Talkin' to Takayo: Physicality, Hodge Heroics, CAA Battles
Here’s everything the UNCW coach had to say during his Monday show
Coming off two straight home victories, UNCW coach Takayo Siddle joined play-by-play man Mike Vaccaro for his weekly radio show on Monday afternoon.
There was plenty to cover with the Seahawks evening their CAA record at 2-2, from the details of the victories over Monmouth and Delaware, to how the Seahawks have grown over the past few weeks.
As always, you can find the full conversation via the UNCW Athletics Facebook page. Recently, it has been posted on Monday afternoons rather than being broadcast live, while there’s an audio replay on 95.9 The Breeze at 7 p.m. on Mondays.
Here’s everything they discussed.
What was the key to getting back on track in conference play?
The key was making sure that we handled the adversity the right way, and the main message was for us not to hang our heads and feel sorry for ourselves and make sure that we attack our process and attack each day and everything that was in front of us — attack it with great energy — just have a winning type of energy about us and we certainly did that.
We had really good practice prep days and we were able to come in and have enough fight in that first game on Thursday to get us feeling back. Well, and then it carried over into yesterday.
On how intense conference games are and seeing so many highly-ranked teams losing league games last week…
It is different. You look around the country and there’s really good teams ranked teams with a 1-3, 1-4 record to start off and it just lets you know it’s a different game.
The physicality is turned up, the energy’s turned up; it’s a possession game, so you can’t afford to blow a lot of coverages and make a lot of mistakes because good teams make you pay, and we have a lot of good teams in our league.
On starting the CAA schedule with physical teams like Drexel, Towson and Monmouth…
Yeah, we were able to, in nonconference, we were able to be a little bit more finesse and free flowing with our offense.
And then when we got into league play, it was more of a grind-it-out halfcourt type of game. They were limiting our transition opportunities and so we had to get used to the physicality and I think the two teams that we started off with helped us. We preached and talked about it a ton before we even started playing, but I don’t think our guys could quite understand it, but we adjusted and I think over the last couple games we were the tougher team.
Were there any games in the nonconference with that type of physicality?
Well, I mean the East Carolina game, they brought that physicality that these other four teams that we played, they brought the physicality. Arkansas, they brought a lot of physicality, and they really imposed their will on us, those are two games that I think about. App State, they play really physical with us, and so those are some of the teams that I think about.
But after you get removed from them, then the game plan changes a little bit for your next opponent. So, you’re talking and harping on different things, but we made our adjustment. I think our guys understand that if we always tell ’em you have to bring a few things with you every night: you have to compete, you have to be extremely tough and you have to be physical.
Those are three things we talk about always taking with us because we can control those things, and we did that over the last two.
On the depth and parity of the CAA so far…
The league is better; It’s better. It’s about eight or nine really good teams.
It reminds me of our first year here as when I was an assistant coach, when we had four teams that tied for first place with a 12-6 record, and we were one of those teams, but the margin of error is very thin, and we have to make sure that we’re valuing each possession because these games are tough.
If you look at it, Mike, when we’re playing at home, my concern is us getting too frantic, us not locking in to what we’re trying to accomplish on both ends of the floor because of our crowd. And I love our crowd, I love playing at home, but our guys don’t focus the way that they need to. So that’s a concern for me, and then when we go on the road and we’re playing, say if we’re playing at one of the teams that are at the bottom, us not taking them seriously, we need to.
And then another element is when we go on the road and we’re playing the team that’s not as good and the crowd is dead and us not having the right energy. So, we have to make sure we’re mature enough to handle each situation.
With back-to-back sellouts, what does that support mean for the team?
It means everything. Without the crowd yesterday, I don’t know if we would’ve won the game. We didn’t get a ton of stops throughout the second half, but when we needed ’em the most, our crowd got into it and we were able to get stops.
But our crowd is everything to us; we don’t take that for granted. We have the best home court advantage in our league and one of the best in the country. I always say that, so I’m very thankful. Our guys are very thankful; they really enjoy playing at home in front of 5,100 people. It’s a special feeling, but like I just said, the concern for me is always, ‘Hey, let’s just lock in.’
Me and you talk about it all the time: the crowd is great, but they can’t make shots for you, they can’t defend for you, they can’t rebound for you. We have to make sure we’re mature enough to understand that and go out and execute what we need to execute.
On his assessment of Monmouth going into that game…
In my opinion, and I told our guys this, I thought they were the hardest playing team in our league that I’ve seen up to that point, so very concerned about that. Very concerned about their physicality.
