Postgame Comments: Mike MacDonald

2/1/2021 10:24:00 AM

Daemen Men's Basketball Head Coach Mike MacDonald Quotes
February 1, 2021 – Gannon Postgame

On the loss...
"It was very strange game. Credit Gannon, they shot it great. I don't think we defended very well, but they shot it great. You got to still make them even if you're open, you still gotta make them and they did. They made them. But I thought, like halftime, [it was a] three-point game, we're down three after leading most of the first half. And then we came out in the second half, took the lead, lost it, they hit a couple threes, and I thought, uh oh, we might be in trouble. And you know what? We responded, and I thought we responded pretty well. It's still with about 10 minutes to go it was about an eight-point game or so and just got away, got away from us. Those last 10 minutes have done us in each of these last two games. We have to figure out a way not to play a 30-minute game, play a 40-minute game, and we'll get there. We'll get there."

On relying on younger players...
"Yeah, I think there are a lot of freshmen in there, but we also have some veteran guys and guys who've played college basketball. That can be an excuse that we're not going to use and we have to be prepared to play. And you know what, even within those 30 minutes, there were plays that we made that were silly, not smart, not sound basketball plays that we have to eliminate for us to be good. I've said this all along, we don't have the margin of error, we don't have the number of guys on the roster, we don't have the amount of experience we've had last couple years. The margin of error is smaller for us right now and we have to understand that."

On the continued development of Andrew Sischo...
"I think Andrew is the best player ever to wear a Daemen uniform. No disrespect to Rob Robinson, Dave Skolen, Gerald Beverley, I can go on and on with a lot of really good players who've played here, really good. I think you look what Andrew has done at this level and the level we've played, I mean even, Rand Grandits, my assistant said the other night, even the number one team in the country couldn't stop him last year, Northwest Missouri State. I think that really just speaks to how good a player he is. Now, his next step is raising the level of those around him, and that's a tough thing for a great player to do. It's a tough thing. That's what the truly great ones do.

On the benefits of playing a good team like Gannon early in the season...
"Well, I think the Gannon question is a good one because they're very good team. They're 4-0, they're well coached, they move the ball very well, they're all comfortable in their roles right now, you can see that, and that was good team for us to play. It's strange, you look at it, at one point we were up 20 in the second half on Friday night, and then we're down 25 in the second half on Sunday. You can see there's going to be good things, there's gonna be bad things early on. Really, realistically, where our team is right now, we're in early November, right? That's what we would be in a normal year. This would be early November coming off of a couple, probably scrimmages and saying hey, this is where we are, this is what we have to work on, this is what we have to improve on."

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