Media Day Report Part One - Hey, Mr. Willllsoooon

Before I get into the meat and potatoes that you're all hungry for, I want to say that overall I'm really happy with the way Media Day went, and I want to thank my friends over at AU Athletics for facilitating my attendance today. If you haven't read the LiveTweeting at twitter.com/auhoops, I suggest you do that because a lot of the choicest quotes from Coach Jeff Jones's introductory speech are there. From my shorthand, here's a lot more of his speech.

Bob Socci, Patriot League commenter, asked Coach Jones how the team was going to deal with the loss of so many talented players. JJ started with, "I think it's safe to say that a year can make a big difference.”

Here are some other tidbits from his speech:
- “[Losing guys] is something we're dealing with.”
- “Losing two assistant coaches further compounds the challenges that we face.”
- “It's a different kind of challenge and a year that allows us as a coaching staff to re-examine some of the things that we do to help the team achieve its potential.”
- “We've been pleased with the effort of our guys, but we have a long way to go.
- "Sometimes it's been baby steps, sometimes it's been one step forward, and one step back.”
- “The question is not if, but when, we're going to round into shape and be competitive in the Patriot League this season.”
- Coach Jones is excited about the young men on the team and “there will be some surprises as the season continues on”
- The Patriot League is “always competitive, tough when you have to go on the road, but as I look around this year, certainly Holy Cross is the team that everyone seems to be looking at, they will clearly be an outstanding team.”
- There is “amazing balance” in the Patriot League, and this could be “one of the most interesting PL seasons in my years in the league.”
- JJ is “Looking forward to the season.”
- Concludes with: “Let's hope that in a month we'll be much better off than we will be next Tuesday.”

I didn't, admittedly, pay as much attention to the other coaches' speeches because this is, after all, the AU Hoops Blog. The other speeches were okay, talk about past challenges and future potential, yadda yadda yadda, Laugh-ayette isn't winning anything, Lehigh's downplaying their team, etc. etc. Anyway.

After the press conference, I awkwardly stood around until Matt Wilson, who is a very friendly guy, agreed to talk with me (and two other actual people who are real journalists and not 20 somethings running a hobby blog because it fills in between times where he has to paint himself blue) about AU basketball.

Matt was great to have at media day for the team. The lone senior, Matt was well-spoken and gave very thoughtful answers to my myriad (and sometimes odd) questions. He clearly understands the transition that the team is undergoing, has a great knowledge of the game and his team, and he was a font of knowledge for me today.

Without further praise, here is Matt Wilson on a number of topics:

- On how practice has been going: "Practice has been going well. It's a long process as far as improving because we have so many new guys...it's a long road ahead of us, but we've all been working hard, and we're excited to have a lot of opportunities ahead of us."

- On changes to the team's plan this year: "We have to play a different style this year. We're playing a little differently in practice. We're doing different things...We're going to push the ball a little more. We don't have the personnel that we had last year. We don't have the solid point guard in Derrick Mercer, we don't have the explosive scorer like Garrison. We're going to have to try to work the ball around a bit." (then later) "Not so much more passing, but just how we initiate our offense. We're likely going to push the offense a bit more. We're going to try to create opportunities in transition a bit more and try to get the team when they're not exactly settled defensively. Because last year when we had Derrick he was able to get the ball wherever he wanted whenever he wanted...We're still going to play very good defense, and we're still going to be patient, but we're going to try for more opportunities...Likely we're not going to be as strong scoring in the half court, so we're going to have to score some in transition to make up for that."

-On his role this year: "My role is probably going to be that of a facilitator, as far as giving our best scores, that is Nick Hendra, Vlad (when he's eligible), and Stephen Lumpkins
opportunities to be successful. That's what we're all trying to figure out is exactly what our role is going to be."

-On Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Moldoveanu) not being eligible until the second semester: "It's a little disruptive, but Coach does a good job making sure that he plays with both the first and second teams."

- On the freshman who has made the most progress so far: "We have a kid named Daniel Fisher from Australia, and I'd say he's made the most progress thus far. He's a hard worker, and I think he's going to be good for us. He's good at getting post positions, getting other people open" - This is actually a sentiment that Jeff Jones echoed, but we'll get to that later.

- On the conditioning regimen: "Offseason was very very difficult, our strength and conditioning coach Jason Riddell is very good at what he does, and so our lifting regimen has been very strenuous. We conditioned three times a week, we did two days where we ran sprints and one day where we did agilities. So we've been just doing the best we can so we can be in the best shape possible when it's time to compete."

- On team leadership: "As far as leadership goes, myself, Steve Luptak, and Nick Hendra are the three who were here both years we went to the tournament, and we've really been trying to get the guys up to speed on the work ethic that that group of seniors (last year's) had and how to take care of the things they need to off the court."

- Me: "You guys have like nine guards...how is this going to work? Are you going to play a four guard set?"
Matt: "We are not going to play a four guard set, and that's one thing that we actually tried. Likely there will just be a rotation since obviously you can't play nine guards at once."
(to which I added, astutely, "but it would be sweet if you could")

Listening to the voice recording of this made me realize I sound like a complete valley girl about AU basketball. Ugh. Anyway, that's enough for one night. I'll get the Jeff Jones entry up sometime this weekend for all of you. Probably not tomorrow night, but maybe sometime Saturday. If I have to push it to Sunday, have a safe and happy Halloween!

ALSO: THE FIRST PRE-SEASON GAME IS ON TUESDAY! THIS TUESDAY! GET READY! GET PUMPED!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!