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Talk hoops all year long in Luke Winn's blog, a journal of commentary, news and reader-driven discussions about the college game.
Q&A with ... Maryland's Greivis Vasquez
Luke Winn: For a Sports Illustrated piece from last season, you told me a story about your family listening to Webcasts of Maryland games, specifically a big early win over Illinois. Is this how they still follow the Terps from Venezuela? Greivis Vasquez: That's legendary now. We've got a Web site for Maryland that has the game [stats] on it, and they track it, just sit around the computer and keep refreshing the page. And they've got the Internet radio that they can listen to. But they don't speak English. So they wait to hear my last name, and then they go crazy. They'll keep the [box score] on the computer that shows when a player shoots the ball, and there's maybe 40 people watching that as it loads. They've got ESPN now too, though, so when we're on that they can see it on TV. LW: You talked about your dad being a huge New York Yankees fan. Have you taken him to a game yet when he's visited the states? GV: He LOVES the Yankees. Loves baseball. He can talk about baseball for years and years. He wanted me to play baseball, but I couldn't wait for the ball to come to me. This summer when he came we went to see the the Orioles when they played the Yankees, twice. But I want to take him to Yankee Stadium, go up to New York so he can see one of those games. That would be special. LW: I heard you do -- or at least used to do -- a celebration dance in practice called the Caracas Shuffle. GV: My high school coach, coach [David] Adkins (an assistant at Montrose Christian in Rockville, Md.), called me "Caracas Shuffle" because I'd be bouncing around all the time in practice -- especially when I made a big shot. Sometimes I'd celebrate that, but I've stopped it mostly since I got to college. Coach [Gary] Williams doesn't really like that. He does let me do it once in a while, and I will, just to remember the old days. LW: So how does the dance go? GV: I'll kind of shake my shoulders, like a shake-and-bake thing, and maybe do a little bit of chicken wing. Sometimes I'll make a funny face while I'm doing it. I don't know if you watched the game when we played Duke last year, but I made a big three and then came to the end of the court, and was shaking my shoulders and dancing. That was pretty cool at the time -- because we were winning. LW: It seems like you live for games at Duke. GV: Duke is a great environment. I give a lot of respect to Coach K: he is one of the best in the business. Their fans are so good; they're into the game, they make the game so much better. It's just good to play in that environment. And of course Duke is a great team. You have to compete with somebody better than you, or on an equal level to you, so you can get better. LW: The Cameron Crazies put a lot of effort into heckling you in particular. What's the best thing they've said? GV: The funniest thing is when they started calling me names about my president in Venezuela, [Hugo] Chavez. They know the situation there. Our president is known as a guy who talks a lot, who doesn't like the president of the United States. They talk a lot of trash abut that, and say things like that I'm [Chavez's] son. I guess they do research and think, 'How can I get this guy?' LW: Being Chavez's son wouldn't be that bad, right? GV: If I was actually Chavez's son, I'd be in a great situation, with all the power and money and all that. I mean, he's the president! But I'm not his son. That's not how it is. LW: After you lost this year at Cameron, Duke's DeMarcus Nelson was quoted as saying about you, "He might have gotten his points tonight, but his teammates didn't, and we got the win. ... It's more about himself than his team. That's something, I guess, they allow in their locker room." What was your reaction to hearing that? GV: I haven't said anything about that, just because I can't wait to play against Duke again. And that's part of the reason they've been losing lately: They're getting into things that are none of their business. I've got no right to talk about anybody else's locker room, and when I talk after the game -- when I win or lose -- I never say anything bad about any good players or any other teams. I don't know where he got that from. I was just trying to win the game. I don't have any right to say things about your game, so you better keep it to yourself, and make sure you're doing what you need to do to make your team better, and not worry about anybody else. But he said what he said, and it motivated me to work even harder. So one day I will play aginst him again and show him how it is: That it's not about me scoring 25, it's about me winning basketball games. On that night Duke happened to win. LW: In an interview for that SI article, Gary Williams told me that you saluted him before the first day of practice in your freshman year. Did you ever do that again? GV: I do it once in a while still. Not that often. I show him a lot of respect. To me he's maybe the best coach that I'll ever have -- him and Stu Vetter from high school. I love coach Williams -- his attitude, his