Weber, McGuirl Preview Saturday's Game at Texas
Jan 15, 2021 | Men's Basketball
Head coach Bruce Weber and senior Mike McGuirl spoke to the media on Friday
MANHATTAN, Kan. – K-State head coach Bruce Weber and senior Mike McGuirl met with members of the media via Zoom on Friday morning, as the Wildcats continue preparations for Saturday's game at No. 4/4 Texas at 7 p.m., CT at the Frank Erwin Center. The game will air nationally on the Longhorn Network.
K-State and Texas will meet for the 41st time in their histories with the Wildcats holding a 22-18 advantage in a series that dates to 1971. Texas has an 18-17 advantage since the start of Big 12 play, while the Longhorns have a 10-9 edge at home, including 10-7 in the Big 12 era.
Texas is 10-2 on the season after dropping a 79-77 decision to No. 15/15 Texas Tech on Wednesday.
HEAD COACH BRUCE WEBER
On who will be available against Texas...
"Antonio (Gordon) came out of his protocol on Monday. He's been able to practice the last three days. He'll be available. Obviously, you're dealing with someone who didn't practice for 21 days or do any physical activity, so you have to keep that in consideration. DaJuan's ankle on Sunday when I went to workout Antonio and Kaosi and he was to treatment, to be honest I'm not sure how he played in the game on Saturday. It was double the size. It was bad, and he could barely walk on Sunday. He was on crutches. Credit to Luke Sauber and DaJuan. They spent probably six hours a day Sunday and Monday and Tuesday getting it to where he was shooting a bit on Wednesday. He was in practice a little bit yesterday. We'll see how he's doing today. Carlton (Linguard) with his back issue, he'll practice part of the time. Luke (Kasubke) and Kaosi (Ezeagu) have made strides. I'm not sure they're ready to play in a game, but we'll have six or seven. We'll just do our best, and that's all you can do. Obviously we had the test this morning, so we'll finalize that once we get the results. Syree (Lewis) comes out of his protocol today, so he would not have practiced since the Texas Tech game. But he'll be able to practice and would be available, as well. As I said, we'll just do our best. That's all you can do right now. We did have some good workouts. Obviously the numbers were limited but we used the time. A lot of shooting and individual skill work. Some concept things and made the best of the week, and now we'll move forward."
On Nijel Pack…
"Nijel won't be back. His second protocol starts Sunday or Monday."
On playing Texas while missing players…
"I kind of laughed because last year, if you remember, we had the weather issues and then the plane issues. We arrived in Austin, Texas, at 3:30 in the afternoon, went to the hotel, ate, changed and went to the game. This year, you're under-manned. Do your best. Against Oklahoma State, I thought our kids gave great effort. We gotta be a little smarter, a little more disciplined on some things. You gotta realize that when you're undermanned, you probably have to shorten the game a little bit if we can. It always helps to make some shots. At Oklahoma State, it's 24-23 and we're winning with about three minutes left in the first half. They went on that 10-1 run to finish the half. That was when DaJuan sprained his ankle right before that, but we needed some good possessions there and did not have them. They made a couple of threes and it got to nine. You push in the second half, but the worst case scenario of everything, Davion gets into foul trouble. DaJuan sprains his ankle. Selton cramps. Again, I thought we could've pushed them a little more if we were just a little bit smarter, make a couple shots, maybe a little more disciplined on some things. Obviously Texas, as you mentioned, is really good. They're coming off a really tough loss. Great game the other night, Texas Tech, a really hard fought game. Credit to Shaka. A year ago, late January and February they were struggling. Went on a big run at the end of the season and now they're a year older, great guard play. Andrew Jones is a special story. You're just so happy for a young man like that, persevered and then hit a game-winner last week and has played really good basketball. Obviously (Courtney) Ramey is really good. (Matt) Coleman, you have a guy that's started over 100 games. Then you have possible draft choices at some of the other positions. They're talented. He's done a nice job with them. When they get free flowing, they're really, really tough to stop. If we're going to be able to battle with that, we're going to have to take care of the basketball, control the tempo and find ways to score any way we can."
On strategy to keep guys out of foul trouble…
"The one guy that's had trouble is Davion (Bradford) the last few games. Against Texas Tech, one foul is 92 feet away and the other is 94. He gets a back pick foul. He can't get the cheap ones. If you're a big guy, you're protecting the paint. You're going to get some fouls, but he can't get those types of fouls. He had another one on a rebound against Oklahoma State, again, away from the hoop. He's gotta stay down on shot fakes. I'd rather have him in the game and give up two points than him try to block a shot. We've all talked to him. He's watched the film. I talked to his guardian and his high school coach, just trying to help him. Some of that is maturity a little bit. The other guys have done pretty well. We need to be a little more physical. We don't need them in foul trouble, but we need to be more physical and take away some of those points in the paint. Especially against them. They're going to make some shots, because they have good shooters. We're going to have to do a good job protecting that paint and eliminating their easy ones whether that's transition or off of their offensive flow."
