They Said It: The Citadel Postgame
Samford Scoop got the chance to talk with Samford head coach Bucky McMillan, Trey Fort, and Rylan Jones following the 86-56 win over The Citadel. Fort led Samford with 19 points and Jones finished with a 18 points and six assists.
You started Josh Holloway in place of an injured Isaiah West. What growth have you seen from him in his second season especially defensively? Then on offense as you’ve mentioned before focusing on working for singles and doubles rather than the home run play every time?
Bucky McMillan: “Josh has got to hit singles and I thought he played really well. He took maybe one, I know he only took two shots, took one questionable one. But he is playing winning basketball, that’s what wins and that’s what helps you if you one day want to be a pro, is how do you help your team win? That’s what they want to see. Sometimes Josh and a lot of freshmen, they can get bored hitting singles. Say hey I hit five singles in a row, let’s try go to hit the home run. It usually doesn’t work out and when he is playing that way, playing team ball as a point guard, others want to hit singles. You have a point guard that is always trying to home run and everyone else thinks this is what we have to do, swing for the fences. He’s playing really good ball. Fortunately we have been able to rest him and Rylan and some of these guys here late. We’ll turn around Saturday. It’ll be a war and we will need him to play the same way.”
You guys won the first 10 minutes of each half and started off hot. How important was that for you guys especially coming off a long winter break?
Rylan Jones: “It’s always good, you want to start the game well and then have the next unit carry that on the next ten minutes. Then you want to start the second half, second halves are very important. You know, you don’t want to let them get their confidence going. You want to come out, go on a little run. Then you know, put them away almost. When you’re up 14, 15 at halftime and you want to get up 20, 21 in that first media and kinda put them away and that’s what we did today.”
Samford is on the road at Western Carolina on Saturday at 2:00pm. Then the Bulldogs are back home next Thursday, January 9th, against VMI at 7:00pm.
