Mike McAfee
Mike McAfee
afford average half hurt smarter squander team
Turnovers hurt us and especially in the first half. We had our team average in the first half for turnovers. We can't afford to squander that many opportunities to score. We have to be smarter with the basketball.
best chris defender guys hard heads played putting shut team trying
Every team that we play is putting their best defender on Chris and they're trying to shut him down. But we've got a lot of guys out there we feel can score. We're also working really hard to get Chris open. I thought he played a pretty heads up game.
encouraged everybody games last played ready season team time tournament uniform weapons
I thought we played better each time we played. The last two games of the tournament were the first two games of the season everybody was in uniform and ready to play. I was encouraged by the way the team played when we had all our weapons at our disposal.
accept carried definitely floor game good job leadership shoulders shows success team took year
His leadership was definitely there. He did such a good job as a leader on the floor. Even when he wasn't in the game he was a leader on the floor and that was a really important part of our success for the year was having him accept that role. There were times when he took the team on his shoulders and carried them through - showed them the way, which is big. It shows a lot of heart, a lot of leadership and a lot of ability.
cut hit hoping ideal mindset playing point shift single start team win
They hit enough. At that point you can't play trade-off. We've got to be outscoring them all the way through if we're going to be successful. If we could have cut that (lead) to single digits, that would have been the ideal because at that point they're going to start getting worried. And what you're always hoping a team will do (in that situation) is shift their mindset from playing to win to playing not to lose.
ability bring event hart outside people popular saw thomas work
We think this event has the ability to bring people from outside of the area. Thomas Hart Benton and the work he did is very popular right now, so we saw the momentum.
best bill floor games heart leaders played takes talk
Bill played one of the best games he's played all season. He's one of the leaders on the floor and he's one that when we talk at halftime, he really takes it to heart and he takes things as a challenge.
bill bread butter far
Bill and Jay, they're our bread and butter as far as rebounding goes.
approach best certainly defense defensive focus good great high key kids momentum offensive power quarters shot stand swinging understanding work
We try to approach the end of the quarters on a high note, and that can be a great defensive stand or a good offensive opportunity. I think our kids are understanding the power of momentum more and more and we certainly want the momentum swinging our way, so we'll play good defense or work for the best shot or both. Maintaining our focus was a key to our success.
defense four kept kids played playing pleased proud
I was pleased with the way our kids kept playing defense. I'm proud of the way our kids played all four quarters.
accurate based floor focus free great hit line listens people throw throws
I make substitutions based on who can hit a free throw. Keith Cochran is our most accurate free throw shooter. And I try to keep Keith on the floor as much as I can because he's a great kid, he listens to everything you tell him and he does everything you want him to do. We need to have people going to the line who can hit free throws. We focus on free throws every day in practice.
field five goals good hit jay stellar
Jay had a stellar night. He made five field goals inside, hit 2-of-2 at the line. He really did a good job.
air ball games grabbing guy huge man nice played season
I thought another young man who had one of the better games he's played all season was Spencer. He got some huge rebounds. It was nice to look down there and see this guy way up in the air grabbing the ball and it was Spencer. And then offensively, he was attacking.
effort game half hard kids places played second turned
I can't say enough about how hard they played in that second half. If we could have done any of that in the first half, I think we could have turned the game around. In the second half there were so many places we could have turned it around, too. I can't say enough about the effort that the kids put out. It was amazing, it really was.