On his impressions of Auburn’s Sharife Cooper and what he does for Auburn …
“He’s played two games and they’re scoring like 25 points per game more. They’re scoring 15 in transition with him at point, and the reason is, like some of the great guards I’ve had, that ball hits his hands and it may be out of his hands in a half second up the court. What would that do to people on your team? That means they’re flying because if they get a two-step lead, he will throw it. So, the biggest thing has been that. The second thing is he really sees things before they happen. He knows about what’s going to happen whether it’s a pass to a lob, whether it’s a skip. He’s a terrific player. And we recruited him, so I know how good he is. He’s a special (player). He’s got a special talent.”
On Auburn’s Justin Powell and his impressions of him before he got hurt …
“He is a terrific scorer. And he scores—I know how he’s shooting the ball. He’s probably their highest percentage 3-point shooter. But, they had him at point and he was fine. He was scoring all kinds of different ways for them. I think with Sharife there, he’ll be pushed back a little bit, but I think he’ll get minutes because he can shoot. But, you know, he’s another one. He’s a good player. Their young guys can shoot it, they’re athletic. They’re good.”
On Auburn’s rim protection and if that makes perimeter shooting more important …
“They come at it, and again, their rim protection is more than one guy. It’s like three or four. They’ll go block shots. It’s how they play. But it’s not like you can’t go at them. The spacing of the court and other things matter in this game. Being strong at the rim matters in this game. But they’re, you know, I think they block shots, and I hate to tell you, I think we usually block shots too. Both of us.”
On if Cooper reminds him of Tyler Ulis …
“I thought of that too. Like, he plays a lot like he played. Tyler had a little different kind of game to him, but they have similarities.”
On Brandon Boston Jr. and Cooper being close friends and if that concerns him that Boston might try to keep up with his friend and play outside himself trying to match Cooper …
“We talked about it, so I’ve already addressed it with BJ. I said, ‘You know, you are getting better. Stay the course. You are getting better. Stay the course.’ For all my guys, I keep saying, if you’re not playing well offensively, do what Anthony Davis did. Do what Michael Kidd(-Gilchrist) did. They didn’t worry about it. They got it in other ways. They rebounded, they blocked shots, they would get it in transition. They weren’t worried about that. And then they would come back the next week, ‘Let me work on this so I can feel more comfortable.’ But BJ, he’s working, he’s trying. This has really been hard because some of his habits are not habits that will work at this level or the next level. They just won’t. And he knows it. He knows he’s not playing as well as he needs to.”