|
| Tim Buckley |
| On the team fitting into the
competition level of the MAC: |
| "I think (we) fit in there very
well. We really like where we're headed. We like the direction of the
program. We think we stumbled because we didn't handle our Western the way
we needed to handle it afterwards. That's an area that we're going to make
an improvement in. I think it's one of those other steps you have to take
with a team that's got some young guys that you really count on. You have to
be able to handle success. One hundred people can handle failure, but one of
those one hundred can handle success, so I think that is always something
that you're trying to work on. We've got some guys in our program who
haven't been through that yet and they're key guys. We're going to keep
getting better in those areas." |
| |
| On the next four games providing an
opportunity: |
| "We'd like to (take advantage). It's
a unique situation for us too, with as many games as we're going to have to
play in that short amount of time. With having 13 days with one game and now
having everything bunched up we're going to have to do a good job of
preparing and not overdoing it, and making sure that we're ready to play
those games that quickly." |
| |
| On Terrance Chapman's availability: |
| "We're hopeful that he'll play
(Saturday), but it's day to day. We have to see how he responds (the rest of
the week). We're hoping that he can (play). He's making progress. There's no
question about that. You don't want to put him in a position or a situation
where he could injure it to a point where he couldn't play (the rest of his
senior year). We want to be cautious for the long-term effects and the rest
of his career." |
| |
| On the possibility of Chapman not
playing Saturday: |
| "Creativity. Stand them on top of
each other. We've tried just about everything the past three years. That's
probably one thing we haven't tried. I think...you try to be a little more
creative offensively and you look for potential match ups that you can try
to maybe take advantage of to force other people maybe to play a little bit
smaller. I think there are times where you have to look at playing some
zone. You know, you've just got to do different things, because obviously
nobody cares if you have somebody injured or not. You've got to go out and
play. The guys still want to have success, so that's what we're going to try
do." |
| |
| On the four guard lineup working well
against WMU and BG, but not Akron: |
| "I don't think it was a very good
match up for us. I think that's an inside dominated team, particularly with
Peterson, Travis, and Futch. There's a lot of weight and a lot of size. We
thought we could use that lineup against Bowling Green and Western Michigan,
and we did, and we felt like we did it effectively. But in a game like that,
I think match up wise, it wasn't conducive. I give Akron a lot of credit for
the way they played, because they're a good basketball team. I don't think
they dumped their way into nine victories at home, so they're a good team,
but our mindset wasn't right. That's the bottom line. If I had to try it
again, I'd like to try it with a better mindset.." |
| |
| On Northern Illinois: |
| "Northern is more of a team whose
power forwards are three-point shooters. They're not necessarily post-up
guys. They have one or two real true post-up players in Hughes and Byrd, and
then they might post McKinney some. " |
| |
| On the guards struggling with
turnovers lately: |
| "You know, the best turnovers are
the ones you throw to the band, because then you go and get your defense
reset. The ones you throw to directly to them that are like outlet passes,
you know, those are the ones you have trouble recovering from. I think
we had more of those than we threw into the band. We've got to do a much
better job in that area, and we know it. The guys who are key for us are the
guys who turned it over, and they'll do a better job of taking care of it. I
would say (Peyton is trying to do too much). I don't think they're careless.
I don't think they're a lack of understanding or caring. I think they're
more of trying to carry the team and do more. I think Dennis probably fell a
little bit of a victim to that, and in the back of their minds, knowing they
weren't going to play without Terrance, I think they tried to do some things
that they normally wouldn't do. With Peyton, I think it's more a thing of
balance. He's just got to continue to work on his balance and not overextend
himself. Sometimes his upper body gets ahead of his lower body, or sometimes
his lower body gets ahead of his upper body. He really just needs to stay in
better balance." |
| |
| On when the team knew that Terrance
wasn't going to be available for the Akron game and if it affected the team: |
| "I want to say right before the
game. The one things is we don't ever want to make excuses. I couldn't tell
you. I'm sure it doesn't help, but I don't want to say that it hurts. You
have who you have and you go play. I'm proud of the fact that, for the most
part, we've always done that. I don't have any problem with our basketball
team. The one thing that I really enjoy about our team is today, we know we
didn't play well, they know I'm not happy about it, they're not happy about,
but we're going to be able to talk about it. You don't have any kicking and
screaming and throwing anything, because they get it. They understand, and
they can tell me what's wrong. I think understanding is a big key in
anything that you're trying to fix or correct or make better. That's the
neat thing about it. That's the enjoyable thing about having the guys we
have as leaders, but also having the young guys who are prominent guys in
our program and can help us get to a point where we consistently get to
where we want to get. That's exciting for me and I hope it's exciting
for people to follow our basketball team." |
