Q: Did you watch last night's TCU game?
A: Yeah, I watched.
Q: And what do you think of the league after watching that?
A: I watched both games last night. Iowa State-OU was a great game, and then the TCU-Baylor game was a high-level game, and that was some good ball. And I thought Baylor was obviously great the first half, and TCU was fantastic the second half. So, it was a great game to watch, guys making plays.
Q: Zuby Ejiofor is getting more minutes as of late, I guess. What's behind that? What's he doing to earn that for you?
A: Well, he hasn't played a ton, but he's been our first big off the bench. So that's basically, and in practice over the last three weeks, he's been our best big off the bench. So, I thought Cam had a couple of really good days last week, and both of them played fairly well against Tech. I actually thought that there were some good things in very limited minutes what they did. But Zuby's, you know, you guys know he's our best shot blocker, and he's just not near as aggressive as what we'd like to see going after the ball all the time. But he's been our most consistent in practice.
Q: And also, just any update on Joe and his status
A: No, I haven't seen Joe since the game. I didn't see Joe yesterday. So, Bill said he's making progress and we knew all along it was day to day. So hopefully he'll be able to practice, if not today, hopefully go tomorrow. But right now, we still don't know. I don't know.
Q: What have you seen from Cam that made you feel comfortable putting him out there the other night?
A: He's a good short roll guy, and that was what we tried to play to the first half. So, he's our second-best short roll guy behind KJ, so that was the biggest reason for that.
Q: And to that point too, Bobby, after the game, he kind of called that your go-to offense right now. I don't know that that's his place to say that, but is that fair? Are you guys playing to that as sort of a primary thing?
A: Well, what we're trying to do is drive and force help, and if that's what teams give us then that's what we want to try to play to. But depending on how people guard ball screens, that's what we should try to play to. We're not great at it yet, but we're getting better. They defended us differently the second half and we didn't get to it at all the second half there. But KJ is pretty good in there. Cam's pretty good, Zach's pretty good in there; Zuby and Ernest aren't where they are in that position, although Zuby got us three points on a short roll with a kickout I think to J-Will maybe, there at Tech. So that's something that we've been practicing a lot.
Q: Getting back to the league too. It's physical, it has been for every team so far. It's not entirely new, you guys have been pretty physical the last few years. But are you seeing more of that? Are you seeing and talking to your team about hey, this is the league, this is how we're going to have to play, and maybe preparing for that differently or bracing for it or whatever?
A: Well, we got a memo saying that the physical play is going to be eliminated at least in some ways as far as getting the first guilty person that's creating the physical play. And that's happened every year. I mean that's not a big deal to get a memo, because I think every year at midway point in the season, we kind of get away from the emphasis the way it was intended, to now the game's kind of settling in, now we need to make sure it doesn't get any more physical, so let's get it back under control, that kind of stuff.
But guys, I mean we shot 14 free throws in two games. I mean we haven't got to the free throw line at all. So, the way I look at it, and our teams have shot quite a bit more, our opponents, and I'm not saying anything about officiating, but we got to find a way to get to the free throw line and the way that do that, if you play the way we play is to drive it.
So hopefully we can become better at that. But the reality... I haven't felt, and you guys know better than me because you watch it and I see it every day so I don't probably notice it as much as what you guys do. But I haven't felt it being ridiculously physical. I didn't think the Oklahoma State game was, even though there was some physical plays but I didn't see that, and I certainly didn't think the Texas Tech game was, even though there's some physical plays. People tell me after the game, man that was a very physical game, and to be honest with you, I did not feel that coaching the game, because I guess I'm just so used to, that's just the way the game is in today's game.
Q: KJ did.
A: KJ did? Okay.
Q: But I wanted to ask one more thing about that too.
A: KJ should, because he's 6'6 guarding a 7'0, that's a little different for him.
Q: Yeah. If that, whether the memo works or it changes or not, do you look long range and say, okay, if this is what our league is and there's going to be battles like that and they're going to let them play, do you worry about postseason and how that could prepare you guys for different crews?
