On Admiral Schofield’s emotions towards the end of the game:
“We’ve been through it enough with our guys to know the last couple minutes of the game, when you fight back and things swing your way a little bit, that the game is never over. I think they realize that. You just know that so many things can happen in a college basketball game. It can turn quickly where guys stop concentrating and start celebrating, thinking it’s over. It’s just never over. He’s been through enough of them to see it. He can get emotional himself at times, and I did think that he was the latter part of the game. I think our team did. The way we closed the first half and the latter part of the game, we showed some grit and we showed some toughness. We were in some foul trouble as was Gonzaga at the end of the first half. I think both teams were just trying to get through there without any more damage done with fouling. Jordan Bowden was big, but Admiral (Schofield), you could tell he was locked in there at the end. There was no question he was.”
On a tough early-season schedule:
“We still go back and talk about some of the games we’ve been in over the last two years. We refer back to what we learned in the Villanova game a year ago. We did talk about the Kansas game, knowing the mistakes that we made. We talked about being overly emotional and not really being as disciplined as we needed to be offensively against Kansas. We had a lot of possessions that we got just too emotional. We took tough shots. I think what these guys have learned more and more through these games is that you truly have to play for 40 minutes. You have to understand how important every possession is. You don’t have to be perfect, we told them that before both of those games, but we have to be able to try.
“You have to know that you’re going against a team yesterday in Gonzaga, that is one of the best transition teams that we’ve coached against in a long time. They really make you pay if you don’t get back and talk. They hurt us there because they’re really good. They know what they’re doing. They get where they need to go and they’re extremely well coached. If you think about Kansas, it’s the same thing. They hurt you. If you take bad shots or turn the ball over, they’re going to make you pay. That’s one of the biggest things that we would take away from both of those games.”
On Grant Williams’ foul trouble and if he was aware of how many fouls he had:
“He did. He and I were talking about it while walking over here and he said, ‘What do you think?’ And I said, ‘Early in the game you have to let that go, but at that stage in the game, you have to make that play.’ He’s got to be willing to sacrifice himself and do that. It’s a one or two possession game at that point in time. I don’t know if he can hold himself back anyways because he’s so competitive and he works so hard, trying to challenge things at the rim. What I did tell him about the fouls he can’t commit was when he tried to pick up a charge 15 feet away from the basket. Admiral (Schofield) picked up a cheap one early out on the perimeter, 30 feet from the basket. Those are the fouls those guys have to stay away from. Grant’s last two fouls, there was a lot of wrist-touching in the lane all night long with both teams. Both teams were contesting shots. That happens. He’s probably more upset about his fourth foul. That one, I told him at the point in the game that he has to make that play.”
On Jordan Bowden’s play on Sunday:
“There are a lot of ways that you can describe toughness. Toughness is when you are not shooting the ball well, you have to keep taking your shots. You are not going to make the next one if you do not shoot it. You think of what he has gone through these last couple of weeks. First time since he has been here that he was not in the starting lineup. You saw him respond really well. I watched him since and he has really responded well. I will go back and tell you I do not care who starts, we are going to do what we have to do to get everyone playing at the highest level they can play. Then you go back and think about him, he was very good in practice. He was really, really good this week in practice, then on Friday he tweaked his ankle. We were having a great practice and it was just one of those freak things. He went out and it just became a hush at Pratt Pavilion court because he was playing great. He did not practice anymore up until the weekend. Chad (Newman) and Garrett (Medenwald) did a great job. From the time he turned his ankle in practice, they never stopped working on him. He told me he would be ready. I thought he was really the biggest key in the game because when we were really struggling to shoot, score the ball and we missed some shots, he got aggressive. He was the guy that got it going. A big play of the game when (Zach) Norvell got going, we knew they were trying to get him going. They did, and we told (Jordan) Bowden to get on him and just take him out. He had no responsibility other than trying to down him and he did a terrific job. He does a lot of that, and I think he got back in the last week and a half playing the way that we need him to play.”
On if he is ready to play in a hostile environment:
“Well it wasn’t a neutral site yesterday. When the president of Grand Canyon emails his students and tells them to come to the game and pull for Gonzaga, by the way that is one of the great student bodies of all time. If you would have heard the introduction before the game, you would not think that it was a neutral site game. I really do appreciate our fans, because there was some orange in that building the other day. Our last two trips we have had over 40 or 50 people travel with us and make the trips. I really appreciate that, because it shows how our program is continuing to grow. Yesterday’s atmosphere was an unbelievable feel in the building. This week we travel to Memphis, and Memphis is one of the great basketball cities. I have always appreciated what Memphis basketball is about. Penny Hardaway has done a great job creating the excitement. I think he, along with all coaches, when you are in December you are still worrying about getting your team better. I do think our guys embrace being in an environment where there are a lot of people there. Yesterday was truly a great basketball environment.”
