Everything Andy Enfield said after SMU advanced in NIT, beat Northern Iowa

SMU head coach Andy Enfield spoke with the media after the 73-63 win over Northern Iowa Wednesday night in Moody Coliseum. Here’s what he had to say.

On what changed between 1st and 2nd half, especially for BJ Edwards: “Well, he didn’t play very well in the first half, that’s for sure. Go 1-for-7. Second half, we had to take all the starters out. We had to keep him in because he’s our only point guard left. Was gonna take him out too, but when our starters gave up five out of the first six possessions, the other team scored, we went to the bench and put the whole new lineup in. Then BJ started playing much harder, much better. He played a great second half. He set the all-time steals record (in a) single season tonight, had four steals, seven assists, only one turnover and 16 points. So, tale of two halves, BJ played incredible basketball for the last 20 minutes.”

On facing a nothing-to-lose mentality vs. Northern Iowa: “Well, I think it’s very disappointing that our guys were really upset after the Clemson loss in the ACC Tournament, beat Syracuse the first game, had the lead on Clemson, we had a shot to win it with five seconds left, we missed a three, then we had an out-of-bounds call returned and a goaltending call that wasn’t goaltending. So we were disappointed when we didn’t beat Clemson because we thought we had to win that game to give us a real chance in the tournament. So I don’t think anybody was really excited to practice the last couple of days. In fact, our practices were very short. It is a different mindset, but the NIT is a heck of a tournament. It’s a national tournament. Every game is on ESPN2. Tonight was on ESPN2. And it’s a chance to extend your career of five seniors. So we tried to make the point to our guys, and I think they appreciate that. They want to play. They’re hoopers and they want to play basketball. So it’s a chance for some of the underclassmen to keep getting better and some of the upperclassmen to extend their career. So it is challenging. You saw what happened to Georgia Tech last night at home, they lost by 15 or 18 points. We didn’t have Boopie today, so it was a little challenging with the ball handling, especially in the first half. So we’re happy to be here, and we’ll play a really good, athletic Oklahoma State team who’s playing well right now.”

On Boopie Miller’s injury: “Yeah, he has a hand injury. It’s not his foot, it’s his hand. So we hope he’s back for the weekend. Obviously, we’re a better team with him because he is our leading scorer, leading assist guy, and he’s our fastest guy. So our pace of play certainly speeds up when he’s on the floor.”

On BJ Edwards stepping up with ball handling: “I think you saw in the second half, he started the second half when we changed the lineup up and brought Yohan in here, he was able to get Yohan to ball twice in the post, once on the ball screen, once in transition, and get some assists. So the next development of BJ’s game is decision making and that timing of his passes, where he can see the floor and also when he goes left and right, he has to be equally good at going left and right and not just good going to his right hand because teams start shading him to his left. So I thought the second half, he was very impressive with his playmaking. And that’s the next step in his game.”

On if SMU’s experience without Miller helped: “Well, I think it was a little shock because when we went in that 5-game stretch without him, we didn’t know how to play without him. We had Wake Forest and unfortunately Clumson coming in here and then we go on the road to Stanford, who Boopie gave a lot of trouble to with his speed. I think tonight, not playing with Boopie, the guys are used to it, or not used to it, but they played already five games without him. So it wasn’t a shock to them like it was when he first went out. Because at that time, we were 19-5, we won five in a row, and Boopie was playing great, and everybody else was playing great. Then when you take one of your better players out at that time, and playing very good basketball teams, it was a shock to everybody, including us as coaches because we had to try to figure out how to adjust our offense and defense without a key guy.”

On SMU’s length and athleticism taking over late: “Northern Iowa is a very, very good basketball team. They space the floor, they’re cutting all the time, they’re very good shooters. They have a good big guy, you saw how big guys can finish, they’re big. They’re 6-11, 6-8, 6-7. I thought we had to advance athletically, and our speed, and obviously without Boopie, we didn’t play as fast as we normally do. But I’m very proud of our guys because we started switching everything, like you said, late in the second and mid to late in second half. When we started switching everything, you could really see our length and athleticism affect the game.”

On changing the lineup out in the 2nd half: “Because they just scored five out of six times. Our starters were not given any effort. If we’re gonna lose, we’re gonna lose with the guys who are playing hard. I think when you put Yohan and Keon on and AJ and Tibet and then we left BJ in, they were playing very hard. Actually, I think cut into the lead maybe by one or two points because Northern Iowa hit a couple tough shots, but we were scoring as well and we were playing hard. So when starters came back in, you could see their effort increase and then the crowd got into it because we’re playing well. And I thought that all snowballed into a big run for us.”

On veteran team responding after being taken out: “Yeah, I was proud of them because when they came back in that they they played much harder, much more efficiently. It could go the other way very quickly. That’s why I felt like I had to call timeout after six terrible defensive positions.”

On impact of surviving an opening game in NIT: “I think the first game is always the hardest, especially when you’re devastated, not devastated, but you feel like you’re an NCAA Tournament team, you don’t make it. And look, we had something to do with that. We could have won another game or two. Now, we had Boopie go out for five games at the wrong time of the season. But that all adds up to the mentality of … so I think this game was probably our hardest mentally. Now, I think our guys are, hey, we have a chance to keep winning games and try to compete for a championship.”

On going from facing ACC teams to brand new opponent: “Well, we had never watched them play until the video last two days. We realized very quickly that they’re a good basketball team. So our players, they’ve been around. We’ve got some veteran guys. They’ve played against all types of different teams. And so Northern Iowa, we prepared like we did for an ACC team. We knew that Northern Iowa could beat us if we didn’t play well. So, Oklahoma State’s now it’s different. They’re in the Big 12. We scrimmaged them earlier in the season. That was before — we didn’t have our whole roster, so it would be different. We went up to Oklahoma State in the pre-season. I thought it was very good for our team. They’re very athletic, so our guys know who Oklahoma State is because they’re in the Big 12 and they’re four hours away. So I think it should be a heck of a game on the weekend.”