Ross Hodge Niagara Postgame

I want to start out by thanking our student section maniacs. They were incredible. They were loud from the beginning. We had got off to good starts in our exhibition kind of season, each one of those games. You know, we had got off to really good starts. Obviously wasn't the case tonight, I thought. You got to give them credit. Made some tough shots. And then on the defensive end. They executed their game plan, I thought, early and kind of dictated the shots that we were taking. Not that we weren't, didn't think they were like terrible shots or anything, but just kind of. Packed it in, we had some good looks that didn't get to go down, but I thought Finley started driving the ball, that kind of got us going, got fouled, and then we were able to get some stops, long rebounds, turnovers, Miles got out in transition, and really after the first six minutes. Of the game, I thought our defensive intensity was really good. We were turning them over in the first half, but they were still shooting a very high percentage. Second half, we were able to kind of marry both the concepts. We were to turn them over, and we were able to get them to miss a little bit more. But I thought that second group, Martin, again if you look at the box score, I think it was a plus 42, which is crazy. But Martin, Finley, Javin, Seydoux, really kind of like – They galvanized us defensively in their intensity, started turning them over, got some layups, and felt like we really did a good job of playing the plays the right way for the extended period of the game. I mean, you probably went over some of it in that intro, but give me a couple things you liked, a couple things you didn't like about tonight. I didn't like, I thought, early. We didn't make them miss. You know, there's a difference between, like, making someone miss and hoping someone misses. We were a little shorter on our closeouts. They made the shots. I mean, it wasn't like they were wide open, but, you know, it just wasn't. Physical enough and hard enough defensively to start the game. And then I did like, again, the response. We haven't played a lot of basketball together, but again, Martin, Finley, Seydoux, Brennan, Javin, those guys have played a lot of college basketball. I didn't feel like there was any panic kind of with the start, which sometimes that can happen, especially like your first home game. You're not getting shots to go down, you know, you can feel the energy in the crowd and they're ready to erupt and then you start getting the moans when the shots aren't going and I thought we just handled that well. And then, like I said, I think there was that one time in the second half they called the timeout, the first called timeout. Right before the 12-minute media, so then you almost had six minutes of stoppage time. And that could have disrupted a little bit of intensity, but I felt like we played it and finished it out. Box score was crazy. At this right, they got no offensive rebounds. Yeah, yeah. And they're not a... They're not a... A, um... They're a team that sends most back, but that's still, yeah, like you would think one bounces off your foot and it's a team rebound or something, but we did a good job of cleaning the backboard up, and like I said, the second half, I felt like we made them miss as opposed to just hoping they were missing. It felt like the first media timeout, you went to the press, and that's finally when the guys kind of found a rhythm in the game. Yeah, and made some minor adjustments with our ball screen coverages, tried to be a little more aggressive. And, again, I think the strength of this team will be the numbers. And then when you combine that with the ability, like, again, we've talked about it, Amadou and Mo, those guys can move. And you should be able to wear some other teams down. But I just thought that in itself got us more aggressive, got us off our heels a little bit. We were able to start getting deflections, long rebounds. Miles got out in transition, got some easy baskets, and kind of got us going. Miles and Brennan said just getting the pace of the game up a little, really up there. Yeah, yeah, yep. Miles had the plus-minus of 31. Does that show kind of what he can bring to the table in every game this season? Yeah. I mean, again, I think, again, that's how high the expectations are for him. And, again, I think he welcomes that. But he played good, his first real college game, but he can play a lot better. And he knows that, and there were just some small little detail plays that I'm sure he would want back. But, again, his humility and his willingness to, like, open himself up to being coached and wanting that, that's why his ceiling is, you know, what it is. But the thing you really appreciate about him is his competitive spirit. He's not afraid in those moments. And you saw it on full display, you know, nine assists, three turnovers, two rebounds, got to the line, and had a couple other opportunities that he just barely missed on. You guys were 9 for 14 from 3 in the second half. Is it better looks or just kind of a make-miss? You know, I'd have to look at – I'd have to really look at them. Again, seven of our first eight shots were from 3, and that's what I was like. I felt like those were dictated by them a little bit more than maybe what we would have liked. Our spacing wasn't great. I did think we settled just a bit. Um, and then after seven of our first eight shots were from the three and then only one out of our next 11. And so I think once you start getting paint touches and kick outs and now you're in rhythm, it's a little more of the shots you're used to shooting. And again, that's right to their credit. Um, And we anticipated that. And when you practice against yourselves and some of the defenses that we've played against, even in the exhibition, you kind of know when you're open because you're not open often. But they made the decision to not guard some guys. So you're kind of half open, if that makes sense. And so it just disrupts your shot rhythm a little bit. And I thought that happened to start the game. Then we settled in and you start making them and they're a little more in rhythm shots is what I would call them. Ross, sometimes guys come off the bench and they're like, I do one thing, right? And Martin just said, like, watching the game before he got in, he realized, like, I need to come in and be defensive, like, bring energy on defense. Is that a mature, like, older guy just understanding, you know, how the game's going? Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, like, again, using those minutes to kind of get a feel for what's happening out there and what you need to interject into the game. And again, Martin is a mature player, and he's... He's very, he communicates well, and so, again, that was a very mature response from him, and again, I thought it was him and Joson and Javen, and they just were able to just crank up the intensity level just a little bit. Russ, you hadn't seen much zone before tonight, right? We had not. We had not. Nobody else zoned us. Thank I liked our attack. I liked our attack. You know, the one right before the half, I thought it was a great ball movement. Thought Joson could have shot it. He passed it to Finley. you, Thought Finley could have shot it. He passed it to Miles. It was super unselfish. And then I think the other part I'd have to be maybe we got fouled Jesus. or I know we got the ball in close with Javen. And so I thought our zone execution for the first time seeing it was pretty good. All the time out there, which is your second one and a half. Yeah. Are you normally for or against that? And then part of that, were you anticipating zone? I wasn't anticipating zone. I, you know, for a half a second. You know, I'm not like a, I'm not, again, I'm not rigid in my idea. I thought maybe like two for one, maybe, but I'm not like a, just a, hey, we always want to go two for ones, but I was going to see if we could get something quick. I think there's maybe 36, 37. If you could get miles downhill, then you could get another possession. Kind of just wanted to see what it was going to look like more than anything. Coach, from the 13 steals tonight, it seemed like a lot of it was from anticipation, especially like on skip passes, things like that. Is that something that comes naturally from the guys just being a good anticipator, or is that something, you know, scheme-wise as far as getting in the gaps and saying, hey, they're going to throw these skip passes? Combination. Combination. Part A is making sure when you're on the ball that you have good ball pressure an active hand so they can't exactly where they want it to go. You know, I use the terminology like you can take the best quarterback in the NFL and put him under duress, and he's going to be off target. You could take maybe not as good a quarterback in the NFL, let him sit in a pocket, a clean pocket, he's going to pick you apart. So we definitely talk about needing to impact the ball with our hand activity. And then when you're in help physically, you need to be where you need to be. And your mind needs to be thinking what's next. So physically, I'm in this spot. But in my mind, I'm thinking, hey, this ball is about to get thrown out. And you don't want to just like dig your heels into the ground and kind of get stuck in help. Or you don't want to be late to help. If you're late to help, then you're having to go this way and go that way. You really want to be early. And now you're just anticipating it almost like a free safety. And anticipate you work on it. And obviously some guys are better than others. There is a natural component to it, but it is something we work on. And if you get those interceptions like in certain spots on the floor, coupled with the way your team can get out, is it like a strike up the band kind of moment at certain points? I don't know. I'm usually not a strike up the band type of guy until the buzzer goes all the way off. I mean, was it Stanford and Cal? Yeah, so I don't want the band struck up until the clock hits 0-0-0, but I definitely think a strength of this team will be the speed and being able to convert. Defense to offense should be a strength with our forwards that can run and then the shooting that's on the perimeter It should be a strength We're kind of hanging around for a good part like end of the first half in a second And then what happened when you guys just blew the game open in like a five minutes span. Um, like I said, I thought I thought, uh... We were down 10 And so if you're down 10 to start and you're up 13 at the half, that's a 23-point swing in probably 12 minutes. And I didn't think we finished it great, great. Was a little disappointed with some of our physicality around the basket. 10 did a good job getting downhill. And so I just thought we were able to increase our physicality as the game went on, we were able to stay fresher. And like I said, we turned them over, thank goodness, in the first half, cuz we weren't making them miss. I think they shot 53% from two and 50% from three in the first half, which is atrocious. But we were able to balance that out because we turned them over so much. The second half, you were able to still turn them over and then finally get them to miss. Ross, with Miles and just his ability to play, make everything nine assists, is that more just him being unselfish or is it more of his playmaking, you think? Um... Both. Yeah, he's a gifted passer. You know, he's a willing passer. His ability to get in tight spaces collapses a defense naturally. And so he, you know, he's a willing, he's a willing passer. And then you combine that with his speed and, you know, he doesn't need, he doesn't need an action or even a ball screen necessarily to get by people. So that's a luxury when you don't have to, you know, do something for him to be able to get but where he'll continue to grow is when he gets deep. He either needs to kind of keep his dribble alive or come to stops because you can get swallowed up a little bit. And he's starting to – he knows before – he knows when he does it instantly that he shouldn't have done it, which