Coach Davis Transcripts

Jan. 14, 2003

What sort of preparation have you gone through for tomorrow's Northwestern game?
"We're trying to get ourselves ready. We haven't done anything with preparing for Northwestern yet, we're trying to do it today. We have to try to play with some toughness, some enthusiasm. We played Ohio State on Saturday and that was the worst I've seen us play by not passing people the basketball. (George) Leach and (Jeff) Newton were always open in the post and we never got them the ball."

As far as trying to play with toughness, do you miss Dane Fife in that regard?
"There is no excuse for us to not come out and play basketball. We're sitting here with Leach and Newton averaging more rebounds than any other players I've coached here. The rest of our guys are not going in, sticking their nose in for rebounds. I really dislike guards who sit out on the outside and wait for loose ball rebounds. We don't send three guys to the board for rebounds and that's disappointing."

With regard to Bracey's mental makeup - Does he have the leadership role?
"I think he does that in certain areas. He's got to develop a lot more, but from a scoring and playing standpoint he's at that level but there are some things he's got to improve on to be that sort of player. He had a bad game against Ohio State. You have to continue to help him develop and coach him. He's really improving and right now he has the potential to be a really good basketball player."

Regarding the Northwestern team -
"I see a team giving everything that they have. Bill Carmody's getting every drop out of those guys. I think they're getting better week by week and that's what you want to do and we're really struggling right now because we have no leadership. At the beginning of the season I thought we were one of the best teams in that nation.
If you asked me a month and a half ago, I'd have said we had a chance to win two games over them, but now they're improving and getting better all the time."

Regarding taking outside shots instead of getting the ball to the post -
"They're taking shots I don't mind them taking, but if a guy is open in the post, why not pass to him? Right now we're not even looking at that. When you miss those opportunities, it's hard to beat anyone. I don't mind them taking 30 three-point shots, but I want them to be open shots."

Is Sean Kline showing any signs of awareness and attention he needs for you to play him?
"I'm playing to win, if he was showing those signs, I'd be playing him. I'm always asked about Sean Kline and Donald Perry. If I thought they were playing the way we need to to win, I'd be playing them. I watch them everyday in practice. If I thought they knew what was going on, I'd be playing them. There are guys out there who don't know what they're doing, but I trust that they will get the job done. When he's ready to play, I'll put him on the court."

Regarding a lack of toughness since the Maryland game and what can be done to change it -
"I need to make some personnel changes. I have guys out there that aren't showing any leadership, that aren't playing hard. I have to beg them to play hard. Our guys pulled for each other last year, and if you watch, how many times have you seen that this year? There's some stuff going on that I don't like. I'm going to change it - it will surprise a lot of people. At this stage right now, I'm fed up with watching film after games and watching guys give up 28 points on defense."

Is this because of a lack of heart?
"I don't know what it is. It' s some internal stuff that's got to be the reason. Last year we had so much fun. This year we're a better basketball team, but we're not having fun. We have no leader. I can't lead them on the court in the war. I can lead them on the sideline and in the locker room. Right now, we have a guy like Bracey Wright who sees this and won't get better because he's not got a leader or role model."

For your freshman (Wright and Marshall Strickland) and playing a longer season, how do you protect against burnout?
"It's a concern, because every freshman hits a wall and you try to develop them everyday and help them and talk with them. People start telling them how great they are and it's human nature to let up. What I'm trying to do with them is talk to them and help them develop because we can't afford for them to let up."

When do freshmen normally hit the wall?
"I've seen them hit the wall at all different times. I'm just hoping that these guys can continue to play well and play hard. The thing about Bracey Wright and Marshall Strickland is that they both are very talented guys. Their wall may still be 13-14 points in a game. It may be some guys who are juniors or seniors who hit the wall and don't score. I hope they don't do that, if they do we're in serious trouble."

Did you foresee this freshman class being such a good one?
"I said it from day one, when we signed Bracey Wright and Marshall Strickland. I said we would have the best backcourt in the country. I knew how good they were. It's hard for freshmen to immediately make an impact, but I knew they could. I knew it would be at the end of pre-conference games or beginning Big Ten games. They ended up coming in and acting like they had been around forever."

