Regrettably, there were no player interviews because the interview session was moved to right before the start of practice from its originally scheduled time after practice due to a conflict with a Saints media opportunity. There were two TV there and I was the only print reporter.
Ed Daniels asked every question but two--one by the other TV guy and the last one by me.
HUNTER
"We all have been waiting for this day for a long time. It seems like that I've been here five years already. We've put a lot of work in. I love the team that we've got and we're ready to start. I've spoken about something to prove. Today becomes the day to back that up."
There are not many expectations at least outside the program for you this year.
"Well, there are many expectations inside the program. As I said in my press conference and I've said every day that I've been here, I did not come here to win five games. I did not come here to bury the program and say this year let's see what happens. We will be disappointed if we aren't playing in the NCAA tournament. That's always going to be our goal here. These guys have worked really hard. Again, this is a brand new team. I'm excited because I've been coaching a long time and I've never done anything like this. What I mean by that is basically have a brand new team with guys who've never played with each other. This is fun for me, but there are high expectations inside this program and there will always be as long as I'm the head coach."
What were your conversations like with (Kevin) Zhang and Ray (Ona Embo) about coming back?
"Well, it's funny with both of those guys. One's from France and one's from China. They didn't understand anything I said anyway, so it really didn't matter. Naturally, everyone can understand both of those young men want to win, so it starts with that. They are the only really holdovers left from that team (Buay Koka is a third but has not played a huge role in the past). They are both talented young men that have really fit in well with a lot of the new guys. We wanted to bring in guys who have been to the NCAA tournament (grad transfers K.J. Lawson and Christion Thompson did it at previous stops Kansas and Rhode Island), who have won conference championships (grad transfer Nick Thomas did it at Norfolk State last year). We were able to accomplish that, so it's not just something that the coaches are talking about. These also guys who have come here with us whether it is for one year or two years that have also been at programs that won."
When you look at some of the grad transfers, football has been successful here doing that and it seems like a trend in college basketball. True?
"It is and it has to be. If you look at what's going on at Carolina and Duke and some of those other programs, everybody is taking transfers now. It's just the way it goes now and if you don't adapt to it, then you are going to struggle. I built a program at Georgia State based on transfers and we are going to do the same thing here. Not that we won't recruit high school people, but we've got to take transfers at Tulane. If you look at our conference, Houston got their thing rolling because of their transfers. That will be part of what we do. I wanted to start with this because I wanted to infuse a winning attitude. I wanted to change the culture immediately. I didn't want to wait 24 months to say, you know what, we're finally here. I think we've been able to do that right away."
Will the university academically jibe with that?
"The university's great. That's not going to chance. A Tulane education is in my opinion the best in the country, so I get a little bit upset when they say that we can't do that in basketball. There are enough kids that are like me, that are in this city, that are in this country, that can come to Tulane, graduate, be a productive part of what we're doing here and still be great students. I think that's a cop-out when they use the academics at Tulane (as a reason for failure). That's a huge cop-out, and it's not something we are going to worry about or talk about."
Realistically, will you not know how tough this group is until they start facing adversity when the season starts?
"They are going to find out in five minutes. When we practice, I get into it now, so that's going to happen in the first five minutes. These guys know. Basketball is about winning. Football's about winning. I love what our football program is doing, but we're not trying to change anything. All we want to do is what we've been doing, and that's winning. I don't know what happened here before. I still have not seen one tape of Tulane last year. I have no idea what happened here. I've told the G.A.s and the video people to get rid of it. I could care less. People keep bringing it up. but that's not my issue anymore. The issue is what happens today, and today this is about a winning program. That's the only thing that matters."
Would it be fair to say that you have scheduled winnable games in the beginning of the season?
"I will schedule Sisters of the Poor. I will schedule the homeless. I'm talking five homeless guys. We'll try to put uniforms on them and go play. I could care less who we play. We need to win and we're going to win, so if you walk in and you see some homeless people coming in with jerseys on and nice shoes, that's because I want to play them. And if they want to play, we'll play. That's not to say we won't play the school in Baton Rouge. If you want to play, we'll play. We'll come down there and play. We don't care. At the end of the day we'll play anybody, any time, anywhere, and if it happens to be the Sisters of the Poor, you might just have to get beat up that day. We'll pray for you, we'll bless you but then afterwards we'll beat your butt. That's just how it's going to roll at Tulane."
Have you had discussions with Will Wade about playing?
"No. I'm more worried about Tulane, but Will, you're my guy, man, I love you. Let's play. Let's get this over with, Will. Let's play a game. I'll come. As a matter of fact let's do this. I will meet you., let's put a court on Lake Pontchartrain. Let's play right now. No media. Get your guys against my guys, five on five, hoop it up and let's just find out. That's what we're doing. So that's my invitation to Will. I love you, Will. I love LSU, but let's go play and let's do it right now. I'm OK with that."
Have you had any discussions with your friends from Houston since your proclamation back in the spring?
"I have talked to my good old buddy, and I don't want to call him old because we're not far from the same age, with Kelvin (Sampson), and seriously I have talked about what Kelvin Sampson has done because what he did at Houston is what we want to do here. He took over a program that was at the bottom, he fixed it up and now look where they are. That's what we want to do. I'm not one who liked to say we want to do what other people have done, but there's a school, I've always said, we're the new kids on the block and you don't pick on the ones that are down here, you pick at the top, and Houston happens to be at the top. The last time I coached a game was against Houston, so I'm really looking forward to it. Not to say that the football program the other day made me want to have a little fun with that. I actually sent my friend a nice little message with that, but football beating Houston made it an enjoyable weekend for us."
