Q. Was the team a little more inconsistent than you thought it would be at Orlando, or is that just part of the growing pains of incorporating new guys, do you think?
COACH McCAFFERY: I thought it was a function of we played good teams. We were not good defensively in the first half against Dayton versus a running game. Our transition defense was not good. If your transition defense is not good against Dayton, you're going to be down 12, which is exactly what we were. I'm proud of our fight.
The Notre Dame game, we had a scoring drought in the first half. That was really our problem. Defensively, I thought we did really well. I thought Gesell did a terrific job on Jackson, one of the best point guards in the country. They made some shots late, and we didn't.
Q. Have you learned anything new from the beginning of the season until now about what your team is that you might not have thought it would be?
COACH McCAFFERY: Nicholas Baer could be a really good player, and that proved to be true. He played well on a big stage against really big people.
I thought we could kind of get out of Brady Ellingson what we got, and we did. Dale Jones gave us some quality minutes. I thought we could get that. I still think Dom Uhl has been solid. We'll get more out of Ahmad when the season goes on, and I think we'll get more out of Fleming and Christian Williams.
It's hard -- when you get into those kinds of games, it's hard to play 12 guys. It's almost impossible. You walk down, and you want to get some of those guys in there to get experience and bring them along to try to win the game, and we do have four seniors and five really experienced players, and that's who you're going to play. That's who I'm going to play. There's not that many minutes left this year for a lot of guys.
Q. How would you describe Baer's game? It seems kind of unique in some respects.
COACH McCAFFERY: Well, he is incredibly versatile, and he can play inside, and he can play outside. He can dribble, pass, and shoot. He can post up. He can guard a bigger guy. He can guard a smaller guy.
But when it's all said and done, he's smart. He's always in the right place. He recovers well. He's a better athlete than you think because he's long. When you can make threes and you have those other parts of your game, you've got something special there.
Q. Adam Woodbury seemed to give you a little more offensively than maybe he has for a pretty long stretch there. Is that a part of the game we'll see, or is his value still going to be with the passing of the defense?
COACH McCAFFERY: He's still going to be doing all the things he's always done well, but he can score. When he stays within himself, he screens and rolls. He gets an angle to the rim. He makes layups. He makes little shots, baseline jumpers, elbow jumpers, free throws. He's going to score, and we're going to throw him the ball because he'll pass it too.
The only time he gets himself into trouble is when he tries to do too much with post moves. It's hard to score over people in the post. I don't care who you are. So as long as you're intelligent with when you go and when you don't, you're going to shoot a high number, which is what he did.
Q. And then with the exception of the Notre Dame game, you shot the three real well this season.
COACH McCAFFERY: That was disappointing because we were really open. We're up 10-3 in that game, and we had tons of open looks by good shooters, and they weren't going. So that was problematic for us, obviously.
Q. Do you see that as being a bigger component of the offenses as you move ahead, that the perimeter shot may be more than past seasons?
COACH McCAFFERY: Yeah, but you look at our team, and that's no secret.
Q. In the course of recruiting Fleming, did you see quite a bit of Dwyane Bacon?
COACH McCAFFERY: No, we didn't. He committed to us before he ever enrolled at Oak Hill. But I've watched him a lot the last couple of days. He's talented. You watch him, and you say, well, he's a driver. Well, he can really shoot, and he's a forward. Well, no, he's a guard. He's pretty special, I think. He's got the full complement of skills in his arsenal with a great frame to play the game.
Q. Then they got two others, Beasley, another 20-point scorer, and Mayes, who had some huge games last year, 30-point games.
COACH McCAFFERY: It's rare that you have two freshmen that average 20. Those two guys are special. But Mayes kind of makes them go. He had some 30-point games last year as a freshman, which you know doesn't happen too much at this level. So those three are a handful.
What's interesting, if you think about it, they had five starters back, and two freshmen are averaging 20. So I don't know that's ever happened. You can look it up. (laughter)
Q. What did you learn the most about your team, though? You thought the tournament would be a really good opportunity for you to learn more about your team than maybe you knew. Did you like what you learned? Did you not like what you learned?
COACH McCAFFERY: Yeah, I thought we'd get into a fight like we did, you know, we would fight, and we certainly did that. The Dayton game wasn't looking good. Our transition defense was horrendous in the first half of that game. Now, partly because they're really good offensively in transition. That's as good a team as you'll see in terms of speed and quickness.
