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76 CLASSIC MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 31, 2011

Ken Bone

TIM SIMMONS: Coach Bone, welcome to our teleconference. Like to have some of your thoughts on your pre-season practicing to date.
COACH BONE: All in all they've gone okay. Different not having Clay Thompson and DeAngelo Casto the last two years. Because of that, we're noticing that on defense, rebounding, blocked shots from DeAngelo, then on the offensive end, missing Clay and DeAngelo is quite a hit.
We're still trying to figure out things as a team, trying to find out our identity. But we are relatively healthy and I think we're getting a little better all the time.
TIM SIMMONS: You're used to this tournament format, play two days, off a day, play a day. You played in the final of the Diamond Head tournament last year, lost to a strong Butler team. Is this an advantage for your preparation for the tournament?
COACH BONE: I don't know if it's really an advantage or not. I think every team now plays in a tournament here or there. But I can say the Hawaii experience was a lot of fun till the second half of the Butler game. I'm hoping we gain some experience from that tournament.
TIM SIMMONS: Are there any players on your team that have stood out in pre-season drills.
COACH BONE: I think Brock Motum has done a really nice job for us. He's come off the bench the last two years. He's a 6'9" junior out of Australia who has a real knack of scoring. I think he's going to do a nice job of scoring for us and we're going to need his scoring.
TIM SIMMONS: You play Oklahoma in your first-round game. Obviously Lon is coaching a new team, new school this year. Any thoughts on Oklahoma?
COACH BONE: Well, I know Coach Kruger does a phenomenal job. I'm sure he will have them playing good basketball by that time, as well as you can expect with a new coach in a program.
I'm sure we'll have our work cut out for us playing them.
TIM SIMMONS: We'll open it up for questions for Coach Bone.

Q. As a Cougar alum, I love seeing you play. I'm curious what players are standing out, filling that void with Clay Thompson and DeAngelo gone. I've heard talk about Reggie Moore, Faisal Aden. How are they playing right now?
COACH BONE: Reggie and Faisal are doing a great job. Reggie has a little bit of a problem with his groin right now. I think he'll be okay within a few days or a week. Faisal is shooting the ball well. I think our guys understand that Faisal is our best perimeter shooter. They try to do a good job of getting him up off of screens.
Reggie is playing more like he did his freshman year. Last year he had that fractured wrist. He came back and tried to play during the season, but he wasn't as efficient as he was I think his freshman year.
So the two of them are doing a nice job, and Brock Motum, those are probably or biggest three weapons on the offensive end.

Q. When the pre-season poll came out, they had the Cougars down tied for 10th with Colorado. Is that something that your team is going to use as motivation to try to prove them wrong despite the losses in the off-season?
COACH BONE: Well, we will try to. We will try to prove people wrong in that we think we're better than that. I'm not sure if we're in that top tier within the PAC-12, but I believe and our players believe we're a little better than where we've been picked.
Like any team, we'll do the best we can to prove people wrong. But I can understand the rating. You lose two players the caliber of DeAngelo and Clay, and Reggie didn't have as good a year last year as he did his freshman year, I can understand why we are where we've been picked.
But I think we're going to be a little bit better than that.
TIM SIMMONS: Coach, thank you very much. We look forward to seeing you in two to three weeks.
COACH BONE: Look forward to seeing you, too. Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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