Mark Gottfried Holds Weekly Press Conference
11/27/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Following are quotes from University of Alabama junior forward Richard Hendrix regarding Alabama’s next game, at No. 9 Texas A&M on Wednesday, November 28 at 8:15 p.m. CT as well as a partial transcript of Crimson Tide head basketball coach Mark Gottfried’s November 27 weekly press conference:
Richard Hendrix, 6-9, JR, Forward, Athens, Alabama:
On Texas A&M’s Josh Carter who he competed in the Pan Am Games Trials with:
“Josh Carter was with Alonzo (Gee) and me this summer at the Pan American Games Trials. He’s a good player, a really good athlete. He can shoot the ball well. He was obviously good enough to make the first cut at the Trials, so he’s a player to reckon with.”
On playing a challenging team like No. 9 Texas A&M:
“It’s a challenge that we’re going to have to accept. They’re a good team. We’re going to have to go in and play with the expectation to win. We have to play our basketball game. That’s how we approach every game, whether the team is ranked or not. You have to go into every game expecting and believing you can win it.”
Alabama Head Coach Mark Gottfried:
On Texas A&M:
“Let me just say to start off with, they are obviously an excellent team and we’ll have to play exceptionally well to have a chance. But our guys are very excited about it. We’ve had some good practices the last couple of days, I think very competitive practices. We know we’re not a great team right now, but I think our players are working really, really hard. I like that. I like where we are from an effort standpoint.
“We’re playing a terrific team. This is a Texas A&M team that’s got a great deal of size and it’s not just a bunch of big guys that can’t play. These are guys that are good players. Joseph Jones is terrific in there. They’ve got a big young guy in DeAndre Jordan. I’ve seen one website that’s got him the third pick in the draft this year coming out and he’s a freshman. Josh Carter was with us at the Pan Am Trials. I’ve gotten to know Josh a little bit. He’s a great, great young guy but he’s a terrific player and a great shooter at 6-6, 6-7. I think he led the nation in 3-point field goal percentage last year. The guards are very, very good and experienced. Dominique Kirk is an experienced three-year starter; been through the wars. And then I think the kid (Donald) Sloan and (Derrick) Roland as well have some experience. So this is a team that’s got a lot of pieces coming back from last year. They’re a terrific team.”
“We’ll have our hands full guarding their sides. We can’t let Carter get loose and really beat us from the 3-point line. But we’re going to be who we are. I don’t think there’s a player in the nation that’s had the start that Richard Hendrix has had. I mean that guy has been phenomenal. He’s just been really, really good. Alonzo Gee the other night was terrific. I was so proud of him and his effort and how aggressive he’s playing. So we’ve got some pieces. We’re just not a great team right now.”
On what he likes about his team after four games:
“We would like to be sitting here 4-0. Belmont played great, hits a shot there at the buzzer and puts a dagger in us that night. You’ve got to give those guys credit for that. We’re getting the ball up and down the floor a little bit better. I like that about our team. You could look at the defensive side of things a couple of ways. One, you can slow the game down and slow your opponents’ points production down but because we’re pushing it more, there’s more opportunities in the game??they’ll have the ball more often but they’re still scoring a little too easy for me. So I think we’ve got to get better there. Rebounding the ball??even our guards (have) got to rebound the ball. We’re a team right now that kind of expects Richard Hendrix to get every rebound and he can’t do that. We’ve all got to participate and rebound better. So we’re okay but we’re like any team early. You look at your team and you start saying, ??Okay, we’ve got to get better here, here, here, here, here. It’s a long list of things.”
On playing two Top 10 teams within a week with Texas A&M and then Georgetown and could that be a way to get Alabama back in the Top 25?
“I think on paper you can look at it like that. But with us and our team this year, we had this media practice the other day? I’m not sure we could beat them right now. Every game for us, we’re just going to have to work on getting better. I want our team every day, you know we’ve talked about this, to come into practice and let’s concentrate just getting a little bit better today, everyday. Let’s just get a little bit better today. Let’s not worry about all of those things. We’re not at a point where we can worry about all that kind of stuff. We’ve just got to make sure we are improving, every day. And like I said earlier, one thing I like about our team is that we’ve worked a lot harder than we have, especially last year. And our players have responded to that. They have accepted the challenge at practice of getting pushed and challenged a lot harder than they have been. So we just need to keep going every day and fix things along the way and keep teaching, keep coaching. That’s all we’re thinking about right now.”
On Alonzo Gee against Southern Miss:
“Alonzo played great. He played extremely hard. I don’t think he was worried about scoring at all. And he scored a lot of points. Usually it works that way.”
