Wes Miller Mid Big 12 Play Press Conference
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00:00 First first half of the season, the big 12 season is behind you.
00:06 What is your initial impression of going through nine games?
00:12 Oh, it's it's the best league in America. Um,
00:17 you know, you hear that you do your research and your preparation.
00:23 Certainly believe that. But experiencing is something different.
00:27 Um, it's every night, it's every possession. Every team has great
00:33 players. Every team is well coached and again saying it's one thing
00:37 experiencing is something different and we're still only halfway through. So,
00:41 uh, as I've said all along, I believe that being in this league having to
00:48 rise to the occasion every night in this league, it's awesome. It's going
00:53 to improve our program. It's going to improve this team. I believe that more
00:58 emphatically now than I even did when I said it and I believed it when I said
01:02 it going into it.
01:02 Um,
01:04 when you look at a guy like that
01:11 physically,
01:13 that's
01:22 yeah, I'm proud of john. Um, you know, and it's not going to do a ton of
01:26 reflecting because we still got a lot of basketball left to play and he's
01:29 got to kind of stay at it. But what's what's neat is that, you know, in the
01:35 era that we're in where there's so much movement transferring and all that, the
01:40 guys that stay with it and stay with you, you know, it's even more special
01:46 because you don't get that as much anymore. And so john, just the player
01:52 coach relationship is special to me because we've been through it together.
01:56 We've been through a lot of stuff together over the last three years. And
01:59 you know, that is in a lot of ways what you got into coaching for a lot of us.
02:04 And so it still exists out there. It might be more rare, but it still exists.
02:08 So I'm proud of what he's done at this point. We still have a lot of
02:11 basketball left to play and he's got to kind of continue to keep doing his part
02:15 every day.
02:15 Just in place tonight, you got this Saturday. How do you mimic what they do
02:20 on defense?
02:22 Like eight or five.
02:24 Um, you can't mimic it.
02:28 If if you could mimic what Houston does on defense, other people will be doing
02:34 it in games. You know, there's a reason they're the best defensive team,
02:38 college basketball. They have been, they continue to be, uh, number one
02:45 haven't gone against them six times over the last two years. I've seen it up
02:49 close and personal.
02:50 Um, you can't simulate it practice, but you got to try to do a good job of
02:56 figuring out a good game plan and how to
02:58 how to execute against a unique style for sure.
03:02 Oh,
03:04 awesome.
03:06 What is the
03:17 I don't know if you can single out one thing, but as you look around, not just
03:21 our games, but the league, so many games come down to one or two possessions.
03:24 So to me, it's what are you doing every day as a team to try to get one
03:32 possession better in the areas you can control, you know? And as you go back
03:37 and you review all these tapes or you coach these games, you know, the teams
03:41 that control what they can control to win one or two or three extra
03:45 possessions. That's the difference in games. And there's been nights that,
03:49 you know, you look down and we did a nice job of trying to do that. And
03:54 there's nights that you don't and you're just going, man, if we just did a
03:57 little better job, we win one or two more possessions. I think it's
04:00 the obvious stuff is always going to be there. Did you shoot it? Good. Did you
04:05 make free throws? Make your I mean, of course, that stuff's a factor. But, you
04:10 know, to me, you can't always control that. But you can control execution. You
04:15 can control your defensive assignments. You can control sprint back on. You can
04:19 control communication. You can control your rebounding effort assignments. You
04:24 know, the stuff you can control. Are you getting better and better? And you have
04:27 an attention to detail and a focus there. And then is your effort where it needs
04:31 to be? You know, I think that that's the difference in a lot of these games
04:36 beyond the surface level stuff that everybody's aware of.
04:42 But you must have a very strong.
04:44 How important was
04:46 Yeah, you know, see, Moss says we've said since before anybody here, Solomon
04:57 Cincinnati uniform is a
05:00 terrific player. He's really important to this team, whether it's with the ball
05:05 in his hands or not ball in his hands. Uh, and he went through a tough fault
05:10 with the injuries and hit in the car and all that. And I think, uh, conference
05:15 play. We've relied on him heavily. He's had some nights. I know he wanted a
05:18 couple shots back a couple plays back, but he just continues to stay confident.
05:23 He continues to make plays. And, you know, I think one thing I've known is
05:28 if you'll just stay with it, which he has, he's gonna have a lot of good good
05:31 moments here. And people are starting to see that now.
05:34 But when you recruit somebody like Thomas,
05:39 you envision. I'm sure a guy like that could be a high level defender as he
05:46 maybe even been better than you expected. Defending ball, icing ball,
05:51 getting over screen.
05:52 Kind of all the little things that he's done for you.
05:55 But what I will say is I think with a lot of these guys, when you when you
06:01 recruit somebody, at least at least here with us, like you have a high level of
06:06 belief of what they're capable of. You shouldn't bring him into your program.
06:10 So I don't I don't sit there and watch the things that day days doing
06:14 defensively and say that I'm surprised. I certainly envisioned that. But I do
06:20 think it's it's it's nice that somebody is recognizing his defensive
06:25 improvement. How quickly he's figured that out coming from junior college and
06:31 recognizing it for it. So I'm not surprised. I actually think he can
06:34 continue to get better and better there. But he has become a reliable
06:39 defensive player. He's picked up this level of defense, not just the speed
06:46 and the talent, but the ability to communicate the ability to be in the
06:50 right position, which a lot of first year players at this level struggle
06:55 with, whether it's freshmen or junior college, even somebody transferring up
06:59 to this level. He's done that, uh, in a nice way, and I think it's important
07:05 to recognize that doesn't surprise me. It is an expectation. Um, I also think
07:10 give him credit because he's come in with the right mentality every day, and
07:15 I think that's why he's having some defensive success and then give his
07:19 junior college coach a lot of credit. He played for he played for a great
07:23 junior college coach, uh, coach Hobright. Uh, and so he probably he
07:31 probably came in a little more ready than some others because of who he
07:34 played for
07:34 our meeting.
