UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
RICHMOND v. MOREHEAD STATE
NOV. 27, 2020
RUPP ARENA – LEXINGTON, KY.
Richmond Head Coach Chris Mooney
On his team’s defensive improvement from the first half to the second half …
“That was the thing we talked about at halftime was that we played really nicely on offense in the first half. Moved the ball and really took advantage of being a veteran team who has a really good understanding of how we’re playing, but we thought that our grit and just our activity had to be better on defense, and I thought right away in the second half we caused some turnovers, we deflected a number of passes, we outrebounded them for the game. So, I thought that really was the key to us being able to pull away. We still played well offensively but our defensive intensity and our defensive grit really improved.”
On the decision to not dress Andre Weir …
“Andre has had just a couple of things that he hasn’t done as well as we expect and not met the standards necessarily. He’s a great kid. He has a chance to be a great player, but we decided that maybe he wasn’t ready. I think a lot of two guys in particular, Ryan Butler and Trey Davis, who played for us. Those guys, their fathers played at Richmond, and I can remember how special it was the first time they were suiting up, and that really means a lot to me, to our former players, to our current players is how much goes into being a Richmond Spiders basketball player. We just need a little bit more from Andre and I’m confident that he’ll do that.”
On what defensive adjustments they made in the second half ….
“They did some things differently than we saw in the Kentucky game and what we saw on tape last year. That’s part of basketball, and I think we were a little bit late because of that. I think the biggest thing was, in the second half we were just committed at a higher degree. The first cut that a guy would try to be open, Blake Francis would be really on that guy. Isaiah Wilson picked up and was really bothering and making it difficult for the point guard. And Jacob (Gilyard) of course tipping passes. I just think it was more of a more alert, physical defensive unit that we had out there. The different things we saw we were able to adjust to, but we really need that commitment and that intensity on the defensive end, and I thought that improved dramatically in the second half.”
On Isaiah Wilson’s performance tonight …
“I thought he was really good. He is very quick but also his mentality is excellent. He dives on the floor, he takes charges in practice. When you’re also as quick as he is, those make you a really dangerous defensive player. I think he has a chance to be an elite defender. And just as he learns and gets more comfortable, I think we’ll see a lot of this. He had an and one or a traditional 3-point play today. But I think as he gets more and more comfortable, we’re going to see a really good player. I’ll say this: He competes every day with one of the best backcourts and the country and he never backs down. He’s always ready to play. Really, really competitive young man.”
On the team’s offensive efficiency …
“Probably so (exceed his expectations). You never know how you’re going to shoot, mainly a lot of it comes down to how are you going to shoot the 3. What I was impressed with, when they went zone, we were able to get shots right around the basket. When they turned the heat up on defense and went man-to-man, we were able to get some layups and some easy shots. Grant (Golden) passed the ball really well out of the low post and the high post. So, yeah, I was impressed with that. Morehead is a very physical, very defensive-oriented team so I thought our ball movement was good and obviously it’ll have to be on Sunday.”
On the matchup with Kentucky …
“So, rarely, do I get to see a team in person in college basketball except for at a tournament. So, we were able to see the game the other night. What stands out is their incredible length and athleticism. Different than like, Wisconsin, who we played early on last season great players, mostly older who are really so just bought into a system and very successful. With Kentucky, you have unbelievable length, athleticism, ability, but guys who are young and so our experience has to show up. Not on the first play or the second play, or the first half. It has to show up on every play. Hopefully we are tough enough to do that and can compete here on Sunday.”
On the short turnaround between games …
“Well, I can tell you we’ve been trying to play games for a long time. So, we are thrilled. We have a good little setup when we go back to the hotel. Guys do the regeneration, they call it. We’ll have a good practice tomorrow. We’re looking forward to it. I know a lot of teams are playing, Mohegan Sun, all around the country, so we’re looking forward to it. We’re hopeful that we are up for the challenge on Sunday.”
On how much leash Jacob Gilyard has to go for steals …
“It’s pretty green. I don’t think there’s a stoplight there to be honest with you. To be honest, today, was one of the few times that he almost had more steals. He usually gets the steals that he goes for. First game, and I think he still had three but he deflected a lot of passes. He has an incredible instinct, so we are very comfortable him and I think our guys being so experienced know how to play and rotate around if he’s not successful.”
UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
RICHMOND v. MOREHEAD STATE
NOV. 27, 2020
RUPP ARENA – LEXINGTON, KY.
Richmond Players
#4 Nathan Cayo, Sr., F
On working on jump shots in the offseason and if he wanted to emphasize those this year …
“Yeah, definitely during the offseason. It was 3s mostly, but I worked on just taking the shot when I’m open, especially now with Nick (Sherod) out and him being our best shooter, so spacing out the floor and helping the team was important.”
On adjustments made going into the second half after having nine turnovers …
“Just penetration offense. We have great players so every time we took our time and took our best shot it worked out for us.”
On the defensive improvement from first half to second half …
“I mean first half we just weren’t playing as aggressively on defense, so in the second half we really picked it up. Zay (Isaiah Wilson) did a great job when he came in being really aggressive on the ball and Jacob (Gilyard) and Blake (Francis) were great defenders, so they really helped us out.”
On having 52 points in the paint and how much that reflects Richmond’s style of play …
“Just being spaced out we had a lot of backdoors and wide open layups, so every time they had to guard every player on the court we had a lot of backdoors wide open.”
