Tulane plays Loyola in an exhibition game tomorrow. I caught up with Mike Dunleavy yesterday for an update on preseason practice (some of the questions were from Nola.com). Ray Ona did not practice. Jordan Cornish had a big ice bag on right knee but looked OK.
How have the last two weeks of practice gone?
"For the most part good. We have a situation right now where we have a lot of guys banged up. We had a scrimmage the other day and virtually had no point guards. Of course Ray (Ona Embo) has been on the shelf (with patellar tendinitis). He's getting closer, but he's not there yet. Shak (Shakwon Barrett) rolled an ankle. Jordan Cornish rolled an ankle. Caleb Daniels rolled an ankle. He actually bounced back and was able to play some, so we've got some guys who are playing a little bit gingerly right now and trying to get through that, but overall I have been pretty pleased with our development and some of the progress I've seen by some of our younger guys."
You said at Media Day that the scrimmages between the older guys and the younger guys were closer than they had been in the past.
"We have probably the deepest team that I've had in three years, so there's an opportunity to play 10 guys. Guys need to play with a lot of energy and they need to produce. In the past I've had to live with a lot more mistakes out on the court because I really wasn't confident of my ability to come in behind it and really do better. So for right now, the way we look at our group is I've got 10 guys that can go out there and play, and when you get your chance to get in the game and play with effort and produce, you are going to stay out there. If you make a mistake, then we'll rotate you out and give the next guy a chance. That's really a fair way to play it. It's good when you have it that way because it's competitive, and you get your young guys to learn quicker and get better."
Will Ona Embo miss the exhibition?
"Yes. He won't play."
Anybody else?
"I don't know yet. We'll see how guys respond to treatment over the next day or so and we'll go from there."
Sammis Reyes, who played for you for a little more than a year, plays for Loyola now. How did that happen?
"It was kind of one of those things. Sammis came to me last year, and the writing was on the wall a little bit in terms of playing time with our group, and we talked about that a little bit. He had an opportunity to play for his national team (Chile), and I let him do that, which is very unusual. It's probably 1 in a 100 that it could happen, but I felt like it would give him good exposure to get the minutes and play, and he's a really good student and he loved New Orleans. The opportunity came up that they could have a spot that might be a good fit for him, and ultimately that's what it's about for us--trying to find the best fit for everybody. Today was his birthday. I texted him and said, hey, you haven't come by to see us, but now you can't come until after we scrimmage. He said he wanted to come by and check out the guys and all that. Based on film we've seen of him over there, things are working out really well."
He didn't have to go very far.
"That's right. He didn't have to move out of where he was living and everything's great."
Is there anything in particular you want to see against Loyola?
"I just want to see us start creating a culture that we've been trying to work on for the last two years in terms of just really playing hard, sill trying to push the pace of the game and have a lot of young guys become mature. We have five guys that will be playing virtually for the first time (Kevin Zhang, Moses Wood, Connor Crabtree, Buay Koka and Shakwon Barrett). with Shak and Koka having redshirted last year. They played a little bit, but that's the main thing is those five guys trying to figure out the speed of the game, the physicality of the game, all those different things. It's important."
How have the last two weeks of practice gone?
"For the most part good. We have a situation right now where we have a lot of guys banged up. We had a scrimmage the other day and virtually had no point guards. Of course Ray (Ona Embo) has been on the shelf (with patellar tendinitis). He's getting closer, but he's not there yet. Shak (Shakwon Barrett) rolled an ankle. Jordan Cornish rolled an ankle. Caleb Daniels rolled an ankle. He actually bounced back and was able to play some, so we've got some guys who are playing a little bit gingerly right now and trying to get through that, but overall I have been pretty pleased with our development and some of the progress I've seen by some of our younger guys."
You said at Media Day that the scrimmages between the older guys and the younger guys were closer than they had been in the past.
"We have probably the deepest team that I've had in three years, so there's an opportunity to play 10 guys. Guys need to play with a lot of energy and they need to produce. In the past I've had to live with a lot more mistakes out on the court because I really wasn't confident of my ability to come in behind it and really do better. So for right now, the way we look at our group is I've got 10 guys that can go out there and play, and when you get your chance to get in the game and play with effort and produce, you are going to stay out there. If you make a mistake, then we'll rotate you out and give the next guy a chance. That's really a fair way to play it. It's good when you have it that way because it's competitive, and you get your young guys to learn quicker and get better."
Will Ona Embo miss the exhibition?
"Yes. He won't play."
Anybody else?
"I don't know yet. We'll see how guys respond to treatment over the next day or so and we'll go from there."
Sammis Reyes, who played for you for a little more than a year, plays for Loyola now. How did that happen?
"It was kind of one of those things. Sammis came to me last year, and the writing was on the wall a little bit in terms of playing time with our group, and we talked about that a little bit. He had an opportunity to play for his national team (Chile), and I let him do that, which is very unusual. It's probably 1 in a 100 that it could happen, but I felt like it would give him good exposure to get the minutes and play, and he's a really good student and he loved New Orleans. The opportunity came up that they could have a spot that might be a good fit for him, and ultimately that's what it's about for us--trying to find the best fit for everybody. Today was his birthday. I texted him and said, hey, you haven't come by to see us, but now you can't come until after we scrimmage. He said he wanted to come by and check out the guys and all that. Based on film we've seen of him over there, things are working out really well."
He didn't have to go very far.
"That's right. He didn't have to move out of where he was living and everything's great."
Is there anything in particular you want to see against Loyola?
"I just want to see us start creating a culture that we've been trying to work on for the last two years in terms of just really playing hard, sill trying to push the pace of the game and have a lot of young guys become mature. We have five guys that will be playing virtually for the first time (Kevin Zhang, Moses Wood, Connor Crabtree, Buay Koka and Shakwon Barrett). with Shak and Koka having redshirted last year. They played a little bit, but that's the main thing is those five guys trying to figure out the speed of the game, the physicality of the game, all those different things. It's important."