ERNIE KENT

Opening statement: I thought for a second exhibition game we did some things well. It's nice to get these two out of the way. Next week I'm hoping that we'll start with a lot of confidence at home, and particularly continue to shoot the ball.

One of the things we've noticed in all of our scrimmages, whether it's a scrimmage between ourselves, or bringing in a scout team to scrimmage, or the two exhibition games, we continue to shoot over 50 percent from the field. I felt, coming into the year, like we had a really good shooting team here and I'm happy to see a couple more guys  are starting to, what I call "get on their games" and shoot it with confidence. That's the encouraging part.

I think a big area we've got to continue to improve on is shooting the basketball. With these two smaller teams we've played, obviously Conor will help with that when we get him back this next week, but we've got to do a better job of rebounding. Those are points that we're leaving out on the floor, giving teams so many second shot opportunities. But to play that fast and only have 14 turnovers, 34 buckets off of 21 assists, guys are sharing the ball, they're doing some really good things right now.

Were you happy with the team's pace? You averaged 13 seconds per possession.

I think at Oregon we were like eight seconds getting up and down, so 13 is pretty good with this group. And with the new 30-second shot clock, hopefully you can see that's not really going to affect us. Because we like to paly fast, we like to put up shots, we like to turn it over defensively so we can get out and run. But that is pretty good, that's about where we need to be and I think we can even play faster. And guys will see that on tape, by getting the rebound cleaner, the outlet cleaner, but I love the way we're running the floor right now, I love the way we're sharing the ball right now.

What did you think of your team's press today?

There's a couple more presses that we have that we didn't show and we didn't want to yet, that we need to work on. For so many new guys they're doing a pretty good job in that area. I think for us right now, defensively, we need to do a better job of being more mentally locked in on a possession-by-possession basis. And with so many new guys, I still don't feel like we're running offense in the half court as crisp or as hard or as smooth as we need to run it right now. And that's a big focal point this week coming up, offense and rebounding the ball.

Suggs:

How about your night shooting?

First of all I want to thank my teammates for finding me and getting me open looks. Without them I wouldn't be able to hit those shots. Before the game I was just working on my shots and it just felt good tonight.

Daniels:

Were you trying to get the ball to Renard Suggs?

You really start to look for him because you know he's hot. And when he gets hot, he gets going. So when he was involved in the game, that's what I wanted to do. Keep getting him shots and for him to keep knocking them down.

Did you and Robert Franks raise your games once it got more physical?

That's what we're supposed to do: be physical, be tough. It's a part of the game. You don't want to come into the game soft and have people take advantage of you, so what me and Robo do very well is we play tough.

Suggs:

 Was it a confidence boost to make that first 3?

It's a big boost of confidence. Again, I just want to thank my teammates for finding me and giving me open looks.

Kent:

Did Ny bring a lot of energy to the team?

When we looked at starters and rotations, the thing we looked at with Ny, what we wrote by his name, was we needed some toughness and energy, that was the guy we turned to. I felt like he gave us a great spark in the first half, and he really got us going in the second half when I felt like that second unit didn’t' start the game with the unit they needed to start with. It's nice to have those kind of numbers and that kind of depth on this team, because it just allows you to hold guys accountable to playing hard and staying focused and Ny was certainly really good in the game. He really turned the game for us in terms of the energy tonight.

Is Valentine Izundu getting more comfortable?

We try to get him to understand if he would just run, dunk and block shots, and rebound, he doesn't need to worry about much else. I thought he was a little bit more comfortable. You've got to realize he hasn't played in about two years, he transferred coming out of Houston, so for him to get in front of people, it's going to take some time. We just remember the days where you cannot score in practice because he's so dominant in the paint. But I thought he did a good job adjusting to the smaller team. It'll be nice to get Conor back because he needs to start getting his feet wet and understanding how to play smaller guys, as well. But the bigger teams in the conference, the bigger teams on the schedule, I think those two guys are going to do a good job against them.

Can Conor play?

He is getting closer. This week coming up he'll get into some live contact drills. We're just working on his conditioning right now but he's been cleared to do as much as he can handle and so far he says he feels great. Hopefully if everything goes according to plan, we can play him a few minutes, not major minutes, next Friday.

For all three of you, what did it mean having George Raveling present?

Kent:

I'll start I think any time you bring back one of your own at a school it's just a tremendous feeling. The town was abuzz, people were so excited to have coach here. The fact that he's meant so much ot the game of basketball, not only as a coach and getting inducted into the hall of fame, but an ambassador of the game, and continues to be an ambassador today. So we should feel extremely fortunate to have him a part of this school, a part of its history and tradition, and for him to come back just means the world for our program and for these players, too. The job he did in our locker room today speaking about Dr. King and his experience there, that's just invaluable. For these guys to understand, that's a history lesson in itself. I wish this entire campus could have been in our locker room to hear that talk.

Daniels:

Just to piggyback on what coach said, he paved the way for coach, he paved the way for pretty much our whole entire team to be here. It's an honor for me, for him to be here, and we appreciate everything he's done for this whoel entire school, university, and basketball itself, too, and what he's going to continue to keep doing. We'll never for get him.

Suggs:

It was a good moment for me just being in the gym when they announced his name. I was like, dang, he's really here. It just hit me and I just want to thank him for coming.

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