Coach Beard previews Seton Hall matchup at Madison Square Garden

Texas Tech mens' basketball coach Chris Beard met with members of the local media on Monday afternoon to discuss his team's progress through six games and preview their showdown with Seton Hall at Madison Square Garden on Thursday...

-Coach Beard is thrilled for his team to take on Seton Hall - who sits just outside the AP top 25 at 26th - at this juncture in the season.

"Couldn't have scheduled a better game to see where we're at."

-Beard noted that he thought the Pirates have three potential NBA plays, primary among them being 6-10, senior center Angel Delgado, who's posted four double-doubles already this season and is one of the best rebounders in all of college basketball.

"He's a pro," Beard said. "He's just a walking double-double. He's an NBA first rounder."

"He has the ability to really impact the game on both ends. Defensively, it's hard to get second shots against him. Offensively, he just brings a presence. He's a really good passer, too."

-And while Delgado is the focus, Seton Hall also likes to shoot threes as a complement to teams trying to defend the big man in the post. The Pirates are shooting 35 percent from behind the arc so far this season, which Beard knows all too well.

"It's a concern because they have a pro inside that you know you're going to have to double some. When you double, here come the three point shots. They're a team that can get offensive rebounds, and that leads to three point shots. Guarding the three is an important part of our formula as everybody else's these days. There's a lot of concerns with this Seton Hall team, and three point shooting is something we're spending a lot of time thinking about."

-Freshman guard Jarrett Culver was named Big 12 Newcomer of the Week on Monday afternoon after scoring 21 and 18 points against Wofford and Savannah State respectively last week. Beard loves seeing the youngster attack with confidence on offense.

"We want Jarrett to shoot the ball that much. We love it when he's aggressive. Like a lot of other young players around the country. When he's aggressive, he can help."

-The head coach was asked why his youngsters are playing with so much confidence early on this season. Beard believes it's because they've instilled that in them as a staff, but he says the veteran players are vital in that growth, too.

"These young guys are playing with a lot of confidence, and from a coaching standpoint, I'd like to think that we instill that. It's also those guys they play with. Keenan Evans has to believe in Culver to have games like that, and he does."

-Beard was asked if he's worried about his team, particularly his freshmen, being awestruck by playing in a venue such as Madison Square Garden.

"I don't worry about our guys being ready to play. I think it's more of an opportunity than anything."

-Beard said that, if you play in a smaller gym, you do have to adjust shooting-wise to the depth perception of playing in a large arena like MSG. However, with United Supermarkets Arena being pretty open, cavernous itself, there won't be much of an adjustment that players have to make this weekend.

-Tech's seen a huge uptick in deflections on defense this year, particularly from the bench thanks to youngsters like Jarrett Culver and Zhaire Smith. Coach Beard was asked about why that is, and he simply said it had to with the kind of players they brought in. It's about how hard they hustle and work in addition to their talent.

"This was by design. Z, Morro, Culver, Malik, they didn't come to Tech thinking they were going to have to wait their time. They came here knowing there was an opportunity to contribute immediately."

"These are guys that genuinely have a love for basketball. Come up here on an off day sometime and you'll hear the ball bouncing. Those guys are in the gym. Come up here late at night. They park right off Indiana. If you see four cars up here at 10, 10:30, 11 at night, it's those young guys getting shots up. It comes from an internal love of the game. It also comes from those older guys."

"We know we're not perfect, we know we've got a long ways to go, but we do take pride in that we're all basketball guys."

-As you would expect, Coach Beard said that - while it's nice to get noticed - he doesn't really care at all about being ranked 22nd in week 4 of the AP Poll.

"I would rather be in the conversation of the rankings than not be, so I think it's a good thing for our program, for our fans, but it really means absolutely nothing. You can go back one year ago today, and I can guarantee you'll find people who didn't even make the NCAA tournament."

-He was right. Indiana (ranked 13th) and Syracuse (ranked 22nd) did not make the NCAA Tournament despite being ranked in week 4 of the AP poll last season.

-Coach Beard was asked several times about the confidence of this team after six games. He was asked how you build a culture of confidence, and how you see that grow in your team. He gave a lengthy, well-though-out response:

"At the end of the day, confidence comes from how hard you work. I'm a confident coach, always have been. I'm coaching in a league that has hall of fame coaches, and I don't think I'm better than anybody else, but I do have a lot of confidence in myself. Why? I hire a lot of great people around me. I don't have an ego. I work hard. I put in the hours. I don't cheat the day. I have a lot of confidence in myself. It's the same thing with players. Confident players are guys who get in the gym. Confident players are guys who pay the price. People who don't have confidence have a little bit of regret in their life, and they know they could've done more to be ready for that moment. Our players are confident because they put in the time."