South Florida head coach Brian Gregory met with the media following USF's 83-76 win at Temple. BullsInsider.com attended the press conference via zoom.
Below is a transcript of Coach Gregory's main points during the press conference.
Opening statement…
Throughout the whole game, we had guys come off the bench give us really high quality minutes. And they did a good job of taking care of the basketball. Only seven turnovers today, 14 assists. Been a while since we went to for one and in terms of assists and turnovers Did a good job in the glass, I thought the first eight minutes of the second half, they really hurt us on the on the glass with their offensive rebounds. But we responded well down the stretch, I think they cut it to one. And then you know, we really responded with some good offensive possessions.
We’re still trying to get our footing a little bit in some areas. But as I said, after our last game, I thought offensively, we are moving the ball better, sharing the ball better and making some plays, that we weren't able to make prior to the to the layoff. We just didn't make any shots the other night.
On what he you thinks this win can do for the team just finally, winning one after all the adversity they faced. And also, what was the locker room like?
I think one of the biggest challenges that we face as a group is, after missing all that time coming back, just to minimize, you know, frustrating situations, because we're not gonna be as smooth or connected on our offense and defense isn't going to be, you know, as effective at times. We’re inconsistent in some of the things that we were doing well prior to it. And I think sometimes that shows but that's also human so we got to keep fighting that. But, you know, obviously our guys are excited about, about the win. We know the tradition of Temple we know the tradition of how hard they play and the physicality that they play with. Obviously Temple is a national brand when it comes to basketball. But our guys are excited. You know our guys are excited to finally put together, I told him you can't let the some of the craziness that happened maybe in the last minute, can't squash the enthusiasm of playing 39 really good minutes.
On second half free throws and the final minute of the game…
I told the guys you have three Final Four officials out there. And they're gonna let you play. This is Philadelphia. They know where they're at. And, you know, those days it was a very physical, physical game. It got a little tighter with the calls in this in the second half. But we matched the physicality that Temple played with. So, we were able to get to the free throw line and capitalize on it. We need to do that, its part of our game. We had shot the ball well from the free throw line over the last few games 20 of 29 right under 70%. We've been at or over 70% since we returned.
On what did he learn about the character his team after Temple cut the lead to one…
Yeah, I was pleased with that. Because that's a step we have to take and unfortunately, Will you know, you would have had seven other opportunities to take that step and we just haven't had that many. But I thought our response when they cut it to one and cut it to two our next offensive possession, and what we were able to do a couple of times as we stretch the lead, we were able to get a score a stop and then the score again. You know, and then now all of a sudden the two point game is six or seven again. I thought our guys, especially in the last eight minutes the last two rounds of the game did a great job of that.
On how do you slow down Khalif Battle on Wednesday…
We let him loose a couple times on some scrambles. We got to do a better job, you know, we got to keep our chest in front of the ball. There was a couple of times where we tried to draw offensive files. Like I said, those are Final Four refs and then they're not gonna fall for any of that stuff. He was obviously ultra-aggressive tonight. I’m sure he will be again on Wednesday. You know, he took 22 shots, which is a lot of shots. I was more concerned with him being able to get to the free throw line 12 times. We got to do a better job of that. Keeping him out of the lane and drawing fouls
On Castaneda’s and Brown’s performance…
We talked to Justin. He just hasn't been as active on the offensive glass and we need that. We need that energy. Now, he had some good looks but just didn't make them. But that was the thing is as we've come back his impact on our team has been more than just making shots. And I thought his impact today, I thought he did a really good job defensively and then he did a really good job of keeping some possessions alive.
X is, one of the things that he's been able to do for us is really shoot the ball well. You know, two-for-two from the three, six-of-six from the line five-for-ten overall. Made a big runner as well. I always want, you know, more from him. He’s playing a ton of minutes for us. I thought he was good defensively. So obviously that was a big game for him. And in the second half, we needed all 14 of those points.