On Grant Williams’ ability to pass the ball:
“Well Grant (Williams) can pass the ball, sometimes he is a little over-aggressive with it. He likes to pass the ball, he really does. We had to adjust a little bit last night because they were such a well-coached team. They were sitting on that inside-out pass to the backside and they almost got it a few times. Grant was making the right plays, only one time I thought he took a quick, tough shot. He felt like he was not shooting the ball that well and he was really trying to get other guys involved. That is a sign of maturity, but he does like to pass it.”
On if the players celebrated at Waffle House after the game:
“I do not know if they celebrated with Waffle House, but they told me when they got back to their dorms there were a lot of students waiting on them which is really neat. I like to think our guys understand that we are just a small part of this university and people appreciate the fact that people care about what we are doing. I know we all care about what they are doing. Our guys are in exams right now, but I know they appreciate the support.”
On an update on Lamonte Turner and what beating the No. 1-ranked team in the country does for the program:
“First of all with Lamonte (Turner), it’s up to him. He’s still rehabilitating. When he thinks he can play, I guess he’ll play. It’s December. We’re all trying to build resumes. We know that and is it important? I think all of these games are important, I do. The fact is you go back as far as I can remember now, they’ve been there and the fact that they were the No. 1-ranked team in the country, I will tell you, they are really good. There is no doubt that they’re a national championship contender. There’s no doubt. They’re down a man, a really good player. They get him back and Mark (Few) does such a great job, they are really an explosive offensive team and they were averaging 96-98 points coming in. The official came over to me and said this feels like March. I said well let’s referee like March. It did. It had that feel. It did and I think we all felt that. I thought the officials did a good job. It was a hard-fought game inside of 10-12 feet. It was really hard fought. We knew that coming in that it was going to be. They knew it. Again, it is what it is. They were ranked No. 1 and you saw it could have gone either way, but our guys did finish well in the first half. The latter part of the game when we were down, we did have some good defensive plays. Their zone was okay with us and we showed some grit.
“Again, we’ve got to get better. I’m telling you, we have to get better and our guys know that. Grant (Williams), we were just talking. He gave me a list of things that he knows he’s got to get better with. When you have a team that thinks like that, Jalen Johnson can help us. He can really be a contributor to us. Yves (Pons) has done a lot of good things but he made some mistakes last night in transition that he’s going to have to communicate better and understand that some of those transition plays are hard, but he’s got to get better there. But Derrick (Walker) and Fulky (John Fulkerson), those guys are key guys. We’ve still got to get better and I’m happy for our guys. I didn’t think they were overly excited. They were excited, they should be. They won a game against an outstanding team, but we’ve got such a long way to go.”
On Lamonte Turner being a leader for the team off the court:
“I thought he was great yesterday. Twice the officials got fouls wrong, they corrected them, but he was the first guy that jumped up and talked about it. He was great with his teammates, trying to encourage them. He’s locked in with his team, he is. He wants to get healthy, there’s no doubt and he’s the guy that’s got to decide when he thinks he can move and play the way (he needs to). It’s physical. It’s not so much just shooting the ball or any of that. When you’re a point guard, you’re getting hit all the time, screens here or there because he’s on the ball quite a bit. The ball screens come up and get you, so he’s just got to feel good about it. I do know yesterday he was really truly locked in with his teammates.”
On Jordan Bone’s performance:
“I want to read you Tom’s (Satkowiak) notes that he does a good job here with. He does this, I don’t do this. He said Jordan Bone scored five points versus Gonzaga and his nine assists directly led to 25 points. Jordan Bone had three assists in the final four minutes that led to eight points. Through his points and assists, Bone has accounted for 32% of our points this season. How was that Tom? So, that’s Tom stats.
“We felt going in that he had a really tough defensive assignment. We told him that their point guard was the head of the snake and he was going to have to try to control as much as he could. I thought both of those guys went at each other pretty good. They did and (Josh) Perkins didn’t have a particularly great shooting game either and they were really daring Jordan to shoot. They were going way under. We actually told him, if you don’t shoot the ball they’re going under. It’s going to really get us stymied on offense. You shoot it, we’ll go get it. We had seven turnovers but two of those turnovers came off of aggressive offensive rebounds. Yves (Pons) went up and got one there and came down and couldn’t get his feet under him. Then at the end of the game, three guys tripped over each other when we had the ball which was one of those plays. Overall, I think he’s getting better and he’s got to continue to improve.”
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