We were bad, and we got that figured out. But they're a really intense team. It was a great atmosphere, and we just kept coming.
You get a situation where there's two chopping calls. One goes against us. One goes for them. Sometimes it comes down to that when you get into a game like that. With all that happened, we didn't get either of them. So that's just part of it.
Notre Dame game, we were on fire early. I mean, making everything, and then we couldn't make anything. Same shot, same people. They're really a unique team in terms of how they play. I think that's another component of playing in a tournament like this. Dayton plays this way. Notre Dame plays that way. Wichita State plays that way. You got to get your guys ready with very short prep to adjust.
That's what conference play is, with different styles, different coaching styles. So I think that was really good. I think that, when it's all said and done, you don't want to get into a situation like that and get down 12 in the first half and lose by 25. Okay, we did some things that we should have known better, we didn't do well. Let's make the adjustment and let's come back and see if we can win this thing, which we were right there.
You get to that Sunday, and you want to make sure you win at least one game. We're playing a team that's ranked. Now they don't have VanVleet. That's a big impact for that team. You take him out of there. He's one of the best point guards, maybe the best, in the country. But they still are really good. We played really well, and we did it consistently well in both halves, and that's what you want to see.
We had a poor first half against Notre Dame offensively, a poor first half defensively against Dayton, and they did well in both halves, both ends of the floor against Wichita State.
Q. Do you think Florida State will push the ball, if so, that will be another great test for your transition defense.
COACH McCAFFERY: Yeah, they're fast. They've got speed. They attack, kind of that attack mentality. It will be more up and down, similar to the Dayton game.
Q. What do you do in that situation? Do you release an extra guy? Do you pick the ball up earlier?
COACH McCAFFERY: Well, the key oftentimes in situations like that is shot selection. You shoot crazy shots. A bad shot is often the same as a turnover. If you turn it over, that's a problem against Florida State. If you take a bad shot, it's a problem. It's any team that plays that way with those kinds of athletes. So you've got to take care of the ball and take good shots. Then get your guards back and get everybody else to sprint and keep fresh bodies out there.
COACH McCAFFERY: I thought it was a function of we played good teams. We were not good defensively in the first half against Dayton versus a running game. Our transition defense was not good. If your transition defense is not good against Dayton, you're going to be down 12, which is exactly what we were. I'm proud of our fight.
The Notre Dame game, we had a scoring drought in the first half. That was really our problem. Defensively, I thought we did really well. I thought Gesell did a terrific job on Jackson, one of the best point guards in the country. They made some shots late, and we didn't.
Q. Have you learned anything new from the beginning of the season until now about what your team is that you might not have thought it would be?
COACH McCAFFERY: Nicholas Baer could be a really good player, and that proved to be true. He played well on a big stage against really big people.
I thought we could kind of get out of Brady Ellingson what we got, and we did. Dale Jones gave us some quality minutes. I thought we could get that. I still think Dom Uhl has been solid. We'll get more out of Ahmad when the season goes on, and I think we'll get more out of Fleming and Christian Williams.
It's hard -- when you get into those kinds of games, it's hard to play 12 guys. It's almost impossible. You walk down, and you want to get some of those guys in there to get experience and bring them along to try to win the game, and we do have four seniors and five really experienced players, and that's who you're going to play. That's who I'm going to play. There's not that many minutes left this year for a lot of guys.
Q. How would you describe Baer's game? It seems kind of unique in some respects.
COACH McCAFFERY: Well, he is incredibly versatile, and he can play inside, and he can play outside. He can dribble, pass, and shoot. He can post up. He can guard a bigger guy. He can guard a smaller guy.
But when it's all said and done, he's smart. He's always in the right place. He recovers well. He's a better athlete than you think because he's long. When you can make threes and you have those other parts of your game, you've got something special there.
Q. Adam Woodbury seemed to give you a little more offensively than maybe he has for a pretty long stretch there. Is that a part of the game we'll see, or is his value still going to be with the passing of the defense?
COACH McCAFFERY: He's still going to be doing all the things he's always done well, but he can score. When he stays within himself, he screens and rolls. He gets an angle to the rim. He makes layups. He makes little shots, baseline jumpers, elbow jumpers, free throws. He's going to score, and we're going to throw him the ball because he'll pass it too.
