Media availability occurred today with Texas Basketball Head Coach Rodney Terry, here are questions that were asked and his response:
Q: Tramon Mark's been back a couple weeks now, what can you guys do to get him going offensively? And do you see him at some point as kind of the third option you know behind Kaluma and Tre?
A: Tramon didn't have much of a summer because, he had things he had to get done on an academic standpoint, and then he gets into the early part of fall and he misses seven days of practice, and gets hurt the first day of practice with his groin, and so we had a very limited time with him over time with this group, so I think there was a time prior to his injury that I thought he had made up a lot of ground in terms of how hard we needed him to play on both ends of the floor, I think once he had that injury, just like anything, it's going to take some time for him to come back and get back in the flow and get going again. I do think he had his best practice the day after our UConn game where I thought he played with the kind of energy and activity that we need him to play with. Rather it be on offense of defense, I thought he was really really good, I thought it was his best practice of the year, and if we can get him to a point to where he's consistently doing that every day there's no doubt in my mind that he could definitely be a guy that gives us a lot of scoring ability and possibly a third scorer to go with those guys that have been consistent night in and night out to this point.
Q: you think about the longevity of this team and going deep into March and what's needed to go and compete at that high level is there any emphasis today on several of the players scoring double digits? Is that even I know your defense minded but is double digits ever play into that?
A: A great point, we still have a really good New Mexico State team to play tomorrow, and I've got a lot of respect for their coach and how hard they play, and how hard they compete, he's got power five size and he's got guys that are older players so we'll have our hands full come tomorrow with a quality ball club coming in here, but to your point I think the thing that I'll try to stress to our guys right now and over the course of the next week and a half is that, we've got to have a great sense of urgency we don't have to play perfect on offense, never gonna ask our guys to play perfect on defense, but we have to have a sense of urgency on how hard we play every possession, and I think if you can get your team to compete at that kind of level on every possession, I think it gives yourself a chance from an offensive standpoint, again I think we're growing, we'll continue to grow, we’ll spend time working on it, after the UConn game, in terms of our pace it’s not where it needs to be right now from an offensive standpoint, our cutting is not where it needs to be at this point right now and, I put the ownership on myself and I said to our guys I'm going to do a better job of teaching and working with you guys on how hard we have to cut, spacing we have to have, and the ball movement we have to have offensively because I do believe that we can be a really good offensive team, I think we're a fast team, I think when we're able to get out and play in transition, It helps our defense. I think it helps us to play with urgency because now we got a little pop about us, I do think we're a team that can score the basketball, and will be able to score the basketball, and we've got a gauntlet of a league this year where every night you're going to have to bring your “A” game on offense and defense and try to sit down and play with a high sense urgency for 40 minutes.
Q: how do you come up with the mindset of how many I mean, which guys are gonna play with each other on the court and the finding out who is the proper match for each other, depending on the matchup I guess plays a lot into it, but just trying to find that rhythm that you were talking about that you were looking for right now?
A: I think it's been a work in progress, We started the year with the lineup our first scrimmage against TCU is the lineup that we're starting right now, and we got up to a great start first couple games, and then we have an injury and a setback with Tramon for four weeks, and so Chendall did a nice job getting in and and doing what he does in terms of being a star in his role and then you get Tramon back, you have Jason Kent who started out the year coming in and and being a guy that we can rely off the bench as our first big off the bench, and he gets injured and we're still working on his recovery and opportunity to be to come back and hopefully join us at some point as well, but you talk about rotation, we had a pretty good rotation with the way we had it going at one point, but we still haven't had our top nine guys available to play this season in a game yet, so to me in my mind, you have two guards, you have two bigs, and and then you have a fifth and six guy past that point ready to go. So we're the kind of team that likes to pressure up the ball so we could play 10 guys. But we haven't been able to really kinda sell into that because we haven't had everybody available in every game to this point right now, so we get Tramon back and we lose Kent so you know, Kent's a valuable guy to our team, he's a guy that has a lot of experience, He's a guy that's a cerebral player he's a physical body, he rebounds, and he's one of the elite cutters in all of college basketball, he can cut twice on an offensive possession and make our offensive possession look really good, we’re missing that from him right now he could get a second chance opportunity on the glass for us, he can make a three point shot for us, but you lose that a little bit in terms of that rotation, so to be honest with you in games sometimes it kind of just depends we tried to go with a small lineup the other day and it wasn't very good then we had to go to a big lineup the other day off the bench away from our first unit so, hopefully, you know, we'll have everybody available at some point where we can sell in on that really good rotation the way we want it, in a perfect world you'd love to be able to have them, we're two deep in every position, but we're not right now, we're still down one.