On Mykal Riley:
“I think Mykal’s had a good start. I think he can play a lot better. He and I have talked at little bit about that. I like that he’s improving defensively. He’s getting better. I don’t know that physically he could be a great, great on ball defender. Sometimes you’re limited a little bit the way you’re body is made. I’d like to run a three-minute mile but I can’t. I just can’t do it. But his effort has been great. He’s getting better there. I don’t think he’s shot the ball yet like he really can. We’re kind of waiting for him to have a break out night where he just really lights it up and shoots it well. He just needs to keep working. I think he’s had a good start but I think he can play a lot better.”
On importance of 3-point shooting as teams focus on Hendrix:
“It’s huge. We’ve got the potential to be a good perimeter shooting team and he’s (Riley) a big part of that. I think when he shoots the ball better; obviously we’re a better perimeter shooting team. But he can add a lot from that perspective and he gets a lot of baskets in the break because he runs the floor real well. But more than anything right now with him, we’re just trying to make sure we just shore up the defensive end and let’s worry about that, and you’re shot’s going to come. He’s going to make shots for us. I don’t worry about it. We’ve just got to make sure we’re getting better every day on the other end.”
On the stretch from Southern Miss to Georgetown where Alabama will play bigger, stronger guys:
“I think that we said that Justin Knox and Yamene Coleman, they need to step forward a little bit for us. It’s a great opportunity for them. You’re going to play against, in Texas A&M, with Joseph (Jones) and (DeAndre) Jordan and Bryan Davis, they’ve got three 6-10 to 7-foot guys that are as good as anybody in the country. Then you’re going to see Roy Hibbert who’s about 9-foot-9, and he’s a monster in there and he’s very, very good. So we’ve got to do a good job. One thing I always tell our guys: we’ve got to do a great job of guarding them, but, you know, they’ve got to guard us, too. They’ve got to guard Richard Hendrix, too. So hopefully we can do a good job on both ends where we can give them some trouble as well.”
On Richard Hendrix’s injury in the Southern Miss game:
“He took a knee I believe when he dove on the floor late in the game. It hit him right in the temple area. He’s been cleared by the doctors. He’s cleared to play but we want to be real careful with that for a day or two. The negative side is he just hasn’t practiced so you can’t improve when you don’t practice. But at the same time, you want to make sure he’s all the way, 100 percent, which I think he is. So I think he’s ready to go, good to go. But we just wanted to be careful with him for a few days.”
On point guard play:
“I think we’re kind of where we were with the point guard situation in that with Mikhail (Torrance) and Brandon (Hollinger) and Rico (Pickett) getting back in the mix there. Brandon has been very steady for us. He’s kind of been that safety net, the guy that, ??I’m just there, Coach, I’m not going to make a lot of mistakes, and I’m going to help us get in our offense and do some things good defensively for us.’ Mikhail Torrance to me is still the decision-making process and some different things with him is something we just keep teaching and coaching every day. And Rico, he just needs to get back in there and compete really hard, which he’s done the last couple of days. So I think we’re kind of about where we’ve been. We’ll take it day by day.”
On how Alabama stacks up against Texas A&M and “would you be shocked if you beat them?”
“That’s a loaded question there. Obviously I love our players. But they’re (A&M) a very talented team. Our guys know that. Like I said, we’ve got to guard them, but they’ve got to guard us, too. And that’s the fun part about athletics and sports. They have some experience in some areas that we don’t have. We’re going to see that a lot this year where we’re going to be playing young guys. There will be times when we potentially have two freshman guards in at the same time. You’re going to be playing against teams that are not in that situation. Just like this little guy (Dominique) Kirk they have. He’s a three-year starter. He played beside Acie Law the last three years. I’m watching the Washington game the other day and the guard, he’s the guy that makes every play at the end of the game: boom, boom, boom. Game over. It goes from being tied to they’re up eight, go get on the bus and go home. So you’ve got some experience there in their players maybe that we don’t have. But again, I think our guys will be excited about playing.”
On what he’s seen around the SEC so far this season:
“Our league, I think it’s going to be a really good league (again this year). Tennessee obviously, I think has been a team that’s been really good off to the start and out the gates. And another one I think is Vanderbilt. I think Vanderbilt has had a great start. They have a terrific 7-foot freshman. And let me say one other thing, too. I read this morning that Tasmin Mitchell at LSU is going to potentially miss the year. He’s going to have surgery on his foot. I hate it for him, for Tasmin. He was with us at the (Pan Am) Trials as well. I’ve known Tasmin since he was in ninth great. He’s just a terrific guy. You hate it for any guy like that that has an injury that potentially can’t play this year. To Tasmin Mitchell out there, I hope that he can recover well and be good.
“Mississippi State is going to be good. Arkansas is really??you’ve got to remember, Arkansas has everybody back from the NCAA tournament team, so they should be very good this year. And South Carolina to me is the team, even though they are 3-3 right now, in the back of my mind I think they can be a team that can become really, really good this year. So our league is the same as every year. Doesn’t matter: football, basketball, you’ve got the best of the best in our league.”