On where the team is mentally right now…
"You just feel their pain after the Oklahoma State game. I thought they went in with a pretty good mindset. Mike, DaJuan, Selton all kind of thought, 'I gotta go make plays'. I thought we did that a little too much. I told them that I don't think it's selfishness. They're trying to help the team win, but you gotta do it out of flow and let things come. They've had a good week of practice. They have good spirits. As a staff, we've really tried to stay positive and help them. We've worked on skill development this week. We watched a lot of film mixed in with that, because you can only go so long in practice with the number of bodies. I know when all the guys get back, our coaches will be happy because they won't have to practice as much. That's about the only way we can go 5 on 5 is to have our coaches involved. It just makes it tough, but they've had a good attitude. We're just trying to stay positive, and who knows? We'll grind it out tomorrow and see what happens."
On Seryee Lewis' minutes…
"I don't think there's any doubt. All the situations. Kaosi got hurt before the games he played. He got hurt a week or 10 days before the Drake game, and he made a decision that he wanted to play and give it a go. It just seemed to get worse as it went on, but with that situation with Kaosi, now Davion gets to go and be the starter and play major minutes. It allows Carlton to get minutes. It allows Seryee to get some minutes. Rudi (Williams) has taken minutes now that Nijel (Pack) is gone. When you don't get what you want, you get what you need and that's experience. But you gotta deal with that with the growing up pains. There are silver linings. Someone talked about it last week. Just those opportunities for these guys to play these games is important. You hope they use those minutes and that experience to grow and learn. Every day is different, but hopefully in the next week or 10 days, we'll get everybody back and come together as a team and have a nice push to finish the season. But we gotta get to that point first, and we gotta keep their spirits up. We hope they can keep competing."
On the impact of Nijel Pack being out…
"Yeah, there's no doubt. If you know anything about basketball, I saw one of the graphics when watching a replay of the game the other day. They had all the points we've lost with guys not being in the game. You think about the experience, but in Nijel's case, there's 11 points but he's also averaging five assists per game. Now you add another 10 points onto that, and now you're up to almost 20 points. Rudi can replace some of that, and I think those other guys were trying a little too hard to replace some of it by going on their own. Then Nijel is kind of our calming effect. He plays the game at a good pace. When you have him and Mike getting almost 2 to 1 assists, Nijel is maybe even a little better than that maybe, obviously that helps our whole team. You don't want to lose anybody, and he's only a freshman, but he's a pretty good, solid player that helps our team in a lot of ways."
On the amount of games the team has played…
"I'm proud of the guys. We're at 13 games, and we'll have 14 on Saturday hopefully. They keep a good spirit, keep battling and that's all we can ask for. Like I said, hopefully we'll get everyone together sometime before the season ends and make a push here down the stretch."
MIKE MCGUIRL, SENIOR GUARD
On games being postponed...
"It was different. Going into it a couple days before, we knew there was a chance we weren't going to play. It happened. We've been practicing, going hard and trying to prepare for Texas."
On if playing Oklahoma State short handed taught them anything...
"Against Oklahoma State, regardless of how many people we had, we didn't really play well. We watched the whole game as a team and were able to learn a lot from it, learn what we need to do better on offense and defense. There were a lot of takeaways from it."
On the highs and lows during his time at K-State...
"It's difficult, because the goal is always winning. The first two years here, there was a lot of winning. Last year, we didn't do that well. This year, there have been roadblocks from the start. We're just trying to learn from it. We have a young team, but we got everything we need to be good. We have every piece we need. As guys start getting back and we continue to practice day in and day out and go through this next stretch of games, we'll be just looking to improve."
On possibly coming back for another year...
"To have that option is a cool thing, but right now, I'm just really trying to focus on the current season. Game in and game out, trying to be the best I can be and we can be this year and each game. Right now, my mind is set on doing what we can to try to beat Texas this weekend. That's where my mind is."
On how his teammates have dealt with COVID...
"It's not fun, and those people mentally just want to be back out on the court. I can definitely understand that. Going weeks without playing while the season is going on, it's something you don't want to have happen to yourself. Our guys have been able to stay into it and be ready when they come back."
