VIDEOS: Men's Basketball News Conferences

Coach Frank Martin along with Jair Bolden and Justin Minaya spoke with reporters Monday.

HEAD COACH TRANSCRIPT

Frank Martin | 8th Season

– Obviously, every week closer to November I get a little more miserable, but that’s all right. Part of the job I signed up for, right Phil?

– [Reporter] Frank, you’re still learning a lot about the depth on this team as preseason practice has developed. How well do you like that depth? How comfortable are you, one through 14 or 15?

– Yeah, I mean that’s why back in the summer I said the things that I said. And now that we’re closer to startin’ to play games, some of that starts workin’ itself out and some guys have taken huge steps forward and some guys haven’t regressed, they just kind of stayed in neutral. And so I’m a little disappointed. Obviously I’m not going to share who. I think you guys will figure that out once we take the court, but I’m a little disappointed that a couple guys that I thought would be more prepared to help us in November, I don’t think they’re going to be ready to help us in November. That doesn’t mean I’m down on them, I’m just disappointed because I created expectations for myself that probably I shouldn’t have done. But it’s still, depth is a big part of our team, I’m excited for it. I’m excited even with those guys I’m talkin’ about, I’m excited about the future with them. I think who they are as people will allow them to eventually catch up here.

– [Reporter] How many people could you play in a rotation this year? Significant minutes?

– I played 11 guys in high school basketball that signed division one scholarships on one team in a 32-minute game. The way we play, the guys that struggle with that are guys that are selfish and are playin’ for themselves, which I don’t get along with regardless of how good they are. So, our locker room’s built for our team to succeed, not to showcase an individual. And I don’t foresee that being a problem. Now, how many can I play? I don’t know, I wish I had more than seven last year, I’ll tell ya that much. It’s just every year’s different.

– [Reporter] Do you know off the top of your head what’s the most you’ve played at this level in a regular rotation durin’ a season?

– 10, 11? Right in there. I’m startin’ to get to Phil’s stage, so it’s just a lot of years so they kind of all get kind of mangled up a little bit. But I think 10 or 11, somewhere in there.

– [Reporter] Are there any disadvantages to that? The advantages feel obvious, but are there any disadvantages to a big rotation?

– Yeah, selfish guys don’t like it. Selfish people don’t play to get tired, selfish people play to get stats. Then the fantasy football world loves it, or fantasy sports or whatever. They love it because the fresh athlete can create stats, but it defeats your team. What we preach in our locker room every single day is all about us winning, never about this player has to play well or this player has to score so many points or he’s got to get these many shots. We don’t worry about those things, we worry about, always have. I’ve never worried about that, I’ve always worried about building a locker room with a group of guys that care about winning and not caring who gets the credit for it. It’s what it’s all about. Does that answer your question?

– [Reporter] Yeah.

– You looked confused there, I know it.

– [Reporter] I always look confused. It’s one of my gifts.

– When I threw that Phil thing out there I kind of. Phil, I don’t see you very often. I’m kind of happy when I see ya. Is that a Georgia Bulldog hat you got on? Oh, Packers, wow.

– [Reporter] Real cheap.

– Wow.

– [Reporter] You mentioned being really happy with a few guys and their progress up to this point. Who are a couple of those guys who you really think have taken a real big step?

– The returning players are all better basketball players. That’s the part that gets me excited. A.J.’s a better basketball player right now. Maik has had the best preseason that he’s had since he’s been here. Kotsar, we got like nine of ’em. So, he’s had the best preseason that he’s had since he’s been here. Keyshawn’s a better basketball player. Jermaine Couisnard is a lot more prepared early in the year than I thought he was going to be from what we do, especially since he ended up playing the best player on the other team every single time we practiced last year. And that’s a credit to him that he actually paid attention to our stuff. All those returning guys, John, they’re in a much better place than they were a year ago. Jair’s tryin’ to handle me as his coach and a point guard right now. He’s tryin’ to figure that out. I want him to be more aggressive and play faster than he wants to play. So, he’s tryin’ to manage that dynamic. TJ was having a great preseason, strained his back on was it Thursday or Friday? Friday.

– [Moderator] Late last week, yeah.

– And he didn’t practice Friday, didn’t practice Saturday, yesterday. And the deal we did, he tried, he got out there. He was healthy enough to go, but I wasn’t going to put him out there after not practicing for two days as much as he probably deserved to play.

