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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYSOctober 22, 2009Doc SadlerKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI THE MODERATOR: We're back with Coach Doc Sadler from Nebraska. Coach, welcome. Your opening thoughts. COACH SADLER: Well, it just seems like the other day that we were all here a couple of years ago. It's exciting to be back. I guess, like most of you all, everybody in the NCAA and the rest of the staff felt sorry for us by giving us 14 scholarships. They know how bad we're going to be this year. But I really like our guys. You know we've got basically two players that's played significant minutes, but we've got two other players that's played a little bit, and we've got a bunch of other guys that have no idea what they're up against. But saying that, I think this is the first time I've really felt like we have a basketball team that eventually sometime will be able to compete at some level in this league. Unfortunately, the league, as all of you all know, is probably the best it's ever been. And I know it's the best it's been since I've been here. You know, you've got obviously Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Texas A&M. You've got everybody that is picked to be, you know, a team that can make it to the NCAA tournament. And then you see where we're picked. But I can promise you that the guys that we've got understand one thing; that they're going to compete and they're going to play hard, and they believe in themselves. I think, when everything is said and done, I think you're going to see a team that, when we come back here in March, that I hope maybe will surprise some people. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. We'll take questions from the floor. Q. Doc, are you actually going to have a couple of big guys on the floor this year. Can those two guys play? COACH SADLER: Yeah, we do. Unfortunately, we lost the one guy, but we do have some size. I don't know what I can do with it. It's been so long since I've been able to have anybody over 6 foot tall to play for us. We do like our guys. Brian Diaz, who you're talking about, Brandon Ubel, Quincy Hankins. All three of those guys, you know, are 6'8", 6'9", 6'11". And the thing about those guys is they're really skilled. The unfortunate thing is two of them are freshmen. But Quincy Hankins has been out all week. Don't know when he'll be back. But when he does get back, he's going to add some size to it. You know, with what we like to do offensively, we need to have some guys down low that can put pressure on defenses. Q. I hate to get you to elaborate on anything with your voice like this. COACH SADLER: I feel much better than it sounds. Q. Could you just talk a little bit more about Ubel, the local product. COACH SADLER: You know, when we signed Brandon, I really, really liked him but didn't realize he was as mature as he probably is. He comes from a great high school program. The Lewandowski kid that's at Texas Tech, I think you got a chance to see what he did as a freshman. Donnie Campbell does a great, great job. So he's probably more prepared to help us earlier than normal. And so, you know, if we were to toss it up tonight, he'd probably start for us. But we don't toss it up tonight. But he's going to be a very, very, very good player for us the next four years. Q. Is he a banger type? COACH SADLER: I think that's a perception because of the way he looks. He's pretty thick and strong. But Brandon's a very skilled player, can really shoot the basketball. You know, he's worked with Scott Wedman and played for Scott the last three or four years. Brandon is a very, very fine shooter. I can't say enough good things about him. Q. Doc, if you go big, can you still play your trademark pressing defense? COACH SADLER: I hope so. That's the one thing that we -- that's what we're going to do. I've seen obviously right now that's probably the area that we're not as good as I'd like to be after six or seven practices. But I do think the way they're working, eventually they will become a very, very good defensive team. Q. Could you just the idea of having somebody back -- COACH SADLER: Sure, it helps. Q. How does that change what you do or affect what you do? COACH SADLER: Well, again, I think any time you've got somebody back there that can at least -- they can see makes a difference. And so with some guys back there, you know -- because we're going to get beat off the dribble some because of the pressure we try to put out there. So as long as they can see them back there, I think maybe it will discourage them a little bit. I don't know if it's going to discourage the teams in this league. I hope it just discourages some teams that we're playing in nonconference. THE MODERATOR: All right, Coach. Best of luck to you. End of FastScripts |
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