Nov. 16, 1999
On opening the season against Pennsylvania Wednesday night:
“We’re looking forward to opening the season tomorrow in the Preseason NIT.It’s a field of excellent teams and quality players so it is going to be areal challenge against a really good Penn team. They return quite a fewveteran players so it will be a measuring stick for our players to see howmuch we’ve grown with the short practice time that we’ve had.”
On Marquis Estill’s knee surgery:
“Marquis had knee surgery and is doing much better. Dr. Caborn, our teamdoctor, did the surgery around 7:30 am this morning. He had some discomfortin his knee and has been rehabbing it since he had surgery last spring.Finally, the pain was unbearable so they went in to try and clean it up.”
On the signing of Cliff Hawkins and Michael Southall:
“We’re excited about signing Cliff Hawkins and Michael Southall. We’re wellon our way to having an excellent year in recruiting. We fulfilled two ofour main needs for the future.”
On the process of signing Hawkins:
“His parents called us up and the rest is history. I didn’t talk to himuntil I had a chance to visit with Fran Fraschilla at New Mexico. That’sthe way I do things and I felt it was the proper thing to do and he wassuppose to call Fran and let him know that he was reopening up hisrecruitment. At that point in time, we invited him in for a visit and hecommitted to us.”
On recruiting being the hardest part of being a head coach:
“Nothing is easy but I wouldn’t say that it is the hardest. It is demandingand it’s competitive. I never look at something as hard, but rather that itmight take more time. It’s just one of the areas in the coaching professionthat you have to have the best people. I don’t think it is frustratingbecause you are dealing with kids.”
On matchup problems with Pennsylvania’s backcourt:
“Those guys are pretty good, especially with a player of Michael Jordan’scaliber. He’s a guy who has been in the program, understands their systemand is their leading scorer. He’s an excellent three-point shooter andknows how to run the team. He can play the one, two or three with his skilllevel. Matt Langel has incredible range on his jump shot. Early in theseason, we’ve always had problems defending the three-point shot and theyare an excellent three-point shooting team. Hopefully, we can utilize ourdepth because we have some depth in our backcourt. I have been impressedwith all of our perimeter people so far. They have a very good backcourt,but I would stack our backcourt up with most teams.”
On the matchup between Geoff Owens and Jamaal Magloire:
“You have two veteran players who have contributed a lot to their team.Geoff has played more as far as starting. Jamaal is a seasoned veteran alsoso it will be a real test for him. I know Jamaal is looking forward to it.He has really had an outstanding preseason and has worked extremely hard toimprove his total game.”
On Pennsylvania’s style of play:
“I expect an up-tempo style of play that led Florida with eight minutesleft in the game last year. Offensively, they push the ball up the courtand look for the first open shot. Defensively, they will pressure us on andoff the ball. They play an up-tempo style and are very poised. They are avery good passing team and make good decisions.”
On Penn being a dangerous team to open with:
“It will be a good test for us. It is a home game and I think that helpsus. Every game is a dangerous game, but as an opener, I would think theirexperience and veteran play would give them the edge.”
On Penn point guard Michael Jordan:
“He’s very athletic and can put the ball on the floor. He has greatball-handling skills and has excellent range on his outside shot, so thatmakes him double dangerous. I think his defense may be underrated. He isalso a very physical player.”
On what he learned in the preseason about his rotation:
“The first thing I was looking to see was how players that had not played alot like Todd Tackett, J.P. (Blevins), Steve (Masiello), and our freshmen,along with Jules starting. I usually look at the particular situation tosee what we need like Todd Tackett for his outside shooting or do you moveTayshaun to guard for more size.”
On Marquis’ recovery from surgery:
“He shouldn’t be gone long at all. This should have corrected anyirritations or soreness that he had so he will probably be able to startrunning and playing soon. He has not been able to run or do anything exceptworkout in the pool. He didn’t have any swelling, it was just irritation inthere and it was something that Dr. Caborn will be able to alleviate. He’sprobably in the best shape of his life having just (spent the fall working)out in the pool.”
On improvements from the preseason:
“I think most of it centers on ball-handling. I feel real comfortable withthe play of our perimeter players. We lost ball-handling and a good playerin Wayne Turner, along with Heshimu Evans and Scott Padgett. That has givenme more confidence in our perimeter now to handle any situation.”
