Hopkins Discusses Improvements Before Facing Seattle U
Huskies head men's basketball coach shares his thoughts on the team before facing the Redhawks.
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00:00 the night, just- >> No, someone asked me,
00:03 would you rather break your head or win or lose?
00:06 Like listen, it was just in the heat of the moment, early in the game, and
00:10 I just, I hear a lot of emotions.
00:12 And just another way that I can maybe get out some energy.
00:20 But for the most part, after watching the game,
00:25 I still think there's a lot of execution things,
00:30 especially offensively late in the game, that we can be a lot better.
00:33 But we won this game because we defended, we rebounded, and
00:39 we made our foul shots down the stretch.
00:42 But I really think moving forward,
00:45 that just we can keep getting a lot better.
00:51 >> There were tangible results with the rebounding part of that.
00:54 >> Sure. >> Cuz you've talked earlier about
00:56 defending without fouls.
00:57 >> Sure, that was another big part.
00:59 >> But could you see tangible results and improvement in that area?
01:04 >> No question.
01:04 >> Great.
01:05 >> We were getting, Frank and Braxton were getting three fouls in the first
01:10 five minutes that they were playing.
01:12 And so Frank having three late, he was able to play and be aggressive.
01:16 And I thought that was really big.
01:18 I think our on-ball defense keeping guys in front, KJ, Moses,
01:24 we did a really, really good job.
01:27 And then it was our best, we've been focusing on defensive rebounding.
01:32 And we just did a lot better job playing more physical
01:36 in those situations where we retained the ball.
01:41 And we stalled a little bit more, obviously to get better at that,
01:47 but way, way bigger improvement.
01:50 >> How do you feel Frank has kind of solidified himself at that center spot?
01:52 Has he gotten more comfortable at this point with six yards short?
01:56 >> Yeah, the coaches, Coach Hobby watches a lot of film with him and
01:59 his ball screen defense was really good in the second half.
02:02 And a lot of times our guys were playing really good defense on the help side when
02:08 he was defending on the ball screen.
02:10 And then when we made a guy pump fake and go to the other side,
02:13 now he'd be able to come back and then block some shots.
02:17 Which when you play against certain teams, when you think you have a layup, and
02:22 now you're getting blocked and the crowd's getting involved and you're going.
02:25 They're huge energy plays and
02:27 it was a big part of how we came back and won the game.
02:32 It was a defensive effort.
02:34 Offensively, we gave them opportunities by how we turned it over some of the time,
02:41 or we were lack of organization late, that we've just gotta be able to be better.
02:47 It was a gritty, gritty win.
02:51 - Nothing.