Q: just looking at the schedule, looking at the the the games you have the rest of this month is your mindset now got to use these games to you know, really ramp up and get ready for for A&M and SEC play?
A: The thing that I said to our guys the other day after the ball game and even leading up to practice yesterday because we had to take the following day off after the game, I think we're at the point in our season right now where we have to be fully committed to really work hard at fixing the things we needed to fix from an offensive standpoint, defensive standpoint, and then we needed to have a really good level of of urgency that we're playing with, when we cut we have to have a purposeful cut on how hard we do it we need to initiate offense, we have to initiate offense with a great pace of play in terms of how we want to play, When we sprint back on defense, We have to have 100 yard dash mentality getting back but being fully committed with a high level urgency and being consistent with what we do, that's been the biggest thing that I've tried to preach between now and the time that we take a break and we come back from our break, that has to be a part of who we are. We're committed, We have urgency and we play with consistency.
Q: something that you figured out about your team to this point that you may not have known before the first game of the season?
A: We got 10 new players, you just really trying to get your guys to gel and understand your schemes and develop an identity in November. Right now it's about us coaching the details and us trying to get our guys better, we know we have to get better offensively with our pace of play, our cuts, our ball movement, so that's something we're really harping on right now at a very high level, get the ball moving, It doesn't need to stick and it needs to get side to side, and we need to be able to attack the paint, the other day was our lowest scoring output in the paint. We've been able to do a great job against opponents to this point right now really attacking the paint. Thought we did a pretty good job of trying to play inside out against UConn the other day as well, we put eight fouls on those guys and, put the big guys in foul trouble, but I think the one thing that I didn't know, as we continue to go through our journey, is that we still have to be able to work games, this is a group that can't pick up things pretty quick, but I think that maybe I over estimated our learning curve to this point right now with trying to play a switching defense against a really good offensive team. So again, I own that, I'll take that on a little bit, we've been pretty good though in big moments being able to switch and Guard different actions against pretty good offensive teams, but when you play against an elite offensive executing team, we had to kind of go back to our base defense and not stay in it as long as we did.
Q: With SEC play looming, and you mentioned how there was a lot of new guys coming to team, what was the biggest thing you saw that gives your team confidence as well as you yourself heading into SEC play?
A: I think our guys are still learning how to play hard, I never ask our team to go in and play a perfect game. No one's gonna play a perfect game, No one's gonna coach a perfect game, not gonna have an officiated game that's perfect, but I do ask our guys to go in and play extremely hard every night, and play with a high sense of urgency, and I really challenge our guys to endure themselves to to our fan base, how do you endure yourself to our fan base in Longhorn nation? By being a team that's scrappy, that plays hard every possession, that really cares about about the name on the front of the jersey and not the name on the back of the jersey, and then just playing for one another and having a joy in doing that, so that's really kind of what we really try to instill in our guys and I think that's what we try to hang our hat on every night.
Q: you talked about urgency, the cutting, the joy, getting to the ball, is it fair or maybe accurate to say you're kind of describing Kendall Weaver?
A: You're right, Chendall does play with the a high sense of urgency when he's on the floor, He plays with a chip on his shoulder, he's the guy that executes when we call an action or rather that be a transition offensive action that we're running, a half court action that we're running, he's a guy that will make a great 45 cut with a great purpose, he will try to finish at the rim, he rebounds his position, he defends his position so yeah you have a whole team full of Chendall Weavers, You got a monster team.
