 And when I say young,
08:03 Day Day's not young in age and maturity.
08:05 He's just young to this level of college basketball.
08:08 Gissel is young in age.
08:10 Okay, so they're young in their own right and inexperienced,
08:13 but they're the right two guys.
08:15 They're the right guys to lead this team at that position.
08:19 These early games, Chad, are so important for them
08:23 to do good things and get confidence
08:25 and make mistakes so we can learn and teach.
08:28 That was what kind of went on there with Day Day fouling out.
08:31 It wasn't just a bad defensive play.
08:33 It was now he fouls out, and we don't have our point guard
08:37 that's best at breaking pressure.
08:39 So, no, I didn't think it was Day Day's best night.
08:42 I thought he put the ball in jeopardy
08:44 a couple times early in the game.
08:46 But, yeah, overall, I'm excited about him,
08:49 and I was really, really pleased with Gissel's play,
08:52 which I already said in my opening statement.
08:55 Are you okay with him trying to dunk on somebody
08:58 every three or four opportunities?
09:01 Well, you know, like my college coach,
09:05 he was at practice this week, which was a real thrill for me.
09:08 He used to always say, "If you can't dunk, don't try."
09:11 You know, and so I never tried.
09:14 But Day Day can dunk, and so I'm okay with him trying,
09:20 but he's got to make sure
09:21 that we're converting at a higher level, right?
09:24 Like, I really liked the play at the end of the half
09:27 because I thought that was the right play.
09:28 Like, it went down and out.
09:30 There was contact.
09:32 There's been a couple plays where it would have been nice
09:33 for him to draw the help, which he didn't kick it
09:36 because it wasn't a realistic finish.
09:39 But I think that's part of his development as a player.
09:41 So I do want him attacking.
09:42 I do think he's going to have some highlights,
09:44 which was close there at the end of the half.
09:46 But there's a couple times, and you guys,
09:48 I think this is what you're referring to,
09:49 where he's just trying to figure out this level,
09:52 that play that I could make in junior college.
09:54 Maybe it's a little different if they get there earlier.
09:57 We got that with the trampoline.
09:59 Yeah, with the trampoline, yeah.
10:00 I was pretty damn good with the trampoline.
10:02 That's the only reason I know what it feels like
10:03 to be up there.
10:06 Wes, if I could go back to Vick.
10:08 It was a career-type performance,
10:13 counting stats, but even putting the counting stats aside,
10:17 the effort was there that you were talking about.
10:20 Seems like it was a process to get to this point now.
10:23 How -- What are you telling Vick in terms of sustaining
10:28 the kind of output?
10:31 Yeah, just respond.
10:32 You know, we talk about responding every day.
10:35 That's like a hot-button word or value,
10:38 daily value in our program is how we respond,
10:40 how we respond when things don't go well,
10:42 how we respond when things do go well.
10:44 And it's usually the same thing, work a little harder,
10:48 grow, improve.
10:49 We got to respond. How quickly do we respond?
10:51 So, it'll be what --
10:53 The answer to your question is kind of what you just said.
10:56 Like, let's not get happy.
10:57 Like, let's respond to it,
10:58 which means let's double down on the things that got us here.
11:01 Let's not get fat and happy. Let's keep getting better.
11:04 So, if Vick played like hell today, played poorly,
11:08 I would have said, "Let's come in the gym tomorrow.
11:10 Let's work harder and get better."
11:12 If he had a career night statistically,
11:14 I would call this the best game of his career,
11:16 but statistically, I'd say the same thing,
11:18 work harder and get better.
11:20 We're going to respond to success
11:21 and failure the same way.
11:23 Coach, when you kind of see the strategy of Washington
11:28 trying to lift guys off the front line,
11:29 that heavier zone look,
11:31 did that feel like it adjusted well
11:34 given the five-point output
11:35 and stronger second-half performance?
11:39 Did we feel like we adjusted well
11:42 to the way they were defending us?
11:44 Yeah, you're trying to force the offense to funnel inside.
11:47 You know, they obviously, you know,
11:50 they were really, really aware of CJ Frederick tonight.
11:52 I didn't like that he only got two looks.
11:55 We got to figure out how to free him up a little bit more.
11:58 You could see the zone kind of stalled us out a little bit.
12:03 I wanted our running game to be more consistent,
12:05 so the zone didn't have any effect.
12:09 You know, like, we still got free looks
12:10 in the open court running the floor,
12:13 but what I noticed was we got to spend a little more time
12:16 on zone offense. We'll do that this week.
12:18 We need some more stuff against the zone
12:20 to make sure he gets free, you know, to get him some shots,
12:25 and then they were switching back and forth,
12:28 but the zone probably gave us more problems
12:30 tonight than the man-to-man.
12:32 I thought we missed a bunch of shots around the rim, guys.
12:34 I don't know. We scored 85, so I'll be like that,
12:37 but we missed a bunch of shots around the rim,
12:39 the angled shots, quality shots.
12:42 Dan Skillings felt like he missed 100 of them.
12:44 It felt like, was it 100 or 110?
12:46 I don't know, but he missed a bunch.
12:48 DayDay missed some early,
12:50 so I wasn't overly ecstatic about our offense tonight,
12:54 but I do look down to get 85.
12:56 I'll be like that.
12:59 -Can you go? -Okay, thanks.
13:01 - All right.
13:02 (choking)
13:04 [BLANK_AUDIO]