passion, his energy. It's like I see myself in the mirror when I see the way he coaches practice, and how he's so intense. That's my personality. I want to be coached by him and win a national championship with him. That's going to take a lot of work; I know that every college team wants to win a national championship. It's going to come down to who wants its the most. LW: Coach Williams used to call you his "John Havlicek" when you were a sixth man as a freshman; now you've transitioned into being the team's leading scorer. Was that a difficult switch? GV: Any compliment from Coach Williams is great; that's coming from a guy who is going to be a Hall of Famer. He gives me so much confidence, and I know what I'm capable of doing on the court. And especially after playing a lot of basketball with my national team from Venezuela this summer, it wasn't that hard of a transition. I got to play against guys like Kobe [Bryant], Jason Kidd, all the NBA guys, and when I got back to Maryland I kept working hard, hoping that one day I'll reach that level. LW: What was the best moment from that national-team run? GV: Guarding Kobe Bryant was unbelievable. I grew up watching him, and all the stuff that he said after the game -- and during the game -- was just good for me to hear. LW: I read that Kobe spoke to you in Spanish. GV: He spoke Spanish pretty well. At first he was talking to the ref in Spanish, he was saying that he wasn't elbowing me. Then [Bryant] told me later on, 'Just keep playing hard, you're going to be fine. You're doing good.' It was Kobe Bryant, man! It was just good to hear that. He said a lot of stuff in Spanish. I couldn't believe it. LW: If you say something in Spanish now, during a college game, what is it? GV: I'll never forget where I'm coming from, so I've gotta say some things in Spanish to get myself feeling better, or if I don't want someone to understand something -- like, if I'm mad after making a turnover or not shooting the ball well. It's a good thing [people don't understand it] sometimes. There are a few different things I'll say in Spanish: Sometimes when I'm going 199 miles an hour, I'll tell myself to calm down; or, when I'm starting to go crazy, in a good way, I just say, "Something crazy started!" -- that's when I start going off. LW: I read (in the DC Sports Bog) about you doing some crazy moped driving on campus. True? GV: That was just a one-time thing. Some players saw me driving that moped that I borrowed. I was a little late to class, and yeah, I was driving a little crazy because I didn't want to be late. I think I had a quiz. I mean, [the moped] only goes up to 50, so you can't go that crazy with it, but I was going in a wild way, up on the sidewalk and all that. Just yelling, "People! Please move out the way!" and going through the crowd. I'm not using that moped anymore, though; on campus they just put up some papers saying that nobody's allowed to ride a moped on the sidewalk, that the fine will be like $80 if they catch you. LW: In that same story, teammate Bambale Osby called you the 'Mr GQ' of the Terrapins. How did you earn that nickname? GV: I guess I got that because, you know, we're in Maryland, we're close to Washington D.C., and there's a lot of people who can relate with my game, with my energy and all that. I try to just worry about playing basketball, but it's cool when people know who you are in a good way. And Boom knows a lot of people who want to know me, who want to be my friend. Now he knows my new girlfriend, too, so he had to say something about me dating softball girls and cheerleaders. I used to have a girlfriend who was a cheerleader, and we just broke up a while back. Now I've got a girlfriend who plays softball. I introduced her to Boom, and now he's making her famous. LW: As Mr. GQ, what's your opinion of Boom Osby's fro? GV: I mean, that's his personality. His afro looks good on him. That's the way he represents himself. He's got this big afro and he plays that way -- big. A lot of people compare him with Ben Wallace because of that afro, but I don't think they should compare him like that, even though Ben Wallace is a good player. I just think he's Boom Osby. That's his style. LW: Would you wear that if you could GV: I wish I could. I wouldn't be able to, though. My hair doesn't grow that way. LW: I wanted to ask you about the thing you had shaved in your facial hair earlier this season. I had never seen anything like it -- crazy designs on your cheeks. How did you come up with that? GV: My barber did it. One day he was cutting my hair and was doing some fancy stuff. I told him to shave my face too. When you're young you do some crazy stuff. I mean, college is only four years -- you've got four good years of it. You have to think about having a fresh look and see if stuff looks good. It's not about looking good necessarily, it's about having some type of STYLE, you know? Like the Spanish people would do. Like Puerto Ricans or Venezuelans would do. You just have to try some things, like having some style on my face. It was cool for a couple of days, but I can't do that anymore. It's not that great for your image if you're trying to eventually be a pro. LW: This barber, who is he, in case people want to