When Jacob Pullen started talking to reporters at Big 12 media days this week, there wasn’t much of a crowd surrounding him.
But as the interview session went on and word spread that he was the best “quote” at the event, the cameras and microphones placed in front of his face multiplied exponentially.
Pullen, a junior guard on the K-State men’s basketball team who along with senior Denis Clemente is one of the Wildcats’ veteran leaders, had plenty to say about the upcoming season.
For your enjoyment, here are some of the highlights in a special Friday edition of “A few minutes with …”
How good can you see this team being?
The sky is the limit for this team. There’s something different since I’ve been here. My freshman year, we had Michael Beasley and some unbelievable star talent. Last year we really relied on me and Denis offensively. This year we have the total package.
Can you expand on that?
I look up on film now and realize that I’ve shot the ball four times through a whole practice. It just shows the balance we have this year. Wally (Judge) being a tremendous athlete, Jamar (Samuels) really playing well Curtis (Kelly) being a tremendous scorer with his back to the basket. It just goes to show the depth and how we’ve grown as a team.
What’s the next step for this team? You’re picked fourth in the preseason, but can you do better?
Big 12 championships, that’s what I hope for and that’s what I work for every day. When we lost to San Diego State last year we probably had like a week off. Then we were right back in the gym. We are just really preparing ourselves, we understand we kinda wore out at the end of the year. We didn’t have that balance, that depth.
So a conference championship is now seen as an attainable goal?
I definitely think it’s an attainable goal. I see us being able to do that. You’re doing certain things, you look to your left and someone’s not enthused, doesn’t have energy, doesn’t look like he wants to be there you can just remind him what it’s like. We played in the NIT last year. As a person who’s been to the NCAA tournament, that’s not something you do and feel like “I really did something. I went to the NIT!” You want to go back to the NCAA.
There’s nothing wrong with the NIT, but after being in the NCAA it’s like having a fine wine. You don’t want to go drink a nasty, cheap wine after that. You want fine wine. You don’t get used to going back to the NIT. We don’t walk off the court after practice and say, “work hard guys, the NIT is on the way.” That’s just something you don’t do.
We’ve got five new faces. They don’t really understand what they’re working for because they haven’t had a taste of anything. I keep explaining NCAA is the standard and everything else under that is a failure.
Do you feel like the vocal leader on this team?
Yes, but I feel like I don’t have to be the only leader. With Chris (Merriewether), Denis, Luis (Colon), Jamar and Dominique (Sutton) people been through a lot. I’m not the only person who’s been to the NCAA on this team. I’m not the only person to play in the NIT on this team. I don’t walk into practice thinking I’m the only leader on this team. It’s not one person we’re relying on anymore.
Are you personally ready for a rebound year?
A lot of people don’t see what you go from when you go to that escape route of having Mike and Bill (Walker). When you have stars like that, anytime you get in trouble it’s just throw the ball into Bill, he’ll score. Miss a shot, no problem it’s like an assist. Mike turned it into a dunk. To go from that to everybody worrying about what you’re going to do … People looked at it as me not scoring. Well, I’m taking tough shots now. I shot the ball better as a freshman, what it was, was I was open as a freshman.
I walked in as an underrated guard and playing with Mike and Bill made it a lot easier. You didn’t’ really know who was going to score last year other than me and Denis. Going from freshman year to sophomore year it wasn’t that I couldn’t shoot anymore, it was a different game.
It seems like you guys are a lot closer this season. Did something happen in the offseason there? You guys hang out more than usual or something?
The offseason as far as the team, we bonded more than any team I’ve been a part of. In the past, we didn’t really hang out as much. This year, as a team, we do everything together. We walk into a movie theater 13, 14 people and we all sit in the movie theater together. Or we sit inside my apartment and play video games after practice or watch TV.
We go places. We walk into the Manhattan mall and you’d think Frank is making us do it the way we stay together. We pile into cars. I have a Ford Taurus, you will see three or four 6-8 people in the back of my car. It looks like a circus act. You see seven footers getting out of my car, but the bond on this team is just different. We don’t have a separated locker room. We don’t have some people hang out and some other people hang out. When we do something, we tell the whole team. We say we’re going to the movies at 8 o clock, and it’s not really a choice whether you go or not. Ii don’t matter if we’re going to see “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” or we’re going to see “Final Destination 3,” we all go.
When we do something this year, we do it as a team. I think that’s really helped us progress as a team this year. We are all on the same page.
Is coach taking a different approach this year because of that?
Frank has put a lot of trust in us. If you walk into one of our practices, you can see Frank just sitting there on the sidelines for 45 minutes not saying anything. You might think what’s wrong with Frank? But if you look on the court you see me screaming at a freshman, you see Chris screaming at a freshman like “you gotta do this, you gotta know that.” He really appreciates the fact that he has upperclassmen as leaders this year. If you see Frank screaming at me this year he’s most likely screaming at me to scream at a freshman.
It’s easier for him and easier for the coaching staff, because they don’t have as much pressure on them to teach. It’s more of just coaching. The rest of us players are doing most of the teaching.