Talkin' to Takayo: A 2-0 Weekend, Improved Rebounding and Looking Ahead to Drexel
Here's what the UNCW coach had to say during his radio show on Monday
Coming off a big 2-0 weekend, UNCW coach Takayo Siddle joined play-by-play man Mike Vaccaro for another edition of his radio show on Monday afternoon.
Along with a look back at the victories over Charleston and Campbell, Siddle talked about Donovan Newby finding his rhythm, the Seahawks’ improved rebounding, and how UNCW’s depth is coming into play at this point in the season.
Finally, he shared his thoughts on Thursday night’s showdown with first-place Drexel at Trask Coliseum.
On this team’s ability to deal with adversity…
Well, I mean, I think when you just look at the season — look at any season — I mean it's full of ups and downs and we've had more ups than downs, but when you're going through those down times, it just seems like you're never going to get out of the hole that you're in. It just seems like everything is just all bad, but I always tell the guys, you have to embrace the good and the bad and you have to deal with 'em the same way, and that's what we've done all season.
Even in the nonconference, when we experienced some ugly — we experienced some ugly in the nonconference — but we came back to work the next day and we took some hard coaching. We just put our head down and we stuck to our process and dove into it with even more energy. So, to be where we are right now to say it's a surprise, I wouldn't say that. I would just say our process is something that we believe in and it is working out for us.
On navigating a schedule with so many road games…
Yeah, all the credit goes to the guys, the players and then my staff. My staff is tremendous. It is not every day that you get to work with people that you like and enjoy being around, and that's so important and I learned that early on when I started, when I became a head coach, I learned that is probably the most important thing. Then, having a group of guys in your locker room — I'm talking about the players — that you love and that you like being around and coaching and mentoring, that's important.
But the front half of conference play was brutal. I have a schedule on my desk and I never really look at it; I never look at it. We try to take it one day at a time, one game at a time, because if you start looking ahead, you can overwhelm yourself and get really stressed. So, part of our process is winning each day that's in front of us and that's what we've been doing at a high level. Hopefully continue to do that.
On how the road games have helped in conference play…
I think it helped us, but when we started conference play on the road, I think our guys were just a little tired of being on the road. To look back at it, that’s what I could see. They were just fatigued. The travel was brutal. The Thursday-to-Saturday game, it was just brutal on us traveling on a bus and taking those long flights. It was just a beast on us.
As we settled in and got some home games under our belt and went back on the road, I think we handled a little bit better than we did the first two games. And I would like to think that the non-conference helped us — I keep telling myself that — but you really never know until the season's over with.
Was this past week unique in preparing for Charleston, then Campbell’s Princeton offense?
It was because we knew, and the first time we played Charleston, I was concerned with the one-day prep because you have to prepare for so many things with those guys. But we were excited to go into last week with a few days to prepare for them. We knew we would be a little bit more ready, and we were then having that short, that one day prep in between them and Campbell.
We were very concerned about that because of their unique style of play. And it was a hard week for our players and I'm so proud of because we were able to come out 2-0, and that game on Saturday was one that we knew going into it would be a really tough one to get, and hats off to our guys for having enough grit and toughness to get that game.
On the string of sellouts at Trask…
It’s everything. It's everything. Just going around the conference, there's some good home courts, good fans around the conference, but we have the best, it's not even close.
For us to sell it out pretty much every time we play in there, and then the crowd involvement with them yelling and being loud and just being on top of the other team, it helps us in so many ways. Think about the Delaware game here. When we needed a stop to win the game, they were loud. They helped us get that stop. And then the same thing happened on Saturday when we needed a big stop late. They were really loud and we were able to get the stop and man, I'm blessed. I know our players feel the same way and very thankful to be part of Seahawk Nation.
Was it a plus or minus to play Charleston again so soon?
It was a plus; it was absolutely a plus. We did some really good things in the game, but we needed to clean up some things, minor adjustments from the coaching staff.
We went into the first round, we were icing ball screens, which it meant we were trying to keep it out of the middle, and then in the middle of the floor when they were setting those flat ball screens, we were weakening it, which we were sending it to their left hand. And that really hurt us because they were short-rolling it and the big boy (Ante Brzovic) was making plays out of the short roll.
