Dec. 22, 2011
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Head Coach Alford
Opening statement….
“This was a good game and a tough bounce back game for us because of the low prep. I thought we did some good things. I was upset I thought we were a little flat at the beginning of the game; the new lineup might have had something to do with that. I thought after about the first five minutes we woke up and started playing to the level that we needed to play. This has been a long stretch and I really appreciate the guy’s efforts. To win 8 in a row and a lot of those games being away from home means a lot to this basketball team. It looks like we have got a healthy Phillip McDonald which is really going to help us going into the next stretch. Hopefully the guys can have a good Christmas and have a couple days off and come back ready to keep these things going. We have a tough week next week.”
On Sophomore Guard Kendall Williams’s status…
“He had a very poor first semester academically. It is something that we don’t tolerate in the program. It was my decision to sit him for a game and hopefully he will respond. He will have things that he will have to do from a study table standpoint that will be a little extra but he is an outstanding student. We were finally getting grades back and everything is pretty good but I didn’t like what I saw out of him. That was the reason for him sitting tonight. The standard that I think is set for the team and for him was not satisfactory. This doesn’t have anything to do with eligibility, he is a 2.8 student. It’s not an eligibility issue just a poor semester. He could end up being in the lineup next week. This was just a one game deal.”
On the inside-out game…
“I think after we got going it was pretty good. I think early it wasn’t very good. This was a small team and Reed, their really big kid, got sick right before the game and hopefully he is okay. I know our doctors were doing a really good job trying to help that situation. That really made them small tonight but I thought we did a decent job. We decided to do a lot of switching on the perimeter. I thought it was good and yet, we didn’t have a lot of time to practice that and it’s not something our guys have practiced a lot and I thought it affected our board play. Our bigs were away from the basket and we really depended on our guards to rebound and I don’t think our guards did a very good job rebounding tonight. I liked how we defended it. They basically played five guards, they don’t really play with the post guys so we didn’t want to change who we were so we continued to play two bigs most of the night.”
On Phillip McDonald igniting the team…
“That was good because we have had the same starting lineup for a while and obviously that took us out of rhythm a little bit. Whether it is Kendall (Williams) or whoever it is, there is a high standard here and it doesn’t matter who you are there is a responsibility not just on the basketball floor but even more importantly what you do in the classroom. I think that had a little disruption to what we did because we just really got that today. This was something that was done on the fly for the guys and I don’t think we handled it in the beginning but in the second half we handled it much better. I thought that Demetrius (Walker) had some really good minutes. He really passed the ball well and it was good to see Phillip (McDonald) get going. Phillip hasn’t had some success in a while and I think he went over 1,000 points in his career tonight. He has really had a nice career and it was nice to see him play injury free and have a good game.”
On Jamal Fenton…
“Jamal has been terrific. He has really gone through a five game stretch where he has been really good and that helps us. To be able to rotate him and Hugh (Greenwood) at the point has been really good for us in this win streak. He is doing what we hoped he would always do and that’s change tempo. We have always teased him, he is 5’9″ and sometimes he wants to play like he is 6’6″ and walk around and get in this play and at 5’9″ you have got to be all over the place. In this last five or six games he has been everywhere defensively, loose balls, changing our tempo and he is shooting the ball well. He is just doing a lot of good things for us. He has been making a lot of good decisions. He had 16 points, 8 assists and no turnovers those are pretty good numbers for a guy coming off your bench. He has been playing really well and has been a great leader. I like what he is doing vocally, he is getting into guys. He has really stepped up his leadership on a team that needs that.”
On running the floor…
“It has been good; early it wasn’t and we picked it up. We’ve got to get out in transition. We are deep and can play a lot of guys and we have been doing that during this stretch. Hopefully, we can have a great break and a great Christmas and get everyone back here healthy. This is about as healthy as we have been in a while and that is good going in the next four games before league play. Then we have week off to where we can really work on a lot of things. This is going to be a pivotal stretch when we get back and a pivotal week next week that we need to play well.”
On attacking the basket…
“We wanted to attack the basket because we didn’t feel like they had a presence inside. They are a small team and not a shot blocking team so we wanted to go to the post and drive it hard to the basket. I thought our guys did a good job. We got to the line 25 times to their 7. I thought we did a really good job of attacking the basket and that was key.”
Senior Forward Drew Gordon
On the early portion of the game
“We started slow. We just came out a little flat. Coach kind of had to get into us to motivate us and hype us up. But once we did, things started rolling and it started looking up.”
On the team’s inside-out game
“Demetrius did a great job of passing the ball and finding the open man in transition and kicking the ball around the horn. It’s looking good. The passing is a lot crisper than it was at the beginning of the season. Granted, we came out a little sloppy at the beginning, but I think we picked it up.”
On the team’s eight-game win streak
“We’re feeling good. Obviously, an eight-game win streak is going to help out anybody’s confidence. But, we have [New Mexico] State coming up. We lost to them the first time and we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. We want to make sure we use these couple days off to see our families and get back to the grindstone.”
Senior Guard Phillip McDonald
On his 1,000 career points
“It was a big milestone for me. It was a big accomplishment for me. I should have got it earlier. I’m glad I got it now and I glad I got myself going.”
On scoring the last 11 of the team’s 13 points in the first half
“I felt like a weight just got lifted off my shoulders. I felt very relieved and like I was back on my game. I felt like I was last year and the year before that. Injuries have really taken a toll on my body. But now I’m starting to feel better and you can tell.”
On his injuries this season
“This season, I’ve had to deal with my left ankle injury. That was the hardest injury, so far. It took a lot of my movement away laterally and jumping off my left leg. And right now, I’m starting to jump off my left leg. And I’ve been dealing with a concussion; that was from the last game. Right now, I’m feeling pretty good and my ankle’s feeling better. It’s about 87, 88 percent. It’s close to 90, but not there.”