{"id":82121,"date":"2025-01-30T01:08:45","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T07:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/everything-andy-enfield-said-after-smus-76-65-win-over-cal\/"},"modified":"2025-01-30T01:08:45","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T07:08:45","slug":"everything-andy-enfield-said-after-smus-76-65-win-over-cal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/everything-andy-enfield-said-after-smus-76-65-win-over-cal\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything Andy Enfield said after SMU\u2019s 76-65 win over Cal"},"content":{"rendered":"

SMU<\/a> beat Cal<\/a> 76-65 on Wednesday night to advance to 16-5 on the season and set up a big game on Saturday when Stanford comes to Dallas.<\/p>\n

Opening statement:<\/strong> \u201cThe coaches versus cancer, that\u2019s why we all wore the red shoes together. To honor those who have had a tough time with cancer and coaches that we all rally around that. [It\u2019s] affected our families and many, many others. So, proud of our team, we play very hard on defense. Held them do a low percentage from the field and three-point line. It wasn\u2019t our best game offensively, with 16 turnovers, which is not characteristic, but sometimes you have to win a little ugly, and we got it done.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On preparing to play without Samet:<\/strong> \u201cYeah, he was fouled numerous times in that NC State game and some were called, some weren\u2019t. But he had aggravated, just kind of an aggravation [of the shoulder], he got a little swelling. But he\u2019s actually improved a lot in the last few days. So we expect him to be day-to-day from here on out. We just out of precaution, sat him out tonight. But he has certainly improved in the last few days.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the adjustments made because of the Cal injuries:<\/strong> \u201cWell, we didn\u2019t make too many adjustments. It enabled both teams to play smaller. You saw we had Keon on at center a lot and they played their small lineup, and [Lee] Dort, who is their true center. But they played some other guys in the center position. So we both went small for a big part of the game. So the adjustments were just to try to put our best players out there and defend even though we\u2019re small. And I thought Matt Cross with 14 rebounds and BJ Edwards with nine. Booby came in and got six. Really helped us even though we\u2019re playing small.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the importance of starting fast after the win against NC State:<\/strong> \u201cYeah, our guys are playing very hard. You hold NC State to 57 on their home court. And I thought tonight we played very hard on defense and I don\u2019t know how many games we won Five out of six maybe in the league and we didn\u2019t play well in the lone loss to Louisville at home. They played very well and we didn\u2019t. So our players have come to a pretty good understanding of how hard they have to play defensively to give us a chance to win these games against some very good offensive players.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the emergence of Matt Cross\u2019 leadership after the Louisville game: <\/strong>\u201cYou saw the toughness tonight. He had 15 points, 14 rebounds, and he brings it. He was very physical and very tough, so he leads by example. The other guys went along with him tonight and played tough. We missed eight open threes in the second half, so we couldn\u2019t really extend the lead, which hurt us. We didn\u2019t shoot the ball great in the second half, but at least we were tough.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the type of basketball Cal plays: <\/strong>\u201cWell, Coach Madsen does a terrific job. I know he\u2019s been there a few years. I think in my time at USC, there were five Cal coaches. So, the styles have always changed depending on who was coaching. We were fortunate to be fairly successful against them at home and away. But they\u2019re talented, they\u2019ve always had really good players. Guys that can score the ball, I would say that over the last few years, they\u2019ve had a lot of players that can go out and get 15, 20 points and offensively, they\u2019re talented.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On limiting the guards with solid perimeter defense:<\/strong> \u201cYeah, I thought those guards, they\u2019re very quick and talented. And I think that the three guards went 13 for 43, between the three of them. And they\u2019re all good players, but our game plan was just to try to make them work and take tough shots.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the depth SMU has in the front court:<\/strong> \u201cYeah, it was unfortunate, Samet had his career-high 20 points against NC State and made four free throws on the road in crunch time. He had some block shots as well. But that\u2019s what a deep team does: a guy steps up, and I thought Yohan played very hard. Jerrell gave us great defense in the second half. And then Keon helped us go on that first half run where you\u2019re very energetic; you made a lot of good plays.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the improved defense:<\/strong> \u201cWell, that\u2019s the difference between our team now and our team in the beginning of the season. We would not have played; we would not have held NC State to 57 on their home board or 65 tonight. We were not very good defensively starting the season. And we had a lot of guys in and out, Matt was hurt, Samet wasn\u2019t eligible yet, and other guys didn\u2019t understand what our defensive system was all about; we had 10 new players. So it took some time for us to really focus on that. And we\u2019ve had some ups and downs throughout the season. But, you were right, we\u2019ve been a better offensive team than a defensive team for most of the season. But, our goal was to be able to win games with our defense. And we did that twice against Virginia, held the 51 and 52, against NC State\u2026 Tonight was another example of that. When you don\u2019t shoot the ball, you go 0\/8 in the second half on three-pointers, you have to defend. So we\u2019re trying, we\u2019re a little streaky at times, but our guys are really bought in very proud of them. And they\u2019ve improved dramatically on that side of the ball.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On moments where he has seen the buy-in from the players: <\/strong>\u201cYeah, I\u2019d say like at NC State, we were down 8-0, and all of a sudden, it was back and forth, and they took another lead. We had to go zone, and we stayed in our zone and went on a 15-0 run. So for them to be able to play man-to-man and then switch to a zone and go on that big run, give them credit because they were able to adjust to it, and they had complete buy-in. All five guys were on the court. That\u2019s one example, and then our winning streak before the Louisville game, same thing, the Virginia game up there, we played extremely hard defensively. We went one for 17 from three, after the first shot we made, we went one for the next 17. The only reason we had a chance to win that game was because we played so hard. Of course, we made three straight threes to win in the last 25 seconds. So, we\u2019re trying to get to that level, and I\u2019m very proud of our guys on this winning streak, well five out of six. But I think they understand what it takes to win ACC games, and we\u2019re four and one on the road, credit to the players. They\u2019ve been able to be professionals and handle the business on the road. In some pretty tough places to play.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On what he has seen from Boopie Miller: <\/strong>\u201cHe had 13 points and five assists, three steals, and six rebounds. Now, tonight, he had four turnovers. But you look at the Miami game, he has nine or ten assists, Georgia Tech game, ten assists. When the game was on the line at NC State, he drove the lane, shot faked, two guys jumped, and the other three guys drew in the lane. He drew five guys in the lane, he kicked it out for BJ, and he made that big three from the corner. Against Virginia, he was incredible in the last 30 seconds. He had the drive and kick and then the two threes. And so when he\u2019s passing the ball and putting pressure on the defense, he\u2019s as good as any point guard in the country. Where he does get in trouble sometimes is when he tries to force shots and leaves his feet, and it\u2019s not a recipe for success. Then his percentages come down. So, to answer your question, his decision-making has improved. It\u2019s improving, and we still think there\u2019s a lot of growth in his game. We think he can average eight assists pretty easily. And now some guys have to make shots when some games they just miss them.\u00a0But I think he is very talented and can get by people and get in that lane and make things happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The post Everything Andy Enfield said after SMU\u2019s 76-65 win over Cal<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SMU beat Cal 76-65 on Wednesday night to advance to 16-5 on the season and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}