Going into Round Two, we talked about switching one-through-five in the middle of the court, and so we made some minor adjustments as a coaching staff. But the thing that we talked to our guys about was making sure we did the same thing in our transition defense, which they didn't score any fastbreak points in the first game. We had to make sure that we cleaned up our rebounding because they had 17 offensive rebounds in the first game and a lot of 'em came late.
So, we really harped on those things and then guard the 3-point line. We talked about that a lot because that's who they are. And then bringing that, the toughness and the competitive nature that we needed to have to win the game. And we did that in Round Two at a high level.
Hearing an opposing coach say UNCW was the tougher team must put a smile on your face…
I mean it does, but if we ever play them again, that's something that they're going to be very intentional about — but yeah, we have to have those things. If we want to give ourselves the best chance to win, we have to be tough and we have to outcompete our opponent. That's something that we talk about on a daily basis.
We were 14-9 on the 50/50 balls and we won the rebounding war, so I thought we imposed our will. I told 'em at the beginning before we even jumped ball. I said, ‘When we go out there, you plant your feet and you don't back up; don't back up. We're going to stand right in the middle of the ring and we're going to fight. All right? We're not going to run around the ring. We're going to fight and stand in the middle.’
So, I think we did that, and I was very proud of the guys. Man, that was a tough, tough, tough win for us.
On having so many guys contribute to the win at Charleston…
As you're going into March, you want to be playing your best basketball and in order for us to be the team that we think we can be, those guys coming off the bench have to continue to develop and produce for us.
If they don't, we won't be in the running for a championship. So they have to continue to grow, and we have to continue to do it by committee. Everybody has to contribute and be productive on a consistent basis. And as of late, knock on wood, we've been getting some production from those guys, so I hope we can continue to do that.
After having six turnovers in the first half, what was the adjustment to have just one in the second half?
We just needed to focus a little bit more. I think five of those six were unforced; we stepped on the sideline a couple times, a couple … bobbled catches. They were unforced and we just needed to lock in a little bit more and make sure that we were more sure-handed with the basketball, and we did that. We did that and we took our time offensively after that first four-minute war. In the second half, we took our time and we settled in and the guys really locked into the offensive gameplan.
Was Campbell’s Princeton offense your biggest concern going into that game?
Yeah, my concern was the guys building the habits up that we had about six or seven things that we talked about that they needed to lock in on the defensive end. That was my concern, getting them locked into that and building their habits up for the game with a short prep time.
But we did a really, really good job defending the back cuts. They only got two on us, one they scored on and the other we deflected, so that was really good. I'm so proud of the guys. I can't tell you enough. That was a hard game for us; we knew it would be. I knew the guys were tired, like our shoot around, they were trying to give energy but they were just worn down. But it took a lot of mental focus, mental toughness for us to get through that game and be on the right side of it. So, I was concerned about a lot of things, but the group really showed me, they showed me that winning really matters to 'em.
On Campbell setting up as a ‘trap game’ between Charleston and Drexel…
Absolutely. All of those things immediately popped into my head after Charleston. That was something that we talked about a lot before we even started diving into Campbell, not looking ahead, making sure that we understood that if they beat us, we would have the same record; they beat a good Hofstra team.
We knew it would be a tough challenge; so the guys knew it. The guys understood that they had some talent. They understood that the style was unique and that we needed to make some adjustments to give ourselves the best chance to win.
And listen, we showed a lot of toughness in that game.
On the ball movement vs. Campbell…
Yeah, looking back at it, we had some really, really good possessions both against the zone and man-to-man. In the game, I was thinking that we were taking too many of those threes without touching the paint first or touching the nail first, and we did it more times than not. To make 38 percent of our 40 attempts, it certainly helped us win the game.
