Nov. 10, 2000
Opening statement
"I am excited to get things going. We are a little beat up right now and it will be good to play someone else. Hopefully some of those bruises will go away when the adrenaline starts flowing."
On the AAU team
"Scouting during exhibition play is difficult because we don't get to exchange film. We are familiar with some of the kids playing on the team. More importantly we use exhibitions to focus on our team. We will go through our general game preparation, walk through and shoot around, to get ready. Who we play (in exhibition) is not as important as how we play."
On what the team is hoping to accomplish
"This is a chance to play against an opponent. You get tired of beating up each other. We (the coaching staff) have done so much break down work and there are so many habits this team needs to learn. It is difficult to play five-on-five all the time. Add to that sometimes there are only 10 players that can practice and two of them are usually walk-ons or former walk-ons. We will use the exhibition to see how guys fit together. We will try combinations of seven or eight guys and see how we look as a group."
On experimenting with the lineup
"I would like to be able to turn to the bench and go to a guy that has some experience. I think coming off the bench with three freshmen presents its own set of problems, but so does starting three freshmen. We have some inexperience on this team. I look for this year to be a season of multiple lineups. Four of the positions are solid with Brian (Grawer), Clarence (Gilbert), TJ (Soyoye), and Kareem (Rush). The fifth spot in the lineup can vary. Johnny (Parker) has been terrific in the preseason, but how we will use him will depend on how quickly AJ (Arthur Johnson) can develop."
On freshman play
"You see flashes from the freshmen. It is always different when the lights come on and there are people in the stands. With the freshmen, it is about learning new habits and how hard you have to play. Wesley's (Stokes) mental toughness is improving each day. Arthur's physical conditioning continues to improve and his is learning to play at a lighter weight. Rickey (Paulding) continues to impress. They all hit wall occasionally. There are days when it is just not happening for them, but on the whole I am pleased with how they are developing."
On getting first game experience for the freshmen
"It is important. The season is coming. The schedule picks up pretty quickly and there is no time to ease your way into it. We will have some help coming in Justin Gage when the football season concludes and Travon Bryant when the second semester rolls around. My thing with this group is not to let them say, 'we will be good eventually'. Our December schedule is a bear and we won't be the same team in December that we are in February. The sooner we get some game experience for the young players the sooner we can build on that."
On Arthur Johnson's development
"We are patient with development. Obviously, we want to win right away. You don't want to put someone in a position to fail. Anyway AJ will play and he knows that. He wants to play well."
On his three new forwards
"We must define the concept of a forward. A forward can be a person that is 6-3 and play big to a guy that is 6-11 and likes to play in the perimeter. For us, the key is finding talented players that can play a variety of positions. We have multiple position guys on our team and it gives us versatility, it changes our looks defensively. Some of our new forwards are of the 6-10 and 6-11 variety, which is nice and it gives us strength inside. I am excited about the kids we have coming to our program."
On the freshmen class
"This is - in some respects our first real recruiting class. I hope it is representative of the type of athlete we are trying to attract. It is a very strong group. I feel really good about them. What this class brings to our university is pretty special. I am excited about those kids and we are still going after it."
On the recruits' intangibles
"Jeffery (Ferguson) is probably the most serious student, Robert (Whaley) has charisma and I think there is something about him that he can still discover from a leadership capacity. He is also feisty which must be used the right way, but I see him as being a competitive kid. Duane (John) is constantly working, you can't get him out of the gym. He played the entire summer with a pulled groin. I think those qualities we look for in our program."
On Duane John playing point guard
"I wouldn't look at him playing the point, but he could guard a point. (Assistant Coach) Tony (Harvey) and I have a similar view of the game and he just does his job well because he tends to like guys that I like."
On Missouri's selling point
"We have set out to create a program in which a player can develop. Player development is more than just an athletic concept. A lot of what we are doing in our program extends beyond basketball. It can be psychological, it can be academic, it can be mentoring or it can be professional development. The key issue to recruiting is developing a relationship based on trust. We have been able to identify the type of kids we want."