SMU head coach Andy Enfield highlights from the Hilltop Hoops Show
The Hilltop Hoops Show continued on Monday with SMU head coach Andy Enfield discussing Sunday’s win against Longwood and the upcoming game against Duke.
Here are the highlights of what Enfield discussed with the voice of the Mustangs, Rich Phillips.
On SMU’s win over Longwood
“They’ve won 20-plus games the last couple of years, went to the NCAA tournament last season, they were 11-3 for a reason. They’re a very good basketball team.”
The fast start of the second half
“It was important for us to get defensive stops. We didn’t play the level of defense we had been playing for the last four or five weeks in the first half against Longwood. Way too many shots at the rim. We guarded the 3-point line, but we just did not have it. We’ll call it a Christmas hangover. We only practiced two days, had a lot of flight delays getting in on the 26, because of the thunderstorms here in Dallas. Our guys, they stepped it up in the second half and defended at a much higher level.”
Frustration with SMU’s first-half defense
“Well, it happens. This game is very streaky at times, we’re a very streaky team on both sides of the basketball. We had 20 turnovers offensively, it’s the most, by far, this season. We still scored 98 points with 20 turnovers, so that means we can score the basketball.”
Ninth half of 50-plus points in second half
“We’re leading the league in scoring at 87-plus points per game. When you can do that, you’ll be in most games. Defense usually wins games for you, but you have to be able to go through those, when the other team scores the ball, you have to stay with them and score as well. We’ve been able to do that in the last month and a half.”
How much of offense is set or in transition?
“I think you saw it (Sunday) in the second half, we were able to get some stops, deflections, steals, defensive rebounds. We’re leading the league in field goal percentage after a miss, which is key because we have to make the other team miss shots to really be as successful as we want to be. It’s hard if you take the ball out of bounds, meaning they’re scoring, it slows your transition down significantly. We can still score quickly after a made basket, but it’s much easier when you get deflections, steals and rebounds.”
On SMU PG Boopie Miller bouncing back offensively
“Well, Boopie’s a heckuva player. When he makes the right decisions, he shoots at a higher percentage, he gets other guys involved, I think he had seven assists. He leads us in assists. He just has to keep improving as a player. Decision making is crucial, especially at the lead guard spot. … If you’re not making shots, there’s four other guys on the court that can make a shot. Sometimes we recommend just passing the ball instead of shooting it.”
What’s next for Miller’s development?
“He’s become a better defender and that’s crucial. He’s 5-foot-11, he’s very fast, he’s very strong, but 5-11 in our sport is not overly big. So, other guys will try to take him inside or post him up and also shoot over him. He’s been a lot more aggressive getting over ball screens and really staying in front of players on the opposing team.”
On SMU F Yohan Traore’s performance
“He had two really good days of practice. We were disappointed in his rebounding, especially in the Boston College game and some of the games preceding that. He made an effort (Sunday) to rebound out of his area. He was terrific, just outstanding. The 11 rebounds, I think, is a career high and he was aggressive, had 20 points. I thought he had a great game.”
On challenging Traore
“It’s pretty simple, if you do enough things to make it hard to take you out, you usually play more minutes. That’s true for all our guys. We don’t just point out Yohan, but if he’s rebounding at the level he was (Sunday) and scoring the ball at an efficient level, it’s hard to take him out.”
On Samet Yigitoglu’s recent foul trouble
“I think they were two different games. Boston College, he was two quick fouls the first minute and a half and that hurt him. We still scored 103 points and he didn’t score one, so that shows you the depth of our team offensively. He came back in and picked up his third foul and fourth foul, so he didn’t get a lot of chances on offense just because he didn’t play a lot. The Longwood game, he picked up a couple of quick fouls, but they were double teaming him every time he touched the ball. He’s such a good passer, so unselfish, so he didn’t have field goal attempts, but he was fouled a few times and got to the foul line. The attention he draws and the passing ability for someone that size is really impressive. He helped us a lot (Sunday).”
On Yigitoglu‘s athleticism
“He looks 7-2 to me when I look at him, especially when I stand next to him. But it’s very hard to find players at that size that have such good hands and good feet. He has not dropped a pass once this year, in practice or the games, where a guy has thrown him the ball. He catches everything and he’ll catch it on the move, be able to control his body and be able to make the right decisions. It’s very impressive.”
On Yigitoglu‘s frustrations
“When it hurts him, in Boston College he picked up a flagrant foul. Now, that was a bad call. He was running down the court and the player from BC stepped over four feet to get in his way and there was a collision. It should have been, a double-foul is fine, but it was definitely not a flagrant foul in the fact that the other guy initiated the whole thing. I just think he has to understand that there’s going to be ebbs and flows in a college basketball game and your emotions have to stay in check sometimes and just keep playing.”
On rebounding less due to high shooting percentage
“We had eight offensive rebounds (against Longwood), we only missed 19 shots. We rebounded almost half our misses. The offensive rebounding at Boston College, I think we shot 64% from the field, which our guys did a good job.”
On putting the BC game away
“That was the Jarrell Colbert game. He came in and gave us tremendous energy. With Samet in foul trouble, he played 22 minutes and he just changed the game defensively with his activity, especially on the ball screens, jumping out and hard hedging. Then his activity offensively, he had 13 points and six rebounds. He gave us a big jolt with his energy and our guys fed off that. We were able to get out in transition and we really scored the ball at a high level for about an eight or nine-minute period in transition.”