– [Reporter] Frank, how different is it when you’re bringin’ in a grad transfer forward post player as opposed to guards? Obviously, K is the first one of since you’ve been here over the last three or four years to bring in a post player. Is that learning curve steeper? Or is it lesser? And how has he kind of adjusted so far?

– It’s probably more complicated because that’s a guy who depends on, two-fold. Offensively, the guy that plays that spot depends on other people in a system to get the ball to them. And how we teach it is differently than how he’s learned it. And number two, defensively, for example ball screens. All our ball screen coverages are called by the big guys. And most teams call their ball screen coverages with the guards. So, he’s having to understand how to go through that right now. It’s a little harder to comprehend when you don’t have the ball in your hands making decisions. It’s a lot easier to understand because with the ball in your hands, you’re seeing the game. When you’re playing with your back to the basket without the ball, you’re tryin’ to play on feel and you have no idea. You can seal and think you’re open, but you’re Not ’cause there’s a guy behind you and you got no idea. You got to trust that the guard saw the help so that’s why he didn’t pass the ball. And then, what happens with young guys is, okay, you didn’t throw me the ball so I’m not going to post next time. Well, then here comes Frank down your throat ’cause you didn’t do your job without the ball. And so, it’s going through that is a challenge. He’s going to be fine. He’s kind of struggling with that a little bit right now, but K’s got pride and that’s my biggest when dealing with people, I like dealing with people who got pride. They usually get better.

– [Reporter] Frank, Justin was talking about how he felt like he’s been able to grow both mentally and physically after everything he’s been through the last year. How have you seen him grow after the injury from last season?

– Yeah, I didn’t include him earlier and that’s on me. He’s a better basketball player than he was last time he took the court. He’s a more confident, more aggressive basketball player. He’s a better defender. He’s doing an unbelievable job on the glass, especially offensive rebounding right now. He brings a dynamic from the perimeter there that we don’t have it when he’s not in there on the offensive glass. I’m not worried. I worry about people that don’t work. I rarely worry about people that work. His jump shot’s not goin’ in as much as it needs to. And he puts in the time, so I’m not worried about it. I want him to have two or three straight days where that ball goes in consistently so he feels better about it. And I think last year he let that bother him. And so it impacted how he defended and the energy he played with. I haven’t seen that right now. But I do want him to see the ball go in more consistently so he feels better about it.

– [Reporter] Maik talked a little bit about this, off-season kind of refocusing mentally and getting some help there to stay mentally strong. And you’ve seen that from him and where’s his head space right now as he gets ready for his senior year?

– Yeah, he’s had a great preseason. He’s in great spirits. He’s aggressive. Yesterday, he played really aggressive. The ball didn’t go in for him, but that’s okay. He never allowed that to impact his aggressiveness. And that’s been my challenge, trying to figure out how to help him is that when things didn’t go his way, he got passive. And you can’t be passive and play. You have to be aggressive and he remained aggressive yesterday even though the ball didn’t go in the basket for him. He’s shootin’ that 15-foot ball really, really good right now. I’ve got to help him get open in those spots on the floor ’cause he shoots that at a high, high percentage. And I haven’t done a lot of tryin’ to manipulate our offense to get specific shots for specific guys. I’m tryin’ to teach our team how to play, not run plays. So, when we run plays and the other team doesn’t let them work, they understand how to still play. I don’t know, that’s what I’ve been focusing on right now. But as we get closer to games, I’m going to have to start puttin’ some stuff in, which is what freshmen struggle with. Wildens Leveque, the other day, couldn’t remember something that we’ve been running every day since the first day of practice. So, the next day I brought our play card from the end of the season last year and I showed it to him in front of everybody. I said, look at this. I said, you can’t remember the one thing we practiced every day for three weeks? How you going to remember this by the end of the season? I thought his eyeballs were going to pop out of his head. But that’s the challenge with first-year guys is gettin’ ’em to understand stuff so you can move on and then when they don’t move on, now you’re playIng a team that’s prepared to defend you and you run something from Maik Kotsar because you’re trying to attack that match-up and you’ve got a guy in there don’t know what he’s running, so it messes everything up. And now it makes it really difficult to score against really good teams. But Maik’s in a good place. Maik, I’ve got to figure out. I was extremely pleased with him yesterday ’cause he remained aggressive.

– [Reporter] Frank, you mentioned Moss. Is anybody else dinged up or couldn’t be able to play Wednesday night?