A: I think it's the job of the officials to be honest with you, and Curtis, to make sure that the game's called the way they want the game called in the tournament. And to be honest with you, we got the best of, we got good officials, the best officials in our league working it. So, I haven't felt it the way that maybe you guys have felt it or seen it, but I'm just talking about the sample size is two games for me where if you watch the sample size of being 10 games so far in our league, it may feel different for other coaches.
Q: Now that you have the premier three-point shooter in Big 12 conference play, your three-point shooting numbers are actually going up. 38%, and you've got Bobby and Joe who've come in with some success there. But just talk about this team's ability to knock down the three.
A: Well Juan obviously is 7-7. So, we thought all along going into the season that this team, for us to be a good team we going to probably have to shoot a fairly high percentage of threes. The negative is that in our league so far, the two games in which we've shot the three very well, our opponents have shot it just as well.
We're 46.8% and our opponents are 46%. So, it's not like it's been a huge advantage for us being a good three-point shooting team because we haven't guarded the arc at all up until this point in the first two games. But to your point, Dave, it's going to go down. You're not going to shoot 47% as a team over a course of a league play, but it's got to go down on the other end too. We've got to do a better job defending the arc, and certainly in the first two games, even though you go back and look at it, those two or three that Obanor and Tatum threw in, I mean those are shots you want the other team to take under most circumstances, unless they're Obanor and Tatum in those particular moments. So, we didn't do a good job against Oklahoma State at all, in my opinion, defending the arc. We've defended it better than our percentages show, but we got to get better at that. Got to.
Q: I know before you mentioned that this is kind of the style of West Virginia team that Huggins has been trying to build, and Jalen called it a really tough place to play, and just overall very physical overall. What on tape have you seen from this West Virginia team that you kind of expect going in?
A: What do I expect going in?
Q: Yeah.
A: Well, the same thing. They're plus 10.5 rebounding in the two games in League. They always rebound the ball. They always, if they don't press, they always pressure, they put pressure on you defensively to go make plays and they're great at rotating, taking charges and things like that. For us, I think we're 4-6 in the 10 years Huggs has been there that they've been in the league at their place, and that's not good, but that's not awful.
You'd like to win 50 or percent of the games in every building you go into. But they've given us problems there. We've struggled there. So last year we actually performed pretty well start to finish, but there's been many times out there they controlled the game from start to finish. So, they'll be thirsty and hungry, they've lost two games that they could be 2-0 in, instead their 0-2, and we've won two games that we could be 0-2 in. So that's how good our league is right now.
Q: Curious with Bobby, what have you thought about his level of play or maybe getting more comfortable since he had the hamstring injury?
A: Oh yeah, Bobby's been good. He's been a much-needed addition for us off the bench. And obviously to your point, when you play West Virginia and they got two little guards that can play up underneath you the whole time, he's going to be very important to give one, minutes because Juan's not going to be able to play 35 minutes in this particular game at the pace and the physicality of what he'll probably be going against pressure all the time. So, Bobby's very important to our success, and he's done very well.
Q: And what do you think about the two guard lineups you've done with Bobby and Dajuan on the floor? How do you feel like that's evolved for this season so far?
A: I think we've done fine. It's not exactly playing Frank and Devonte back there where both of them can get 20 or 25 in a game, but they both played with their strengths pretty well together. I think they playing together, and certainly I look at Bobby as a valuable piece to allow Juan to stay a little fresh. You go back over time and you look at when Juan has been careless or screwed some things up, it's usually because he hadn't had a sub. And so hopefully that'll help us down the road, getting him out more, because you're going to have to have him in there late.
Q: I think the last three times you guys won in Morgantown last year, you guys win the title 2020, obviously the COVID canceled the year, but would've been probably number one seed, and then 2018 when you made a final four. Is that just coincidence? Or does it kind of speak to when you can win in there, it usually means you got a pretty good team.
A: Well, it's coincidence because if you go back and look at the times we've lost there, we've been a number one seed in the NCAA tournament, majority of the times that we lost there too. So, I would say that we're probably reading into it a little bit too much, but now that you've said it, let's go win there. Okay, so maybe that'll bode well for us down the road.
