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DIRECTV WOODEN LEGACY MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 13, 2014Chris MackTIM SIMMONS: Our next coach is Chris Mack from Xavier. Coach Mack, welcome. Appreciate you joining us. My name is Tim Simmons. I guess you open up against Northern Arizona tomorrow night. Your thoughts about your team? CHRIS MACK: I like our team. We're a very good mixture of freshmen, which we have six veteran returning players. We're probably led by, not probably, but we're led by our oldest players in terms of their leadership and their experience on the floor. Matt Stainbrook, who is in his fifth year. Matt was a starter for us last year. He was third or fourth in the Big East in rebounding. I think he's one of the best passing post players in the entire country. He's a handful. Dee Davis, our starting senior point guard, who has been a two‑year starter now. Going on his third year as a starter. Was second in the Big East in assists a year ago. So when you have two players like that that share the ball, I think it becomes infectious. A lot has been said about our freshmen, and they're going to help us and impact our program. But it really starts and ends withDee Davis and Matt Stainbrook with their leadership and their willingness to play in our system. Q. Coach, talk about what you're seeing as a strength for your team right now, and any concerns you might have about your team. CHRIS MACK: A few things on the offensive end, I think we're much deeper than we were a year ago. I think we shoot the ball a lot better than we did a year ago, and I also think we're pretty big on both ends of the floor. Defensively, I think we can protect the rim. I think offensively if we do our job and give effort, I think we can get second shots because of our size. Worried a little bit about our foot speed at certain positions, but the fact that you have an inexperienced team in several different positions, you know, when you play freshmen, you're going to have some growing pains, especially on the defensive end, because that part of the game probably wasn't emphasized a whole lot at the level that they just came from. So that would be our strengths and weaknesses as I see it before we've played a regular season game. Q. Coach, you talked about two of your returning veterans, who are some of the freshmen that have been standing up for you that we can look at? CHRIS MACK: Well, I think Trevon Bluiett had a superb preseason for us. He'll be our starter at the three. Trevon is a guy that can shoot the ball. I think he plays with a very, very high IQ, makes the right play. At times we can play him in an undersized four role, although maybe we don't prefer that. But he had a really, really good preseason. I think Sean O'Mara, whose physicality as a freshman is really impressive. Sean played both football and basketball in high school, and it really shows here early on as he's really battled and done a great job. To post against some experienced post players on our own team. I think Larry Austin has had a really good preseason, a back‑up point guard from Springfield, Illinois. Plays with a lot of energy. Probably more of a defensive guy at this stage of his career. J.P. Macura, 6'5", 2, 3. Can really shoot the ball. I think he plays with a chip on his shoulder. Very competitive, very skilled offensive player. So those guys would be the guys that have stood out so far. I mentioned four. Two of them, you have Makinde London, who is most likely going to take a developmental redshirt role for us this year. And Edmond Sumner is our sixth freshman, and Edmond to this point hasn't practiced with the team. He's been battling a little bit of tendinitis. But we hope to have him rejoin us practice‑wise probably the week before we come out to see you guys in Anaheim. Q. Coach, obviously you'll start the Anaheim Classic or Wooden Legacy with a non‑bracketed game with Long Beach there in Cincinnati, and then you come out and play San Diego. Some comments about Long Beach and San Diego? CHRIS MACK: Well, to be fair, I don't know a ton about either program at this point because our eyes have been focused on the most important game, and that is the one in front of you, Northern Arizona. But we've played Long Beach before. Dan does a really good job. I know they have a senior point guard. Might not be a senior, his name's Caffey, terrific player. And they have the Lamb kid who transferred in from UCLA, who had a really good second semester. So we know what Long Beach presents. When you have the possibility of playing those guys twice because of the way the bracketing is set up, it's going to be a challenge. Dan is never one to shrink from playing the best teams in the country. Then Bill's team, they obviously have an experienced point guard back. They can shoot the ball at a very, very high level. To be fair, I don't know a ton about those guys. I know they're not a very, very big team. They play more skilled guys on the perimeter and try to stretch you out. So as we get closer to that game, our opening game of the Anaheim tournament, we'll make sure we're ready to play because I know they will be. Q. You played in this tournament in 2012, you're coming back this year. Do you like the format playing two games, off a day, and then playing the placement games on the third day? CHRIS MACK: I do. I don't think there should be any other way. I think when teams at the Division I level have to play back‑to‑back‑to‑back nights, it doesn't really reflect either team, to be quite honest with you. Just by the time you get into that third game, teams are worn down. You don't have any time to prepare. It becomes a little bit like AAU. I think with this format it really gives teams a chance to catch their breath, and then give it their all on that third and final game. That is a pivotal game, whether you're playing the championship or trying not to come back 0‑3 or trying to be on the winning side 2‑1. It's a big game. It counts at the end of the season, and we're all trying to play for postseason. So I really like the format, and that's one of the reasons that we decided to go out to California. Q. Coach, you made the transition from the A‑10 to the Big East. How are things shaping up with that transition? CHRIS MACK: The Big East is a great conference. I think so much was made of the demise of the Big East, but I don't think people quite realize the level of the play, the size, the athleticism that remains in a great, great conference. Villanova is a top‑10 team in my mind, and should be in everybody's mind that follows college basketball. I think this league has had an infusion of talent. There are more Top 100 kids in this year's freshman class per team than any other conference in college basketball outside of the ACC. Sometimes what gets lost with our conference is there are only ten teams. We're not a 14‑team league, a 16‑team league; we're at 10. I think there are some definite advantages, being that you crown a natural champion, a team that's gone through the gauntlet of playing every team, home and away. Some rivalries over the next few years are really going to get built up as our league sort of cements itself now that the football gods are done with their shifting of conferences. It's a great league, and we're really excited to be a part of it. It's going to be a tough one, as it was last year. Q. Coach, I don't know if you heard my question to the last coach about camaraderie and smartphones. Did you or should I repeat it? CHRIS MACK: I did not. Q. Okay, I'm doing a story on team camaraderie and the smartphone and social media era. I'm wondering if in the social media and smartphone era if the bond among your players has weakened this last couple of years? If you think they're not communicating as well or hanging out as much because they're on their phones or wearing headphones or things like that? CHRIS MACK: Well, we don't allow headphones in the locker room or at meals or any of that stuff. I did catch Coach Hawkins' second half of his answer. We may not be to the level of Coach Hawkins and Western Michigan. But it is a society that we live in today. I would tell you that I feel like the fact that we have six guys that walked in the door here at Xavier together as freshmen, they've grown really close. We took a foreign trip to Brazil, and out of that trip in August I think our team grew a lot closer. Probably because teams could couldn't be on their phones because they'd be accruing tremendous roaming charges. It was a really good trip. I think the time you spend on the floor with your players is invaluable. The time you spend on the road is invaluable. Certainly we encourage guys to engage, to get to know one another. I wouldn't say we have any unorthodox things that we do. But I do not like to be that program that has guys with headphones at meals and staring at their headphones at meals. We come together as a team in those type of situations, they know the rules. TIM SIMMONS: OK. Thank you very much for taking time and good luck with your opening games. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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