JB on Doug Gottlieb right now

[CuseTroop]

nm

 

[CuseTroop]

ill recap when its over

 

[MyMeloMyMan]

He seems to like Dougy now..

 

[Jake]

Contrary to popular belief, Gottlieb is very smart and always prepared. Excellent interview.

 

[jekelish]

Jim and Doug have traded barbs, but it's clear there is a mutual respect there.

 

[CuseTroop]

DG- How immediately do you think Fab being out effects your team?
JB- Well, obviously you lose a shot blocker and a presence in the middle like that its gonna hurt your team, but we’re fortunate that we have two guys who have played a lot at that position and they also played the 3 games that he was out. We had a few wins at that time so they have a positive feeling about what they can do and I think the rest of the team has a positive feeling. On the offensive end it doesn’t hurt us that much, on the defensive end it hurts us a little bit. Everyones gonna have to work a little bit harder. Things happen in life, things don’t always go the way you would like them to go. You only have two choices, lets go out and do this, or lets give up. We’re not going to give up.

DG- There have been several moments this year of adversity obviously. Is this a galvanizing moment? Im wondering what the players emotions are as they’ve gone through practices and as they get ready for the game.
JB- well they have had two good practices since this came out. Everyone is good to go. They realize that this is a one and done tournament. They need to be ready to play. We thing UNCA is a good team, they played well all year long. They have good veterans, good guards, guys that can shoot the ball and handle the ball. So our players know, we have to pick it up. They know they are fully capable of doing it. All year long we have had adversity, and we have come to play. Nobody likes adversity, nobody likes going through it, but it happens to everyone at some point in their life. As coaches we are constantly talking to our players about something that happens in their lives, and this year we have prolly had more than our share of things that we have had to overcome. The important thing for players is to concentrate on what their doing, academically, and in life, and college, and what their doing on the basketball court. I think our team is focused, and they will come to play, and they will play well.

DG- People wanna point out that you haven’t been past the sweet 16 since 03, but they forget that 2 years ago, you’re the number 1 etam in the country, AO hurts his knee in the BET, never plays for you during the NCAA tournament, and you lose in the sweet 16 to butler. What can you take from that experience and use for this team.
JB- Well, the big difference is our back up center was our starting forward, so we had to move our forward into the center spot, we didn’t have another guy. This year we have two guys who play that spot, so it’s a little better. You never wanna lose a guy like fab, and as far as winning games in the tourney, there are teams that haven’t won 5 games since 2003 in the NCAA tournament, its not that easy to do. Its not that easy to get past the sweet 16, and we have to do the best that we can. Some years maybe your not quite good enough to go further. This years team is a good team, we think we can go far, we think we can beat anybody. We obviously would like to have our center, we just don’t have him. Were gonna go forward just like he got hurt, or got into foul trouble, and go on with out him. And you know this year we have the depth, we are putting people into games that have played, so that’s helpful.

 

[CuseTroop]

there is more, but the wife brought taco bell to work, that slowed me down, and I have to do about 20 mins of work. Ill be back

 

[Toga]

DG - How is Southerland's tendinitis?
JB - Say what?

 

[TinyManInside]

Did anyone else catch JB yawning not once, but twice during the interview?

 

[CuseTroop]

DG- I understand that you have only lost two games, but ive seen games where you were down, and you sort of unleashed the guards if you will. You have this ridiculous bevy of athletes, your point, your 2, your 3, your 4 really, and you go back to MSG against Vtech and Stanford you pressed, or even fast forward to the garden against cincy and you nearly came back and won the game with your press. Have you given thought, as teams try to slow you down and take you out of your transistion game, have you thought about turning up the pressure earlier in the game?
JB- well, Our press has been good at times, as you point out. There were two or three other games that we tried to use it ND is one that comes to mind and they scored 28 points on lay ups, attacking our press. So I think the press can be a weapon, but you have to be careful, if your playing a really good ball handling team that wants to get pressed I think that can hurt ya. For example florida, a good pressing team. They didn’t press us because they know we are pretty good against pressure. I think it really depends on the situation, I think we can press, its not our strength. And the other thing I would say, 24 of the games we won people held the ball against us, including good teams :Lville, cincy, gtown. We were able to win 24 of those types of games. So I think we can win half court, as well as we can win full court. The one advantage we have had all year, weve been getting out rebounded by about 2 ½ boards a game, but we have forced 6 more turnovers a game. So we hope we can continue to do that. That would help us in terms of how many possessions you have. Theres no question this hurts our team a little bit, but were gonna try to overcome it with everyone else playing a little bit better.
DG- philosophically I’ve heard coaches say ‘we take it one game at at time, we have ashville’ but you’re a human, you look ahead at the possibles, you have Kstate, really good rebounding team, Martins a former huggins assistant, they nearly beat you at your place when you didn’t have fab melo, is that in your mind?

JB- Well, your right, they almost beat us, but they didn’t beat us. And WVs coming back just a few weeks from beating Kstate. I don’t go that much by comparative scores, and I’m really not thinking about beating Kstate, because we need to think about what were doing next game. But I’m confident that this team can rebound enough, and do enough to take care of what we need to. Your right, we have been outrebounded a lot this year, but we’ve won 31 games. So it hasent been an issue. Could it be an issue? It could be. If we don’t force those turn overs, and we get outrebounded, then that will be a problem. But im hopeful that wont happen

 

[CuseTroop]

DG explained that he could ask questions about Fabs issue. It was put out in the presser, and part of the agreement with the interview

 

[djdan]

I love this: "Well, your right, they almost beat us, but they didn’t beat us." Classic.

 

[jtorange]

Thanks CuseTroop - much appreciated!

 

[Ghost]

JB said we pressed Notre Dame, and made is sound like it was party of why we lost. Did we press them before we were down 100 points? I feel like we let ND just slow it down and beat up on us until the second half where we finally made an attempt to speed the game up.

 

[bballbeadle]

Thank you! JB has as good an attitude as one can have. He may be in agony on in the inside, but on the outside he is modeling for his players how to go forward. I admire that.

 

[suthrills]

Cusetroop the recap is much appreciated.

 

[cto]

CuseTroop...... Thank you for all the time and effort you put into this two-part summary. Much appreciated by someone who could not catch the show.

 

[Stevenson]

I would have appreciated a three part summary.

 

[Deano]

Cusetroop the recap is much appreciated.

+1

 

[armory]

I would have appreciated a three part summary.

I thought you preferred them in pairs, equally parted, one summary for each nostril?

I loved the recap, the drip is splendid.

 

[007]

Thank you 'Troop

 

[CuseTroop]

No problem guys.. Happy to help.


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