Post-Texas Interview with Jones

By Craig Meyer/DFP Staff

Q: How much did those 24 turnovers hurt your team against a talented, major conference team like Texas on the road?

“It was a huge factor in the game. Obviously, when you give a team 20-plus opportunities to score a ball on you, it takes away the momentum, it takes you out of your flow. It really hurts you.”

Q: What really allowed Texas to pull away so quickly in the second half?

“I thought it was a combination of us being impatient offensively, really not sharing the ball the way that we have in practice, and turnovers. It was a combination of both of those and also missing makeable shots. We haven’t shot the ball well in the two games we’ve played.”

Q: What's at the root of your team's shooting problems? Is it poor shot selection or are the shots simply just not falling?

“We’re taking some bad ones, we’re not playing side-to-side, inside-out better. It’s a combination of both.”

Q: Being down by so much about midway through the second half, do you feel your team kept playing with a certain level of intensity?

“I thought in that area, for a period of time when we didn’t come out in the second half and play as well as I thought we would, the score really affected us and we hung our heads a little bit at that time.”

Q: What does Patrick Hazel have to work on in order to stay out of foul trouble and stay in the game?

“We’ve been talking about that – it’s technique and making smarter decisions on the defensive end.”

Q: What have your initial impressions been of James Kennedy and Zach Chionuma?

“I think both guys are continuing to grow. I think both guys are very talented and they’re in the rotation right now and we’re going to rely on those guys to continue to get better. Both guys just need game experience, and [we have to] continue to teach them and talk to them about what they need to do to continue to improve.”

Q: When your team is struggling from beyond the arc, do you have them back off those shots or do you have them stick with it and hope they fall?

“We’ve got some guys that can make them, that are very good shooters. We’ve got to allow our better shooters to take them, but they have to take good ones. We have to be a little more patient on the offensive end and we need to explore our inside game and play a little more inside-out and move the ball a little bit better and we’ll get better ones.”

Q: How encouraged were you by your team's rebounding improvement from the Northeastern game to the Texas one?

“I think all the guys have been improving on all the things we’ve been talking about. I feel like guys have really tried to improve on those things and certainly going into the game against Texas, we talked hard about [how] rebounding was the number one to the game and we did a good job there. Unfortunately, turnovers were the second [thing] and we turned the ball over too much. It’s one of those deals where we have to continue to get better and at some point, it’s going to come together. In practice, we played very well – we had a nice flow to our game and we’ve competed pretty good and we’ve shared the ball. Now, it’s a matter of time for us to get into game situations and trust in our system and each other and play BU basketball. That’s where we are right now.”

Q: Now two games into the season, what are your initial impressions of this BU team?

“I feel like we’re a talented team, I feel like we’re a team that has some really good pieces and we have to do a better job collectively of fitting together. I think guys are still getting comfortable in game situations with each other and that’s going to take a little time with the new system and new style of play that we’ve employed.”

Q: What are you really going to stress this week in practice looking forward to the game against Cornell?

“We’ve just got to not so much focus on Cornell. I think it’s more about us -- we have to put more time into us and getting better. I think just playing together, having a week of practice, getting better in practice every day, stressing the way we want to play offensively, continuing to get better defensively, continuing to take care of the basketball and rebounding the ball – those are things we have to keep working at.”