Opening statement…
“We’ve got a big week. Two great teams. Two teams that are going to be as good as anybody in the country. Missouri has got the second-best resumé behind Gonzaga right now. What makes them great? They’re well-coached, they’re old, by far the oldest team in the SEC, the most experienced. We played against all of these guys last year. They’re the most experienced team in the SEC, seventh in the NCAA. Their guards are terrific. Xavier Pinson is a handful, hard to stay in front of, does a great job finishing their possessions. Dru Smith, great pickup, a transfer from Evansville a year ago, sat out a year, played last year. Those two guys just destroyed us a year ago by being able to get to the basket. They kind of had their way with us a little bit. They do the things you need to do to win championships: defense and rebounding. Defensively, they’re No. 1 in field goal percentage defense, No. 1 in 3-point field goal percentage defense, No. 4 in scoring. They’ve got all the math there. They do a good job rebounding the ball. They make free throws, which is important. They don’t beat themselves. Really, really good team. Once again, we’ll have to play our best game of the year to beat them.”
On Allen Flanigan’s improved 3-point shot…
“Allen is one of the most improved players in our league because he’s worked as hard as anybody in our league. Hard work doesn’t guarantee success, but without hard work, I guarantee you won’t have success. It’s your choice. Allen Flanigan has chosen to work as hard as anybody. Not surprising coming from a family of coaches and tough guys. He is taking advantage of the opportunity. I continue to want more from him and have him continue to be more productive and be the best defensive guard in the league. He’s going to get an unbelievable opportunity against (Dru) Smith and (Xavier) Pinson. We ask a lot from him. I’m really, really happy for Allen. When he plays well, we play well.”
On if he saw this much improvement coming from Allen Flanigan…
“I hoped that this would be the kind of sophomore year he would have. He worked through the COVID in the gym by himself and in the weight room by himself. Where it was safe, he would put himself in positions to continue to train. It just never stopped. He knew that he was going to come in last year and be supportive and play behind some people. And he did. But he knew the opportunity was going to be presented to himself. I didn’t recruit over his head. I didn’t transfer it up. We just tried to build a solid foundation around people like Allen. I’m so pleased that he took advantage of the opportunity. Being around the game and growing up in the gym, there are some definite advantages to that. But, as a young person, you have to take advantage of them. His dad is a great individual workout guy. Wes does a great job with our guys, one-on-one in our workouts, and Allen has benefitted from that.”
On playing non-conference games in the middle of league play…
“I like it. I think it’s great to take a break from your conference opponents. I’m not thrilled about going down and playing at Baylor, the No. 2 team in the country. Baylor was picked to win their league and we were picked in the middle to lower half of our league. Look, it’s great to get them. It would have been great to get them anywhere the last four years when we thought we were going to be pretty good. We’re still very, very young and inexperienced, but what a great opportunity for us. I think it’s great. Good for the league. Good for them, good for our league, good for the Big 12, and I just hope we’re up to the challenge.”
On the improved free throw shooting…
“I think we’ve shot it better in conference play. But I think a lot of it has to do with a couple things. One would be we just got back into school. So we wound up spending, a good three, four weeks out of school playing, and so there’s a lot of time in the gym. It just tells you how hard the guys have worked. I think the second thing is getting getting the guys that shoot good free throws on the line by getting Sharife Cooper and Allen Flanigan there a lot. Those are our better free throw shooters. JT Thor has got a good stroke. He’s gotten to the line a little bit more. And then the other guys that haven’t shot a great percentage have really worked at it. Dylan Cardwell is going to be a really good 3-point shooter someday, and he’s going to be a great foul shooter someday. But he was really struggling early in the year. Right now, the percentages say maybe only a 50 percent shooter, but he’s worked really, really hard at it. So he’s not afraid to get to the foul line and get fouled. That’s going to be important because we will be in some more close games. We missed eight at Arkansas, a couple of front ends, and that was a factor in the outcome. Missouri – they have five guys that shoot 80 percent from the foul line. They’re not going to leave any out there.”
On the role of graduate assistant coach KT Harrell…
“I think so often it’s just in those interpersonal relationships – those conversations on the bus or in the hotel, in the locker room, having played in the system, having played in other systems, having played professionally, having graduated and started a family. He’s not too many years removed from what those guys are going through, and so he’s a great listening board. Marquis Daniels, director of player development, same thing – except Marquis played in the NBA and was a great NBA player. Having those guys in coaching, on our coaching staff as resources for our players. And then KT, he’s watching Ira (Bowman) and watching Wes (Flanigan), watching Steven (Pearl), watching the other guys – learning from Chad (Prewett) and Mike Burgomaster and Ian (Borders) and my other staff about how to coach, how to watch, how to break things down. It’s a combination of a hands-on training for him. And then the last thing is he can see if he’s enjoying it. Is this something that he wants to continue to do as a profession? There’s no better way of bringing an Auburn guy back, letting him work on his master’s degree, help us, but also get some training on the job. KT’s dad was a terrific coach as well, so he gets that from home.”
On areas where Auburn can improve…
“We’ve got to get better defensively. We’ve got to get better rebounding. We’ve got to take care of the ball better, not turn it over quite so much, but we’ve made progress. I’ve never faulted our work ethic. We’ve had challenges with our ability to close out games. Obviously, we’re a much better team with Sharife (Cooper) as our quarterback, but defense, rebounding, 50-50 balls, those are not things Sharife is going to bring all to the table. He needs to do his part and help in that area, but it’s the other growth. Understand, this is the first season for most of our players. We are the youngest team by experience in college basketball, and so they should be getting better just by virtue of the opportunity.”
On facing back-to-back ranked opponents…
“First of all, it’s a barometer to see where we’re at. It is not going to be easy to score. You talk about what we did at South Carolina. These are two of the best defensive teams in the country, which means you just can’t slop through your offense. It won’t work. So my job this week is to make sure they see that and understand how important their spacing is and their cutting and their screening and their dedication to detail because that’s what older, more experienced teams do to you. Look, these teams are where we want to be. We’re not there yet.”
On status of Justin Powell…
“Here is your weekly Justin Powell concussion protocol update. He’s day-to-day. I hope that this week there’s a chance that we could move him some. He hasn’t moved yet. It’s Monday. But I do think he’s feeling better. And I can tell you now that as we get closer to the back half of the SEC season – if we were to get him back this week, it would take at least two weeks to get him back because he’s been shut down completely. He’s done nothing. You kind of do the math.”