get that design? GV: His name is Boris. He's Puerto Rican. I call him Boris The Puerto Rican Barber. His shop is like 20 minutes from [campus]. He's always trying new things. And every time I go to his barbershop, they say, 'Oh, that's the guy from Maryland, and I help to make him a little famous. So people will come over and get their hair cut, and ask questions about our games. LW: This new style that you've got right now, with the goatee and the slick look, what was inspiration for it? GV: Right now I'm trying to look fresh, clean cut. I wanted to do something good with my hair, to use a lot of gel in my hair to look Spanish and represent my people. LW: Gel represents the Spanish? GV: Yeah man, using a lot of gel. I just try to change it up once in a while. I wanted to do some fancy stuff. You've got to keep it real; keep people asking, "What is that in his hair? And what has he got on his face?" It's all for fun. Labels: Greivis Vasquez, Interviews, Maryland Q&A with ... Kansas State's Bill Walker
Luke Winn: Some of your teammates been been referring to the Big 12 season as a "heavyweight fight" with 12 rounds left, and I heard that was your idea. Why the boxing metaphor? Bill Walker: Because it is a heavyweight fight. It's not called the Big 12 for nothing -- it's a physical brand of basketball. And I like boxing. I'm a big Floyd Mayweather fan; I just caught that Ricky Hatton fight from last month. [Mayweather] has a swagger. He's confident about himself no matter who he's going up against. LW: Who would win a K-State team boxing tourney? And how would [Michael] Beasley do? BW: I'm not sure -- and I don't think I want to find out, either. Beasley is a lefty, so he's probably pretty awkward. We're both powerful guys, but he's bigger, so I'd have to out-quick him. LW: You've been averaging 17.3 points per game in the Big 12, and you're getting back on NBA scouts' radar after being sort of written off following your ACL tear [as a true freshman]. People are saying that the 'old Bill Walker' is back; was he hiding just because of the injury? BW: It was more me just adjusting to college basketball. People forget that I only played six games last year, so this year is just like it would be for a true freshman. I'm maximizing my shot attempts now, not taking bad shots. I'm getting more comfortable about learning from scouting reports and knowing weaknesses in defenses. LW: You're making a lot of threes now, too [he's connected on 8-of-15 in Big 12 games]. That didn't used to be your forte when you were called "Sky" Walker. Where did this newfound accuracy come from? BW: I like challenges. I like when people say I can't do something. That was what pushed me to go out there and do it, and to put a lot of work into my shot. The rap sheet on me was always 'He can't shoot -- if he doesn't dunk it, he's not going to score.' Which is totally not the case. I can score from anywhere on the floor. I just hadn't had a chance to show it. LW: People that saw your team in November and early December [when it lost to George Mason, Oregon and Notre Dame] probably wouldn't have given you much of a shot to beat Kansas on Wednesday. That may no longer be the case. How serious of a threat do you think the Jayhawks consider your team? BW: We have seven freshmen, so there was going to be an adjustment period. When guys finally got acclimated to this type of competition, everything came together. I don't think Kansas is looking past this game. You can't -- that's how you get beat in college basketball. I know what they're trying to accomplish. They're trying to go undefeated, and they're off to a great start. LW: Mike Beasley's mom, Fatima Smith, has been blogging for the Wichita Eagle. Have you ever read her blog? BW: I haven't seen it. I don't read too much media stuff. She's always around our room [he lives with Beasley] policing us anyways, making sure we're eating the right things, making sure we're there when we're supposed to be there, stuff like that. LW: She has a key to the dorm? BW: They'll let her in. She's come over plenty of times. LW: What's the best thing in the Walker-Beasley pad? BW: Probably the XBox 360. We play NBA 2K8 and College Hoops 2K8. I play with us and I play with USC. LW: You play as O.J. [Mayo]? BW: I gave Mike 84 [points] with O.J. one game. I think Mike had like 60-something as himself, but he claimed his controller was broken. LW: How much do you and O.J. keep in touch? You were linked together for so long in high school ... BW: I keep in touch with O.J. a lot. I called him a few days before he played UCLA. We don't talk about basketball all that much now, though; we already hear that all day. It's just stuff about life in general, making sure we're doing the things we need to do to stay on the path we always talked about. LW: Former shoe kingpin Sonny Vaccaro, a friend of yours and O.J.'s, has called you a 'victim' of the NBA's age-minimum rule, in that you could've entered the draft -- and been a lottery pick -- rather than going to K-State and tearing your ACL last season. Do you agree with that characterization? BW: I just look at it as, [the NBA] took away the choice that you have, forcing you to go to college, when sometimes college isn't for