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PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE MEN'S MEDIA DAYOctober 15, 2015Gerry BlakesNina DavisSan Francisco, California BOBBY HURLEY: It's been a pretty smooth transition for me, and guys like Gerry Blakes have made it that way, and have enjoyed my first several months on the job and working with the guys and what we're starting to build. Had a great two weeks of practice. I think we've put a lot in, and we're in a good position for where we need to be at this time of year, and I'm just excited about the season, just with so many veteran players returning, from a team that got to the NIT last year, to have four starters back, and then having added some guys who we feel great about, you know, I feel good about what we're starting to build at Arizona State. Q. Coach, why was Arizona State the right move for you in your career? BOBBY HURLEY: I respect the conference, and having been a player and played at a high level, and to be in a league that has had the tradition that the league has and the ability to send multiple teams to the tournament every year was something that really factored into my decision, and I knew I was returning a really good team at Buffalo, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Beyond the conference, I think Phoenix is an unbelievable city. It's great what we can sell to recruits and trying to attract talent, and then the commitment is there from the administration I was looking for. The facilities are there. I had a chance to practice at ASU last year when I was with Buffalo, playing against Grand Canyon, and saw our practice facility and was just blown away by it, and what that would be like for a guy to want to work on his game and get in that gym was something that was really exciting to see. So it had everything that I was kind of looking for. Q. Coach, usually first year of taking over a program is about establishing your identity, but how much do you feel like you have to win now returning so many starters and having a team that performed pretty well at the end of last season? BOBBY HURLEY: I like the players we're working with. We're not super deep. We have nine guys available. That being said, I have a lot of confidence in what I'm seeing from all nine of those players, and I think a key for us will be staying healthy, obviously, and so far we've been able to do that. Going through the grind of some really tough, long practices, that'll be a key thing. But you want to gain traction. You want to create an expectation of winning at a high level as soon as possible, and there are guys that have the urgency in the program that want to see that happen right now, like the guy sitting to my right, and several other veteran players that want to experience the NCAA Tournament. That's what we have our sights set on right now. Q. Gerry, I want you to share what it's like to play under somebody with such an amazing résumé like Coach Hurley. GERRY BLAKES: It's definitely a blessing to have Coach Hurley as our coach, being that as a basketball player, you want the knowledge of someone who's done it before you or that has a winning résumé, and a winning basically lifestyle. Everything he's done as a player has been winning, and that's what I want to do, so I'm like a sponge. I just take like all the knowledge I can. Q. Can you talk about just kind of how the team is picking up the new system, what you've seen through a couple weeks, and like coach said, being a senior with a new coach, there is kind of an urgency to try to win right away? GERRY BLAKES: For me being a senior, the urgency is definitely there, and the urgency is here with my coach, and I just try to echo some of the things that he says to our players and try to emphasize some of the same things, also put myself in a position to help our team and be that coach on the court, because someone has to establish that with him being the new guy here, and I wanted to be that. Q. I was wondering, Bobby, is there a situation where you use some of your Duke connections to bring in some people to practice or to the program and kind of maybe make those connections to the current ASU team? BOBBY HURLEY: I'm sorry, when you say bring people into practice‑‑ Q. Like is Christian Laettner going to come to an ASU practice? BOBBY HURLEY: We haven't gotten that far along with Christian making the trip. Grant Hill was in town. His wife was performing in Phoenix, and he stopped by the practice facility, so it was great seeing him. He shared a few thoughts with the players, which is invaluable, a guy that's accomplished what he's accomplished in the game, and really would be successful in almost anything he would do. Any chance you have to take advantage of those things, we'd be definitely interested in doing that. Q. Obviously you've had a lot of success recruiting a lot of kids in this state. How important will that be for you? Do you look at a lot of kids in this part of the country as you establish your recruiting pipeline? BOBBY HURLEY: Yeah, we want guys in the program from California to be successful, and hopefully Gerry is trending to have a great season. He's from California. We want to‑‑ it's obviously important to us, and we're going to take a national approach to recruiting and be strategic in terms of our relationships and how we could continue to bring the players we need to bring in to be successful. But certainly California is important to us. Q. Gerry, has Coach made major changes in what you do offensively and defensively from what you've been doing here before? And Coach Hurley, have you done that, and what have you seen in terms of things that can carry over? BOBBY HURLEY: I mean, the system is different. Every coach, there are philosophical differences. I think maybe our plays tend to be more quick‑hitting, which was the system that we had in Buffalo. I think it favors the shot clock with the change there. Defensively, I'm fairly blue collar in my background, so I'm asking the guys to defend at a high level. I think they've been very easy to coach, and that means that Coach Sendek recruited guys with good character and worked hard, and I didn't have to dramatically change the culture, it's just maybe just a difference of the type of offense we're running or what I might be asking defensively. And Gerry can comment on that more because he was here last year and now this year. GERRY BLAKES: I think it's definitely changed, but I've had the pleasure of working with Coach Sendek, and he's a great coach, and now I have Coach Hurley. Defense is our biggest thing that we're like emphasized by him. He wants us to get after it and push the ball on offense. Our recent motto I heard from him was we can't be an up‑tempo team by taking a ball out of the net. So that means like get stops and get to running. So I think that's a big one for us. And in practice we do a lot of defensive drills. Yeah, looking forward to that. Q. Your counterpart Charli Turner Thorne is just coming off a trip to the Sweet 16, and you're the fifth men's head coach that she's had to indoctrinate into the Tempe way during her 29 years. What's the best piece of advice she's given you so far? BOBBY HURLEY: I mean, I haven't really talked with Charli in long detail about advice she would give me necessarily. I think we've had a nice transition. She's made it easy, very welcoming to me in the office area and has offered her services with my son for potential AAU team, which was terrific. And I certainly respect what she's accomplished, and to bring a team to a Sweet 16 is a fantastic accomplishment, and look forward to working with her and elevating the program where she's gotten the women's program to. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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