Scott Drew part 1
As far as today’s game, I want to thank the crowd. They gave us a lot of energy especially when we started off so poor. Keyonte, I don’t know how bad his ankle is or how long he’ll be out, but I do know one thing is coaches really appreciate and value toughness, and he had a 102-degree fever yesterday and I didn’t think he’d play. He gave it a go, wanted to give it a go, and there was no way he was missing it. I know sometimes people say today’s culture is a little softer than previous ones. Keyonte is not that guy. So credit him. As far as when he’ll be back, it will be soon because he’s a tough kid.
Second of all, it’s a great sports lesson for all young people out there. You’re going to be on the floor but you’re going to be on the bench. Dale Bonner played a lot early, was out of the rotation, but was an unbelievable teammate and supported his team, but kept working on his game and stayed ready. Today I couldn’t be any more happy and pleased for him. All parents out there, only five can play, so your job on the bench is to be the best teammate that you can and to keep working until you get that opportunity. Dale was unbelievable. Flo it’s his birthday. I asked him if he could have his birthday on Monday and next Saturdayand every other game. His double-double was nice.
(Team bonding after Keyonte injury) Our offense hurt our defense early on because we turned it over a lot. They got transition buckets. But our defense was good enough early on that we weren’t down 20 and we figured things out offensively. Once we made a couple of buckets and really clamped down, it’s the best defensive stretch we’ve had for a minute. We’ve had good stretches at Kansas, we had a good stretch against K-State but we didn’t play 40 minutes. Today we went 40 minutes and again the crowd gets a big assist for that.
(Jalen Bridges) Whatever he had for pregame we need that again. The last couple games, he had been struggling offensively. We tried to give him a little more rest today, he played 33 minutes instead of 35 or 36 or 37. I thought he was really good.
(Any chance Keyonte plays Monday) To be determined. The reason is I have no idea how bad it is, so Dave (Snyder) will let me know after tonight.
(Depth) It takes a team to win. On the ticker every night, it’s Baylor, it’s not names. Next man up mentality and that’s why you’ve got to have a team of guys that are bought in, so when it’s their time they’re ready. A lot of times, it’s guys that aren’t playing they’re checked out. When they get their opportunity, they’re not ready.
(One of Flo’s best games) A lot of energy. I tell you yesterday he had a tremendous practice. He dunked on somebody, and I haven’t seen that since maybe his freshman year. But I think he really had great juice, great passion. He really worked hard out there.
Flo Thamba
(On team defense)
I feel like we did a really good job, especially in the half court defense. I feel like we just need to get better in transition. We gave up a lot of easy’s, but whenever we stopped them and set up our defense, I feel like we were good.
(Special amount of energy)
I think it was all of it. We lost our last two games, we went down to Texas and didn’t take care of business, so we just wanted to protect home court.
(On Moussa Cisse)
It’s going to be a huge difference, especially on the defensive side and try to limit him is going to be key. Leave it to the coaching staff, they know what to do (?)
Jalen Bridges
(When Keyonte went down, you guys pulled together)
He’s young. He has loads of energy. So, when he went out, we just tried to bond together and pick up that energy that he would be out there providing and really just locking in on defense, get stops and it just changed the game around for us.
(One of your better defensive games?)
Absolutely. Even though we didn’t have any many kills as we usually have, there were points in time when we really locked down and guarded. People were going into our chests and we handled it.
(How big was that to get the second half started better?)
The last few (games), we came out very flat. We made it a point of emphasis to not let that happen three times in a row. We just came out, we had a little bit of an extra long warmup, got us going and we were ready to go.
(On the crowd)
It’s unlimited energy, man. It was electric in here tonight. I just want to thank the fans for showing up, being loud and being proud. It was a great atmosphere.
(On OSU)
They got a lot of length. They have really talented guards. We’re going to have to really lock in on our transition defense because they get up and down with the best of them.
Dale Bonner
(When you checked in, what was the mentality?)
Just come in and have energy, have a presence. That’s my job whenever I come into the game, I just want to continue to try to do that. Control what I can control.
(Keep working on your game even when not playing)
Yeah, just keep working on my game. Check on my teammates, be a good teammate and cheer them on when I’m not playing. Whether I’m in the game or not, I’m always going to have a good attitude and just be ready whenever my name is called.
(Seemed like you read the passes really, was there something you saw out there?)
Just trying to read their offense. Whenever they swung the ball I just tried to get in the passing lane
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