Xander Rice, obviously when we started talking about personnel, he was at the top of the scouting report. He is a dynamic scorer, but they’ve done a really good job of surrounding him with good pieces that fit together. Some guys that they had sitting out last year, some transfers, very good basketball team, much improved. They play the right way, they’re well coached. So we were very concerned going into the game about a lot of things, but more importantly, we were focused on making sure that we were right, making sure that we took care of us, and I think we did that.
Did you think it would be that physical of a game with that many whistles?
You never know how it’s going to be called, but we knew it would be. I told the guys it’d be like a UFC fight, that type of physicality and body-on-body contact. We knew it would be; we knew it would be a war and we were prepared for it.
I didn’t know they were going to call that many fouls, but we always try to prepare ourselves to get to the free throw line and be successful at the free throw line. We were able to capitalize on a lot of our free throw attempts.
On Shykeim Phillips getting into foul trouble, and how that affected the overall flow of the offense in the first half vs. the second…
Yeah. He’s so tough to defend because he’s always coming at you and I don’t think people that have never played, I don’t think they realize that’s tough; that’s tough. You have to be in shape, he’s a physical 6-2 guard that’s athletic, one of the fastest, quickest guys that I’ve ever been around. So, it’s tough to cover him.
He played well and he came up in the clutch for us when we needed it the most, but I showed him some film after that game and it’s so much more out there for him to get. And if we can tap into that, we can be really dangerous.
On trying to get Maleeck Harden-Hayes going and drawing up plays for him to start both halves…
It didn’t necessarily work out the way I wanted it to start, but it finished the way I wanted it to. We were trying to get him sneak in on a post to right around the rim, but he ended up catching it off the block and he is really good at making midrange jump shots. He was able to convert on that, but it was good to see the basketball go in for him.
But I thought overall, Mike, his energy on both ends of the floor was really good. He’s flying around and that’s when he’s at his best.
Have you nailed down your rotation for crunch time?
Yeah, I mean after last night it’s going to change. It’s going to change a little bit more. We got to tighten up, we got to sharpen up and so it’ll change.
I think it’ll be one of those game by game things. Just trying to find out who is a good finishing lineup for us. More so on a defensive end, just tightening up down there, but right now it’s between about five to eight guys that could be that end-of-game lineup.
Trazarien White and Shykeim Phillips have consistently been leading scorers. How do they help one another on the court?
Just being who they are, being aggressive, because if Shykeim’s not aggressive and Tra’s aggressive, then everybody’s just going to key in on him and vice versa.
So. just being who they are and kind of feeding off each other and at the same time as they’re being aggressive, making sure that, ‘OK, you guys are our best playmakers. So the other guys need you to pass them the ball when they’re open because they need others to score.’
You know what I mean? They can’t break down off the dribble and go iso-ball like they can. They need you to pass ’em the ball when they’re open, so just being who they are.
On winning a game without scoring more than 70 points for the first time this season…
These conference games, they all are going to be different in so many different styles. You have to be able to win all types of games, whether it’s in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s.
We have to be able to find a way to win those types of games and hopefully we continue to trend in the right direction with that.
On seeing his guys diving on the floor and getting 50/50 balls and deflections over the two wins…
I actually just got Hunter (Henderson), he keeps track of that. I got him to give me the 50/50 ball numbers over the last four and our deflection numbers over the last four games and we’re a little bit ahead of our opponents in those areas, so that’s a good thing.
On getting an extra day of rest with the Delaware game moving to Sunday…
It made me feel better. I’m sure our guys felt a little bit more fresh to go out and play the game, but it made me feel better from a preparation standpoint.
We were able to really dial in and get everything in that we needed to. But yeah, I kind of wish we played some Sunday games like that to give us those two days.
On his assessment of Delaware and emphasis for that game…
I always give Martin (Inglesby) and the staff credit; hey always have talented players and that’s an easy place to recruit to and they do a really good job identifying the talent and character fit that they need, and they’ve had a lot of success in their program.
They’re talented, we talked about that at the beginning. They have size at each position, they’re athletic. We knew they would try to get out and run on us. We knew they would try to attack the offensive glass on us and they did that and then on the other end, their size would bother us at the rim. We felt like it would bother us at the rim if we didn’t take the right type of shots, and so getting into the paint and making the right decisions was something that we harped on and I thought we did that for the majority of the game.
I wanted to really be aggressive pushing the basketball on make and misses, getting into our pressure and stand in their face and we did it enough, but I’d like to see us do it a little bit more.
