Comment from Thad Matta, Rodney, Welch, and Tubby's disapointment with tonight

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Here are the unedited post-game press conference notes. Most interesting were Matta's comment on Sampson:

Thad Matta:
• In the beginning I was wondering if anyone was going to miss a shot, I thought the score was going to be 200-199.
• One of the keys was Sampson picking up those foul early, he's a tremendous player.
• We had a good workout Sunday night and yesterday, and good shoot around today. Hopefully we're learning what it takes to get ready and bounce back after a loss.
• A couple of out of bounds plays, I'm not sure what we were doing. In the 1st half we did have some really good shots at the basket.
• I thought tonight match-ups were favorable for us.
• It's funny, we told our guys that MN came back and sent WI to OT. I was never at ease until the horn sounded. Number 10 game MN a heck of a boost tonight.
• Hopefully from the time leading up to this game, the guys knew what we had to do to win this game.

Rodney Williams
• I don't think any of know why we're making runs, but can't get over the hump. We can't just start out the half strong, can't dig out of a 20 point hole.
• Our spirits were up after the run in the 1st half, cutting it down to 9. That 20-0 run just killed us.
• All the losses feel the same. If you're not winning, you're never happy.
• The Northwestern game will be a big game for us, after losing 2 in a row, any win would help, but especially a road win.
• The close games are more frustrating. We know how good we are, but we don't always play up to par. We have a potential to be one of the best team in the Big 10
• We're

Julian Welch
• Oto played great. We needed someone to come in and give us energy, and he did that. I'm happy for him. We just need him to continue to bring that effort each and every game.
• We're more focused on our losses, the road wins were good, but it doesn't matter if you play home or away, we just need to win.

Tubby Smith
• Tubby Smith just took the podium, heard him mumble an "oh man" while sitting down
• We can't seem to get the extra effort, I was really disappointed we didn't get the extra effort.
• They were more aggressive and stronger, and we weren't as physical as we could have been.
• Seems like Buford made every shot when the shot clock was running down. Part of it was our defense.
• Rodney stepped up late in the game and played well. We just need to get to the boards better.
• Julian did well with 9 assists. We expect more out of our guys, and I didn't see it, I didn’t see it. We're not starting the game with the same type of energy.
• Really disappointed in the drop off from the 1st team to the 2nd team. Not "I" need to score, "we" need to score. We need to screen better. You don't want a guy taking a bad off balanced shot when they can pass it. That created that run.
• If we play like this against NU we're going to get beat.
• You can't get behind like that and expect to win. That's what we did against WI. It's an uphill battle. I couldn’t get guys up the court to press, they were always retreating back. You evaluate if they're tired of fatigued.
• Refs make mistakes too (when asked about a call)
• We actually practiced, we scrimmaged 1st to try to change the mentality of getting in a hole. We tried to scrimmage 1st, instead of going through your warm-up, shooting, defense. But that didn't work obviously. I guess they just didn't understand why we were doing that. We need to build up the mentality right away.
 

I really think it is time for Tubby to make some changes to his staff. He needs to shake it up this off season.
 


GopherinPhilly said:
I really think it is time for Tubby to make some changes to his staff. He needs to shake it up this off season.
Click to expand...

This may be the first time I've agreed with you.
 

I've got to be careful about how I come off here, and I know it's been discussed a bit before, but what's up with quotes like this: "I couldn’t get guys up the court to press, they were always retreating back."

After just about every single loss, Tubby has some sort of remark like this in his postgame presser. About how he and the staff were trying to get the team to do something (trap, press, foul, box out, etc.) and they just refused to do it. I can't believe that a Big Ten team could be that uncoachable. These kids have been playing basketball their entire lives. How do they just refuse to make adjustments or changes when the coaching staff (allegedly) advises them to do so? Color me skeptical.
 


920/414 Gopher said:
I've got to be careful about how I come off here, and I know it's been discussed a bit before, but what's up with quotes like this: "I couldn’t get guys up the court to press, they were always retreating back."

After just about every single loss, Tubby has some sort of remark like this in his postgame presser. About how he and the staff were trying to get the team to do something (trap, press, foul, box out, etc.) and they just refused to do it. I can't believe that a Big Ten team could be that uncoachable. These kids have been playing basketball their entire lives. How do they just refuse to make adjustments or changes when the coaching staff (allegedly) advises them to do so? Color me skeptical.
Click to expand...
I think what Tubby meant is they were backing off to quickly. Like it seemed like as soon as OSU passed the ball in, they would run back, as if afraid of getting beaten back. The team was playing to avoid mistakes most of the game.
 

It appeared to me that the guys did not play to win, they played "to not lose", hence the hesitant lack of aggressiveness by playing that way results in more "afraid to make a mistake" comes out.
 





GopherinPhilly said:
I really think it is time for Tubby to make some changes to his staff. He needs to shake it up this off season.
Click to expand...

I suggested this last year and was chastised. I still agree though. When you look at everyone calling for Tubby's head - we're not talking about some inexperienced not proven coach. He's clearly been successful everywhere he's gone. Changing a head coach is a big process, transfers, rebuilding, buyouts, etc. But it's becoming clear that this combination is not being effective. I'm not throwing any of the assistants under the bus, but it could be a chemistry thing, just like on the court. If you're not happy with our recruiting, you get a young, hungry, tireless guy in here to fill that void...same with offense, etc. It sure did work for Beilein at Michigan. Is this guaranteed to make us better? No, but it's a lot less risk than getting rid of a coach with a National Championship under his belt.
 

GopherLady said:
I suggested this last year and was chastised. I still agree though. When you look at everyone calling for Tubby's head - we're not talking about some inexperienced not proven coach. He's clearly been successful everywhere he's gone. Changing a head coach is a big process, transfers, rebuilding, buyouts, etc. But it's becoming clear that this combination is not being effective. I'm not throwing any of the assistants under the bus, but it could be a chemistry thing, just like on the court. If you're not happy with our recruiting, you get a young, hungry, tireless guy in here to fill that void...same with offense, etc. It sure did work for Beilein at Michigan. Is this guaranteed to make us better? No, but it's a lot less risk than getting rid of a coach with a National Championship under his belt.
Click to expand...

Jimmy Williams. Someone pointed out awhile ago, tubbys first few years at UK he had a very good recruiting assistant who is now in the NBA. ever since he left, the recruiting has dropped a bit.
 








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