The University of Mississippi Athletics

Postgame Quotes: Mississippi State

1/6/2018 | Men's Basketball

Jan. 6, 2018

Recap | Final Stats

Ole Miss Head Coach Andy Kennedy

Opening Statement…
"I was just really happy that we got downhill. We really struggled shooting the ball; 7 for 28 after going 6 for whatever it was in the last game. In the first half, I didn't think we were taking good shots. Mississippi State is good defensively. They are long, they really pack line and try to keep you out of the lane. We were taking what they were giving us, which I thought were reasonably good looks for a SEC basketball game, but we just can't make them. At the end, we just needed to keep our head down and try to create an angle for (Breein) Tyree to get downhill and make some huge plays. I thought Bruce (Stevens) made a huge play at the end as well."

On the 1-3-1 zone defense…
"The 1-3-1 did change the game. We tried it in the first half, and it was effective for us and in the second half we did it with a make-shift lineup. We went small. When they had Xavian Stapleton in the four spot, it was problematic for our bigs. We had foul trouble, so we went small and played Markel (Crawford) at the 4, which made us disjoined in that 1-3-1. Markel very rarely plays the top and Breein (Tyree) never plays the back, but that's who we had in the game, so we had to adjust. We forced them to make jump shorts. That had not really been their strength all year. When game pressure got involved, we were fortunate to get some stops."

On his thoughts on the ending…
"Anyone who has played the game understands that you play with a lot more energy when you make shots. You wish that wasn't the case, but that's the case for the best players in the world and we are really struggling offensively. I thought it was a great sign of maturity out of our group to continue to battle and make shots after we are having empty possession after empty possession because of our inability to make a shot. Very seldom to do you win a basketball game in the SEC when your leading scorer goes 1 for 13. That was a huge moment for us to step up and make some plays."

MSU Head Coach Ben Howland

Opening Statement…
"I thought that we played really good for the first 30 minutes. We were up as much as 11 or 13 in the first half and they made a run, which we knew they would do, to cut it to six. They took a lead early in the second half and then we fought our way back to a nine-point lead, and we just didn't handle the nine-point lead in the last eight-or-so minutes of the game. We just have to play smarter down the stretch with the ball. I thought we got a little tentative late in the game. They really did a good job of driving us and getting to the line early on. I thought (DeAndre) Burnett and (Breein) Tyree were really good for them down the stretch. We are a young team. We need to make better decisions with leads late in games and grind things offensively. Credit them. They did a great job. I thought Ole Miss showed a lot of composure with eight minutes down and to find a way to win."

On competing against the 1-3-1 zone defense…
"The 1-3-1 forces you to give more of an outside look, and we were really seeking the ball and not attacking it. We did a better job of attacking it when they went to it in the first half. I thought in the second half, we have a nine-point lead and then got a little impatient. I thought we did a great job of that in the first half. We were 39 percent offensively in the first half and only 30 percent in the second half for a 35 percent clip. You are not going to win on the road in this league without doing a better job from the foul line. We will spend more time on it and we will do a better job at it. I thought Abdul (Ado) stepped up and did a really good job knocking down the one to tie it. I thought Eli Wright was the best player for us today. We really gave us good minutes off the bench tonight. He had six rebounds in the first. In this type of game, they only had seven turnovers, whereas we had 14. That is a huge differential."

On MSU offensively…
"I still think we can get a lot better than we are. Shooting, we have to be patient. Today we had 13 assists for only 22 baskets. We have to keep getting inside. I thought early on we struggled to execute our man-to-man stuff. As the first half flow, we started really attacking well. The number one thing I always look for is defense and then the rebound and then the shot selection. That's the first thing I will evaluate now is to watch the film and see our shot selection."

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