On BJ Edwards scoring more this year than he did all last year
“He’s one of the most improved guys in our league. He’s a starter now in the ACC and he’s performing. He’s our defender at the guard spot and rebounds for his position and now he’s scoring the ball, as well. … He’s a factor every game.”
On winning SMU’s first ACC road game
“I thought that was big for our guys. Right before Christmas it’s always nice to sit there at Christmas dinner after a win. The women’s team had a big win right before Christmas, a couple good wins. It’s always nice to sit back and enjoy a glass of wine after a couple wins.”
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On going 9-2 in nonconference
“The team has really improved. First game, very first possession Matt Cross was injured, hurt his back. That hurt him, hurt our team. Then he barely came back, we lost a road game at Butler early on. He had only practiced one day and Samet was not eligible. Since that first couple weeks where defensively we weren’t very good and offensively we were trying to find our way, we’ve improved.”
On the tournament being a turnaround
“You can say yes, but I don’t know how much time they spent. I played tennis every morning, I played golf one day, so I don’t know what the heck our players did, but I had fun. I had a good time. … It was a great trip. Any time you have bonding like that with the team, the staff, you’re together so much throughout the season it’s nice. That was a four-and-a-half-day event in great weather in Palm Springs. We stayed at a LaQuinta Resort. The tournament was very well run and we had good teams. It helped our team because we had some adversity in that Cal Baptist game where we had the big halftime lead, they came back, we won at the buzzer. Then we played really well in the second half against Washington State. I think that was the first couple games where we saw a big improvement, but our team had gone through some adversity together. When you bring in seven transfers and three freshmen and a new coaching staff and no one knows each other, you really don’t know what you’re going to have. It’s hard to improve until you go through that adversity. I thought the California trip really helped our team establish, how are we going to react, especially second half late in those games. It certainly helped us against LSU, as well.”
One thing that has been consistent in wins
“We’re scoring the ball. We’re shooting a high percentage, almost 50% from the field and 39% from the 3-point line. We score the ball at a pretty high level right now and when we have 19 assists, 14 in the second half (Sunday), we’re pretty good. If we’re selfish and we don’t hit the open man. We had five assists in the first half (Sunday), that was not good enough. Our guys have shown the ability to come out in the second half and learn from their mistakes in the first half.”
On SMU’s rebounding
“I think it’s both (skill and hard work). You saw Yohan go out of his area four or five times (Sunday) and have 11 rebounds. He didn’t do that the last four or five games. Matt Cross goes out of his area every possession. The shot will go up and he’ll be on the left side of the court and rebounding 20 feet to the right side of the rim. Some of the things he does is really amazing. So we showed our team that and Yohan did it (Sunday). Rebounding is a skill, usually, that translates to different levels and different leagues. If you can rebound, you can usually do it at the higher levels. Some of our guys that have transferred from other schools have that capability and you can improve.”
Time off over the holiday for SMU
“Four and a half days (off). They’re always rusty. The first practice, the night of the 26, plus we had all those thunderstorms so some of our staff and players were rerouted and canceled. We had about, I’d say two-thirds of our team for our practice on the 26, and we practiced the 27 and 28 with a full roster.”
On facing Duke’s Cooper Flagg
“He does a lot of things. He leads their team in about six or seven categories. We understand, but Duke is not Cooper Flagg, it’s Duke as a team. They have nine or 10 other really good players. We’ll try to come up with a game plan to try and make it as hard as they can to score the ball on us.”
On Duke’s roster
“They’re very balanced. Cooper’s at 16 and the other guys are at 11, 10, nine points per game, so they’re balanced like we are. So you just can’t focus on one guy, you have to guard their whole team.”
On John Scheyer taking over for Coach K
“Coach K, Hall of Fame coach. John’s a terrific young coach. He played there so he knows the system and knows the university well. But they have a significant advantage over most programs around the country. When you’re a blue blood in our sport, you usually walk into a room and you kind of pick who you recruit. With Kansas and Kentucky and UCLAs of the world, North Carolina, those teams have built-in advantages that most of the universities around the country don’t have. It’s unusual for a first head coaching job to be at that level or that type of program. You usually have to go somewhere else, but he was in a unique spot where he was so well respected and did such a great job as an assistant coach for Coach K. He’s been a great head coach for a few years now. Very impressed with John. He’s a really good guy, really good coach and they, obviously, have an outstanding program.”
On SMU players’ approach to playing Duke
“We’ll find out. If you can’t get ready for this game. We’re a sold out arena at Moody and a home game. You have to try and hold home court advantage.”
On facing Duke and UNC back-to-back
“I’ve been to the Dean Dome many times. It’s a very big arena and they pack the place. They’re one of those schools I just mentioned, so great players and a great coaching staff. It will be a lot of fun.”
On UNC’s 8-5 record
“I don’t know, I haven’t really looked at them, we’re focused on Duke right now. I know Carolina has one or two games before us and Duke plays (Tuesday) against Virginia Tech. We try to stay very focused on our next game. I didn’t even look at Duke until (Monday) because we were focused on Longwood.”
On Saturday’s challenge for SMU
“This is what we signed up for. Have a battle for first place in the ACC. It’s a young season, we have a long way to go, but it’s obviously a big game for everybody.”