Men's Basketball Press Conference Quotes
Oct 27, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Oct. 27, 2009
NEW ORLEANS - Opening Statement
"I want to thank everyone for coming out. I really appreciate you guys coming to media day. This is always big for us to start our season and I know there are a lot of good things going on in the city with the Saints and the Hornets opening their NBA schedule tonight. There's a lot of optimism in both of those teams, and you heard from Lisa that she's optimistic about her team and I'm the same about mine."
Overall thoughts on his team
"We have 10 returning players, that's counting Geoff Hogan who's our walk-on. We have three starters (back) in Kevin Sims, Kris Richard and Asim McQueen. I have my whole entire backcourt back, which is the first time that's happened since I've been here and those two guys were my two leading scorers last season."
On Kevin Sims
"Kevin Sims has been everything for us. He's been our leader. He's been our playmaker. He's been our scorer. He's been our on-the-ball defender that starts our defense. We're very excited about coaching him into his senior year. He's had to take unfairly a lot of the scoring load in the program the last two years and hopefully he won't have to do that this year. We're trying to get him into a situation where he can be more of a play-maker instead of a main scorer for us."
On Kris Richard
"Kris Richard has improved from last year. I thought from his freshman to his sophomore year, he made one of the biggest improvements in our conference. Now, I see him with the confidence and an added five to seven pounds, he could be one of the best players in our conference this year. He has an uncanny ability to score. His speed to the basket with the basketball has been phenomenal and his athleticism is matched by no one on our team. I'm very excited about his progression as a player. I think his junior year can be special for us."
On Asim McQueen
"Asim McQueen is our third starter. Asim played two positions for us - he played power forward and the back-up center position. This year, he may start at the center position for us. He may be our starting five-man. Asim has those abilities to play on the perimeter as well as the post and be effective at both."
On returning three starters
"Those three guys are probably guys that you can pencil in as starters. They've been good players for us and it's great to have your backcourt returning. In our conference, if you don't have good guards, you really can't get into that top half of the conference on a consistent basis. This year, I think we're on par with the rest of the teams in our conference."
On the newcomers
"We have four newcomers. I always forget their names and I should know them by now. We have Jordan Callahan, a six-foot guard from Georgia. We have Aaron Holmes, a 6-4/6-5 swing man from Florida who was a great player out of high school - one of the Top 50 players out of high school. Obviously, he's moved around a little bit, but now he's found a home at Tulane. Actually, I recruited him my last year at Maryland, so that's how far our relationship goes back to. We have Terrance Beasley, who we signed late and a lot of people don't know about. I think he's going to bring a lot of energy to our team. He has great legs. He's a really good offensive player and I think as long as we can teach him correctly, he's can be a good defensive player for us also at 6-7. The last player we have is Kelth Cameron, who's from East St. John from the River Parishes. It's a local kid for us. Kelth is a player we're going to watch for the next couple of weeks to see if he's going to be able to play for us of if we're going to redshirt him. He's 6-7, 6-8, 260. He's had some unbelievable days in practice. But with freshmen, they're up and down. Kelth has been up and down but he's had more up days than down days for us. I'm excited about his progression. I'm not ruling him out for this year as far as this year's team. If he can rebound and defend consistently, he's going to have a place within our program."
On how practices have gone so far
"We're having some really good practices to this point. Last year at this time, I was very concerned about our team as far as our health. We had four out of our top seven guys with major surgeries going into last season so that didn't allow us to have good practices. I thought in our non-conference schedule last year, we struggled because of that. We weren't a good team until the end of the year when everyone really got healthy. This year has been totally different because we have some healthy competition for some spots on our team."
On competition for starting spots
"When you look at who's going to be our small forward, who's going to be our power forward and who's going to be our back-up point guard, all of those things remain to be seen at this point. For that small forward position, we have a healthy competition between Aaron Holmes and Kendall Timmons. Those guys are really doing a good job of competing, making plays on both ends of the court, which for coaches, that's what you want to see - guys competing at a high level on a daily basis. For that power forward position, we had our first intrasquad scrimmage this past Saturday, and David Booker played well. He had 16 points and 12 rebounds, which for that day, he was one of those guys who could start if we had to play a game this week. You also have Kendall Timmons who is also competing for that position. He's a traditional forward in laymen's terms. Terrance Beasley, our freshman, he's competing for playing time also. It's been really refreshing going into practice every day and you know you have to have guys to come out and compete just to get playing time. When you're building a program and you're trying to get to a situation where you can compete in the top half of your conference, you've got to have competition every day in practice on campus, which we have this year."
On the competition for back-up point guard
"The other competition that's been interesting for me to watch is who's going to back up Kevin Sims at the point guard position. We have Trent Rogers from last year, who played valuable minutes for us and did a great job at the end of the year. We even played Trent and Kevin together in some situations last year. Then (we have) Jordan Callahan, the freshman coming in. Jordan is strong, he's got a great body. He can physically compete in Conference USA with his body now. Those two guys have done a good job running the team and most importantly, competing for playing time."