everybody. I think about the fact that I can go enlist in the Army and die at the age of 18, but I can't play in the NBA. That means that they take basketball more seriously than a person's life. LW: It was speculated at one point that you and O.J. would actually try to find a way around the rule -- by either going to Europe or some other pro league for a season, then entering the NBA draft. Did you two ever seriously consider that, or even have discussions about it with Sonny? BW: Naw. Once they put the rule in, I decided it wasn't worth going overseas. I wasn't that desperate. I figured I'd go to college and play. If you're really as good as you think you are, then you should figure you can make the jump out of college, right? LW: I'm not sure if you go on YouTube at all, but amongst all the videos of you dunking there are two pretty classic ones. The first is from late in an overtime loss to Oregon [from Nov. 29], where it's tied 71-71 near the end of regulation, and you run to the bench during a stoppage, put towels in your shorts, and well ... take care of some pressing business so you can comfortably continue the game. BW: It was either that or leave the court. And I was trying to win that game, so I did what had to be done. LW: That's dedication. The other video is from last year's NIT-- BW: The popcorn thing. LW: Yeah. Where you're redshirting, and on the bench eating popcorn at the start of the DePaul game. It's one of the better sideline clips I've ever seen. BW: I didn't think people were going to make such a big deal about it. I still eat popcorn before all the games now. I love popcorn -- and not out of the microwave, either. I like the taste of it when it's popped out of the machine, so I either go and get some, or have somebody get some for me, before every game. LW: Three of the better freshmen in the college game right now -- Kentucky's Patrick Patterson, O.J., and yourself -- all grew up in Huntington, W.V., which isn't usually thought of as a hoops hotbed. Is there anything about the culture of the city that shaped your games? BW: We're a different caliber of people, from Huntington -- just blue-collar people who go to work. Patrick displays that when he plays for Kentucky. You can tell he plays hard and goes to work, and same with O.J. It's how we were brought up. It's not like there are a lot of jobs or opportunities for people [in Huntington], so if you do have something, you have to work your tail off to keep it. LW: You write "1023" on the backs of your Nikes, which is an ode to Huntington, right? BW: 1023 Minton was my street address when I lived in Huntington. The house was in real bad shape when my family first moved in. We had to clean it up to make it a home. So I can be going through the worst slump ever, and I can look down at the 1023 on my shoes, and know it can't get any worse than when we first got there. LW: Last one. What about your jersey number, 12? Is it another play off of that address, or something else? BW: I just wear 12 because it's the first two numbers -- the most important numbers. The first two steps to any play are the most important. You've always gotta have your 1-2 right. Labels: Interviews, Kansas State, Popcorn Q&A with ... Indiana's D.J. White
Luke Winn: I'm looking at your season box score, and the strange thing is that you only grabbed four, three and three rebounds in your first three games, against Chattanooga, Longwood and UNC-Wilmington ... and then you went on this long run of double-doubles, against teams like Xavier, Southern Illinois and Kentucky. Can you explain what happened? D.J. White: It was because I started being more aggressive going after everything on the glass. I know I have to rebound for this team to be successful. Also, at the beginning of the year, I was playing more on the perimeter; that wasn't the whole problem, but part of it. I switched back to playing not necessarily a true center position, but one where I'm under the goal a lot more. That's helped get better on the glass. LW: There's a 2006 quote from Kelvin Sampson -- an interesting analogy -- that goes, "If you walk into a lot of African-American homes in the South, they always have a loaf of bread on the table, and salt and pepper shakers, and a bottle of hot sauce. I can't tell you how many houses I've been to like that; that's their basics. I don't treat [the players] all the same. I treat 'em fair. I may get on D.J. White harder than I do Joey Shaw. But I'm going to treat them both fair. But D.J. is our bread." What's your take on this? What makes you the bread? DJW: I guess he was basically saying that I'm the core of the team, a guy who a lot of people look up to. Something [Sampson] talks about all the time is that, for us to play late into March, I need to do a lot more things than just score: Block shots, rebound, defend. LW: Does that table setup he referenced actually match the one at your family's home in Tuscaloosa? DJW: We have the salt-and-pepper shakers, but not the bread on the table. LW: And the sauce? DJW: It's in the cabinet. LW: Who would be the hot sauce of the Hoosiers, then? Is that [Eric] Gordon? DJW: It's probably him. A lot of people that I know, they use hot sauce with everything. And we need him for