Ed Daniels asked every question but two--one by the other TV guy and the last one by me.
HUNTER
"We all have been waiting for this day for a long time. It seems like that I've been here five years already. We've put a lot of work in. I love the team that we've got and we're ready to start. I've spoken about something to prove. Today becomes the day to back that up."
There are not many expectations at least outside the program for you this year.
"Well, there are many expectations inside the program. As I said in my press conference and I've said every day that I've been here, I did not come here to win five games. I did not come here to bury the program and say this year let's see what happens. We will be disappointed if we aren't playing in the NCAA tournament. That's always going to be our goal here. These guys have worked really hard. Again, this is a brand new team. I'm excited because I've been coaching a long time and I've never done anything like this. What I mean by that is basically have a brand new team with guys who've never played with each other. This is fun for me, but there are high expectations inside this program and there will always be as long as I'm the head coach."
What were your conversations like with (Kevin) Zhang and Ray (Ona Embo) about coming back?
"Well, it's funny with both of those guys. One's from France and one's from China. They didn't understand anything I said anyway, so it really didn't matter. Naturally, everyone can understand both of those young men want to win, so it starts with that. They are the only really holdovers left from that team (Buay Koka is a third but has not played a huge role in the past). They are both talented young men that have really fit in well with a lot of the new guys. We wanted to bring in guys who have been to the NCAA tournament (grad transfers K.J. Lawson and Christion Thompson did it at previous stops Kansas and Rhode Island), who have won conference championships (grad transfer Nick Thomas did it at Norfolk State last year). We were able to accomplish that, so it's not just something that the coaches are talking about. These also guys who have come here with us whether it is for one year or two years that have also been at programs that won."
When you look at some of the grad transfers, football has been successful here doing that and it seems like a trend in college basketball. True?
"It is and it has to be. If you look at what's going on at Carolina and Duke and some of those other programs, everybody is taking transfers now. It's just the way it goes now and if you don't adapt to it, then you are going to struggle. I built a program at Georgia State based on transfers and we are going to do the same thing here. Not that we won't recruit high school people, but we've got to take transfers at Tulane. If you look at our conference, Houston got their thing rolling because of their transfers. That will be part of what we do. I wanted to start with this because I wanted to infuse a winning attitude. I wanted to change the culture immediately. I didn't want to wait 24 months to say, you know what, we're finally here. I think we've been able to do that right away."
Will the university academically jibe with that?
"The university's great. That's not going to chance. A Tulane education is in my opinion the best in the country, so I get a little bit upset when they say that we can't do that in basketball. There are enough kids that are like me, that are in this city, that are in this country, that can come to Tulane, graduate, be a productive part of what we're doing here and still be great students. I think that's a cop-out when they use the academics at Tulane (as a reason for failure). That's a huge cop-out, and it's not something we are going to worry about or talk about."
Realistically, will you not know how tough this group is until they start facing adversity when the season starts?
"They are going to find out in five minutes. When we practice, I get into it now, so that's going to happen in the first five minutes. These guys know. Basketball is about winning. Football's about winning. I love what our football program is doing, but we're not trying to change anything. All we want to do is what we've been doing, and that's winning. I don't know what happened here before. I still have not seen one tape of Tulane last year. I have no idea what happened here. I've told the G.A.s and the video people to get rid of it. I could care less. People keep bringing it up. but that's not my issue anymore. The issue is what happens today, and today this is about a winning program. That's the only thing that matters."
Would it be fair to say that you have scheduled winnable games in the beginning of the season?
"I will schedule Sisters of the Poor. I will schedule the homeless. I'm talking five homeless guys. We'll try to put uniforms on them and go play. I could care less who we play. We need to win and we're going to win, so if you walk in and you see some homeless people coming in with jerseys on and nice shoes, that's because I want to play them. And if they want to play, we'll play. That's not to say we won't play the school in Baton Rouge. If you want to play, we'll play. We'll come down there and play. We don't care. At the end of the day we'll play anybody, any time, anywhere, and if it happens to be the Sisters of the Poor, you might just have to get beat up that day. We'll pray for you, we'll bless you but then afterwards we'll beat your butt. That's just how it's going to roll at Tulane."
Have you had discussions with Will Wade about playing?
"No. I'm more worried about Tulane, but Will, you're my guy, man, I love you. Let's play. Let's get this over with, Will. Let's play a game. I'll come. As a matter of fact let's do this. I will meet you., let's put a court on Lake Pontchartrain. Let's play right now. No media. Get your guys against my guys, five on five, hoop it up and let's just find out. That's what we're doing. So that's my invitation to Will. I love you, Will. I love LSU, but let's go play and let's do it right now. I'm OK with that."
Have you had any discussions with your friends from Houston since your proclamation back in the spring?
"I have talked to my good old buddy, and I don't want to call him old because we're not far from the same age, with Kelvin (Sampson), and seriously I have talked about what Kelvin Sampson has done because what he did at Houston is what we want to do here. He took over a program that was at the bottom, he fixed it up and now look where they are. That's what we want to do. I'm not one who liked to say we want to do what other people have done, but there's a school, I've always said, we're the new kids on the block and you don't pick on the ones that are down here, you pick at the top, and Houston happens to be at the top. The last time I coached a game was against Houston, so I'm really looking forward to it. Not to say that the football program the other day made me want to have a little fun with that. I actually sent my friend a nice little message with that, but football beating Houston made it an enjoyable weekend for us."
