I have listened through all of the basketball interviews and am working up a story now and will have more filtered in through the week. But here's the full transcript of what Mark Fox said on Monday -- he covered a lot of ground.
Opening comments:
"Day 1, super excited about this group. We've had a lot of voluntary cooperation throughout the offseason and these guys have really invested a lot the last few months to continue to improve and develop as a team. We have essentially five new faces that will play this year -- all will impact, I think, our team. So we're excited for Day 1. I think it's finally a team that has more depth, more balance, more athleticism than we've had. So we are super excited to begin the year."
What is the emphasis in camp?
"Every coach demands that their teams defend. There's not one who doesn't so there's no surprise there. And I thought that last year we improved as a defensive unit, and I think this year's group, because we have more athleticism, more depth, some rim protection, we have a chance to make another jump there. But we also have balance, which is so important as you get into a season offensively because you have to spread your scoring around. When you only can go a couple places with it, it's easier for teams to scheme to defend you, and I think we have a lot more guys who have the ability to finish plays. So our work now will begin to make them into a unit and form a team that has chemistry on that end as well."
What was the value of the Europe trip?
"The benefits were the 10 practices we had before we went. Certainly to get guys some game action was important, but the real benefit in a coach's eyes was the 10 practices we had leading up to it. Gives us a little bit of a head start on this year and helped us identify where guys are comfortable on the floor, where maybe they aren't quite as comfortable. So I think we were super encouraged by a lot of things that we saw. We know there's things that we have to clean up, but it was really I think from a basketball perspective really good for us. And when you travel abroad and your team has a chance to navigate foreign waters together, even though we have an international flavor to our team, it builds chemistry. And I think we were able to really have some good time together and strengthen the relationships within the group."
Who has surprised you so far?
"Oh, I don't think there's any question that the biggest surprise for us has probably been Grant Newell. He just had a terrific summer and he really came in and from Day 1 has been impressive with just how he works, how he finishes, how responsible he is. He just has a lot of positive traits on and off the court that just really stuck out this summer. I don't think there's anyone on our staff that would say differently. Grant has been a tremendous surprise out of the gate."
Scoring has been tough in recent years, what do you expect offensively this year?
"I think what we've tried to do, obviously we've played a little slower than we wanted to because of the talent situation. So now we have more depth, I think you'll see us play a faster pace. I think you'll see more balance offensively. But obviously it's an area that we worked hard on this summer, and I think the two transfer guards will impact that end of the floor immediately. So yeah, we hope we'll play a little quicker and have a lot more balance."
Do you hope to have a 9 or 10-man rotation?
"I would like to be able to play nine. Can we get to 10? You know, we'll see. We've got a lot of competition for minutes right now, it's really kind of fun to see every day. So we've got a lot of guys battling and we've got a month to figure it out."
It looks like you have three potential point guards, how do you sort that out?
"I would say we have almost four with Jarred Hyder, so they will all be able to play together. We will play a way to allow any combination of those four to be on the floor together. They could be out there with two bigger wings. We have a lot of versatility within this roster, so we'll practice each day with guys playing all over the place, and as we get into the season and a rotation gets established they may see less time at both spots, but I think we'll have the ability to do that if we choose to."
DeJuan Clayton and Devin Askew, what do they bring to the team?
"Well I think that both have worked really hard to understand which shots to shoot. I think Devin skipped his senior year of high school and went to one of the elite programs in America -- that didn't work out for Johnny Juzang either. That's a tough transition for anybody, and having coached in that league I understand what he tried to tackle there. But I think Devin and DeJuan both have shot the ball really well. We give an annual shooting test and they both passed it with flying colors last week, so that was good to see. Monty Bowser is another guys who has shot the ball really well this summer and will contribute in that area. I think understanding first of all what shots to shoot helps your percentage, and I think that both those guys will be really solid shooters and playmakers for us. But that's going to be important for us to create the balance that we want to have."
In one of the Europe games you didn't play DeJuan, Jarrad Hyder or Marsalis Roberson. Were they hurt?
"One was ill, DeJuan missed a summer game, he had a minor finger injury that we held him out so he didn't play in the summer games, and Jarrad Hyder was injured at the time also."
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