K-Stated

Enjoy.

Does
anything surprise you about Michael Beasley?
Not
really. We watched him play a trillion times as a high school guy. We
know him as a kid, what kind of kid he is because of his close
relationship with Dalonte (Hill). We’ve seen him every single day,
in season practices — I’m not surprised. He’s a heck of a
player. He’s a very talented player, but an even better kid… If
you know Mike, scoring 30 points a night isn’t what makes him go.
He wants to win. Mike’s about winning. He’s a great teammate. If
everybody could be the kind of teammate Mike is, coaching and sports,
you wouldn’t have the turnover you have in the coaching profession
because he’s an unbelievable kid and an even better teammate.

What do
you know about Oregon?
I
actually watched a couple of their games closely last year. I watched
them play Florida – Billy Donovan is a dear friend, so I watched
that game closely. With today’s technology, we have so many of
their game tapes available to us that we’ve been able to study
them, prepare for them. I can’t think of too many teams that can be
better than them offensively. They’re as good as it gets on
offense. Not taking anything away from them defensively, just
offensively, they’re just very talented at all five spots. Ernie
(Kent) has done an unbelievable job with that job, getting those guys
to play together and as a basketball coach, that’s what you need to
have.

Encouraged
by more balanced scoring?
The only
reason we hadn’t gotten it before was we had guys who weren’t
making shots. The shot distribution I’ve been pleased with. We’ve
played evenly share the ball. Our assist numbers, given the fact we
weren’t not making shots, have been good. I’ve been extremely
pleased by that. Just a matter of guys rising up and making shots. We
have the right guys taking shots from the right spots. Like Jacob did
the past weekend and Andre did the last game – couple of guys
making a couple of shots, being able to relax. Throughout the season,
if a couple of guys make shots, we’d have more balanced scoring.
It’s not like we’re just trying to get Michael shots. It is what
it is.

Is the
team ready for the challenge of an offensive juggernaut like Oregon?
We’d
better be ready. They’ll put a big number on you in a hurry. I’m
pleased where we’re at from a defensive standpoint. Still playing
spurts too much, still fouling too much. We’d gotten away from
fouling against UCF, against Rider did a good job for first 30
minutes, then got in the same rut… I’m happy where we’re at.
Our guys work at it, we’re committed to it. We’re going to keep
getting better.

Are
injuries a challenge?
It’s
sports. Look at Kansas. They were without Brandon Rush the whole
preseason and now they’re without Sherron Collins. It’s sports.
Texas last year lost a couple of guys to injuries and they still
lined up and won. Villanova, the year they had the four guards, their
so-called best player tore his ACL in the preseason and they still
went out and won 30 games. It’s a part of sports. If you start
using that as a crutch, then all you’re doing is creating a safety
net to tell your team it’s OK to fail and that’s not what I’m
about and it’s that’s not what we’re about.

Did Jacob
Pullen make progress on the defensive end over the weekend?
He has.
Jacob Pullen, from a defensive standpoint, is a lot better today than
he was six weeks ago. He went into the tournament understanding he
was getting ready to face some high-level guards every night, and
from a defensive standpoint, he really did a heck of a job for us. He
still relaxes at times, and that’s fine – he’s going to
continue to learn you can’t relax. In high school, guys like him
can relax five times and nothing will happen. At the collegiate
level, every time you relax, the other team makes you pay for it.
He’s learning that’s not something you can do.

What
makes Michael Beasley such a good rebounder?
Rebounding
is his strength. That’s what he does. If there is a part of his
game that you want to say he is good at, that’s it. It’s a
combination of two things – 1. He has good hands and he’s very
strong, and 2. He has the instinct to go get the ball. He can read
the ball coming off the rim, knows where it’s going and he had
great hands, he’s athletic, strong – he can go get it… I think
some guys have the instinct to go read the ball, have a feel to know
where it’s going. He has that ability. At the end of the day,
rebounding is effort. If you can have all of the instincts you want –
if you don’t have the strength to go in there and withstand another
person trying to get the ball, have the strength to withhold and
still elevate, grasp the ball and hold it… Rebounding, at the end
of the day, is an effort play. It’s something you have to do all of
the time.

Concerned
about Bill Walker’s emotions?
His fifth
foul against George Mason, he put his hands on his head and walked
away from the foul. He got tech-ed up for that. Against Rider, Len
Elmore approached me after the game – Len did the color on the
television set — and said he couldn’t believe both kids got
ejected. He said, ‘Frank, I looked at it, over and over, neither
one did anything.’…  Bill plays with emotion, and that’s what
gives him the edge to be who he is. He has to be able to have that
emotion to succeed. What he needs to learn is there is a certain line
he can’t cross with that emotion, and that’s part of his youth.
He’ll continue to get better with that. Do I sit back and say it’s
OK to get technicals every night? Absolutely not. Am I worried about
it? No, I’m not.