|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
PAC-12 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL MEDIA DAYOctober 20, 2016Kelly GravesMaite CarzolaLexi BandoSan Francisco, California COACH GRAVES: First of all, it's great to be here, and really excited to have both Maite and Lexi with me today. You know, really looking forward to a great season in Eugene. I don't really know how to answer in terms of I don't know what we're going to get. We have seven freshmen. We have a bunch of sophomores. In fact, we only have three players, three upperclassmen who have played for the Ducks, and two of those three were junior college transfers only in their second year, so it's going to be a learning process. In fact, kind of our -- my theme anyway is we are a work in progress, there's no doubt about that. But we have a lot of really talented young pieces, a team that I think really gets along well, and I think a team with a really bright future. Q. Now that there are no remaining players from the previous coach, everyone here is affiliated with you, in what way do you think the program runs the way you want it to run? COACH GRAVES: Well, I think we always recruit skill. Look at the players I've recruited over my entire career, we love long athletes who are also very skilled because I feel like we try to play a skilled basketball game. I think you're going to see a team that can put five players on the floor at all times who can score, which is another one of the things that I believe in. You know, I think niche players have a role, no doubt, but I do like those players that can kind of do a little bit of everything. I'm really excited. I mean, we are, again, very talented. I mean, our practices are so competitive. There's depth at every position, and because nobody has really stepped up other than maybe a couple, the competition is there every day, and I think we're going to see that pay dividends. Q. How big was last year's WNIT run without Jillian Alleyne to get a taste of what life may be like in 2016-17, build that confidence, make that deep run? LEXI BANDO: I think the WNIT run for us was really important. You know, it gave us experience at a bigger level, getting us ready for the tournament. Most of us have never seen postseason play before, so playing in front of big crowds against skilled teams, you know, it really helped us grow as a team and get ready for what is to come. COACH GRAVES: Well, yeah, echoing what Lexi said, I think as a new coach in a program, I think what you're trying to do is build culture first. You try to do those things the right way. And I thought last year -- I don't know in my 30 years of coaching I've ever been more proud of a basketball team. The adversity that we had that last week -- we were 9-2 going into that final weekend in conference play. We were playing really well, and starting to gel, and I thought this was definitely a team that if we got in the NCAA Tournament could have made some serious noise. But to have Jillian's injury and then couple that with the next day we lost our sixth man Jordan Loera to a knee injury, so she was out for the rest of the year. I was just really proud of the way the team handled the adversity. We kind of reinvented ourselves in the WNIT, made a great run, and ended up having the second most wins in program history. So those are the kind of things that will help you build culture. Now our team knows that, hey, when adversity hits, you make up for it in other ways, and you live with it and you move on. So those are all lessons that only experience teach. Q. Maite and Lexi, what did you get out of the international trip this summer, especially with so many new players, and for you being able to go back to your home country? MAITE CARZOLA: For me it was fun. It was really exciting to show the team where I live and where I lived for four years. I think we grow up knowing how to play with each other, so I think it's going to help us play with each other now. LEXI BANDO: I think the trip couldn't have come at a better time. With so many new faces, it was the perfect time to work together on the court and kind of get some kinks out, and then also just to develop relationships off the court, as well. You know, when you're in a foreign country having a lot of fun with each other, I think it was just a really important trip for us, and it got us ready for practices and preseason play, so yeah. Q. Kelly, I have two questions. One is both Charlie and Mike talked about how difficult it was to fill out that ballot and place teams in an order given the overall strength of this conference, and then nationally there doesn't seem to be an overwhelming favorite heading into this season or a team that everybody is penciling in. Does that excite you? Does that excite you for the conference, for your own team, and just the possibility that maybe this is a little more wide open? COACH GRAVES: No doubt, I had the same issues. I echo what they said. It was difficult to go 1 through 11 who you're going to rank. Yeah, I do, I think it's wide open. And I think what's happened this year, and it did last year, as well, I think the teams that have been at the bottom in the standings are certainly capable of beating anybody on any given night, and I think that will even be more the case this year. I really do think that the depth of the conference is the best I've seen. Now, my tenure has been short here, but I follow it as another West Coast coach for many years. I think it's wide open. There's so many really good teams. The coaching in this conference is tremendous, and we have a lot of star power, as well. You know, and I think every team has gotten better, including the Ducks. There's no doubt we're going to be a better team this year. Q. No. 3 recruiting class in the nation; congratulations. How are you managing expectations that come with that? COACH GRAVES: Well, they haven't played a game yet, so that's just a number that other people put on it. They are very talented players, no doubt. I think it's the No. 1 recruiting class in the country because those are the ones that we wanted; know what I mean? I love our new players, there's no doubt about it. We have recruited a lot of versatility. I think our four post players I think will be the best young core of post players in the country. I just don't see anybody having four freshmen as talented and capable as the ones we have this year. But the day we got the job -- and I say we, because it's a staff, it's the entire staff that has done the work, we set our sights on the 2016 class. It was a really good class in the West, and the 15s were already making relationships with coaches set our sights on that and worked our butts off quite frankly. Oregon hasn't had a big tradition in women's basketball. We haven't been to the tournament since 2005, so I really credit my staff. They did a tremendous job in recruiting players to an unknown, and I think quite frankly it's unprecedented. And so I'm really proud now to see what we're going to be able to develop with the players we have and the ones that we're going to get in the future. Q. Now that you have your guys, what is going to be the identity of Oregon women's basketball? COACH GRAVES: Well, I think we always want to play hard. There's no doubt about that. I think we do. I think we're a team that offensively has been efficient, and if you look at my teams in the past, that's always been one of our staples. You know, we love to share the ball. I think we play the right way. We're going to continue to do a lot of the same things that we've