Nov. 4, 2010

Recap | Box Score

South Carolina Head Coach Darrin Horn
November 4, 2010 vs. Kentucky Wesleyan College

Opening Statement…
This was a game that was exactly what we wanted and what we needed with this team. I think you have to give Kentucky Wesleyan a lot of credit. The reason we like to play them, obviously he (KWC head coach Todd Lee) is a good friend, but he’s a good coach and his teams always are well prepared. They play hard. Cardell McFarland is a high major guard. There’s no question about that. You have to give them credit for playing well. They did a good job on the glass, which we were not good at. I think we saw a lot of bright spots with this team on our personnel, with how we handled certain things tonight. It’s not a news flash, we have an awful lot of work to do. From a team perspective defensively, a lot of good things happened. We held to a low percentage, forced a lot of turnovers, and we limited their 3’s. All of that was really good. Rebounding was not good. It’s something that we need to focus on. Offensively, it’s good to see there’s balance. We think that’s going to be a mark of this team, with the balance and different guys stepping up. Individually, there are things that are good signs. Even something as simple as the block at the end of the game by RJ Slawson with five seconds left on the clock. It shows his athleticism and ability to make plays. Malik (Cooke) had a tough night. He hasn’t played in a year. I’m not worried about it. I wouldn’t read too much into it. It was his first time under the lights in awhile. Nobody’s going to play harder or mean more to our team. It was a good night all-in-all. We saw a lot of positives and things to work on.

On what he told the team during the timeout after KWC took the lead…
We tried to remind them, as we had been all game, regardless of what the score was, that it’s really about defense. We have a chance to be good if we can be good defensively. We’ll get better offensively. Offensively, we have guys that can make plays. We showed tonight that we have athletic guys that are capable of making plays. Those things are going to get better. Malik Cooke will not have another scoreless night here.

On the play of freshman Bruce Ellington…
He’s a young man that can make plays. The brighter the lights, the bigger the moment, the better he’s going to play. He’s one of those guys that enjoys that. He’s going to go out and make something happen. The great thing is that he did it within the team concept. He made some terrific plays. He has a long way to go. He’s a good worker. He’s in a good place, but obviously has a lot to learn. We’ve already seen, from a coaching perspective, that some of the things tonight were improvements.

On rebounding in tonight’s game…
It’s a concern. It has been from day one. We pressured them into bad shots, quick shots, which we wanted to do, but I think that some of it is we didn’t drop down inside. We didn’t box out. We didn’t get to loose balls, which cannot happen. We win those plays because we’re not lining up toe-to-toe and playing smash-mouth basketball. The bottom line is we have to get better with it.

Sophomore Forward Lakeem Jackson
On what Coach Horn said in the final timeout…
He just reminded us to stay focused and keep doing what we do in practice and to not get down on ourselves.

On the impact of the freshmen…
I know a couple of guys probably had a few butterflies because it was their first college game but that’s to be expected. Once we got past that we played pretty well. Everybody showed up and filled their role very well, we’re real excited about that.

Freshman Guard Bruce Ellington
On the physicality of the game…
It was a little tougher inside because they were much bigger than what you see in high school.

On what he can improve upon…
I need to work on my defense, as a team we can improve upon our defense.

On Coach Horn’s assessment of the team’s performance…
He just wants us to continue to improve defensively because that’s what wins ballgames.