everything that we do. So that's how I'm adding to the analogy. LW: You and Eric are the two stars on this team, but you're 21, and in your fourth season, while he just turned 19, and is in his first. What's your relationship with him like? DJW: We have a great relationship. He's a very quiet guy in public, but he talks a lot around the team. Me and him are getting closer and closer every day; we talk all the time now. And he doesn't have a car on campus, so if he needs a ride, I always give him one. LW: Gordon looks like such a veteran scorer when he's on the floor. Does he at least have some freshman habits off of it, that make him seem like a kid? Or is there anything the older guys harass him about? DJW: Well ... We both take naps in the same room [at Assembly Hall] before games. And he snores in there a lot. It's loud and it gets very annoying; I joke with him about it, but there's nothing you can do to make it stop. You nudge him and he might lighten up for a few seconds, but after that he's back to snoring. He also can eat a lot. The way his body is like -- with no fat -- you wouldn't know it, but he'll eat like three hamburgers at a time. He has a huge appetite. He can easily out-eat me. LW: I didn't catch the Tennessee State game [on Dec. 3], but you were credited with taking -- and missing -- a three-pointer in the box score. You had never taken a three before in your Indiana career. What were the circumstances? DJW: The shot clock was running down, so I had to take it; I don't think [Sampson] minded. It felt good though. I should have made it. LW: Will you take another one, or will it just be 0-for-1 on the career? DJW: Hopefully I can get one more. My goal is to get to 50 percent. LW: Your t-shirt-wearing habits have been of interest of Indiana fans. You used to have some kind of system to decide when you wore one under your jersey, right? Now it seems that there's a t-shirt brigade on the team -- Gordon, Jordan Crawford and Jamarcus Ellis -- and you're never wearing one. DJW: That started back in high school for me. I'm very superstitious, and back then I'd wear a white t-shirt under my jersey for every home game. I kept doing that for every year up until this one. But this season, a bunch of my teammates were all used to playing with t-shirts, too, and they kind of took my style, so I had to do something else. I figured I'd changed it up for my last year, and go with no sleeves. It's been working out, so I guess I'll keep it that way. LW: Do you keep up any other superstitions? DJW: Not many others. I usually do the same routine before games, though. I put on my jersey, go in the training room and get taped, listen to my ipod -- different songs, but a lot of Kanye West -- and then walk on the court. And I usually read the same bible verse before every game. LW: What's the verse? And do you have it printed out, or posted somewhere? DJW: Psalms 121. I keep a small bible in my locker and read from it. LW: What players do you keep in touch with the most from your Pan Am Games trip to Brazil this summer? [White was the U.S.' leading scorer in international competition.] DJW: [Memphis'] Joey Dorsey the most. We text each other all the time. Eric Maynor from VCU, and [Georgetown's] Roy Hibbert, too, but mostly Joey. LW: Joey wears No. 3 because he wants to emulate Ben Wallace. What's your reason for wearing it? DJW: Truthfully, I don't have a reason. I just don't like those high numbers, I guess. I wore 54 in high school because that was the number on the jersey size that me. I just like having a lower number now. LW: What's your best Joey Dorsey story from Brazil? DJW: Probably something I couldn't tell you. We stayed up at night playing a lot of cards and watching TV, and he was always joking around. I had a good time with him. Now we just text if we see a good box score from the other guy, and say good game. I might have sent him one when I saw that their coach [John Calipari] put them on curfew early in the season, though, too. LW: You came to Indiana in a recruiting class with James Hardy, who went on to become a star wide receiver for the Hoosiers instead of a basketball player [and declared for the NFL Draft on Friday]. Could he help this IU team if he came back to hoops? I know he played some minutes as a freshman. DJW: It would probably take him a while to get back into basketball shape. He's very talented. If he did -- and I highly doubt he would ever do it -- I think he'd be fine. LW: Your signature move has been referenced as a "turnaround baby jumper." Do you agree with that? DJW: It's probably that. I dribble toward the middle, turn around over my left shoulder, or over my right shoulder, either way, and shoot. LW: And do you call it by that same name? DJW: No. It's just a turnaround jumper; I don't have a good name for it. I'll let you make one up if you want. LW: You've been sporting the beard for a few seasons. Any particular reason for growing it out in the first place? DJW: Nothing other than trying to look older. Some people tell me I look like a little kid without my facial hair. When I heard that it made me want to keep it. My mother is the one who doesn't like it, though. She told me I need to cut it off, but I'd rather not. LW: Who's the