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DIRECTV WOODEN LEGACY MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 13, 2014Bill GrierTIM SIMMONS: I hope everybody can hear me right now. The key this morning is we'll start with the coaches this morning. Just want to tell you that ASAP Sports will be doing a transcription of the teleconference, and then I will be e‑mailing it out to everybody that's got a credential and is on the e‑mail list. We'll open with Coach Grier. Coach Grier, are you on the line yet? He's not supposed to call in until 7:55, so we've got a couple moments. Again, the tournament is 12 games over a three‑day period. Over a four‑day period, but playing three days. It's a bracketed format with the final games at the Honda Center on Sunday November 30th, placement game, with the championship game being the final contest, and that's schedule for 7:00 p.m. Pacific time on Sunday November 30th. Again the bracket was revealed in August. It's basically taken into consideration by ESPN Events working with each school and the coaches to consider the matchups and so forth. Do we have any questions prior to getting Coach Grier on the line about the tournament? We're about three minutes away. Is Coach Grier on the line yet? Again, San Diego played in the very first of these tournaments. It was the Anaheim Classic back then, and they won one of three games in their first year. That was Coach Grier's first year at San Diego. USC won the tournament that year, and they were coached by Tim Floyd, who is now at UTEP. In fact, USC defeated San Diego in the opening game, the opening round that year, 60 to 50. Again, do we have Coach Grier on? Still got a couple minutes before he is supposed to be on. Regular season opens tomorrow for seven of the eight schools. Western Michigan will be the last school to open the regular season on Sunday. San Diego will be in the Los Angeles area for two games this weekend. They open up their season against Boise State, followed the next night with Southeast Missouri State. That will be in a tournament situation up in‑‑ I shouldn't say a tournament, but a two‑game classic Loyola Marymount University Classic. Last year the tournament, the Anaheim Classic, 76 Classic, Direct TV Classic, the three names they had, combined with the Wooden Classic that had been held at the Honda Center. This is will be the second year of the revamped format that includes the Wooden Classic along with the Anaheim Classic. Anaheim Classic started in 2007, and of course the Wooden Legacy has been running for many years, since I think the 1990s. Coach Grier, are you on the line? Coach, welcome. My name is Tim Simmons. I am the media operations coordinator for the DirectTV Wooden Legacy. Thank you for being with us today. COACH GRIER: Sure, Tim. TIM SIMMONS: How is everything going with the pre‑season? Obviously you open up with this weekend with two games in the Los Angeles area. COACH GRIER: I think it's going well. I am excited about our group. We have better depth than we've ever had and better scoring with our depth than we've every had. So I think that's a really big plus for us. Opening up, we'll find out right away as we open against probably one of the top, I don't know, 30 to 40 teams in the country in Boise State. So that will be a tough opener. We'll find out right away where we're at. TIM SIMMONS: What have you seen so far in the pre‑season? What are the strengths of your team? Do you have any concerns? COACH GRIER: Strength of our team is our perimeter. I have two senior guards that have started almost every game since they have been here. Johnny Dee is our returning leading scorer. He was out first team All‑WCC award winner last year. He's going to end up being the school's all‑time leading scorer. He'll break that record this year. Then Christopher Anderson is our point guard, and he's already broken the career assist record and he's about 45 steals away from breaking the steal record. So those two have meant a lot to our program. They're the heart and soul of our program. They are the reason we've gotten this thing back on track. TIM SIMMONS: Coach, obviously you played in the very first of these tournaments up there. It was a springboard and you went to the NCAA that year, upset Connecticut in the first round 70‑69. Are you looking for the same thing this year? COACH GRIER: No, I am actually looking for a little better finish. We finished seventh in that one that year. We played in the last‑place game. We actually played Coach Floyd when he was at USC in the first round. He had O.J. Mayo, and that was a tough opener. Then we played a very good South Alabama team that ended up winning an NCAA tournament. Now, if it meant we got to the tournament and I took seventh, then, yes, I would take that right now. TIM SIMMONS: Coach, what about your first round opponent? You folks open up against Xavier, who is receiving votes and a pretty experienced team. What do you think about Xavier? COACH GRIER: Well, I think Chris has done just a marvelous job. We were both assistant. I was at Gonzaga; he at Xavier. We played each other in the NCAA tournament and got to know him then. In the summers he and I have gotten to know each other a lot better through Nike. Had an opportunity to meet his wife and he mine. I've developed a pretty good relationship with him. I know that they are very, very tough defensively. They're athletic. You know, we're playing UCLA this year, so we're going to play against Blueitt one way or the other. I know he's a special freshman for them. Obviously Stainbrook on the inside is a load. So we'll have our hands full with them. They're a national‑level program. They've had tremendous success and they're poised to have another really good year. TIM SIMMONS: Coach, any thoughts on your potential second round opponent, Princeton or UTEP? COACH GRIER: Well, you know, I don't know Mitch very well.  Obviously know Coach Floyd. Different styles of play, both will be a challenge for us. I think if you have to play a Princeton team on one day preparation, that's difficult with the actions they run. If you have to play Tim Floyd team on a day of preparation, he runs so many quick hitters, that can be difficult. So these tournaments I feel are good for you as you go forward into your conference tournament when you're hopefully making a run and having to prepare without a practice, but doing it in a walk‑through. And particularly for our younger players to have the opportunity to do this in the tournament setting and to go against very, very good teams. TIM SIMMONS: Coach, obviously you've played in this tournament before. Do you like the tournament format where you play two days, have the off day, and then play the third day with the placement games and the championship game? COACH GRIER: Yeah. We had such a great experience when we were there the first time. I think having that day off gave your guys‑‑ kept their legs fresher. You know, I think the opportunity for your players and your families to be around Disneyland and that kind of experience together is also a bonus of this tournament. But anything that is run through ESPN, every tournament that I've ever been involved with them has been first class. TIM SIMMONS: Got to have a little homecoming with one of the coaches in the tournament, Dan Monson at Long Beach State. You coached with him at Gonzaga. COACH GRIER: Not only did we coach together, we lived together seven of the eight years we were up in Spokane. We're very close. He's kind of like my brother. Our wives and our children are very close. We actually play each other every year in a closed‑door scrimmage which just happened this last weekend. Hoping I don't have to match up against him. That would be a tough game I think for both of us. I have that as well this year with Coach Few at least twice, and Coach Rice at Boise, because we were all together in Spokane. TIM SIMMONS: Any questions for Coach Grier? Q. I'm doing a story for Basketball Times magazine about team camaraderie in the smartphone and social media era. In your opinion, have those things weaken the bond among your players compared to five or ten or twenty years ago? In other words, are players on their phones and wearing headphones and tweeting instead of talking to each other? COACH GRIER: I do, but the reality of it is it's the way that they communicate. You know, I think the thing that I really try to enforce on my team is I don't allow those things on the bus like going to and from a game; when we're at team meals I expect them to have them off, to not be on them, not be on Twitter, checking out Facebook, those kinds of things. So they are in a way, in a sense, forced to have to interact and have conversations with one another. I think it's something lost in this generation. But, at the same time, this is how they communicate. You can't deny them that access totally. But when we're in a team setting, I expect them to have that stuff off and really focus on being together. TIM SIMMONS: Any other questions for Coach Grier? Coach, good luck this weekend. I know you got two tough games to start off the season back to back. Obviously it's a short trip up to L.A., but good luck. COACH GRIER: All right. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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