Opening statement: Yeah, we don't have much left. OT probably wouldn't have been a good thing for us today. So, with Joe being out, we didn't have much depth on the perimeter at all, and guys played too many minutes, but we played well. Anytime you score 75 on the road, it's usually a good thing, especially when you're playing against a team that guards like Tech. So, we played about as well offensively as we could the first half after the 16-minute time-out. And they made shots too. If I was a fan, I'd probably enjoy watching that game. There was some good basketball play going on.
Q: What changed after that timeout? You guys were pretty branded in that first quarter.
A: Yeah, we were awful and we made a couple of shots. Basketball is weird goes from, what was it, 15 to 7, first time out or whatever, and then we tie it up not that long or get it to two real quick, look at us, we're shooting a free throw to go up nine. Obanor throws in one from 35. It's five, we miss on a good look. They come down in transition and score. They cut it to one in like a minute. So yeah, it can turn on a dime. Fortunately, it did in a good way for us there after the first time out.
Q: What was in your message to Juan (Dajuan Harris) about looking for his shot?
A: Well, I told Juan that he should average three threes a game, attempts. And he hasn't shot it at all. He shot two against Okie State and made them both. But the way teams are going to play, at least up until this point, they're going to dare him to beat them. And tonight, he did. There haven't been too many guys in KU history go five for five from three in a game or at least five for five and he's a good shooter. He shoots it pretty well in practice every day, he just doesn't look to score. But he was great tonight.
And of course, Gradey had his moments. J-Willl had his moments. Kevin had his moments. But what Juan and KJ and Bobby Pettiford did tonight, those, I felt like were our three best players.
Q: Talk about your offensive execution, particularly in the first half
A: Well, the thing about Tech, they do such a good job of forcing you to be a player. They get on your side and force you to drive it and the helps always there. So, if you play off of two feet, you got a chance to beat. If you play off of one foot like we did last year, I think we had six charges last year. I think tonight we only had maybe one or two. So, we played off two feet, that was good. And then they switch a lot. And so, if you switch a lot, you can maybe sometimes create a short role-play to the five men. And KJ was really good in that first half playing to that short role or Zuby or Cam, and either getting a basket or getting assists behind it.
We don't throw the ball inside much, but we were able to get a couple of easy ones early because the switch isn't playing over when the guards caught up with KJ. So, we actually executed pretty well. We had 18 baskets the first half and had 15 assists. So, that's not a true sign of running great offense, but it's a true sign of running the type of offense we had to be successful here tonight.
Question about Kevin McCullar, Jr., returning to Texas Tech to play his former team:
A: I thought he did fine, the two fouls early. Kevin liked it here, I mean, he loved it here. Both parents went to school here. His dad, he played ball here, obviously football. He loves Coach Adams, he loves the staff, he loves those guys. The welcome he got was exactly the way it should be and he knows that. So, if it messed with him, then he's had 10 months to prepare for that because he knew that was coming. And it would mess with anybody, but he knew that was coming.
But I think that Kevin played pretty well. I thought he was aggressive. He didn't make shots, but he made the biggest shot of the game. And he didn't do a ton, but he got the biggest steal of the game. So, we wouldn't have won the game without Kevin in the last 30 seconds or 40 seconds, whatever it was.
Q: Gradey on the glass, again, that's two games in a row. Is that something that's developing?
A: Gradey and KJ were great on the offensive. KJ kept balls alive there. I don't know if he got credit for rebounds, but he seemed like, to me, he kept every ball alive there for a stretch. But that play that Gradey made in the second half, guys that's big-time play. If you're a scout, you're probably looking at that. I had no idea his second jump was like that. So yeah, that was a big-time play. And also you got to give props to their players, Pops and Obanor, those guys were fabulous. For a freshman to just shoot the ball like that. I didn't think our three point defense was near as bad as what the stats make it look like because I thought those were pretty hard shots.
Q: Joe, is he not doing well?
A: I don't think so, Gary. I think it's day-to-day, but we weren't going to test it today.
Q: You mentioned Bobby too. Did you expect he'd be ready like that?
A: We will, when Joe's out. Yeah, Bobby. That's not much depth on the perimeter. Tried to play MJ a little bit and he did fine, but he got screwed up a couple times defensively. But I thought it'd be best to go with those guys, but that's only five guys to play 160 minutes. So yeah, we knew Bobby was going to have to play a lot.
Q: We talked about how impressive KJ has been. I was just wondering is there anything we still want to see more from him.
