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MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEApril 1, 2014Mindy BonhamBill CordsMichael R. LovellSteve WojciechowskiSCOTT KUYKENDALL:ﾃつ How's everybody doing?ﾃつ My name is Scott Kuykendall; I'm the Associate Athletic Director for Communications.ﾃつ It is my job to get this kicked I don't ever and explain exactly what's going on happen especially for the media.ﾃつ We appreciate, obviously, everybody coming especially on such short notice in what is obviously a very special day for Marquette basketball and the university.ﾃつ I will introduce our next speaker, and we will go from there.ﾃつ Coach will be available for questions from the media after he concludes his opening statement;ﾃつ we'll have a couple people with microphones for the media here in the front. At this time, I'd like to introduce our President‑Elect, Dr.Michael Lovell. DR. MICHAEL R. LOVELL:ﾃつ Wow, it's hard to believe it's just last week, six days ago I was honored and being announced as the 24th President of Marquette University, and at that time the first question I got was, "How soon do we get a new basketball coach?"ﾃつ And I said I promised we'd move as quickly as possible, and I believe we have.ﾃつ I've been working very closely with Father Wild and Bill Cords to make sure we hired the right coach. And I've learned two things since taking over just six days ago; the first that the Marquette name and its brand is second to none in college basketball.ﾃつ We have a lot of people that are interested in coming to be our coach, and I had even more people interested in telling me who should be our coach. But I will tell you, as I worked with Father Wild and Bill, it was so important to us to find someone with integrity, experience, and an appreciation for academic excellence, and we found that person in Steve.ﾃつ I was greatly impressed by Bill Cord's knowledge and the deep network that he had that stretches all across the nation.ﾃつ He's been down these roads before, and it shone as we went through the process.ﾃつ We had a great potential pool of candidates to choose from, and it was clear that Father Wild and Bill were great people to have return to this campus to help me make this decision. There are a few people behind me that I'd like to thank.ﾃつ Many of you know, Father Wild.ﾃつ Father Wild, thank you so much.ﾃつ We have John Ferraro, the vice chair of the board of trustees, John. Now even though they're not up here, my wife, Amy, and I have been very privileged to not only get to know Steve, but his wife Lindsay and their two little boys Jack and Charlie.ﾃつ So if you wouldn't mind, would you guys stand up?ﾃつ I can tell you, Lindsay, Jack, and Charlie, it is an honor to welcome you to the Marquette family. Now let me tell you about why I'm so excited to have Steve as Marquette's 17th men's basketball coach.ﾃつ You know, he's a winner on the court, and he has all the values that we expect at Marquette University.ﾃつ As I met Steve and got to know him, our values aligned on so many levels.ﾃつ First and foremost, Steve represents all that we aspire to be at Marquette University.ﾃつ He is a winner in every aspect of his life.ﾃつ He's the ultimate competitor who knows how to win.ﾃつ I have to tell you, I'm pretty competitive too, and I'm a little upset that his approval rating right now is about 2% more than mine on the online poll. He has a level of charisma that one of his former players described as a fireball of energy.ﾃつ Steve gets recruiting.ﾃつ He just recruited the top class in the country at Duke, and we are excited he's going to bring that expertise here to Marquette. He's accomplished so much on the court as well.ﾃつ He's won not just one National Championship, but two, and he's helped some of the most superior athletes in the world as part of USA basketball.ﾃつ You may recognize a few of those players, Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and even our own Dwyane Wade.ﾃつ I promise you within five minutes of meeting Steve, you will know that he belongs in the Marquette family. Finally I'd like to share how we got to this point today.ﾃつ I think there is a very thoughtful, considerate, comprehensive process, and we had many great candidates, many finalists, all of whom were head coaches except for one in the very beginning we had our eyes on Steve because of what he represented, where he came from, and where we thought he could take our program. Now before you hear from Steve, which I'm sure you're all excited to do, I want to welcome Bill Cords our Interim Athletic Director to share more about our search for our 17th coach, and will you please help me welcome Bill for doing such an outstanding job in getting us here today. BILL CORDS:ﾃつ Thank you, Mike, and we appreciate your immediate commitment and your leadership in this search.