Press conference notes: BK's illegal screens driving Pitino crazy, Akeem not happy

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with his personal success in the game, because team performance is more important, and more...

These are my quick notes, not verbatim:

Pitino:
• A lot of good teaching moments in that game. We made them shoot 25%. Our problems were TO's and offensive rebounds. This is a scary time of year, we've got a lot of home games, you have to get your guys to understand that you can lose to anybody. Sometimes feeling it, is a nice wake up call. Happy we won, and to do it with not playing great, we found a way to get stops and made plays when we needed to.
• I think there are so many elements that go into it, a long month, they all see that, it's human nature, you've got to fight it. Find a way to lock in every single day to get better. We've got to find a way to use this month to get better and find a way to win games. We only had 1 day prep, we had to take off Sunday. Our offense wasn't very good, gotta get better.
• We weren't very good, but we found a way to win. We had good energy today in huddles, but not leading up to it. Your approach has to be good, you can't be bored with little things. As coaches, you have to make it as creative as you can, but you have to be obsessed with individually getting better and collectively getting better.
• (On Akeem's comment about being tested tomorrow) He probably said it because I was sitting there, I say that a lot. I'm a firm believer that everyone is prepared going into a game, but it's how do you respond with the elements in the game? I thought guys were pretty dialed into winning. We need to get a better offensive flow.
• Akeem is starting to figure out how he can impact this team, he had 19 points, but what I really liked was 7 rebounds, Nate played tremendous D. Akeem came in and hit big FT, Nate hits a big shot to put us up by 4. Akeem played the 4, he doesn't know that position, but did it. We found a way to get it done.
• It's one team, there's only one unit, I thought BK is playing well, he just needs to stop setting illegal screens, it's driving me crazy. I'm yelling "legal!" I don't know if he understands what I'm saying. I like what he's giving us. Eric wasn't great today, he can give us more. We'll just keep getting them better, and that's the key. On BK's offensive game better - I think he's giving us really good minutes. He's offensively getting better, that's going to take time, keep working more than anything. He has never once mentioned playing time, role, he celebrates teammates success. I'm happy with his development, just need to get him to set better screens.
• Trailed this game - it's different than last year, I thought we hit big FT's when we needed to. We've got to just find a way. Reggie does provide a little - it's infectious, if they mess up, he goes an blocks a shot and bails them out. We need to do a good job of finals, and find a way to win the next game.


Akeem Springs:
• I think it's something, if we get on the team, we'll be a lot better. IF we take it as an opportunity to improve, and get prepared for our conference, we'll be better. I was a mid-major guy, and you come in thinking "this is the game…"
• Was this the best you felt? - No, we didn't play well. It was a personal best for me, but I didn't feel good during the game. I understand that it's the details that are going to get us to where want to go. You can't really be too happy with your personal success. It was good it was a close game, that will help us.
• Nate can attest to this, they'd been through this last year. We have to focus in on details, what we practice has to transition to the game. Partially I'm happy for this game, it keeps us hungry at practice. We didn’t' underestimate them.
• We got hit in the mouth, and it's good for us. Tomorrow is where we're going to see how we respond, and if we're hungry.


Nate Mason:
• Akeem made big plays, whether it was a box out, FT's, he showed his leadership through the 2nd half. Everyone stepped up, and make key plays.
• On D - I think our numbers were pretty good, but turned the ball over 14 times, and they got 13 offensive rebounds, but their FG% was 33%. Some slip ups.

This game was kind of weird, they were in a Princeton style offense, Coach put more guards in there, and helped us out.
 


Akeem isn't happy, but what is his brother Kanye saying?
 

Interesting comment by Mason. I caught the last 10 minutes and I also thought once Pitino went to the four guard line up plus Lynch, it gave us a huge advantage. Could be something we see from time to time with the right match up
 

What drives me even crazier is Pitino calling out BK after he again brought great energy on both ends of the floor (7R, 3B in 10 minutes is ridiculous). Meanwhile Murphy is making the exact same mistakes at a higher clip and not a mention. I know Murphy was "the man" last year, and he's still doing a great job on the glass this year, but offensively he's looked absolutely lost. He had a traveling call (he can't seem to operate on the perimeter without doing so), set 2 illegal screens and went 0-4 (bunnies) in his limited minutes last night, and somehow it's BK getting called out after the game. Nothing more poisonous to a team than when a coach buys into the idea he needs to keep certain players happy - this is nothing personal against Murphy, but he's simply not playing at a high level right now and needs to make some serious adjustments to his game to get over the hump. Not acknowledging, and much worse, deflecting criticism to other players spells nothing but trouble.
 


