Talkin' to Takayo: Injury Updates, Observations from Asheville

Here’s what the UNCW coach had to say on his weekly radio show

UNCW coach Takayo Siddle had plenty to break down at his weekly radio show on Monday as he broke down the Seahawks’ opening-weekend performance in Asheville.

Here are the highlights from Siddle’s conversation with play-by-play man Mike Vaccaro along with a few questions he took from fans.

Check out the full video via Facebook Live, where the show airs every Monday at Noon.

Injury updates

The Seahawks were without sophomore point guard Shykeim Phillips for all three games as he stayed behind to recover from an infection in his leg that will likely keep him sidelined for the next month.

“Shy is battling a leg injury,” Siddle said. “He’s had an infection in his leg and he’s continuing to get better on a daily basis and Dec. 12 is when he can start progressing to getting back ready to play in games. We’re probably four or five weeks out from him being able to be active in a game.”

Another notable absence was transfer forward Ian Steere, who made the trip to Asheville, but didn’t dress. He’ll make his much-anticipated UNCW debut on Monday at East Carolina.

“He’ll be suiting up for us next Monday against ECU,” Siddle said. “He’ll be in practice (Tuesday) and ready to go.”

Regarding Jake Boggs’ short run vs. Troy on Saturday, Siddle said the sophomore big man suffered a muscle injury to his left shoulder against Asheville that isn’t a concern moving forward.

“He’ll be ready to go when we suit up to get ready to play ECU.”

Playing the Pirates

Speaking of ECU, Siddle certainly wants to continue the series beyond this season.

“I want to continue to play them on a yearly basis,” he said. “Our fans love it, I love it. I think it’s an important game for us to play every year. It’s a rivalry game… we’ll start to dive into what that rivalry really means later on in the week as we start preparing for ECU.”

Last season was the first since 2012-13 that the Pirates and Seahawks didn’t meet. UNCW leads the all-time series 37-29, but trails 13-20 in Greenville.

Praise for Sims

Guard Jaylen Sims earned CAA Player of the Week honors after averaging 26.7 points and 6.7 rebounds in Asheville, and Siddle quickly offered his congratulations with a caveat.

“I challenged him this morning,” Siddle said. “I told him, ‘Congratulations, you deserve all the recognition you’re getting right now, but don’t get complacent. Can you continue to make your teammates better on a daily basis?’”

Siddle got the response he was expecting. ‘

“He texted back and said, ‘Yes sir, you don’t have to worry about that,’” he said. “I’m so proud of him and he deserves everything he’s getting right now.

“In coaching, you always want to see self-motivated guys and guys that are about the right things on and off the court, and he’s that guy … he’s the guy that’s always in the gym, always in the training room, always asking for film to watch. We have to kick him out of the gym sometimes. We put on the clock 15 minutes after practice for him, and that’s all he gets because he’s always working on his game and it paid off for him; it’s paid off for him in a major way.”

Blessing in Disguise

Not much went well for UNCW in the season-opening loss to Western Carolina, and when the bottom fell out in the second half, it got ugly.

Siddle didn’t hold back in his analysis.

“We played probably 15 good minutes and I thought Western Carolina pretty much controlled the game,” he said. “I thought they were tougher than us, I thought they played harder than us, I thought they reacted a little bit quicker than us.”

The Seahawks practiced on Thanksgiving morning, splitting it evenly between working on themselves and preparing for UNC Asheville. A major teaching point was sticking to the staying together and sticking to the gameplan, as the 26 3-point attempts were definitely not on it.

Siddle also took the time to talk with every player one-on-one, assuring them that things were fine and they were still a good team.

Ultimately, he said, the WCU loss wasn’t a negative.

“I thought it was good though,” he said. “It’s crazy that I say that, but it was great for us to make the mistakes that we made and see some of the things we saw in that game so we could make our adjustments and really lock-in moving forward.”

On His Guys…

Here’s what Siddle had to say in discussing several of his players.

Ty Gadsden

Ty is tough as nails. He’s battling some shin splints and some other little nagging injuries, but he continues to play through it. I think people don’t give him enough credit for his defensive efforts; he’s probably our best perimeter defender. He does exactly what I need him to with extending our pressure 94 feet.

Jamahri Harvey

These are valuable moments, valuable minutes for him as we move forward throughout the season. Some of the things that he does, doesn’t show up on the stat sheet: taking charges, diving on loose balls, tipping balls out. Defensively he’s further ahead than I thought he would be; I think he’s further defensively, right now, than his offense is and I think that’ll come because I think he’s going to be a big-time scorer for us. I think he’s just got to get used to the speed of the game and he’s picking and choosing where he gets his shots off, but I’m excited about him and these are valuable, valuable minutes for him right now.

Jake Boggs

He was really aggressive on the offensive end and I challenge him every day to be tougher, to be more physical and I think he answered the bell. You saw some of the things he’s able to do; he can rebound it on the offensive end, he can rebound it on the defensive end, he can play inside-out. His versatility is definitely a weapon for us and we have to continue to put him in spots where he can be successful.

Ian Steere

He brings a different element. He brings great size — high-major size — from that five spot. He’s athletic, he can shoot the mid-range jumper. He brings some different things to that position that we don’t have right now.

Imajae Dodd vs. Troy

I wanted to make sure I gave Imajae Dodd some minutes and boy did he step up. Played with a lot of energy, played with some toughness and played with a lot of confidence; grabbed some big rebounds for us. I thought he did a really good job with the minutes that were presented to him.