At least KO didn't invoke Jim McIlvaine...or Dwyane Wade...
IIII 's Opening Statement:
"The first thing that I would say is that the second half today, of all the games we have played believe it or not, has been the time that we have looked like a team, in the sense of trying to do the right things and trying to play harder for longer periods of time. Now we made some mistakes and we have some guys who do not sellout, defensively, the way that they have to. Our communication is still not as good as it needs to be.
"Today we had some guys come in off the bench that provided real energy and that's what we are looking for. But we lost this game in the first half. I know they (George Mason) were aggressive and physical and all of that but they didn't have anything to do with us missing 13 or 14 layups because we didn't use the backboard. Three of our first four shots were shots in the paint that we should have used the backboard or dunked the ball.
I know you haven't seen a lot of our practices, but one thing I can promise you we spend a lot of time on is rebounding and another thing we spend a lot of time on is layups and making them with contact. Obviously I'm not doing a good enough job there because I either don't have strong enough guys hitting them or strong enough pads. And that's going to change because we are not buying in to how important that glass is.
"As I told our guys,
I have a guy that is going to make $100 million next year (Dwyane Wade) and he didn't have any trouble listening to me and figuring out how to get to the glass and I sure am not going to tolerate anyone not listening now. I know it's not that they don't want to, a lot of it is that they just don't realize how important it is. It just isn't engrained into their minds yet.
"We should not have had a close game in the second half. We are going to take the learning parts from it, and there was a ton to learn from this tournament.
There is some disappointment, but I hope the fans and the university stays with me on this, that there is no way to be discouraged. I learned things about this team and I thought the team would learn a lot about each other but I'm not sure. I know I did, and I'm looking forward to getting on that plane and studying the films and then getting home and getting right back to practice.
We have a lot of determinations to make, like "How do we really want to play?" I am trying to play too many guys right now, but we are trying to get out and run. Are we going to all-out get after it and press more and shrink the bench? It is all about these guys really understanding the foundation we are building."
Well, I think I can help TC on that question.
You want to play a "winning offense."
