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DIRECTV CLASSIC MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 13, 2012Brian GregoryQ. How have preseason practices and the game so far gone for your team? BRIAN GREGORY: Well, I think we are getting better. There's no question about it. We played our best basketball in maybe the last eight games last season. Those returners have done a good job in terms of preparing for this year and we injected a little energy into the program with a good recruiting class and two of those freshmen started on Friday night against a Tulane team that beat us last year. And then the third one scored double figures, as well. We are improving, there's no question about it, but this is a process of rebuilding and although I like where we are at right now, we are going to have to keep getting better, there's no question about it. You know, things are going well. Opened up a new arena, played pretty well that first night and had about 150 former players back for that game. Coach Cremmin (ph) is back, kind of organized everything and so things are going pretty well right now. Q. What players, you mentioned some of the younger kids standing out in the first game; can you put some names out there that have done pretty good in the preseason and in the games? BRIAN GREGORY: Sure. We started two freshmen, Robert Carter, who is a Top‑30 player in the country, and he had a good game. He's a multi‑dimensional kid that can step out and shoot. Very good in the post, good feet, good hands and very good rebounder. Marcus Georges‑Hunt was our other starter, freshman. He played extremely well, kind of, again, a very versatile perimeter player that has good strength, can shoot the ball. Very good at scoring and really did a great job on the glass for us in that first game. Chris Bolden was the other freshman that played, kind of was no more than just a shooter, but his overall game was just developing into a really solid guard. So those guys, as I said, have lifted us up a little bit, one just the competitiveness in practice, and two, as I said, you know, the character of those kids can't really be questioned just due to the fact that they were all highly recruited and our program was not maybe in a spot to bring in such a class, but those guys wanted to be part of us rebuilding it and they have done a good job. When you add that to the mix, with Mfon Udofia, our point guard from last year; Daniel Miller, our starting center who had a double‑double in the first game; and then Kammeon Holsey, who started almost every game last year was injured in the preseason and came back and had 17 the other night. You know, as I said, I think we are better and I believe, anyway, not as good as we are going to be at the end of the year, which is always good for a coach. Q. Obviously you're playing a very strong conference, the ACC; what's the strengths of your team? How do you view your team going into the season, and what are some of the strong points? BRIAN GREGORY: Well, you know, with my background and the success that we are fortunate to have at Dayton, it's always revolved around defending and rebounding, which then leads to our offense, which we try to play at a pretty fast pace. We are not able to do it quite as well as we did at Dayton or during my time as an assistant at Michigan State but we are getting there, there's no doubt about it. You know, so we have to do a good job on the defensive end and we have to do a good job on the glass. If we do that, those have to be constant every single night, and we'll continue to evolve offensively. We struggled so many times last year just scoring baskets, and then in the first game, we scored 79. Now, believe me, we are not going to score that every night, I can guarantee you that. But we are getting better on the offensive end, just in terms of sharing the ball, moving the ball and playing the post and playing some inside out. Q. You've known this tournament format where you play two days, off a day and play on Sunday before you depart for home; do you like the format? And also make a comment about your first round opponent, Rice. BRIAN GREGORY: I do like the format. You know, I think it gives you a time to kind of disengage. Those three games in three days sometimes are hard. But at the same time, you know, it makes Sunday for everybody an important day because you always want to end on a win before you leave. Plus, again, you know, this is college basketball and so now you're able to get out to California and spend a little time in the sun, even though the weather is beautiful here in Atlanta but it's just different. And then that Saturday just be able to have four or five hours where you're able to enjoy yourself at Disney and just continue to‑‑ I always say that many times, the difference between teams is leadership and chemistry, and so it's an opportunity for us to spend some time together and the ACC Big Ten challenge, we go straight to Illinois and play. So it's a big challenge for us to be able to maintain and sustain the intensity and concentration you need in four games in six days. So it's going to be a challenge for us and I think we are up for it. I know Rice has lost some players during the off‑season. But Coach Braun and I go back a long, long way. He was the head coach at Eastern Michigan and I played at Oakland University and we played against each other. Even when I was a player, he was always great to me. He's done an unbelievable job at Eastern, did an unbelievable job at Cal and has the Rice program moving in the right direction. You know that they are going to play hard and they are going to be well coached and well schooled. So it's a great opening round game for us because we are going to be able to, again, be challenged and in these early season games, it's always good to get a good 'eval' in terms of where you're at and we definitely will after that game. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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