RECAP | BOX SCORE | COACH CHAMBERS QUOTES | PHOTO GALLERY
Penn State Men's Basketball
Student-Athlete Press Conference
vs. Colgate – December 8, 2018
Josh Reaves | G | Sr.
Q: As a veteran, what does it take for one of those younger guys to earn your trust?
A: I see it every day during practice. We try to go after them every single day. We try to push them, put them in uncomfortable situations, see how they react to it. They're basketball players. They've been playing this game their entire lives. They love the game. They're going to do what they need to do to win. What we ask of them, if that's what is needed to win, they're going to do it. They're very unselfish, very willing to learn and understand our concepts. I trust every single person on this team. It doesn't matter who it is because we go to war every single day during practice.
Q: I saw you react when Pat Chambers mentioned the alley-oop to Mike Watkins in the final minutes there. That came at a point where you guys weren't getting a lot off offensively. What did that do for the momentum and the confidence of the team?
A: I think it came up a steal. Running down that sideline all I heard was coach screaming at me to dump the ball. I saw Lamar [Stevens] and Mike [Watkins] running down the side. Any chance you have those two on the side you just throw it, honestly. That's just a very big momentum swinger, getting him involved, getting him going, getting him to understand that we're still here. We're going to trust you. We're going to throw you the ball. We're going to give you every opportunity to get back to being Mike Watkins, get back to playing your way. I pulled him aside after the timeout after that and I told him "I'm going to get you going. You just have to keep it going. We're just going to keep this run going and try to pull out the W". And we did.
Q: Besides the dunk against Indiana, we haven't seen too many of those athletic plays from Mike Watkins since he's come back. In today's game, what did you see from him that makes you feel that sooner or later Mike is going to be back to 100 percent what he was at the end of last year?
A: The drop step that he had. That's Mike [Watkins]. That's the Mike we all know. That's the Mike we've seen in the past. He just has to trust himself, and everything's going to be fine.
Q: You've played with Mike Watkins for a few years now, how nice was it to see him have a big performance?
A: That's just Mike. I expect that from him every single game. I expect that from him during practice. That's just who he is. I don't expect anything else from him. He's a big body. He has really long arms, really big hands. His presence just affects the game. Just that alone makes an impact. Understanding that when he can get his shots, when he needs to go to rebound, when he needs help to go block a shot, or just be there, just seeing him do all that stuff again is just reassuring that we're on the right path.
Q: Were you guys looking to get the ball to Rasir [Bolton] early?
A: We were just running the offense and Ra is just an amazing shooter. It's the same shot every single time when he gets his feet set. He was just hitting today. There were a couple of plays where I was looking at him and he was just wide open. I was confused, so I just threw him the ball. He shot it and made it, and we just kept going. He stayed hot throughout the game and did what we knew he could do.
Q: The out-of-bounds play in the final minutes that you got a corner three on—was that the look you guys were going for there? Were you expecting to get the ball there, and how do you think that helped seal the game?
A: I think they were in a two-three setup for that play. With the play that we ran, everybody is an option. Every single person on the floor has a chance of getting a shot off. I drifted to the corner and a man just slid up, and MJ (Myreon Jones) made a great pass. I was down and ready to shoot the ball. There were a couple different options. We've been running that play since before I got here; it just works.
Q: This was a proto-typical Josh Reaves game in the box score, in terms of doing a little bit of everything. Do all those different aspects of the game feed into each other?
A: I just go out there and play. I try to play a specific type of way, and I have ever since I got here. People say I play too energetic sometimes; I just need to be able to slow myself down. I'm just going to try and contribute in any way I can. Getting rebounds, passing the ball, finding open players, getting steals—that's just something I try and do every game.
Q: When you have a couple of games where your shot hasn't been falling as much as it might normally, how does it affect you and help you play within yourself when you have guys like Rasir [Bolton] or Myreon [Jones] that can step up and make shots like they have the past few games?
A: It's frustrating sometimes, but you just have to understand that it's a long game. You're going to play 30 other minutes aside from the minute of the one shot you're about to take. You just have to stay focused and stay locked in, and just stay ready to go. You have to find shooters that are open, work to get people open, run the sets that we have to the best of our ability. Things are going to be open for people. Like you said, those two guys can really get it going. We all saw the game MJ had against Virginia Tech and the way that Ra played tonight and in past games. We just have a lot of different weapons all over the place. Just trying to take care of the ball as a team and finding open players is the most we can do. We have to play hard on defense, too. As coach always says, when shots aren't falling, just focus on defense and rebounding.