Feb. 22, 2014
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Q. When you took a time out and there was 32.5 left, you had 31 on the shot clock. Did you want Marble to drive it or did you prefer to milk the clock?
COACH McCAFFERY: We were going. Yeah, we were going.
Q. Did you just feel that was going to make a better shot if he was driving?
COACH McCAFFERY: You know, you call a play and then he’s got to read it, and that’s what he did.
Q. There was a time out, you came out of a time out, you had four turnovers the whole game and then you turn it over on back to back possessions
COACH McCAFFERY: Yeah, Mike just rushed it a little bit. He had the right idea, I thought. It was unfortunate, he just threw it too soon.
Q. You had a lead and Gasser hit a three with like one second on the shot clock. He scored three points on three straight possessions, really kept you from getting a little advantage?
COACH McCAFFERY: Yeah, sometimes it’s hard, I think, when you’re guarding looking, looking and trying to match up to know exactly what the shot clock is because you look back and say, why didn’t he come up. With one second, you come up, if he drives by you, the clock is going to go off. I’m not sure even though it’s down there that you can always do that. But I thought our guys were working pretty hard there.
Q. When you were down three, was that play for Zach?
COACH McCAFFERY: Well, there was other options in it, but that was an option that we liked, and we thought he would be able, yeah.
Q. That ball came out funny. Did it slip out of his hands or did it get tipped?
COACH McCAFFERY: It certainly looked that way. I didn’t ask him. You can ask him. It didn’t come out of his hand cleanly, but he was wide open. I don’t think he’ll make any excuses there or anything.
Q. Is this really going to be not having much time to reflect, a real gut check for your team, a game Tuesday on the road?
COACH McCAFFERY: Yeah, if we’d won it would be the same thing. I don’t look at that any differently. You’ve got a brutal week, two road games and a home game against three really good teams.
Q. How do you feel like you guys played defensively?
COACH McCAFFERY: Not well. No, not well. Not well at all. The only thing that really worked was kind of staying in the zone. We didn’t play that that well, but at least we had some semblance of keeping them in front of us. They made so many threes early, went by us relatively quickly. We went to the zone, and the three quarter, the three-quarter back to the zone was good for a while, and then had we gotten some of those stops, I think it would have been that much more effective, but obviously we didn’t.
Q. Obviously you kept throwing the same play to Josh because it kept working. Were you surprised they didn’t adjust on that?
COACH McCAFFERY: Well, they did adjust. They kept putting different people on him, yeah. Brust was on him and then Koenig was on him and then Jackson was on him. That was the adjustment that they made.
Q. Was that something positive that came out of this game?
COACH McCAFFERY: That was, I think, a huge positive. If we were to ride him like that on a day when our offense was just okay, yeah, I think it’s unfortunate that we didn’t get a win, but to be able to ride him that was a pretty impressive display he put on.
Q. Was Basabe just sick? And how did that affect you in the game?
COACH McCAFFERY: Well, he’s played well against these guys. He gives you another post up threat, gives you another shot block, gives you another post defender, gives you another experienced guy. Zach didn’t play well. I thought Jarrod was good, but he was tired at times, Whitey was tired at times. I could have gone to Mel.
Q. Were you bracing to start Zach before today?
COACH McCAFFERY: No, no, Melsahn had a great practice yesterday. He was sick this morning when he came to pregame meal, and we put an IV in him. That’s why he didn’t get to the bench until the 12 minute mark. He thought he could go. I put him in, and he couldn’t, and he said, Coach, I can’t help it. I respect that.
Q. Do you think Jarrod was more aggressive today?
COACH McCAFFERY: Well, I think so. That’s what we’ve been trying to get him to do. He’s got a lot of talent that he can give us at both ends of the floor, and we need him thinking that way and being that way, and he was. It was good for us.
Q. When you look at the first half, Marble was able to get inside and give it to Olaseni. How did they adjust to keep them from becoming successful later in the game?
COACH McCAFFERY: I don’t think they made any adjustments. They’re very solid in what they do defensively in terms of how they play ball screens. They play the same way, and we had some opportunities to get some pull ups we didn’t make, and they didn’t do a whole lot of adjustments there.
Q. Has there been any theme or pattern to the three home losses?
COACH McCAFFERY: Yeah, we lost to three good teams.
Q. Down the stretch there they had three points on three straight possessions. One of those Zach was called for a block in front of him, they converted. Did it feel like at that point of the game if you could just get one stop there you would have an advantage coming down the stretch?
COACH McCAFFERY: I think that would be a safe statement, yeah.