Jan. 15, 2002
Q: Why did you come to MU? DJ: I decided to come here because the coaching staff really showed me that if I came here I would learn a lot of stuff that I had never learned about the game of basketball.
Q: What is your favorite aspect of MU? DJ: My favorite part is just being here, going to school and trying to get an education. I'm learning different stuff about basketball that I haven't learned in my life.
Q: What is the hardest part of playing for Coach Snyder? DJ: I don't think it's that hard playing for Coach Q because things that seem hard, he breaks down into a way that looks easy. When he shows me his way, it looks easy so you just do it like that, and it's not really hard.
Q: What are some of your personal strengths and weaknesses? DJ: One of my weaknesses was really getting to class. I had a big problem going to class, but then I figured out I really have to go to class in order to play basketball. If I don't go to class then I don't play. For my strengths, I just say I have a strong heart. Every time I feel down, my heart always tells me to not get down on myself because college basketball isn't a joke. My heart is always telling me to stay strong.
Q: How do you stay competitive? DJ: I compete just by learning and going at it everyday in practice against great players like Kareem, Rickey and Josh. Just going at them everyday has given me more experience. Me working with them everyday has made me a better player.
Q: How do you prepare on game days? DJ: I may seem quiet, but on game day, I've got a different type of emotion. I start screaming and stuff, anything to lift the team up because it doesn't really matter if you're not playing. You've got to be a team player so even if I'm on the bench, I've got to help my team in different situations.
Q: Who is your role model? DJ: My main role model is my mom. We came from the Caribbean, and she didn't have anything. In Toronto, we had to stay in a tough neighborhood. To raise me as a child coming up in a tough neighborhood, anything can go wrong and a kid can turn bad, but my mom has always been there for me so that's why my mom is my role model.
Q: Do you talk with your mom often? DJ: Yeah, I talk to my mom everyday.
Q: What are your future career goals? DJ: I'm trying to get my degree in Business Management. If I can go on to play basketball at another level from here, that'd be good, but I promised my mom that I'd get my degree before I leave here.
Q: What do you do in your spare time? DJ: I just chill in the dorm, relax, watch some TV. Sometimes I come to the gym and shoot around, or I just talk to my girlfriend.
Q: What is the hardest part of being a student athlete? DJ: The hardest part I think is going to class and going to practice. Going to class really brings you down and makes you tired. Then you've got to feel a different momentum when you come to the gym and practice.
Q: Why do you wear number 11? DJ: I wear number 11 because one day I was in the Caribbean, and I had this small T-shirt on. It had the number 11 on the back of it. I didn't know what it meant. I just knew it was a number. I used to wear that T-shirt a lot because where I'm from we don't have a lot of clothes. I loved that T-shirt. Ever since I started playing basketball, I had number 11.
Q: What's your favorite basketball memory? DJ: My favorite basketball memory was playing in Toronto with my coach, Coach P. We had a real good squad for two years with me and some other guys in Division 1 right now. I enjoyed those years with those guys. Those are years that I'll cherish forever. Coach P was the first coach to put me out on the basketball court.
Q: What's your favorite movie? DJ: Rocky.
Q: Why? DJ: Rocky's the kind of person that reminds me of me. No matter how tough it gets, you've just got to keep working hard and fighting for what you want to do. Even if it does get hard sometimes, you're going to eventually beat the person or whatever you want to get at. You're going to get it.
Q: What question do you get tired of answering? DJ: The question I get tired of is my accent. I have a kind of Jamaican accent. People always ask me about my accent. They're always asking me to speak my accent.
Q: If you were playing another sport, what would it be? DJ: It would probably be soccer. I used to play soccer all the time when I was younger, but then I started getting too tall for that sport so I had to quit.
Q: Who is the most famous person you've ever met? DJ: I've met a lot of NBA starts, but the most famous is probably Shaq. I met him in Toronto at a game. My AAU coach used to take us down to the ACC to watch NBA games, and Shaq was there. We went back in the dressing room, and I got to talk to him.
Q: What are your expectations for both the team and yourself this season? DJ: For me, I just expect every time I get out on the floor to just compete. Nobody's expecting me to do too much, but go out and play defense and run the offense and just work hard when I'm out there.
Q: What are some of the differences between Missouri, Toronto, Florida and the Caribbean? DJ: Here is really different from Toronto because Toronto's the big city. This is like the Caribbean because there really isn't much to do. You can get distracted really easy in Florida.
Q: As a freshman, is college everything you expected it to be? DJ: Yeah, it is. The only thing I didn't expect is the way we work hard in practice. I wasn't expecting that different aspect of the game I had to learn that I didn't even know about. It's made me a better player too, but I didn't know that I had to learn how to read a screen or how to come off a screen and how to take good shots. At the University, everything is structured. You have to do what the coach says. That's been pretty tough for me, but Coach Snyder always breaks it down in a way that makes it enjoyable.