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PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE MENS' MEDIA DAYOctober 23, 2014Lorenzo RomarNigel Williams-GossLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: Introducing Washington head coach Coach Romar and student‑athlete Nigel Williams‑Goss. Opening remarks. COACH ROMAR: Like every year, the adrenaline is flowing. We're excited that the season is upon us. For us at the University of Washington, I know Nigel can attest to this, seems like it's been forever for us to get back to practice and start to play games again. We've had a couple of weeks of practicing together, trying to get prepared for this season. We will have a closed‑door scrimmage next week, then here we go. We're excited about it. We're ready to get going. THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Nigel, I saw you were working out with Will Conroy. Talk about your summer, the camp. NIGEL WILLIAMS‑GOSS: I had a great summer working out with the pros from Washington, the Washington area, and U‑Dub alums. It was a pleasure to work out with guys like Will Conroy, Jamal Crawford, Isaiah Thomas, Tony Wroten, all those guys. They helped my game tremendously. I learned a lot at camp from playing with guys at that level. Q. Coach, Nigel is named captain this year. What signified he would be right to take that role? COACH ROMAR: Nigel, he's one of those guys that he has no choice, he doesn't know any other way but to lead. I think you put him right now in any situation, he'll sit back and assess the situation, before you know it he'll be trying to lead. He was a leader last year in a lot of ways, but wasn't officially named captain. This role for him now, we just felt it was a natural for him because he already is a tremendous leader. Q. Do you have any feelings about how the league is going to shake out this year? Anything that you feel you need to do to stay at the top? COACH ROMAR: Well, this is a league here where there's some obvious good teams. Arizona, it's well‑noted they're a top‑five team. Some even believe they're the number one team going into the season. UCLA is back. Colorado, Utah. There are a number of teams that are going to be quality this year. The other teams people don't recognize as much are going to really try to step it up to make sure they match the top‑level teams here. We have to make sure that we're healthy. We have to make sure that we come as close as we can every day to reach whatever ceiling we have this year. If we can do that, I think we can be very competitive throughout the year. Q. Coach, we have a fan question for you. He said University of Washington has always had amazing three‑point forwards. How do we keep up tempo? COACH ROMAR: That is something we definitely want to do. I think we have a very strong perimeter this year. Nigel is returning, had a very good freshman year. Nigel has gotten stronger and wiser. He's even more efficient. He'll kind of spearhead that up‑tempo attack. That's what we practice doing every day. Q. What has been the focus, if any, on improving the defense? COACH ROMAR: Well, we've hit that hard early. I think trying to create an identity in that regard, making sure our group understands the importance of what we're going to do on the defensive end. If we're going to be successful at all, if we're going to win big games this year, advance to the NCAA tournament, it will be because we played good on the defensive end. That's what we're trying to make sure our team understands. Q. Nigel, coach has been really high on Jernard Jarreau. Seems like he's getting back to full fitness. NIGEL WILLIAMS‑GOSS: He obviously has had a tough stretch up until this point. He's doing really well now. He's healthy. He's put on about 30 pounds. He won't be the skinny Jernard. He is so skilled. He was a guard growing up that hit a growth spurt. Now he's a guard in a 6'11" body. We can do a lot of things offensively and defensively. I think he can be big for us. Q. Coach, Jernard and Jahmel Taylor changed jersey numbers for this season. What was the impetus for that? COACH ROMAR: In their own right they said they wanted a new start. Jernard sat out last year, wasn't able to play due to the ACL injury. He is chomping at the bit to get back out on the basketball court. Jahmel didn't play as much as he wanted to. There were a number of things he realized he needed to work on. Both of them, it's just a statement to them that this is a fresh start and I'm anxious to get going in a different capacity. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you for your time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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