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Nov. 27, 2012

Recap |  Box Score |  Notes |  AP Photo Gallery  |  Photo Gallery 

Head Coach Rick Barnes

On the offense: This group maybe gets more open looks than any team we’ve ever coached, because of what we’re trying to get done on offense with the screening and cutting. It’s a group that the one thing we’ve talked about since day one is putting the ball inside, and that’s how we want to play.

On the second half: Second half we really rebounded the ball, we got to the free throw line, and we were 28 for 38 for free throws with guards missing 6 of those. We got better really listening coming out of timeouts, we flipped the rebounding around, and you could tell even though we were missing some shots, that’s what we want to see out of our offense.

On bringing Sheldon of the bench: We think Sheldon can be a very special player. He is a prolific scorer in so many different ways if he wants to. He can score behind the ark, he can put it on the floor, and he’s good playing without the ball, but the biggest thing we’re after him about is defense. We need him to be effective in terms of standing in front of the ball.

TEXAS PLAYER QUOTES

Sheldon McClellan
On being the sixth man: Coach just wanted me to play harder in practice. The other guys have been doing a good job of playing hard and they are going to play first. I’m just playing my roll and trying to help the team win. It doesn’t really matter to me who starts or if I come off of the bench.

On what was working: My teammates just did a good job of finding me. I told Javan (Felix) yesterday that he needed to push the ball more and I think he did a better job of pushing it today and he got the wings a lot of points.

On having to win “ugly” all year: I don’t think we will have to win ugly. We will just have to value the ball better. We still had 19 turnovers and that is too many. We are just going to have to learn to value the ball and we will be all right.

On how to get the ball down low: The guards just have to be stronger with the ball and a lot of us fumbled the ball. We need to be more patient and wait for the post to cross screen so he can get open.

Jonathan Holmes
On sophomores stepping up: Yeah, we definitely need to step it up, especially since Myck (Kabongo) and Jaylen (Bond) are out. Young guys haven’t been through much yet so we need to lead the way.

SAM HOUSTON STATE

Head Coach Jason Hooten
Opening Statement: It was a poor performance on our part. I am disappointed. I really thought we could win this game if we played hard. I watched those three games that Texas played in Maui and hoped that they played like that tonight. To give them credit, they played great defense and a lot of that had to do with our poor offensive performance. I do not want to take anything away from Texas or Coach Barnes, who does a great job - he is a terrific coach. I am disappointed in our team. I thought we missed a bunch of open shots but I am disappointed more so in our execution. We have to get better

On the SHSU defense: Our defense was 28th in the country last year and as long as I am coaching we will be good defensively because we play hard and we will get after it. That will be a stable of our program.