Romar Media Day Press Conference Transcript

Opening Statement
I am excited that we are able to start practice a little early with the new rule. We get 42 days before our opener and we have to decide which 30 days we want to use so obviously we’ve started now, which is a little earlier from years past. But this is a year as far as I’m concerned is perfect timing because we can’t wait to get started here.

What is different about this year’s team?
This year’s team seems to have, even though we have a lot of new players, seems to have more of an idea of what we want and what our culture is about. I would say that would be a little different from last year.

Why do you think that is?
I think that the captains, Nigel Williams-Goss and Andrew Andrews are doing a really good job right now of leading this team. I think Daniel Shapiro in the weight room, this spring, summer and now, has done a fantastic job with our guys, reinforcing the same things we want. Then, the fact that our guys stayed here the entire summer for nine weeks, committed to going to school, working out and getting better. It allowed us to be on the same page earlier. We will see when we get going but that is the feel that I get right now. When you talk about last year at this time until now those are some of the things I see.

How much does the basketball culture in Seattle, unlike other cities, give you an advantage?
I don’t know how much of an advantage it gives us over anyone else. I know it is pretty special to know that when we are here in the summer it’s not just former UW players around the Seattle community. A lot of them are former UW basketball players that have gone on to play in the league. Some are playing in the league now and some that aren’t. They are still here playing and working out and it is pretty special. I think those older guys have made it a point to take the young under their wing and show them the ropes. Our guys respect that and have been very receptive to their Husky family here. I think it is pretty unique.

Can you talk about the front court compared to last year?
At this time last year we had a big, new front court and then they all got hurt. Something happened, one by one we were depleted. My hope is that we can be healthy and get out there on the floor. If that happens, then it gives us an entirely different look than what we had last year with our group.

If they stay healthy, have you ever had this kind of athleticism and size?
The combination of athleticism and size I would say would be similar to when we had Matthew Bryan-Amaning and Aziz N’Diaye, those two and Darnell Gant would probably be the closest we have had to this. This particular group probably would surpass that in terms of size and athleticism.

Does Jernard Jarreau have any restrictions?
He has restrictions, as of today but I think by the end of next week he will be close to not having any. He has been practicing with us every day and can do the majority of what we are doing. We are just being a little cautious right now in terms of 5-on-5 full-court. He can go 5-on-5 half-court and he can do no-contact things full court. It won’t be long, he is close to being cleared all the way.

Is he [Jarreau] going to have a certain rust to his game because he hasn’t been on the court in game situations?
There is no doubt that early on he will have to get the kinks out. He will. They have done a remarkable job with him and bringing him along at a really good pace for him to get stronger. Not only, to get stronger but also to be confident. When you come back from an ACL injury, confidence is the last thing you obtain but he seems pretty confident in his movements. His touch, hand eye coordination with the ball, the feel and all of those kinds of things he will have to get back to. Being fatigued and able to knock that shot down, all of those things he was able to do without thinking before may take him a little time.

Do you think he [Jarreau] is capable of the same kind of improvement you were expecting from him last year before he got hurt this year?
Yes, where he may lack early on in timing he is going to gain, no pun intended, in terms of his weight now. He is about 245 now and you can just see when he gets the ball inside he is not going up and guessing. He is going in with a plan now because he feels confident he can go in there and bang bodies and still make an effective play. When he puts the ball on the floor and goes towards the basket it is a little harder to knock him off his path going to the rim. That is a plus for him.

How does the loss of Tristan Etienne affect you guys? Was he going to be factor for you guys at all?
The way that he was playing showed that he could have had an opportunity to help us. I will say though, the way we play this year may give some guys an opportunity, like when we play with four guards. We’ve done that over the years, teams that won big in Sweet 16 years, we played with four guards. We’ve been able to do that and we can end up going that route more than we would have before.

Was that decision out of the blue or was it an ongoing conversation?
No, it wasn’t something that we saw was coming down the pipe.

Is there any more you can expand on with that? Medical related?
No, all I want to say again is that he is a fine, fine young man and a fine student and he did not do anything remotely wrong. This is a decision him and his family made and we respect his decision.

Is there a chance he could be rejoining in the future?
That would have to be a change of mind on his part. He is not giving us any indication that this is the way he feels now and we could discuss it later. That discussion has not taken place. As of right now, he has decided to do it this way.