ﾃつ You talk about hitting the ground with your feet running, Dr.Lovell, that's certainly been the case.ﾃつ But you've been a very strong force in this. Father Wild, I've always appreciated your friendship, I've always appreciated your wisdom, and I've always appreciated your support.ﾃつ I thank you for that. John Ferraro, now, let me tell you something, we've been doing this for several days, and I can tell you that if you want anything done, expeditiously, effectively, thoroughly, John makes it happen.ﾃつ I hope that he is a chair of the board of trustees for the next 20 years.ﾃつ He's been a driving force in this whole process. In the time‑‑ I've been here since 1987.ﾃつ I took a little rest and I came back, but this is the strongest, the deepest, and the best quality field of candidates for the head coaching basketball position I've ever seen by far.ﾃつ We have a very good program right now, and that is the result of the university's support and our student‑athletes, and our athletic programs, our staff, from the Marquette family and most importantly from the student‑athletes.ﾃつ So we're at a very good point right now. We were looking for someone that could take us to where our vision is, and our vision has always been to get to the top.ﾃつ Steve has been to the top twice.ﾃつ He comes from a culture that expects every time to try to get to the top, and they get there sometimes, and he will bring all of that with him to Marquette.ﾃつ I had the opportunity to visit and talk with some very outstanding people in this process who have called to talk about the candidates.ﾃつ One was Jerry Colangelo, who is a former owner of the Phoenix Suns, and the Founder and Director of USA Basketball, which has changed the face of the American National Team when they compete in the World Games and when they compete in the Olympics.ﾃつ They brought Coach Krzyzewski and his staff to that program to work with the players.ﾃつ These are the best players in the world, and Dr.Lovell has talked about the level of players.ﾃつ Steve would get out on that floor, and he would work with those players and help them get better, and he earned the respect of every single one of them.ﾃつ That's a Lebron James, that's a Kobe Bryant, that's a Dwyane Wade, and that speaks volumes. I had a chance to talk to Mike Krzyzewski.ﾃつ For him to say in the past ten years I have become a better coach because of Steve being beside me says volumes.ﾃつ He comes from a proud and rich tradition.ﾃつ You will notice starting today his energy, his vision, and how dynamic he is.ﾃつ He's committed to shaping our players as students, as athletes, and as persons.ﾃつ Lindsay and Charlie and Jack, welcome to the Marquette family.ﾃつ I hope you have an opportunity to spend as many years with them as I have had the privilege to spend. So, Marquette family, and to all of you, let's welcome the head men's basketball coach of Marquette University, Steve Wojciechowski. COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI:ﾃつ Thank you.ﾃつ Thank you very much.ﾃつ I'm both honored and humbled to be standing before you today, and thank you all for being here and thank you, John, Father Wild, Bill, and Dr.Lovell, for giving me this amazing opportunity. Marquette is a place that I've admired from a distance for a long time, and in the last few days I've had a chance to experience it up close and personal, and it's exceeded every expectation.ﾃつ So to the administration, the faculty, the staff, thank you for creating a brand in Marquette University that is recognized both nationally and internationally. I also want to say thank you to the former coaches and the former players who have made an amazingly proud tradition that is Marquette basketball.ﾃつ I am honored to take the lead of this program and build it to amazing heights.ﾃつ The game of basketball has been incredibly good to me.ﾃつ It's taken me places that are beyond belief, but today I stand here and this is the most proud day in my basketball life, being with you all, celebrating this day as the new men's head basketball coach at Marquette University. In a whirlwind couple of days, there are things that I will always remember.ﾃつ And today a moment that I will always remember is walking in to the locker room the first time and seeing my new team.ﾃつ I could not be more excited to get to work with these guys. I did my research just as Marquette did on me, and everybody I talk to about the caliber of kids that were in the program raved about them.