ASAP Sports Transcripts - Basketball - 2012 - EA SPORTS MAUI INVITATIONAL - November 21 - Rick Barnes - Sheldon McClellan
Texas  69
Mississippi State  55
THE MODERATOR: Coach Barnes and Sheldon McClellan. Coach, would you like to make some opening comments?
COACH BARNES: First of all, I want to really thank the people here with this tournament. Everybody associated with it, everywhere we go, it's unbelievable the way we're treated here. It's just great. Everybody, I mean, from the time you get off the bus to the people you meet going into the locker room. It's just a great tournament. We're really proud of being a part of it. So I want to really thank everyone for that.
With our game today I thought early once we got things going defensively, we really did some good things and thought our offense was able to feed off that. But, again, we don't understand the value of taking care of the ball in the second half. There was nothing really good that came out of it, other than I thought that Sheldon really responded coming in. Offensively he did some good things, but more importantly was the effort he was trying to make on the defensive end.
But as a team, we can't turn the ball over the way we did, especially the guards, the guards, most all of them. But, again there were some good things. I thought guys like Connor Lammert who hadn't played very much. We talked to him, are you going to play? The effort came back in, we were taking guys out if they weren't giving us the effort on the defensive end.
So we'll continue to do that if we get to a point where we can play 40 minutes of basketball the way we think a Texas basketball team should play.
Q. You came here a young team. Did you grow up a little bit in the last three days?
COACH BARNES: I do think we got better, because I thought the first night we came out, and I don't think we could have beaten any team in the country. We walked out, and I'm not sure. Maybe it was a little bit of an entitlement‑type attitude because of what I think our program has stood for and what guys have done before us. We're not there yet. I thought today we got closer to it, because this game is a tough game to get ready for. But I thought we came out and got better, but we didn't sustain it in the second half.
You can play all the what ifs and this and that, but that's toughness. Toughness is doing it every time, doing your job every single time. But I do think that we've got to continue to grow.
I've told these guys all along, if we figure it out, we've got a chance to be good. There is a lot of basketball left, and we've got a lot of room for improvement. But the first thing that we've got to get is a consistent effort. Everybody putting both feet in and playing for one thing, and that is the University of Texas.
Q. Sheldon, do you feel like you and your teammates grew up this week?
SHELDON McCLELLAN: Most definitely. After that Chaminade team, we grew up a lot as a team. After yesterday, Coach was mad at us. We got better, even though we lost, we were satisfied with the loss, and we shouldn't be satisfied. We should put the focus on always getting better.
THE MODERATOR: Sheldon, any comments about the tournament and your experience here in Maui?
SHELDON McCLELLAN: It was a great tournament. My first experience in Hawaii, some competition, and we got better as a team.