On other key players
"We have two guys who I haven't spoken about who are going to be probably the most valuable people in our program in Eric Vianney and Johnny Mayhane. Those two guys have been here now for four years. Although it is unlikely they will start this year, they are going to have to be the guys who come in and play valuable minutes for this team that we have returning."
On what weaknesses he feels his team needs to improve on
"This is probably the most athletic team that I've had since I've been here. This is probably the best scoring team that I've had since I've been here. But we have some problem areas. We were not a good defensive team last year. We were ninth in the conference (last year) in our half-court defense. My first three years, we were somewhere in the top five. We were not a great rebounding team. Those two components of our team were very troublesome because if you can't defend and you can't rebound, you can't win these days. I think you've seen that with the Saints this year. They're one of the best defensive teams in the NFL and that's why they're having the success they've been having to this point."
On the team's goals for the preseason
"Our focus with this team is trying to defend, trying to rebound and not to turn the ball over, and be able to make plays and make shots. I know those are a lot of factors going into a team, but it's very important for our success this year. I'm excited about the guys we have.
On local product Jon Andersen
"Jon Andersen will compete for playing time this year. He started one or two games for us and played some valuable minutes and he will compete for playing time also. Jon is a local kid from Country Day, his aggression has worked in his favor and has been a detriment. If we can't keep him on the floor, we can't keep him out of foul trouble. Jon has worked on that. He's has continuously worked on his inside moves, and hopefully he can be a complete player for us off the bench."
On the 2009-10 schedule
"Our non-conference schedule in July was a fun thing. I was excited about our schedule. But now, I can't sleep at night. Our first two games will be as tough and demanding of any two games as we've had in the history of this program. We open up with Georgetown on Nov. 13 in a double-header with the women and it's a great night for Tulane basketball. For everyone to come out and support both programs on that night would mean a lot to both Lisa and I."
On those first two games
"Georgetown will be ranked in the Top 25 in the country this year. Two years ago, they were in the Final Four, and they have a local product in Greg Monroe, who was one of the best players in high school two years ago. That will be a tough challenge for our guys but it's something we're looking forward to. We couldn't turn that game down. Whenever you have a school like Georgetown to open up the season with the name recognition they've had and the presence they've had in the state of Louisiana, you have to take that. It's a game that will tell us a lot about our team and it's a game I'm sure our players are excited about playing. The Big East was the best conference in basketball last year. Then we turn around and go out to Charleston, S.C., to play in an ESPN-sponsored tournament where we kick off with the University of Miami from the ACC. They had a Top 25 recruiting class, and Frank Hayden has done an unbelievable job with that Miami program. Those two games will be very, very difficult.
On where his team is at this point
"I've always thought that in order to build a program, you have to have good players. I think we're finally getting to the point where we have some good players. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have David Gomez and Chris Moore back with this team, but we're finally getting some healthy competition in practice on a daily basis and we're playing a demanding schedule."
On the other teams on the schedule
"Some other non-conference teams we're going to play are George Mason here, UNO will come over as a cross-town rival of ours, and we have VCU coming to town. All of those teams have postseason experience and all of those teams will be ranked in the top half of their conferences. Our non-conference schedule is very, very demanding, but it's one of those types of schedules to where as a coach you don't have to give long speeches or give long spiels to your team to get them ready to play. If our guys are not prepared to play against Georgetown or Miami, Mason, UNO or Western Kentucky on the road, and so forth and so on, then we're not going to win very many games."
On the state of Conference USA
"Lisa talked about the change from old Conference USA to new Conference USA in women's basketball and it's been the same with the men. We're still trying to find our identity as a conference. The last three years, the identity of Conference USA was Memphis basketball. They went undefeated for three years, which was probably one of the best runs that any program has had in the history of college basketball. Our conference is still trying to find an identity as far as who we are and can we get two or three teams into postseason play and can we get two or three teams into the NIT and so forth and so on in other tournaments."
On getting a strong home-court advantage
"We have Memphis coming to town to play us right after Mardi Gras, so hopefully we can get our fans to sober up and get them to the game. We're going to need a great home court advantage this year. We had Late Night In Fogelman Arena on Friday night, and it was encouraging. We had 1,000, maybe 1,500 students who came out to support both programs, along with the volleyball team. If we can continue to have that kind of enthusiasm on campus, then we are going to have a shot to have a good program. I'm excited about that."
More on the state of Conference USA
"We also have Houston coming to town. Those two teams over the last few years has finished in the top two or three in the conference. Our conference is a lot like the women in the fact that we have some good teams. I don't know if we have a dominant team. Tulsa will be ranked in the preseason as the best team in our conference...but Houston returns a lot of players. Marshall will be really good. UTEP had a great recruiting class. The way I sum up our conference is that we're going to have four or five teams that can win the regular-season championship, depending on how teams play. Then we'll have another two or three or four teams that can win the conference tournament over in Tulsa at the end of the year. I think our conference has a chance to be wide open this year."