ﾃつ I cannot wait to be around these guys on a day‑to‑day basis and build something together that can be special, meaningful, and last a lifetime.ﾃつ I am so fortunate to have a lot of tremendous role models that have helped me along the way.ﾃつ In basketball there's been none bigger than Coach "k" and my experience at Duke University.ﾃつ What I've learned from him both as a player and as a coach has been invaluable.ﾃつ He's allowed me to understand just how fun and incredible the game of basketball is, but when used the right way, how it can change your life.ﾃつ I hope to do that here at Marquette. I want our guys and our players to try to win every day.ﾃつ I want to win every day, and I want to win every day as basketball players.ﾃつ I want to win every day as students, and I want to win every day, most importantly, as people.ﾃつ I think we can all get behind that. So as I stand before you today, I could not be more excited to get that journey started, to get moving forward, to working with these guys and start winning every day.ﾃつ I'm so excited to be a part of a program that has an amazing fan base and enthusiasm and a thirst for being outstanding at the game of basketball.ﾃつ I cannot wait to get to know our students.ﾃつ I come from a place where the students at the university and the basketball team are one.ﾃつ That's what I want to do here. We want our team to represent our student body, our alumni, and all the employees of the university in the very highest manner, and be a source of pride and growth and excitement when you watch us play, when you see us on campus and do what we do. So I'm excited to get to know our students as well.ﾃつ Lastly, but certainly not least, I want to thank my family.ﾃつ When I was being interviewed, I told the people at Marquette the most important thing to me is my family.ﾃつ This reason felt right‑‑ this decision for me felt right for a lot of obvious reasons from a basketball standpoint and from a standpoint of being a part of a great university and a great university community. The thing that put it over the top was the support of my wife and my two boys.ﾃつ So I'd like to thank them for joining me today.ﾃつ We cannot wait for the Wojciechowski family‑‑ don't worry.ﾃつ You will not be tested on the spelling.ﾃつ It's like, ﾃや弩here's your house keyﾃや and put Wojo in front. One of the things Coach said yesterday, you can get a lot better Polish food in Milwaukee than you could have ever gotten in Durham, NorthCarolina.ﾃつ So we can't wait for our family to join yours, and for your family to join ours.ﾃつ With that, I'd like to open it up to any questions that you may have. Q.ﾃつ Coach, when you compare and contrast your experience at Duke University to what you see here at Marquette, how do the two compare specifically, Duke versus Marquette? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI:ﾃつ Well, I see a lot of similarities.ﾃつ One, it's a great school that can attract kids who want the best of all worlds.ﾃつ They want the best of the world of education.ﾃつ They want to be educated and they want to be around other character‑driven people.ﾃつ You can also have the best of basketball.ﾃつ The past has proven that.ﾃつ It's been done here, and it can be done again.ﾃつ That's something for me that's incredibly exciting, and that's one of the big reasons why after a long time at Duke, and being part of a special place, that I felt in my heart that Marquette University was the right place for both me and my family. Q.ﾃつ Have you been able this morning to talk to some of the signed recruits, the incoming freshmen and maybe their feedback? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI:ﾃつ Well, I have not yet.ﾃつ It's been‑‑ if I took you through the last 24 hours, it's been a whirlwind, and I didn't officially get the job until this morning where the I's were dotted and the T's were crossed.ﾃつ As I told these guys today, my number one priority is these guys, and I will be in contact with the guys who are committed and have said they want to play as soon as possible.ﾃつ Right away. But understand that these young men behind me have gone through a very hard transition.ﾃつ One of the things I'm fortunate at being a former player and a guy who has played at a lot of different levels and gone through things, the transition of losing a coach is a difficult one.ﾃつ So the number one thing I need to do is work right away to build a great relationship with the young men behind me.ﾃつ So we have the same vision for what's going to be going on moving forward.