world's best bearded basketball player right now? DJW: It's probably [the Golden State Warriors'] Baron Davis. I like his, but it's way too thick for me. No way I could wear mine like that. LW: What's the worst heckling you've ever received from opposing fans? DJW: I remember people calling me by my full name -- Dewayne White Junior -- a few times. Or people just calling me Junior. That's the most I've been heckled, but I don't even react to it. LW: What's the toughest road venue in the Big Ten? DJW: Probably the Breslin Center at Michigan State. Mostly because of the energy of the crowds, and how much they get into the game. LW: Who should be considered the favorite to win the Big Ten right now? Indiana, Michigan State, or Wisconsin? DJW: It's tough to say, since it's still early, and we've got a lot of good teams. Michigan State looks good. I think we deserve to be at the top, too, but I'm not going to pick one over the other. Ohio State needs to be in there as well, so it's those four at the top. LW: Last question. If you had to build your ultimate team of college players, but couldn't pick any other Hoosiers, who would you put at the four spots around you on the floor? DJW: That's a good one. I'd start with Derrick Rose on the ball; I just like his speed as a point guard. He's very versatile, and he's doing a good job leading Memphis. I respect his game, as well as Eric Maynor's from VCU; he doesn't get a lot of pub nationally, but I liked playing with him in the Pan Am Games. In the paint I'd like to play along with my man Joey Dorsey; I'd put him at the five, and if not him there, I'd have [Alabama's] Richard Hendrix. At shooting guard, I'd put out [Washington State's] Kyle Weaver; I played with him this summer, too, and he does everything. He's a great all-around player. And at the three, I'd have [formerly IU's, now UAB's] Robert Vaden. I'd love to hook back up with him. We still talk often; we were old roommates and he was probably my best friend at Indiana. Labels: Indiana, Interviews Q&A with ... Pitt's Sam Young
Luke Winn: You had a self-imposed 'ban' on talking to the media for most of your sophomore season, when you were coming off the bench behind Levon Kendall at the power-forward spot. Why the ban? Sam Young: Last year, I was pretty frustrated. I consider myself a hard worker, and I was working hard all offseason, and then had a knee [injury] be a problem for me all season long. I felt like I probably wasn't the best player at the three [small forward] on the team. But at the four, I felt like I was the best player, and that basically added to my frustration. I was put in a position where I couldn't win, basically. And then when the media asked me questions, they often put me in a position where I wanted to say some things that I shouldn't. So I felt like the best thing for me to do, if I didn't have anything positive to say, was to be quiet. LW: Did that ever get uncomfortable for you, or were there at least a few moments where you felt like you wanted to start talking again, but didn't -- say, after a game where you played a lot and did well? SY: Even after some of the big games, what I felt was that I could have been doing that all season. That [those performances] were what I was supposed to be doing. I was happy about them, but I never felt like I wanted to say something after a big game. Because I might have said the wrong things. LW: What is it like this season, then, to be finally in the starting lineup, and also talking to the press? SY: I feel more free. I feel like the players and the coaches have more confidence in me. Everyone knows that I'm healthy, and knows that that's a big part of me playing well. I'm capable of doing things I wasn't last year. They have confidence in me, and I have confidence in myself, that I can do anything. LW: About that knee injury you mentioned ... Coach Jamie Dixon once made a comment that you would play almost too much pickup ball, and that wear and tear contributed to your knee problems. SY: To be honest, I know what it was [that caused the injury]. I always had a little tremble in my knee when I would finish playing. Sometimes it hurt, sometimes it didn't. For the most part, I could still jump and be a productive player. But there was one day [in the summer of 2006] where I actually hurt it. I had a workout with my personal trainer for about two hours, doing legs, and then we hit the track for 45 minutes. And then somebody had recommended me to another trainer, and I guess he was trying to impress me, so he took me through about two hours of leg workouts -- lunges, leg press, squats. My knee was hurting, and I should have said something to him, but I didn't. I had also promised some people I would play pickup with them at about 9 p.m., and I did about two hours of that, too. The next day, my knee was worse than it ever had been. I overworked it, and it followed me through the whole season. LW: What's the most ridiculous pickup game you've been in, maybe when you went against people who weren't exactly your level, just for the sake of playing? SY: Sometimes I'll go back home and play pickup with the JVs at my high school [Fort Washington (Md.) Friendly]. Or if the managers here [at Pitt] want to play