Basketball Post Game Quotes

Coach Tom Crean

On the first game...

"I liked our start. I don't think there was any question about that. This morning at our walkthrough, everyone was energized and ready to play. Certainly, there was apprehension even yesterday about if we were really doing this for nothing again, in the sense that were we actually going to play today. I don't mean for nothing but in the sense of are we actually going to play a game. They were ready to go. They were excited to play. We tried to play a lot of people, which was something that I really wanted to do. 

It quickly became a game of who is going to make some defensive stops by guarding their man, where is our help defense going to get better and who can help it get better, and who can be on the glass. I wasn't as concerned about the offense today because I knew if we got stops, we were going to get out and run. there were too many times, and this is just going to have to work out with experience, where we were too slow against their press, first half and second half, where we just didn't get out and attack it like we wanted to. There were too many times where we didn't stay behind the defense because they really lifted up. Tye Fagan obviously knew what he was doing in that area getting back and cutting and the other guys, now that they have this game experience, and they continue to see it they will get better too. It thought there were a lot of positives. 

I thought we beat a team that was very comfortable playing college basketball. Maybe they weren't as much when they lost on the road the other night, but today they were. Robert McCullum is an excellent coach. We competed against each other in Conference USA when he was at South Florida and I was at Marquette, so I knew he was going to come in. 

I'm glad that we worked, even if we didn't attack it really well, on their zone press to zone because we really felt that once they saw our speed that we would get a real dose of that. That gives us something to study now instead of watching last year's film or watching other guys that we've had over a period of time. Now we get to watch ourselves. I think that will be really helpful."

On Sahvir Wheeler...

"He and I are starting to think a lot alike. He had some ideas today inside of the game that he may not have had a year ago, in the sense of looking at actions that would work and where we could put certain people. I think that's a growth thing for him. He really wants to be a leader. He really wants to be a floor general. At the same time, he's incredibly fast. He played more minutes today than I would have liked to have had happen knowing that we have a game Wednesday and again on Friday. It is what it is, and we have to win the game. The only thing that I really wanted to do was play everybody. I played Jaxon Etter late, and I didn't take him out for any reason other than they were fowling and I didn't want to put a kid who hadn't shot the ball automatic at the foul line in that situation. We have to become a team that has strength in numbers. at the end of the day, if you want to play, you have to keep up with Savir Wheeler's speed. 

Tye Fagan is a great example of that with 21 points and how much cutting and working he did tonight. I love what Sahvir Wheeler is about, and I love the leadership and the fact that he can improve a lot right now.”

On the pace of the game...

"It has to get faster. There is no question about that. We're going to see zone pressure all year. Once people see the speed, we're going to see a press. I thought we learned a lot. They came after Sahvir Wheeler with the ball screen, and I probably should have started slipping the screens earlier than what we did, but I never get fearful that he won't be able to make a play out of a trap. They did some things to slow our pace down. That's why we have to be really good defensively. The fact that they made shots and were able to set their press makes it a little harder to get your speed game going in that, but we have to learn how to.”

On P.J. Horne...

"I think he was like a lot of guys. He was pressing a lot. I think if that three goes down early, it's another story. It's different. We have him guarding on the perimeter more and things like that. I reminded him in a timeout that he played the five in 31 games last year. You were guarding Vernon Carey last year and everyone else in that league. Just relax and play. But they didn't really have anyone like that, so he has to get better at guarding on the perimeter. He's going to be a driver for us. He has to be a guy that is going to post and get fouled. When he lines it up and he steps into his shot, which I thought he rushed a little bit early, he's going to be a big factor for us. He changes the energy level of the team when he's making threes."

On the new players on the team...

"Well, it's both. P.J. Horne is a phenomenal shooter. Andrew Garcia is getting better as a shooter. He made 25 threes last year at Stony Brook High School, and P.J. made 45 at Virginia Tech. They will at least double those numbers for us this year. But, I am thinking what I am learning when you have grad transfers like this is as much as we want them to learn how we want to play. They know they are getting better; they know they are getting pushed in different areas and have different skills that they might not have had before. I think the most important thing and I think Andrew showed this that you have to let them play the way they are most comfortable playing. They had 22/23 years of life before us. I thought Andrew did a great job of just playing to his strengths. That is what we have to do with Justin Kier, P.J., Ty McMillin to a degree."

On veteran leadership on the team...

