Everything From Head Coach Damon Stoudamire After A 66-64 Win Over Georgia Southern

All that Damon Stoudamire said after a win over Georgia Southern on Tuesday.

Opening Statement

“A win is a win. I would be lying if I sat up here and said I was happy, though. We have to figure some things out offensively. You know what I mean? For two years, that's kind our strength, you know? Um, ball movement, different things. We've got to figure some things out in that area. Um, 22 turnovers, that's too many. To me, at least defensively, we're good enough. I think we're good enough defensively. I think we do a lot of good things defensively, but you know, usually, you know, you don't have, but it's in reverse. Our offense puts stress on our defense. You feel like you got to get a stop every possession. It makes games harder but you know again big picture I was saying before the season started I kind of knew that it might look like this you know and I knew that there was things that we were going to have to work on and I knew our team had shifted, you know, from the standpoint of, you know, we got really good bigs. I just knew certain things were going to be what they were. And so the one thing I give my team credit for is that, though and saying everything that I said what we do need to need to get better at. I I love every kid I coach, but our team last year couldn't win these types of games.”

“Let's just call it what it is. I just think that there is a collective toughness in the room. You know we have a caring group. They don't go out there intentionally to try to make mistakes. Me and my staff just got to do a better job of getting them to understand the assignment each and every game. I won't say the struggle, I won't say the fight, but that's going to be the execution of it as we move forward. Each and every day, we got to fight for the right thing. No matter if the things I say are redundant to the kids, you're going to hear it each and every day. Attention to detail, because those are the things that hurt us. You know, we've got to be more disciplined on offense. We have to understand the assignment. There are rarely times when you have bigs on your team like that, you know, that you can play off of and get easy shots and different things. But then as a perimeter, you got to find a balance in who you are as a player and you got to go play the game because when you when you're able to do those things together now, when you come off a ball screen because the big doesn't want to help because he doesn't want the ball to go to his man, you know, you just walk into the layup and walking in and getting a layup. You get what I call horse shots. We had a lot of horse shots out there today. We didn't knock him down today, but we had horse shots. These are things that my guys got to be all right with based on who we are as a team. That is the biggest thing that we have to do is incorporating it inside out instead of outside in.”

On Mouhamed Sylla three-point shot and making it….

“At that juncture of the game, I mean, he was no different than anyone else shooting a three. You know, we had we had struggled. But what I will say is is that what I give him all the credit in the world for is that he ain't hesitate one bit when he caught it. He works on it. Did I want him to shoot it? Hell no. I didn't want him to shoot the shot, but it went in. But he works on it. He does. One of the things that I was happy about him today is that the game started off rough for him, you know. But the one thing that I always appreciate about a player of his caliber is when you look at that rebound total, he's going to go get his 10 to 11 a game. To hit probably the biggest shot of the game and then to always get those 10-11 rebounds a game is much needed. He did a lot of switching on the perimeter. He can switch ball screens. He did a good job in that area as well.”

On the big man trying to do something with the ball early in the game…

“What happens is a lot of times I think in those situations when you've got again bigs like that and they know doubles are coming. They're trying to beat the double. They’re trying to see, and then you just have to accept what it's going to be. I think again that goes into when we become the team I think we can be. I can think of an instance, you know, we talked about, you know, they double off the passer. Baye was trying to, you know, instead of just throwing it back to the passer, he was trying to get somebody to move on the weak side, well no, they wasn't moving. This is what they do every game. It's what they do, right? Mo tries to beat guy's baseline, you know. So, there are different things, and we just have to get guys to slow down. Slow down and see what’s happening. We've got to do a better job of when we get rebounds, not bringing the ball down.”

On working through the inexperience at the point guard position, and if that is causing some problems….

“No for sure you know I always say it because you know I played the position, and you know I think that most people think that playing point guard is easy. I say it's the hardest position in basketball. It's the organization of things, right? You have to put people in place. You have to know the play from five positions. Um you you have to take the heat from the coach. Um you know, different things. There's a process with it. You have the starting point guard, and you have a quarterback. I think in team sports, those are the two hardest positions to man in my opinion because of the things that you have to do. I always say we got to get a little better, I think at at learning the assignment. Since Tech, we're rolling right now and we we doing our thing, I'll use this analogy. You know, it's okay to just check down and throw that pass. Then things start to open up. You know, you get a couple singles, get a couple doubles, and then the triples and the home run come, right? I think that's what our guys are trying to figure out, you know, but we will. But again, it's not easy. It's not easy playing that position.”

On players trying to force it a little bit in the game…

“It was a lot of that. You know, Kowacie had a couple, and I think that, you know, he lost his way a little bit in the game. He never got he was never able to bounce back from it. He was never able to get the flow back, and that's something that he has to be better at. He's been in these situations, and he has to understand that you know we need you on the floor. We need your experience and you can't have it even if the you don't make the play you still can't lose faith in yourself because we haven't lost faith in you.”

On Akai Fleming playing 30 minutes on the evening…

“He's been playing well. He has. He's played well. I thought I should have played him a little more against Georgia, but I didn't. I never plan to play a guy a lot of minutes. To me, he's seasoned enough. He made some mistakes, but you know, I think he'll learn from that, and it's just a matter of as he gets more minutes and the process is sped up a little bit, I think that just makes him more comfortable as he moves forward.”

On Kam Craft being a little frustrated…

“I think Cam is going to be fine. I just got to help him a little bit more, and that's on me. Got to help him a little more, you know. Got to help him a little bit more, you know. It's kind of, you know, a lot of things, you know, as a basketball player, as a former basketball player, there are a lot of things.. You look at Cam's minutes and it's more than his minutes, his shot, things of that nature, and it's not really about that to be honest with you, but there's just things we got to we got to clean up on the offensive end that'll help him out. Even with him playing, the minutes he played are not an indictment on him. I got to do a better job of helping him out.”

On if he has a better job of what his rotation will be…

“I'm not really for sure, to be honest with you. I know the guys I want to play. There are certain things that, you know, I just have to get comfortable with, and I'm just not all the way comfortable with those things at this point. It's still a revolving door. There’s still room there for somebody to crack into that rotation or whatnot. 22 turnovers, that's bothersome. You can't win basketball games in the ACC or even against our opponents right now. Georgia Southern, you know West Georgia coming up. We can't win games with 22 turnovers, and that number has to go down.”

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