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DIRECTV CLASSIC MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 13, 2012Ben BraunQ. Can you give an opening statement about how your preseason has gone and the game or two you've played so far? BEN BRAUN: Our preseason went well. We had a couple of closed scrimmages and our team has been working very hard and got off to a tough start on our opener but we have a young team that's going to work and continue to improve. So, you know, I'm encouraged that we will continue to get better and we are playing a lot of new players this year, a number of freshmen. So I think it's going to be an opportunity for our young guys to get some experience this year in terms of getting experience under their belt as we move on this year. Q. Any players standing out in the preseason? BEN BRAUN: Tamir Jackson is our lone senior returning, and he's a guy that's going to have to do so many things for our program. He's going to have to lead us and carry us in scoring and going have to get the foul line and help our young guys in terms of defensive assignments, and just really be kind of that role model for us that you want out of your senior leader. But he's going to have to wear a lot of hats for our team this year and that's something he's prepared to do and I think he's looking forward to that challenge. Q. Any strengths of your team? BEN BRAUN: Doesn't show in our opener. We didn't shoot the ball very well, but I think as the year goes on we are going to be a pretty good shooting team. Although we took 28 3s, didn't make a ton; I felt that our team probably settled for long‑range shots probably a little too eagerly. I think as the season goes on, our shot selection will be a little better, and our ability to get shots for each other will improve. I think in the end we will be a pretty good shooting team and ball handling teams. Those are going to be keys, and being able to put pressure on the ball, I think guys have that capability. Those are some things to improve on as the year goes on. Q. You play Georgia Tech in the first round; any thoughts? Coach Gregory was mentioning that I guess you were coaching at Eastern Michigan when he was playing at Oakland. Any thoughts on Georgia Tech and Coach Gregory? BEN BRAUN: He gave me fits as a player and it will be no different as a coach. I really have a lot of respect for Brian. I followed him through his whole playing and coaching career and have been so impressed with what he's done. We expect his team to be obviously well coached and well disciplined. They are going to be hard to play against. We are going to have to play well. It's a team that he has on the rebound and they have improved and that's a credit to what Brian has done. It's going to be a challenge for our team and we are looking forward to it. Q. The tournament format, how do you size it up where you play two games, off a day and then play on Sunday? BEN BRAUN: It's a good opportunity for us. We are the kind of team right now that needs to play as many games as we can, and playing in tournaments is good for us; to be able to get an opportunity to play three games, I don't care if it's two games in a row, one on or off or two‑‑ whatever we can do to get three games under our belt at this early stage of the season is going to be very important for us. So we know this is a very good tournament, one of the top tournaments in the country so to get three games against quality opponent s is really going to be I think important for our team. Q. You have a chance to play Cal the second day, any thoughts about that? BEN BRAUN: We are not going to try to win or lose a game based around who we play in the next round. We will line up against who we are scheduled to play based on our performance. Playing against a school that you coached for is a unique experience. With the exception of I think Smith, pretty much everybody that was on that team are probably new players and there wasn't be any returning players. I think most of those players graduated a year ago. I don't think it will hold anymore ‑‑ other than myself, Coach Reynaud, Lou Reynaud, my associate coach at Cal. If it happens, that's great and if not, we'll be prepared either way. You know, it's a unique experience and I think it doesn't happen a lot in college basketball that you go up against your former team. I think the only other time that happened was when I brought my Cal team to play at Eastern Michigan and we lost, so that was not a very pleasant experience. Hopefully if it happens again, it will be a different result. Q. I noticed in your schedule, you play Temple and then come out to California. That's four pretty good games; is that your toughest stretch? BEN BRAUN: If you look back and say, hey, we played nationally‑ranked teams early and some teams that were just competitive; and you know, we have Long Island that was an NCAA team coming to play us, and we have Texas on the road which is going to be always hard, a nationally‑ranked team. We are going to be playing some very good competition this year. And again, that's with the hopes of getting our team ready for conference play and just toughening our guys up and giving them a good measuring stick. We need to do that so that's going to be a big challenge for our team. Q. You played Drake last year in the postseason, didn't you? The bracket is pretty interesting for you. BEN BRAUN: Yeah, it will be the second to last team we played last year, depending on if they win, we win, vice‑versa. Either way we are going to face a team or a program that I'm pretty familiar with. And again, a lot of respect for Drake, a lot of respect for Cal. Those are two fine teams, well coached. So it doesn't make any difference, whatever team we play will be a good test for our team and will really help us from an experience standpoint and that's why you play these tournaments. There's no resting spots. I know Drexel and St. Mary's, so many good teams in this tournament. It really is; to me it's one of the top tournaments in the country. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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