Quotes from Mark Turgeon
11/15/2011 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 15, 2011
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Quotes from Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon in advance of the Terrapins playing in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Thursday-Sunday.
Opening statement:
"We didn't do a lot of things well [against UNC Wilmington]. We did a lot of things well; we did a lot of things not so well in there. Our transition defense was poor, which I felt in-game was even worse than I thought in film and the game wouldn't have been close if we'd had a little effort in transition. Just a commitment to doing all the little things, we're not there yet, but we're making strides. Wilmington really played well, which was good for us, kind of gave us a test, which we need."
On whether he is concerned about the team's perimeter shooting:
"I'm concerned about our whole team every day. About how much they're willing to do. We have a lot of work to do. Nick [Faust] didn't play well. He's going to be fine. I thought, Terrell [Stoglin], for the most part, if we didn't have him we don't get to 70. He made plays. He's got to become a little bit more of an assist guy. [Sean] Mosley settled down after the first few minutes and was good, really good defensively for us. Mychal Parker was twice the player in that game compared to the exhibition game. We've got a young team. There are still things they've got to learn from film and learn from practice everyday, and learn from winning. Don't wait till we lose to try to correct things. Hopefully we'll get some things corrected before Thursday."
On the play of forwards Ashton Pankey and James Padgett:
"I think they're just going to just continue to grow. Ashton's low-post game has come leaps and bounds since August. James actually has a knack to score down there, which is good for him. You know what else, Berend [Weijs] can really score the ball, he just hasn't gotten into a rhythm yet. A little bit tight, a little bit nervous.
"If you've seen my teams in the past, we've developed post players. Make them better. These guys are going to continue to get better. I want to have balance, and there are some games when we are going to go against really big, strong, tall guys and we might not be able to score down there. But in the majority of games, I think we can have a great balance with those guys. Just keeping them confident and playing hard is the whole key."
On playing James Padgett in the high post:
"Yeah, we have run a few sets for him at the high post; our zone offense will get there. James is a really good passer. I like to just give him the ball on the block too sometimes because he does a good job. Right now everybody when they get the ball they shoot it, early in the year, I don't know if their trying to prove a point, but guys are a little bit more selfish this time of year. Team becomes more important as you go. We do a lot of things with James with the ball on the block and he makes a lot of good passes in practice which makes guys better. That's a skill I didn't know he had until we started getting up and down in practice."
On if Terrell Stoglin will be back in the starting lineup Thursday:
"Well it's a long time between now and Thursday, so we'll see. He played better. I was proud of him. A little bit more effort defensively. You know what he's practicing better and he's making good decisions in practice and as a coach when you've been doing it for 25 years or 24 years, I can't keep track anymore, usually when guys start doing things in practice, it usually carries over in the games a couple weeks down the road. I was proud of him. I like that he bounced back from what he went through."
On what this trip can do for the team:
"These trips are awesome. I don't know what's going to happen down there, its going to be hard on us. We'll bond. You've got to get away from home to bond. Right now everyone goes into their separate apartments and things. We'll have all our meals together, six days we'll be together. It will be a great bonding experience for us and for me to get to know the guys better. You come to practice; you have them in your office. Just to see them in a different setting will be great and get to understand them a little bit better and them to understand me.
"These trips are great, that's why we do them and that's probably why Gary [Williams] did them. It's early in the year. I think about teams that go 1-2 or even 0-3 in some of these things and it's not the end of the world. Feels like it at the time, but Butler played in the national championship game and we were in Anaheim with them two years ago and they were 1-2 in the tournament, could have lost all three. We were in a tournament with someone last year who went 1-2 and then I think they were in the Sweet Sixteen. You just do the best you can, try to bond, try to get better. We'll learn a lot about ourselves, we're going to see a lot of different things this weekend. Alabama is going to run and jump in the backcourt, which we haven't seen. It will be interesting to see if we can handle it. They'll throw a pretty aggressive press on us too. It will be good for us."
On handling Alabama:
"Well, we've got to handle the press and if we can do that, then we have to handle their half-court pressure, which hopefully we'll be able to do. Then they play a really nice zone and if you guys were at the game the other night, we were not good against the zone. We were better against Northwood's zone then we were against the two different zones. They went to a 2-3 and we had some success. We've just got to handle all phases of their defense. Our transition defense has to be better now. It will help our transition if we take care of the ball and take good shots. We have to have a lot more effort running on defense. Its like an energy pill, you watch our guys run the offense, they run a heck of a lot faster that way then to defense and that's not a good sign of who you are and how important trying to be successful is."
