Opening Statement
Well, it was a lot of fun to get out here and compete with these guys and see some carryover from practice. And like Roddy said, for a great cause like Forgotten Harvest. And it's a big deal to play an exhibition game in Little Caesar's Arena and have the people that were here watching and we heard the Michigan fans supporting our guys. So overall, it's a great starting point. You never know as you get into the season where you are because you're playing against yourself every day. So, encouraged by our performance and what we can be.
On areas he was impressed with than originally thought
Personally, as a coach, I'm obsessed with guards rebounding down and for Trey Donaldson to get eight and LJ Cason to get five. Typically, they're the ones that don't have to block out as much, the bigs. So, they have an advantage. And so, it's a matter of going in and helping your teammates and going and getting them. And it also just gives us such a head start on our transition offense. But to hold Oakland 2 for 30 from three, that switching is new to almost our entire roster. I don't know if anyone on our team switched one through four last season or one through five at times like we did tonight. And we won't at times. So, we had some lapses. But for us to hold them 2 for 30 is a testament to our communication, our activity, and just our overall awareness.
On whether they're still experimenting with rotations
No, we're still experimenting and we'll take this game. With our analytic company, we haven't had a chance to really play the 5-on-5 in practice without non-scholarship players, without having two or three guys out. So, we don't really have a lot of data on our lineup combinations yet. So, in probably two or three weeks, we'll have a better indication of these two guys really seem to play well together. This group, this small lineup, has been very efficient. Maybe we go to that in spurts for struggle offensive. So, we don't have that information yet. We have just what meets the eye. But with foul trouble and fatigue with our pace, it's not as easy as it is for some other teams.
On whether things looked cohesive on the floor
21 assists on 34 made field goals. And several of those made field goals were out in transition where you get a steal on the layup, there's not going to be an assist. So, very pleased with the way we shared the ball. In our locker room, in our coach's office, we just think that if you watch a team play and they look like they really enjoy passing the ball and they're skilled enough, there's a baseline of talent, which obviously we have a pretty high baseline of talent, then your chemistry is going to be better. You're going to have the mutual respect for everyone playing. You look at our balance. You look at the minutes. As long as we don't change our mindset and we stay with the same sharing approach, then we should be a good offensive team this year. On the right.
On shooting well in the game and whether that will lay the foundation moving forward
We've shot it incredibly well in practice. We've shot it very well in practice. And we have guys that shot it well at their last schools. You never know how freshmen are going to shoot it in games. I was impressed with LJ Cason's aggressiveness. So, no, the shooting wasn't a surprise. For us to turn it over 14 times tonight is probably too many. We got it loose and careless a few possessions, but I thought even most of those would have led to dunks or layups. But the turnovers is something we've stressed because we do feel like we have a really good shooting team and a really good offensive rebounding team. And the turnovers obviously negate both of them.
On the lack of success as the free throw line
The three or four times we've scrimmaged and we've kept a lot, we've actually shot the free throws because with the way we practice, most of the time it's even one for two or we just give them two so we can continue to work on our conditioning and our pace. And I think yesterday we were nine for ten. The scrimmage before that, I'm sorry, two days ago, the scrimmage before that we were eight for nine. So, no, hopefully this is an aberration. We're not going to talk about it a lot. We'll probably start getting more free throws in the flow of practice when they're winded. But the purpose of being the best team in April, when we felt like getting our style of play and things like that are much more important than shooting fatigued free throws at this point in the season.
On whether LJ Cason did anything that surprised him
No. You hope what you see in practice transfers to the game, and it did. I thought he guarded the ball. His ability to get loose basketballs, he has a knack. A lot like Johnell Davis we had at FAU, we'd laugh on the bench, there would be a loose ball, and I'd tap one to assist and say, I wonder who's going to get this one. LJ has that ability, and as you guys watch us play, I'll be surprised if there aren't loose balls in his area, and he gets what's called a 50-50 ball. I would say he'll get 70, 80, 90 percent of them over his career just because there's something in his hands, his instincts. Whenever it is, he just gets loose basketball. I thought he got three or four tonight, which turned into extra possessions for us. So that was welcome. And then just his confidence. I thought he looked very confident for a freshman in an NBA arena in his first, I guess, static game, first live environment.
On how to gameplan for the zone
Well, the zone is just something different than we see every day. Just like the switching is probably different from what they see every day. So the live reps are invaluable because you know where to look, you know how to pass fake, you know if you stare down a pass, they're going to read your eyes and jump on it. So those are just things that we practice it, you talk about it, you show it on film, but until you see it and you get some reps and you learn from your mistakes and you throw one away and they say, oh, yeah, that's what we've been talking about, those are all healthy things at this time of year. Like I said, every year if you're in a position to win a championship, you're going to be referring back to teams you played in November, December, January, whatever the case, because you're learning some lessons. Hey, guys, remember when we played Oakland and we had to find the holes in the zone in this area? Those same holes are going to be there in the second half tonight. Let's make sure and a reminder when we cut and dive on that same play. So it's great just to refer back to as a coach, show on film, and it's familiar because they've done it.
On the intensity helping from the guards helping the team
In their sets to get shooters, if you can guard the middle alley, the middle third one-on-one, it puts you in a position where you can be a little more aggressive to take away the three. I thought their guards went at us two or three times, and we did a really nice job of beating them to the spot and forcing tough mid-range twos. So I'm very, very pleased with that. I do think when we're not in foul trouble, then we can be a little more aggressive when they come in with their backup point guards. But tonight, because we seem to be in the bonus earlier than usual, we weren't able to get into the basketball with their second and third-string point guards, which we'd like to do going forward.
On Vlad Goldin and Danny Wolf playing together
I liked how they looked together, to be honest. I thought they looked great together. They played very, very well. Obviously, there's going to be nights where there's going to be some match-up issues or certain things like that, but I can't imagine that anyone didn't watch those. I mean, there's probably 20 minutes combined or 18 minutes combined that they played, and they didn't have good chemistry together. And they're still figuring each other out. Danny did a couple things that were the way they played at Yale, which kind of disrupted our timing, but you need these game reps to learn from them. But I thought they looked great together. Danny's ability to play over the top of the defense, I think, is beneficial. You always wonder how he's going to move on to the perimeter. He guarded fours. I thought he guarded the bounce well. I thought he covered the three-point shooters, and then obviously 13 rebounds is impressive in 26 minutes. Overall, it's a good starting point for those guys. I don't think it was clunky at all with them in the game together.
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