Whether he's winding them up or calming them down, Gregg Marshall is playing therapist this year with a large group of newcomers. The Shocker head coach fielded questions Tuesday afternoon at his weekly news conference and looked head to Saturday matchup at Houston. Read on the full transcript.
 

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HEAD COACH GREGG MARSHALL ON...

... Saturday's opponent, Houston:
"They lost two seniors that were good. Davis and, obviously, the guard -- that was the key for them. They've got so many good players coming back, too. Corey Davis... from the time I laid eyes on him last year as a junior college transfer -- he's the prototypical winner. He drives it, plays defense, first on the floor, hits jump shots... tough. Galen Robinson is back at the point, and Armoni Brooks was a super-sub last year. I think I saw him make eight or 10 threes in a game as a sophomore. He's into the lineup. (Breaon) Brady was hurt one time when we played them last year. We saw him in the game at Houston -- really good post player. They had two kids sitting out -- Gresham and Jarreau -- who we really liked as high school kids. Went to UMass, transferred and sat out last year. Those guys are giving them tremendous depth. Just a great team, and the way they play -- they are so tough, they play the right way, they are strong, physical, they don't give you anything easy, and they really execute. I knew they were going to be a really good team. Tough couple of games coming up. Houston may be the best team we've played. Let's start there. Houston's quite a team. They are legit. This is what I am going to tell my team. Houston, if they stay healthy, is a second -- third weekend type team in the NCAA Tournament. They could go all the way. They could win it all. They've got that much talent and depth and coaching. We've got quite a challenge. Brand new arena. It'll be fun."

... Cutting down on turnovers after 21 of them against Temple:
"Throwing the ball to the other team and throwing it out of bounds. We did that quite a bit. I make them run (in practice) for turnovers. A quick sprint -- we call it a four. Up-and-back and up-and-back. Every time you turn the ball over. I guess that's not enough, I don't know. Give Temple some credit. They were in a tough spot and big-time players made big-time plays. (Quinton) Rose and Nate (Pierre-Louis) just took the ball from a couple of our freshmen guards a couple of times. We've got to get better. We've got to get better at making decisions, dribbling and passing. Lost arts in college basketball, especially around here right now. We don't dribble and pass well, much less shoot it. We've got to dribble and pass better.... We'll continue working on their skills and try to get them better. It's hard to simulate the decision-making. We'll do that in practice, as well. Our five-on-five part of our scrimmage today will be just trying to steal the ball. Not playing the gaps and worrying about driving angles and helping on drives. Just try to steal the ball from the guy. We need more practice at that."

....Dexter Dennis' uptick in production:
"His aggressiveness has been in fits and starts this year. Early on, he wasn't that aggressive. He was getting in major foul trouble. He was using his arms too much on defense and getting in foul trouble... (Against Temple), he was aggressive. It started with the first play of the game. He's coming off a dribble hand-off, and he was supposed to look in to Jaime (Echenique) for a post pass and he just turned the corner and got in there, missed the layup -- got it back and scored it. I know when he's aggressive is when he's driving a little more, and he's continuing to work on that. He's a little too upright. He's got to get lower. Ultimately, he's going to be very good at that -- and when he is and gets that three-ball grooved -- he's going to be a tough guy to guard. The one thing he does really well is go to the offensive glass. When he's doing that, he's in his element.

... Dennis' offensive rebounding:
"He's athletic. He can really run and jump -- as well as anybody we've had here. He also is long. He's got long arms and he's pretty strong. He's not a kid that you look at and go 'wow, he's a true freshman.' He's body-ready, which is a good thing. We certainly need him, and he listens. He had just gotten out of the rhythm of being aggressive until I reminded him the other day, I said 'Hey, you haven't gotten an offensive rebound in awhile. That's how you got going in the second half against Alabama. You need to offensive rebound -- you need to go to the glass every time. You don't get them if you don't go.' Now he's started to do that, and if you recall he had the big play that kind of put the game away against Baylor with an offensive rebound. Gave us another opportunity."

...Progress from Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler:
"Sometimes Poor-Bear is a little sleepy, if you will. I guess that's the word to use. I like players to be more frenetic and energetic and passionate and intense. Sometimes getting him going is a difficult deal with his personality. He's a great, great kid. Sometime you have to wind him up, and it's hard -- it's hard to wind him up when he's not ready to be wound up. It's almost impossible. I asked him the same question the other day, I said 'All of a sudden man, you've got some energy -- you've got some pep in your step, you've got some balance about you, what's up? I can't tell you exactly what he said but undoubtedly, someone from his family had relayed to him that they didn't like what they were seeing. I said 'Oh good, so we're on the same team there.' Maybe I need to talk to the mom or dad, grandpa...whoever back at home."

....guys like Ron Baker, Fred VanVleet and Landry Shamet making a name in the NBA:
"That's what we are trying to do -- put these guys in a position where they can all get a degree and try to win championships, and then ultimately play professional basketball until their legs give out and then they will have those degrees to fall back on."