Q: Tramon Mark's been back a couple weeks now, what can you guys do to get him going offensively? And do you see him at some point as kind of the third option you know behind Kaluma and Tre?
A: Tramon didn't have much of a summer because, he had things he had to get done on an academic standpoint, and then he gets into the early part of fall and he misses seven days of practice, and gets hurt the first day of practice with his groin, and so we had a very limited time with him over time with this group, so I think there was a time prior to his injury that I thought he had made up a lot of ground in terms of how hard we needed him to play on both ends of the floor, I think once he had that injury, just like anything, it's going to take some time for him to come back and get back in the flow and get going again. I do think he had his best practice the day after our UConn game where I thought he played with the kind of energy and activity that we need him to play with. Rather it be on offense of defense, I thought he was really really good, I thought it was his best practice of the year, and if we can get him to a point to where he's consistently doing that every day there's no doubt in my mind that he could definitely be a guy that gives us a lot of scoring ability and possibly a third scorer to go with those guys that have been consistent night in and night out to this point.
Q: you think about the longevity of this team and going deep into March and what's needed to go and compete at that high level is there any emphasis today on several of the players scoring double digits? Is that even I know your defense minded but is double digits ever play into that?
A: A great point, we still have a really good New Mexico State team to play tomorrow, and I've got a lot of respect for their coach and how hard they play, and how hard they compete, he's got power five size and he's got guys that are older players so we'll have our hands full come tomorrow with a quality ball club coming in here, but to your point I think the thing that I'll try to stress to our guys right now and over the course of the next week and a half is that, we've got to have a great sense of urgency we don't have to play perfect on offense, never gonna ask our guys to play perfect on defense, but we have to have a sense of urgency on how hard we play every possession, and I think if you can get your team to compete at that kind of level on every possession, I think it gives yourself a chance from an offensive standpoint, again I think we're growing, we'll continue to grow, we’ll spend time working on it, after the UConn game, in terms of our pace it’s not where it needs to be right now from an offensive standpoint, our cutting is not where it needs to be at this point right now and, I put the ownership on myself and I said to our guys I'm going to do a better job of teaching and working with you guys on how hard we have to cut, spacing we have to have, and the ball movement we have to have offensively because I do believe that we can be a really good offensive team, I think we're a fast team, I think when we're able to get out and play in transition, It helps our defense. I think it helps us to play with urgency because now we got a little pop about us, I do think we're a team that can score the basketball, and will be able to score the basketball, and we've got a gauntlet of a league this year where every night you're going to have to bring your “A” game on offense and defense and try to sit down and play with a high sense urgency for 40 minutes.
Q: how do you come up with the mindset of how many I mean, which guys are gonna play with each other on the court and the finding out who is the proper match for each other, depending on the matchup I guess plays a lot into it, but just trying to find that rhythm that you were talking about that you were looking for right now?
A: I think it's been a work in progress, We started the year with the lineup our first scrimmage against TCU is the lineup that we're starting right now, and we got up to a great start first couple games, and then we have an injury and a setback with Tramon for four weeks, and so Chendall did a nice job getting in and and doing what he does in terms of being a star in his role and then you get Tramon back, you have Jason Kent who started out the year coming in and and being a guy that we can rely off the bench as our first big off the bench, and he gets injured and we're still working on his recovery and opportunity to be to come back and hopefully join us at some point as well, but you talk about rotation, we had a pretty good rotation with the way we had it going at one point, but we still haven't had our top nine guys available to play this season in a game yet, so to me in my mind, you have two guards, you have two bigs, and and then you have a fifth and six guy past that point ready to go. So we're the kind of team that likes to pressure up the ball so we could play 10 guys. But we haven't been able to really kinda sell into that because we haven't had everybody available in every game to this point right now, so we get Tramon back and we lose Kent so you know, Kent's a valuable guy to our team, he's a guy that has a lot of experience, He's a guy that's a cerebral player he's a physical body, he rebounds, and he's one of the elite cutters in all of college basketball, he can cut twice on an offensive possession and make our offensive possession look really good, we’re missing that from him right now he could get a second chance opportunity on the glass for us, he can make a three point shot for us, but you lose that a little bit in terms of that rotation, so to be honest with you in games sometimes it kind of just depends we tried to go with a small lineup the other day and it wasn't very good then we had to go to a big lineup the other day off the bench away from our first unit so, hopefully, you know, we'll have everybody available at some point where we can sell in on that really good rotation the way we want it, in a perfect world you'd love to be able to have them, we're two deep in every position, but we're not right now, we're still down one.