ﾃつ I want to include in that the guys who have signed and committed to play here. So those‑‑ that is my priority over the next couple days, and I will be working tirelessly at that. Q.ﾃつ Besides the comment about Polish food, what is Coach "K's" biggest advice to you as you take over here? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI:ﾃつ Well, when I called Coach this morning, my first question to him was if he had any interest in being my associate head coach and doing halftime interviews?ﾃつ Surprisingly, he said no.ﾃつ He said I couldn't afford him, which is very true.ﾃつ The advice that Coach "K" gave me was to be myself.ﾃつ He believes in Marquette.ﾃつ What he told me about the university, about the program, could not have been more come complimentary, and obviously, he is a person that I lean on heavily in all the decisions I make.ﾃつ To hear him speak so glowingly about the program, its history and tradition, but also about its potential going forward was incredibly exciting. I think the thing that most excited me about what he said is he talked about the quality of people at this university, and for as many great things as he's done at Duke and certainly Duke has done for him, if you talk to him, he would say it is a result of the quality of people that are there and are on his team, both players, staff, administration, and the university as a whole.ﾃつ So all those things, after I got over the fact that he wasn't going to be the associate head coach, rang clear and loudly to me. Q.ﾃつ Coach, with Coach "K" now turning you down, you do have the opportunity to build your own staff.ﾃつ What are your philosophies going to be about building your own staff, and what kind of a time line are you looking at? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI:ﾃつ Well, I want to have a great staff.ﾃつ I think it's of huge importance, and I want to move quickly, but I want to be smart about it.ﾃつ I want to get guys who will fit with who I am as a person, complement me for where I am as a Coach and make these guys better.ﾃつ I want guys who will dive into the game of basketball and dive into relationships to help our guys reach their full potential both individually and collectively.ﾃつ So I have people in mind.ﾃつ I'm not prepared to talk about them at this point because it's a moving process.ﾃつ But the hiring of a staff, obviously, is of utmost importance, and I want to move quickly, but I want to do it to where we're getting the best staff not at the expense of moving quickly. Q.ﾃつ Can you take us through the last 24 hours and what was that moment like when they said, Would you like the job? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI:ﾃつ It was incredible.ﾃつ It's overwhelming.ﾃつ The college coaching profession is an incredible profession, but the decision timelines that you have to make to make life‑altering decisions are very unusual.ﾃつ So the last 24 hours there has been a wide spectrum of emotions.ﾃつ Excitement, anxiety, tears of joy, tears of sadness because we're going to be leaving a place that we love.ﾃつ But at the end of the day, we kept coming back to it just felt right.ﾃつ I'm a guy who has always tried to do things with my heart, for better or worse.ﾃつ It's usually worked out for the better, and it just feels right. Q.ﾃつ I don't know if the guys in the back row remember this, but a lot of us who have watched college basketball remember a young point guard slapping the floor on defense and getting after it, being pretty fiery personality.ﾃつ How do you bring that grittiness and fire that you had as a player to the head coaching position? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI:ﾃつ Well, I am who I am, and it goes back to being myself.ﾃつ I think I'm as competitive as they come.ﾃつ I love the game of basketball, and I think it should be played a certain way.ﾃつ The number one way it should be played is hard all the time.ﾃつ If we're going to try to do things big, we have to make big investments, and the investment is not just a physical investment, it's an emotional investment, and it's an investment of your heart.ﾃつ That is the way I tried to play, and, again, it served me well. I don't know if I can get down low enough to be slapping the floor.ﾃつ I'm going to have to have these guys do that for me, but I certainly remember those days as well. Q.ﾃつ The assumption as an assistant at Duke is that you've had many other opportunities to be a head coach.ﾃつ Is it true?ﾃつ Did you ever come close to leaving before and why now? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI:ﾃつ I have had the opportunities.ﾃつ I maybe came close maybe one other time.ﾃつ Why now?ﾃつ Because I think Marquette is the perfect place for me and my family to make this step.