Early in the season, people were pegging Illinois as a middle of the pack team, are they the team to beat?
"There are about five or six teams in the conference that are teams to beat. When people make predictions about certain teams, you ask how they can make that prediction. When you have a guy on your team like Brian Cook and then bring in three very good freshmen, you've got a good thing. I think right now Bill Self is coaching a team that he loves to coach, he has the freshmen that he brought in and the older guys are guys that are going to believe in him and not question him about certain things."

Regarding last year's Northwestern game at Northwestern -
"It's hard to win on the road in the Big Ten. If you can win on the road in the Big Ten, that's really good. Last year when we played them, everything was going our way. On the road, with the crowd going wild it's hard to overcome that."

Is there an element of revenge for Northwestern coming into this game?
"If you have to wait for a certain time before you get up, it's something wrong with your basketball team. They're going to come in and give it their best, though."

Concerns as the Illinois game approaches -
"We're just focused on Northwestern. I know that Bracey has a lot of family coming in and Deron (Williams, an Illinois freshman and high school teammate of Wright's) has a lot of family coming in. I'm sure there will be a little emotion in there and you have 30 people coming in and their high school coach, I'm sure there will be a lot of emotion flying around. I hope it's the best for us instead of them."

Deron Williams is expected to guard Bracey, is this an advantage or disadvantage?
"It depends on if Bracey is making shots or not. I'm sure no one knows him like Deron knows him. They practiced every day against each other in high school. It's not the same guy who stepped on a plane to go to school and they are both different now and in a different system than they were in high school.

Has Wright's development already been affected by the lack of a role model?
"I think so. There are some areas he needs to clean up and when you look around and there's no one to look to who's playing hard, it's tough. I think Bracey's challenging it and he's improving. The guy that Bracey should be trying to follow as a role model is Kyle Hornsby, not any other guys on the team."

Did you expect this at all?
"I thought at this point, we'd be undefeated because I thought we'd come out and rebound all the time. We at one point were leading the Big Ten in rebounding and we'd played Gonzaga, and some tough teams early in the season. I thought we'd have some senior leadership with guys fighting and playing with intensity, but they haven't."

In conference games, is the play different?
"Our biggest thing is keep playing hard and keep people from getting offensive rebounds against us. Our offense is good and defense is good but we're just not playing with any passion or intensity. You can't just make a guy passionate. You can't put joy inside a guy, you can't put passion inside of someone. The thing that really gets to me is that we beat Maryland shooting 28% for the game and we drill a couple teams that we play early. And we play Purdue - an instate rival - from that point on, we have not played with the same emotion that we played with in the first four games of the season."

Does it boil down to how hard the team plays on defense, what happens on offense?
"Defense turns into good offense and we have guys just kind of coasting on defense. That results in not carrying the load in offense. We're not looking to play through on offense, we're trying to get to the end of the play instead of running the play."

Does Northwestern under Carmody seem to be playing the same as Princeton under Carmody?
"There are a couple more wrinkles in the offense because of personnel. They're still trying to back cut you a lot and when they dribble towards you, you have to watch the back cutters. They are doing basically the same things, but have added a couple more wrinkles."

Had you assumed that Coverdale would be the natural leader?
"I've been waiting for Coverdale to step up and do that for the last month. You can't expect for Bracey to be a leader even though he's our leading scorer. There are some things freshmen just don't know about Division I college basketball. With some of these guys, it's like a walk in the park. There are a lot of things a coach can't do because a coach isn't with them all the time. I'm not with them when they're in the locker room before the game, after practice, out on the court before a game. There are some things a leader does that gets everyone on the same page."

Have you brought this up with him?
"I've talked with all our guys recently. He's not getting it. If you watch his play since the Maryland game, you can't tell me you've seen any leadership from him. I'm disappointed in that because last year we had Fife and he was contagious and guys caught on to that. You'd think a senior with everything laying on the line would be wanting to do that."

Indiana University Athletics

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Kyle Hornsby

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Sean Kline

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Donald Perry

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Marshall Strickland

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