Dec. 12, 2012

Recap |  Final Stats

Head Coach Herb Sendek

On the game overall...
"I had a lot of energy tonight. I don't think we were able to string together any stops whatsoever. They got into the paint at will, as is reflected by their very high shooting percentage. They beat us off the dribble, they beat us curling screens, and I thought they had their way with us when they had the ball."

On offensive rhythm being disjointed...
"I would say that's accurate. We didn't have an abundance of turnovers. We had a workable number. We had 13, and we'd like it to be 10 or fewer. In DePaul's losses, their opponents average 12 turnovers, and in wins 20 turnovers. So 13 was a manageable number. But offensively at the end of the press, I don't know if we attacked when we could have and then we got caught in no-man's land and settled. What we want to do is attack where we can and get an easy basket, and if not run our offense and hopefully get a good shot later in the possession. We got caught somewhere in the middle there in our possessions. I don't think the ball went inside nearly enough."

On getting the ball inside the paint...
"With Jordan [Bachynski] in particular, we emphasized that and I thought we didn't have enough movement. I thought the ball stuck and on top of all that when we did have good shots, we didn't shoot the ball well. We went 3-for-15 from three, and we had some wide-open shots that we didn't convert, and at any number of junctures including the start of the game we don't give ourselves any relief with our free throw shooting. We have seven points, but we should have 10 because we go one-for-two on three consecutive fouls. If you're 8-for-20 in the line, you have to be dominant in some other category. Our deflections were low, we get outrebounded, and they beat us in the 50-50 plays. That doesn't leave much else."

On DePaul's athleticism...
"They're an athletic team, make no mistake about it, but our leading rebounder is Jon [Gilling] and he's not exactly the most athletic guy, so it's not just about being athletic. We were much better in the second half, and obviously we pressed the last twelve or so minutes, but I know we shouldn't have ten at halftime."

On Jahii Carson drawing extra defensive effort...
"You have to figure that teams are going to load to him, and he's going to draw an extra defender at times, which is good because that's what great players do - they force a second defender. The ball moves and someone theoretically should be more open to drive a shot or get a close-out on a rotation."