The only time he gets himself into trouble is when he tries to do too much with post moves. It's hard to score over people in the post. I don't care who you are. So as long as you're intelligent with when you go and when you don't, you're going to shoot a high number, which is what he did.
Q. And then with the exception of the Notre Dame game, you shot the three real well this season.
COACH McCAFFERY: That was disappointing because we were really open. We're up 10-3 in that game, and we had tons of open looks by good shooters, and they weren't going. So that was problematic for us, obviously.
Q. Do you see that as being a bigger component of the offenses as you move ahead, that the perimeter shot may be more than past seasons?
COACH McCAFFERY: Yeah, but you look at our team, and that's no secret.
Q. In the course of recruiting Fleming, did you see quite a bit of Dwyane Bacon?
COACH McCAFFERY: No, we didn't. He committed to us before he ever enrolled at Oak Hill. But I've watched him a lot the last couple of days. He's talented. You watch him, and you say, well, he's a driver. Well, he can really shoot, and he's a forward. Well, no, he's a guard. He's pretty special, I think. He's got the full complement of skills in his arsenal with a great frame to play the game.
Q. Then they got two others, Beasley, another 20-point scorer, and Mayes, who had some huge games last year, 30-point games.
COACH McCAFFERY: It's rare that you have two freshmen that average 20. Those two guys are special. But Mayes kind of makes them go. He had some 30-point games last year as a freshman, which you know doesn't happen too much at this level. So those three are a handful.
What's interesting, if you think about it, they had five starters back, and two freshmen are averaging 20. So I don't know that's ever happened. You can look it up. (laughter)
Q. What did you learn the most about your team, though? You thought the tournament would be a really good opportunity for you to learn more about your team than maybe you knew. Did you like what you learned? Did you not like what you learned?
COACH McCAFFERY: Yeah, I thought we'd get into a fight like we did, you know, we would fight, and we certainly did that. The Dayton game wasn't looking good. Our transition defense was horrendous in the first half of that game. Now, partly because they're really good offensively in transition. That's as good a team as you'll see in terms of speed and quickness.
We were bad, and we got that figured out. But they're a really intense team. It was a great atmosphere, and we just kept coming.
You get a situation where there's two chopping calls. One goes against us. One goes for them. Sometimes it comes down to that when you get into a game like that. With all that happened, we didn't get either of them. So that's just part of it.
Notre Dame game, we were on fire early. I mean, making everything, and then we couldn't make anything. Same shot, same people. They're really a unique team in terms of how they play. I think that's another component of playing in a tournament like this. Dayton plays this way. Notre Dame plays that way. Wichita State plays that way. You got to get your guys ready with very short prep to adjust.
That's what conference play is, with different styles, different coaching styles. So I think that was really good. I think that, when it's all said and done, you don't want to get into a situation like that and get down 12 in the first half and lose by 25. Okay, we did some things that we should have known better, we didn't do well. Let's make the adjustment and let's come back and see if we can win this thing, which we were right there.
You get to that Sunday, and you want to make sure you win at least one game. We're playing a team that's ranked. Now they don't have VanVleet. That's a big impact for that team. You take him out of there. He's one of the best point guards, maybe the best, in the country. But they still are really good. We played really well, and we did it consistently well in both halves, and that's what you want to see.
We had a poor first half against Notre Dame offensively, a poor first half defensively against Dayton, and they did well in both halves, both ends of the floor against Wichita State.
Q. Do you think Florida State will push the ball, if so, that will be another great test for your transition defense.
COACH McCAFFERY: Yeah, they're fast. They've got speed. They attack, kind of that attack mentality. It will be more up and down, similar to the Dayton game.
Q. What do you do in that situation? Do you release an extra guy? Do you pick the ball up earlier?
COACH McCAFFERY: Well, the key oftentimes in situations like that is shot selection. You shoot crazy shots. A bad shot is often the same as a turnover. If you turn it over, that's a problem against Florida State. If you take a bad shot, it's a problem. It's any team that plays that way with those kinds of athletes. So you've got to take care of the ball and take good shots. Then get your guards back and get everybody else to sprint and keep fresh bodies out there.
