Wichita State men's basketball interim head coach Isaac Brown spoke to media on Tuesday at his weekly media availability. Brown spoke about the process of potentially adding a game this week, why Tyson Etienne should be conference Player of the Year and if the Houston game was Morris Udeze's best defensive game of his career.
 
INTERIM HEAD COACH ISAAC BROWN on … 
 
Opening Statement:
"Our two games this week have been canceled. We're going to try to have some really good practices. We called a couple of Big East schools, a school in the SEC, trying to get games, a team in the Mountain West. We weren't able to do that. So we'll continue to look for a game for Saturday. I don't think it'll happen, but we'll continue to practice and try to get better and just keep these guys focused for the next two or three games of the season."
 
… what the conversation is like for adding games:
"They'll say they need a game and then it comes down to who wants to travel. Some of the teams want to play, but they feel like they may need to play a team with a higher NET ranking. Some teams want to play, but they may not get the game on a date that we want. I'm just trying to find games. We need a game this week. That would be great. I don't want these guys to get rusty or have to sit out an entire week before we play our next game."
 
… how frustrating it is to keep getting games postponed due to no fault of his own team:
"You know, it's something you can't control. I feel sorry for all the teams that had to cancel for COVID. We went through the same situation. We went to South Dakota, these kids are practicing and all of a sudden, the next day they got COVID. So, as an athlete, you're on the front line or coach you're on the front line. So when things like this happen, it's out of our control. All we can do is just not take a setback, continue to get better and just control what we can control. We've got to stay sharp. We've got to stay in tip-top shape and just got to keep getting better."
 
… if rust is a concern:
"I think the kids are more disappointed than anything because this time of year you've been practicing pretty much since June or July, and those guys want to play in games. I've been trying to do a better job of cutting our practices, making them really short, an hour to an hour and 15 minutes, where we get a lot of scrimmage and then we get a lot of up and down in. But I think it hurts you at times, but we don't want to have any setbacks. We have a lot to lose. So I told the guys, no matter what the situation is, we've got to continue to be sharp. We've got to continue to get better. And we've got to continue to take care of ourselves off the court."
 
… if he has started talking about the conference tournament and its importance with the team:
"I hadn't talked about the conference tournament early on in the season. I never talked about championships. I never talked about getting to the NCA tournament. I talked about getting better every game, but now we have two games left and I want these guys to stay focused. So I'm starting to mention championship a lot more because know what is at stake now. And I just want to make sure these guys are prepared and ready to come to practice with a lot of energy. Because we've got two games left in the season. And again, we just have to stay sharp because we have a lot on the line."
 
… if the game against Houston was the best defensive effort of Morris Udeze's career:
"Without a doubt. He was huge. That game Morris had five blocked shots, which was a career high. We chart how many times you've touched a ball, like whether it's an offensive or defensive rebound. And when we charted out, he had 15. I thought he was great in ball screens. He did a great job of helping on Jarreau. He did a great job of helping on Sasser. He was huge that game. We couldn't get it to him to the post as much as we wanted because Houston is just one of those teams it's hard to throw it in a low post because they come to the low post and they ambush you. They're going to have two guys on top of you so quickly. It's hard for you to make a post move. So he couldn't get a lot of touches on offense, but he did a great job on defense. And I felt like that was one of the keys for us winning that game."
 
… how impressed he was with the team making adjustments against Houston:
"We have a lot of guys who have played college basketball like Aterique Gilbert, Tyson Etienne and Dexter Dennis and those guys are our leaders on the floor, they're coaches on the floor. And they're good at making adjustments. We couldn't get anything going early in the first 10 minutes of the game. We're trying to run our follow five, but they were trapping those balls screens. They did a good job of guarding us off the bounce. We had to go a little bit more to motion. Those guys didn't get down where we were down 12 points. We went to the bench. I thought Ricky Council IV gave us a big time punch with those 10 points. I thought Clarence Jackson came in and got a couple offensive rebounds. And then when we got those starters back in, I thought they sealed it because I thought they really started to play well and they clicked on offense. And we were able to pull out the win."
 
… what has made the difference for Alterique Gilbert who has played better as of late:
"He's been more of a leader. When he first got here, he wasn't talking as much. It was his first time on campus. His first time being with a new coaching staff and we have to earn that trust. We did a lot of meeting with him. I think the trust level got better. I was able to trust him more and we gave him a lot of rope. He is like an extension of our coaching staff on the floor. And his leadership has been great. He's always been one of those guys that never turned the ball over and now he's starting to make shots late in the game to help us win ball games, starting with the UCF game. I think making that big shot at the end of the game really gave him a lot of confidence and that shot against Houston right there at the end. I think we were up two, we went 1-4 flat because we trust him, Tyson and Dexter, all those guys late in the game, they'd be able to go make plays. And he drove the ball, shot faked, got us a layup. So it was just that trust factor. I trust him. He trusts us and those guys have been making great decisions late in the game."
 
… why Tyson Etienne should be the conference Player of the Year:
"He's just one of those guys that has really worked at it. He can score it on all three levels. He competes on the defensive end. He's a guy that shoots 40 percent from the three-point line, is a guy that can play multiple positions. A lot of people didn't notice, but you know, the last game, Tyson played a lot of the point guard spot. He runs point for us in practice. It's like having two point guards on the floor. He's had a great year. He's one of the leaders in scoring, one of the leaders in three-point percentage. And I think his defensive abilities are a little underrated. He does a good job of guarding the second best scorer on the other team."
 
… how much he has had to focus on mental health this year:
"I think you have to talk to those kids on a daily basis about mental health. You just want to make sure they're good. You never know (what's going on), a lot of kids have stuff going at home, stuff dealing with their girlfriends. Sometimes it's about playing time and you just want to know what's going on in their life. And if there's any way possible that I can help them, I would love to do that. So you have to have a relationship with them. If it's something that they need counseling or something like that, we just let them know that if it's something that we can't help you with, and this is a matter you need to seek someone else, we will try to get you that help as well. But I think our guys have done a fantastic job of keeping us up-to-date on everything that's going on in their life. And we haven't had any issues so far."
 
… how much fun he has had this year:
"It's been fun. Like I said, it's not about me. We just wanted to put these guys in position to compete. When we first had our first team meeting, we told them, this is your team. We want you to take control of this team, be a leader. We're going to make sure you guys are organized. We're going to make sure you guys are in tip-top shape. We're going to make sure you guys are ready to compete, but we want you to take on leadership of this team. And we just tried to make it a lot of fun. These guys are having fun. We're playing fun ball. Everybody is taking shots. We're sharing the ball, playing with their teammates. And I think they're really enjoying the fact that they're winning and we're on a five game winning streak. And those guys are just getting a lot of confidence."