|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
PUERTO RICO TIP-OFF MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 14, 2013Alan MajorTIM SIMMONS: Welcome, and thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. COACH MAJOR: Thank you. We're thrilled to be invited, just grateful to be a part of the tournament. So thank you so much. TIM SIMMONS: Obviously practice has started a lot earlier this year, September 27th I think is the exact date. Has that been a benefit to your program this year? COACH MAJOR: You know, I don't know if anybody will know until the end of the year. We started that following Monday the 30th, and it's one of those deals where we tried to practice probably a little shorter even though we started earlier. We've been a little bit short physically with a couple of guys banged up trying to get them back as quick as we can. So we really just tried to be smart with the guys we have. But I think every coach to a man will probably look back in April and look at how guys finish and how fresh their individual squads are and decide if it was beneficial or not. I think every team has its own unique situation. I think you've got a bunch of seniors and you're older, it's probably good to start towards the original date. If you're young, in our case we had a teach a lot, some new faces that need to be thrown into the fire, then you start early. I think every team is just a little different in that regard. TIM SIMMONS: You've had three games, and two of them accounted. What's your observation of the team so far? Who's standing out, any surprises? COACH MAJOR: You know, I like our pieces. We've got some experienced guys to some degree. Our two elder statesmen are both true juniors. One of them is a two‑year starter, one of them is about a year‑and‑a‑half starter, and after that we've got one senior transfer who's a fifth‑year guy, and then everyone else is a freshman or sophomore. But I like our pieces. We're not quite as deep as we'd like to be, but hopefully we'll get one or two of those guys back here soon. But I really like this team a lot. They've got a great spirit with each other. They've come to practice hard every day. You know, we've had obviously a difficult loss the other night down in Charleston. For a decent portion of the game, we played really well against a team that I think has got a chance to win their conference and had a very deceiving scoring margin loss to Louisville. People that watched that game, Charleston was down three with six minutes to go and a chance to win it, on the road at Louisville. I'm very encouraged by some flashes that we've shown. We're like any other team when you've got some young guys that you're throwing into the fire, just try to go them quickly and the best way to grow them quickly is to just keep throwing them into the fire. DAN SHOEMAKER: I thought you were really strong up the middle in terms of your point guard who I think is as good as anybody in the country, and I was really impressed with your center in that game I saw the other night against Charleston. COACH MAJOR: Well, thank you, and it was a pleasure meeting you, and thank you for having us as part of the tournament. Pierriá Henry has kind of been our quarterback at point guard the past couple years, and he's an outstanding young man and a high‑level competitor. He's kind of grown into a leadership role for us, and kind of our two big guys inside, Willie Clayton and Mike Thorne. Willie started a bunch last year. Mike is kind of being thrown into the fire this year as a red‑shirt sophomore, and Willie is a true sophomore. I think when both those guys play to the level they're capable of playing at, it definitely gives us a chance. Terrence Williams has been a starter for us a year ago as a wing, and then we have a fifth‑year transfer in Ben Cherry that kind of rounds out our starting five. But Dan, I think you're right on the‑‑ hit the nail on the head. I think if that's the key to‑‑ it's like baseball, you've got to be good up the middle, point guard play and post play are both very important in college basketball. TIM SIMMONS: Coach, the format where you play two games, off a day and then they have the finals on Sunday and so forth, how do you like the format and can you comment also about Kansas State, your first‑round opponent? COACH MAJOR: Yeah, I haven't done a ton of homework on them. We play a game tomorrow against Elon so then we'll kind of shift towards thinking about Puerto Rico, but I know they had a win last night against Oral Roberts. I worked for Bruce Weber for one year at Southern Illinois, and I was actually a manager at Purdue when Bruce was an assistant coach, so I've known Bruce a long, long time, so regardless of his personnel, I can tell you right now it's going to be a team that plays very tough man‑to‑man defense. They're going to run their motion game really well. They're going to have a balanced lineup where they're probably not leaning on one guy to do the damage. They're going to have two or three guys easily that can hurt you. And they're going to be well coached. They're going to be sound fundamentally on both ends of the court. Without knowing his roster up and down right now, I can definitely tell you that's going to be the character of Kansas State. Q. Being that Kansas State is not somebody that you're familiar with, how do you go into this tournament preparing for teams that you've not been too well exposed to? COACH MAJOR: Well, I think, number one, you try to make sure you build all your principles. Even though it's early in the year, every team is in that stage. You try to build your principles on your own team on either side of the ball, and to make sure that you go down with a tough‑minded competitive mentality. There's a phrase in coaching, toughness always travels well, and there should always be room in the backpack or suitcase for a good dose of toughness. So you have to bring that irregardless of who you play. So any direction you turn, you're going to get a tough game in this tournament. But I think when you're in these tournament settings, you really try to carry into it just a toughness and a soundness as much as you can in early November, mid‑November, this time of year, but no matter who you play, being sound on both sides of the ball and being tough in a three‑game and four‑day setting, those things always will translate into helping you play your best. Q. Just wanted to talk about what's the importance of these preseason conference tournaments? Do you believe we're at a point where it's imperative that programs find a way into these tournaments? COACH MAJOR: Yeah, I can't speak for everyone. That's a great question, by the way. But I can speak for us. We like it just because if you‑‑ in a conference tournament setting at the end of the year, you put yourself in that mode of three games, and often times three days in a conference tournament setting. I think going against high‑level competition, it gives you a gauge of where you're at. That's a positive. I think it also teaches your team how to understand how to take care of its body and get rest and prepare in these quick turnaround settings to where you have to get ready for another team. So that can also help you during conference play. At least for us, we're going to have a day in between conference play, and Conference USA will be Thursday and Saturdays in terms of prep. Just developing the ability to quick turnaround prep, how much processing, the right information in a short period of time, and then obviously if you can be fortunate enough to play well or even win one of these, I just think it gives your team great confidence moving forward into the rest of your non‑conference play and then heading into conference play. TIM SIMMONS: Coach, good luck with your game this weekend, and we'll see you in Puerto Rico. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|