Opening statement…
“This game against Memphis has been in the works for a few years. The Mike Slive Family Foundation for prostate cancer research was very tied into this neutral-site matchup in Atlanta. Thanks to the people organizing the event in Atlanta. Because Birmingham is not available this year because they’re redoing the BJCC, we were looking for a neutral-site opponent to be able to continue this annual Mike Slive Invitational. That part of it has gotten a lot less of attention because obviously there are no fans. We aren’t then able to do the things that we do with prostate screening, so on and so forth. Just another reminder, as families start to gather and be reunited after school, to get checked. We always use the tournament to remind everybody.
“Memphis is a great opponent. They’re a top-25 program. This is Penny Hardaway’s third year. They’re picked second in the American (Athletic Conference) right behind Houston, who is off to a phenomenal start and was an Elite Eight team a year ago when we went to the Final Four. Memphis has got a really good team this year. Last year, they were the youngest team in college basketball. They had four or five freshmen that played 20 minutes a night. Those kids are all back except for James Wiseman (and Precious Achiuwa). Right now, they probably have the best collection of four sophomores in the game. Then they add Landers Nolley, the transfer from Virginia Tech who led Virginia Tech in scoring last year and was All-ACC. I think because of all the COVID transfer regulations and rules, every transfer is eligible. Moussa Cisse was a top-10 prospect. He’s probably, coming out of his class, the top center or one of the top two centers as far as the NBA Draft in concerned. What an opportunity for Dylan Cardwell and Babatunde (Akingbola) to go up against a guy like that who has all the reputation and recognition earned. What an opportunity it is for them to go up against a player of that caliber and talent. Landers Nolley is going to play the 3 or 4, so what a great opportunity for guys like Jaylin Williams, JT Thor and Allen Flanigan to go up against a player like that. Lester Quinones is one of the better shooters in the country and Boogie Ellis is probably the best sixth man, depending on whether he starts or comes off the bench. Both of those guys, as well as Nolley, are tremendous 3-point shooters. Penny’s got a great offensive mind and has that NBA background. They run really good stuff. But then, for a team that is as talented as Memphis, they play as hard as anybody. If you’re going to play for Penny Hardaway, you’re going to play hard. They will press us for 40 minutes, 94 feet. The styles of play are very similar. They shoot the 3-ball, they run. So do we. If you want to talk about getting exposed, this will be the ultimate in that exposure because it will probably be to date be the best defensive team that we’ve played so far this year.”
On potential to improve in four-game stretch before Christmas…
“We had four games in eight or nine days to start the season. I’m glad we were able to get through those. I actually thought we played well in three of them, obviously Central Florida being the outlier. Then you’ve got finals week and study week. Typically, if you look at our schedules over the years, there’s always been a pretty big break in early December because of that. Now what we’ve done is we’ve taken advantage of the last six or seven days where we haven’t had a game and we had some really good practices preparing for Memphis, Texas Southern, Troy and Appalachian State. By the time that you get into the SEC season, you’ve seen a lot of different actions, you’ve seen different zones, you’ve seen different man-to-mans, you’ve seen different pressures and you’ve been asked to do different things offensively to take advantage of your system. We’re still so new and we’re still so young that there’s still so much to learn and so much to be exposed. There’s no way you can duplicate Memphis’ ball pressure without playing against yourself. We tried to play against ourselves a little bit this week. I think that was the best way for us to get ready to play. There’s been a lot more contact scrimmaging this week against ourselves than what a more veteran team would have, and I think we came out of it okay.”
On what makes Memphis good on defense…
“A lot of ball pressure. They make it really difficult for you to run your offense. They deny one pass away. They use their hands a lot. It’s very hard to have much freedom of movement when you play against Memphis because they clutch and grab, and they’re active. I just think when you play for a guy like Penny Hardaway, who is a Hall of Famer, he demands that you play with a certain level of effort and energy or he’ll put one of the other 5-stars out there. And so they do. They just do. And like anybody who turns people over, they’re good in transition, and those kids want to get out and run. They’ll gamble, they’ll take some chances. If we can’t handle their pressure, it will be a bit of a recipe for disaster for a young team. Can we take advantage of some of their overplay? Can we handle their pressure? That is going to be what we’re going to find out Saturday afternoon.”
On going through more physical practices…
“You take a risk. You hear about this in football a ton, and you never hear about it in basketball – contact practices vs. non-contact practices. If you’re playing a couple games a week, you might have one contact practice in that week and maybe two or three non-contact practices. Non-contact practices are drills, slides, shots, 5-on-0 concepts, running, shooting, passing, individual development and team development. But we’re not hitting. Because when you hit, that’s when you run the risk of having a guy turn an ankle and being out for three weeks. We’re already short-handed at some positions. So you kind of tape them up and you hold your breath. If we don’t have these contact practices and we don’t learn from our successes and mistakes by scrimmaging and playing, then we’re not going to get better fast enough to be able to win games. There is so little experience as far as guys having played a lot last year. Justin Powell was out almost all year long with an injury his senior year. Dylan Cardwell didn’t play his senior year because he was not eligible at McEachern after he transferred from his high school in Virginia. Chris Moore played. JT Thor played. And then Sharife (Cooper) played, and he’s not out there. And then you’ve got Allen (Flanigan) and Jamal (Johnson) and Jaylin (Williams) and Devan (Cambridge) and all these guys that came off the bench last year and didn’t play a lot. So I’ve got a lot of guys who haven’t played a lot of basketball the last couple years, and that’s been sort of the fun part of going to practice every day and trying to put it together.”
On the importance of rebounding and inside scoring…
“There are not going to be many easy rebounds to be had. This won’t be for the faint of heart because Memphis is long and athletic. Like us, they’re really long off the ball. They’ve got big, long, athletic wings that can all rebound. With the exception of (Alex) Lomax, they’ve got big, long guards that are all really good rebounding guards. We need more inside baskets. Everybody is available to be able to get more 2-point baskets, whether it’s our post-up game with our 4s and 5s or our dribble-penetration game. Memphis blocks a lot of shots now. They’re 10th in the country in blocked shots. We’ve got to do a better job of getting the ball in the paint. Two years ago, we led the country 3-point makes and shots and percentage, the whole thing. Last year, we were a much better 2-point shooting team because that’s where we were. This year, it looks like we could be better from 3 than 2. But we still need to do a better job of getting to the free throw line and drawing contact and scoring inside if those are high-percentage looks.”