	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE MEDIA DAY

October 28, 2011

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

DAVE HIRSCH: We have Arizona coach Sean Miller and senior guard Kyle Fogg.
COACH MILLER: Well, we're excited about the season. I guess I'm the only coach up here who is 0-1, and it happened really quickly. I think the reality of last night for our team just to bring it into context up here for Kyle and I is: We've had ten practices, three of those practices surrounded our red-blue weekend, which was a great weekend for a lot of reasons, probably not a great weekend for our team's development. We weren't the better team last night. We lost to a team that was better than us.
My hope in the goal of October is if we play Seattle Pacific a week from now, that we'd be better. I believe we have the elements to really improve. Sometimes a lesson like we learned last night is the greatest lesson you can learn, and that really segues into this year's team. That is we're not the team that was in the Elite Eight. We're a brand-new team.
Guys like Kyle were a big part of last year's success, but he finds himself in a new role. I find myself in a new role as a coach and our staff. We're trying to welcome and develop, I think, a talented recruiting class of four. But still guys who probably learned a lot last night but still have a long way to go.
Arizona, we're a work in progress, and if I give our team credit for one thing a year ago, and Kyle was a really instrumental part of it, is that we got better. We weren't very good in November. We got a little bit better in December. By the time we got into late February or March, we certainly became a terrific team. That now becomes the goal of this year's team with the reality of our starting point isn't very high.

Q. Can you give us an update on Kevin, and where he is? Is there a possibility that he can return this year, and how his presence or absence will affect how you look and what you do this season?
COACH MILLER: Last night one of the many things that we learned was how important Kevin is to our team. His size at the wing position, and at times he plays the two. He's a big, physical player, and a lot of times height, you know, you can look at, for example, UCLA has great size in the front court. But height and size in basketball can be reflected at different positions.
Kevin is a 6'5", 6'6" guard for us at times. Though we don't have a seven-foot center or we're not real big at the four, he gives us that toughness. The other thing he gives us is experience.
Like Kyle, when you go through 38 games like we did a year ago, you have a great off-season and you return, in particular the month of November, October, December, you count on that veteran leadership and the players that have been there before.
Not having him hurts us. His status, I really believe he'll return to the court this year. We're pointing towards late November, early December if he continues to experience the same progress that he has.
It was five weeks ago to the day that he got shot. When he got shot, below his right knee didn't work. He had no feeling, no movement, and there was no guarantee that it would ever come back. Five weeks from Friday, he can run this week.
For the first time he'll participate in non-contact types of things that we do in practice. As much as it is about him overcoming his injury, he's also had his grandma and his mom pass away all within four months.
When he came back from New York here early this week, he had a different look in his eye. Almost as if all the bad things are over. And I believe returning to the court is a real significant carrot for him. Hopefully over these next three or four weeks he can work towards getting back.
If he's able to rejoin our team in early December, it will be a huge bonus for us as we move forward.

Q. With the departure of Derrick Williams, what are you looking for out of your players this year like Kyle, or Jordin Mayes, or other players like that?
COACH MILLER: Teams, especially successful teams, they're always replacing seniors that leave. Next year when we're here, Kyle won't be with us, so we'll be replacing him. That's all part of running a program.
The good part is Derrick did things that took us to a level that very few people expected us to be at. The negative is he leaves.
But I will tell you that along with him there are a lot of players that experience the growth that we did last year as a team. To me someone like Kyle has a total understanding of how hard it is to win, and how important practice is. It's up to Kyle to really, to me, share that with our entire team, especially the four freshmen.
Last night, for example, now moves towards a big weekend. Practices on Saturday and Sunday at Arizona are going to be the real thing. We need to have that so that everybody completely understands what we need to do to get better at it.
I think more than anything, setting the course for this year's team is what we expect from guys like Kyle because they've been there and they've done it before.

Q. Do you think you guys were picked about where you expected or about what you agree with? How do you feel?
COACH MILLER: There's no way in the world we're the third best team in the Pac-12. You can say every coach says something like that. I didn't say that last year. Hopefully I won't say it next year, but I'm saying it now. There is no chance at all that's where we are.
Now will we develop or get Kevin back, guys like Kyle will lead us, and we have tremendous improvement through the next two months, that's our goal and that's what we hope to accomplish. But last night you really got a true sense of where our team is. The youthfulness.
We're not a big team. Learning how to play hard and play together. Learning how to play offense without someone who led the nation from the foul line, I mean, that in and of itself, when you coach a player like Derrick, and Kyle plays alongside of him, his greatest gift often times is he makes offense so easy for his teammates.
Last night was the first time we were all on the same bench. Though our defense probably was more the problem than our offense, you could tell we're a work in progress with that.
So for us right now, to me, we had our humble pie. I credit Seattle Pacific. We play Humboldt State, by the way, on Tuesday, and people tell me they're every bit as good. I think that will be a war.
When you watch us in November, you're going to see that whoever we play is going to be a really tough game because we have a lot of development to do.

Q. What is the learning curve going to be for the four freshmen? And MoMo Jones, how badly does that hurt your team this year?
COACH MILLER: Well, MoMo's eligible at Iona, and I'm really excited for him because he went home to New York City in large part to be around a family member that needed him.
Like my comment regarding Derrick Williams, players come and go, he did a great job while he was with us. But part of what we're looking to replace whoever we lost last year is with a group of four freshmen. Each of those guys is learning what it is to be in college.
I'll start with Nick Johnson. To me he's shown early on he's the most ready playing in the high school program that he played at the last two years, to me, has given him a leg up. He was one of the bright spots in last night's game. He played in the game the way he practices.
To me, continuing to develop and give Nick a bigger role was something that we have to do. Josiah, the hardest position, I think, to transfer from high school to college is point guard, with continued work, he's going to be a much better player four weeks from now, two weeks from now, than he is right now, and I'm confident in saying that.
Then the two front court players, Angelo Chol and Sidiki Johnson especially on defense, just have to learn what we do. And last night they really got a hard lesson in playing college defense.
So I think the learning is every bit as much defensively as anything else, and that's what we have to do. Starting this weekend and moving through next week, we have to improve on defense. Those four freshmen, one thing about them, they can get better almost daily, because they're almost like a blank canvas.

Q. Kyle, being your senior season, what type of a leader do you see yourself being this year helping the young freshmen and underclassmen developing to get your team back to where they were last season?
KYLE FOGG: I'm going to try to do a good job of leading on and off the court and leading by example and using my voice. With the young guys -- yeah, like I was saying, leading the younger guys, and they're all willing to learn.
When you have something to say to them, they really listen. Just making sure we stay together as a team. We found out last night, like Coach said, that we've got a long way to go. But I think we're ready and willing to work hard and try to be the best team we can be.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297