"It is going to be very important. I have said it so many times; and this is the definition of it, the game is always giving you something. And today, Tye Fagan and Andrew Garcia figured out what the game was giving them. We knew that they were going to get extended in their zone. We worked hard yesterday and reviewed it this morning on how much we wanted to attack their zone press, and we didn't do a great job of that. It stagnated just a little bit. But, when the ball is moving and your cutting or you’re going into a post-up, like Andrew, and you’re on the glass—we’re a big corner team. Right? We don’t just want to live in the corner shooting threes. We want to live in the corner for getting drop-offs and for cutting. We will drive out of the corners. We are trying to use every bit of the half-court. We’re trying to use the full-court. Tye Fagan did a really good job of that today. 

I said this on the radio show last night, the last film we showed them was our cutting tape. There was probably 25 clips in there. At one point, l said in the tape, ’This is basically the Tye Fagan clinic video—how to move without the basketball.’ Anthony Edwards was in it. He learned so much about moving without the ball last year. Jordan Harris, Toumani Camara, Rayshaun Hammonds making passes—it’s all last year’s stuff. Sahvir Wheeler finding people, Jordan Harris, Christian Brown. But at the end of the day, Tye Fagan dominates the film because he does a great job of moving without that basketball. Tonight ,whenever everybody looks at it and says, ‘Oh wow! Tye Fagan had 21.’ That stands out because how he got them and how he didn’t need things done for him because we’re not a lets just go call the play for a guy type of team. Sometimes out of timeouts we will, but the majority we want five people moving. With a kid like Sahvir in the game, and Mikal Starks and Jaykwon Walton as they get better at this—it’s going to make it that much easier.”

On the status of K.D. Johnson…

“K.D. Johnson, right now, here’s what we have, he did not play because we’re dealing with some NCAA certification issues, academically. He’s been involved in every basketball-related activities since he arrived on campus, so it’s not of that. He is with us at practice, at workouts. He is probably, not only, do I look at him as one of the best freshman in the league, he is our most competitive guy, and we have some competitors. But, he is our most competitive guy. Right now we are working with our compliance staff and Will Lawler and Steve Flippen to revisit his eligibility status with the NCAA, and we remain hopeful that he will be able to play this season. It’s not an amateurism issue, it’s a certification-eligibility issue that we are working with. 

The most important thing he can do is control what he can control just like everybody else. I appreciate his attitude. He has worked very, very hard in this, and if he was able to play you would see him from the beginning or real early because he is one competitive—he changes the energies of our practices many, many times because of his competitive level. Frankly, it was a little different for everybody not having him out there, too. We are just going to have to get used to it, but at the same time we’re working with compliance and see how it turns out.”

Tye Fagan, Junior

On his performance today and play with Sahvir Wheeler… 

“I don’t take credit for that. A lot of that has to do with Sahvir. He is a great ball-handler, and he finds guys. I’m pretty sure he had 12 assists, so that is what I mean how he found guys. I give a lot of credit to my teammates and coaches to put me in the right places.”

On the differences between the first and second half…

“We came out in the first half—it was our first game of course—we rushed a few shots. We passed up a few shots, and those things are what our coaches are on us daily at practice and when we scrimmage. As a team, we rush shots sometimes and pass up shots. But in the second half, we talked about it, and we seen what he was talking about because it was actually live game action. In the second half, we tried to take better shots and be more efficient with it.”

On how it felt to start the season as an offensive leader…

 
“It feels great. I’ve had chances in the past and when I get them, I just try to see the opportunity. I don’t really think about playing much or not playing much. I just try to do what they need me to do. In the past I had a smaller role—now I have a bigger role. That’s just what it is, I’m just trying to win the game. So, whatever the team needs from me, that is what I am going to try and do.”

On the experience make-up of the team with graduate transfers and new additions… 

“No, I don’t think it will be a problem because these pieces that we have now fit as well. The pieces we had last year fit as how we wanted them to fit. Things just didn’t turn out how we wanted them to—that’s just the game, that’s life, that’s just how it is. For this year with the new guys, we have a lot of leaders. Like the graduates, they’re doing well, they’re leaders. Like Justin Kier, P.J. Horne, all those guys they help lead. And that’s one of my roles too, on the team. I always wanted to be a leader. To help the guys who don’t understand something, understand it. And we are starting to understand it very well. I know we didn’t show it in the first half, but in the second half, we showed it better. And that’s why it helps to have older guys: leadership.”

