Postgame Quotes vs. Nicholls

OLE MISS HEAD COACH KERMIT DAVIS

Opening statement…
"You've got to different find ways to win, it's a young season for us. Offensively in the first half, I thought we left a lot of points out there, especially on offensive transition. We seemed to have missed a lot of shots 2-3 feet from the goal, fumbled balls at the goal, they made great decisions but one thing consistently was guarding. We held them to 31 percent in the first half. That's the reason we could be up 15. The second half, I thought we guarded the 3-point line, something we weren't very good at last year. The first two games we haven't been very good. That's been a harping point. If you can't guard the three in college basketball you're going to struggle. I thought tonight that's the best I've seen Terence Davis defend since I've coached him in practice or games. He did a great job on (Jeremiah) Jefferson, 1 of 7 from three, contested all his shots, stuck right to the game plan about guarding different actions they ran. We weren't very pretty or smart offensively the last six, seven, eight minutes, but we guarded at a good level that allowed us to win how we did."

On Terence Davis' active defense…
"Can you effect the game and not shoot a good percentage shooting, and he did, eight rebounds, four blocks, holding their leading scorer averaging 20 a game to 1 of 7 and 3 of 13. The only three he made all night was when Hinson was guarding him, and Blake knocked him down at like 30 feet. He guarded him as good as you can guard him, so you better believe it. That's when guys evolve, that's when you start getting All-SEC players that are legitimate and are going to affect national games. You don't have to make a lot of shots, but he can really affect the game in all areas and he did that tonight."

On experimenting with the starting lineup still…
"Yeah, I am. K.J. Buffen was in the lineup, but he missed a tutor, he hasn't gotten back in the lineup. Bruce (Stevens) has beaten Dom (Olejniczak) out the last couple days. One thing we do is that we start tomorrow, everything is back going (even) again. All positions are like that, we have a point system that we keep and sometimes we'll stick to the points and whoever has the most points (gets to start). Key deflections, rebounds, that's the way we're trying to make practice and staying competitive. We've got to get Dom and Bruce going. I thought Bruce went a little bit better in the second half. We have to keep him out of foul trouble. We've got to get Dom just to go next play, we keep talking about it. He's got to be in there and help our team if we want to have the year we want to have."

On K.J. Buffen's play…
"K.J. is maybe the smartest player of anyone on our team, basketball IQ for that age. He should be a 2019 recruit. He can play the five, he can play the two. He knows in line out of bounds at the two. Conceptually, he gets it. From an IQ standpoint he did fine, I didn't think he was very physical tonight. He can play better but he's invaluable because he can play three spots on the floor. When you get a guy that can do that and execute, that makes you feel good with guys coming off the bench."

On Blake Hinson's shots…
"Blake has got to be able to score without just standing, catching and shooting the three. He's got to be able to shot fake on closeouts and drive the ball, to be athletic at the rim with a good range jump shot. We talk about that all the time. He's a really good shooter, but we've got to get him to score at the other two levels."

On winning at home after the loss at Butler…
"Anytime you lose, there are zero moral victories at Butler. Our whole team, we went up there thinking we were going to win the game and we played like it. Butler made a few more plays down the stretch than we did. We couldn't keep them off the free throw line. Our locker room was disappointed. We were trying to come back, and we talked about anytime that you lose a game, what is the perception when people watch you the next time? I'm always curious watching teams, whether it's football, basketball, I love watching teams coming off losses and how they respond, body language, and I thought our team responded in a good way from just a physical standpoint tonight."

On K.J. Buffen's outlook at the five for more minutes…
"Against Nicholls yes, but when we start playing those 6-foot-10, 240-pound centers it's going to be hard for K.J., but he can stretch them out on the other end. In non-conference games, it would be much easier, I think in the future K.J. can, a year or two down the road when he gets to be 230 pounds. But he's not that right now, so Dom and Bruce, those guys need to play for us."

On the rest of the week before Baylor Friday night…
"We're going to get up, lift weights in the morning, 8:30 a.m., watch this tape at 9:15 and then like a lot of other teams that athletes do here, Ross (Bjork) has Adopt-A-Basket for a lot of underprivileged families in Oxford. We've got two hours for 15 families, we'll deliver Thanksgiving turkeys to their homes. Then we'll practice and fly down tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. We didn't want to be traveling during the Egg Bowl. We'll get down there to practice, have Thanksgiving and then we'll watch the Egg Bowl in Destin."

On what he wants to see from the team in Destin…
"Win, and Baylor looks like an NCAA Tournament team, like they always have, very interchangeable parts. College basketball, I said it on the radio show, sometimes we're up 15, and coaches are still kind of pulling their hair out, with everyone asking 'why is he so uptight?' The very first game, Texas Southern beat Baylor. Baylor hadn't been beaten since, and Texas Southern hasn't won since. That's what college basketball is. I can tell that Baylor has really grown since that first game. They're very physical, good size, they're a good Big 12 team this year."

On winning assists and rebounding margin against Nicholls…
"That's a great point, 21 of 26 is about as good as it gets. 16 turnovers are too many. But that's when the ball really moved, it could've been at a higher level as far as makes just because we didn't finish the ball, but that's the team we're going to have to be, especially on the road. Our turnovers were too much, we allowed 24 points in the paint which is big. Another big stat for us is going to be opposing team's fastbreak points, because when you get in this SEC and teams like Baylor, you can't get your defense set. We need athletes playing the broken floor and that's going to be something we're going to have to do too."

On minutes for Terence Davis and Devontae Shuler and depth…
"We need to stretch our bench, we do. I put Brian Halums in there, and he's so athletic but he kind of just took off on his own twice. We tried to run one set and he didn't run it right, so that's just been his Achilles heel. He's an SEC athlete and he wants to do well and he's going to be a good player before he leaves here. Luis Rodriguez, I thought played well, and the last two minutes he made some plays. We normally wouldn't try to score the last possession but we did, because I wanted that guy to play. He needs to get a possession and just play. I'm not trying to run up any score, I think coach may have gotten mad, but it was just that we wanted to try and play, run a set, and he did. He made a great pass and Bruce dunked the ball. I have to start trusting those guys more."

On Franco Miller Jr.'s recovery…
"We shut him down again completely. He was trying, but he was just wounded. We're not going to get him out there unless he's full go. We want to see him right. He was trying to play through some pain. We're just going to evaluate him every week or two weeks and kind of see where he is. It may be middle of December, January 1, but I don't know until we can get him completely healthy and put him out there."

On message to Dom…
"Just stay positive, keep your head up, everyone's pulling for you. He can just have one or two plays in a game, and it'll affect him two days later. He's played really well for us. He's a huge part of our team. Everyone in the locker room tries to keep him going. He has just got to go next day, next play, and we've all got to do a good job of staying positive with him because he is a huge part of our team being able to reach the ceiling that we want to reach."

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Players Mentioned

Terence Davis

Brian Halums

Blake Hinson

Franco Miller Jr.

Luis Rodriguez

Devontae Shuler

The University of Mississippi Athletics