Jim Larranaga is now two for two on blowout wins to open this 2024-25 season. What did he have to say after his most recent inside the Watsco Center, an 88-64 victory over Binghamton? Check out the complete transcript from the postgame press conference below.
Opening Statement
JIM LARRANAGA: "Welcome everybody in; we did not have a great lead into this game on Friday, I didn't think we were sharp in practice at all yesterday the first half today was a little better than that, but the second half was consistent was not there mostly inconsistency at the defensive end are defense in the first half was pretty solid but the second half we gave up to many threes too many layups and some of it you got to give Binghamton some credit cause we have a hard time guarding the guy like Gavin Walsh, cause he can drive and he is not normally shooting a lot of threes, but he made three's he made some driving layups, and we did a good job on Callahan in the first half, but he got off in the second half, and once he hits a three that opens it up cause those stretches are defense out, but I haven't look at the stat sheet yet but pretty much balance in our scoring, four guys in double figure, so questions."
Q. Nine players scoring overall, how good does that make you feel that nine people got on the stat sheet
JIM LARRANAGA: "My biggest challenge is trying to figure out a rotation. I mean, the way Matt Cleveland was playing before the injury, we need to get him back to that cause he is a key player for us, but the other guys that are playing well, im trying to figure out, eventually, what are full-time starting lineup is going to be and who are the guys are going to sub regularly, and right now I think in the first half we played nine second half we played ten, and then I think we ended up playing eleven so we will see."
Q. Can you talk a little about Jalen Blackmon
JIM LARRANAGA: From an offensive standpoint, he's a terrific offensive player he can shoot, and he can handle the ball well, the challenge for him is gonna always be at the defensive end cause he plays in the backcourt with Nijel, and neither one of them was what you call big guards there more undersized guards, and the combination of them going against bigger guards is gonna be something we are going have to handle through the season."
Q. When will there be an official rotation
JIM LARRANAGA: I think it's going to be ongoing for a while cause if you see those freshmen are earning playing time, I mean, you see what Jalil did, Divine comes into the game and plays well, and Austin comes into the second half, and first thing he does is bury a three. So, we got to figure those guys out and the role they are gonna play, but we also have some key upperclassmen, whether it Matthew Cleveland or Paul Djobet or AJ Staton-McCray, you know, we got different guys one thing we don't have is we don't have Kiree Huie so Lynn Kidd is such an important factor for us cause he is truly are only big guy."
Q. How was the offensive execution tonight
JIM LARRANAGA: I didn't think we were as sharp as we could have been, and I give you a couple of examples Paul Djobet threw a lob to Matthew Cleveland that went to the 3rd row Nijel Pack threw a pass ahead to Lynn Kidd, an Lynn was spinning around the ball went out of bounds when you make critical errors like that on very very simple plays that's not a good sign I don't know how many, we had 17 assists and seven turnovers I think we could have easily been in the 20s we miss some easy shots and I think those, those plays right there we could have cut our turnover s down two or three.''
Q. Are we ready to step up and play higher-level teams
JIM LARRANAGA: I think time will tell, we don't have the answers right now we will have to face those teams and see how they defend us as you noticed today, they triple-team Lynn Kidd, primarily what he did the last game. Binghamton is small, so they probably think if they didn't double-have him, he would score regularly that was the strategy against other teams that have big guys, maybe they will leave him one-on-one so every game presents a whole different series of issues that we are going gave to adjust to."
Q. Thoughts on getting to the free throw line
JIM LARANAGA: "Okay, the simple answer is we gonna try to do what the defense gives us, so we're a terrific three-point shooting team if they give us threes, we are gonna shoot the three. In the last game against FDU, their coach made a point of coming out on our three-point shooters, so we shot a lot of two-point shots, today we shot more twos but got fouled on them cause we were getting to the basket, and then the paint so if we can do that regularly find the area that hurts the opponent's defense whether that's twos or threes or getting to the foul line we need to find our sweet spot every night."
Q. What do you like about Jalil Bethea
JIM LARRANAGA: "He's got a major challenge ahead of him because he has such high expectations, any time there is that expectation as a player, you tend to put pressure on yourself to deliver every single time you touch the ball. I like his effort in practice, and I like his attitude. I think he needs to continue to learn cause as a freshman, like all of our freshmen, they have to improve to help at the highest level."
Q. Can you identify the areas where there needs to be improvement
JIM LARRANAGA: "Well, again, there are three areas one is on-ball defense, with all these guys driving to the basket on us cause we don't have much size has got to learn the dribble better; the second is team defense, and that is helping your teammates he is doing a much better job and is improving better in that area, and the third is rebounding cause if we force them to shoot and miss we got to get on the glass in his particular case tonight he had one rebound so he can get better at that, why do I say that? Well, he's 6-5 and can jump out of the gym, and if he makes a point of going to the glass, she will get a lot of them."
