* On South Carolina's Murray-Boyles... Great player. Awesome. So skilled.
* Gamecocks have a superstar talent, toughness, and good coaching. They've had a bunch of good teams in this league on the ropes.
* On Travis Perry... Special young man. Has been good for us. He's a sponge. Learns fast. Will execute after one conversation, which is a special skill. He's going to be a great player.
* Asked if he's thought about trying to get more minutes out of starters... It's a balancing act. We function well offensively because of our pace and our movement away from the ball, and that takes energy. It's a real argument, though. We've actually thought about going the other way: more bench, more energy.
* On Kerr Kriisa... He's not doing anything active on the court yet, but more active in the weight room and training room. It's a matter now of how quickly he can get over the soreness. A healing bone, not a great blood flow bone. It's complicated. Sounds like a day to day thing.
* On defense... Thinks he's failed them a little bit on their everyday dedication to shell defense in practice. And conceded his faith in the numbers is getting challenged a bit now. They're punching me in the face, and I've been an analytics guy my whole career. Is there a KY effect on the numbers? Are these anomalies? Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater thing? We're the least disruptive team in the league. Need to stretch their expectations of individual guys to do better.
* Amari Williams has been a bright spot. A big reason why he's looking so good now is the physicality he's playing with.
* Andrew Carr came out of Ole Miss game feeling as good as he felt the day before. That was good news. Nice to see him make some plays at the rim.
* On Lamont Butler... He's going to move around on the court in non-contact drills a bit today, see where he is tomorrow. It's a little bit of the same frame of mind as Carr. He'd like to get him back in best situation to not have another setback. Doesn't know a timetable, though.
* Pope says he loves the challenge when things get a little murky and doubt sets in. He considers that a great part of the journey. He could feel the pain in callers' voices on his show last night, and that drives him. You wish you could just figure it out in one day, but sometimes you have to grind it out.
* Pope did not envision Otega Oweh being their leading scorer this season. Praised his consistency and ability to deliver double figures every night in a league like this.
* Gamecocks have a superstar talent, toughness, and good coaching. They've had a bunch of good teams in this league on the ropes.
* On Travis Perry... Special young man. Has been good for us. He's a sponge. Learns fast. Will execute after one conversation, which is a special skill. He's going to be a great player.
* Asked if he's thought about trying to get more minutes out of starters... It's a balancing act. We function well offensively because of our pace and our movement away from the ball, and that takes energy. It's a real argument, though. We've actually thought about going the other way: more bench, more energy.
* On Kerr Kriisa... He's not doing anything active on the court yet, but more active in the weight room and training room. It's a matter now of how quickly he can get over the soreness. A healing bone, not a great blood flow bone. It's complicated. Sounds like a day to day thing.
* On defense... Thinks he's failed them a little bit on their everyday dedication to shell defense in practice. And conceded his faith in the numbers is getting challenged a bit now. They're punching me in the face, and I've been an analytics guy my whole career. Is there a KY effect on the numbers? Are these anomalies? Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater thing? We're the least disruptive team in the league. Need to stretch their expectations of individual guys to do better.
* Amari Williams has been a bright spot. A big reason why he's looking so good now is the physicality he's playing with.
* Andrew Carr came out of Ole Miss game feeling as good as he felt the day before. That was good news. Nice to see him make some plays at the rim.
* On Lamont Butler... He's going to move around on the court in non-contact drills a bit today, see where he is tomorrow. It's a little bit of the same frame of mind as Carr. He'd like to get him back in best situation to not have another setback. Doesn't know a timetable, though.
* Pope says he loves the challenge when things get a little murky and doubt sets in. He considers that a great part of the journey. He could feel the pain in callers' voices on his show last night, and that drives him. You wish you could just figure it out in one day, but sometimes you have to grind it out.
* Pope did not envision Otega Oweh being their leading scorer this season. Praised his consistency and ability to deliver double figures every night in a league like this.
