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PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE MEN'S MEDIA DAYOctober 15, 2015Sean MillerKaleb TarczewskiSan Francisco, California COACH MILLER: Well, great to be here for Kaleb and I. Any time we come to the Bay, first thing I think you think about is for us these days is the Golden State Warriors and Steve Kerr and Luke Walton and Andre Iguodala and winning an NBA championship. And certainly we wish Steve Kerr in particular a speedy and full recovery, and anxious to see him back on the sidelines. You know, today represents the beginning of a lot of good things for college basketball, and I think on our side at Arizona there's a lot of new faces. If you'd walk into the McKale Center and watch us practice, you'd find yourself for the first time in several seasons maybe not knowing everybody's name and figuring out who's who. The one common theme that we do, in fact, have, though, is unique senior leadership and experience. The guy next to me, I don't know if I've coached too many players, if ever, a player that has been more unselfish, more giving, more hard‑working than Kaleb. He has an opportunity to graduate from the Eller School of Business, which from an undergraduate perspective is one of our most prominent programs at the University of Arizona. He also has an opportunity on the court to leave as the all‑time winningest player in our program's history, which considering the history is an incredible statement. But also so many players that have something like that didn't contribute early in their career. They were more the beneficiary of a great player or a team. In Kaleb's case, he's been a starter from day one, and he's been a big part of every team and every season he's been on. It's the senior leadership, Kaleb and Gabe York and two transfers, Ryan Anderson and Mark Tolleson, and I know those of you who are from the Bay know Mark from his days at San Francisco, although they haven't played for us, they're in their fifth year as college basketball players. So those are four very experienced players, and we're going to lean on them to bring it all together for us. I would say the other attribute that this team has here early on is I think we have good depth. There isn't a huge difference between maybe the ninth or tenth player and maybe the third or fourth player. That sounds sometimes better than it really is, but we could be a team who plays nine or ten guys each game and tries to grow as the year goes, and I think that we'll be that team if given the benefit of health, that in February, if you watch it, we could be a much better team than maybe we are at the beginning of the year in November when we're trying to put all of this together. Q. Coach, you talked a lot about TJ McConnell and how he was sort of your voice on the court, coach on the court. Who's that guy for your team this year? COACH MILLER: You know, that's one of many things that we're working through. Tucker Jackson‑Cartwright is someone that benefitted a lot from TJ a year ago. When you practice against a guy like that every day, Kaleb will be the first one to tell you, you've got to strap it on. And Parker learned a lot from TJ, benefitted a tremendous amount, watched his closely, and Parker in his own right played in about 35 games last year. He's gotten stronger since you've seen him last. I would say that he's in the 160s, maybe about 165, 166 right now, maybe even heavier. When he played for us a year ago he was in the 150s, and that's a huge difference when you consider the strength difference, and we noticed that. Kadeem Allen is also somebody that practiced with us every day last year, is a very talented player. He could play more than one guard position, but is an older guy and brings a different element at that position. And Kadeem is 6'2", 6'3" and really long arms and excellent defensive player. We're working that out. And like I had mentioned, sometimes your leadership, although you always want it to be the point guard on the floor, it can come from seniors, it can come from guys that have been through big games like Kaleb has. So that's part of what we're talking a lot about now as a team, that it's important that we do have the right leadership in place. Q. I just wanted to get your thoughts on the off‑season strides that Cal's made. I want to get your thoughts on what they've been doing and how they fit into the conference heading into the season? COACH MILLER: Cal is going to be a terrific team. Cuonzo Martin and his staff have done a tremendous job. I'm not saying this because coach is here, but Mike Montgomery did a great job as well. I think what Cal does is they blend two elements, a lot like we have the last two years in that they have an influx of new talent that are among the best, but also a veteran group that has been coached well, that has been through multiple PAC‑12 seasons, and that have the opportunity to be all‑conference players, players like Tyrone Wallace and Jabari Bird and those guys are good players, as well. So I think what they have going for them is that blend of talent, both old and new, and that can be a powerful thing. Q. Kaleb, I was just kind of wondering as far as your on‑court game, what are some of your biggest goals to improve? Is it offense? Defense? What's going on there? KALEB TARCZEWSKI: You know, the off‑season is really a time for basketball players to really work on their game, and you know, a lot of people think about it as a skill set, working on your skills on the court. For me over the summer I was working on my post play. I was working on increasing my range on my jump shot a little bit. But for me this summer, the most important thing I've thought that kind of bridged the gap between where I am now and where I want to be is my mental game. I feel like, you know, people say it all the time, basketball is 90 percent mental, 10 percent physical. And I really thought that if I could go into this season with the right mindset, just go in there, have fun and try and enjoy my last year in college, that that would really be the thing that would help me the most. Q. Sean, you worked with UCLA's Thomas Welsh this summer. What did you pick up from him and where did he make the biggest stride? COACH MILLER: He'd been around a lot of kids brief periods of times, sometimes guys that you've coached or even going back to when I played the game, teammates. I don't know if I've been around a nicer kid. I mean, a more respectful kid and somebody who works really, really