by Bill Seals
On if Merrill Holden is putting himself in better shape to play versus Oklahoma:
“We’ve only practiced one day (as of Thursday), so we’ve got two more days and you’ve got to get a feel for the game once it starts. His biggest thing I just told him is to put himself in position to be ready.”
On the importance of rebounding in turning around team’s fortunes:
“It’s huge. I don’t have it all off the top of my head, but we gave up 19 offensive rebounds to Cincinnati. We got out-rebounded by 17 against Kansas. And then Gonzaga and Baylor, I don’t know off the top of my head. There’s four losses by nine points to four of the top 15 teams in the country. Obviously, two possessions but also two possessions with better shot selection would help too.”
On how close team has been down the stretch of games only to not close them out:
“Discouraging. We need to finish. We need to do a better job collectively. I need to do a better job. But you’ve got to do it on both ends. Everybody just evaluates the one end, because that’s what everyone analyzes. But you’ve got to do it on both ends down the stretch.”
On his thoughts about Oklahoma winning at West Virginia this week:
“How good our league is, when Oklahoma is 2-4 and they look like that. Oklahoma, now that (Jordan) Woodward is back and healthy, they’re a totally different team. He was awesome the other night. That was a great win. They were down 15 or 12 with about eight to 10 minutes to go and came back to win. It talks about the strength of our league and how good our league is. It talks about the strength of our league and how good our league is. It lets you know that we have a big task at hand on Saturday, but it’s something we’re really looking forward to.”
On how much they’ll look at Oklahoma from early in the season when Woodard wasn’t playing:
“We’ll take more of their tape from when he played rather than didn’t play. With Woodard, they average 81 and without him they average 57 in conference play. That’s a stark contrast there. Woodard was great last night. You had Buddy (Hield) and (Isaiah) Cousins last year. You don’t forget about (Woodward), because he made a big shot at their place last year, but those guys got a lot of headlines. Now this year it’s Woodard’s team. He had the illness and now he’s back. Man, the character that kid to miss a free throw and then come back and hit the game-winner in overtime, we’ve got to do a great job on him.”
On the play of Monte Morris over past few weeks:
“Really good. You look at his Big 12 stats, those are high-level. Field-goal percentage from the field is 45. Fifty-something from three. He leads our team in rebounding. He has a 9-to-1 assist-to-turnover. He’s averaging 15 to 17 points a game, and has a couple steals a game. It’s phenomenal. His stat line is ridiculous.”
On how Cameron Lard has progressed since arriving on campus:
“I’m just really trying to get him adjusted here academically, socially and basketball-wise. We’ve got him now. He is now structured with the strength and conditioning. He’s really just observing practice right now. We’re at a pace in practice right now, we’re going so fast it’s hard to throw him in and slow down to teach him. He’ll start individual workouts. He’s in class. He’s doing good. It’s good to have him here. We’re just going to use this semester to get him better academically and get him better physically. And then next year he’ll be ready to go.”
On what he has done with team since last game to try to improve on rebounding:
“(Wednesday) we finally had our first full practice in a long time and we did a lot of 2-on-2 and 3-on-3, putting those guys in a position where they have to defend the ball and rebound. At the end of the day, we’ve got to do it. We showed clips where we had great box-outs, where Naz (Long) boxed out Carlton Bragg to the Big 12. We showed some where Josh Jackson got three offensive rebounds on one play and didn’t touch anybody. It’s a mindset that we got to continue to talk about every single day. We may never be perfect from a rebounding standpoint, but we’ve got to be better though.”
On if he’s had to manage Lard’s expectations on what he wants to do early in his tenure at ISU:
“It’s just day to day with that. I’m not one to over-hype guys or under-hype guys. He just needs to get here, get better, slowly get acclimated to what I want and really start getting good relationships with these guys. Our guys have done a good job with him. And then just manage expectations, because at the end of the day he’s still just a freshman who just got here from Louisiana. He’s up in Iowa now. There’s a lot of things that he personally needs to get better with.”
On whether he would consider this a must-win game:
“Not at all. This is a great league. Obviously, ever game is tough. This team, every time we’ve been doubted we have responded the right way. We’re going to Oklahoma to compete the right way, we’ll be better than we were Monday night and we’ll live with the outcome. A third of the way through the conference, I’m not going to get into that. You’re setting yourself up for failure with that.”
On how they can shore up the two-point defense:
“We’ve got to guard the dribble better. Frank Mason is a special player, but you chart his points and he had two open threes in transition and two layups in transition. We can’t give those baskets up. We’ve got to guard the dribble better and then we can’t give second-chance point opportunities. We’ve got to figure out how to defend the post better. And then we’ve got to execute our game plan on how we want to defend the post.”
On becoming better at double-teaming in certain situations:
“That’s why we have to be faster in our doubles. When we do fire and do double, it has to be on the catch where he doesn’t have time to see. If he has time to see, it’s tough for us. They can throw over it. We have to be there early, be there quicker and know when to double.”