– No, Seventh is battling a low back. He’s practicing, but he’s battling it. But obviously he’s not playing. That’s it, right? I’m losin’ my mind. Keyshawn had, yesterday, actually I just remembered. We had two sessions yesterday, a morning and an afternoon. And in between, he had a little ball, I don’t know how to describe it, kind of a cyst developed in the back of his knee. So, he didn’t play the second half in the afternoon yesterday and he had it drained this morning. I got an email saying that everything’s good. So, he should be fine. But outside of that, I think everyone else is okay.

– [Reporter] And a preseason SCC team came out last week, 12 guys on it. AJ wasn’t one of them. Do you talk to him and play that disrespect angle? Do you let him handle that himself? Has he talked about that at all?

– I don’t speak about it. That team you’re talkin’ about was the media team? I think I said that at press day, it’s the same group of people that kept Chris Silva out of first team at the end of last year. It’s the same group of people that omitted Sindarius going into his senior year. It’s all good. I don’t waste my time with preseason polls and conversations. ‘Cause if I did, then I’m making it about him and it goes against what I said to Josh earlier. I don’t think AJ’s bothered by that, either. I don’t want to speak for him, but he’s never made me feel like he’s bothered by it.

– [Reporter] You said something in my last question about play to be tired or something to that effect. Is that a mantra? Is that something that you talk to your team about? And how do you communicate that to them?

– The most selfish people, the most selfish teammates are the ones that conserve energy to stay in the game. That’s disrespectful to your team. You have to play to exhaustion. When you learn to play to exhaustion, this sport’s different than all the other sports. In baseball, nobody runs so who the heck ever gets tired? That’s what I played, no disrespect to baseball. But football, hockey, you got line changes. In football, they play offense or they play defense, so in between they’re all resting. Basketball’s the only sport where it’s the same five guys up and down, up and down and you’re defending and playing offense. And the whole mantra, you don’t want your good offensive players to have to defend good offensive players ’cause you want them to be fresh to play offense. Give me a break. Last time I checked, the great players play offense and defense. And I don’t want Sindarius defending a bad player. I want Sindarius defending their best player, it’s the way I think about it. And then at the end of the day, it’s a challenge to make people understand. I say this, I learned this from Bob Huggins. I say this, he’s as smart a human being as I’ve ever been around. The greatest difference between great athletes and average athletes is conditioned. Excuse me, conditioned, great athletes and average athletes is the amount of time they need to recover. So, when you’re in great shape and you’re a great athlete, you can sustain maximum effort a longer period of time and you recover in a shorter amount of time. That’s what we’re looking for, that’s why we stress them as much as we do and conditioning and the weight room and everything that we do is to get them to that place, where they learn how to exhaust. The way we lift. It’s not about let’s get big biceps and let’s look good, it’s about exhausting and taxing them so they learn how to pay attention, listen and push to extend that exhaustion time to make it a longer amount of time. And then when you’re in great shape, you recover a lot faster. And it’s the way I manage substitutions. To help the great players that want to stay on the court understand that if they’re honest with me and they play to exhaustion and they take themselves out when they say yo, I need one. Come out. As soon as they’re ready, they don’t even need to tell me, they just get up and I just tell ’em who to get. It’s kind of the way I manage it.

– [Reporter] How many guys have earned that trust from you here? How many guys have been able to do that, just get back up and put themselves back in the game?

– On this team?

– [Reporter] No, since you’ve been here.

– Every one that’s become a senior, they all figure that out. I can’t remember a senior player that we’ve had that didn’t figure that one out. And you hear about role allocations and all that stuff, that’s how you take care of all that stuff. The guys learn to trust in what everyone’s doin’. And they learn to trust because they learn how to play to exhaustion. The freshmen don’t understand that, no one’s ever made ’em do that before. So, they’re always tryin’ to conserve energy and I’m always pushing to go, to go, to go. And as they go through it, they learn.

– [Reporter] Do you use player tracking data? Will was talking yesterday, they did the GPS, they monitor everybody’s speed during the game. Do you all have any of that stuff?

– We use more that heart rate stuff that tells me who’s operating at certain levels so I understand. For example, Laimonas, remember him? When he got here, we’d make him run and he always acted like he just fought a grizzly bear. But the monitor was telling me, he wasn’t even close to performing at the exhaustion level for him. So, we’d show him the data like, stop man. Ain’t no one listenin’ to your nonsense, you need to exert yourself a little bit. And as he learned, then he got to stay on the court. I don’t know. I know this, I don’t know what that tracking stuff does and I’m not trying to disrespect Will or anybody uses that, but I think Jerry Rice timed at four seven or somethin’ at the combine. I never saw anyone catch him from behind. Emmitt Smith was one of the slower running backs in his draft, I never saw anyone catch him from behind. I think everyone has a competitive gene. The great ones have a competitive gene that allows them to do things a certain way.

