Postgame Quotes: Bucky McMillan - WCU
Following a 88-62 win over Western Carolina, Samford Scoop was in the media room postgame. We got to ask Bucky McMillan about his team’s defensive effort since he challenged his team following the near buzzer beater win over Wofford on January 31st. Questions and full answers below:
Q: Coach talk about the work defensively since the Wofford game where you challenged your team to get better on that end. Talk about what you have seen on that end since that game compared to now?
A: “When you look at it, we played Chattanooga, who is one of the best 3 point shooting teams in the country in made threes per game. Then we played Greensboro, then we played Western and we held them to 4 threes tonight. So after these games, then we played VMI who is a high 3-point shooting team. I don’t know if anyone after we had that talk has made more than 10 threes, I don’t know what they made, if they made more than 7, I don’t know.”
*(Chattanooga made six threes, UNCG made seven, VMI made one, Western Carolina made six)*
“But a lot of defense is mental intensity and being absolutely dialed to finding shooters. When you are able to do that, good things are going to happen. It’s not like one of these things where as a coach coaching these guys that you have to yell and do all this. You can just pretty much say it, show the tape. They know it, I believe in them and they believe in us. It’s a great deal, it’s easy to correct and easy to coach. It’s not like a line is drawn in the sand like some teams, well you’re on this side and you’re on this side, we all know we have to do better at guarding the three. Let’s do it. That is what has progressed here where you are seeing a lot of lopsided wins here since that game. We beat Chattanooga pretty good, beat Greensboro by 9 or 10 on the road, beat VMI then we win here by a large margin.”
Q: Has Jermaine Marshall’s return been a big reason as to why that has been the case?
A: “With Jermaine, his biggest deal is his improvement being able to guard the three because when he plays professionally, he is going to have to be able to play on the perimeter. He knows that and that is what he has gotten a lot better at. That is the thing with Jermaine, he just works so hard and always wants to get better. He is obviously such a competitor that he wants to go from zero to 100 when he came back. Our plan was, hey man we just got to get 2 more minutes every game to get you back. What a credit to him to be able to accept that and get his way back into this thing and now you see him, no injury, healthy, playing some of the best basketball I have ever seen him play. He is coming into March, that’s where he kills in that conference tournament, so he is gearing up for that.”
Samford is on the road Saturday at Mercer before returning home against Furman on February 21st.
