Opening Statement

Yeah, we're excited to get on the road and obviously starting Commerce Play 3, your first four on the road, is a challenge. But we do think we were gifted a fortuitous balance with the scheduling, having the LA trip during Christmas break. Our players are all in, they're in the classroom, so they don't have online classes. So this would have been a tough road swing if it wasn't during break. And so it's good timing. We feel like we're growing as a team. It gives us a chance to spend even more quality time together and see how far, see how much we can improve and how far we can take this thing.

On whether there will be team-building activities on the road trip

We'll certainly do some team building stuff, but the phrase team building for us every single day in practice, every day in the hotel and on the buses, you know, we really cherish those things and just think that when you have quality people that care about each other, just the getting to know each other better and spend time with different players, different roommates, it's just healthy for long-term relationships. And I see a much stronger connection amongst our guys than we've had up to this point. And hopefully that continues going in the right direction because it's, you know, these guys spend a lot of time together. If they can really enjoy each other's company, then it makes it that much more fun.

On whether he likes multiple games on a road trip from a logistics standpoint

Absolutely. I was in Conference USA for a number of years and I was actually in the Pac-10 back when it was the Pac-10 Conference. So we were used to the Thursday, Saturdays have always been a fairly normal routine. Probably more of my coaching career has been Thursday, Saturday than it hasn't been. And so it's something that, you know, early on we design things to try to be a little bit different than everyone else because the short prep time for the second game. And so, yeah, this will be, I guess, less normal because there's an extra day in between where, you know, I don't know what the layout is, but playing the fourth and the seventh. But yeah, once again, you eliminate a trip across the country, but whatever it is, we're going to say good. It's great for this reason and look at the positives.

On the growth from the team since the start of the season

We as a staff feel like we're much better than we were two weeks ago. It seems like, and obviously we're going to be tested in LA, but it seems like the things that we've stressed as a group are starting to click and our guys are taking it to heart and they're doing a great job of applying it. You know, we give them a lot of freedom and creativity to play and be the best versions of themselves and be who they are and then get them to buy into the overall system with how the sausage needs to look like after it's made. And, you know, our guys are figuring each other out. They're playing off each other better. I do think we're competing and playing with more aggression than we were a month ago. And that can be conditioning, that can be us, you know, focus on the right things in practice. And you never know what it is because you try so many different things. But when you watch our guys play, us guarding the basketball, us attacking rebounds, those things have really improved over the last couple of weeks.

On where the team is currently and the opening of Big Ten play

Now the Big Ten's here. As far as where we are, I don't know. You know, throughout the season there's a range of emotions where you think you're turning a corner and then maybe you get humbled. And, you know, sometimes, you know, you don't want to use the word luck in sports, but I mean, there's an element of things that, you know, last night a couple of Western Kentucky three-pointers went all the way down and popped out early in the game. If those go in, you know, what does that do to the spirit of their team and hanging around and whatever the case. So there's just a lot that goes into winning a game. I think we had 112 possessions last night. Obviously, when you get up to that many possessions, the margin of error shrinks because, you know, we think we're the more talented team on a lot of nights and that gives us a chance to, you know, use that talent for more possessions and more time. But where we are now, we've still got to be able to anticipate what our problems are going to be. You know, we're going to see several different ball screen coverages for the Wolf-Golden combo and then how to use that to get other guys open threes. And so there's a lot of things that if we can anticipate what these issues are going to be in advance and can work on them before they happen in the game, then, you know, we'll be ahead of the curve. But even USC, they have such a long prep time. They come out with junk defenses. They could come out more solid than they've ever been. We have no idea. So in a conference battle, you have to be able to adjust on the fly. And I think our guys are doing a really nice job of that here lately.

On playing different defenses helps the team

Well, we've seen them. And I thought the Oakland game, and we've talked about this as a staff for last couple of years. It's really nice when you play a zone team early in the year, because then you'll spend part of your off-season in your practice time. You're forced to put in your zone package and look at different things and experiment and tinker and move guys around. So that's what the Oakland exhibition did. It forced us to play against scout team zone for a number of days. It forced us to look at sets, at concepts, decide do we want to be a team that tries to get more organized, less organized against zone and against junk defenses. And even when I say junk defenses, anything other than traditional man-to-man. If you have guys who are good passers, they're willing passers and have size, usually you can figure out ways to generate good looks. And after that, then it's knocking down shots and reading closeouts and not getting bogged down and stagnant because of changing defenses. So we like where we are. Last night, we saw several different looks. Western Kentucky, I thought they were active. I thought they were pretty creative with ways to stop us. But when you're making shots, then it changes the complexion of the game. Then those closeouts look a lot different and the spacing, the floors, it changes. So yeah, we're grateful that we've seen a lot of different types of defenses.

On prioritizing a Big Ten regular season championship

No, without a doubt, a Big Ten regular season championship is extremely important. You know, this is going back to the Coach Knight and me, that's what he stressed the most. You go through a three-month season and when you look at the mental fortitude and the physical health that goes into being good that long, it's extremely demanding. It's tough. Obviously, it's nice to win three games in three days or four in four to win a conference tournament. But if you can go through the grind of a regular season championship, I think when you're on the road recruiting or you see other coaches, you give them a tip of the cap if they're able to go through a conference season, because it's a big, big difference to finish first and second or third or fourth in a league. It's daunting to win a conference regular season championship, especially now with the number of games, with the amount of travel, with the logistics that comes with television and whatnot. So yeah, to make a long statement short, it's extremely important that we're competing for a Big Ten regular season championship.

On his thoughts on USC

You know, I haven't dove into them. I've watched them a few times on television. I'll dive into more of their personnel and what later today. You know, they're like all of us. They have a new group. They played really well at times. They've struggled at times. They've seemed to have found the rhythm as of late with their lineup combinations, getting a few guys back from injuries and whatnot. But obviously going on the in L.A., you know, it's what feels like it's a restart. But this feels like the start of conference play. I don't want to discredit the two games we already played. But now just with the conclusion of pre-conference, it just feels like now we're in Big Ten play. And so every possession is going to be extremely important. And but yeah, as far as the details of USC, we're I'm not there yet.

On Justin Pippen and LJ Cason

Well, Rubin going out and practice just it gave those guys more opportunity. And I think the combination of, you know, those 20 minutes, whatever, I don't know what Rubin plays exactly 20 call it 20 minutes, 20 minutes a game opened up and then they came back from Christmas break with an excitement and like a renewed energy, which means when they went home, they they had the right conversations or the people around them had the right conversations because they came to work. Their attitudes were great. They weren't sulking. They weren't worried about themselves. And they just had a really good perspective of coming back and with the mindset of whatever we need to do to help the team win. And we're going to go at the starting group every single day and hold them accountable to their effort and in practice, but also getting in and spending extra time. But Pip, I mean, he looked confident. He looked aggressive. L.J.'s same thing. I was most pleased with L.J.'s defense and rebounding. I mean, I don't know what his line was scoring wise. Everyone, we were pretty balanced last night, but I just thought he made several really, really tough, physical, aggressive, visible plays.

On Rubin Jones' status

Yeah, we expect him to suit up and be a full go. I don't know — it's a minor injury. So, you know, there's not much more than that. It's not the exact same injury as before.

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