MARK POPE Q&A:
* Asked about what are the fixable areas they have right now... It's not triage where we have a bad team. We have a really good team, but we did not play well at Georgia. The glass continues to be something we have to keep working on and re-think some of the things we're doing. I don't think it's reinventing the wheel, offensively. There were three offensive fouls that were "interesting." We're still trying to figure out the whistle part of the game.
* Need to get to the FT line more because we've got guys who can really shoot it there, but there can also be a heavy cost to getting to the FT line. Sometimes it messes with spacing, efficiency, and you have to put the game in someone else's (refs') hands. We're not aiming to be the top FT shooting team in the country in terms of attempts because of that cost, but we'd like to get there more.
* Everybody would like to be more physical. It's an important factor in league play. Need to have an understanding of where you can be physical and where you can't. The hit-first guy can benefit.
* On tendency for guys to take things into their own hands when a game is not going well... There's not an easy answer to that. A lot of it deals with trust and belief in each other, which I think our guys have, but sometimes it's a process you have to go through. There have been times when we went to the well in the right way. But getting there every single time is part of the challenge. At the end of the year, you have to do it six straight times to be the champion.
* On Mississippi State... Oof, they're good. You can probably cut and paste that to everyone we play. PG is elite, No. 12. The starting 4 guy is a really unique player, a creative passer, reminds you of Draymond Green. Plays like a really big point guard. They're a high turnover-forcing team. Good on the glass. Kinda the bio of everyone in the SEC. And the venue will be really spirited.
* As coaches, we love trends, and there have been some trends in the three losses. But they get a little more murky when you see that they have also shown up in some of the wins. But we are pattern-seekers. It's helpful, lets you focus on those things and fix them. Same way with good trends.
* Can being tough be taught... There's an attitude and aggressiveness to it. There's a skill to it. There's an IQ portion of it. Those three things all come into physicality. You can do one of those and be not very skillful or have high IQ, and that's not very useful. You can be high IQ but not have the aggressiveness to do it. You need all of those. I'm a guy who thinks you can learn all of them. Amari Williams was elite in terms of how he used his physicality on the glass against UGA, but the game didn't treat him very well with the foul issues. Sometimes you can do things the right way and not get the immediate payoff from it. You have to stay on course and keep doing it the right way until it pays off.
* The ingredients are there. We just have to play better.
* On what he remembers of Starkville... Very little. But I remember Erik Dampier, who had a good NBA career, and Dontae Jones who lit us up in that SEC Tournament game.
* Calls this game their biggest challenge of the year to date, this team and being on the road.
* Came up 10 shy of their assist opportunities goal number at UGA. Not good. They've been close to 40 on the season. Were 29 in that one. And missed quite a few of the shots. Assist total and turnover total were both distressing. We take a lot of pride in those. It's a manifestation of us playing the right way.
* On defending the 3... weren't as good as we wanted to be in this last game, but have played it pretty good on the season.