– [Reporter] I know you can’t really get into specifics, but did you get what you wanted to out of this weekend?

– Oh yes. Oh yeah. Think about this, we play against each other and our guys are trained to execute our defense and our offense. So, any time you’re in practice and you’re asking them to run something different than what we do, they don’t run it as fast or as crisp because it’s not what we practice. So, when you go up and you go against someone else, you have to learn how to defend their offense however it is that they teach it and the different action and screens and cuts and things of that nature. And then defensively, how they defend. And Brad kind of schemed a little bit to defend us. So our guys had to learn, like what I was tellin’ earlier, they weren’t lettin’ us do certain things to try and play offense a certain way, so we had to learn how to, we had to play. Which I was real happy that we were able to do that. Last couple years, we would’ve gotten very stagnant. Yesterday, we kept playing so I was happy to see that. And then when you take into consideration Brad’s whole team comes back. But his guards are a four-year senior, a junior who’s a three-year starter, a fifth-year senior, a young man that’s very similar to AJ from size, talent, that’s also projected to be a first round pick in the draft, I-O, I can’t pronounce his last name. And then they have another guard I can’t remember, but he’s also been around. He’s also a senior, I can’t remember his name. So, this is year three for that group of Brad. So, they play offense at a high, high, high rate. So, we had to be able to compete with that. I thought our guys were really good. The one thing we didn’t do well is we committed some bad fouls. We hadn’t fouled in our inner squad scrimmages. Every time we’ve brought referees in, our foul totals have been down from what they’ve been in the past. Yesterday, we committed more fouls than we need to, so I chumped in that we’re going to talk about today we got to clean up a little bit. But I think that’s part of young guys, in our defensive mindset of aggression, tryin’ to understand how to defend a team that was comin’ at ’em a hundred miles per hour. And I don’t mean a hundred miles per hour like running the court, I’m down about how they cut, how they pass, how they screen. And we were there, we just used our hands for the wrong reasons. We committed fixable fouls.

– [Reporter] Coach, is there anything specifically you’re lookin’ for out of your team on Wednesday to let you know that they’re ready for the regular season?

– Yes, give me a second. Does anyone else drink their stuff in their press conferences? I’d like to win, so contrary to last year people don’t freak out because we’re going to be a bad basketball team. So, and I’m not tryin’ to be a smart Alec, I’m actually telling you the truth. I’d like to win ’cause I remember when we lost to whoever we lost to, Augusta. I played crazy lineups, I didn’t coach to manage situations and we lost. And there were a whole lot of people ready to jump off that ship that night. So, to make sure nobody jumps off the ship, ’cause I’m too old to be jumpin’ overboard to save people, I’d just like to win so people don’t overreact to that. And then our players, we got a lot of young guys. Just get the nerves and the emotion of wearing the uniform and playing in front of fans with referees, just get that out of the way. ‘Cause that’s always the biggest hurdle with younger guys. Kotsar, it’s just another day at the office for him. And he understands and he’s got that mindset and he’ll have emotions like everybody does, but he’s been through it so he knows how to control ’em. For everybody else, it’s. Jermaine’s had this built up for two years, man. He’s going to have a certain emotion that’s going to eventually come out. Jair’s been sittin’ out, didn’t play last year. He’s going to have a certain emotion that even though he played at GW, it needs to get out of their system. So, just to get that kind of stuff out of the way.

– [Reporter] I know last year, the number of starting lineups was probably a product of the injuries you had. And you mentioned 10 or 11 guys being in the rotation this year. Would you rather see a set starting lineup and set guys coming off roles off the bench or at least in the first few weeks of the season can that be more fluid?