Q: just looking at the schedule, looking at the the the games you have the rest of this month is your mindset now got to use these games to you know, really ramp up and get ready for for A&M and SEC play?
A: The thing that I said to our guys the other day after the ball game and even leading up to practice yesterday because we had to take the following day off after the game, I think we're at the point in our season right now where we have to be fully committed to really work hard at fixing the things we needed to fix from an offensive standpoint, defensive standpoint, and then we needed to have a really good level of of urgency that we're playing with, when we cut we have to have a purposeful cut on how hard we do it we need to initiate offense, we have to initiate offense with a great pace of play in terms of how we want to play, When we sprint back on defense, We have to have 100 yard dash mentality getting back but being fully committed with a high level urgency and being consistent with what we do, that's been the biggest thing that I've tried to preach between now and the time that we take a break and we come back from our break, that has to be a part of who we are. We're committed, We have urgency and we play with consistency.
Q: something that you figured out about your team to this point that you may not have known before the first game of the season?
A: We got 10 new players, you just really trying to get your guys to gel and understand your schemes and develop an identity in November. Right now it's about us coaching the details and us trying to get our guys better, we know we have to get better offensively with our pace of play, our cuts, our ball movement, so that's something we're really harping on right now at a very high level, get the ball moving, It doesn't need to stick and it needs to get side to side, and we need to be able to attack the paint, the other day was our lowest scoring output in the paint. We've been able to do a great job against opponents to this point right now really attacking the paint. Thought we did a pretty good job of trying to play inside out against UConn the other day as well, we put eight fouls on those guys and, put the big guys in foul trouble, but I think the one thing that I didn't know, as we continue to go through our journey, is that we still have to be able to work games, this is a group that can't pick up things pretty quick, but I think that maybe I over estimated our learning curve to this point right now with trying to play a switching defense against a really good offensive team. So again, I own that, I'll take that on a little bit, we've been pretty good though in big moments being able to switch and Guard different actions against pretty good offensive teams, but when you play against an elite offensive executing team, we had to kind of go back to our base defense and not stay in it as long as we did.
Q: With SEC play looming, and you mentioned how there was a lot of new guys coming to team, what was the biggest thing you saw that gives your team confidence as well as you yourself heading into SEC play?
A: I think our guys are still learning how to play hard, I never ask our team to go in and play a perfect game. No one's gonna play a perfect game, No one's gonna coach a perfect game, not gonna have an officiated game that's perfect, but I do ask our guys to go in and play extremely hard every night, and play with a high sense of urgency, and I really challenge our guys to endure themselves to to our fan base, how do you endure yourself to our fan base in Longhorn nation? By being a team that's scrappy, that plays hard every possession, that really cares about about the name on the front of the jersey and not the name on the back of the jersey, and then just playing for one another and having a joy in doing that, so that's really kind of what we really try to instill in our guys and I think that's what we try to hang our hat on every night.
Q: you talked about urgency, the cutting, the joy, getting to the ball, is it fair or maybe accurate to say you're kind of describing Kendall Weaver?
A: You're right, Chendall does play with the a high sense of urgency when he's on the floor, He plays with a chip on his shoulder, he's the guy that executes when we call an action or rather that be a transition offensive action that we're running, a half court action that we're running, he's a guy that will make a great 45 cut with a great purpose, he will try to finish at the rim, he rebounds his position, he defends his position so yeah you have a whole team full of Chendall Weavers, You got a monster team.
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