07:46 In my meetings, Oh, the games that we played.
07:50 Yeah, I think
07:52 you're always trying toe to learn. We're always trying to get our guys to
07:58 learn and grow.
07:59 You're trying to do the same thing as a coach. I've learned.
08:03 I've learned a lot preparing, competing against, uh, Kelvin Samson's Houston
08:12 teams. You know, there's there's there's certain aspects to the way that
08:17 they play that, you know, you resonate with, you know, you want to do it your
08:21 own genuine way. That's who you are as a coach and institution you're at the
08:26 players you have. But just the mentality to rebound, defend, give
08:31 relentless effort every possession. You know, I resonate with that, and, you
08:37 know, I want us to get to a place with this program where people talk about us
08:42 doing that at the highest possible standard.
08:44 Um, people
08:45 nationally talk about Houston right now in that way. I want us to get to a
08:51 point. We're doing that in our own Cincinnati way, but we got a lot of
08:56 work to do there. But you certainly learned a little bit about it, you know,
08:59 kind of coaching and competing against him. And there's a I have a high level
09:04 of respect for how they go about their business.
09:07 You know, Reynolds only have a moment
09:09 that's just a matter of
09:12 playing time for him in the front quarters. There's something
09:16 to improve.
09:18 Well, I'll tell you how he's played the last two games is him doing his part.
09:25 You know, I thought the last two games we've seen that Jamil Reynolds that,
09:31 you know, I think that we envisioned seeing, and I think that he knows he
09:35 played to the level he's capable of playing on both ends of the floor, and
09:39 it's felt consistent over the last two games. So I think that that's the thing
09:43 with Jamil. Number one, we got to put it in perspective is really hard to
09:48 insert into a team nine games in,
09:50 you know, where
09:53 the majority of our players, we had a chance to work through some things with
09:58 them in the first through the month of November and December.
10:01 Not that those aren't important games, but it's a little different than league
10:06 games.
10:06 So maybe you can work through some mistakes and some errors in those
10:12 preseason games, which is important for your team development. Jamil didn't get
10:17 that opportunity. We didn't get that opportunity is a team or is a coaching
10:20 staff to do that. So we're trying to do that for the most part with Jamil. Do
10:25 you know, I think our first six league games were against six top 25
10:29 opponents. That's that's very difficult for for us as a coaching staff and also
10:33 for Jamil. It's not an excuse. Just the truth of what it is. Um, so he's over
10:39 the last month, 56 weeks been going through the process that the rest of
10:44 our team went through over the month of November, really late October with the
10:48 scrimmages through the month of November.
10:51 And now you're starting to see not just consistent play, but we've seen a more
10:55 consistent approach and intention in practice. So I think the world of him,
11:01 I think he can really impact winning on this team. He could have a massive role
11:06 on this team, and I do think we're trending in the right direction.
11:09 You get a lot of questions about CJ. Is it unrealistic to expect a whole lot
11:15 out of him when he comes back given
11:18 basketball?
11:20 Right.
11:20 I think anytime somebody's been out for an extended period of time with an
11:26 injury,
11:26 you know, it's unfair to have too high expectations for their performance. I
11:31 think the main thing with CJ is trying to get him back in the lot of playing
11:34 practice, you know, getting putting consistent days together and then get
11:39 into a place we can play him in games. And so we're just kind of taking it one
11:43 step at a time. You know, I don't
11:46 have some illusion that CJ plays in his first game and has the best game of his
11:50 college career. But I will tell you that CJ just being out on the court will
11:54 impact our team in a positive way. And we understand it's a process, but just
11:59 having his presence out there, his experience and the things that he brings
12:03 to a basketball team that's going to help us regardless how good or bad he
12:07 plays. But you know, everybody's gonna have some adjustment coming off of a
12:11 long break.
12:13 The season is long and guys go through the roller coaster of ups and downs.
12:18 Vic offensively is at least in a little bit of a
12:21 a valley right now. How do you continue to work with him and get his confidence
12:26 back? Get back to that top of that hill? And I hope
12:29 appreciate you choosing your words carefully. I know Vic hasn't had his
12:36 best stretch. I think he's well aware that actually, you know, for me, it's
12:43 it's a boring answer for you guys, you know, trying to write it interesting
12:48 stories. But it's the truth. I mean, you work your way out of things. You dig in,
12:54 get back to the fundamentals, work your tail off, play hard.
12:59 You play to the right reasons for your team. And then I think good things
13:05 follow you. They might not follow you exactly the way in time that we all
13:09 want. But they happen. And Vic knows that. I thought he got back to that at
13:14 the end of last week, and I certainly thought he got back to that in our last
13:17 Texas Tech game. He won our hustle and effort award. We graded the film. Uh, I
13:23 thought it was the best effort I've seen him play with in a really long
13:27 time. And to me, that's step one. And we all know how important he is. He's one
13:32 of the most important players to this team. Uh, and it's not just about does
13:36 he miss or make shots? It's about all the little stuff that he brings to a
13:39 team, the winning stuff that he does. And I think he's trending in the right
13:43 direction there over the last three or four days.
13:45 Yes.