...on Jaime Echenique's importance to the team:
"First of all, he really cares. He's a wonderful young person. He's got a great heart. He really likes playing here in our program, for me, and I like having him in the program. I really like him as a person. He's giving us everything that he can. Unfortunately, right now he's not very healthy on top of just being a 6-11 guy...he doesn't have tremendous athleticism. He's more like a Tim Duncan, if you will. A poor man's Tim Duncan. He wasn't a skywalker, but he was very efficient in what he did and it almost looks like Tim Duncan wasn't giving great effort because he was so smooth in what he did. Jaime's got a little bit of that in him and he makes up for others' mistakes on the defensive end. He's taking charges, he's blocking shots, he rebounds at a high rate. He just have to keep him healthy and right now, getting healthy and keeping healthy."
 
...on how Teddy Allen is handling his redshirt year:
"He's doing great. He's doing great in practice. He really is a competitor, and it's hard for him to watch what's going on, the losing three in a row. Just like it's hard for me. Teddy is probably, arguably, one of the most competitive people in our organization. I would put him in the top three or four, for sure, along with myself and maybe Markis [McDuffie] or someone like that. But yeah, it's hard. He doesn't like it. He doesn't like sitting out. The NCAA obviously did him no favors. He's got to sit out. It's hard. It's hard for him because he really is a competitor. He's a type [of] guy that next year, in my opinion, that I won't have to rev him up. I won't have to hit his ignition. I will have to calm him down at times, if I can. I'll have to tone him down at times and say, 'hey, come on man. Let's relax. Let that one go. Let's get to the next play.' He's got passion and verve, vigor, vitality for sure."
 
...on if Teddy Allen is similar to any past players he has coached:
"Maybe, Cleanthony Early. Yeah, Cleanthony Early is the one I recall. Malcolm Armstead had that, also. My players don't get a whole lot of technical fouls. We try to curb that. You won't see that very often, at all. I do remember...I think it was Malcolm, got one at Tennessee in a game we should've won and he got a technical foul late. I don't know what he did. He hit a three and said something to their bench or whatever. And then he got another one right after that. I'm not sure I've ever had a player get two technicals. Cleanthony may have. After that, I told him, 'Next technical you get, I'm going to send you to the locker room. Not to the bench, to the locker room and it's going to be very embarrassing.' And he looked at [former assistant coach] Greg Heiar like, 'is he serious?' And Greg goes, 'yeah, I think he is.' So he didn't get any more technicals, so that was good."
 
...on how he restores confidence from the first-year players and balancing the minutes between them:
"It's very difficult. That's the $64,000 question. You want to go, 'What are you doing? This is crazy.' And we do some of that. At the same time, in the same meeting, you've got to give them, 'You're better than that. You can do this. You have to be a better defender. You have to take care of the ball better. We can't win with atomic bombs like this.' And have them walk out from the video session onto the practice floor with some pep to their step. It's very, very difficult. It really is and it's a challenge and it's going to be a challenge all year long. But today, again, I've got to show them the first half [of the Temple game] and tomorrow will be the second half and maybe Thursday will be the overtime period and break it up like that. Maybe I should just let it go. Maybe I should not even show it. I think it's a really good teaching tool, but I have to manage the video session in a way where they still want to hit the practice floor and improve because that's the only chance we have is to get these kids better and develop them into the players that we think they can be."
 
...on having so many freshmen playing key minutes:
"At any given time, you can look out there and there's a minimum of one, most of the time there's two or three and there can even be four freshman on the floor at one time. And that's like suicide king, you know, it's just Harry Carey. It's crazy what we're doing sometimes and how silly we are with the basketball and how we don't execute. Again, that's who we are, that's where we are, that's what we are right now and we just got to continue to try to evolve and get better."
 
...on what it's going to take to get Erik Stevenson back on track offensively:
"I have no idea. Right now he's struggling. He was playing really well for a while and now he's in a funk. The thing that I keep telling him is the fact that your jump shot's not going in, the fact that you haven't made a basket in a while, it can't affect your defense. You've got to continue to defend. He's really struggling on both ends right now. Maybe I'll bring him in, talk to him. Maybe that's what I need to do, give up the whistle and just become a counselor of some sorts, maybe a therapist."
 
...on whether Stevenson's situation is similar to Dennis' earlier this year -- breaking out of a funk by being more aggressive:
"That's one way to break out of a slump, just make hustle plays. Defend, get a loose ball. He's really good at that. He can defensive rebound. Maybe he needs to get a dunk in transition or something, maybe it'll get him going. I just don't know. I haven't been around him that long, obviously, he got here in June, to know exactly what makes him tick. I'm sure it's bothering him and we need him to play well. He's one of those freshman that we're counting on."
 
...on how to stop the "atomic bomb" (turnovers) that have plagued the Shockers recently:
"...Maybe I need to wear a helmet over there on the sideline. Like a World War II helmet. My grandpa had one in his foot locker -- the green helmet with the chin strap. I could wear that. I don't know if I have an extra one for the rest of the staff. Maybe build a bomb shelter somewhere back in the tunnel that we can all go..."