Huskers Talk About Start of Season

NU men’s basketball press conference quotes

Oct. 12, 2004

 

Coach Barry Collier

Opening statement:

For our team, this is the most exciting time of the year.  We are anxious to get rolling with the cool air and the squeaky shoes on the new court at the DevaneyCenter. 

 

On Saturday, we begin with a promotional scrimmage on the track right before the football game, and then we get going in the afternoon with our first practice of the year with the entire team.  Our guys have been working hard at the various things we do in the fall, with conditioning, individual workouts and weight training. We had a little bump during the summer trip to Australia, but  I think that is going to give us an opportunity to continue what we were able to work on this summer. 

 

It is a great time for us as coaches because we actually get on the floor and we can coach all of our guys.  We can start to build for that opening game on Nov. 23.  We can see the newcomers and how they fit in with the rest of the team.  Because of NCAA rules, we can’t see them through the fall, so now is the first time that we have had them all together for this year’s team, and that is an exciting thing.  We can now begin to form as a team.

 

On the summer trip to Australia:

The big things that we can take away from this is that it was a chance to be together for an extended length of time, and try to work together as a group without Nate Johnson, Andy Drevo and Brian Conklin who graduated last year.  We think that the competition in Australia was really stiff and the physicalness of the game was extremely similar to what we will face in the Big 12. I thought that we played with some poise and aggressiveness.  I also think that you can learn from the negatives.  We didn’t shoot as well, we were less than careful with the basketball and we had too many turnovers.  Those are the things that stick out that we have to straighten out, but obviously we gained a lot of experience in games over there.

 

On the standouts on the trip:

 Jake Muhleisen played the best on both ends of the floor. He shot the best, he passed, defended, communicated on defense and rebounded.  Out of all the things we were looking for, Jake probably had the best trip.  He would’ve been our MVP if we were naming such a thing on that trip.

 

On the guys that improved on the trip:

Jason Dourisseau played very well on the trip and showed more aggressiveness.  I thought that Wes Wilkinson got into a groove scoring the ball.  There are some other areas that we are continuing to work on with him.  Wes has done an excellent job in conditioning this fall, and I think he is in the best shape he has ever been in.  Those are the guys that stuck out. 

 

Other guys had a good game or two, but went up and down a little bit.  That is good to know because they can see how it is going to be without those three key seniors that we lost last year, and what has to happen.  Now we add in this new group of guys that will give us some depth that we were lacking.  That was one thing we saw over there, we could see that we didn’t have the depth with the level play that we needed to succeed consistently.

  

On the newcomers helping with the depth issue, especially inside:

Among all the newcomers, their size, speed and shooting ability from the perimeter will help us, all of which we lost from last year’s team. While the bulk of our season will be determined by the play of our senior class, that is not going to be enough alone.  It is going to require that we have a core of at least eight players, give or take one, who give us the kind of play that we want. 

 

Aleks Maric has size -- he is just a shade under 7-0, and just a couple bags of chips under 270.  Aleks is big, strong and has good hands, and gives us some size and force inside that will really compliment John Turek, who in some ways has been our most effective big guy to consistently rebound inside.  It will be an interesting combination, whether Wes Wilkinson and John Turek take most of those minutes at the two inside spots, or whether Aleks can mix in there and maybe take a spot.  Between the three guys, it looks like there is going to be real good competition, and they will push each other.

 

On individual workouts for Marcus Perry and Joe McCray:

The workouts are there to try to improve their individual skills.  When you only have four guys together, you can only work two-on-two in those scenarios, so we don’t really know how they are going to grasp all of the team defense that we throw out there.  But they both shoot the ball really well, and that’s something that we didn’t do well in Australia. 

 

On this Saturday’s season-opening event, Husker Madness:

It’s our version of midnight madness, and it’s a chance to get in front of a bunch of people and let our team show itself a little bit and maybe draw a few more fans over to the Devaney Center this season.  It is certainly unusual to be playing outside, and if we could do it, we would like to slip that court into the middle of Memorial Stadium at halftime for 10 minutes, but that can’t get done.  We are going to do it out on the track and it will be a fun time.  I am really looking forward to it.  I will probably close my eyes and hope that no one gets hurt during that period of time, since we are going to jump right into practice an hour and a half later.

  

On any new dimensions of the offense:

It would be more of an inside threat.  John Turek is a fourth year senior with a lot of experience, and Aleks has a lot of international experience and adds his great size.  So while we were only able to go inside a limited number of times last year, it is all predicated on results. We are hoping that it will play out and give us an inside threat, and that is going to make everyone’s job easier.  It is just as important that we as a team shoot the ball well from the perimeter because without that, we wouldn’t have the space to operate inside.