is good because now the player knows I don't have to say nothing. Then it's just continuing to create the habit while also not taking any of his aggression away because you got to let – again, you have to let artists be artists. You know? It looks like teams, they went underneath all the screens on him, and naturally you're going to lay off him and don't drive him by. Is he going to have to take and make 25 putters because those are going to be open shots for him? Some. He needs to, you know, that was one of the things when we went and saw him. When I went and saw him. At Bella Vista in the spring, after they had kind of already won the national championship and he was asking me then what I thought he needed to work on. And I told him, go ahead and start trying to increase your range. Again, he's six foot. And so the further people have to come out and guard him, the better, and you're going to run into length. So I just told him, like, hey, man, you got to go ahead and start working on NBA range and a little further out, you know. And they were playing pickup, and he hit about a 27-footer, and he ran by me. He was like, was that deep enough? This is like unfair but like You talked about at length in the past about like honor's gravity. You have a point guard who just has eyes on him no matter what. He can, months from now, years from now, if he can hit shots that are deep or at least be that threat, what does that do for everything you want to do in offense with spacing and options and motion? Yeah, just it creates either or situations for a defense and not necessarily good or bad. So like through a defensive lens, if you're playing a great player, It's typically like, what are the lesser of the two evils? It's not like, well, we can shut him down doing this. You kind of have to pick your poison a little bit. And he has that ability. I mean, he's shown it. Thank You know, he can shoot the ball. He can shoot the ball with range. He continues to get better at it. And, yeah, it just makes it where, as a defense, you have to decide. You know, okay, like, are we going to – are we going to – Are we going to live with this? Are we going to try to put two on him and make him get the ball out of his hands early? you. But that's where I think Jalen and B-Lo have really, they're really good secondary playmakers out of the pocket. And so, yeah, he'll just, he'll continue to, he'll continue to get better and continue to work. And that's what I love about him. You touched on it a little bit about Martin. Looking at the box score, he pretty much has everything positive in a box score except he doesn't have a turnover. Can you talk about his impact in his 22 minutes that he played tonight? Yeah, besides doinking two free throws, he's an 80% free throw shooter. But, yeah, I thought his defensive intensity and his competitive spirit was really infectious, his voice was infectious. And again, he kind of missed the two free throws, then he banked the one in, saw that one go in. And then like a lot of shooters, once you see a ball go in, he made the next two. And so, but I thought his defense, his rebounding, three rebounds, we really challenge our guards to be good rebounders. He's gotten better in that area. That was probably the weakest part in his entire game, was his defensive rebounding, and we've really challenged him. In that area, so yeah, he's just he's got a he's got a great presence about him. He's got a great way about him, and he has the ability to be very impactful for this team with his voice. And we just always really encourage him to make sure that he's using it, you know, in a in a in a in a manner that sounds like me, you know, you know, and like learning because, again, he says the right things. Typically, it's just like, how do you say them? And learning, again, B-Lo can finish my sentences. You know, those other guys are still learning. You've got to see this guy work for some time now. Yusuf Ali, how big of an impact has he had on this team, both on and off the court? Yeah, Yusuf, if you've had a chance to spend any time with him, Yusuf has the unique ability to connect with anyone from any walk of life in any room. And that's a special talent. And it's genuine. Some people can do that, it's midterms, right? So politicians can do that, but you're kind of like, is this really, you know, but he has the ability, whether it's, we did a charity camp down in Logan, whether it's connecting with those people down there, or whether he's in Toronto, he really has an ability to be intentional with his conversations, which I think is also another hard thing to do. Most of us, when we're talking, when we're in a conversation, we're really thinking about what we want to say. We're not really listening to what the other person is saying. But he has a unique ability to make people feel good about themselves. He works really hard. And even prior to this year, last year, spends a lot of time after hours in the gym with these guys. And very fortunate and grateful that he's a part of this thing. Coach, looking at a guy like Miles Sadler, you talk about his willingness to be coached. It looked like tonight there were a couple of coachable moments. How do you feel like he responded? Great. Yeah, incredible. You know, I've never – he's never not responded to coaching since he's been here. You know, and, again, we challenge him. I know how good he wants to be. And so, yeah, that ultimately is going to be a separator for him, you know, The combination of the confidence and you can't take that from them. But his willingness to learn and understand, okay, this is where I can be better. I'm Again, his rebounding has improved, his defense tonight, going his deflections first play of the second half came out. We talked about that. to go Like, hey, man, let's set the tone. We kind of slopped through the first four minutes of the game. ahead Let's not do that again. He comes out, gets a steal, gets fouled. And that's, again, and get a credit to his heart and his willingness to be coached. Coach, thank you. started. Thank you, Coach. Y'all be safe.