Kennedy: glass cleaning has to improve
By MICHAEL DANN
Sports Editor
Following the conclusion of Murray State's rousing exhibition victory over Bethel Saturday night, head coach Billy Kennedy wasn't quick to give high marks to his ballclub.
Despite the 82-49 beatdown of Bethel at the Regional Special Events Center, Kennedy, in his post game press conference, gave his team a grade of C.
A day and a half later, Kennedy felt differently about the average mark.
“Maybe a B-minus! We still have to get better. I'm not taking anything away from Bethel, but we're going to play a lot tougher competition.”
That tough competition comes right off the bat this Saturday when the Racers will host Rider in the RSEC in the home opener at 7 p.m.
The Rider game is a return game from last year's ESPN Bracket Buster game.
The Broncs are led by 6-foot-1, 250 pound senior center Jason Thompson, who is getting serious looks by NBA scouts, many of whom will be in attendance Saturday night.
Kennedy calls Thompson a player that is on everyone's radar and one of the best big men in the country.
One of Murray State's top big men, 6-4, 200-pound Philadelphia product Ivan Evans has been dismissed from the Racers for conduct detrimental to the team.
Kennedy followed that up Monday by saying the Evans situation is completed and they are moving on.
“It's a done deal with Ivan,” Kennedy said.
The second-year Racer coach said as far as he knows Evans is still enrolled at Murray State but does not know his intentions from here on out.
“I don't know where he's going. It's too early to tell from that standpoint.”
Against Bethel, Kennedy liked what he saw and believes his team is finally buying in to how he wants to play defense.
Kennedy made it perfectly clear Saturday night that he wants MSU to be tough in transition defense. Murray State scored 37 points off turnovers against the Wildcats and forced 28 miscues.
The flip side to that is the Racers turned the ball over 19 times themselves and that's too many for the New Orleans, La., native.
“We played well together defensively and made the extra pass, but I still don't think they understand we have to do that for 40 minutes. I thought we did it for 26, 25 minutes.”
Another point of emphasis for Kennedy was rebounding, where MSU did just outrebounded Bethel 32-30, with 18 coming on the defensive end.
Still, Kennedy is quite sure after two years on the job that he never knows what kind of effort he's going to get until the lights come on, but at least in comparison from last year to this year, he likes the transformation.
“I liked our effort, I liked our guys pulling for each other. We're doing some things this year that we weren't doing last year.
“But, we gave up too many rebounds. That's a concern. We were in position, we just didn't go and get the ball. That's about finishing the play. We had guys right there, they just need to finish and be a little more physical, especially on defensive glass. Our guards have to do a better job of rebounding for us. That's still an area of concern.”
Story created Nov 07, 2007 - 16:08:41 EST.
|
