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DIRECTV WOODEN LEGACY MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 13, 2014Dan MunsonTIM SIMMONS: Our next coach would be Dan Munson from Long Beach State. How you doing, Coach? DAN MUNSON: Hopefully better than we did in Puerto Rico. Q. Coach, how has the preseason gone for you so far for your team? Maybe talk about some of the strengths that you have and some of the concerns you might have. DAN MUNSON: Well, I think the preseason has gone like every preseason. You're stretched out, you just don't know what you have and where you're going. I think before we get to Anaheim, we'll have a little better idea. I mean, we've got BYU, Xavier, Kansas State, and UCLA all in the next seven days. So that will give us some indication of where we're at. I think this team is deeper than teams I've had in past years. I think it might be a decent offensive team, but I'm really scared. In the two scrimmages we've had, we haven't disrupted defensively very well or rebounded. Q. Coach, who are some of your top players on your team this year? DAN MUNSON: Well, Mike Caffey's a three‑time all‑league point guard coming back. He kind of has the ball in his hands and is one of our key components of what we're doing. And Tyler Lamb, a transfer from UCLA, is emerging to be a scorer for us last year. He became eligible Christmas. That's a pretty veteran, seasoned senior back court. Then Eric McKnight started at Gulf Coast on the Sweet Sixteen run at center. He's come in. He's got one year of eligibility left. He's trying to mesh with those other seniors. A.J. Spencer is out for the year with a torn ACL. He was our fourth starter returning. David Samuels is a senior four man that came from junior college last year. Seems a little more poised and ready this year. So we've got some experience coupled with four freshmen that will be on our rotation. I think it's a good mix and those four freshmen gave us a lot of depth. Q. Coach, has there been any surprises that you've seen in the preseason practices and so forth? DAN MUNSON: I like our freshmen. I think those four seniors that started last year, finished third in the league. That is the definition of insanity, to do the same thing over and over again. So they've got to have some help if we expect to have results. I think we have an opportunity to have that help. I think all four freshmen bring us different ingredients, coupled with the ingredient they're all winners. All four of them played for state championships in the state of California last year in different divisions. Three of them won state. So I'm optimistic. They haven't been our problem early. I think they've been a positive piece to the puzzle. Q. Coach, I know you have a very difficult schedule. You always have a difficult schedule. Any thoughts about your first round opponent Western Michigan? DAN MUNSON: Well, I like the big name teams that are good, not the mid‑major names that are good. Only coaches and true basketball people understand how good Western Michigan is. They could be the best team in that tournament. But we go to play not named teams but good teams on neutral courts. That's a tall challenge for us. That's going to be an NCAA team at the end of the year. So that's why we're going to see where we stack up. Because we're not an NCAA team right now, but our goal is to get there, and each team will show us hopefully the road map to that because they're already at that caliber. Q. Any thoughts about San Jose State or Washington who you could play in the second round? DAN MUNSON: None. I got my‑‑ that's so far down the road for me right now. We've got our hands full to get better every day to be able to compete with those teams. I think, again, we had a great experience in this tournament. I think it was four years ago, maybe it was five. We're just looking forward to that same. For us to get to the NCAA Tournament realistically, we're going to have to win three games in three days in Anaheim, at the Honda Center in March. This is just a great opportunity for not knowing who our second round opponent is and not caring. We've got to win against Western Michigan to survive and advance to the next round, just like we will in March. We'll worry about San Jose State or Washington that night afterwards, just like we will our second round, hopefully, opponent in March in Anaheim. Q. We'd like to talk about the formats of the tournament. Do you like playing two games, off a day and playing in the placement championship game the third day? DAN MUNSON: I do. Like I said, our goal is to try to prepare ourselves for March, three games in three days, but it's the same concept. It's a lot of basketball and a lot of scheming and game planning without practice time in between. Adjustments from mistakes from the night before. But in reality, it is nice to have that day off in between for kids that get more than just a basketball in a tournament like this. We're probably 7 or 8 miles from Disneyland, and I know we have kids that have never really experienced that because it's so expensive. To be able to give them a different cultural experience than just basketball is also important, I think, for student‑athletes. Q. Coach Grier mentioned that you guys scrimmaged and all that stuff, but you never know, you might be playing them on that third day. Any thoughts about San Diego? DAN MUNSON: Well, I hope not because you hate playing friends. Billy and I were in each other's wedding. We lived together for ‑‑ I lose track now how many years Mark Few and I lived together. But it was a long time there at Gonzaga. You have great respect for your friends, and nobody really wins when you play friends because you suffer with each other. But that's athletics and that's competition. If we do play them, there is nobody‑‑ you know, it's like playing your brother; there is nobody you don't want to lose to more either. If it happens, it will be a great game. But I'm rooting for both of us to win. If it does happen, it would be great if it was in the championship. TIM SIMMONS: We'll open it up to questions for Coach Monson. Q. Coach, I'm doing a story for basketball times about camaraderie in the smartphone and social media era. So I'm wondering if in your opinion have those things weakened the bond among your players now compared to five, ten years ago as far as are they on their phones and texting instead of talking to each other? DAN MUNSON: Yeah, I think so. I think that times have changed. Now they bond and have relationships with players on other teams that they didn't have ten years ago, too. So it is what it is. It's different. It's not how I envisioned getting on a bus when I played or when I coached 15, 20 years ago where they got a deck of cards or they're playing backgammon or something in the back of the bus. But yet, that's how they communicate. I tell them all, and I don't know if they can get a date without those phones. That's how they communicate to their girlfriends. That's how they communicate to their friends. So just because they're on the phone doesn't mean they're not close to their teammates, but I do think it does take away from the, quote, unquote, old‑fashioned way of bonding together as a team. TIM SIMMONS: Thank you very much for your time. Good luck. I know you have a very tough schedule, but we're looking forward to seeing you in Anaheim in a couple of weeks. DAN MUNSON: I appreciate you having me. Thanks. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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