Everything Miami Interim Head Coach Bill Courtney said After SMU Loss
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Dreams and Nightmares are what this college basketball season is made of and for the Miami Hurricane men’s basketball team (4-14, 0-7 ACC), they are on Elm Street.
For the first time since 2002, the Hurricanes have given up 100 points in a game as SMU dominated from opening tip. Interim head coach Bill Courtney did not have much to say after the game but a few words where still said.
Well, the other way around it that was terrible um you know we played terribly we give SMB credit for playing very well. We get off to a bad start and just continue to kind of like an avalanche or rock rolling down the hill never stopping.
“The first thing for us is to be better at having competitive spirit um you know whenever we’ve hit adversities thus far this year we haven’t reacted the way that. We should you know we kind of pull apart rather than pull together and you know for us it’s really not about the opponent it’s about ourselves and we have to continue to be connected especially on the defensive end of the floor. I thought we had two good practices leading into the game we had good practice Thursday and Friday um but then the game starts and it makes some shots and then we kind of hang our heads a little bit you know it’s tough, especially for young guys you know to fight through when they haven’t seen the success you know the end of last year and now the beginning of this ACC season we’ve struggled so much that the guys start to kind of you know think that that’s who they are instead of fighting through and understand that we can overcome.”
“That’s just what we talked about again these are our guys no matter what and we have to figure out a way to get these guys to play better’s very simple and again that starts with competitive spirit and having pride in what you do especially at the defense into the floor. I told the guys the other day that you know we just give up too many easy baskets you know even if you foul a guy contest him at the rim you know we got to you know start taking more pride in that and being a little tougher on that end”
well he continue to fight and
“Well he continued to fight and that’s what we talked about at halftime there was no exit and no talk at halftime you know he gave up 70 plus and he had four total rebounds in the first half uh they were missing and more turnovers than rebounds you know there’s no way to talk about X and O’s at that point it’s just about being a competitor and I thought Matt did a great job of coming out and competing in the second half I thought we all did I think you know again we still weren’t good defensively but we competed and I was very pleased to see that because that’s not something we always do uh and Matt’s maturation that’s the next step for him as a leader to understand and we actually talked about this morning when things go bad you know he can’t hang his head he’s got to kind of rally the troops I mean he’s got to be in the longest even though he’s only been there a year and a half um so they look to himas an emotional leader and I thought hedid a good job of fighting the second half.”
“I don’t know that it’s frustrated they’re not involved I think it’s frustration just because we’re not having success and you know again we’ve had some games like you know at Virginia Tech uh here at Wake Forest where we scored the points and we shared the ball the main thing that we preach on offense is sharing the ball when we did that even tonight even against Duke in games that we didn’t fear so well we were in good shape when we get stagnant and we dribble the ball too much that’s when we get ourselves in trouble you know uh We’ve yet to really play like we do in practice where we’re sharing the ball everybody’s involved and you know everybody’s moving and executing well and again that’s part of playing against a better defensive team. When you’re on Flor in the games you know now Miller’s pressuring guys who’ve never seen that pressure before we’re playing guys at point guard that are not point guards and boy Miller’s terrorizing those guys so it starts with that and he just disrupts the whole offense as a point guard and so that that hurts a little bit but you know again we’ll keep preaching share the basketball that that’s the most important thing offensively is to share the ball.”
“Week blocked the shot but that’s the first time we’ve seen that all year right the guy come from the weak side of the floor and blocked the shot um and so that helps us he plays very hard he offensive and defensive rebounds he runs the floor like crazy now he’s very Rustyright now he literally was you know last week he was just started practice he’s practiced probably like five or six practices so he’s very Rusty he’s trying to figure out the plays the offense the defense all those things and that’s you know part of our issue to is all the moving parts you got guys in and out of the lineup we just got Divine back tonight he was obviously very Rusty from his time off and so uh I think once we’re able to get everybody back and in their roles then I think you’ll see a better product.”
I don’t know I’ll be honest with you I don’t know. [Divine] he’s a little rusty as you mentioned but is that helpful oh certainly helpful to have Divine on the floor because he is able to create in-ball screen situations he’s fast and he’s a pretty good defender um again he had some R on the night game R cuz again you’re a freshman and you missed that much time you going to have a little rest on you but we’ll think you’ll get better as this this month.