On playing all 40 minutes against Oklahoma State...
"To me it's fun. Everybody wants to play the whole game. Anybody can stay on the court for 40 minutes, but it's doing things the right way for 40 minutes. Looking back at the game, there were definitely a lot of areas that I could've improved upon in those 40 minutes. It's fun to play 40 minutes, but if I'm going to play 40 minutes, I gotta be better."
On what the team needs to improve after watching the Oklahoma State film...
"Playing together. Against Oklahoma State, little things were off on offense like spacing. Those little things can make a huge difference. Just moving the ball and getting the best shot possible. Then just like little tough things like boxing out, stuff we might've let fatigue get the best of us in certain situations and have to improve upon."
On maintaining a positive mindset heading into the Texas game...
"It's not as hard as you think, because we're blessed. We're blessed to be in this situation. We're blessed to have played as many games as we've played, and right now we're just staying positive and loving the game and trying to get better game in and game out. That's what is driving us. We could drop our heads and complain about this, this and that, but there's no need to when we have so much good going for us in life in general. We just have to stay positive and enjoy every game and fight every game to win."
On being the lone senior and how his leadership has evolved...
"It's something I never imagined, being the only senior. It is what it is. I've been here the longest. We have a great team, and they're great people too. I just do what I can to influence them in the most positive ways possible. Trying to show them how to work hard, how to do this, this and that on defense. Little things where in high school or wherever they were before that they didn't know or realize. A lot of things, they have to figure stuff out for themselves, but all I can do is try to help them. That's all I've been trying to do this whole time, and it's fun. It's fun to watch people closest to me improve as time goes on. That's my job as a leader to help them try to improve."
On if any questions from the young guys have surprised him...
"Some of them ask a lot of questions, but I'm not surprised by any questions at this point."
On how the team is able to relax...
"We just come together. When we're around each other, we enjoy being around each other. That helps a lot of things, just enjoying being around people you're closest to. On the road, little things like after a scout meeting, just hanging out and having fun with each other. That's what it's all about. As long as we continue to have fun, we're going to improve on the court and will win some games. It's really about having fun and enjoying the experience, because we've played more games than many teams and are blessed for that."
On keeping in touch with teammates dealing with COVID...
"I know it's been tough for some of them. You can check up on them, and that helps them but I know the people that went through it just want to be back on the court. At the end of the day, once it happens there's nothing you can do about it. Just try to keep them positive. Stay positive always."
K-State and Texas will meet for the 41st time in their histories with the Wildcats holding a 22-18 advantage in a series that dates to 1971. Texas has an 18-17 advantage since the start of Big 12 play, while the Longhorns have a 10-9 edge at home, including 10-7 in the Big 12 era.
Texas is 10-2 on the season after dropping a 79-77 decision to No. 15/15 Texas Tech on Wednesday.
HEAD COACH BRUCE WEBER
On who will be available against Texas...
"Antonio (Gordon) came out of his protocol on Monday. He's been able to practice the last three days. He'll be available. Obviously, you're dealing with someone who didn't practice for 21 days or do any physical activity, so you have to keep that in consideration. DaJuan's ankle on Sunday when I went to workout Antonio and Kaosi and he was to treatment, to be honest I'm not sure how he played in the game on Saturday. It was double the size. It was bad, and he could barely walk on Sunday. He was on crutches. Credit to Luke Sauber and DaJuan. They spent probably six hours a day Sunday and Monday and Tuesday getting it to where he was shooting a bit on Wednesday. He was in practice a little bit yesterday. We'll see how he's doing today. Carlton (Linguard) with his back issue, he'll practice part of the time. Luke (Kasubke) and Kaosi (Ezeagu) have made strides. I'm not sure they're ready to play in a game, but we'll have six or seven. We'll just do our best, and that's all you can do. Obviously we had the test this morning, so we'll finalize that once we get the results. Syree (Lewis) comes out of his protocol today, so he would not have practiced since the Texas Tech game. But he'll be able to practice and would be available, as well. As I said, we'll just do our best. That's all you can do right now. We did have some good workouts. Obviously the numbers were limited but we used the time. A lot of shooting and individual skill work. Some concept things and made the best of the week, and now we'll move forward."
On Nijel Pack…
"Nijel won't be back. His second protocol starts Sunday or Monday."