done in the past. I think we're going to spread you out and try and run a lot of ball screen motion. I think we've done that with some success. Now we can also couple it with some more power basketball. We don't just have one true post that we're trying to set up, now we can play a lot more through the high post and high-low and mix things up, so I think we can be a lot more versatile this year, not as predictable as maybe we were the last couple. Q. The PAC-12 had two teams in the Final Four last year. They happened to be traditional rivals of Oregon. How much of a motivation is that for you guys to make those rivalries? COACH GRAVES: Oh, tremendous motivation, both Washington and Oregon State have set a really high bar for us and our team and our program. You know, what's amazing is the turnaround. Five years ago, when I was at Gonzaga, the honest truth is we were getting most of the good northwest talent because the four northwest PAC-12 schools weren't very good. And look how much that's changed in four or five years. It's incredible. So yeah, that's something that will motivate our team, I'm sure, and I hope. Q. One of your seven freshmen is of course Sabrina Ionescu, who was very familiar to us in the Bay Area, and I'm just wondering how good a college player can she be and how much is she going to be able to contribute this year? COACH GRAVES: Well, I'm expecting her to come in and contribute right away, and from what I've seen in practice so far, there's no reason not to believe that. I think she's a major talent, no question about that. She shoots the ball well. She's got elite vision in transition. Defensively she's always a step ahead of the play. All those things are great. I think what really sets Sabrina apart from almost all players is just her competitive spirit, the drive that she has. She's the first to practice, she's the last to leave, she works hard in the weight room. If you come to one of our games, she's going to go unsolicited over and say hello and thank you for coming, and then she's going to remember your name after practice and say again, thanks for coming. She is the consummate teammate. It was a long process, there's no doubt about it, her recruitment, and strange at times and interesting at times, but very rewarding in the end. I have a feeling she's going to be one of those great, great players that I am going to just cherish being able to coach. Q. I have a question on Sabrina; is it true when she decided on Oregon, she showed up and you didn't know she was going to be there? Is that true? COACH GRAVES: That is true. Do you want to tell the story? Well, you know, it kind of dragged out obviously into June when most players are signing in the previous November and then others in April of their spring senior years. You know, it's really funny, she had told everybody all along that, hey, she might be the kind that would just show up, and it was a Sunday, and summer school started on Monday, and she knew that she had to be there if she was going to be able to go on our Spain trip, et cetera, et cetera. She had kind of clued my staff in the night before, saying if I was to drive up there tomorrow, where would we be, and so my staff kind of knew. But the way everything had played out up until then, you really didn't know. And so, yeah, we were at the arena when she kind of came up from behind, and I turned and saw her, and it was a great moment. It was Father's Day, and you know I love being a father of three, but that's one of the best presents I've ever gotten, I think, in all my years of Father's Day. Which by the way, this tie was actually a Father's Day present once upon a time. That's what we normally get. I'd rather get a verbal commitment from a big-time player. Q. For the players, you led, I believe, the PAC-12 in assists last year, and you're one of the top three point scorers, but part of that for both of you was because you had Jillian in there. Who's going to be the person you pass to, and who's going to help you so you can spread the court so you have that inside presence? Who are you guys looking to right now that you can pass the ball to, and who's going to be that inside presence so you can spread the floor? LEXI BANDO: Well, I think that's still really up in the air. We have four really strong post players, and I think it's going to be equal minutes throughout them because if one of them gets tired, there's going to be one coming right back in. You know, they all do different things. I think definitely this year it's going to be better having two post players, like coach was saying. It's going to be definitely a lot of high-low games. We'll definitely be working the ball inside out. So I definitely think we'll still be a three-point shooting team, because you have to pick your battles, are you going to guard the three-point shot or are you going to guard our big post players inside? We hope we get shots, threes, but I think you're going to see a lot of threes and inside post play. MAITE CARZOLA: I think all the freshmen are real talented, so we really don't know who's going to step up yet. But I really think it's going to be a fun year. We're working hard, and we're going to try to be the best team we can, so I think that's what we're trying to do. Q. Coach, now in year three on the defensive end of the floor, what is it you want to do? Can you put your system in now? You kind of have to get the right kind of player to play the system you want. Where is that process now? COACH GRAVES: Well, like I said before, offense has always been kind of the area we've felt we've been pretty good, but my best teams have always been those that couple it with a great defense. We're not kind of an in-your-face defense. We play containment. We're usually long. We'll trap more in the half court, but you're not going to see us extend much. We're just not built that way. But what we do really pride ourselves on is being in the right place at the right time, changing up our defenses, trying to surprise teams with maybe new looks, and use our length. That's the main thing we're going to try to do is use our length. Whether that's a lot more half-court trapping, maybe spreading the defense out a little bit more, not full court but just wide. We've got some work to do, quite frankly, because when I recruit, I look offense first, and I say, well, we can teach them how to be team defenders, and especially with a young team, that might take some time. Again, it's going to be a work in progress, but I think by the end of the year, we're going to be a tough out for anybody. Q. Coach, you talked about obviously your great recruiting class. How have you seen it in your short time in the PAC-12 recruiting kind of improve around the conference, this year kind of record numbers as far as recruiting ranks are concerned in the conference? COACH GRAVES: Well, kids are figuring it out. I mean, there's no reason to go back East or to the other big conferences in the South. There is great coaching, there's great schools, great universities out West, and we're I think now beginning to keep the local talent home, the West Coast talent, and for years they were migrating to other parts of the country. I'm glad they're staying. I'm glad the conference is getting better because we're all rising because of it, and it's going to make for great TV, going to make for great battles, both recruiting battles and on the court. I think the best is yet to come, quite frankly, in, this conference. It's going to continue to get better and better. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|