Q: Were you able to speak with Huggins after he was inducted, and what do you think of his induction? Was that long overdue?
A: Well, yeah, I've talked to Huggs too many times since he was inducted because that was back in September if I'm not mistaken. But yeah, anybody that that's won that many games as Huggs has and he's won, what, over 900 games, and that's with taking a year off and some other stuff. He's been absolutely great for our sport, and you guys know how I feel about him. I don't want to give him too much credit, but certainly he's been a huge addition to our league, both when he was at Kansas State and obviously at West Virginia.
Q: You helped him raise a ton of money. Has he asked you to come back again this year?
A: No, no. First of all, I didn't help him. He did that, they did that all on their own. I was able to provide entertainment by being a punching bag at the time in which I was there, which I'm sure that he's very grateful for on that. And the price was very cheap for me to offer to do that. But I think he's got Charles coming back this year, so he told me the other day he's got Charles, so whatever we raised last year, he'll kill it this year.
Q: How would you grade your team's performance in terms of Big 12 play, right? It's a small sample size, long season. What's kind of that message, as you said, eliminate the three-point shooting percentage? How do you move forward, what's kind of that message in the locker room to get over that? I wouldn't say get over the hump, but continue the success you guys are on right now?
A: Yeah, well first of all, anybody that knows our league, that knows that we shouldn't apologize for winning. I don't think that anytime you go on the road and you win, I think it's a great win in our league, and even the same at home.
You look at Texas Tech, they're 0-2, they could've beat us, they could've beat TCU at TCU. I mean, that's the type of league it is. And so, one week can make a huge difference in momentum and standing and all that. But my message is to the team is we actually got guard better and we got to rebound better, and we got to be a little tougher. But it's the same thing I tell my teams every year at this point in time. And the other thing on the league, I mean, you stop and think there's 16 more games left. And it's a long grind, and you can't get two up or too down, no matter where you're at. There's still time to change it one way or another, but you can't waste opportunities, and so far, we've been fortunate that we have not.
A: Yeah, I watched.
Q: And what do you think of the league after watching that?
A: I watched both games last night. Iowa State-OU was a great game, and then the TCU-Baylor game was a high-level game, and that was some good ball. And I thought Baylor was obviously great the first half, and TCU was fantastic the second half. So, it was a great game to watch, guys making plays.
Q: Zuby Ejiofor is getting more minutes as of late, I guess. What's behind that? What's he doing to earn that for you?
A: Well, he hasn't played a ton, but he's been our first big off the bench. So that's basically, and in practice over the last three weeks, he's been our best big off the bench. So, I thought Cam had a couple of really good days last week, and both of them played fairly well against Tech. I actually thought that there were some good things in very limited minutes what they did. But Zuby's, you know, you guys know he's our best shot blocker, and he's just not near as aggressive as what we'd like to see going after the ball all the time. But he's been our most consistent in practice.
Q: And also, just any update on Joe and his status
A: No, I haven't seen Joe since the game. I didn't see Joe yesterday. So, Bill said he's making progress and we knew all along it was day to day. So hopefully he'll be able to practice, if not today, hopefully go tomorrow. But right now, we still don't know. I don't know.
Q: What have you seen from Cam that made you feel comfortable putting him out there the other night?
A: He's a good short roll guy, and that was what we tried to play to the first half. So, he's our second-best short roll guy behind KJ, so that was the biggest reason for that.
Q: And to that point too, Bobby, after the game, he kind of called that your go-to offense right now. I don't know that that's his place to say that, but is that fair? Are you guys playing to that as sort of a primary thing?
A: Well, what we're trying to do is drive and force help, and if that's what teams give us then that's what we want to try to play to. But depending on how people guard ball screens, that's what we should try to play to. We're not great at it yet, but we're getting better. They defended us differently the second half and we didn't get to it at all the second half there. But KJ is pretty good in there. Cam's pretty good, Zach's pretty good in there; Zuby and Ernest aren't where they are in that position, although Zuby got us three points on a short roll with a kickout I think to J-Will maybe, there at Tech. So that's something that we've been practicing a lot.
