“We Have To Play With More Purpose.” | Chris Finch Postgame Sound | 02.24.24

“We Have To Play With More Purpose.” | Chris Finch Postgame Sound | 02.24.24

Coach kind of a roller coaster of a game the emotions were high there at the end but how important was it for you guys to get back in it tonight yeah we needed to win desperately you know um uh still not playing really sharp basketball particularly on the offensive

End um but defensive we were really strong mean they never scored more than 23 in a quarter um made some tough shots we you know pretty much threw a lot of different looks at them we were able to get a lot of things accomplished they missed some some uh some open ones down

The stretch which we’re thankful for uh but we rebounded well at that point in time so Jaden with some timely buckets McDaniels there in the fourth how big was he yeah I was I mean um absolutely huge to make those two kind of give us some breathing room we needed it you

Know he’s got to he’s got to wake up snap out of uh he’s been in a little Funk um you know and he’s you know hopefully he can carry this into the next game so Chris did you find anything offensively just in that fourth quarter

Was it just shots kind of going in do you think what did you what did you see um yeah I mean we you know all the switching kind of really gummed us up yeah um you know late super late in the game we actually cut cut against it and

Uh that that was good and just as the game went on I thought our movement got a little better and we made some shots too but um we were able to kind of move him around a bit so seemed like Monte had a pretty nice game for you just what

Do you how do you see him starting to settle in here and I thought he had best game yet um he and Mike I really like the combination of those two guys out there together um you know I thought against the switching they were some of the the best combinations in the back

Court just with their willingness to move the ball and play off the catch and cut and kind of respace for each other so it was good to see is that the biggest thing you want to see more of against teams that do go all switching is just more cutting is that the biggest

Solution absolutely you got you got to move more um you know the nature of the way you play has to change a little bit well not necessarily a little bit a lot and it really relies on you know cuting is not just for everybody else to do

Everyone’s got a cut when the time is right clear space for your teammate take two on a hard cut um and uh you know I thought tonight we missed a ton of kickout opportunities you know we put the ball in the deck we go there there massive traffic in the paint and we’re

Still trying to uh kind of bulldoze our ways through to the rim and you know unfortunate part about that is like we have been playing in a great Rhythm and we making those kickouts and we had been doing that before the break so we got to

Get back to doing that so yeah that’s productive guys like when they get a switch they like their matchup and then they’re predetermined what they’re going to do well it’s you know hey you you may like your match up all you want when when there’s three more guys between you

And the rim waiting for you you know still got to make the play I mean if you can beat your matchup that’s great uh but you got to beat your match up to make the right play and that’s what it’s all going to be you know so is this Mike

Took more Shots tonight he talked about maybe kind of amping up his offensive aggression over the final third of the Season here is that something that you think is going to be required for you guys especially like as you get towards the playoffs a little more aggressive

Mike offensively yeah I think so I mean uh you know it’s certainly nothing that we’ve discussed you know I trust him we need him to score we need him to be a threat you know um and I know there’s a lot of opportunities that he’s had through the

Season that he’s turned down for the sake of the ball movement for the sake of running next play or next action so um but yeah I mean he was you know that was also the benefit of playing him you know off the ball with Monte a little

Bit too how important do you think rhythm is to good offense it seems like when you guys aren’t kicking out and you are driving one on three there’s just never any rhythm that starts among the five guys on the team and when you are there’s a you know there’s such a rhythm

There yeah I mean our offense is extremely rhythmic um when we move it early for the sake of moving it and then we able to drive and then at that point in time we’re playing on quicker decisions and then we can see the low man and the help coming earlier and then

I everyone can kind of anticipate where the ball’s going to go next that’s the rhythm you’re talking about uh didn’t move it early you know a lot of kind of just uh trying to again play in a crowd and uh so yeah and sometimes you will

Play out of rhythm and sometimes takes a while to find it but good thing is you know we were playing in a great Rhythm we just got to get back there both Nas and nille just didn’t have it from Deep today but you want them to take those shots anyway when they’re

Open right yeah absolutely for sure I mean we need him take shots so when you have a game like this where it’s kind of a rock fight early do does how you coach or the team’s mindset change especially defensively does it maybe amp up the intensity on on defense

Because points are kind of hard to come by well um I mean I was trying to amp up the intensity all game um just uh I I thought like you know we were kind of we were there but not really there if you know what I mean I thought we were we

Were playing hard but like no not a lot of purpose um getting beat to a lot of 5050 stuff early on um you know it’s halftime we talked about we had to play a lot harder you know um for sure but uh I don’t know if that answers your

Question but um just what do you attribute the defensive effort overall and and holding them to under 90 points tonight yeah I think we did a good job of for the most part making them play in the mid-range you know taking them off the three-point line where they’re super

Dangerous um Closeouts were good uh you know shot contests were good um and then the ones they missed may have been you know tired legs at the end of the game but uh yeah I thought we did a good job of adjusting through the game with different coverages between cat and Kyle

And and Nas so Chris do you anticipate Rudy making it back by Tuesday’s game or is it up in the air at this point yeah I I would hope so but I have no no real insight on that right now so and and I guess what’s

The key in terms of when you come out with a win in a game like this to perhaps maybe your coaching philosophy or something that you say to the guys in terms of not allowing themselves to get frustrated especially after that first quarter an has a tough shooting night

What’s the key in not letting frustration boil over and kind of affect the rest of the game yeah talk you know you can’t have personal feelings at this time of the season I mean it’s got to be about making the next play it’s got to be about doing the right thing um you

Know you’re going to get enough shots you’re you know to you’re going to catch a rhythm at some point if you you know if you make the right play take the right shots like if it’s about you know being frustrated that your shot doesn’t go in you know got all these guys are

Way more than just Shooters you know there’s a lot of things you got to do on the court um you know I’m I I I I don’t think we’ve come back from the Break um you know super sharp so I think there’s got to be some urgency that has to be

Injected into what we’re doing and we just talked about that in the locker room um and that you know that that kind of thing no time for hurt feelings right now you know got to make sure that we’re we got a lot of a lot of meaningful

Basketball to play and we put ourselves in really good position we got to capitalize you know even in tough games we don’t expect these to be easy but we have to play with more purpose than we’re playing right now POS thanks thanks guys

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