Dec. 19, 2012
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Q.Talk about Devyn Marble’s performance?
COACH McCAFFERY: You know, he’s just really playing well. I’m just really proud of him. I’m moving him around. He’s got a brace on. If our offense starts to get bogged down, he makes a play. He’s playing with a lot of confidence right now. But I wasn’t going to keep him out there today.
Q. Is Josh dinged up?
COACH McCAFFERY: Yeah, he’s a little bit dinged up. He should be able to play Saturday, I would think.
Q. (No Microphone)?
COACH McCAFFERY: Yeah, I thought yesterday that he would have been able to play, but he couldn’t.
Q. (No Microphone)?
COACH McCAFFERY: I have never had a direct conversation with him in regard to anything other than I want him to be the player that he’s capable of being. He has always been aggressive since the minute he got here. I go back to when I was 28 and a half in high school, he had the green light as a freshman. He had the green light last year. He’s got the green light this year.
There have been times when I said why didn’t you shoot that particular shot? You know, he was open. Because he’s got such a great mid range game, but he’s not a guy that really hunts shots. He’s a very unselfish player. I don’t ever want him to get away from that. But I do want him to be the guy. You know, I think that’s what he’s starting to do.
I treat him with that level of respect. You know, I go to him in key situations. I set him up. I put stuff in for him, and he knows I want to go to him. He knows I have confidence in him.
Like I said, I’ll say, “hey, why don’t you shoot that one? Go ahead and shoot that one,” if he turns one down. But he’s not a guy that if it’s going to go out there and just be a volume shooter. He’s not that kind of he’s a complete player. That’s what I love about him.
Q. You thought he was uncomfortable, but he really looked comfortable as a ball carrier?
COACH McCAFFERY: He was like that in the last few games. He’s been like that in practice recently. He played with great energy. That play he made in the second half, he ran a guy down to block a shot. That’s as good a play as I’ve seen in a long time. Not a lot of guys can do that.
Q. (No Microphone)?
COACH McCAFFERY: That’s a good way to put it. He’s seeing it. He’s in the right place more often than he was. It used to be. If he wasn’t in the right place, he would get down on himself, even though we told him don’t get down on yourself. You’re fine. You’re going to make a mistake and be in the wrong place.
But his foot work, and his spacing, and his understanding of where to be, whether we’re running motion or whether we’re in sets, defensively whether we’re pressing or not pressing, he just seems to be in the right place more often. What ends up happening is he makes plays instead of mistakes, and his confidence grows, and that’s what you want.
Q. How valuable is the fact that he’s putting up points (No Microphone)?
COACH McCAFFERY: He is, and I want to keep it that way. I mean, I like the fact that we move him back and forth. I do think playing him at the two does make him more aggressive offensively. He’s not as aggressive at the one as I would like him to be. But I appreciate the fact that he wants to set people up and get us into our stuff. So I like that mixture for him. I think it works for him and works for us.
Q. You said yesterday, against this team the other night (Indiscernible) did you feel that’s what you were able to do in terms of being able to win this game tonight?
COACH McCAFFERY: Well, I think in terms of our defensive pressure and our mixture of pressing, and our running game we were able to simulate what Missouri did, yes.
And that’s impressive, because I expected them to come out and they came out pretty good early. They’re quick. They typically shoot the ball better than they shot tonight. So we had something to do with that, obviously. But a guy like Toombs is a better player than 2 for 13. I have been impressed with him on film. But we got after him pretty good though.