Q: Getting back to the league too. It's physical, it has been for every team so far. It's not entirely new, you guys have been pretty physical the last few years. But are you seeing more of that? Are you seeing and talking to your team about hey, this is the league, this is how we're going to have to play, and maybe preparing for that differently or bracing for it or whatever?
A: Well, we got a memo saying that the physical play is going to be eliminated at least in some ways as far as getting the first guilty person that's creating the physical play. And that's happened every year. I mean that's not a big deal to get a memo, because I think every year at midway point in the season, we kind of get away from the emphasis the way it was intended, to now the game's kind of settling in, now we need to make sure it doesn't get any more physical, so let's get it back under control, that kind of stuff.
But guys, I mean we shot 14 free throws in two games. I mean we haven't got to the free throw line at all. So, the way I look at it, and our teams have shot quite a bit more, our opponents, and I'm not saying anything about officiating, but we got to find a way to get to the free throw line and the way that do that, if you play the way we play is to drive it.
So hopefully we can become better at that. But the reality... I haven't felt, and you guys know better than me because you watch it and I see it every day so I don't probably notice it as much as what you guys do. But I haven't felt it being ridiculously physical. I didn't think the Oklahoma State game was, even though there was some physical plays but I didn't see that, and I certainly didn't think the Texas Tech game was, even though there's some physical plays. People tell me after the game, man that was a very physical game, and to be honest with you, I did not feel that coaching the game, because I guess I'm just so used to, that's just the way the game is in today's game.
Q: KJ did.
A: KJ did? Okay.
Q: But I wanted to ask one more thing about that too.
A: KJ should, because he's 6'6 guarding a 7'0, that's a little different for him.
Q: Yeah. If that, whether the memo works or it changes or not, do you look long range and say, okay, if this is what our league is and there's going to be battles like that and they're going to let them play, do you worry about postseason and how that could prepare you guys for different crews?
A: I think it's the job of the officials to be honest with you, and Curtis, to make sure that the game's called the way they want the game called in the tournament. And to be honest with you, we got the best of, we got good officials, the best officials in our league working it. So, I haven't felt it the way that maybe you guys have felt it or seen it, but I'm just talking about the sample size is two games for me where if you watch the sample size of being 10 games so far in our league, it may feel different for other coaches.
Q: Now that you have the premier three-point shooter in Big 12 conference play, your three-point shooting numbers are actually going up. 38%, and you've got Bobby and Joe who've come in with some success there. But just talk about this team's ability to knock down the three.
A: Well Juan obviously is 7-7. So, we thought all along going into the season that this team, for us to be a good team we going to probably have to shoot a fairly high percentage of threes. The negative is that in our league so far, the two games in which we've shot the three very well, our opponents have shot it just as well.
We're 46.8% and our opponents are 46%. So, it's not like it's been a huge advantage for us being a good three-point shooting team because we haven't guarded the arc at all up until this point in the first two games. But to your point, Dave, it's going to go down. You're not going to shoot 47% as a team over a course of a league play, but it's got to go down on the other end too. We've got to do a better job defending the arc, and certainly in the first two games, even though you go back and look at it, those two or three that Obanor and Tatum threw in, I mean those are shots you want the other team to take under most circumstances, unless they're Obanor and Tatum in those particular moments. So, we didn't do a good job against Oklahoma State at all, in my opinion, defending the arc. We've defended it better than our percentages show, but we got to get better at that. Got to.
Q: I know before you mentioned that this is kind of the style of West Virginia team that Huggins has been trying to build, and Jalen called it a really tough place to play, and just overall very physical overall. What on tape have you seen from this West Virginia team that you kind of expect going in?
A: What do I expect going in?
Q: Yeah.
A: Well, the same thing. They're plus 10.5 rebounding in the two games in League. They always rebound the ball. They always, if they don't press, they always pressure, they put pressure on you defensively to go make plays and they're great at rotating, taking charges and things like that. For us, I think we're 4-6 in the 10 years Huggs has been there that they've been in the league at their place, and that's not good, but that's not awful.