On playing Texas while missing players…
"I kind of laughed because last year, if you remember, we had the weather issues and then the plane issues. We arrived in Austin, Texas, at 3:30 in the afternoon, went to the hotel, ate, changed and went to the game. This year, you're under-manned. Do your best. Against Oklahoma State, I thought our kids gave great effort. We gotta be a little smarter, a little more disciplined on some things. You gotta realize that when you're undermanned, you probably have to shorten the game a little bit if we can. It always helps to make some shots. At Oklahoma State, it's 24-23 and we're winning with about three minutes left in the first half. They went on that 10-1 run to finish the half. That was when DaJuan sprained his ankle right before that, but we needed some good possessions there and did not have them. They made a couple of threes and it got to nine. You push in the second half, but the worst case scenario of everything, Davion gets into foul trouble. DaJuan sprains his ankle. Selton cramps. Again, I thought we could've pushed them a little more if we were just a little bit smarter, make a couple shots, maybe a little more disciplined on some things. Obviously Texas, as you mentioned, is really good. They're coming off a really tough loss. Great game the other night, Texas Tech, a really hard fought game. Credit to Shaka. A year ago, late January and February they were struggling. Went on a big run at the end of the season and now they're a year older, great guard play. Andrew Jones is a special story. You're just so happy for a young man like that, persevered and then hit a game-winner last week and has played really good basketball. Obviously (Courtney) Ramey is really good. (Matt) Coleman, you have a guy that's started over 100 games. Then you have possible draft choices at some of the other positions. They're talented. He's done a nice job with them. When they get free flowing, they're really, really tough to stop. If we're going to be able to battle with that, we're going to have to take care of the basketball, control the tempo and find ways to score any way we can."
On strategy to keep guys out of foul trouble…
"The one guy that's had trouble is Davion (Bradford) the last few games. Against Texas Tech, one foul is 92 feet away and the other is 94. He gets a back pick foul. He can't get the cheap ones. If you're a big guy, you're protecting the paint. You're going to get some fouls, but he can't get those types of fouls. He had another one on a rebound against Oklahoma State, again, away from the hoop. He's gotta stay down on shot fakes. I'd rather have him in the game and give up two points than him try to block a shot. We've all talked to him. He's watched the film. I talked to his guardian and his high school coach, just trying to help him. Some of that is maturity a little bit. The other guys have done pretty well. We need to be a little more physical. We don't need them in foul trouble, but we need to be more physical and take away some of those points in the paint. Especially against them. They're going to make some shots, because they have good shooters. We're going to have to do a good job protecting that paint and eliminating their easy ones whether that's transition or off of their offensive flow."
On where the team is mentally right now…
"You just feel their pain after the Oklahoma State game. I thought they went in with a pretty good mindset. Mike, DaJuan, Selton all kind of thought, 'I gotta go make plays'. I thought we did that a little too much. I told them that I don't think it's selfishness. They're trying to help the team win, but you gotta do it out of flow and let things come. They've had a good week of practice. They have good spirits. As a staff, we've really tried to stay positive and help them. We've worked on skill development this week. We watched a lot of film mixed in with that, because you can only go so long in practice with the number of bodies. I know when all the guys get back, our coaches will be happy because they won't have to practice as much. That's about the only way we can go 5 on 5 is to have our coaches involved. It just makes it tough, but they've had a good attitude. We're just trying to stay positive, and who knows? We'll grind it out tomorrow and see what happens."
On Seryee Lewis' minutes…
"I don't think there's any doubt. All the situations. Kaosi got hurt before the games he played. He got hurt a week or 10 days before the Drake game, and he made a decision that he wanted to play and give it a go. It just seemed to get worse as it went on, but with that situation with Kaosi, now Davion gets to go and be the starter and play major minutes. It allows Carlton to get minutes. It allows Seryee to get some minutes. Rudi (Williams) has taken minutes now that Nijel (Pack) is gone. When you don't get what you want, you get what you need and that's experience. But you gotta deal with that with the growing up pains. There are silver linings. Someone talked about it last week. Just those opportunities for these guys to play these games is important. You hope they use those minutes and that experience to grow and learn. Every day is different, but hopefully in the next week or 10 days, we'll get everybody back and come together as a team and have a nice push to finish the season. But we gotta get to that point first, and we gotta keep their spirits up. We hope they can keep competing."
On the impact of Nijel Pack being out…
"Yeah, there's no doubt. If you know anything about basketball, I saw one of the graphics when watching a replay of the game the other day. They had all the points we've lost with guys not being in the game. You think about the experience, but in Nijel's case, there's 11 points but he's also averaging five assists per game. Now you add another 10 points onto that, and now you're up to almost 20 points. Rudi can replace some of that, and I think those other guys were trying a little too hard to replace some of it by going on their own. Then Nijel is kind of our calming effect. He plays the game at a good pace. When you have him and Mike getting almost 2 to 1 assists, Nijel is maybe even a little better than that maybe, obviously that helps our whole team. You don't want to lose anybody, and he's only a freshman, but he's a pretty good, solid player that helps our team in a lot of ways."
