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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S MEDIA DAYSOctober 17, 2012Fred HoibergKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome Iowa State Coach Fred Hoiberg. Coach, welcome this morning. COACH HOIBERG: Thank you. We're talking about our heart conditions here, so maybe that's the reason. Thank you very much. It's been a great first couple days for us with practice. We've had a great summer with our guys. I think it was a very good rule change to allow us to work with our guys for two hours a week. Got a lot accomplished just as far as starting to put in some of our philosophies. Carried over a little bit from the success we had a season ago as far as getting back into the tournament. Our guys are hungry. We've got a group of five seniors that all, a couple of them sat out last year, Korie Lucious and Will Clyburn. We had three guys that have key roles on our team a season ago. So our guys are ready to roll. We've got a very good mix with our seniors. We've also got five freshmen on this team, and I'm really looking for our seniors and for that great leadership. So far they've done a great job with it. I think some of our freshmen will have an opportunity to go out and have an impact on our team this season, and we'll see what happens. But we're excited about the season. It's a great group of kids. The best thing about it, I don't have to coach effort with these guys. They bring it every single day, and that is a great feeling as a coach. It's a fun group to be around. It's a fun group to practice with every day. Q. When you have players like Will and Korie and the transfers you had last year as well, in their sit‑out year, what do you expect from them in practice? It seems to me when you have quality players like that, that they can contribute a great deal? COACH HOIBERG: Yeah, a hundred percent. I'll go back to two years ago when we had the four guys sitting out, Royce White, Chris Allen, Chris Babb, Anthony Booker. It's an opportunity for those guys to build great chemistry together. They play on the scout team. They push the guys that are out there eligible for playing. When the team goes on the road, they stay, and workout together watch the games together. It's a great opportunity for those guys to start building that very valuable chemistry. We developed that an early part of last season, and it carry throughout the season. Same thing with Will and Korie, last year those guys were working out together every day pushing our starters. Chris Babb who is as good a defender as there is in our league. The guy that he had trouble with was Will Clyburn because of his length, his skillset, his ability to finish in the paint with his athleticism, and he can shoot the ball. So it gets you excited. You know, you see what you have around the corner. We knew going into the season after Royce declared for the draft that we'd have a lot to replace. We'd lose our top three scorers from a year ago, and Royce led us in all five statistical categories. Well, six, if you count turnovers, I guess. Well, it's Royce, and Chris Allen, and Scott Christopherson, those guys are difficult to replace. But you look at who you have sitting out and who is eligible this year. And I think we'll have increased role this is season. Collectively, as a group, we'll be able to replace the three that left our program. Q. Royce did so much for you guys over the course of his career. What do you think you'll have to fill in with what he provided? COACH HOIBERG: Our team was so unconventional last year. We played outside the box, and we didn't have a primary ball handler last season. For Royce it was a perfect team because we had shooters and we had guys that could space the floor. That was the biggest thing. We put the ball in Royce's hand at the top of the key, the elbow, the post, let him be a facilitator of our offense. He was tremendous. He was so good at finding that open man, drawing the defender and making the right play. This season we'll play a lot more conventional. We'll have Korie Lucious, a pure point guard again. And I'm excited about that. It gives us the opportunity to play a little bit faster. Royce was great. When he had the ball, you put a guy in a position that's not used to guarding a ball handler, and in some cases you have a seven‑footer guarding him. But it was a little slower pace going down the floor. With Korie, he's played in two Final Fours and he's got that experience of leading a basketball team. We've got the athletes to get out and run to play with him. So I'm excited about what we have this year. You know, it looked a little like we did two years ago when we had Diante Garrett leading our fast break. But I think we have more weapons than we did with that team a couple years ago. Q. Conventional, your style. You've played for Johnny Orr; you've played for some good NBA coaches. You seem to adapt. But in an ideal world, how would you like to play? COACH HOIBERG: Well, I'm always going play to the strengths of my players. My system will be based on who I feel we have and put the ball in the hands of the guy I feel has the best chance of making a play. Try to exploit a mismatch on the floor. Last year it happened to be Royce. He was the guy that had the best opportunity to draw on a defender and make a basketball play. This year, it's not only Korie. I'll use Will Clyburn in a lot of situations like I did Royce a few years ago. If he rebounds the ball, I'm expecting him to push the ball down the court. Which will get Okoro on one lane, Chris Babb, and McGee on the other lane, and we have guys that are knock down shooters. You can play some smaller lines out there at times and try to keep the defense on their heels. That's what I really like about this group is the versatility. We can play small, we can play big, and play different lineups based on who we're playing against. That is the thing I'm going to try to do to find the guy to utilize their skill set in the best possible way. Q. Second year you've needed to build a program with impact transfers? Can you talk about how you get those kids to come be cyclones? COACH HOIBERG: Just looking at what we did two years ago. My biggest thing when I got the job was trying to get the talent base where we could compete at the Big 12 level. We only had three scholarship players when I took the job, and we had some good freshmen that came in. Melvin Ejim being the best of the group. Then to get those transfers in there and give them a second chance, it was attractive to them. In a city like Ames, you can come there. Half the town is 60,000; we have 31,000 students this year. You can come here and focus on your basketball and your academics. It is attractive to those guys to come there and have that opportunity to play in front of as good of fans as there is in the country. When I was putting that team together a couple years ago, when you have the amount of transfers that we did, you're not just coming in on your own. When we got Chris Babb, and then Anthony Booker and Chris Allen, and Royce comes aboard, you get four guys. The thing you sell to them is how to build that chemistry to have a great impact on the floor with that ball in the season. Then you start selling it to the other guys. They saw the success we had with transfers. You talk to others about how you can make an impact by coming to our program. We'll see how it works. We wanted to fill with transfers and four year guys, and we accomplished that. I'm excited about this young group of freshmen, and I think they all have a chance to play some this season. Q. Chris Babb comes in for you last year. Did you notice what he did defensively, and have you noticed any adverse affect on the offense, and how much has he worked his shooting during the off‑season? COACH HOIBERG: I think the biggest thing Chris went through were some confidence issues. Chris early in the season the first half of the year, he was in the Top 10 in the country in three‑point percentage. He hit seven of them against Rice. The tournament itself, he had five against Texas in the Big 12 opener, and he went through a slump. I've been there. Anybody that's been a shooter in their career knows what it's like going through a slump. There are time when's it feels like a little the thimble up there and it weighs on you. He has the assignment every night of guarding the best perimeter. He buys into that. He had a tremendous impact on winning. Every night he went out and bought into his role of being a lock down defender. Look at a guy like Jacobin Brown made life difficult by making him take tough contested jump shots. Chris is playing with a tremendous amount of confidence right now. He's shooting the ball FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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