Dec. 23, 2007

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PSU vs. Colgate Quotes

Penn State Coach Ed DeChellis

Q: Your bench played well tonight?

A: Yeah. In the past we didn't have the numbers to be able to do that and we had to force feed things. We didn't have to do that today. Our bench was very, very positive for us today. D.J. Jackson made a couple of big baskets.

Stanley had good minutes off the bench. Jeff did a lot of good things. I thought Brandon Hassell did a good job in the first half rebounding the basketball, keeping some things alive and he made his free throws as well.

So, again I think our bench did very good today.

Q: It looked like you were getting some good shots but they just weren't going down.

A: The last five minutes of the first half, I thought we were really slow.

We looked very methodical and I think that's because of the lay off and finals. So guys seem to be dragging more. We tried to point out some scores of the last three or four days of teams getting upset at home by some teams and they weren't ready to play. I thought we were ready to play defensively.

I thought we did a good job defending them for the first 15-16 minutes of the first half. So, I thought defensively we were ready go but offensively we were kind of out of whack.

Q: How tough has the last week been personally to the extent that you couldn't be with the team as much?

A: Well, I haven't been here and I'd really like to congratulate the staff.

I think they did a tremendous job getting the guys ready. I came in late last night. It's been challenging because you worry about what's going on here and everyday I talked with the kids about what happened in practice, what went on and tried to stay in contact the best I could. I heard from Danny, Hilliary that they practiced well the past few days and had great spirit and great enthusiasm and I really appreciate that. I came into shooting practice today and I think they were surprised to see me because I wasn't really planning on being here. Things kind of stabilized at home with my mother, so I was able to leave late last night and then I'm going to leave right now and drive right back.

Q: How does the team approach this week, with a week off before Lehigh and then the Big Ten?

A: Well we are going to give the guys off and we're all going to leave tonight, right now and rejoin here on December 27th. At six o'clock we'll practice and we will have three or four practices before Lehigh and then a quick turnaround to Northwestern, so we have to try to somehow prepare for both because we only have a day between, then we open the Big Ten season against Northwestern and Illinois on the road. We've got a lot to do and we really have to improve. I think the guys are looking forward to having three days off, get home for Christmas. Spending time with their families does them a world of good, especially our younger kids. We've got a lot of freshman and young kids who have been here since the end of June and first of July, and were only home for a week or so between breaks, so their looking forward to being home and I think that's good. Christmas is a great time to spend with family, and I think our kids should do that so I'm glad they get three days off.

Q: The non-Conference Schedule is winding down, how would you assess the team's performance so far going into the Big Ten?

A: Well, I think we've gotten better since the Florida tournament. That was really disappointing for us. We thought we were going to be much better then we were. I think we rallied back and won a couple of games at home that were very important to us. We kind of had our backs against the wall against Virginia Tech and were able to win. In the Seton Hall game we didn't play well in the first half, but found a way to win and we've won a couple others that were important to us as well. So, I think we found our way back. We kind of dug ourselves in a hole and I think our guys have worked and put ourselves in a position to do the best we can do on finishing out the non-conference season. Our goal was 8-4 and we're a game away from getting that after stubbing our toe in Florida. So, I think our guys have responded well.

Players (Jamelle Cornley, Jeff Brooks)

Q: (Jamelle) How's your knee doing?

A: The knee is doing good, I've come a long way and I'm glad to see that it's getting there. It's not quite a hundred percent because there are one or two moves that I know I can do and I know I can go a little faster on some things. I'm a solid ninety, ninety-five percent right now and hopefully after this break I'll be a hundred percent by the time the Big Ten comes around.

Q: They came back in the second half; cut it to five or four, what did you guys do to adjust?

A: (Jamelle) Kept focus and drew up some set plays that we figured we would either score on or get to the foul line and again we went to the hot hand.

We went to upperclassmen such as Mike Walker who hit a clutch three-pointer at the top of the key and that's what we need to do. We need to get the ball into the person's hand that can create and do some things and that's the upperclassmen right now. I think Talor is doing a good job recognizing his personnel and being able to find the open person as well as Stanley. Stanley is still coming along, he's still trying figure out how to pick and choose his spots, when to hit the seams and push the ball. We're going a good job right now just finding the open people and making open shots.

Q: Jeff, is it nice to be able to show off you offensive ability?

A: Yeah, I've been working on it all week. I haven't had a lot of confidence in my offensive game lately. I really haven't been shooting the ball well, so this week since I didn't have any finals I thought I would come in, get some extra shots in and work on my footwork into my jump shot. Today it just showed how much work I put in.

Q: What would you say about your depth now? It seems like more and more people are starting to step up and contribute.

A: (Jamelle) Well, the depth has been an issue that we've had for last couple of years and it's been a problem actually because you had certain players playing 38-39 minutes. So you're not able to play as fresh as you want to play. So now you have people like Jeff coming out and hitting clutch shots, hitting big shots, and making big moves. It allows us to get a breather and it also helps the coaches feel more comfortable with putting him in games and putting him in good situations, because here with Big Ten coming we're going to need guys like Jeff, DJ, and Drew to be solid. They may not have to score a ton of points, but we're going to need their effort and their execution to allow other players to get rest and be fresh when we come back in.

Q: Jamelle, were you surprised Ed was here to coach and how much does your heart go out to him with what he's going through?

A: Honestly, I really wasn't surprised about him coming out. That's just the way Coach DeChellis is. If this doesn't show how dedicated he is, then I don't think anything will show. If you got a mother that's going through the things that she's going through and you're still able to leave one family and come to another family it just shows what type of character, what type of coach that you have. I talked to him throughout the week, he texted me and I texted back and I told him that he didn't have to worry about anything. I was going to make sure that the team was ready to come out and ready to play, but he's just a strong man and that's somebody that we have to look up to as a head coach it takes a lot to make sacrifices like that but that's how he is and that's why we respect him.

Q: How would you guys assess your non-conference schedule performance so far?

A: I think we are doing pretty well actually. Coming back from Florida we thought we weren't doing so well but even coach told us that we were doing a great job. We were keeping up with our effort, we were playing hard and we showed that we actually cared that things weren't going our way. So, I think going into the Big Ten that we're going to be a pretty strong team.