On the amount of games the team has played…
"I'm proud of the guys. We're at 13 games, and we'll have 14 on Saturday hopefully. They keep a good spirit, keep battling and that's all we can ask for. Like I said, hopefully we'll get everyone together sometime before the season ends and make a push here down the stretch."
MIKE MCGUIRL, SENIOR GUARD
On games being postponed...
"It was different. Going into it a couple days before, we knew there was a chance we weren't going to play. It happened. We've been practicing, going hard and trying to prepare for Texas."
On if playing Oklahoma State short handed taught them anything...
"Against Oklahoma State, regardless of how many people we had, we didn't really play well. We watched the whole game as a team and were able to learn a lot from it, learn what we need to do better on offense and defense. There were a lot of takeaways from it."
On the highs and lows during his time at K-State...
"It's difficult, because the goal is always winning. The first two years here, there was a lot of winning. Last year, we didn't do that well. This year, there have been roadblocks from the start. We're just trying to learn from it. We have a young team, but we got everything we need to be good. We have every piece we need. As guys start getting back and we continue to practice day in and day out and go through this next stretch of games, we'll be just looking to improve."
On possibly coming back for another year...
"To have that option is a cool thing, but right now, I'm just really trying to focus on the current season. Game in and game out, trying to be the best I can be and we can be this year and each game. Right now, my mind is set on doing what we can to try to beat Texas this weekend. That's where my mind is."
On how his teammates have dealt with COVID...
"It's not fun, and those people mentally just want to be back out on the court. I can definitely understand that. Going weeks without playing while the season is going on, it's something you don't want to have happen to yourself. Our guys have been able to stay into it and be ready when they come back."
On playing all 40 minutes against Oklahoma State...
"To me it's fun. Everybody wants to play the whole game. Anybody can stay on the court for 40 minutes, but it's doing things the right way for 40 minutes. Looking back at the game, there were definitely a lot of areas that I could've improved upon in those 40 minutes. It's fun to play 40 minutes, but if I'm going to play 40 minutes, I gotta be better."
On what the team needs to improve after watching the Oklahoma State film...
"Playing together. Against Oklahoma State, little things were off on offense like spacing. Those little things can make a huge difference. Just moving the ball and getting the best shot possible. Then just like little tough things like boxing out, stuff we might've let fatigue get the best of us in certain situations and have to improve upon."
On maintaining a positive mindset heading into the Texas game...
"It's not as hard as you think, because we're blessed. We're blessed to be in this situation. We're blessed to have played as many games as we've played, and right now we're just staying positive and loving the game and trying to get better game in and game out. That's what is driving us. We could drop our heads and complain about this, this and that, but there's no need to when we have so much good going for us in life in general. We just have to stay positive and enjoy every game and fight every game to win."
On being the lone senior and how his leadership has evolved...
"It's something I never imagined, being the only senior. It is what it is. I've been here the longest. We have a great team, and they're great people too. I just do what I can to influence them in the most positive ways possible. Trying to show them how to work hard, how to do this, this and that on defense. Little things where in high school or wherever they were before that they didn't know or realize. A lot of things, they have to figure stuff out for themselves, but all I can do is try to help them. That's all I've been trying to do this whole time, and it's fun. It's fun to watch people closest to me improve as time goes on. That's my job as a leader to help them try to improve."
On if any questions from the young guys have surprised him...
"Some of them ask a lot of questions, but I'm not surprised by any questions at this point."
On how the team is able to relax...
"We just come together. When we're around each other, we enjoy being around each other. That helps a lot of things, just enjoying being around people you're closest to. On the road, little things like after a scout meeting, just hanging out and having fun with each other. That's what it's all about. As long as we continue to have fun, we're going to improve on the court and will win some games. It's really about having fun and enjoying the experience, because we've played more games than many teams and are blessed for that."
On keeping in touch with teammates dealing with COVID...
"I know it's been tough for some of them. You can check up on them, and that helps them but I know the people that went through it just want to be back on the court. At the end of the day, once it happens there's nothing you can do about it. Just try to keep them positive. Stay positive always."
Players Mentioned
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K-State Men's Basketball | Interim Head Coach Driscoll Press Conference vs Baylor
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K-State Men's Basketball | Press Conference vs Baylor
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