Coach Miles Radio Hour - Lost Coach Edition

If you're getting there late, don't worry.  Coach Miles went to the wrong one and is en route

Greg Sharp is hosting at Carlos O'Kelly's in North Lincoln ... but Coach Miles went to the Carlos O'Kelly's in South Lincoln, so he's driving in Lincoln & is on the phone.  He's pretty embarrassed I think   Says he's only run two red lights to try to get to North Lincoln as fast as he can

• Biggs & Ray both did a nice job in their opening games
• Played small to run motion vs SCSt zone defense
• Early in the year always worried about playing against a zone because don't see it in practice much early
• Biggs can really get to the rim
• So can Webster & both get fouled at a high rate
• Ultimately we were able to get Ray open 3s, which are a high percentage shot for him

Under new rules:

• Shavon, BIggs & Tai will really benefit from new rules to get to FT line
• Surprised Petteway hasn't gotten to the FT line more

VS SCSt

• Made some adjustments in the 2nd half to better deal with zone
• Started the game 19 possessions, only gave up 10 pts
• Next 14 possessions, gave up 21 pts, poor defense to close 1st half
• With Smith, Biggs, joining other starters early in 2nd half, the defensive play picked up & led to transition pts

Five scorers in double figures:

• More versatility, more balance always helps
• Need to put together the right rotations, because you can't have 5 scorers on the floor at the same time
• Need guys to do the dirty work with a few scorers
• Need defined roles & make sure everyone understands to play for each other

Outrebounded by SCSt?

• Surprised we were outrebounded, done a pretty good job before this game
• Situations where we just didn't come up with the ball
• Ability to come up with loose balls can decide the game, 50/50 balls, must do better
• That's why we were outrebounded, need to emphasize it more mentally & in practice

Great field in Charleston, how will team respond on road?

• Excited for tourney - great competition
• You want this
• UMass picked to go to NCAAs, New Mex nationally ranked, UAB picked high in its league
• We're the only ones there picked dead last
• We have to prove we belong
• Then on last day, Georgia, Clemson, Davidson, Temple, all good programs, well coached
• Should be a lot of fun, hope to have plenty of NU fans here
• I love in season tourneys, had success in the past
• Very helpful for team to have to come back one day later & make quick adjustments
• Some teams handle it well, some don't - I've had both types
• Curious to see how we come out 
• Never know how you'll respond until you're smacked in the mouth

Sharp: Coach Miles still en route

Tuesday is the travel day to Charleston

Now he has walked in

Miles: I ran the whole way, only 17 miles 

Thinking it was great, just 2 minutes from my house, oh well

Sharp: In light of this, crowd just wants to make sure you know which Carolina you're going to this weekend, North or South? 

Miles;

• Been a whirlwind since March 2012
• Great enthusiasm from fans
• Great to do this show live out with the fans - very cool to have the energy
• Hopefully we'll have some interesting things to listen to

SCSt Crowd?

• Great to have that large of a crowd on a Sunday
• SCSt played very well
• We've got some issues to work through, but we didn't make as many defensive errors vs SCSt as we did vs WIU
• Not great to throw ball away 7 seconds in
• Like some flair in my guards, some daring - exciting to have guys who can get into the lane

Phone: UMass looks tough - how will our defense hold up? How is Biggs' defense, I've watched him since 8th grader

• I don't have to answer, you know how he does on defense
• UMass, I just hope Dr. J doesn't suit up, that wouldn't be good
• Wing player was on play of the day with huge dunk
• Very athletic, very impressive
• Good thing about this tournament, see a lot of different things
• I think we're allowing 0.85 pts per possession, which is solid
• Of course vs our competition so far, we should be about there
• Struggles are always the same, guarding the ball, screen & roll defense
• Need to block out & rebound better, didn't do that well vs SCSt
• Pitchford doesn't give us a lot of physical presence on defense, Smith does
• We need to do better with doubling & help

Tai's FT %?

• FT shooting gets in your head
• Tai is in Top 15 of the country right now in FTs attempted
• We'll get him squared away - or threaten him

Sharp: Tai's adjustment to U.S./college basketball?

• Doing well
• Picking things up
• We run a set, called elbow, one of the guys said it was Princeton, Tai asked "Who's Princeton"
• Just have to acclimate him to everything
• Takes some things very literally - have to re-explain some things
• Great learning curve for him
• As his shooting becomes more comfortable, he'll settle in
• Need a distributor, too, so he needs to blend

Phone: Amount of time in practice facility vs arena?

