Postgame Quotes vs. Iowa State

OLE MISS HEAD COACH KERMIT DAVIS

Opening statement…
"We got beat by an outstanding team. I was watching on tape and I thought that all the teams I've watched in college basketball, I know Duke has the one and done guys, but they're probably the best put together offensive team in college basketball. Everybody passes the ball, they make you pay for everything. I thought we had some runs in us. We had a lot of defensive breakdowns, the defensive field goal percentage was ridiculously high. In these kinds of games, we have to get more players to play better. I'm responsible for it. Terence Davis had a ton of breakdowns, didn't get much from Dom (Olejniczak) or Bruce (Stevens). When you don't get much from those two, and the level of competition is higher, we've got to get one of them to play, really both. The last two games we really haven't had any production. We tried to play KJ (Buffen) at the five, and it gets really hard for us. Hats off to Iowa State. That's a team right there that can go deep in the (NCAA) Tournament for sure."

On how to fix being on the other end of a winning streak…
"In practice, we've got to get some physical things back into what we're doing. The competition is high, but we're just not guarding like we were. We had 10 assists on 25 baskets, the ball's not moving. Breein (Tyree) and TD (Terence Davis) scored some points but were not making shots with other guys. Breein has to be able to see other guys. We didn't see long rolls out of motion. I thought TD went through a stretch in the second half, just wouldn't compete. We're not going to win many games if those two aren't playing at a high level, and we can't get Bruce or Dom."

On defensive breakdowns in the 1-3-1 zone…
"Their skill level was so high. We had to take some chances. I thought we had some good possessions of it where they started scrambling with dribble penetration. They just don't miss many shots. Today they just shot this percentage and there was just a lot of skill. It scared me to play it, but we had to do something to try and make them off balance. They are a really good offensive team."

On winning turnover battle, offensive rebounds and shot total but losing by that much…
"There weren't many offensive rebounds for them to get, they didn't miss many. Six-nine shots, way too many possessions for us. That's not running a very good offense. We just were out of character. To give up 87 points at home in front of that kind of crowd is very poor."

On bouncing back…
"We'll bounce back. That team right there, they can beat anyone in college basketball. We've got to have a short memory, good practices, get our team back together and really play. We haven't had a good week for sure."

On having to coach effort…
"It kills my soul. It's just one of those things. I just know with our team, where we are, and just how many guys we have in this league, if we're not at our maximum effort we've got no chance. When that's not at the max effort against this high level (of a) team, we're not going to win many games. That's just something we've got to fight at a maximum effort to win the game."

On what you want to see from Bruce (Stevens) and Dom (Olejniczak) next week in practice…
"They've just got to be able to rebound the ball and score the ball around the goal. Dom's been our most consistent. Here he had six points, five rebounds in 26 minutes. Bruce just couldn't get back defensively. We ran out of timeouts. I didn't want to use my last timeout in the first half, but I thought it I left him in the game they'd go up 15. He wouldn't move. He's got extreme talent, but we'll keep trying to work with it and base it off practice Monday and Tuesday."

IOWA STATE HEAD COACH STEVE PROHM

Opening statement…
"Well, it is good to start off the day to help out our league in the challenge. Obviously both leagues I'm sure take a lot of pride in this. We played a lot better than our last 11 a.m. game a couple of weeks ago. So, it is a good feeling to be able go home early and then get started prepping for West Virginia. But we beat a very good team today. We have a lot of respect for Kermit (Davis) and his team and the program. I've been against Kermit for a long time as a coach. To come in here with a great crowd and environment, I am very pleased. Proud of this guy (Talen Horton-Tucker). He really responded and bounced back. You see the depth of our team. I think if we really chase our ceiling we can do some really good things. Marial (Shayok) didn't play the last 10 minutes of the game, and we were still able to extend our lead and do some good things. Good win, and now it is back to league play because have a good West Virginia team on Wednesday."

On what he saw in the second half…
"We were just really efficient around the basket and in the paint. A lot of lobs, a lot of layups, Talen getting to the paint, I told him if he could ever get those three to four shots out, now he is 11 of 14. But we were just efficient. Obviously, we knew they were going to play a lot 1-3-1 zone. We turned it over too much. We turned it over 19 times, way too much for this team. That was one of the things I think kind of kept them around, the defensive glass and the turnovers. When we took care of the ball we were able to get good plays and finish plays. We only made four threes in the second half. We were really 16 of 20 inside the three-point line."

On guarding Breein Tyree and Terence Davis…
"We got embarrassed the other night at Kansas defensively. We were terrible. Our guys know it, coaches know it. We just did some things in practice this week. Nothing special, just half court we really tried to work on guarding the dribble, communicating better, being more aggressive on the ball. I thought we took a big step from the Kansas game."

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Players Mentioned

Terence Davis

Breein Tyree

The University of Mississippi Athletics