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76 CLASSIC MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 31, 2011Jim WooldridgeTIM SIMMONS: Coach Wooldridge, how has pre-season practice gone for your team? COACH WOOLDRIDGE: Still undefeated (laughter). TIM SIMMONS: Have you seen anything that has stood out for your team? COACH WOOLDRIDGE: You know, like probably most teams across the country, we've got a lot of glitches that we see in our team, improvement that we need to make. But it's early. We had an exhibition game Saturday and found out kind of what we thought: we do some things pretty well but obviously we have a lot of room to grow and get better. We have some kids returning from a year ago. Then we've got some young kids that are coming underneath them that we're going to try to get developed as we move through November and December so we can play them in conference time. Just a lot of growth that we need to see in our team. Guys are working hard. They're enthusiastic about the beginning of the season. Certainly they're enthusiastic about playing in the tournament that we're here to talk about today. TIM SIMMONS: Coach, you got Villanova for your first game. Any thoughts about playing the Wildcats? COACH WOOLDRIDGE: Well, we have a lot of thoughts about playing the Wildcats. We see they're a top-10 pre-season team with a great guard coming back, one of the top 50 players in the country. Obviously our guys recognize the name 'Villanova' so they'll be excited about playing a top-10 team. Obviously, too, a great challenge for us. We'll gain some national recognition because we're tied to that game. So there's a lot of positives to it, but we know it will be a big challenge for us. TIM SIMMONS: A different format for a tournament. Play two days, off a day, play a day. Offer any advantages for you? COACH WOOLDRIDGE: I don't know about advantages or disadvantages. Everybody has the same thing going. We hope that when we hit that game or that week that we're healthy. We've got a couple kids banged up a little bit right now. That plays into that three-game format in a tight number of days. So I'm hoping that we'll be healthy enough to handle it. That would be really, as relates to competition, my only concern. TIM SIMMONS: With you being the host team for the tournament, is it technically considered a home game for you or a road game even though you have to travel 30, 40 miles? COACH WOOLDRIDGE: We're really hoping that this experience will allow our fans here in Riverside and our school an opportunity to really get behind our team and to get behind this tournament and make a great experience for all of us. As you know, we're a relatively young Division I program. We've only been a Division I program going on 11 to 12 years, so we're building a legacy as we go here. We don't have the championship banners and so forth in our Division I history that the teams in this tournament have. This will be another steppingstone to help build this program, the legacy of the program. We're hoping, because it's such a close proximity to Riverside, that our fans will enjoy that and support the team and support the tournament. TIM SIMMONS: We'll open the floor to questions. Q. I was curious, what are realistic expectations for your team this year? COACH WOOLDRIDGE: For the year? Q. For the year, yes. COACH WOOLDRIDGE: Well, if you look at our schedule - November, December - you're looking at probably the most difficult preconference schedule in UCR's history with the likes of, as we mentioned, Villanova, the Anaheim tournament, then we've got a USC Trojan team coming in directly after the tournament, San Diego State, so forth. We're obviously looking at November and December, it's very difficult. We're hoping that we can have some success during these two months, build our team, build our team identity. Then as we get to January, we've got a young man sitting out here that will be eligible after the first quarter, Robert Smith from Paris High School, Santa Clara transfer, we think he'll add a dimension to our team. By the time we get to January, we'll hope we'll be able to do some successful things, we've got a team identity, we'll get into this league and do something pretty special in the league. I don't know if that answers it completely for you. But the league is where we're pointing to as it relates to this season. TIM SIMMONS: Coach, thank you very much. Look forward to seeing you in three weeks. COACH WOOLDRIDGE: Thank you so much, guys. Looking forward to it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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