Interesting comment by Mason. I caught the last 10 minutes and I also thought once Pitino went to the four guard line up plus Lynch, it gave us a huge advantage. Could be something we see from time to time with the right match up

I'm not sure the Gophers will face another team this small. But if they do, you would think Pitino goes back to this lineup.
 

What drives me even crazier is Pitino calling out BK after he again brought great energy on both ends of the floor (7R, 3B in 10 minutes is ridiculous). Meanwhile Murphy is making the exact same mistakes at a higher clip and not a mention. I know Murphy was "the man" last year, and he's still doing a great job on the glass this year, but offensively he's looked absolutely lost. He had a traveling call (he can't seem to operate on the perimeter without doing so), set 2 illegal screens and went 0-4 (bunnies) in his limited minutes last night, and somehow it's BK getting called out after the game. Nothing more poisonous to a team than when a coach buys into the idea he needs to keep certain players happy - this is nothing personal against Murphy, but he's simply not playing at a high level right now and needs to make some serious adjustments to his game to get over the hump. Not acknowledging, and much worse, deflecting criticism to other players spells nothing but trouble.

Depends on the situation though. Many coaches will tell you that players respond differently. Maybe Konate responds well to being called out a bit where Murphy doesn't.

It also could be that someone asked about Konate and nobody asked about Murphy.
 

What drives me even crazier is Pitino calling out BK after he again brought great energy on both ends of the floor (7R, 3B in 10 minutes is ridiculous). Meanwhile Murphy is making the exact same mistakes at a higher clip and not a mention. I know Murphy was "the man" last year, and he's still doing a great job on the glass this year, but offensively he's looked absolutely lost. He had a traveling call (he can't seem to operate on the perimeter without doing so), set 2 illegal screens and went 0-4 (bunnies) in his limited minutes last night, and somehow it's BK getting called out after the game. Nothing more poisonous to a team than when a coach buys into the idea he needs to keep certain players happy - this is nothing personal against Murphy, but he's simply not playing at a high level right now and needs to make some serious adjustments to his game to get over the hump. Not acknowledging, and much worse, deflecting criticism to other players spells nothing but trouble.


Every player needs to be coached differently.
 

I think that can be true to a certain degree and it's a fair point to make. But I've also been around coaches that believe they are Freud and can control behavior / motivation of players through sheer will power or psychological insight, and in my experience more often than not that ends up backfiring. A democratic approach is always superior IMHO. If Pitino is screaming out "legal!!!" to Konate when he's setting screens, he sure as hell should be yelling the same thing out to Murphy. And maybe try "don't travel!!!" as well. At the end of the day, all players want above all else equal treatment. Bottom line - whatever psychological approach he may be attempting with Murhphy - it's not working and an adjustment needs to be made IMHO.
 



What drives me even crazier is Pitino calling out BK after he again brought great energy on both ends of the floor (7R, 3B in 10 minutes is ridiculous). Meanwhile Murphy is making the exact same mistakes at a higher clip and not a mention. I know Murphy was "the man" last year, and he's still doing a great job on the glass this year, but offensively he's looked absolutely lost. He had a traveling call (he can't seem to operate on the perimeter without doing so), set 2 illegal screens and went 0-4 (bunnies) in his limited minutes last night, and somehow it's BK getting called out after the game. Nothing more poisonous to a team than when a coach buys into the idea he needs to keep certain players happy - this is nothing personal against Murphy, but he's simply not playing at a high level right now and needs to make some serious adjustments to his game to get over the hump. Not acknowledging, and much worse, deflecting criticism to other players spells nothing but trouble.

I only read the transcript, but I read this as classic Pitino sort of going off on someone. Like when he makes fun of Nate Mason's clothes. Not really angry.. more annoyed in an "I love you" sort of way.
 

BK's moving screens takes a possession away from the Gophers, in a tight game that is important, Mason may have to help him out a little bit and show him how he will use the screen, even run into BK if he moves to emphasize his point.
 




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