Dec. 14, 2013
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Western Kentucky Head Coach Ray Harper
(On the play of Russ Smith and what he did that made it difficult to stop him)
"He creates a lot of pressure on you when he's using those ball screens. He's always probing the defense and he's extremely quick and fast. I thought they did a good job in the second half, getting the ball inside - they got out in transition in the second half. I thought in the first half that we did a good job of keeping the pace a little slower; second half, I thought they dictated pace and got out and got some easy buckets."
(On going scoreless for six minutes in the second half and the reason for it)
"At times, we didn't reverse the ball. Some of it was due to their defense. But, at times, we hurried. The one thing we thought we couldn't do against this basketball team was take early shots in the possession. We needed to be patient and I thought we did that the first half for the most part. We didn't take a lot of early shots in the possession. Second half, we got away from it a bit. This team lives and dies with the transition, being able to get out, create turnovers and get easy baskets. And that's what they did in the second half."
(On the debuts of Chris Harrison-Docks and Trency Jackson)
"Good. They're two guys that are really going to help us as we go forward. It's difficult to play for the first time after sitting out a year. It just is. It'll usually take two or three games to really get your game legs under you. At the same time, I've watched these guys practice and how hard they practice and what they bring to this team. And I just felt that I could've looked at it a lot of different ways and not played them as much, but we're trying to get better each day and I think these two are going to help us do that."
(On what he would like to see from his team to help generate more offense)
"We need to move the ball from side-to-side. Sometimes, we don't get a good ball reversal after one or two ball reversals. It's too much one-on-one and we need to get that corrected. Against good teams, you've got to get the ball swung from side-to-side at least three times most of the time. When we did that today, we got good looks. We're still missing some guys when guys are open; we're not seeing that. I think the addition of Chris and Trency will help some of that. I thought we competed today and I saw a lot of good things against a very good basketball team."
(On how this game helps his team move forward)
"Obviously, this was the defending national champion. I thought the first half we did some really good things. We dictated tempo. We did not rebound the basketball like we needed to, or we could have been up six or seven, but we didn't do that. I think we're starting to understand, stick to scouting reports, and know scouting reports. It will be beneficial to us and very important to us as we go forward. I thought we took a step in the right direction. We're not where we need to be yet, but we're going to keep working."
(On what the offense will look like at full strength)
"I hope one that puts up a lot more points. Again, two guys that can create shots for other people. I thought we did that a little bit today. We had some really good looks that didn't go down - that I'm very comfortable with us taking. These two guys are creators. They're guys that can get in gaps and make plays for other guys and that's very important. It's something that we've lacked and missed a little bit in the first eight games."
(On having the lead on the road in the first half against the national champions)
"We did some really good things. If it were a 20 minute game, they were in trouble. But unfortunately, they did some really good things in the second half. Tim Henderson looked like Tim Henderson against Wichita State in the Final Four. He came in and made big shots. We were trying to mix it up, played a little more zone today than normal. We had to do that to try to keep them off balance. At times, I thought it was good, but then Tim Henderson came to the rescue and made four 3s in the second half, so hats off to him."
(On when O'Karo Akamune will return)
"For sure when we get back from Christmas ... that first game, which we desperately need. That adds a lot of depth to us in the post. Right now, we're trying to play with Aaron (Adeoye) and George (Fant) and Aleks (Rostov). We need another guy to be able to step in there and play. O'Karo is a senior who's played a lot of minutes the last two years and we're expecting him to come back and really help us."
