Dec. 20, 2011
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Head Coach Steve Alford Quotes vs. Montana State – 12.20.11
Opening Statement…
“I don’t know if we have been more pleased with our team this year. We have had a lot going on and to win the two games that we did away from home and to come back here without a whole lot of preparation and play the way we did in the first half makes me really pleased with the team’s effort. We are doing a lot of good things defensively. We are seeing ourselves getting better defensively. When we have a night when we make shots like we did tonight; we are really good. I think the guys are learning that if the shots aren’t falling, as long as we are guarding, we can still win games. That is what we have done away from home. We got back home to familiar surroundings and we made shots. We were really good tonight and it was good to see. Now we have a quick turnaround for UMKC (Missouri-Kansas City) for Thursday.”
On the assists…
“I think we have been top five in the country for that stat most of the season and we just helped it again tonight. We made 34 field goals and had 24 assists. That is a good stat that you are a positive in. When you are sharing the basketball and have a lot of guys that can share the basketball like Kendall; I think Kendall had zero or one shot at the half, but he had five or six assists at half. He recognizes and the team recognizes that Tony is on fire in the first half and they just keep feeding. They have been an unselfish group and it is something that is in progress. Everybody, because of minutes and the depth of the team, was trying to force things and now we are starting to settle in to be a really unselfish group offensively and that has been good to see. I think the improvements that we are really seeing are defensively.”
On the start of the game…
“It’s a lot of fun when you watch your team make a lot of shots and the other team misses a lot of shots. That is the way you would like to start every game. We know it doesn’t happen that way but if you look at this stretch that these guys have been in we have lead most of the time, and this was a game that we lead start to finish. Our guys have been doing some really good things and it is fun to watch. I think we are getting better and we have to take another step in the right direction before we break for Christmas.”
On player injuries…
“We were without Phillip (McDonald). He had concussion type symptoms and he is doing much better. I think he will be better by Wednesday but he was out tonight. I thought we got really good minutes out of Dominique (Dunning) off the bench, but Tony (Snell) played his least amount of minutes the other night. Overall, and in the second half, we only had him for three minutes in the second half versus Oklahoma State. He looked pretty driven tonight and did a lot of good things. He took the ball off the bounce and took the ball to the rim hard and obviously made the three’s when his teammates got him some easy looks. Phillip is probable for Thursday.”
On the bench…
“We were planning on playing 10 tonight; obviously we get Chris (Perez) there in the end so we get 11 to play. We were trying to get 10 in the rotation but I didn’t know if we would get them this many minutes. We were able to get our starters down in minutes: AJ (Hardeman) got less than 20 minutes, Drew (Gordon) had low minutes and Hugh (Greenwood) had 20 and Kendall (Williams) was right around 24,25 so that was pivotal. Two games in three days is not easy, so we had a very quick turnaround, UMKC played yesterday so they have an extra day on us. To be able to play guys and not have to play in the 30-minute range, so hopefully that will help us on Thursday.”
On the effort from the bench…
“I thought it was really good and that the starters did a really good job of getting us going, so when we subbed you didn’t see a letdown. You want to see a bench that comes in and continues what the starters did, or if the starters hadn’t done well, then increase that level of play. I thought our bench did a lot of good things. We wish we could give Dominique (Dunning) more minutes, it is just hard. We have got very good cards. We are a deep team that’s pretty good and that’s hard on freshman. He has been an outstanding teammate, the guys love him and he is very supportive of the guys. I wish I could get him minutes every night and that may not be the case. Kenny Thomas just talked to the guys in the locker room about minutes. He said you can’t always play the minutes you want but you have got to be a good teammate and then you have the chance to be a really good player. I think Dominique down the road is going to be a really good player. Demetrius (Walker) gave us good minutes and Jamal (Fenton) was terrific again. Jamal was really going through a good stretch and I thought Chad (Adams) did some really good things tonight. He made shots and took care of the basketball. Cameron (Bairstow) didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, but he got nine rebounds and those are the type of things that we have to have from him.”
On the 3’s…
“That wasn’t part of the plan but that is just what happened. We were driving the ball well and spacing up well. Tony got us going and it was almost like everyone in the gym thought they could make shots and everyone started making them. Hugh (Greenwood) made his shots, Jamal (Fenton) came off the bench and made his shot and Demetrius (Walker) came off the bench and made his. It became contagious but the key was that we were taking good shots. I thought the improvement tonight was that we were much more efficient at taking good shots.”
On UMKC…
“They are 7-6. They have been playing pretty well and got off to a slow start and then got on a winning streak. They got beat last night at Michigan State which just about everyone in the country does. The thing that is concerning is that they come here and they have already played in front of a pretty good environment and a very good basketball team. They are playing well and doing a lot of good things. The staff will work through the night while the guys get some rest. We have a lot of work to do as a staff when we meet the players at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow.”
On the upcoming holiday…
“Our word for the week has been concentrate and we passed that test tonight. We had really good concentration. We made our free throws, we shot it well and we defended well and that is a good sign of concentration. Now we have got another 40 minutes that we have to be able to show the ability to concentrate. This has been a long stretch and we have to work hard as coaches and as players until about 10 o’clock on Thursday.”
Player Quotes vs. Montana State – 12.20.11
Junior Guard Jamal Fenton
On the fast start to Lobos had to open the game
“It’s just good to punch first. Then the crowd gets into it. And then it’s just hard to come back in The Pit.”
On how fun the game was
“When we punch first, it’s always fun. And when the bench comes in, they turn it up another notch. On the bench, you saw all smiles tonight, nobody frowning, and that’s the way we should play the game.”
On what the team learned from this victory
“I would say we learned just to get better chemistry. Even though we beat them, and they were a good team and we beat them by a lot, we just have to keep getting better and our chemistry has to build. That’s how you win championships.”
Sophomore Guard Tony Snell
On his rebound performance after the physical Oklahoma State game
“Just trying to be aggressive today and trying to make up for the Oklahoma State game. I didn’t shoot well. I was in the gym working out, working on getting my shot back, and making sure we don’t get a loss in The Pit.”
On the impact of the Lobos’ torrid scoring output in the first half
“We’re making sure it’s not going to be an easy win. You’ve got to defeat us. We’re not trying to slack or play bad. We’re really sending a message to these teams that we’re real.”
On the team’s defensive performance
“Our mindset is to do good for forty minutes; make sure we do good defensively. Our offense is going to come. We’re not worried about our offense. We just have to play good defensively.”