[jwplayer 7JZ5P7W5-er0jUifI]
Opening statement…
“We were very pleased to get the win over Memphis, a team that’s picked second in the American (Conference) and a team that has a chance to be an NCAA Tournament team. It took an incredible effort from Justin Powell, who’s been named the freshman of the week by the SEC. His ability to score, handle pressure, defend, he was our leading rebounder – he had an incredible game. I thought the people in Atlanta did a terrific job with that event. Four games and all were very competitive. The only thing missing was 18,000 fans because everybody wanted to try to bring their Atlanta kids home. It was a great environment from that standpoint. I thought Jaylin Williams played really well. We need to continue to do more and more to feature Jaylin. I thought Allen Flanigan was good defensively, certainly late in the game. We’ve got room for growth elsewhere as we continue to get more and more guys comfortable and contributing. Eleven guys played and 11 guys scored. That’s kind of how we’re going to have to put it together this year.
“Texas Southern in the seventh-most experienced team in the country. They’ve got a lot of older, really good basketball players. They’re 2-3 right now. They’ve got a 4-point loss at Washington State. They were down 10 at Oklahoma State at halftime and Oklahoma State played great, and they were right there. They lost by 12 at Saint Mary’s. They beat Wyoming at Wyoming. They’re good. They’ve got three guys returning that are picked all-conference and they have eight Division I transfers. The three guys that are picked all-conference are really good players on their team, but they’re not in their top, maybe, four. That tells you how talented they are. Obviously, Johnny Jones is their coach. He’s coached at LSU and he’s coached great players. He’s one of the better coaches in our business. Michael Weathers, a transfer from Oklahoma State, is a great point guard and is really hard to keep out of the lane. Justin Hopkins, who I saw play at J.O. Johnson and win a state championship with John Petty, is a guy I looked at taking because of his toughness. Galen Alexander is a transfer from Georgetown shot 44 percent from 3 and is probably their most talented player. He’s a ‘fun-to-watch’ guy. Our crowd will recognize that he’s a high-level talent. John Walker started his career at Texas A&M and is a tough cover at the 4. It will be a really good game for us. They run good stuff. It’ll look more like an SEC team than anybody we’ve played against, other than Memphis.
“Yesterday was a tough day here on campus. Being an old ball coach, you hate to see another old ball coach leave the program. I have so much respect for Gus and Kristi (Malzahn), that coaching staff and that family. I’ve learned so much from them. I’ve absolutely taken their lead. Gus has been the leader of our coaches. People don’t give him near enough credit for how he did lead our coaching staff in so many ways. He is a dear friend. I feel fortunate to be his friend. He understands the job as well as anybody. Nobody had a higher expectation for Auburn football than Gus Malzahn. Nobody. Even our most passionate fans. Gus expected to win championships, compete for national championships and he held himself to that standard. I think he’s got an awful lot to be proud of for what they accomplished. I always admired how he always had his locker room. Those kids loved him. They played for him. They always had great coaches, great chemistry and culture. He had an understanding that he would’ve liked to have been able to win a little bit more. I want to wish him the very, very best. One of the greatest things about being here at Auburn is being around the amazing people that I’m around. I get to be around coaches like Butch Thompson, have been around Coach Pat Dye and had a chance to earn his respect, Coach Malzahn – we have the greatest soccer coaches, the greatest baseball coaches, the greatest golf coaches, etc. We’re so fortunate and I’m so fortunate to be a member of this coaching staff.”
On his favorite memory with Coach Malzahn at Auburn…
“The timely text messages. The text messages when only another coach would know when you needed to hear that. Gus came in and talked to my team my first year. My first year was like varsity and JV. I’m sending my guys out there and they are just outnumbered. He came into my locker room before we went to the SEC Tournament and he told our guys how much he enjoyed watching them play and compete knowing they were outnumbered. After that talk, we went to Nashville and we won three games. I think his talk had a lot to do with it. Just to have earned his respect. Now, we had some trash-talking events on the golf course that were a lot of fun. More than anything, just to have earned his respect and become a friend.
