The University of Mississippi Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Illinois State
12/16/2017 | Men's Basketball
Head Coach Andy Kennedy
Opening statement…
"It is the same issues. Illinois State has their strengths and weaknesses as all teams do. One of their inefficiencies to this point in the season is their rebounding margin, and they come into our building and beat us by eight on the glass. They get 17 offensive rebounds. We chart a thing called 50/50 balls, in essence meaning a ball lands in-between one of their players and one of ours and they have a equal chance of getting it. They got 15 of them, we got 3. It is embarrassing for me. I have put so much blood, sweat and tears into this program. To have to coach effort, it is ridiculous. I am coaching it every single day and it is the reason we are sitting here 5-5. There are so many variables that we don't take into account; will to win, chemistry, surrendering to the team, trying to be the guy. Be the energy guy that can settle us down and lead the team. We are struggling in that area."
On the sense of urgency…
"It is December 16 and I can't imagine the amount of things we have tried to do to light a fire. We just have not been successful. Offensively, we have a lot of problems. We have lost three overtime games in this building (The Pavilion). The inability to make a play at the end. We didn't finish. We still scored 97 points, still had 22 assists off of nine turnovers. Our problem is defensively. What is defense? Effort and angles. That's where it starts. Your effort has to be off the charts. Obviously you guys are questioning it, as am I. I don't think it's as good as it needs to be. Our angles, our communication, we obviously hit some adversity early and it has fragmented us as opposed to bringing us closer together. When you have two fifth-year guards and a number of returners on your team, that is the time when you have to pull together and we have not been able to do so."