ﾃつ Duke has been great for me.ﾃつ It's a place where I grew up.ﾃつ I have amazing relationships and it's a place that made me better every single day.ﾃつ So I wasn't going to leave for just any job.ﾃつ I was only going to leave for the job that I thought is the perfect job for me, and I feel like Marquette is that place.ﾃつ That's why I'm so excited about it. If you talk to people about me I'm a very loyal guy.ﾃつ I have amazing loyalty to the university and to Coach "K" and I can't wait to have that same loyalty to Marquette and this program. Q.ﾃつ Coach, welcome to Milwaukee and Marquette.ﾃつ It's a pleasure to have you here.ﾃつ What was the first thing that you said to the guys?ﾃつ You mentioned walking into the locker room and feeling so much excitement.ﾃつ What was the first thing you told your guys when you walked into that locker room the first time? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI:ﾃつ I told them I can't wait to get to work.ﾃつ My favorite place is the locker room.ﾃつ So as I walked in, I try to go up to all of them and give them a hug and tell them that I can't wait to get to work with them.ﾃつ But I also understand where they're coming from.ﾃつ My priority is to work on the relationships that they have here.ﾃつ I want the players to trust me, and I think trust is built by telling the truth and doing your best every day.ﾃつ That was my promise to them that I will always tell them the truth, that they will get my best every day, and the deal is I will expect them to give me their best.ﾃつ If we can do that one simple thing, then some really terrific things can happen for all of us. Q.ﾃつ You mentioned investment and the perfect place for you.ﾃつ In your research of Marquette, how important was that investment in basketball that basketball is sort of the flagship athletic program in this university. COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI:ﾃつ Well, it's huge.ﾃつ Marquette is a basketball school.ﾃつ Obviously, the university, there are amazing things going on all over the university.ﾃつ In the classroom, in research, in a lot of different ways.ﾃつ But the fact that basketball is big in the culture of the university and woven into the fabric of who the university is played a huge role. I'm coming from a place like that where it's a basketball school.ﾃつ People are excited.ﾃつ It's important to them.ﾃつ People are passionate.ﾃつ They want to see teams that win, but win the right way.ﾃつ So there's not a lot of those schools out there.ﾃつ You know, if you think around the country where you look at a school and say, you know what?ﾃつ When you talk about the fabric of that university, the basketball program is a huge part of it.ﾃつ When you look at Marquette, you can say that.ﾃつ To me, that was incredibly attractive. Q.ﾃつ Coach, welcome to you and Lindsay and Jack and Charlie.ﾃつ Hope you just love the experience on and off the court.ﾃつ I was interested to read that you're a first generation college student in your family.ﾃつ Can you talk to me about the drive?ﾃつ What shaped you as a young man that gave you all of the success you've had as a husband and father, as a Coach, and certainly as a player to get to this point today, please? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI:ﾃつ Well, I've been fortunate to be on a lot of great teams.ﾃつ The best team I've ever been on is the Wojciechowski team.ﾃつ When people look at Duke they think of an elite school and they may look at me and say I was a person of privilege and all that kind of stuff.ﾃつ Look, I'm the son of a longshoreman and a homemaker who didn't go to college.ﾃつ But what I learned from them is more important than what you could possibly learn in any classroom.ﾃつ So my parents are amazing.ﾃつ I would wish that every kid would have parents that set the example and walked the walk like my folks did. One of the reasons I love coaching is not because I'm going to replace a father or a motor Parent.ﾃつ But because you can shine that example in a different way, but have a similar impact.ﾃつ So I think about that all the time. One of the things I have in my house is my dad's hard hat that he used to wear to work every day, because he showed up to work every day, and that's what I'm going to do, and that's what I'm going to expect the people around me to do. I don't like to overcomplicate it.ﾃつ In today's day and age of college basketball, everybody's trying to reinvent the wheel a little bit.ﾃつ Ultimately, simple things that are tried and true over the test of time work, and that's you show up to work every day, you do your job, you do it to the best of your ability, and see where the chips fall. Q.