Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 - Yeah, we're ready coach.
00:02 Go for it with an opening statement, please.
00:05 - Opening statement, we're trying to make all the money
00:07 we're losing on football and men's basketball tournament
00:10 back by having four hour timeouts during the fricking game.
00:13 I've never seen as long a timeouts.
00:15 This is worse than the final four.
00:16 But other than that, we got off to a great start.
00:19 I liked what happened to our team when they came back early
00:23 and took one point lead.
00:24 Was that the 17 and O, Steve?
00:27 - Got a bad crick in my neck for trying to figure out
00:30 what to do during the timeouts.
00:31 But we had a 17-0 run at that point.
00:35 I think Andrew Playtech had a block shot
00:37 and then one steal and one deflection.
00:39 I think Armando had a block shot during that time period.
00:43 We weren't nearly as smooth offensively
00:45 as I'd like for us to be.
00:47 But during that stretch in that second half
00:49 from the 17 and O run, I thought most of it
00:52 was fueled by our defensive play.
00:55 And that's it guys.
00:56 First game, got to win, get home quickly,
00:59 get something to eat and eat turkey tomorrow.
01:01 - All right, first question, Greg Barnes.
01:06 - Hey Roy, how challenging was it?
01:10 How unique was it to play in a game
01:13 without fans for a season opener?
01:15 - You know, Greg, it was not fun, not as much fun.
01:19 I still love the competition part when the game started,
01:22 but all our players have always talked about
01:24 what a thrill it is running through the tunnel,
01:27 hearing all those people, seeing all those people,
01:30 the sea of blue out there.
01:32 So you take that away and it was,
01:33 I think that took something away from the game.
01:37 But I think this is the world that we're in right now.
01:41 We have to understand that.
01:43 I love seeing you guys wearing a mask.
01:45 I wore my mask the entire game.
01:46 And I think we've got to do these kinds of things
01:48 to get those numbers going in the proper direction.
01:52 And if we do that, perhaps maybe by the end of the year,
01:54 we'll have some fans in the stands, but it was hard, Greg.
01:58 - And Roy, I did want to ask,
01:59 Walker Kessler and Pumph Johnson didn't play many minutes.
02:03 Can you offer an explanation of why?
02:05 - Yeah, they've just finished going through
02:08 the COVID protocols and missed several practices
02:12 down the last couple of weeks.
02:13 And so they're back with us, they're good,
02:16 and gave them a few minutes.
02:18 Hopefully it'll help us down the road.
02:20 - Thank you.
02:21 - Thank you.
02:22 - Brian Keyes, next question.
02:24 - Yeah, Roy, just what were you seeing
02:28 at the start of the second half
02:30 when Charleston was able to come back and take the lead?
02:33 What was the issue happening?
02:35 - Guarding the ball was a big part of it,
02:37 and talking on defense was a big part of it.
02:40 I think they started driving us to the basket
02:42 and getting about anything.
02:44 And then we had two really bad reads there,
02:47 and both of them ended up being,
02:48 one ended up being a three-point shot,
02:50 the other one ended up being a layup.
02:52 So it wasn't good,
02:53 but hopefully we'll learn things from the tape.
02:56 - And then what do you think is the number one thing
02:59 you need to improve on right now going forward?
03:02 - It's not one thing,
03:02 I'd say two things, offense and defense both.
03:05 - Thank you.
03:08 - Thank you.
03:09 It's just being truthful.
03:10 - Brendan Marks, please.
03:13 - Hey, Roy, congratulations.
03:16 I was just going to ask you how you would evaluate
03:18 the play of your all-freshman backcourt,
03:21 how you came to the decision to start both of them,
03:23 and then also just evaluate how they played overall.
03:27 - I thought they were okay.
03:28 I think Caleb going to the free throw line,
03:31 making his free throws took a couple of bad shots,
03:33 but I think he was 17 points, four assists,
03:36 only one turnover.
03:38 I don't think RJ had the kind of night
03:40 that he's been doing in our practices sometimes,
03:42 but he made two big baskets on the break,
03:45 one on the break and one in the second half on the drive.
