Q: Coach, last season was a successful
season. Although your team didn't
get to the "Big Dance," they did, however, tying a school-record of 21-win
season. What is your expectation for this team
this season?
A:
It
was a good season, setting the school's record for victories last year. We’ll try to take that and build on
it. This year we’ve got a number of
people returning from last year squad they can give us leadership. Roberto Morentin, Dexter Lyons, Josh Bodden seniors that really had a good career here and they're going to be
expected to lead us this year. But
we kind of injected a number of new faces into the program and hopefully they
come in and we can mesh the two phases together and come up with pretty exciting
basketball team.
Q: The
Atlantic Sun preseason polls predicted your team to finish 4th in the south
division. Do the polls have any
validity to the team and is that where you want your team to be at this point?
A: You
know the preseason poll doesn't hold a whole lot of water you know. I think a year ago we were picked to
finish like seventh, sixth seven eight or something like that and we played in
the championship game. You know the
poll doesn't mean a whole lot. It’s
just kind of interesting media thing but we don't concern ourselves with
that. That’s (4th place) not where
we end up which is the most important thing. We just wan to concentrate on the things
that we have control over. And we
don't have control over other people opinions about us. We can always control the efforts and
the executions we have each and everyday out in the practice floor and that's
why we're trying to focus ourselves.
Q: Dexter Lyons reminds a lot of people of
Darrel Armstrong (New Orleans Hornets) for his high intensity and energy on the
court. He was a huge
contributor for the team last season.
On his first game at UCF, everyone saw Dexter immediately injected energy
into the team. He clearly was a
leader among leaders for the team last season, and obviously you will count on
him to do the same this season. Did
you expect to see all the energy that Dexter Lyons displayed on the court and is
he going to elevate his energy this year?
A: Well, we recruited Dexter to bring a lot
of intensities, competitiveness, and toughness to this basketball team. Really, from the time that we
recruited him to the time he stepped on the floor last year the circumstance has
change and his role really changed.
He had to take on a bigger role then what we saw when we recruited
him. He handled well. He had a good year but we also ended up
playing him on the perimeter a lot more than what we maybe recruited him
as. He maybe wasn't ready skill
wise to play small forward spot.
But he worked very hard in individually workouts since he got on campus
he is much prepared now to play on the perimeter then he was a year ago. I think people will see a lot of the
same things from Dexter but a much better basketball player.
Q: You got a lot of new faces on the team
this year. Would comment on the
freshmen and if they will have a chance to play this year?
A: They all have an opportunity to earn
time. We recruited a number of
junior college kids, Kingsley Edward, Garry Johnson, and Marcus Avant. I can count on those guys been integral
part to what we do on the basketball floor. One freshman, Josh Peppers, come in and
he's a talented kid from Memphis. I think he has a big upside. He’s going to be an exciting player for
us over the course of time. He just
got to make that normal transition from high school to Division I. It's not always an easy jump to
make. But he's doing well. I think all of those guys will come in
and they each will give something a little different. We just have to integrate their skills
into what we already have.
Q: The tallest player you have on the
roster is redshirt freshman Ben Stout who is 7-1 ft. Stout did not play for your team last
year but he had learned a lot from watching the team in practices and
games. Would you talk about his
skills and how has he improved since last season.
A: He still got a lot of maturing to do
physically. He's getting stronger
and he's working very very hard n the weight room. We're trying to put him on diet and keep
him on diet that will help him gain some weight. He just has a metabolism that make it
very tough or him to do that. He's
making good progress and he's a hard worker he wants to be a good player. It just going to be over the course of
time you'll continue to see him improve.
He'll improve small step at a time.
He battles it everyday and that’s what he has to do if he wants to be a
good player.