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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE OPERATION BASKETBALLOctober 16, 2013Jim LarranagaCHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA JEFF FISCHEL: We're joined by Professor Larranaga. You've been named a professor at Miami. COACH LARRANAGA: An adjunct professor. I'm not going to be teaching a full class. I'm going to be a guest lecturer, talking to the students about teamwork, leadership, what life is like after college. JEFF FISCHEL: We've talked before about how you consider yourself a teacher first. COACH LARRANAGA: I've always thought of myself as an educator, someone who works with players, teaches them not just the game of basketball, but the game of life, trying to prepare them for when their basketball days are over, and still want to be highly successful. We want our players to be both happy and successful long after their college basketball days are over at Miami. JEFF FISCHEL: A quote I saw recently, you talked about how you were with this team, you started with addition and subtraction, heading to multiplication and division, not sure you're going to get to calculus. COACH LARRANAGA: Last year we had a veteran team with only one freshman, a group of guys who had laid a very strong foundation the year before when they were juniors. Then we had an outstanding sophomore leader in Shane Larkin to go along with those five seniors. They were able to accomplish things that had never been done before in Miami basketball history. We won the regular‑season tournament outright, tournament championship, went to the Sweet 16. We were ranked No. 2 in the country at one point. We earned the No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament. We also had sell‑out crowds night in and night out. We defeated both Duke and North Carolina in the same season by more than 25 points for the first time in ACC history. There was a lot of things that the team was able to accomplish. We really enjoyed that journey. JEFF FISCHEL: Give me a sense of what you're seeing on the court in practice. COACH LARRANAGA: I'm seeing a lot of new faces. A lot of young guys with energy and enthusiasm. All very, very tough competitors. They love to compete in practice. They push each other in the weight room. They'll push each other on the court. Every game we play, whether it's to 5, 11, 21, a full scrimmage, they're at each other from start to finish. I love that energy and enthusiasm. They are listening very well. They're learning. But because we have so much to learn, we've got to go slowly because everybody learns at a different rate. We need to be sure we don't leave anybody behind. We only have 10 scholarship players available. We have three freshmen new to the program. We have a junior college player new to the program. We have a fifth‑year player, Donnavan Kirk, who was at Miami years ago, but came back after graduating from DePaul. He's going to be a fifth‑year senior to us. Then we have five veteran players and a couple of walk‑ons. We've got a lot of work to do in terms of implementing our style. Our players have a lot of work to do in learning that. Once you've learned it, perfect it. It's not just learning the offense, it's learning how to execute it under tremendous duress from an opponent. JEFF FISCHEL: Questions. Q. You lost a lot of outstanding players. Who are you looking for this year to step up? COACH LARRANAGA: I would say we have three players right now who have some experience and are going to be counted on, especially early in the season, to lead us. Garrius Adams who redshirted last year, enjoying a fine career up until the injury. We're counting on him. Rion Brown, our leading returning scorer for last season, who had a great NCAA tournament, especially our game against Illinois. Then Tonye Jekiri, who came in off the bench last year, will move into the starting lineup as our starting center. He was 215 pounds, now he's 241. Much stronger and improved player. We're counting on those three guys to handle their positions, and then we're trying to find the complementary players to them so that we can be competitive in the ACC. Q. You talked about all the success you had last season. With bringing in Pittsburgh, Notre Dame and Syracuse, how much more difficult does it make repeating something like that? COACH LARRANAGA: Well, I think for all the teams in the ACC, ourselves included obviously, the challenge to win the ACC regular season and tournament championship is far more difficult. Those three teams, they've competed in the Big East, have competed for championships every year. Syracuse, they went to the Final Four last year. Notre Dame has a veteran team returning. Jamie Dixon has had Pittsburgh, regular‑season champion, a number of times. All those teams are loaded. When you add those rosters to the ACC perennial champions in Duke, Carolina, you have Florida State, Maryland, Virginia, all who have veteran squads returning, our job has gotten very, very difficult. JEFF FISCHEL: If there's a change you could make to the game of basketball, on or off the floor, what would you like to see changed? COACH LARRANAGA: I guess the answer to that is I love the way the game of college basketball is being played. I don't want to see a lot of changes because I think every time we make a change, we really don't know what the transition is going to be with that change. I like the stability of our game. If we could reduce the shot clock from 35 seconds down to 30 seconds, I think that would be good. I think if we could implement this new block charge rule, officiate it correctly, I think that can be very promising. The thing I love about the game is it's pretty darn entertaining right now. I don't want to see a lot of changes. JEFF FISCHEL: Talk about new metrics, how you use that as a coach. COACH LARRANAGA: I don't think the metrics are very new. I think they've been around for a long time. Dean Smith had a system of what he called OER, DER, offensive efficiency rating, defensive efficiency rating. It was based on the number one. The Kenpom stats help us to identify strengths and weaknesses in our program. Before my staff and I arrived at Miami, Miami's turnover rate was ranked 218th out of 345 schools. They were turning the ball over an awful lot. This last season we were ranked 16th in that category. What helps us, helps motivate the players, is knowing that they're improving in a certain category, whether it's in field goal percentage, defensive field goal percentage, or defensive turnover percentage. If you can turn the ball over fewer and fewer times, you're going to be more successful at the offensive end. By having those Kenpom stats, it helps us to give a clear vision to our players, a picture of what we want to accomplish, where we stand in relationship to the rest of the country. JEFF FISCHEL: Professor Larranaga, thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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