• Call came from Hastings, was worried it was Coach Osborne
• Still calls me on occasion
• He called me one time at 5 am, I was asleep - I called him back, left message, didn't want to accuse him of butt-dialing me, asked if it was a mis-dial, didn't want to use the term "butt-dial" - TO called him back, didn't want to admit he had misdialed, said he had been told Miles didn't sleep, so just wanted to check in, see if it was true
• Love practicing in practice facility, but we do need to work with arena's shooting background
• Need to practice more FT shooting at arena - tough to get done with just 2 baskets in there and 15 players
• Try to schedule certain times to go in & shoot FTs, still working out schedule
• Great practice facility, but we need time in the arena

Sharp: Recruiting - Hammond?

• Top 150 player
• 6-9, 6-10, don't know how tall they are once they get that much taller than me
• Neat kid from Okla
• Plays a very physical game
• Good shooting touch 15-17 feet
• Good frame, wingspan more than his height
• Will develop into a good Big Ten player
• We're in a holding pattern for last scholarship for incoming 2014 class
• Make a better decision in the spring about exactly what we need
• You get 12 official visits, used 4 or 5, so we're in good shape
• Nice to bring players in while we're playing games, just hard because they're playing games too
• We get more football recruits at our bball games than bball recruits
• Can bring out jrs after the 1st of the year, but that counts against 12

Pitchford & Petteway?

• Both can be very productive
• Petteway is a perfectionist, may be trying to hard
• Very smart about learning game plans, knowing opponent tendencies
• Once he makes more shots, will relax & numbers will get better
• Pitchford is tough matchup with his ability from 3
• Even when he gives up a basket on one end, can score 3 on other end, so we're still up 1
• WIU coach gave Miles some good advice after game
• WIU said big lineup was very tough to go against, but we don't have a lot of size off the bench then
• Maybe our best lineup is to go big

Big Ten fast start? 34-3?

• Good league
• We knew it would be like this, we wanted this
• Move to Big Ten is very beneficial to NU bball
• The depth of league is only rivaled by ACC

Helps RPI? Same thing occurred a year ago?

• NU was only team last year under .500 in RPI top 100
• But RPI is only good when you win
• That's why this week is so important

Balancing Charleston trip with business & fun?

• Going early to do sight-seeing
• Practicing early in day, so can go out and have fun
• Then come back and get ready
• Get the hype out of the way early
• Played in DisneyWorld tourney in the past
• Idea is get them out, get them in the theme park, get it out of their heads & then focus on business

Great to be 3-0?

• I like hearing that we're undefeated, so I say it all summer

Call from Panhandle: When will Peltz get to shoot more?

• I've tried to tell him to do that, but he won't shoot more ... or cut his hair
• Had a long meeting with him today about his role in rotation
• He's right on the fringe of the rotation now, which is tough to handle
• He wants what's best for the team
• Great kid, wins every sprint
• Would wreak havoc on football special teams

Call from Panhandle: NCAA Tourney win will come when? 

• I won't make a prediction on when it'll happen
• But i want one this year and next year and etc

Sharp: Maybe Alliance could produce a male version of Hooper?

• I tried trading for Hooper, but Connie punched me in the shoulder, wouldn't hear of it
• She's tougher than me

UMass?

• They have great length and athleticism
• lots of balance, rebounds well, turns you over, Williams gets to hoop, many ways they can get you
• Look on tape, they look intimidating, but the more you look the more holes you see
• But really don't know if you can exploit them until you get on the floor with them
• Hopefully I'm not such a slow learner that we can't make adjustments fast enough Thursday
• They played tough teams out of the box, we'll play our big name schools later in non-con
• We all want the resume that looks attractive
• UMass will be a really good opponent
• We'll be an underdog, those are the most fun games to win
• Going home to pack right now

That's it for tonight

That's it for tonight

Top notch live blogging!

Wow throwback....above and beyond there !!    Thanks very much.

Great effort, throwback.  Classic TO story by Miles.

Thanks for the updates!!

Thank you throwback...

+1 on the Maze - very nice! Good to see his attention is on UMass and not CarlosO'Kelly's 

Thanks for the play by play Throwback.

Wow, throwback, you've doubled your reputation points with this thread alone.  Nicely done.

Seriously...mad props to throwback for transcribing for those of us that couldn't hear it live. Now someone get coach miles a GPS!!!