On whether Donovan Newby is more confident after two strong performances in a row…
I'm sure it is. I'm sure it is, but he's in the gym. He was in the gym before I left, getting his work in — very humble kid. I knew at some point he would break out of it. A lot of credit to him. His mom, Coach Ponder did a really good job with him. The staff's done a really good job with him, his teammates, everybody's behind him and really helped him get out of this little rut. I still think he's working himself out of it, but he was huge. If we don't have him in that game, we lose it.
On having other guys step up on a night that Trazarien White didn’t dominate offensively…
I hope it continues to be that way. I don't want that, I don't want one guy getting (all the points) I don't want that; We have to do it by committee. We're at our best when we have five, six guys and double figures are right there at it. He draws so much attention when he passes it to those guys and rhythm, I feel confident they can make shots and make plays. We have to continue to do it that way and not just rely on one or two guys to score the basketball for us.
On Khamari McGriff making a few huge plays in the Campbell game…
And the game, I didn't going into it, I didn't know if I could play my post guys because we were switching one-through-five and I knew they would get caught — we call it ‘in the mix’ — with all that Princeton stuff and man, he just keeps getting better. He keeps getting better. What a huge play. I joked with him after the game, I said, ‘I didn't know you worked on that, fade away with the time running down.’
But the one thing I backed it up with is I said, ‘Hey look, that's just you being confident from the work that you put in and it just paid off for you at the right time. Thank God you made that shot.’
On Shemar Rathan-Mayes getting late minutes because of his defensive ability…
He's one of those guys, if you look back at the game, Mike, when I was standing up talking to the coaches in the huddle, he was sitting in my chair talking to the guys.
He’s got really good leadership skills. He is a guy that, it’s been up and down for him a little bit, but he's continued to work and be a team guy. All he cares about is winning; he'll be a coach one day for sure. I'm glad that we have him, I'm glad that we have him. He had five assists in the game. He just wants to win and he's a fiery, fiery competitor. I love having him a part of our program.
Player of the Week — Donovan Newby
He said something to me last week in the office about how he kind of changed his routine up from the summer going into preseason and how he was really just down and frustrated because it hadn't been working for him and I told him, I said, ‘Things don't work that way. They don't work that way. God's timing and you really can't, don't know when it's going to come. You can't tell it, Hey, I want it to come on Tuesday or it's just going to happen at some point, but you have to stay convicted in what you're doing,’ and that's what he's done.
That's what he's done. I'm proud of him, I'm proud of him. He's an X-Factor for us. He's a huge part of our program and somebody that we're counting on in a major way.
On Newby using the shot-fake to get better looks lately…
Early on when he had been struggling, Mike, he hadn't been using his shot-fake. He had been taking contested threes. That little shot fake is just opening up and getting him a cleaner look to the rim and he's made his adjustments and Coach Ponder, Coach Ponder deserves all the credit for working with him and getting him through that. He has done a really good job helping him with those adjustments with his game.
On Noah Ross and Nolan Hodge…
Yeah, that's what they're doing at a high level. I think that's what has really changed things around for him. Noah is a guy that's always flying around and throwing his body around, but I think at some point when he was going through some things on the court, I think he had got away from that. He was focused on scoring and some of those other things and instead of just being true to who he is, and he got back to doing that.
And Nolan, when his minutes started to waver a little bit, it was because he wasn't being tough enough and fighting hard enough. He made his adjustments and so those guys are being really productive for us and it's not showing up on the stat sheet all the time. They're making those hustle effort plays that we need and those impact winning in a major way.
On the long road of a season and working with players to overcome adversity and recalibrate themselves over 30+ games…
Listen everybody, a lot of people always ask me about coaching and I always tell 'em, ‘Hey, what you see in the game is really like 5 percent of the job, the mental part of it.’
Making sure that they can fight through adversity when it hits, making sure mentally they're thinking about the right things and not thinking about themselves and their scoring and when they do go through bad times, how can we help them get out? It's just the coaching in the game is only really 5 percent of it.
Question from Vanessa: How do you play aggressive defense when it seems you’re being called for touch fouls?
Well, I'm going to be nice today and I'm going to say we need to make our adjustments to how the game is being called. That's what I'm going to say. I'm not going to complain about the referees or do any of that, Vanessa. So, there we go.