On winning consistently
"The one thing that we haven't done here since I've been the head coach is we haven't played consistently all year. We've had some good runs. My second year, we won eight out of 10 games. My third year, we won 15 out of our first 21. And this past year, we won our last four of five. What we have to do as a program is try and win throughout the year and be consistent winners. That's going to start with Kevin Sims and Kris Richard and Asim McQueen. Our leadership is going to be important. Leadership evolves during preseason, during the summer, and during the season. Hopefully, our three seniors with Asim McQueen, Eric Vianney and Kevin Sims can be strong leaders for us and lead the right way. We want to win in November, we want to win in December, and we want to win in conference. We want to give ourselves a chance to be one of the top three or four teams in the conference and give ourselves the chance to get to postseason play. That's our goal this year.
On what it will take to make the 2009-10 season a successful one
"We're going to play a different style this year. We don't have a Dave Gomez, Robbie Louisme or Quincy Davis anymore - guys that you can just pin the ball to the post and get results. We're going to have to depend on our starting backcourt - which returns - along with Aaron Holmes, Kendall Timmons, Johnny Mayhane, Eric Vianney and our back-up point guards to give us a lot of that scoring punch that we had in previous years in the post. We're going to need some guys to come through. David Booker is going to have to have a good year for us. Asim McQueen is going to have his best year going into his senior year. Jon Anderson is going to have to come through for us and give us some valuable minutes. If all of those things come together for us, then I like our chances as far as being one of the top teams in our conference and hopefully giving ourselves a chance to play in the postseason."
On if he likes his team being a guard-oriented club
"I don't like it, but as a coach, you have to do what's best for your team. The strength of our team is in the fact that we have eight players that are under 6-5. All of those guys are pretty good and they can make plays. I will be removed as a head coach if I didn't go to my strength this year. I would love to have David Gomez. I would love to have Jon Andersen turn into an all-conference player. I'm excited about the change. I'm excited about the opportunity for our best players to be our best players and for those guys to produce for us in crunch time. In college basketball, it's great to have great inside players, but you've got to have good guards. Hopefully, we're at a point where we can depend on our guards to give us that leadership and that scoring that we deserve."
On having a lot of fast guards in Conference USA
"Conference USA is still trying to find its identity as a conference. Right now, we're not one of the top five conferences in the country. To find quality big guys across the board is tough in recruiting because you're competing against the SEC and you're recruiting against the Big 12. Whenever you have good big guys, they're hard to find. As a conference, we can go out and find really good perimeter players because the quickness, the athleticism and the ability to score and make plays at guard are a dime a dozen. Conference USA has always had good guards, and hopefully, we can continue to have good guards. Big kids are just hard to find, and most importantly, they're hard to get on campus."
On Memphis no longer being the clear favorite and the league being more wide open for the taking
"I can answer that in two-fold. Even though Memphis won every game the last three years in our conference, there were a lot of teams catching up with them. Just to give us an example, we were playing them in the conference tournament in the second round. We were up by six with 16 minutes to go, but we didn't score for 13 minutes and were only down by four and lost the game by 10. We had our best player go 4-for-14. There were some programs catching up with Memphis, but Memphis will always be talented. They are one of the best programs in college basketball throughout the history of the game. They're always going to be talented, but we do have some teams in our conference this year that will have a chance to compete for the regular season and the conference tournament (titles). It's going to help a lot that the tournament is out of Memphis for the first time since I've been in Conference USA. It's over in Tulsa now. But Memphis will always be good. They're very, very talented this year. It's been a lot of ins and outs with their players and no one really knows who they have in their program now as far as their roster with players leaving and the injuries that they've had. They have a really good coaching staff and they will be one of the top teams in this conference this year. Our conference does look forward to having other teams representing the conference in postseason play."
On the dimensions Aaron Holmes brings to the team
"Aaron is a good basketball player. The toughest thing for him has been how he can fit his game into the team framework. He's a really good scorer. Really competes hard. He plays hard on every possession. In the scrimmage on Saturday, he had five or six rebounds. For that small forward position, that's what you want - a guy who can defend, who can rebound, and who can score with the basketball. Aaron raises the level of competition for us. And when you have people like Kris Richard and Kevin Sims, to have those guys raise their level of play and have Aaron fit in there, it can be a good fit for us and give us a dimension we haven't had at that position. Kendall Timmons has played well. If you combined all of our practices and scrimmages that we've had, he's probably our leading rebounder at that position. Aaron brings some legitimacy to us as far as having a bio that people can grab hold to, but I like what Kendall Timmons has done. I like what Johnny Mayhane has done to this point. I just like the competition we have for that position right now."
