The University of Mississippi Athletics
Andy Kennedy Postgame Quotes
11/7/2009 | Men's Basketball
On what was said at halftime...
"Honestly, it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. We're obviously trying to find our way a little bit, as every team is this time of the year. It wasn't surprising. I'm trying to play nine or 10 guys in the first half, which is unrealistic, and it's hard to get a rhythm. We struggled shooting. Against Tulane, we struggled shooting and that carried over to the first half. We didn't do a lot of things offensively. We didn't want to show a lot. We just wanted to play the game of basketball like it's supposed to be played. We shot the ball very poorly (in the first half). As a result, when you have kids who haven't played in awhile, they sometimes base their performance on making shots. When you're not making shots, it tends to carry over into other aspects of your game. That's something that we addressed at the half. Our intensity was much better defensively in the second half. We got into a little better rhythm."
On the distribution of minutes...
"As I look at the minutes, in your mind, you go into it thinking that you don't want to play guys heavy minutes. At the same time, with the guys who have not had the uniform on in quite some time, you want them to be able to get into a comfort zone. We accomplished that. We got everybody an opportunity to play. Reginald Buckner needed to get into a little rhythm in the second half. I thought it was good for him. It's always great to play the kids that give you a great effort in practice. I thought it was exactly what we needed."
On Reginald Buckner...
"We just wanted to get him some touches close. Because many times when you play a team that's small and typically plays with five guys around the perimeter, you want to do that as well, and that's not what Reg does. He's a big kid inside. He's never played a division one game. We wanted to try to get him some touches close to show him what he needs to continue to improve on. I told the team I thought the highlight of the game honestly was when he went in to try to dunk it and the ball got rejected. I told him, 'High school is over. Now everyone has a scholarship at this level."