On looking to string together some wins before Christmas…
“I think the schedule would say a run is set up, but I’m just telling you, it’s not. We’re going to have to play well against Texas Southern. I think we will, but they’re talented, they’re well-coached, they’re organized. They’ve got really good players that really play pretty well together. They’ve played a tough schedule. So yeah, it’d be great (to go on a run), but our biggest thing is we just have to keep growing. We had a good practice yesterday. Coming off the Memphis win, we had a really good workout yesterday and the guys got after it. But I would anticipate that there will be inconsistencies with a young team. We’ve got some guys who have played four or five college basketball games. They’ll have players that have played 100 college basketball games – like, most of them. I just think going up against another system and seeing what we’ll need to do to try and score offensively, keep them off the boards offensively, protect our rim – they’re really good attacking the rim. So can we guard them without fouling them? Just trying different schemes against them and gaining that experience. It’s going to be a really good test. This is one of those games that I would even say to our fans, they’ve got some guys on that team that you’re going to want to come see. (Michael) Weathers is a little guard you’ll want to see. (Justin) Hopkins is a guy you want to see. (Galen) Alexander. (John) Walker. They’ve got some good players, and they’re physical.”
On the progress Javon Franklin is making…
“He is (making progress). The whole idea about playing 11 (Saturday) was getting Javon a couple rotations, and I thought he gave us great energy and sparked us. He had four rebounds in four-and-a-half minutes, scored around the basket, had a couple really good defensive possessions. Javon has got some young guys in front of him that are going to be really good. Javon might be as good as them right now, there’s a chance there are times he’s better because he’s a little bit older. So we have to balance giving those guys the reps they need to grow and getting him out there because he’s earned the right to be out there. He got a little banged up in the last game, so he missed practice yesterday. We’ll see how he is heading into the game.”
On playing three games in a week…
“I think it’s good. We’ve got to build off Saturday. I thought we made progress in the week preparation for Memphis, but we worked really hard to prepare for Memphis. We made a lot of adjustments between the South Alabama game and the Memphis game because I had some time. We changed some things up, which obviously helped us. But I think playing against different systems – one of the things I always say is by the time you get to conference play, you’ve seen a lot of things. You’ve seen a lot of different actions, and you’ve had some success or failure against all them. These things will all just help us prepare for SEC play.”
On the point guard position…
“We’re not out there with what would typically be our starting point guard and so therefore the point guard depth is an issue. Ty (Jones) was recruited to play off the ball, and I’ve forced him to have to be able to play some point guard. We did struggle to take care of the basketball. Our point guards turned it over a little bit, but a lot of that had to do with Memphis’ pressure. Look, it’s pretty easy game plan for Auburn. You’re going to try to get us to turn the ball over. We turned it over 18 times. They average forcing teams to 24 turnovers. I wasn’t happy with 18 turnovers, but I was glad we didn’t turn it over 24 times, which is what Memphis had been forcing.”
On the recent rise of Powell, Williams and Flanigan…
“I think those three guys have begun to create some separation. With the exception of maybe Justin (Powell), you wouldn’t be surprised by Allen (Flanigan) or Jaylin (Williams). They are two of our more experienced guys from a year ago, and that’s good. Now the question is can they be consistent? And then can a couple other guys (step up)? I’m more confident that a couple other guys will be able to step up. Justin Powell, he led us in scoring, he led us in our 3-point shooting, he led us in rebounding. He just was really, really solid in so many ways. He’s got some real good versatility. He’s worked hard defensively. I thought Al’s calm with the ball, his ability to get in the lane, play off two feet, make plays for himself and others, not afraid of the moment late. And again, Jaylin Williams is a tough cover. We’re playing Jaylin at center and power forward, and he’s giving away some size and some strength. We do need to be a more physical team, and while it makes us a little better offensively having Jaylin out there at the 5, we get real small when he’s out there at the 5.”