You'd like to win 50 or percent of the games in every building you go into. But they've given us problems there. We've struggled there. So last year we actually performed pretty well start to finish, but there's been many times out there they controlled the game from start to finish. So, they'll be thirsty and hungry, they've lost two games that they could be 2-0 in, instead their 0-2, and we've won two games that we could be 0-2 in. So that's how good our league is right now.
Q: Curious with Bobby, what have you thought about his level of play or maybe getting more comfortable since he had the hamstring injury?
A: Oh yeah, Bobby's been good. He's been a much-needed addition for us off the bench. And obviously to your point, when you play West Virginia and they got two little guards that can play up underneath you the whole time, he's going to be very important to give one, minutes because Juan's not going to be able to play 35 minutes in this particular game at the pace and the physicality of what he'll probably be going against pressure all the time. So, Bobby's very important to our success, and he's done very well.
Q: And what do you think about the two guard lineups you've done with Bobby and Dajuan on the floor? How do you feel like that's evolved for this season so far?
A: I think we've done fine. It's not exactly playing Frank and Devonte back there where both of them can get 20 or 25 in a game, but they both played with their strengths pretty well together. I think they playing together, and certainly I look at Bobby as a valuable piece to allow Juan to stay a little fresh. You go back over time and you look at when Juan has been careless or screwed some things up, it's usually because he hadn't had a sub. And so hopefully that'll help us down the road, getting him out more, because you're going to have to have him in there late.
Q: I think the last three times you guys won in Morgantown last year, you guys win the title 2020, obviously the COVID canceled the year, but would've been probably number one seed, and then 2018 when you made a final four. Is that just coincidence? Or does it kind of speak to when you can win in there, it usually means you got a pretty good team.
A: Well, it's coincidence because if you go back and look at the times we've lost there, we've been a number one seed in the NCAA tournament, majority of the times that we lost there too. So, I would say that we're probably reading into it a little bit too much, but now that you've said it, let's go win there. Okay, so maybe that'll bode well for us down the road.
Q: Were you able to speak with Huggins after he was inducted, and what do you think of his induction? Was that long overdue?
A: Well, yeah, I've talked to Huggs too many times since he was inducted because that was back in September if I'm not mistaken. But yeah, anybody that that's won that many games as Huggs has and he's won, what, over 900 games, and that's with taking a year off and some other stuff. He's been absolutely great for our sport, and you guys know how I feel about him. I don't want to give him too much credit, but certainly he's been a huge addition to our league, both when he was at Kansas State and obviously at West Virginia.
Q: You helped him raise a ton of money. Has he asked you to come back again this year?
A: No, no. First of all, I didn't help him. He did that, they did that all on their own. I was able to provide entertainment by being a punching bag at the time in which I was there, which I'm sure that he's very grateful for on that. And the price was very cheap for me to offer to do that. But I think he's got Charles coming back this year, so he told me the other day he's got Charles, so whatever we raised last year, he'll kill it this year.
Q: How would you grade your team's performance in terms of Big 12 play, right? It's a small sample size, long season. What's kind of that message, as you said, eliminate the three-point shooting percentage? How do you move forward, what's kind of that message in the locker room to get over that? I wouldn't say get over the hump, but continue the success you guys are on right now?
A: Yeah, well first of all, anybody that knows our league, that knows that we shouldn't apologize for winning. I don't think that anytime you go on the road and you win, I think it's a great win in our league, and even the same at home.
You look at Texas Tech, they're 0-2, they could've beat us, they could've beat TCU at TCU. I mean, that's the type of league it is. And so, one week can make a huge difference in momentum and standing and all that. But my message is to the team is we actually got guard better and we got to rebound better, and we got to be a little tougher. But it's the same thing I tell my teams every year at this point in time. And the other thing on the league, I mean, you stop and think there's 16 more games left. And it's a long grind, and you can't get two up or too down, no matter where you're at. There's still time to change it one way or another, but you can't waste opportunities, and so far, we've been fortunate that we have not.
