In case you missed John Robic’s press conference this afternoon, here is the entire presser.
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Assistant Coach John Robic
On (Texas A&M’s) Jamal Jones and what makes him effective …
“It’s funny. You watch the tapes on him, and everybody uses the term long with him. He’s 6’8”, thin-built, pretty-looking stroke and you look down and he’s averaging 12.3 (points) per game. When you watch the film, it’s like he’s scoring basket after basket after basket, but lately he has been scoring a lot more. (He’s) a dual threat off the dribble and off the catch. He’s more of a three that’s playing the four, so we have to make sure we guard him out on the floor. We have to make him take tough 2s instead of catch-and-shoot 3s.”
On starting faster and the solution …
“If we had the answer to that question, we’d be good. It seems like we’re ready to play. Pregame warm-ups have been really good. I think it was a carryover from a good shoot around that morning. Most teams don’t shoot that early for a noon game, but we do. We don’t go that long, 25 minutes. We thought we were ready. I don’t think they were prepared themselves for how physical the game was going to be. That’s something that you really can’t simulate, and that’s something that cost us early in the game.”
On Aaron Harrison and James Young becoming better perimeter players …
“I think at times, they’ve been good. They have their lapses like all young kids do. But these kids aren’t really that young anymore. We’re almost two thirds of the way through (the season). On-ball defenders, they are solid. If we can minimize them stopping and playing tired possessions and then come out when they are tired –. We don’t need a breakdown like that. That’s what we did at Arkansas. We pointed it out to them on film. We had fewer of those against Tennessee. Obviously the rebounding in the Tennessee game was the difference in a closer game or a game in which we could have stretched it out a little bit.”
On the problems of Willie Cauley-Stein the last few games …
“The Tennessee game was just a physical game. He has to fight a little bit. He really didn’t position himself well on the shot and got thrown around a little bit, with big, rugged jobs. It was something that we worked on just now in practice and it’s something that we will work on tonight when we practice.”
On if he has problems with bigger players …
“Typically no. He is not the strongest (player), but he has to anticipate, he has to make contact, he can’t just worry about out-jumping someone. If you’re not going to get it, don’t let your man get it and keep him off the glass. That’s what (Jeronne) Maymon did with Julius (Randle).
On being outrebounded against Tennessee …
“We weren’t surprised. Don’t quote me on this, but this might have been the first game we got outrebounded this year. If not, it may have been by a one or two margin. To give up 20 offensive rebounds was a ton, but some of those there were three or four offensive rebounds in the same possession so those add up quick on tips. It wasn’t as glaring when you watch tape, but there were still 20. The Arkansas game, we stopped playing. We thought the ball wasn’t going to go in, that was it and we were going to keep playing, but that wasn’t the case.”
On lack of rebounding…
“It’s a tough thing to break, to not ball watch especially when you you’re a guard. Guards have to get long rebounds and guards have to crack down on guys, especially when you’re on the weak side because that’s where majority of the balls go. If a big goes to block or a big is out on the perimeter, it’s that guard’s responsibility to crack down and keep that big off the glass. It’s something that we work on every day and sometimes we’re good at it, but I thought defensively we were really good in the Tennessee game. We were doing some things that we haven’t done before and it’s good to see that they’re carrying some things over.”
On how the team can improve…
“I would say playing entire possessions. Our execution is getting very good, free throw shooting was good the other day, we just got done shooting fouls now, which we shoot them every day, our transition game is getting better, our decision making is getting much better and we could see that the few practices before the last game. I thought Andrew Harrison had a terrific game because he carried over the things that we’ve been working on in practice, not because the stats in his line. That was evident and obvious, but he was doing it here and when your point guard does that, it helps everybody.”
On Willie Cauley-Stein’s physicality in practice…
“We’ve only practiced once since the game. We practiced yesterday for about an hour and a half and he did fine. Julius and Alex are probably our two most physical players, they’re not Maymon and Stokes. They’re on the same team most of the time when we practice, but when we break down individually they can be. He knows he has to fight and if he doesn’t fight he can’t be on the court. Cal has explained that to him and he did fine yesterday.”
On head coach John Calipari saying his assistants talked him out of starting Alex Poythress last year on Elston Turner …
“You’d have to ask Orlando (Antigua) and Kenny (Payne), I think I was sick that day. I just watched that tape this morning and, you know, they’re an entirely different team and so are we. You can’t get a whole lot out of last year’s film for a lot of these teams because we’re altogether new and most of these teams have lost key parts of their team.”
On how extraordinary Elston Turner’s game was after watching it again …
“No, I watched the game we won. I didn’t watch the game we lost. I’m smarter than that, Jerry (Tipton).”
On how you change James Young’s shot but not making him overanalyze it …
“Get in the gym and practice. I mean, big thing with James is having his shoulders, keeping them, not getting them back. He’s a good shooter. I know he’s not shooting at the percentage that he would like but he’s putting the ball in the basket. He’s just creative in the way – he reminds me of the kid we had at Memphis, Chris Douglas-Roberts, just a little unorthodox, it doesn’t look like it’s going in but somehow it finds a way to go in. And we have all the confidence in the world for him and the shot that he made at Arkansas, the one that Andrew (Harrison) made at Arkansas were big shots and it showed us something. There were a lot of good things that we took out of that game as well. But just getting in the gym and repetition.”
On James Young saying he felt his shoulders back on the first 3 he attempted to tie the game in overtime …
“Shooters know. I mean, a shooter is going to feel like it’s going in, hopefully they feel like it’s going in every time they let it go. It’s just a confidence thing, just go shoot shots and just do it the same way every time.”
On Jarrod Polson’s minutes going up and Dominique Hawkins’ minutes going down …
“Well, I don’t know what the factor would be, they both practice really hard but even last game they both – Jarrod played a little bit more – but when they were both in there they both gave us energy that we didn’t have and it picked us up. That’s something that as we went back and watched the film, that those two kids did that and they may not score a bunch of points and do whatever but it’s getting into the legs of the other team and just bringing that to hopefully pick us all up.”