On reinforcing chest-up instead of defending with hands…
It just comes with being disciplined because the natural reaction when somebody's coming at your chest is for you to reach or if you are trying to wall up at the end when they hit you in the chest, you go down. So, you have to be really disciplined and we worked on it a lot leading to the season and early on in the season, but it's a tough thing to do because you don't want to get anybody hurt. So, we just watch film on the mistakes that we make when we don't wall up, and then the times that we do wall up teams, most of the time they miss. And so just showing them and trying to coach 'em up on it has really helped us.
Question from Joshua: Are there any statistical goals for the second half of the CAA schedule?
Yeah, I mean it's a few things that I think that we have to continue to improve on. We're taking care of the basketball at a high level; that's one part of it.
Then defending transition defense, halfcourt defense, everything that comes on that side of the basketball and rebounding at a high level, defensive rebounding. I think if you can do those things really good, I think you'll have a chance to win a lot, but I just want to keep getting better.
That's the main thing I've been telling the guys, ‘Let's get better every day. Let's become more connected every day and we need to be playing our best basketball as we head into March.’
On guards rebounding, given the number of long rebounds created by the number of 3-point attempts in today’s game…
So if you come in on a Tuesday, if we got a game on Thursday, we kind of dial our rebounding drills back and we do, we call it rebounding in pursuits to where I break 'em up into three-man groups on multiple baskets and we're throwing the balls out on the perimeter so we can anticipate and pursue and swarm it and make all three of 'em run to the ball; they talk about it a lot in football. Just having that mentality is something that we've been trying to build. I think we've really grown in it, and we have to continue to rebound and pursue basketballs out on the floor and swarm 'em as a group to give ourselves the best chance.
On Shykeim Phillips’ contributions Saturday, in a game that he didn’t score a lot of points…
Yeah, he's a fifth-year guy that's mature. He's comfortable with me. We're kind of in-sync right now and we have been for a while. He understands exactly what we're trying to get now; this didn't come overnight. He's put a lot of work in to get to where he is right now and he had to play different roles in our program and I think he's comfortable in this role because he's naturally a scoring guard, combo guard that can play with the basketball in his hands. '
He can get us set up and do multiple things, but he's just starting to read the game a little bit better. He still has to improve on it; I think it's some more assist out there for him to get, but he's coachable and he understands that he needs to continue to grow in that area for us to be good.
On how UNCW and Drexel have grown since the first meeting…
Yeah, I mean I think they've improved for sure; I know we have.
Going into this prep week, it's all about us. I think when we played up there, we shot a ton of threes; they were good looks, we just couldn't make 'em. We had some really good offensive possessions that ended in misses, so it's all about us. That's all we're going to talk about and we're going to get ourselves ready to go out there and compete against the No. 1 team in our league.
Donovan Newby played well at Drexel. Could he be an X-factor off the bench on Thursday?
I hope so; we need him to keep producing. He hit six threes the other night. We know that’s one of the things that he does well, we're going to need him to make some of 'em, but we're going to need everybody to bring it. We're going to have to have everybody to step up with their A-game and I know they'll be ready for us, and I know we'll be ready for them.
Is your improved rebounding a major factor in this game?
We're going to have to lock in. Last game we played, then they were sending everybody back because I think they were scared of our speed and transition, so they only had five offensive rebounds. They didn't go very much over their last five games. They've been averaging 13 offensive rebounds.
Again, I think they'll try to punish us on the glass a little bit, but we're going to work on rebounding and we're going to continue to emphasize it and hopefully we can get some good bounces and secure the rebound, because we secure the rebound, we're going to get out and run on ‘em.
Can Trask be a factor on Thursday night?
I hope so, but if you think about it, Mike, we played Delaware here. I think the crowd affected them a little bit at the end, but that was a hard-fought game for us. It came down to the wire, same thing the other night.
When you're playing against really good teams, the crowd can absolutely help you, but they'll be ready for our crowd. I think that's probably one of the first things he talked about with his team. They'll be ready. We can't go in counting on our crowd to help get us a blowout. It's going to be closely contested and we'll be ready for it.