K-Stated

Looks like this might be a recurring feature with the K-State men’s basketball coach.

Again, thank Levi for the hook-up. I had some, um, issues.

What about injuries?

"Not sure on that yet. Everybody’s been at practice. Stewart’s been at practice, practiced on a limited basis. It’s still a little early. We’ll figure that out as we get a little closer to game time, but everyone else has practiced."

What did you learn from last week?
"That we’re young. Our room for improvement is huge. It’s something that’s got to continue to take place. We got some guys that are eager and that want to continue to learn."

Were there any surprises from the first outing?

"Our defense. We spent time between our Marquette scrimmage and that game; just rotations and guys getting to certain areas of the floor. We did a hell of a lot better job at that."

Will this be a good rebounding team?
"We should. Mike, one of his biggest assets as a basketball player is he’s as good of rebounder as I’ve ever been around. Then you add Bill and Dave in there, you’re talking about two guys who can go and get it. Then Luis and Ron. Ron’s got real good hands, he can grab rebounds. Luis is always…if he doesn’t rebound it, he’s going to occupy somebody. Luis continues to get better. Then our guards, Blake Young went in there and got five rebounds. He’s an athletic kid who can rebound. And let’s not forget Clent Stewart. Clent’s always been a good rebounder for a point guard. I think we’re more athletic, so it could be a decent rebounding team."

Is Dave Hoskins close to 100 percent?
"He’s pretty close. He had some spectacular plays the last couple days of practice, as far as athletically. It’s just a matter of getting out there and feeling comfortable with the game setting. It’s just competing, which is the biggest thing. It’s a lot different than just going through plays with no defense and then having to compete at a high level. Your body gets beat up a little more. It’s just a matter of him getting through those kinds of things, and I think he’s battled through that already."

Will Fred Brown be available to play?

"Yeah…well, he’s practicing with us right now. I’ll make a decision on him as we get closer to Friday."

He’s been suspended since when?
"He was suspended last week from Tuesday through Sunday."

Can you say for what?
"I think we released that in our school release. We did that already."

How’s your relationship with your assistants?

"It’s the lifeline of any successful organization. It’s not the guy on top, it’s the people that work with the guy on top. See assistant coaches have the direct communication between the head coach and the players, and when you’ve got great assistants who go out everyday and recruit the right players, that’s No. 1. No. 2, when the players aren’t happy with my decisions as the head coach, the assistants are usually the ones that become their sounding boards for those players. And those assistants have to communicate the right message to the players that keep everybody together and everybody on board. So it’s hard to succeed unless you’ve got good assistants. I said it when Huggs hired us here, he did an unbelievable job of putting a staff together. We were all about the same things. We weren’t in it to see  who had the most success, who got the most credit to get a head job. We were all here to win, to help each other succeed, because we all understood that as a whole, we’d all succeed if we won. That’s why the guys here were so important to me that they stayed behind. And they did."

Is the Michael Beasley "hype train" rolling now?

"I don’t know. Mike’s a freshman the year after Kevin Durant. I tell people all the time, I remember when I was a kid watching Mark Aguirre and Wayman Tisdale. They had freshman seasons like no one had ever seen before. So when the freshmen that came in after them, they got all that notoriety. Then that whole thing kind of quieted down. Now, Kevin obviously had the great year he had last year, and Mike’s that next freshman. So Mike’s got to deal with that media attention, because he’s following in the footsteps of Kevin, right now. But Mike’s a good player. He’s earned the attention he’s gotten, because of his statistics and his teams have always won. At K-State, we don’t push that aside. We embrace that, because Mike’s a good teammate and Mike wants to win."

Do you break the season down into thirds or quarters?

"It’s three different seasons. You’ve got your non-conference season, you’ve got your conference season and you’ve got your post-season. You have to line up and do well in your non-conference season. That’s why we’ve upgraded our schedule, because the Big 12 speaks for itself. The Big 12 season is a grind. It’s a grind, and it’s so hard to do. So the Big 12 season speaks for itself. So what you have to do is prepare your team to deal with that grind. So you’ve got to come out and play some high-level games in the preseason, and you’ve got to challenge your team in the preseason. That preseason non-conference schedule prepares your for the Big 12, and that Big 12 season prepares you for the postseason. You’ve got to take experiences from all three so you can succeed in the postseason."

Do you openly talk about goals for this season?

"Yeah. My goal has always been to win. I want to compete for a championship. I want the teams I’m associated with to compete for a championship. If you line up and practice and play everyday for anything but a championship, then you’ve accepted that you’re inferior to somebody you’ve got to compete with. The day you do that, then you have no chance of succeeding."