Fresno State Athletics
QUOTES
12/6/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 6, 2009
Steve Cleveland, Fresno State Head Coach
"Well the last three days has been a difficult time just kind of thinking and reflecting how we've played especially against UOP and I think a couple of things have happened. One is, I had to kind of take a look at myself and evaluate our priorities and we realized that practice needs to be about 70 percent defense and 15 or 20 percent offense. It was good because we had probably the three best practices we've had all year competitive and the guys were challenged. I didn't know what the score was going to be or the circumstances were but we just needed to compete and play hard and that meant run the floor in transition that meant get back that meant get loose balls and its happened in practice and it was something that was a priority San Diego was a little under manned. I didn't care who we were going to play, we needed to play someone so that we could change. We have to change and we did change and our attitude was better, our effort was better. It wasn't a perfect basketball game but that's a step we needed to make after a difficult two weeks."
"We're at the time of year where all of us are playing two or three games a week. I think anytime you're on the on road can lose your legs and lose your energy and we zoned a lot tonight which required that they make shots and we need to zone 60-70 percent of games because we are better in the zone and so yeah we all go through that where we don't shoot the ball well but I was a little bit surprised but I could understand how it could happen and you play three games in 7 or 8 days and sometimes your legs aren't there and there's weren't tonight."
"We were aggressive and we had 45 rebounds so that's good. We did good things we weren't selfish with the ball and Steven had six assists and one turnover Ves had ten rebounds and Ves' aggression level the last t here days has been better. Needs to set an example in terms of effort and aggression level and I was very pleased with that. He's worked really hard the last two days in practice and his shot selection was better. This group is watching him. I was pleased and I will expect that Tuesday at Pepperdine. We did a lot of good things and San Diego struggled and again it didn't matter who we needed to play well and play hard."
On his renewed coaching philosophy
"We as a coaching staff had to change to get to where our priorities are. And we got to get to where we can push the ball in transition. What does this group do? We have good athletes, some are more skilled than others but we have lots of things we can do in terms of developing skills. We can run and we tried to run for three days to have the transition and spacing and be unselfish and understand that concept. The second thing is to guard. We had three assistant coaches at the other end through practices at the defensive end every guy had a couple of guys. They were into them in a relentless way because it's the only way and so if we can spend 60 or 70 percent of our time running and competing and defending then we're going to get better. We had to start somewhere and start building and that is my responsibility."
On Brandon Webster (Fresno State Junior Center) getting his first minutes of the season
"It was a good matchup with bigs here and that can help us. He has a presence especially in the zone (speaking of Weberster) This team has to get good on this zone. I'm a man to man coach. We just have to do that and it helps us to be more successful. We have length. We don't have bunch of quick guards and press your people so let's make them come to us and I thought we adjusted well. We contested most shots tonight."
Sylvester Seay, Fresno State Senior Forward
"It's pretty much just leadership. I can't be aggressive on the offense and not come back and be a leader on defense. If I set the tone I'm out diving on the floor and working hard rebounding and helping my team out the best that I can in getting defensive stops. The other guys look at that and it kind of trickles down to them and it seems like every time I looked around they were getting the steal so they work very very hard today and my hat goes off to them. It's something we have to continue to do and get better and better each game. The last three days in practice has been interesting. You k now, if you turned the ball over you were running. If you didn't get a stop you're running. If you're aggressive and strong with the ball you get a foul call and that's a privilege. Probably one of the most intensive practice periods ever had. We just got to keep going."
