Nov. 28, 1999
#42 Jamaal Magloire
?I think I got off to a slow start in New York. The good thing is that we have the kind of team that when one player is not getting things done, the others will pick up the slack. Tomorrow?s game versus Dayton is a chance for us to redeem ourselves.?
?This season, teams have been paying extra attention to me in games. Every time I get the ball, teams are collapsing down around me. I take that sort of attention as a compliment. When teams focus two and three men on me, that means that we have two more guys who aren?t being guarded.?
?I think we?ve been successful thus far, except Arizona. We need to focus our attention on going down low. We?re not utilizing the fact that we can take shots closer to the basket, therefore we?re making fewer shots. A loss like the one to Arizona is good early in the season because it shows us what we need to do to improve.?
#21 Tayshaun Prince
?Shooting is the main thing we need to work on to improve our game. Offensively, we?re just standing around. When we move more the shots will come. We?re playing impatiently and forcing shots too early on the shot clock.?
?If you shoot bad and still win the game, then you know that your defense is getting the job done. I feel like our only problem right now is that we?re standing around offensively. That?s not the point guard?s fault. We have to get out and run. We need to take the ball out fast and push it up the court instead of walking.?
?In practice, we?ve been mainly focusing on getting back on defense. We took extra time on shooting but our main concern is the defense. We?re playing well defensively, but we?re also letting some easy shots go.?
#11 Saul Smith
?If we can maintain our current level of defense, we know our shots will fall. When that happens, it will be an explosive experience. I know that it will be incredible when those two combine. There are a couple of us not shooting well at all, which makes it difficult to win games.?
?A lot of teams have been clamping down on Jamaal. That causes us to throw the ball away or force passes inside to him when he may not be open. So we definitely need to work on passing the ball to the post.?
On the match-up with Dayton: ?We can?t take any team for granted. We could go in there tomorrow and win by two points or by 20 points. As long as we?re playing well and winning games, then our confidence will build from there.?