ﾃつ Steve, based on Marquette's recent head coaching history, right or wrong, it's kind of been perceived as a stepping stone job.ﾃつ I was just wondering about your philosophy and your commitment to go about changing that perception? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI:ﾃつ Well, that was a question that was asked of me during the interview process.ﾃつ My sole focus is on Marquette.ﾃつ This is a place‑‑ I didn't leave the job I was at working for the guy I did at my alma mater to go to a place that I couldn't see my family at for an incredibly long time.ﾃつ Now, hopefully, I'm a good enough coach where they won't be running me out of town. But I believe in the place.ﾃつ If my track record is any indication, I stayed at Duke for 15 years.ﾃつ I could have left a lot over the last ten years, but when a place feels like home for me and a place is good for my family, then that's a place I'm going to stick with and stick to. Q.ﾃつ Coach, I know you're new to Milwaukee and Wisconsin and the Midwest.ﾃつ I just want to know how much you know about the rivalry between Marquette and Wisconsin, and your rivals right now are in the Final Four, and how badly do you want to get this team back to the Final Four? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI:ﾃつ Fortunately, I come from a place where rivalries are a very familiar topic.ﾃつ So having a rival is not anything new to me, and I love it.ﾃつ The thing that I think is so healthy is that it should be a rivalry that's built on respect.ﾃつ We have a great program at Marquette University.ﾃつ I respect the program that they have at Wisconsin and what Coach Ryan has done there. ﾃつThat doesn't mean when the ball goes up in the air there is going to be anybody who wants to win that game worse. Rivalries make you better because they keep you on your toes.ﾃつ They keep you competitive, and they keep you hungry and striving for more.ﾃつ So I love having the opportunity to continue to be a part of a rivalry that people care about, and it's exciting to me. Q.ﾃつ You spent your playing and coaching career at Duke and the ACC what your thoughts of coming to Marquette and now coaching in the Big East? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI:ﾃつ I love it.ﾃつ The fact that it's a basketball conference, I love that.ﾃつ I don't know how you couldn't love that if you're a basketball coach.ﾃつ A lot of times things are driven so much in today's day and age by football, to come to a place where basketball is the thing where there are so many storied traditions and great schools is something I'm incredibly excited about.ﾃつ So I look at the conference as a real positive in my decision making, and I can't wait to be a part of it. ﾃつI have great respect for the schools in the conference, and the coaches in the conference, and I'm honored to be a part of that fraternity right now. Q.ﾃつ Coach, in terms of Xs and Os, how closely do you want to model what Coach "K", yourself, and the assistants at Duke had done?ﾃつ Also the second part, how much do advanced statistics play a role in your game planning and how you go about coaching these guys? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI:ﾃつ Well, number one, I hope we model ourselves enough where we're hanging banners and winning conference championships and all the things that we were able to do at Duke.ﾃつ Obviously, Coach has a huge impact on what I believe in basketball, and it starts with defense first.ﾃつ Not only that is who I was as a player.ﾃつ I believe defense is what wins championships and really good defense should lead to offense and exciting and fast play. We have to figure out how our group is in a position to win every game against who we're competing against.ﾃつ So ultimately that's my job. In a perfect world, I want to play aggressive defense, I want to create offense from our defense, and I want to play a fun and fast, attacking style of offense.ﾃつ I think that's how kids want to play.ﾃつ That's how I wanted to play.ﾃつ That's how I did play, and that's how I would like our team and our group here at Marquette to play. Analytics, I think, are important.ﾃつ When you think about what's important into building a winner, I think analytics is a very important piece to the puzzle.ﾃつ I don't think it's the end‑all, be‑all.ﾃつ I think it's another resource that you should use, and if it can give you that extra edge to win, then great.ﾃつ But I'm not going to base my decisions solely on analytics, but it will be a piece of the puzzle.ﾃつ Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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