Where has Nigel Williams-Goss improved since last season?
If you haven’t seen Nigel in the last three weeks the first thing that you are going to notice is that he is a little more compact. His body has changed. His jersey is a little fuller now and he was probably a little more wirey last year but now he has more definition. That is the first thing that you will see even in his neck area. You will see football players come in and after their redshirt freshman year you look at them and you can just tell in the neck that they have gotten stronger and that is what you will notice with Nigel. He is more in command of what he wants to do. He is more of an efficient basketball player right now and he is getting to that point where good players get. They know how to get you in the area you want to get in. He knows how to get to the place that is going to butter his bread, so to speak. Some players want to get there but don’t know how. He knows how to get in those positions to create plays.

Do you have the firepower on the wing to replace C.J. Wilcox?
Committee. It has to be done by committee. C.J. was a higher gun and very special basketball player. People tend to forget how good he was on defense as well and he was a second leading shot blocker last year. He brought a lot to the table. I do think that we have a lot of guys who have grown over the summer that after a year in our system that are going to be better basketball players also.

How is Shawn Kemp, Jr. doing, battling Graves Disease and all?
You would never know that anything is wrong with Shawn at all. Shawn, right now, is physically the strongest guy on our team and he is playing with a lot of confidence right now. He is doing a good job early on for us.

When you were talking about the bigs, on paper do you still have an idea of each one of those guys and where they may fit either as starters or rotation players?
I think that they complement each other really well. I would say that Jernard [Jarreau] is the most versatile. If we go and play with four guards then we can talk about guys like Donaven Dorsey and Quevyn Winters. Playing with four guards gives you the ultimate versatility right there. When thinking of a guy like Quevyn, Donaven Dorsey we don’t think of them as playing the big spot. It is four guards and all four will play like guards. Both of those guys can really shoot the basketball. They become players that really stretch the defense. Aside from that, when you talk about it in terms of size, Jernard is 6’10 and he is 245 pounds. He can pass the ball and put the ball on the floor and he has developed a nice, little 17-foot-shot. Giles Dierickx can step outside and shoot the ball. He is feeling a little more comfortable right now. He doesn’t have an array of moves with his back to the basket but he is a 7-footer and can be a defensive presence out there because of his length. Shawn [Kemp, Jr.,] has a very good knack for just putting the ball in the basket. Without even thinking he can get that ball up there and make baskets. He is the strongest post that we have and he is athletic. Robert Upshaw is a very good shot blocker. He has really good timing. [Assistant] Coach [Raphael] Chillious made an observation that he waits until the ball leaves your hand and he has that type of timing where he can wait. He will leave his feet at times but he is pretty good at being patient and waiting then he goes and gets it. He also has good hands so it makes him a good rebounder. He is not limited offensively. I don’t want to paint a picture that all he does is play defense. He can get the ball around the basket. Because he is so long, he is a pretty good finisher.

In terms of [Robert] Upshaw, does he come in with the biggest argument for being a mystery with the most excitement because of his size?
When you talk about a mystery guy I could see it because there has been a lot of talk about him and his size and athleticism. But then, you look at his numbers from freshman year and he had an average of 4.8 points a game so who is he? Which guy is he? We are about to find out.

Is he [Upshaw] projected as your starting center?
No, guys are going to earn that in practice. We are not projecting him as the starting center. We will wait and see how he and the other guys practice. The five best players that make the best team will be the guys that will be the starters.

Do you have a sense for how Upshaw fits into everything?
Again, he helps you because he is so good at protecting the rim. That is a great luxury to have that a lot of people don’t have. He is a guy that when the ball goes up, as a defensive rebounder, is really good. He has good timing, good hands, he is long and athletic. That helps us. We didn’t have that element last year.

Does Darin Johnson have the most upside to contributing from year one to year two?
Darin has immense potential. We have several guys on the team, looking at a guy like Mike Anderson you wonder how much upside he has and in this system, based on what he did last year, he kind of had to play out of position. Playing with four guards he didn’t have as much confidence shooting the basketball last year. That made him play more like an inside guy. That’s different than when we play with four guards this year and all those guys can shoot and have confidence to make the shot. Darin’s talent we saw in the last game. He has learned a lot last year and he is coming in this year with a better focus and understanding. You need to have some sort of understanding. Last year he may have not had as much understanding and lost focus at times. This year both areas have improved. In my opinion, this will make him a much improved player.

With these new rules allowing you to practice earlier, are there any other teams around the nation that are reaping the benefits like you guys are?
I would doubt if there were any that didn’t take advantage of the rule. Going back to improving, one guy on our team did something that resembles some players in the past. Quincy Pondexter came in his freshman year, pre-season and was tearing it up. End of his freshman year he fell off a little. Sophomore year, he was up and down and at the end of his junior year he showed what he could do his senior year. Matthew Brian-Ammaning and Justin Holliday did the same thing. I think Andrew Andrews is the guy this year that finished the last six games, not including the Pac-12 tournament where he was very sick, averaging 17 points a game and six or seven rebounds. He looks like he is ready to continue to do the things he was doing at the end of the year.

