George Washington University Athletics
11/8/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 8, 2008
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
PRESEASON EXHIBITION
November 8, 2008
WEST GEORGIA 71
GW 101
Postgame comments
GW Coach Karl Hobbs
As a coach, what do you get out of a game like this?
"Number one, you get to see your offense and defense, and see a lot of people play. You get a sense of the things you have to work on. And at this early stage of the game, you feel like you have to work on everything. But it looks like we're athletic, it looks like we're fast, it looks like we're back to having pretty good depth, so I was very pleased in that regard."
What things do you have to work on?
"We have to do a better job of talking on the defensive end. There were too many times when we had guys coming off the screen, we had two guys chasing the ball and they didn't communicate. That's the number one thing that we have to get better at."
Your thoughts on the play of Tony Taylor?
"He played exceptionally well. He did things that freshmen will do; when he gets inside and doesn't realize he's in college now. In high school, he could finish those plays; guys weren't as big, they weren't closing out as quick. He's a smart enough player that I think he'll make the right adjustments in his game."
How is Travis King?
"I think he's fine. The main thing was not to play him too many minutes, and the minute he began to get too winded, I get him out of there. I want to work him in gradually as he begins to get his legs up under him, and get his wind and conditioning. I was happy with the way he played, though."
Your thoughts on the play of Xavier Alexander?
"He had a great deal of energy; he was all over the place. I like the fact that he took care of the ball in transition and made great decisions with it. He did a good job of attacking the basket. He finished some nice plays last year, but was a little adventurous sometimes with the ball coming down the floor. But he showed a lot of maturity from last year. I hope he can consistently play the way he played today. If he does, we'll be a hard team to deal with."
Was it meaningful to score 101 points?
"It's not really the point total, but how you scored those points. Then it's all about the process and execution. I'm disappointed that at times, we didn't spread back on defense, and we didn't communicate enough. That will be a challenge against a seasoned team like Boston University. I predicted that we'd have 20 to 25 turnovers, and we had 21 today. We just have to find a way to win some of these early games while we go through these growing pains."
Why didn't Rob Diggs start?
"Hermann [Opoku] and Joseph [Katuka] have been giving us great minutes in practice, and as a basketball coach, I have to give more confidence to those guys. My feeling is if I started Robert, I'd end up playing him too much and not playing those guys enough. The way I tried to do that today was whichever guy I started, the other guy's going in for him, and try to play Robert a limited number of minutes in the first half, and more in the second half so that he can be ready for next Friday's game. And I think it worked out fairly well. [Hermann and Joseph] looked more ready, and more seasoned. And they're still a bit away, so hopefully, they'll continue to get better."