A: I thought KJ was great. Playing against an athletic seven-footer is not the easiest thing to do when you're 6'6, okay. But I thought he did a good job. He's got to rebound the ball better defensively if you want to be critical or if I'm going to be critical. He's got to rebound the ball better defensively. But he's getting good in those short row like the gentleman was talking about as far as making plays when he has the ball in the middle of the floor, assist or going and finishing himself.
Q: What changed after that timeout? You guys were pretty branded in that first quarter.
A: Yeah, we were awful and we made a couple of shots. Basketball is weird goes from, what was it, 15 to 7, first time out or whatever, and then we tie it up not that long or get it to two real quick, look at us, we're shooting a free throw to go up nine. Obanor throws in one from 35. It's five, we miss on a good look. They come down in transition and score. They cut it to one in like a minute. So yeah, it can turn on a dime. Fortunately, it did in a good way for us there after the first time out.
Q: What was in your message to Juan (Dajuan Harris) about looking for his shot?
A: Well, I told Juan that he should average three threes a game, attempts. And he hasn't shot it at all. He shot two against Okie State and made them both. But the way teams are going to play, at least up until this point, they're going to dare him to beat them. And tonight, he did. There haven't been too many guys in KU history go five for five from three in a game or at least five for five and he's a good shooter. He shoots it pretty well in practice every day, he just doesn't look to score. But he was great tonight.
And of course, Gradey had his moments. J-Willl had his moments. Kevin had his moments. But what Juan and KJ and Bobby Pettiford did tonight, those, I felt like were our three best players.
Q: Talk about your offensive execution, particularly in the first half
A: Well, the thing about Tech, they do such a good job of forcing you to be a player. They get on your side and force you to drive it and the helps always there. So, if you play off of two feet, you got a chance to beat. If you play off of one foot like we did last year, I think we had six charges last year. I think tonight we only had maybe one or two. So, we played off two feet, that was good. And then they switch a lot. And so, if you switch a lot, you can maybe sometimes create a short role-play to the five men. And KJ was really good in that first half playing to that short role or Zuby or Cam, and either getting a basket or getting assists behind it.
We don't throw the ball inside much, but we were able to get a couple of easy ones early because the switch isn't playing over when the guards caught up with KJ. So, we actually executed pretty well. We had 18 baskets the first half and had 15 assists. So, that's not a true sign of running great offense, but it's a true sign of running the type of offense we had to be successful here tonight.
Question about Kevin McCullar, Jr., returning to Texas Tech to play his former team:
A: I thought he did fine, the two fouls early. Kevin liked it here, I mean, he loved it here. Both parents went to school here. His dad, he played ball here, obviously football. He loves Coach Adams, he loves the staff, he loves those guys. The welcome he got was exactly the way it should be and he knows that. So, if it messed with him, then he's had 10 months to prepare for that because he knew that was coming. And it would mess with anybody, but he knew that was coming.
But I think that Kevin played pretty well. I thought he was aggressive. He didn't make shots, but he made the biggest shot of the game. And he didn't do a ton, but he got the biggest steal of the game. So, we wouldn't have won the game without Kevin in the last 30 seconds or 40 seconds, whatever it was.
Q: Gradey on the glass, again, that's two games in a row. Is that something that's developing?
A: Gradey and KJ were great on the offensive. KJ kept balls alive there. I don't know if he got credit for rebounds, but he seemed like, to me, he kept every ball alive there for a stretch. But that play that Gradey made in the second half, guys that's big-time play. If you're a scout, you're probably looking at that. I had no idea his second jump was like that. So yeah, that was a big-time play. And also you got to give props to their players, Pops and Obanor, those guys were fabulous. For a freshman to just shoot the ball like that. I didn't think our three point defense was near as bad as what the stats make it look like because I thought those were pretty hard shots.
Q: Joe, is he not doing well?
A: I don't think so, Gary. I think it's day-to-day, but we weren't going to test it today.
Q: You mentioned Bobby too. Did you expect he'd be ready like that?
A: We will, when Joe's out. Yeah, Bobby. That's not much depth on the perimeter. Tried to play MJ a little bit and he did fine, but he got screwed up a couple times defensively. But I thought it'd be best to go with those guys, but that's only five guys to play 160 minutes. So yeah, we knew Bobby was going to have to play a lot.
Q: We talked about how impressive KJ has been. I was just wondering is there anything we still want to see more from him.
A: I thought KJ was great. Playing against an athletic seven-footer is not the easiest thing to do when you're 6'6, okay. But I thought he did a good job. He's got to rebound the ball better defensively if you want to be critical or if I'm going to be critical. He's got to rebound the ball better defensively. But he's getting good in those short row like the gentleman was talking about as far as making plays when he has the ball in the middle of the floor, assist or going and finishing himself.