On how the Spiders feel about the Kentucky matchup …
“It’s finally here and we’re excited to play them. We’re glad we got to jump in today and we’re excited to play Kentucky on Sunday.”
On his opinion if the team started slow today …
“We were moving kind of slow at the beginning. It’s the first game, so it’s to be expected but we’re glad we got to play.”
On his personal mentality coming into the game and if it’ll change Sunday …
“My mentality was just to be aggressive. We have great players on our team so most of the time they’re focusing so much on the other players that I’m going to get some wide-open shots, so I’m trying to be aggressive every time we get the ball.”
On shooting 56% from the field and worked on offense …
“Well just spacing out. Spacing out and moving hard every time. Every time we’re moving hard and spacing out, we had lanes to the basket and wide-open shots in every position. “
On thoughts of playing a second game within 48 hours …
“I mean we’re playing Kentucky, I’m just excited.”
UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
RICHMOND v. MOREHEAD STATE
NOV. 27, 2020
RUPP ARENA – LEXINGTON, KY.
Morehead State Head Coach Preston Spradlin
Opening statement …
“I thought our guys came out tonight. I thought we had really good fight. The biggest disappointment I had during the Kentucky game was we had spent months practicing to play the game a certain way, and once the lights came on and we played against Kentucky the other night, we completely got away from it. And we didn’t execute, we didn’t do any of the things that we had worked on. Yesterday we made an adjustment. We practiced, as opposed—and we went live in practice and just reminded the guys of the things that are important to us and how we’re going to play the right way, and I thought we came out and did that tonight. The final score ended up being (an 18-point loss). But I don’t think our guys worried about the score. It didn’t feel like an 18-point game. For us, we wanted to win the game without question, but more importantly we wanted to come in and play to our identity and the things that we’ve been working towards. And I thought we really did that tonight. We shared the ball, we shot the ball pretty well here tonight. We missed some open ones. Skyelar (Potter), his first game back in over a year, missed some 3s he’s going to make for us. We had some guys that didn’t shoot it well the other night that they had to shake the rust off. They shot it better tonight. Offensively, I thought we were good. We lost our discipline a little bit down the stretch there with the way that Richmond plays. To our guys’ credit, and to Richmond’s credit, just the way they play is so very different than anyone else, and it goes against a lot of our principles that we teach our guys. And so, they had some habits that you kind of have to go against on a quick turnaround. But I thought our guys did a good job for the most part. I saw a lot of good things and overall, we got better today.”
On starting the season with two games in an arena away from home …
“What we’ve talked about since day one throughout all of this is just adaptability. Control what you can control and be ready to adapt. And for us, that just enhances what our goal is. Our goal is to get better. That’s all we care about. Do we want to win games? Absolutely. Did we think these two games were going to be tough? For sure. We did, we’re playing two top-25 teams that are very good, they’re experienced. Staying away in the quote-unquote ‘bubble’ down here, being away from our families—you know, our guys got a chance to see their families in the stands from afar but couldn’t be with them. Our guys really walked away with a great appreciation for what we normally take for granted, especially on a holiday like this and being around your family. But I think it brought us a lot closer together. And I think moving forward, it’s going to help our team because we saw some really good competition down here. And something that was important was that we create our own energy because there are going to be a lot of empty arenas that we play in throughout the season just due to the pandemic. So, we have to bring our own energy. We practice that every day, and I thought we did a good job of that in both the games. No matter what the score was, I thought our guys had good energy on and off the court.”
On Ta’Lon Cooper’s performance tonight …
“That’s what we needed from him to play, you know he goes 5-for-10, getting up 10 shots, he missed some 3s that I think he’s going to make. That’s probably fatigue playing into a lot of minutes in a couple of games. In the Kentucky game he had one shot. That’s not going to be good for us. We need him to get up there and take double-digit shots. So, a lot of that had to do with the rest of our team, you know he’s usually the beneficiary of when we get the ball moving and gets the defense chasing. When we are playing unselfishly, the ball usually gets his way back to him to where he can be effective and give us shots that he got. He was aggressive tonight. He made a lot of pull-ups off of ball screens, which we knew was going to be something that he would be great for us doing this year, but especially going against Richmond with their smaller guards. Ta’Lon being 6’4 raising up over those guys and shooting, so I think probably four or six of those points came from those type of looks. We need him to be aggressive and looking to score, it makes him a better passer when the defense collapses on him and he can use his vision to make everyone else better and the best possible version of him that we need going forward.”
On any defensive changes that could have impacted the game …
“You know, a few things that we didn’t do well, I can remember three loose balls to the floor that we got beat to, were not happy about that. We made sure to get those guys out immediately, defensively we did some nice things, you know like blitzing the post with some turnovers. We didn’t do as good scrambling. We gave up a couple long defensive rebounds when the clock got under 10 seconds and we made them scramble. When they take a tough shot and they leaked out, so we gave up some defensive rebounds that they turned into points. A few possessions we used zone, they came out and we caught them off-guard in the first possession with zone, they got the clock under eight and we just gave up a straight-line drive, contested the shot and rebounded, which is the two things we talk about every possession defensively especially in zone. You have to make them score from the perimeter and then you can’t give up straight line drives and offensive rebounds. We did that. I thought our game plan was very good and when we executed it, it was very effective, but again it goes against a lot of our principles that we work on every day with our aggressive defense, that aggressive defense goes into the hands of a team like Richmond, who uses backdoors and moves the ball so well. So, when we stick to our game plan, but as we got fatigued, we kind of got away from it.”