On the timeout he called at the 17:47 mark in the first half…
We had been practicing, leading up to the game, we had been practicing doubling the post. Then … some of their guards like to dribble down from the perimeter and post and we had been talking about doubling that so we wouldn’t get Shykeim and those guys in foul trouble. And when Jyare Davis was posting up, we wanted to get the ball out of his hands with a trap and the first four possessions we didn’t do at one time.
And I knew that with everything going on around us with the crowd, I knew that could be an issue. So, I wanted to call a timeout and get us back in check or get us in check to make sure that we were trying to execute the game plan and execute what we had been working on. So that’s what that was about.
On the energy the second unit brought when they got in at the 15:12 mark…
They brought a lot of toughness when they got in, that’s when all the loose balls started happening — a lot of deflections.
I thought Shem (Rathan-Mayes) did a really good job setting the tone with that group. Nolan (Hodge) was flying around Nolan, he showed a lot of toughness. Those guys did a really good job. Nick gave us good minutes. I thought for that time that they were in that first rotation that they were in the front half of it, they did a really good job.
Then I thought the back half, they got a little loose and we let them get some transition points and we took some bad shots on our end, but they did a lot of really good things and I’m very proud of them.
On Nolan Hodge getting the Toughness Chain on Sunday…
It’s always been about with him, ‘Hey, stop worrying about if your shot’s not falling, stop worrying about your offense and lock into having great defensive energy and toughness and making sure that you’re diving on the floor.’
And he attacked all the loose balls; he was diving on the floor, he was flying in for offensive rebounds. He was making the right play’; thought he played a very complete game.
On another edition of #ShyTime and his performance, even when opponents know what’s coming…
He’s tough to cover. I talked about how athletic and physical he is, and they didn’t have their best matchup on him. They ended up switching it on that last possession, but it wasn’t necessarily designed for him to go one-four flat.
We were just trying to clear out a gap for him to drive it. He turned it into iso ball for himself, which I was OK with because he had a mismatch up top. But he is tough; the guy was backed off of him because he was scared of his speed and he just rose up and made a couple big baskets.
On Shy embracing the midrange jumper at a time that shot is less common…
If you watched him in high school, he was getting to the rim and shooting pull-ups and he was doing it at-will. He’s mastered it, he works on it. That’s where he’s comfortable at. And like I said, people are gapping him because he can really get to the rim. And so he’s got to be able to knock that down and he’s worked really hard to be able to make that shot consistently.
On how they were able to slow down Delaware’s 3-point shooting in the second half…
We pressed them a lot and we tried to flush ’em to the rim a little bit more.
We weren’t doing it much as I wanted us to throughout the game, but every made basket, we were trying to get into one of our presses and we were trapping, and they kind of flushed ’em to the rim and it made ’em play a little bit faster than I think Martin wanted them to play. They wanted the game in the 60s and we had talked about before the game trying to make them play our style and I think we did a good job of that.
Not that you can relax, but can you breathe a little bit easier knowing that OK, now you are right back in the mix in the conference?
Well, I mean I wouldn’t say relax … I want to go 3-2 and I want to go 4-2, but we have to take this thing one day at a time today.
I’m just locked into today and making sure that I’m watching a lot of Elon film, trying to get caught up on that and just making sure that we take care of our days and then when the games come, making sure that we’re trying to get a little bit better in that game.
So no, I’m not relaxing. No, it doesn’t make it easier. When you win, the way I’m built, I want more so, and the way we get more is just stick to our process and lock in.
Player of the Week: Shykeim Phillips. How does he hit so many tough shots?
You can think back to probably when he was growing up and who he is; he just loves playing basketball. So, he was probably out on the playground a lot playing in the front yard and the gravel. He was probably just one of those guys that just loves just playing basketball. I can only imagine that.
And then to see him now, he’s probably over there in the gym right now and then he’ll come back tonight. He’s just a gym rat. And when you really work at it like he does and you’re obsessed with it like he is, you study it, you work at it, and you give yourself an opportunity to play well every night — not guaranteeing it — but you give yourself a chance. And I trust him; I trust him a lot and believe in him more than anything.
Shy moved to 15th on the scoring list, passing assistant coach Craig Ponder. Has there been any trash talk?
I don’t think they know, but we’re going to talk about that. We’re going to talk about that tomorrow; that’s absolutely going to be the first thing that I talk about in our film session.
I didn’t know any of that, but we’re definitely going to pick on Craig about that one.
How are you utilizing the time off, now that you’re into the CAA schedule rhythm?
