Quin Snyder Press Conference Quotes
12/6/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 6, 1999
Columbia, Mo. - Quin Snyder Quotes Media Day December 6, 1999
On the team: ?I think the thing we revisit as a group this week is can we get better in a week. We?re going to have be better than we were last week in order to be in this game (vs. Indiana). I think this is a game for us to play our guts out and see how far along we are with our habits defensively. And to see how far along we are with what we want to do offensively, to see how committed we are to shwoing discipline on the offensive end. It?s a great test for us in that sense. We can figure out where we?re at. That is what good competition can do. It can give you a barometer. You get a checkup on how we?re coming along. We just want to keep getting better, and we are going to find things that we need to do?have to do to get better. There is a level of urgency when you play really good teams because you know if you don?t do them its really hard to have any level of success.?
On Keyon Dooling: ?Keyon is coming along. His decision-making?shot vs. pass?is improving, which will make some of the looks he does get a little easier. I want him to be our catalyst. That means pushing the ball up the court, pressuring the ball defensively and leading. Those are hard things to do. Leading a team is a very ambiguous statement. It could translate into any number of things. It is a difficult thing to do. It takes incredible commitment on his part. In my mind it is also what is going to make him a truly great player. It?s not about numbers, for a young guy that is hard to accept, but he understands that. That?s not to say the numbers don?t come either. I think for Keyon there is going to be numbers his entire career, he?s gifted. But in order for him to be a catalyst on our team he has got to get in lane and make a great play, he?s got to work without the ball and get a few easier looks off the ball. These are all things that we?ve talked to him about and he is working on. It?s a process. It?s a little bit unfair to him to expect him to be a certain place as a player because of a few athletic plays. The best thing about him right now is his commitment to improve. He?s really focused on getting better.?
On Indiana: Indiana is a real good team. They play very hard and are very together. Obviously they are very well coached. Guyton is playing as good of basketball as anyone in the country right now. He?s a real mature player. He?s shooting the ball well. He?s making good decisions. I really like Lewis. He?s a tough guy and he makes them go. I know Dave Fife from trying to recruit him to come to Duke. I think they?ve got a great mix of guys. They all have a really nice feel for one another. I think their inside game, with their perimeter, people tend to forget what those guys can do, they post the ball and work like crazy. They are tough inside. We face that almost every game, but they have an inside game that is really capable of wearing you down. They?re 4-0 and they?ve beaten some good teams. They?ve been in some good games.?
On coaching against Indiana head coach Bobby Knight: ?I have endless respect for Coach Knight as a coach. I think it would be na?ve of me to make something more of it than I am just a young guy coaching against Coach Knight. It?s an honor to coach against him, no question, but it?s not about me coaching. It is just about our team. If I had to sit down and write a story about it, it might be intimidating. I?m just doing the same thing I tell the guys to do if they were going to go up against a great player. Know what you need to do, or what you want to try to do, but you need to stay focused on yourself. That?s something Coach Knight does. They run motion, they play man-to-man. There?s a lesson there.?
?There?s kind of a tree there (from Knight to Krzyzewski to Snyder). I think that is true of a lot of great teachers. They have people that have learned from them. Obviously, I have never worked directly for Coach Knight but a lot of his foundational principles I?ve been to exposed to on some level. That?s why when I say I have respect for him, it is not a distance respect, it has been influence by him in some way.?
On the crowd: ?Big games are exciting. The energy that you get in a building when people are excited is fun. You can handle that in a number of ways though too. Hopefully we?ll handle that in the right way and use it to help us. Really good teams can do that. By the same token, sometimes those environments focus on the opponent too. I just think it?s really fun to have a game like that early in the year. If the place is full, that?s a good barometer. When you bring that level of emotion and enthusiasm to a game you have a chance to get even more out of it. Those are like championship level games and to the extent that guys haven?t had the experience of dealing with big games, they?re a little different. Sometimes they get you up and sometimes they make you nervous.?