How was his [Andrews] inclusion in the trip to China and how has that helped his improvement and overall maturation?
You can’t help but feel a little bit better about yourself if you’re invited to go and participate in something like that. I don’t know if that did it, call it maturation, I think Andrew has come back, overall a much better leader and much more focused on the right things. That will help him and our ball club.

You have lacked in the leadership department in years past, who stands out to you as the leaders this year?
Nigel Williams-Goss and Andrew Andrews, our captains and they are doing a good job of leading right now. You have other guys like Mike Anderson and Quevyn Winters and Jernard [Jarreau] who are now men. They are not the captains but they go about their business the right way.

Can you talk a little bit about Quevyn [Winters]? I saw him shoot the ball and it just goes in how do project him to do?
It is interesting, Quevyn played for a team that pressed the entire game and rotated 10 guys every game. The numbers don’t really affect what he was doing. He certainly can shoot the basketball. One thing we tend to forget about Quevyn is that he has played Division I basketball for Duquesne in the Atlantic 10 and averaged double digits. He is already an experienced basketball player. He went to community college last year and developed his skills but we have been practicing, in terms of individual workouts now since the summer. I have never talked to him or the team where he wasn’t looking me in the eye. That usually says someone is pretty focused and wants to learn. When guys are looking around you just wonder what they are actually getting. He is looking me in the eye every time and that reflects what he is doing on the floor. Even if he doesn’t get it in the beginning he is dialed in, he is always dialed in, he brings a certain level of toughness to our team as well.

Does he have the scorer’s mentality?
Oh yeah, he has the scorer’s mentality.

Is it harder to predict this year who will be your highest scorer than it has been the last couple of years?
I don’t know. Right now, Andrew and Nigel are both returning double-digit guys so you would think that they are going to do well. I mentioned earlier how Andrew finished the year. There are other guys who could step up and do that.

Is there an identity to this team that is starting to emerge compared to last year?
This team has a better toughness about itself. That is what we have seen. We went away for a couple of days for training camp we saw a more toughness about this team. We have more guys who can make plays, also.

You mentioned toughness and Coach Shapiro and a lot of the guy’s bodies have changed. How much of that toughness is coming from him?
I think a lot of it is coming from [Strenght & Conditioning] Coach [Daniel] Shapiro. Just in the weight room and guys being diligent. I also think we have a blend of guys that are older and more mature. When you look at our team photo you say there is some more men on this team. Sometimes you look and it doesn’t quite look like that.

This team looks like a bigger team than you’ve had in a while, is that fair?
Yeah, that is what I mean. This team looks more like men compared to some of our other teams.

Defensively, do you go back to the way you played in your first couple years here? Do you do it the way you tweaked it last season? What does it look like?
We tweaked a little bit of what we tweaked last season. Last season we were just kind of surviving. We were playing it as safe as we could possibly play. The other way was just not getting it done. We are playing it more probably like last year, except we are still going to put ourselves in positions where we will be more aggressive. We will play in terms of trapping and that sort of thing.

Does that mean that the rules don’t allow you to go back to that old, Husky style defense or is it the personnel?
A little combination of both, our personnel is better defensively but I still don’t know if we have that personnel to really, really go out and extend all the way and keep the ball in front of us. So kind of going in between but the rules are a factor in the way we want to play. It will be an interesting way to defend and I am excited to see how we will defend this year. If you looked at how we played defense last year you might ask how it might be any different? I think you might be surprised to how it might look.

Is it more difficult now to play a four-guard lineup when the conference has generally gotten bigger?
If you have a four-guard lineup it all depends on the fifth guy. If the fifth guy can hold his own then it is no problem.

Can your fifth guy hold his own?
I think we have the personnel to do that. Last year, we played a lot with four guards but as good of a player as Perris [Blackwell] was there was only so much he could do. At 6-8, Perris was not overly athletic. It was a little harder but I think that we have more size now. When we do play four guards then we are still able to function. This team allows us the versatility to do it all. We can go big or small.

Is your level of excitement raised this year?
I would say more I’m just chomping at the bit. Every year at this time you’re ready to go but I just think that we have a tougher team, more versatility and more players that can make plays. I’m just anxious and excited to get out there and see what we can do with this group.

How much of the high-post offense are we going to see this year?
We will still run a high-post but we will run it a little differently. I think we are going to push the basketball and try to get it to flow. When we are in the half-court we will probably do more of it then. It will still be in our offense.