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PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE MEN'S MEDIA DAYNovember 1, 2012Ken BoneBrock MotumSAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with Washington State. We'll start with an opening statement from Coach Bone. COACH BONE: Good morning. It's a privilege to be here. I had heard a lot about this building and what the Pac‑12 has done here. The headquarters here is great. It's great to be here finally, and looking forward to this afternoon to take a tour around here. And just listening to Commissioner Scott this morning, just the good things that are going on within the Pac‑12 makes it exciting. As far as our basketball team, I really like the way we finished the year last year. Got beat, unfortunately, in the Pac‑12 Tournament against Oregon State, but I thought our guys rebounded from that loss extremely well. We came back down here actually to San Francisco and beat a good USF team, went back home, beat Wyoming at a time when they were playing extremely well. And then actually had a chance to go to Corvallis again and play them. And we rattled off a few wins there at the end of the year and played I thought as well as we had played all season, which is exactly what any coach wants. We'd rather have been in a different tournament, but it was good that we were in the CBI, and I think our guys got better. That led into the summer. We went to Australia this summer, partially because of this young man here, and he has a couple teammates from Australia, so we have three guys in our program right now. And then it gave us a chance to play some games, get some practices in that I think have led into this fall where our guys are doing a great job so far on the court. I'll leave it there, and we'll take questions. THE MODERATOR: We'll take some questions. Q. For both of you. First, Brock, kind of touching back on the Australia point, what was it like for you to go back home and play some games there with your teammates? And then, Coach, just to follow up a little bit on your thoughts on the experience of playing there and how that helped you going into this year. BROCK MOTUM: For me personally it was a lot of fun to have my American teammates come home to my country, and a lot of the games that we played over there were in front of my friends and family. So it was good to see them see us play in person and catch up with a lot of them. COACH BONE: What Brock just said is exactly right. It gave our guys a chance to get a perspective of where Brock and James and Dexter are from and appreciate Australia. Because none of the guys in our program had ever visited that country. And then also having these guys play in front of their family and friends. But we also played against some ball clubs over there with big, strong guys that most of the teams were older than we were. In fact, they all were. A couple teams had some 30‑, 32‑, 33‑year‑old guys that can still play the game, strong, physical, and played that way. So I think that really helped our team and our coaching staff see where we are as a group when we're competing against bigger and stronger guys. Because we don't always get that in practice and it's hard to simulate it unless you go against somebody different. Q. Can you just talk about how hard it is on a team and how hard it is on a coaching staff to have to release a guy like Reggie Moore and the impact it has going forward? COACH BONE: Sure. It's hard because, on a personal note, I recruited Reggie, I'm from Seattle, Reggie's from Seattle, and I know, I think, everybody that's ever coached Reggie from the time he was about ten years old. And so it's too bad, on a personal note, to not have him in our program still and playing the way I think that we all thought he was capable of playing going into his senior year. Because he ended the year last year on a great note. He played very, very well the last seven, eight, nine games. I mean, really, when I say that, he became a little bit more assertive to score, yet he still was dishing the ball out, and I think he ended up leading the conference in assists. And this summer he did a great job in Australia. But he's actually a great, great kid. I'm sure some of you have had the opportunity to talk with him in the past or meet him. He's liked by everybody in our program. So it hurts not to have him around still. Q. Brock, you're returning as the Pac‑12's leading scorer from last season. Are you trying to achieve that again, or are you looking to accomplish something new? BROCK MOTUM: Just looking to accomplish a lot more wins than last season. I think if I can score more than last year and that helps us win more games, then I'll do that. By any means. But it's not more on a personal note; it's more a team focus. As long as we win more games, I'll be happy. Q. You guys brought in Ray Lopes over the off‑season. How has that changed the dynamic of the team from what you've seen in practice so far with Hiro moving to a different role and all that? COACH BONE: Well, Hiro's Jeff Hironaka, who him and I worked together at Seattle Pacific University for 11 years. He was my assistant and then took over at Seattle Pacific for seven, did an outstanding job. Jeff is a‑‑ he's very knowledgeable of the game. He understands the game I think extremely well. So him and I spend more time together by far than anybody else that I spend time with on our staff in the offices, on the phone, even during practice. We're talking all the time. So it has not affected us in any way in that sense except technically he can't be out there teaching what's going on on the floor. Ray Lopes, what I like about Ray is he has a history even at Washington State. He was there about 20 years ago with Coach Kelvin Sampson and was with Kelvin back at Oklahoma. I always liked the way that Coach Sampson was able to get his teams to play hard with a lot of energy and intensity. I think Ray brings another dynamic to our staff that we needed. Not just in recruiting, but as far as on the floor coaching. Q. How has Royce Woolridge progressed since transferring, and what kind of role do you expect him to have this year? COACH BONE: Well, with Reggie Moore being out now, I think Royce is going to get even more of an opportunity to step in and play. Whether he will be our starting so‑called point guard‑‑ and the reason I say that is because I'm not sure we have a point guard in the program, but we have some good guards. And Royce is one of those kids that has good quickness, he can shoot the ball, and he's a very good on ball defender, great quickness, and I think he's really going to help us out in that area. But also DaVonté Lacy, who started last year midway through the year on after Faisal Aden went down with a knee injury, DaVonté has a chance to step in and sometimes help bring the ball up. He knows the system, initiates the offense. And then also Mike Ladd. Mike Ladd did not play a lot last year because of injuries. He was out 11 or 12 games because of a concussion and then a bad thumb. And then even when he did come back, that thumb bothered him the rest of the season until it was healed in the spring. But he's done a good job so far also. So we'll just kind of take that position and handle it by committee. THE MODERATOR: All right, gentlemen. Thank you very much. COACH BONE: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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