On when did he start feeling he knew what he was going to get out of the team, and if he leans on Kim English and Victor Bailey with their knowledge of Oregon State:
“In the last couple weeks, it’s just the attention to detail with our scouting reports, and again sometimes it takes you longer to get to that point where we’ve tried to just get guys to hone in on exactly what you’re trying to do. More importantly, I think it’s just the players talking amongst themselves. The chemistry is good, I just think it has gone to a different level. I think they are really locked in to each other, and with Kim and VJ, they certainly know, even though Oregon State has pretty much a different team. Like every team that pops up, they start working on those opponents for the first weekend, and our guys are doing the same thing. Later tonight, they’ll give me some film or whatever they can come up with, for me to look at. Obviously, you can get it pretty quick now, but the way I understand it, they are a different team in terms of personnel. I know Stevie Thompson’s son, I coached against Steve when I was at Providence and was playing Syracuse, so their personnel is different than what VJ and Kim saw a year ago.”
On the small ball lineup and using that moving forward:
“Everyone is excited for Uros. For a guy that hasn’t seen the court as much as a player would like, there hasn’t been a player warned by the officials as much as him for being overzealous for his teammates. I can’t tell you how many times the officials came over and told me to keep him off the court. The guys love him, because he’s the ultimate team guy. Does he want to play? Absolutely. I can’t explain to you what makes the light go off for guys, but over the last couple of weeks he’s done it and earned it. He did some good things yesterday, but we’re going to need everyone on our team. Without John yesterday and with Josiah in foul trouble, it forces you to do some different things and do things on the fly like you wouldn’t normally do. Both games this past weekend were high level games. We’ll prepare for a number of different things. What I heard that we were talking out there is that Oregon State will mix defenses and show some different things. But, we’ve seen just about everything people can throw at us. Obviously, adjustments will be made, but moving forward we’re going to have everyone ready and hope that Uros can keep doing what he’s done up to this point.”
NEXT: Rick Barnes previews NCAA Tournament continued