On if Merrill Holden is putting himself in better shape to play versus Oklahoma:
“We’ve only practiced one day (as of Thursday), so we’ve got two more days and you’ve got to get a feel for the game once it starts. His biggest thing I just told him is to put himself in position to be ready.”
On the importance of rebounding in turning around team’s fortunes:
“It’s huge. I don’t have it all off the top of my head, but we gave up 19 offensive rebounds to Cincinnati. We got out-rebounded by 17 against Kansas. And then Gonzaga and Baylor, I don’t know off the top of my head. There’s four losses by nine points to four of the top 15 teams in the country. Obviously, two possessions but also two possessions with better shot selection would help too.”
On how close team has been down the stretch of games only to not close them out:
“Discouraging. We need to finish. We need to do a better job collectively. I need to do a better job. But you’ve got to do it on both ends. Everybody just evaluates the one end, because that’s what everyone analyzes. But you’ve got to do it on both ends down the stretch.”
On his thoughts about Oklahoma winning at West Virginia this week:
“How good our league is, when Oklahoma is 2-4 and they look like that. Oklahoma, now that (Jordan) Woodward is back and healthy, they’re a totally different team. He was awesome the other night. That was a great win. They were down 15 or 12 with about eight to 10 minutes to go and came back to win. It talks about the strength of our league and how good our league is. It talks about the strength of our league and how good our league is. It lets you know that we have a big task at hand on Saturday, but it’s something we’re really looking forward to.”
On how much they’ll look at Oklahoma from early in the season when Woodard wasn’t playing:
“We’ll take more of their tape from when he played rather than didn’t play. With Woodard, they average 81 and without him they average 57 in conference play. That’s a stark contrast there. Woodard was great last night. You had Buddy (Hield) and (Isaiah) Cousins last year. You don’t forget about (Woodward), because he made a big shot at their place last year, but those guys got a lot of headlines. Now this year it’s Woodard’s team. He had the illness and now he’s back. Man, the character that kid to miss a free throw and then come back and hit the game-winner in overtime, we’ve got to do a great job on him.”
On the play of Monte Morris over past few weeks:
“Really good. You look at his Big 12 stats, those are high-level. Field-goal percentage from the field is 45. Fifty-something from three. He leads our team in rebounding. He has a 9-to-1 assist-to-turnover. He’s averaging 15 to 17 points a game, and has a couple steals a game. It’s phenomenal. His stat line is ridiculous.”
On how Cameron Lard has progressed since arriving on campus:
“I’m just really trying to get him adjusted here academically, socially and basketball-wise. We’ve got him now. He is now structured with the strength and conditioning. He’s really just observing practice right now. We’re at a pace in practice right now, we’re going so fast it’s hard to throw him in and slow down to teach him. He’ll start individual workouts. He’s in class. He’s doing good. It’s good to have him here. We’re just going to use this semester to get him better academically and get him better physically. And then next year he’ll be ready to go.”
On what he has done with team since last game to try to improve on rebounding:
“(Wednesday) we finally had our first full practice in a long time and we did a lot of 2-on-2 and 3-on-3, putting those guys in a position where they have to defend the ball and rebound. At the end of the day, we’ve got to do it. We showed clips where we had great box-outs, where Naz (Long) boxed out Carlton Bragg to the Big 12. We showed some where Josh Jackson got three offensive rebounds on one play and didn’t touch anybody. It’s a mindset that we got to continue to talk about every single day. We may never be perfect from a rebounding standpoint, but we’ve got to be better though.”
On if he’s had to manage Lard’s expectations on what he wants to do early in his tenure at ISU:
“It’s just day to day with that. I’m not one to over-hype guys or under-hype guys. He just needs to get here, get better, slowly get acclimated to what I want and really start getting good relationships with these guys. Our guys have done a good job with him. And then just manage expectations, because at the end of the day he’s still just a freshman who just got here from Louisiana. He’s up in Iowa now. There’s a lot of things that he personally needs to get better with.”
On whether he would consider this a must-win game:
“Not at all. This is a great league. Obviously, ever game is tough. This team, every time we’ve been doubted we have responded the right way. We’re going to Oklahoma to compete the right way, we’ll be better than we were Monday night and we’ll live with the outcome. A third of the way through the conference, I’m not going to get into that. You’re setting yourself up for failure with that.”
On how they can shore up the two-point defense:
“We’ve got to guard the dribble better. Frank Mason is a special player, but you chart his points and he had two open threes in transition and two layups in transition. We can’t give those baskets up. We’ve got to guard the dribble better and then we can’t give second-chance point opportunities. We’ve got to figure out how to defend the post better. And then we’ve got to execute our game plan on how we want to defend the post.”
On becoming better at double-teaming in certain situations:
“That’s why we have to be faster in our doubles. When we do fire and do double, it has to be on the catch where he doesn’t have time to see. If he has time to see, it’s tough for us. They can throw over it. We have to be there early, be there quicker and know when to double.”
