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February 23,
2005 |
| Pre-Toledo Game Comments |
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| by
Rob
Mathews |
| GoBSU.com |
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Buckley |
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| Photo courtesy
Ball State Athletics |
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Tim Buckley |
| On his thoughts over the weekend: |
| "Just how to get our team better.
How to get over the hump. We've been in a lot of close games - had
opportunities at key moments, and I guess I'm thankful for the fact that
we've put ourselves in position to have an opportunity to win some of those
games. It hasn't worked out that way and we've just got to keep plugging
along and getting better. " |
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| On rethinking his approach: |
| "I think what you do is you're
always trying to evaluate things. You tweak things here and there. I think
the body of what we've put in here five years ago in terms of our philosophy
and the way we do things is still pretty sound, and how we want to do it.
You also want to adjust things according to the people that you're working
with and maybe what their strengths are and maybe what the things are that
you want to try to avoid in terms of personality and what they're capable of
doing on the floor - different things like that. For the most part it's the
same as what we did when we came in here." |
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| On the team possibly being at a
crossroads: |
| "It all depends, I think, on how you
look at things personally. I think it's different for each person. Coming
through college and the way I was taught, I really look at the process.
Obviously the end result is very important, but at the same time, I think
the process is important. I guess as I'm looking at the process I look at it
and say, 'we've been in position to win some games, we've had some injuries,
not only in the last game, but in the past three years, that we've tried to
overcome and in some situations have and in other situations haven't, but I
really feel good about what we do.' I guess what I try to do is I try to
look at where we're at and what we've done with it. I know that when our
basketball team was healthy and we had everybody, we had one of the top five
teams in the history of the MAC - voted by the MAC, ok? So I feel good about
that. And then we've had some injuries. I look at how other teams have done
when they're had injuries or when they're lost people early to the draft. I
would put our record up, and how we've done things since that time, against
some of those situations. I look at Miami of Ohio, who is probably arguably
the best team in the MAC right now. After Wally left, 15 and 15, 13 and 18,
13 and 18, and then last year I think they were 18 and 11. So I think it's a
process and it's one we're working through and getting better at, and I
admire the resiliency of the kids on this team. I think it would have been
very easy to go out in the game against Drexel, finding out right before the
tip that Dennis wasn't going to play, and then not go play. I think they
did. And again, I'm going to be critical in terms of how we play. I think
we've got to put it all together and we've got to do it for more extended
periods of time, but at the same time, they're battling out there and
they're trying to get it done. It's not like they're not trying." |
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| On the recent skid: |
| "With the exception of the Marshall
game, I think we've played pretty good basketball. As I've said many times,
that shot didn't count, and it counted, so what are you going to do? It is
what it is. That's what happened. You can't beat yourself up over that game.
Buffalo is playing as well as anybody in the league - we're down one with
two minutes to go at Buffalo. OK, we've got to figure out a way to finish
those out. And again, that's on me. I've got to figure those things out. We
go to Bowling Green, if we make two free throws with 13 seconds left, maybe
it's a different outcome, right? Bowling Green is number one in the west
right now, so that's a one point game. And then we play on Saturday without
Dennis. I don't know. I think you'd always like to feel like you're
improving and getting better, and you're always going to try to tweak things
and improve on them, and at the same time, I don't think you can beat
yourself up over that kind of stuff." |
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| On the players only meeting before the
BG game and the one hour team meeting after the Drexel game: |
| "I would not classify any of that as
drastic. Have you ever had a family meeting? Was it drastic? I'll be honest
with you. I think the players meeting before the Bowling Green game was one
of, 'let's get together and let's finish it up down the stretch.' As far as
after the Drexel game, I'm just long-winded. I think what people would like
to believe is that it's some kind of a tongue lashing, negative, bury the
players type atmosphere, and that's not what happened. When we got back from
Maui we had those kinds of meetings, because we felt like we could handle
failure better than we could handle success. And I think there is some truth
to that. I would say that our approach from the first day this year has been
the same as it is now. If I went back through my calendar I could probably
point out to you that Tim talked to the team for an hour. Maybe it wasn't
right after the game, but I could probably point to that moment. I could
point to a moment when the players were in the locker room for maybe 25 or
30 minutes at some point, maybe even in the preseason before we played
games, and they just talked about things and aired things out. I think that
stuff is healthy to be quite honest with you. I think it's better to do that
than it is to bottle it up. But at the same time, when you say 'drastic,' I
look at it and say people feel like there must have been a lot of venting.
You know, like just getting a lot of stuff off your chest, as opposed to
talking about what needs to be done and how it needs to be done and what's
happened and why it's happened and let's continue to improve." |
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| On Peyton Stovall's recent struggles: |
| "Probably (I would like to see) just
that same aggressiveness that he has. You know, just to see him get back to
that. I think because of the fact that he's a really good player, we all
forget he's a sophomore. And we have great expectations for him, which I
don't think our expectations of him would exceed anything he has of himself.
I think sometimes, you know, if you put a little too much pressure on
yourself it can work in reverse. What I would say to Peyton, if I were to
say anything to him, is, 'why don't you just go let it rip? Just go let it
rip and play.' I think just being more aggressive on both ends of the ball."
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| On Howland and Kent getting more to
where they need to be: |
| "Yes, I do. I think Anthony was
limited by foul trouble (against Drexel), yet he had five rebounds and four
assists. I felt like he tried to contribute in the ways that he could. Tom
did a good job of scoring the ball, but needs to continue to become more of
a help defender and shut-down defender in the post. We've got to get that
from Tom right now to help us be better." |
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| On the key to Anthony Kent also being
a matter of aggressiveness: |
| "There's no question. Aggressiveness
and enthusiasm." |
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| On Kent needing to be bigger: |
| "I think you'd say, 'how much does
he need to?' and then you'd have to say in the next breath, ' how much can
he?' What is his body able to take? Again, this is a fact, and there never
will be any excuses made here, he was to play with Charles Bass, not in
place of Charles Bass. Just like Kevin Cates and Tom Howland were to play
with Theron Smith and not in place of Theron Smith. And so instead of
Anthony being matched up with power forwards, he's matched up with centers.
It is what it is. Let's look at his growth. Earlier in the year when a guy
had a hold of one of his arms, was he going to come up with the rebound? No.
And he did (against Drexel). He came up with five rebounds, I think in the
first half. And then he checked in and he had fouls as soon as he checked
in. I don't know if he fouled the official scorer or what. I think you're
seeing a little bit of growth with at, and I want to see it with Tom also."
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| On Dennis Trammell's situation: |
| "To be honest with you, I think it's
just day to day and seeing what he can do. I meet with the team at about the
eight and a half, nine minute mark before the game, and it was right at that
time that we knew he wasn't going to be able to play. He had gone through
the run-through that day and then was going through warm-ups and had to
gauge it based on the warm-ups. I think he probably would have helped us
(against Drexel), I don't know. It's a wild guess, but... We weren't saving
him for anything, and he wouldn't let us do that. " |
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