hard in addition to being that‑‑ he said thank you, I think, 26 days in a row after every practice or game. It's just kind of who he is, and he did it in a very natural way. But Thomas is one of those guys, I think Kaleb would speak to this, that we respect a great deal. He's got tremendous mobility, and he has the ability to knock down perimeter shots, and he shoots open 15 to 17 foot shots. It's like watching a great three‑point shooter get a wide‑open one and it goes in. But really more than anything, you learn a lot about these guys as people, and he's a tremendous kid. Q. Sean, do you feel like‑‑ it seems like the expectations, there's a big close race at the top. You guys have been getting a nod from a lot of people. Is that how you see it playing out, the big mix there? COACH MILLER: Hopefully the way they picked it, it finishes that way. That means a lot of good things have happened for us. But this season more so than any in recent years, there's a group of teams that can win the regular season championship. I think that's fairly obvious, starting with the number of key players that we've lost, and for us it's really a two‑year attrition. You start back with Aaron Gordon and Nick Johnson, they had a lot to do with the team that Kaleb played on, overall No.1 seed in his sophomore season. And then obviously last year there's only one starter that's sitting up here that remains. TJ McConnell, Brandon Ashley, Rondae Hollins, Jefferson, Stanley Johnson. When those six leave, it's going to feel different, and for us it does. That doesn't mean that we can't have a great season, but I believe that part of us having a great season this year is to maybe handle November and December, and the ups and downs that may come with a team like ours. The last three years we've lost one non‑conference game, and when you go through that, if you lose a game in November or December, it can become almost like, What's wrong with Arizona. If you look at the start this year in the PAC‑12, I think five of our first seven are on the road, three in a row on the road. We could start off slowly and still end up being a conference champion or have a great season. It's going to depend on this guy to my right, who is, I think, going to be a great leader for us and his group making sure that we continue to improve and stay focused on being the best team we can become, not what happened a year ago or what hasn't happened in a while, but I think more along the lines of staying focused through each practice and through each game because we do have a huge upside of growing as the year grows. Q. You lose the four players that you talked about this season alone, and I think anyone would forgive you for a down year, forgive you for a rebuilding mode, but you've had so much success with transfers, and TJ bridging the gap and now between Mark and Ryan, what can you attribute that success to? And what do you do, do you think, to make Arizona a destination for players who might be looking for another option? COACH MILLER: Well, it's a puzzle, and it used to be a puzzle that maybe you looked at through a four‑ or five‑year window of time. All of us have to look at it in a one‑year window of time because a lot can change in six months. I was going over just even on the trip up here, we were trying to put together this year's recruiting class, and this would be our eighth since we've with come to Arizona. And I believe we've signed 35 players in seven years. If you would have said when you first get here you're going to sign 35 players in seven years, I would probably give you the answer I'm not going to be the coach at Arizona. A lot has gone wrong. But I think what it speaks to is that's the fluidness of our game, whether it's somebody leaving prematurely through a transfer because they thought things would happen quicker than it did. The best players in your program not getting to the end of their career. It forces you as a coaching staff to bring a lot of new faces in. So part of it, slowing that down, is to get great players, not just people‑‑ Kaleb is a great example, somebody who I believe when he leaves Arizona will be the most ready to have the longest career he can have. It's not when you get it started, it's how ready are you to stay in it, and he's giving himself that best chance in my opinion because of the decision he made. With transfers, it slows down some of that transition, and instead of always welcoming in 18‑year‑old new faces who have never been a part of college, you can cushion some of the loss with somebody like a Ryan Anderson, who's played in the ACC for three years, who also practiced with us over 100 times last year. I think Kaleb will tell you that if you watch Ryan right now, he doesn't look like a new player. One, he's one of our best, but also he's practiced with us for an entire year, so that's also the benefit of the transfer. In Mark Tolleson's case, he's eligible immediately. That's a little different. But Kadeem Allen, Mark Tolleson and Ryan Anderson we looked at a year and a half, two years ago that as some of these players early that we could still hopefully maintain some stability. Obviously more than anything, Kaleb's return, who he is on our team, I think that gives us the most stability we could have had from last year to this year. Q. For you and your involvement with USA Basketball at the Pan‑American games, what were the biggest takeaways for you from your experience and how will it help you in your final season at Arizona? KALEB TARCZEWSKI: Being a part of the USA Pan‑American team this summer was a great experience for me. Being able to represent not only yourself but your country, it was something that, you know, you kind of grow up and it's something you always want to do. You know, for me it was really fun being coached by some of our sworn enemies during the season and realizing they're just normal guys, good people. And for me, my best takeaway from the experience was really being able to learn from some of the older guys, some of the veterans that have played professionally, whether it's over here in the States or in Europe. You know, the knowledge that they could kind of provide myself and some of the older kind of seniors looking for next year, looking to go on to be professional, it was really helpful. It was a great experience, and got to go up to Toronto and win a bronze medal, and it was a great way to spend my summer. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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