– I like set startin’ lineups, so everything’s at peace with who’s comin’ off the bench to create the mindset, the preparation that goes into a game. But when you have a team that’s got so many. We’re funny ’cause I don’t want to say we’re inexperienced, ’cause we’re not inexperienced. But we’ve got experienced guys that are very young and we’ve got guys that are old that didn’t play last year. Does that make sense what I’m saying? I don’t want to sit here and bore you saying, oh, we’ve got a young team. No, that’s nonsense. We don’t have a young team, we’re young in age, we’re not young in games played. I’ve got to figure that out, I’m not there yet. I’m not there yet and I might not be there for through the month of November. I don’t know. I’ve got ideas how I want to do this when North Alabama comes in here 10 days from now, whatever it is. When we went to the Final Four, I knew what we had comin’ back. I knew who I wanted to do what, that’s why I can sit down with Duane Notice. Excuse me, the year before the Final Four. We had our whole team back, so I knew I can sit down with Duane Notice and say Duane, the new guy’s PJ, but he’s going to understand how to play at the point as a starter a lot better than comin’ off the bench and it just fits our team better. Are you okay with that? And he said, whatever you need. He became sixth man of the year. Last year, we did it with Hassani for different reasons, not for that reason. ‘Cause there were some unknown with our team last year. But I’m not there yet with this team. So, I can’t. I got an idea what guy I want in the game at the end of the game, but I don’t know how I’m going to manage it to get to that point.

– [Reporter] Along those lines, with Justin and Keyshawn, two guys that didn’t necessarily play a lot together. And obviously Keyshawn came in for Justin after he left and did well. How have you managed those two? Obviously, they play a similar position, but they are different style of a player. Is that something you have to look at as you move through November with those two guys specifically?

– To a certain extent, but they’re different players. If their skill set and who they are as players were one in the same, I’d say it’s going to be hard ’cause one of them it’s going to be hard to put both guys in the game if they played the same way. I think they can play together. And then the second part to that is, depending on the opponent, how the game’s flowing. I’ll give you a quick example. The other team’s a zone team. Justin’s better prepared offensively to attack the zone. Yet Keyshawn makes some athletic plays that Justin can’t make. And Justin is as athletic as Keyshawn is? Justin is a much better offensive rebounder, it’s not even close. And that’s a big part of who we are. So, those are things that I speak to the team all the time about my job is to earn their trust and to fight for that every single day. It’s not something that they should trust me ’cause it says head coach underneath my name. I got to work at that every day. And to get to the question that was asked earlier, as I do that, then they have to rely on that trust as I make decisions to go win the next game. And that’s kind of the way we try to build the locker room.

– [Reporter] Have you had a chance to speak with Chris since the Miami Heat started their season and if you’ve had a chance to see him play yet, how do you think he’s starting his season so far?

– Funny you ask that today. Through text message. We’ve gone back and forth through text messages ’cause I literally, the other night when game one, Andy Assaley sent me a note say, yo, Chris is in the game. And this is how ignorant I am. I didn’t even know that the first week of the NBA season, DIRECTV is for free ’cause I don’t buy that NBA league pass. You see, now we got something in common. So, I go to my game cast and I’m readin’ that and it says Chris Silva, offensive rebound, Chris Silva, tipping, Chris Silva, dunk, Chris Silva, a block shot. Holy cow, this maniac is doin’ what he did for us. Which is a big reason why he’s put himself in a place that he’s going to have a job in that league is ’cause he’s at peace bein’ who he is, not tryin’ to be who he’s not. Lot of guys try to do things they’re not capable of. He’s at peace bein’ who he is. So, I text back and forth. It was an emotional night for me ’cause I know how hard that kid worked to make his dream real close to becoming reality now full time. And have I watched him? Well, now I found out that I got that stuff, so last night they’re playin’ the Timberwolves. So, my wife’s out of town. I got my two kids and put it on. Checks in the game, he switches a ball screen, so now he’s guarding Shabazz Napier. Shabazz kind of dribbles around, dribbles around, gets to high on the left wing and shot fakes. What’s Chris do? Jump in the air, fouls a three-point shooter on a shot fake from 30 feet. So, now I’m sittin’ there sayin’, really man. Really? We’re on the road and this is what we’re doin’? So, now bang, bang, bang, bang. Three free throws, come down the court. You know what he did the next time down the court on offense? Moving screen. So, I said, there we go. We’re right back at home. One minute, two fouls. No, I’m really happy for him. He’s living a dream and when I got the call that he was signing with that organization, I was. It didn’t tell me he was going to make the team, but I knew that they were going to appreciate what he does, ’cause that’s so important in that organization. It’s what Pat Riley preaches, it’s what Spoelstra believes in. And if you look at the nucleus of their front office, whether it’s Adam Simon, anybody, they’ve all been tied to each other for 20 years. And it’s not like it’s new organization, new coach, new GM, no. Everyone’s been together, so the things that are of value to them are the things Chris exceeds at. So, I’m really happy that he’s with the team that he’s with so he can continue to grow as a player.