 

On the attributes of the senior class:

The biggest thing would be that they are going to operate with a sense of urgency and try to do everything they can to get our team ready and consistently playing hard and as a team.  They have the best idea of how we do things in our basketball program, the principles of playing with great passion and with the team, and knowing your strengths and weaknesses.  That’s the leadership-side of it that I think they have the best opportunity to show, and that goes a long way with how you practice, how you compete and what goes on in close games.

 

On the confidence level of this year’s team:

For the guys that are back from last year, we had a run at the very end in the NIT was very positive.  To a great extent though, you have to move on to this year and form this new team without parts that are gone and with new parts that have been added.  The experience of those 10 guys you can’t trade for and I think that is something that can help us.

 

Senior forward John Turek

On how he feels as his senior season approaches:

I’m feeling good. It’s come up on me quick, and I think it’s coming up quick on all the seniors. We just finished conditioning today, and I think we had a really good conditioning season. Everyone’s been working really hard, so hopefully those things will pay off throughout the season.

 

On the benefits of the Huskers’ Australian Summer Tour:

I feel like we’re going to be ahead of a lot of other teams. The majority of our team has already played together in game-like situations with crowds and against other really good teams. I think we’re definitely going to have a competitive edge over other teams early on because we played those games.

 

On what it means to be a senior on an experienced team:

Our time is winding down, and we only have one more year. I think the goal for all four of our seniors is to make the NCAA Tournament. I think that’s a big goal of (the seniors) this year. We can just go out there and give it our best. We want to make sure that we are leading the team the best we can.”

 

On Aleks Maric:

He’s going to be a huge help. We’ve been playing pick-up games, and he’s just a really big body. He’s tough to move. As a freshman, I remember guys were kind of throwing me around. He came in here and I just noticed during pick-up games that it’s tough to get around him, it’s tough to move him and it’s even tough to post up on him because he’s so much bigger than everyone else. Aleks is just kind of a freak athlete because he’s so big, except he runs the floor so well. He weighs I think, 270 pounds, and he just runs the floor exceptionally. He runs the floor probably better than I do. It’s pretty unbelievable considering his size.

 

On a buzz about Nebraska basketball:

I think anytime you have a good year, everyone wants you to do better the next year. We had a pretty good last year, making the NIT and making it through the first couple rounds, but I think everyone is expecting us to do at least that this year and hopefully take it on to the next level. I think there is a little bit more of a buzz, and I’ve noticed that there are a lot more people asking me about the season and what my expectations are. There will be people coming up to me saying, ?We’re excited about the games,’ and ?We’re coming to the games’ so that's a good thing.

 

Jake Muhleisen

On starting practice this Saturday:

I think guys are really excited to get it going. We just finished conditioning today, and guys are happy about that. Guys are in good shape and I think they are ready to start actually playing basketball with one another and get the coaches involved and get everything put in and get the season underway.

 

On the excitement surrounding this season:

I think we ended on a pretty good note, and I think when we got to the postseason, guys still wanted to do better than what we did. I think guys were excited to get back and we’re going to have some confidence going into this season and hopefully that will carry over into some wins.

 

On the team’s goals for this season:

I think one of the things that helped us out last year was our goal was just to win the next game. Right now, our goal is to improve over practice and once the games get rollling, to win the next game. I think that really helped us stay focused on the task at hand instead of looking too far ahead. Getting to the NCAA Tournament is definitely one of our goals.

 

On the team’s newcomers:

I’ve worked out with every single one of them so far. Aleks Maric is huge. He’s 6-11, 270 pounds and you can’t move him. For how big he is, he runs the floor really well, which is pretty impressive. Joe McCray and Marcus Perry both shoot the ball really well, and they’re picking up the defense and they’re getting better every day. They’re just learning how to adapt to how we play right now and they both can stand out there and shoot it, which will help us out a ton. They both run the floor too. Joe is a little more physical because of his size and Marcus is a little quicker because he’s lighter, but other than that, they’re both really good. Jim Ledsome is a good shot blocker and a good rebounder, and he runs the floor real well also. We’re going to expect those guys to come in and help us out.

 

On needing good shooters for the upcoming season:

We didn’t shoot very well in Australia. Losing Brian Conklin, Andrew Drevo and Nate Johnson, who all shot the ball really well last year, it will help us when we get to play with the new guys who shoot the ball well. Hopefully the returnees will help shoot the ball better than we did last year too.

 

On his role this season as a third-year captain:

I think this year we’re going to have a lot more new guys coming in and playing. I think just trying to get them comfortable with the offense is big. If they have a rough day in practice learning the offense, or the defense for that matter, keeping them confident and just keep all the guys confident if they have a rough day. Also making sure all the guys come out ready to play and practice every day. Sometimes last year coaches were disappointed in our effort in practice, and I need to make sure everybody is ready to practice every day.

 

On his role in the offense this season:

I’m going to try to be a scorer, but I’m not going to force shots. I’m going to try to be more aggressive, whether that’s finding an open guy in the corner or finding the post guy. I’m just trying to be a little more aggressive and open things up for everybody else.