University of Massachusets Athletics
Steve Lappas' Weekly Teleconference
January 03, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 3, 2005
Heading into his 500th game as a college head coach, Steve Lappas took part in the first A-10 Media Teleconference on Monday. He spoke about the Minutemen's progress and this week's game with Temple.
Question: What are your thoughts of your team this year?
Lappas: I've been pleased where we are right now, I'm not pleased in the way we played in particular yesterday. But overall I thought our guys did a pretty good job with the first part of the schedule, our non-conference schedule is ranked seventh in the country so we've played a very, very difficult schedule and to be 6-4 at this point, starting four sophomores shows signs of improvement for us.
Question: What do you like about your season thus far and what are you concerned about?
Lappas: I think we've much improved defensively although it didn't look like it yesterday. It's hard to talk about things today when the most recent thing you had happen was not that good. But overall I think we are much improved defensively and we've got some guys that have experience and we've been able to win a number of close games. You know that in the last 5 minutes we've been involved with some very, very close games and we've done well in those situations. So I like the fact that they've grown and they understand, they think what it takes to win when we are in a position to win.
Question: How has the team grown with experience?
Lappas: When you start a lot of young guys and you don't have any options, that's a big thing. They have to stay out there all the time and you want to die while it's going on because there are so many mistakes that kids should be taken out of the game for but you can't. That's the situation we were in. It's bad when you are going through it but it's good later on when you hope you will reap the benefits from it. Now we're in a situation that we've got a couple of good freshmen and now we only have to play them 15 minutes and I think it makes a difference, it is better for them. I think they'll learn the game better, they may not get the same experience but they'll learn their roles better and they'll learn about how the game is to be played a little faster, things like that. The experience factor was something we needed last year and we did use it. The guys this year have come back and got it done in the closing minutes.
Question: Can you talk about the things Chris Chadwick did for you when he was your starting point guard while Anthony Anderson was on suspension?
Lappas: Chris Chadwick is a different player than Anthony. He's a very good penetrator and he is able to get guys some good shots and he did a great job. Now we have to figure out how we are going to use all these guys now that Anthony is back, to the best of our ability. It's something we really have to focus in on and do a good job with.
Question: You are now playing without Jeff Viggiano who got hurt a couple of weeks ago. Who replaces him and what is the prognosis for Jeff?
Lapppas: I guess Lawrence Carrier has replaced him to a degree but Jeff does a lot of things that are experience orientated so he's a difficult guy to replace. He plays the 3 and the 4, he's the glue to our team because he is so unselfish and does so many good things for everybody else and we don't really have a replacement for Jeff Viggiano right now. Obviously, Brennan Martin has gotten some of those minutes, Lawrence Carrier has gotten some of those minutes, and we've played the guards a little bit more so it's like three different people have been getting minutes for Jeff Viggiano and trying to make up for him not being there but that's a difficult one because you've got the second most experienced player on the team and especially in close games it's tough not having his out there.
Question: Can you talk about Lawrence Carrier and what he has done for you this year?
Lappas: He potentially is a very good player and as the coach before me said, he has to learn how to play hard all the time. That's typical of a freshman. Putting in the kind of effort you need from him all the time he's out there. The interesting thing is that in practice he plays really hard but in the games, whether he's nervous or what ever, he hasn't gone out there and let it all go all the time. He has in spurts but that's typical of a freshman same thing with Jeff Salovski, he's been good in spurts and then other spurts he hasn't because he has to learn to about sustaining an effort.
Question: You put special emphasis on these early games, how do you approach it and talk about it?
Lappas: We do have a tough stretch to start, there's no doubt about it. Right now our focus is to do well in these home games we have, starting with Temple. That's where we are right now, especially coming off yesterday. We need to be ready to do some things against a very good Temple team whose got the top schedule in the country. As always with Temple, you can take their record and throw it out the window, because who they played and where they played on top of it and know that this is going to be an extremely tough game.
Question: Have you had any chance to see a Temple tape and if so where did you see it?
Lappas: I've seen that Mardy Collins has taken a big step this year, not that he was a good player last year but he's really a great player. He potentially could be the player of the year in the league. The kid Mark Tyndale is having a terrific freshman year and they've got two big strong guys down on that block a lot of the time so the kid Salisbery comes off of the bench and he's their third leading scorer so they are very, very physical. Mardy Collins is big and strong, Tyndale is big and strong, obviously the two big guys, they are a big physical team. That's going to present some problems for us.
Question: The UConn game what that meant to you in the early season and are you still feeling any effects from that?
Lappas: That was a tremendous night for our whole program, for our school and for everyone. I think we have been feeling the effects in a positive way. I think it's given us confidence especially when we were in close games to get the job done because obviously that was a close game. I think we will feel the remnants of that all the way through.
Question: We've gone through nine minutes and haven't mention Rashaun Freeman as of yet, can you talk about the season Ray has had so far?
Lappas: I think he's having a good year, I wouldn't say he is having a great year so far, I think he's having a good year. He played a great game against BU and he's a very good player. He seeing a lot more double teams and things like that, which has hurt him a little bit but he's learning how to pass out of those double teams and do a better job. So I think Ray is having a good year not a great year but there is a lot of time left and we are now starting the league and he is fired up to having a great year. So we're looking for Ray to step up, he's only a sophomore and we expect him to get better and better.
Question: You say that guys make their most improvement from freshmen to their sophomore year, where do you think they've made their most improvement?
Lappas: I think in overall knowledge of the game and playing defense. Understanding that at this level you have to play defense every single second or you will get burnt. Kids out of high school don't know that because most of the time they are guarding guys that are inferior to them and they can play lazy and the kid is still not going to make the shot. Not here, every body is going to make the shot if you are lazy. So I think that's the biggest thing they have all learned.