03:47 But they've really done a nice job
03:50 in the preseason practice,
03:52 and started because I thought they gave us
03:55 the best chance to have our best five out there.
03:57 - Thank you.
03:58 - Thank you.
03:59 - D.L. Brown.
04:00 - Roy, I apologize.
04:04 - D.L. Brown.
04:06 - Can you hear me?
04:07 - Yes.
04:08 - Okay, I apologize, this was as I'm having
04:10 some technical difficulties.
04:12 Would you say that the shooting, the three-point shooting,
04:16 was that a matter of jitters and first game nerves?
04:20 'Cause I felt like you guys had some open opportunities
04:23 that just didn't go down.
04:24 - Well, I think we're going to be
04:25 a much better shooting team than we were last year.
04:28 We didn't show it tonight,
04:30 but guys, we had four freshmen in the top seven
04:34 or six or seven guys in the game,
04:36 and this team probably needed an exhibition game
04:40 and a scrimmage or two exhibition games,
04:43 maybe more than any team I've ever had.
04:45 And so the whole thing was different.
04:48 Just getting them out there in front of the TV cameras,
04:52 they knew it was there.
04:52 We had a couple of parents there,
04:54 and I think it was, hopefully it was experience,
04:57 'cause I see us make a lot of shots during practice.
04:59 - Thanks, coach.
05:01 - Thank you.
05:02 - Mike Tober.
05:03 - Good evening, coach, it's nice to see you.
05:07 Staying on the freshman front,
05:09 I want to ask you your thoughts on the play of De'Ron Sharp.
05:12 Obviously, you look pretty impressive
05:14 getting up and down today.
05:15 - You know, it was a flip of a coin kind of thing,
05:18 who I was going to start with the big guys,
05:20 'cause De'Ron's had a magnificent preseason.
05:23 In fact, I was going to start him in the second half,
05:27 but he already had the two fouls,
05:29 and I didn't want to start him
05:30 and get the third foul so quickly.
05:32 But that was the plan, was to start Armando
05:35 and then start De'Ron in the second half
05:37 and start Garrison both halves.
05:39 And when Walker Kessler gets back
05:42 in better condition physically
05:43 and understands a little more mentally
05:45 over the practices that he missed,
05:47 we'll play all four of those guys.
05:49 And I said something to Armando
05:50 during the course of the game late,
05:53 that we're going to keep giving them rest.
05:55 So while you're out there,
05:56 you got to bust your tail and play the best you can.
05:59 And I think that long-term
06:00 was hopefully going to be good for us.
06:02 - Adam Smith, last one for coach here.
06:07 - Hey, Roy, you had said during the preseason
06:12 that you thought you would be fine coaching in a mask
06:15 and getting your point across and everything.
06:16 Just what was that whole situation like
06:19 when it actually happened tonight?
06:20 And what were your thoughts on
06:22 just the spaced out bench and everything?
06:24 How was it just navigating that whole different situation?
06:28 - Well, I've had my mask on every practice,
06:31 every possession, every day.
06:33 So it was not new to me.
06:34 I don't necessarily like it,
06:36 but I do think that we get a chance
06:38 to set an example for other people.
06:40 I'd rather not have the mask on,
06:42 but I think it's more intelligent.
06:43 And so I'm going to wear a mask all the time
06:45 and other coaches may, or they may not, that's up to them.
06:48 But so I was used to it.
06:50 The players were used to it.
06:51 Trying to get your message across
06:55 perhaps could be a little more difficult,
06:57 but that was not a problem to me.
07:00 And the setting, we've had two scrimmages amongst ourselves,
07:04 not anybody else, but we've had two scrimmages
07:06 and we've had the chairs set like that
07:08 for those two scrimmages.
07:09 So that was, it was not unusual for us.
07:12 It was not as comfortable as it is
07:14 when the crowd's going crazy
07:16 and enjoying themselves like that.
07:18 But it was not completely new for us
07:21 because we've already done that.
07:23 Thanks guys.
07:24 - Happy Thanksgiving to everybody.
07:26 - All right, everybody, we've got Armando Baycock.