On rebounding and pride, he takes in defense… 

“I take a lot of pride in it. For one we work on it a lot in practice. Coach always tells us, ‘If we want to get on the court and play, we got to rebound.' I take pride in rebounding, I just happened to get 10 rebounds. I didn’t have a number in mind or anything like that.”

On emphasis on the second half and how it felt to start opposed to coming off the bench… 

“No, it didn’t have a different feeling because my goal is to lead and bring energy like I said. I just want to lead and bring energy. Whether that’s coming off the bench or starting, whatever the case is, I just want to bring something to the team. I felt like in the second half we could play faster but play in control. I just tried to get on a roll and Sahvir and Justin and a couple of guys found me with the brick a few times.”

On Andrew’s performance and what he expects from him this season… 

“That was very big. It didn’t surprise us at all because there had been a few times at practice where different guys went for spurts or just scoring buckets and he’s one of the guys. He can shoot it; he didn’t get to make any threes tonight but he can shoot the three ball pretty good. He’s a post person because he’s strong and physical, and he’s very athletic. I expect that from him all season guarding stronger guys, guarding guards because he can move his feet really well. I expect him to chip in on the defensive end, and I expect him to chip in on the offensive end just like he did tonight.”

Andrew Garcia, Graduate-Transfer

On having little to no expectations coming into today and coming off the bench… 

 
“Coach Crean really emphasized that we have a lot of players at every position coming in and out and just giving it our all. He just wants us to play hard and execute as a team. ”

On if something changed at halftime to spark his second-half outburst… 

“I feel like in the first half we got all our jitters out. We wanted to stay true to being strong, getting it into the post, and using our strength and athleticism down low. We were able to use Tye Fagan's ability to cut without the basketball and utilize one of their weaknesses of looking at the ball. He wanted us to keep moving the ball and get better shots, that was kind of the main emphasis for the second half.”

On the atmosphere of the game in the Covid-era… 

 
“Obviously, we don’t have full capacity fans due to COVID-19, but I felt that that energy was there, especially from my team. We knew from the jump that we had to bring our own energy, be loud on the court, and support each other. Obviously, we have the social distancing on the bench as well, but we have to find ways to keep that energy because that’s our M.O. of supporting each other and being a high-energy team.”

On trying to prepare for a season on a new team with games being uncertain… 

 
“It’s been pretty crazy, but Coach talks every day about how we don’t know what is going to happen the next day, like with the last game just being canceled on Wednesday. Sahvir Wheeler, Toumani Camara and the rest of the team are just trying to keep everybody focused, prepared, and ready to go. We’ve been trying to bring that same approach every day and if something like last game happens, we’ve got to try to find a way, internally, to bring that same energy and be prepared for the next game.”

On the pride that he takes with being the physical enforcer on both ends of the floor… 

 
“I take it 100% to the heart. Wherever coach puts me, I’m going to use 100% of my effort and definitely use my strength and athleticism to guard bigger guys or if I’m in a mismatch. Wherever I’m at, I just want to help this team and I want to win. The more we win, the more exposure we get, and good things happen for everyone.”

On adjusting as a team to P.J. Horn’s slow start… 

 
“I feel like it’s our first game and we're trying to know each other’s spots. PJ’s a knockdown shooter and he’s going to be a big mismatch when those bigger big men have to come out of position and guard him out on the wing. I feel like we’re going to go cut the tape up, go to practice tomorrow and figure it out because he’s not afraid to shoot that ball and that’s what we want him to do. Coach emphasizes every day for him to shoot the ball because that’s what he did at his previous school. So, we’re going to get him going for sure and find a way to incorporate him.”

Florida A&M Head Coach Robert McCullum

On his thoughts on the game…

“I thought our guys played well, I thought we fought hard. We did a lot of things well. Overall, I thought Georgia’s size and athleticism was a big difference over the course of the game.”

On Georgia’s athleticism…

“They’re very athletic. They’re athletic throughout their roster. Which is what you expect a SEC team to be. Their point guard, Sahvir Wheeler, is really good. He’s tough to contain and his penetration really hurt us because he got into the paint time and time again. We had a stretch there in the first half where we went to a zone defense and I thought that slowed them down a little bit. We contained them more. Overall, him breaking us down, getting in the paint and creating looks. All those things were the biggest difference.”

On what he told his guys after the under-16 time out…

“I knew we were okay. We weathered that stretch. We play the game in four-minute increments. We came out of that first media timeout, I think we went to the free throw line. We expected that. Slowly but surely we’d get back into the game. We did and led for different segments of the first half and were only down by one at half-time.”