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DIRECTV WOODEN LEGACY MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 13, 2013Jim LarranagaTIM SIMMONS: Thank you very much for joining us today, and as I say, you're the first one up. I'm going to ask a series of questions. Some media are traveling and couldn't be here so they sent me some questions. First question, obviously this was the earliest start to practices for the NCAA teams. Has that benefitted you? COACH LARRANAGA: Well, I really enjoyed getting started that early because we have so many inexperienced players, so many new guys on our team, and it gave my staff and I a chance to work with them, evaluate them as to how ready they are to compete at this level, and to try to teach them the things, the philosophy of our program, our offensive and defensive concepts, and I think it was a great implementation of a new rule. TIM SIMMONS: Coach, this is probably your least experienced team that you've had in all your years of coaching. COACH LARRANAGA: There's no question. Last year we had a terrific team. We graduated five seniors, and we lost Shane Larkin to the NBA draft. So our top six scorers, our top six rebounders, our tops in steals and assists are all gone, and we have a whole new starting lineup and a whole new set of faces and guys in roles they've never been in before. TIM SIMMONS: What about your practices so far? What's your assessment of the practices, and obviously you've played three games, one exhibition, two regular season games. How do you view the season so far? COACH LARRANAGA: So far it's been a major challenge. We lost our best freshman scorer to a broken wrist. He's out for the season. And that has reduced us from 10 scholarship players down to nine, and any time you only have nine scholarship guys in uniform to compete, it really changes your thought process going into the game as a coach. We've had two home games. Both have gone to overtime. We lost the first and won the second. So we're really trying to make adjustments, not only adjustments from last season, but even from 10 days ago when Deandre Burnett, our freshman, and it looked like he was going to be our leading scorer, when we lost him we had to make a bunch of adjustments. We're a work in progress right now. TIM SIMMONS: Have there been any newcomers or holdovers that have surprised you or really stood out during the preseason so far? COACH LARRANAGA: Well, I think all of them are a little bit of a surprise to me, some good and some bad. It's been kind of like I don't know what to expect from them, and that's uncomfortable for a coach. We've got Garrius Adams who's a fifth‑year senior who mostly played the 3 for us in his first four years. He's now moved to either the 2 or 1, so it's a new position for him. Donnavan Kirk is a fifth‑year guy who transferred from DePaul University. We're just trying to figure out what he can do to help our team, and we have a freshman point guard from Belgium, his first time in the country, first time playing college basketball, and we're trying to figure out what he's going to be able to do in terms of being the quarterback of our team. A lot of surprises. TIM SIMMONS: Kirk has been a double‑double for you in scoring and points the first two games, so that has to be a pretty good indication that he's doing pretty good for you so far. COACH LARRANAGA: Yeah, he has been a very pleasant surprise, as has Manu Lecomte, the freshman point guard. He's doing a nice job, as well. Unfortunately we don't have the kind of depth that we can play the style that we'd like to employ, so it's a work in progress. It's a challenge every day for these guys. Everything is new to them. We're adding new concepts every single day. It's best when all the concepts are in and the team is familiar with them, then all they have to do is concentrate on executing. But right now we still have to add things in order to accommodate the strengths of our team. TIM SIMMONS: With the format, do you like the format you've played in other ESPN events? I know you were in Puerto Rico a couple years ago with George Mason, but do you like the concept playing two days and then having a day off and then playing the third game on the fourth day? COACH LARRANAGA: Well, we love the ESPN exempt events. We played in Orlando in the Old Spice Classic. We played in Puerto Rico. Last year we played in Hawai'i. All the events are ESPN sponsored, and we think they're the best. We're very much looking forward to coming out to Anaheim. We know it's going to be a great event. Playing Thursday, Friday will be a challenge for us with such a short bench, but having that day off on Saturday actually makes Sunday a little better day in terms of preparation for us. But I think it's a great venue, great event, and a very challenging competition for us. TIM SIMMONS: You've got three games prior to the tournament to get in preparation. Are there any things you're working on specifically as you prepare for the DirecTV Wooden Legacy? COACH LARRANAGA: We'll have played four games, and yeah, we're looking at our personnel and trying to figure out how to best utilize them since they're all new really to the program or to the position they're playing. Each game we tweak a little something. Last game we moved our 2 guard to the 4. We moved our 4 man to the 3. We're kind of looking at things from a different point of view as to how we can take advantage of the strengths of our program. TIM SIMMONS: You play George Washington in the first game at the DirecTV Wooden Legacy. Have you had any thoughts on playing George Washington, or is it too soon to think about it? COACH LARRANAGA: We're very familiar with Mike Lonergan and his program. We played them when I was at George Mason, he was at Vermont. We're familiar with George Washington. They were our neighbor in Washington, D.C., when I was at George Mason. We're familiar with many of their players, Kethan Savage, Maurice Creek, Isaiah Armwood. Isaiah actually made I think the only three‑pointer of his career when he was a freshman at Villanova to beat us in Puerto Rico in that ESPN‑exempt event in the first round. So we're familiar with many of their players, their program, and it should be a very good contest. TIM SIMMONS: One last question I have, you're going to be playing the College of Charleston, which is a non‑bracketed game connected with the DirecTV Wooden Legacy, but you're going to be facing one of Rick Barry's sons up there, Canyon Barry. Any comment about that, former Miami great, Rick Barry's son playing against you. COACH LARRANAGA: Yeah, we recruited Canyon. I went out to Colorado to visit with Rick and his family to watch Canyon work out, and we were taking a very strong look at him. I think Bobby Cremins, who coached Rick's other sons, was instrumental in successfully recruiting Canyon for the College of Charleston, and we're looking forward to seeing how he's developed. I'm sure like the other sons, he's going to be an outstanding college player. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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