Everything Andy Enfield said after SMU's 110-69 win over PVA&M

After a slow start, SMU pulled away from Prairie View A&M, winning 110-69. Here is what Coach Enfield said after the win:

On what Enfield said during halftime:

“I didn’t say much, I was just was very disappointed with our defensive effort. We’re bigger than that team; they’re very quick. They have a lot of guards and put a lot of pressure in the paint. We just didn’t play very well defensively. We weren’t playing hard enough in our rotations. Guys are getting beat; we’re covering for each other. So we decided to play zone the entire second half and try to use our size and length. And started the bench guys that came in, they started the second half and played great. If you ook at their plus-minus, it was pretty impressive.”

On bringing out a new five after a slow start to the game:

“Well, the starters were down 12 to 5 and gave a very poor effort. Especially defensively, so I took the whole team out and put the five new guys in, and I think they went on a 19 to 2 run or something like that. I’m not sure what the exact numbers were, but they played very well. Decided to do the same thing the second half to start those guys because they deserve it.”

On the zone defense in the second half:

“A 6’9 two-man [Tibet Gorener] is pretty good. But, when we play zone on defense you try to be big and long at the different positions, so I thought that helped us. When we were at USC as a coaching staff over a four -year period we led the nation in field goal percent defense for a four-year period combined. We changed it up between man and zone, so we know it can be very effective against certain teams, and tonight it was. Some teams are very good against zones, so it can’t be your primary defense, but we always have thought that you need to have a secondary defense in case your first one is not working like wasn’t for us tonight.”

On bouncing back from the Butler game:

“Well, we only had nine assists against Butler. We did not share the basketball. The ball stuck, we didn’t make the right plays. We took a lot of quick shots, really contested mid-range shots, which are the lowest efficiency in the game of basketball. We made some mistakes, and they caught fire. They played really well, give them credit. They made some tough shots. We took a two-point lead and had three transition opportunities to extend the lead. We threw the ball out of bounds, and then we missed two consecutive layups and had a chance to extend it to four or six or eight. We did not do that, and then they caught fire. We did not play well enough in the crucial part of the game to win a big road game. And so we’re hoping to learn from that. I thought our guys had two good days of practice leading up to tonight. I was very proud of them in the second half because they came out with some energy and really defended and then offensively they shared the ball at 25 assists.”

On Matt Cross‘ performance and injury status:

“He was very efficient. He scored 17 points on eight shots. That’s efficiency. He also had 12 rebounds. He came out of his area a few times to rebound and drove on the floor. He’s a very tough young man, and I thought he just played a terrific all-around game. His plus-minus was plus 44, which is probably the highest I’ve ever seen. So he just did it all tonight… Today was the first game I thought, personally, he was back to close to what he had been before he was injured. It was tough. The first play of the first game we ran to play for him and he hurt his back and was hurt for nine days. It was very painful, but he came back, practiced one day, played, and then we had a day off. He did a very limited preparation to go to Butler. So this week, he had two good days of practice and I thought he played great today. So we’re hoping he’s back in a condition and where he needs to be… He has a unique game because he can shoot the three, but he’s very good at using his body and his ceiling and his spinning and protecting the ball and can attack the rim. He’s also very good passer.”

On Chuck Harris‘ performance:

“I thought Chuck played a very good game until the last shot he took which got blocked. Our guards are very important for this team, and they need to keep putting pressure on the defense, but also to the pass ball at the right time to their teammates. And when they take tough contest shots as they did at Butler on Friday night it’s not a recipe for success and I thought Chuck played a much better floor game tonight. He had five assists and for the most part, took pretty good shots.”

On Samet adjusting to the physicality of college basketball:

“There’s a lot of truth to that because even the game Friday night on the road. He was fouled numerous times. He’s so big and he elevates and guys will hit his arms or his lower body at times. Because he’s so big, It’s kind of like the Shaquille O ‘Neal type thing in the NBA where they just don’t call every foul and so it’s a little unfair to him, but I thought the official did a great job tonight. I know he got a little frustrated, but we just have to tell him you have to play through contact. You’re a big guy In that little post, and players are coming after you. So, you have to be able to take the contact and finish through it and then get to the foul and make your free throws… We don’t want any escalation. That’s why I took him out of the game (after getting in a scuffle with the opposing team). You know this is only his third college basketball game in his career, so, he’s a very energetic young man and he wants to be a great player and help his team. I like the enthusiasm but at the same time we just don’t want to escalate anything.”

On defense leading to offense in the second half:

“Yeah, we were able to get more rebounds and deflections and steals in the second half and get out and transition and score 59 and share the ball and we made some really good passes.”