Well, we’re taking today off; they need it. I didn’t want to, but it’s probably necessary. Then we’ll get after it tomorrow for a little while as we start preparing for it for Elon, and Wednesday, our day before the game is really light. I don’t know what we’ll do, but we won’t be in there for very long.
Then, we’ll travel Wednesday, get down there early enough to get everything done so they can relax and get some rest and make sure they’re hydrated, make sure they’re getting their mind. And then I think our shoot around is at 12 o’clock on Thursday, so we’ll have a lot of time to recover and get ready for the game, and it’s going to be a dog fight.
Typical practices are around two hours. Are you going that long at this point in the season?
No, and I want to, but when I was my second year here, I had a group of veterans with Mike (Okauru) and both Jaylens (Sims and Fornes) and James (Baker Jr.), those guys, and they pulled me in. They came to my office one day all at once and I was like, ‘Oh man, what do y’all want?’ And they were like, coach, ‘Hey look, we’re old. We’ve got a lot of miles on our body. We need to tone it down a little bit.’
A so for me, I’m always going to listen to ’em, and it worked out for us. And I have a similar group now, and we had the same conversation about two weeks ago about dialing it down. So, it’s about an hour. And on that after a day off, we normally go about an hour-and-thirty. And then the day before the game, we like to get it down to about an hour, which is probably no contact, just making sure we’re sharpening up everything.
On what it says about the culture that players are comfortable speaking up and having a say…
That’s the No. 1 thing that that’s all my coaches’ responsibilities and one of my rules for myself is we have an open-door policy. I don’t let those guys sit in there with their doors closed.
Our guys are always coming in and out of our office and I want them to feel comfortable with that. I want to make sure we forge relationships with them, and they felt comfortable enough to come and talk to me about that. And we were in a rut, we’re telling them what they need to do so much. I want them to feel like they can come to me and talk to me without me being stubborn and having a big ego and not listening to ’em. So, I think the communication factor is so important.
On Hall of Fame basketball coach George Raveling being the person who ended up with the typewritten copy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech from the March on Washington, and the significance of MLK Day.
We’ve always had practice or a prep day on Martin Luther King Day, and just from being around the program, we always make sure that we take some time in the morning to watch the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech and talk about the significance of that speech and who Martin Luther King is, and just to make sure our guys understand that he did a lot.
He did a lot for us to be in the position that we’re in right now. If it wasn’t for him, Mike, I don’t know if we’d all be in here together. I don’t know if we’d be sitting beside each other doing what we’re doing, so this is a very, very important time, a very special day for everybody.
On being in Washington, D.C. for the CAA Tournament…
I would love for us to have some time to take our guys over there, but it does. I always sit back and just kind of reflect on things and when we’re there, especially as soon as we get there, that’s something that I always think about, and I go back and look at the speech and it’s so impactful in my life, and a lot of us for sure.
On the significance of George Raveling helping Nike land Michael Jordan…
I think especially when you look back then, Mike, him being an African-American and his mom being comfortable enough to have their relationship with George, I think it really got them over to Hump because he was about to sign with Adidas. And I think the relationship that George had with Mike’s mom really got him over the hump.
On Elon’s relative youth…
We’ll certainly talk about that. Their team is made up of freshmen and sophomores that are really good players and they shoot the three very well and make close to 10 a game. So we have to guard to three point line. And they’re getting about in conference play, they’re getting about 14 offensive rebounds a game. So, we got to make sure that we rebound the basketball.
But on the flip side, there’s things that we can exploit with them. The things that we do well, they don’t cover so well. We’re really good inside the arc, touching the paint and getting to the free throw line, and they foul the most out of anybody in our league. And they’re last in our league in two point field goal percentage.
So it’ll be a tough game; you know how it is when we go there, they’re going to pump it up. It’s a rivalry game. We beat ’em twice last year, so we have to make sure that we lock in on Elon and focus in on taking care of business on Thursday. We can’t be worried and thinking about Saturday at all.
On his approach to rivalry games…
We’ll talk about just a few things that I’ve jotted down so far.
The first things first is we have to, the way I approach it is I just, I’ve said it earlier, the day that’s in front of us, OK, what’s the next thing in front of you? Attack it the way you need to attack it. Focus on that; OK, that’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. That’s what we’re locked in on.
Then, we talk about the crowd being what it’s going to be and making sure that we execute our game plan, making sure we don’t get out of character. Those are some of the things that we talk about. And we experienced last year in the first half, they put it on us really good; we weren’t tough enough.
So it’s a lot of different things that go into the main thing is making sure that we take care of the day that’s in front of us.