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PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE MEN'S MEDIA DAYOctober 15, 2015Cuonzo MartinTyrone WallaceSan Francisco, California CUONZO MARTIN: Excited to be here. Great times for our program, exciting times. Especially when you have this guy alongside you. Tremendous student‑athlete. Happy of the fact that he came back to school, more importantly to get his degree from Cal Berkley. That speaks the volumes about the character of guy he is. A guy that's working hard, plenty of work to do, we're very excited. Q. Cuanzo, can you address the challenges to our coach when you've got three established returning starters used to scoring the ball, and then you bring in two elite guys and have to mesh that talent together. You had a chance to do that in Australia. But what are the challenges to make sure it works well with all that talent? CUONZO MARTIN: I don't know if it's necessarily a challenge, but you have a level of talented guys and quality guys returning to your program. You're bringing in talented guys. I think the most important thing to get better every day is it's not about how many numbers you put up, but and shooting the basketball, but it's about how many rebounds, how many steals, are you being an elite defender? I think when you consume yourself with those type of stats, you have a chance to be successful. But we have the parts to score the ball. We have a lot of different pieces. We have a guy that can score, which is a good thing. I think the key is to have balance and really kind of talk about their roles. Guys embracing those roles, because the most important things have to be about winning basketball games, and I think our guys turn it up in terms of winning basketball games. Q. You talked about you obviously have a good recruiting class. You talked about what's great about Berkley and it would be the number one public institution in the world. Why do you think it's been difficult to have recruits come to your school in past years? CUONZO MARTIN: I think what happened is we have a tremendous academic institution. In the recruiting process, sometimes that's probably frowned upon, and I could never understand why, because if my son has an opportunity, he's going to Cal, and I'm fighting for that as we speak. But that's what it's about at the end of the day. I think the most important thing in recruiting is you have to make them understand they're student‑athletes, they're students first, then athletes. When they become pros, they'll be pros. So you have to put a premium on the fact that you can get one of the best degrees in the world. When you talk about the number one public institution in the world, number three global university in the world, those are big‑time numbers. Those are the stats as a father that I'm consumed with. The wins will come and go, but when you get those type of numbers, you wouldn't be here. And that's how I sell my program. You have to again make them understand the importance of getting a degree. Sometimes as young men we're consumed with tomorrow two years down the road. But my job as a coach and a father and a man, is to make them see 10 or 15 years down the road, we have two quality young guys we brought in that understood that, as well as their parents understand the most important thing because if you're that good, you'll get to where you're trying to go, what's wrong with getting one of the best degrees in the world. In the world, thank you. Q. How confident, and how ready do you guys feel to make a jump from last season to being one of the top 15 teams in the nation, and second in the Pac‑12. How confident are you to make that leap and make an impact on the national stage? CUONZO MARTIN: Is that for me? Q. Either one of you can answer that. TYRONE WALLACE: Like Coach said earlier, I think we have a lot of good pieces on our team. I think it's about how well we come together, so we just try to take every day and work hard, and then we'll be ready for battle when it comes. Q. If you can make a point, you had Purdue background, Big Ten, you had success at Midwest, and you've had experience in the SEC conference, celebrating the branding of this conference. Give us a bullet. What is the difference from this conference versus the other conferences you've been in? CUONZO MARTIN: Great question. I think they're all great conferences. I think the difference being out here in the Pac‑12, I think that just it's consumed with the academic piece, it's important to them. I think you see that across the board. Not that the other conferences didn't, but I think in the Pac‑12 they're consumed with you actually getting a degree, being successful. And they want to win basketball games, but it's not the end of the world. I think that's the separating piece for me. Q. Tyrone, what would it mean for you to be the first person in your family to graduate from college? You just heard about that a little bit before you came up here. And how much did that have a role on your decision to come back to Cal? TYRONE WALLACE: I think it definitely had a huge impact. As I mentioned before, it was a promise to my grandfather who passed away, so for me to be a first in the family to get that degree, I think it shows my siblings and my younger family and relatives that they can go to school and get a degree. It's not all about sports or anything like that. So I think that's why I'm getting my degree. Q. Just following up on another question, a previous question about expectations you're facing being picked second. Is that about what you thought, Coach, and you would be considered in recruiting? And how is that to deal with? CUONZO MARTIN: I've never been a guy‑‑ I've been in the league when we were picked 11th out of 12 teams, we finished second. So I don't think you get consumed with those type of numbers. I think the most important thing is to get better every day and try to develop your guys to post them to be the best men they can possibly become on and off the court, to try to be successful in the classroom and to win games. Because, then again, that part will present itself, and the practice and work ethic will take care of that part. But for me, I don't think I got caught up in all that, because I want to be one of the last one standing and it's important for us to fight to the end. Q. How do you kind of manage expectations? Cal hasn't had any expectations. How do you manage that and go forth from that? CUONZO MARTIN: Again, Cal has great tradition and history, one of the best coaches to ever coach in the Pac‑12 is actually in attendance. He coached at Cal. I just think one of the things for me again is just one day at a time trying to max out our talent. I know it's easier said than done. Probably not what you want to hear, but I try to live my life. I can't control anything outside of tomorrow. I just try to push these guys and make sure they go to class every day and be on time. To not just get a 2.5, but manage to fight for a 3.0. That's what I'm consumed with. I'm blessed and grateful to be coaching at one of the highest levels and one of the best leagues in the country. As long as these guys are making strides from young men to men, then I'm winning the game. That's how I look at it, but I've never been consumed with expectations. Everything is a bonus for me, and I'm excited to be here. Q. I was wondering did you get a bunch of NBA evaluations this off‑season, and what did they suggest you could be doing with your game? TYRONE WALLACE: Yeah, I got an evaluation. I think the main thing was just for me to take a step back and talk it over with Coach and my family and think about what was best for me moving forward. So I think that I did that, and I think that we have a great opportunity here with our returners and new players coming in, so we have a chance to do something special as long as we work and put the effort into it. So I'm just happy to be back. Q. Tyrone, do players celebrate recruiting success? When you guys land big players, is that something that you pay attention to? And how involved in the process do you feel you are as a player? I think it's definitely important to get highly talented recruits to come. So to get guys like us to commit, I think we definitely go out to eat and kind of try to embrace that, but I think that we've got to be instead those guys come in here and we have to work as hard as we can to make those expectations come true. But, yeah, we celebrate. I think the players do play a large role in getting those players to come, because we're going to be the people that they're going to play with at the end of the day. So I think if we can get a good feel for each other and get along well, it all works in the end. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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