pickup or one-on-one, I'll play with them. I go up to the student gym, too, almost every week, to work on stuff like moves with my left hand. Pickup is how I improve my game. When I'm playing in practice and in real games, there's certain stuff I can't work on. You almost can't do certain things in practice because you're expected to maintain a certain level of play. You can't focus on stuff that you're really weak in. LW: And these students at the rec center, do they ever get a little over-zealous about trying to go head-to-head against the school's star? SY: Definitely. I'll go up to Trees Hall [a student gym], and every time somebody will want to pick me up and play me extra hard. They'll say, 'Let me get Sam, he'll probably kill me, but I can tell my kids about it.' LW: I've read about your motivational phone message -- the one that goes "I'm not big enough to play the four and not skilled enough to play the three. Everything you hear right now, they said that stuff about me." Are there any others you use? SY: I have this one on my wall at home, and up in my locker. I read it before every game, just something to remind me of who I am. This is it: I am strong, body mind and spirit. I am different. I am cocky, confident, conceited but humble. I am serious but hilarious, independent but incomplete. I am special. I am a king in my own mind and have the wits of a God. I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul. I am a believer, for believing is understanding life. I AM A WINNER, I can't lose to any man, for when they come into contact with me, the have entered MY world. I am impatient, I will leave anyone behind that doesn't want to help themselves. I AM ONE OF A KIND, I am Sam Young. LW: That's good. You wrote it, or adapted it from something? SY: I wrote it. LW: I've also read a few reports of your skills as a gymnast. There was a quote where you said people thought you could have been an Olympian. Where did that come from? SY: I began flipping -- or doing flips -- when I was a kid, probably back to the age of six. People think it's crazy when they see me do it now for the first time, but it's like second nature to me. LW: What's the craziest gymnastic feat you've pulled off? SY: You have no idea. When I was young, me and guys used to have crazy flipping contests. We would flip off this elementary school building, probably 15 feet high. We flipped off of big trash dumpsters, probably eight feet. We flipped over gates, flipped off of gates. If you just look at my legs, I've got a lot of war marks from flipping off of stuff as a kid. A lot of times I was successful. But I did hurt myself, a couple of times and a got lot of bruises. I think that's one of the reasons my knees are bad, because I did so much crazy stuff as a kid. LW: How often do you do the flips in practice, or around the team? SY: I don't do it often, but the other day I did a handstand in the locker room for 20 seconds, and everybody looked at me like I was crazy. That was the day before the Oklahoma State game. Right in the middle of the locker room. LW: Does anyone at school challenge you to gymnastic contests? SY: There's a girl in the dorm who always asks me to do handstand contests, and she always wins. I give her a run for her money, but she's too good at it. LW: Switching gears back to hoops: If you could wear any college retro jersey, whose would it be? SY: It would probably be Vince Carter in Carolina blue. To be honest, though, I didn't even watch basketball until I got to prep school [at Hargrave Military Academy] -- I just knew how to put the ball in the hoop, and worked hard at that. When I got my first recruiting letter from Pitt, I had a friend who watched basketball a lot, and I asked him, 'Is Pitt a good school?' He was like, 'Yeah,' and he started talking about Carl Krauser and guys like that. I had no idea who Carl Krauser was. I used to always trade basketball cards and football cards, though, and once somebody gave me a college card of Vince Carter. I didn't know who he was then, and I think I misplaced it. Then I started watching him later on in the NBA, and kind of wish I had held onto it. LW: What are the prize cards in your collection? SY: I probably have over 100 Michael Jordan cards, but I was more into football. Barry Sanders, from the Detroit Lions, I got his college card and his NFL card. I've actually got a card with him holding a basketball. Don't ask me how I got it, but I do. LW: I've heard you occasionally play the piano, too. How did you get started in music? SY: Well, my little brother, Michael Spriggs, who's 18 now, is legally blind. And I didn't start playing until he really started playing. He first did it when he was real young -- his grandmother bought him a little piano when he was a baby. But when he got to about about nine or 10, he took a liking to it and started playing a lot. He got me interested when I was in the ninth grade. I took a piano class. LW: Who's the better piano player now? SY: He is. We were equals back then [when he started], but now he's way better. LW: Is he a senior in high school now? SY: Yeah, at C.H. Flowers [in Springdale, Md.], because my family moved. He's in public school, but they give him all of his lessons in braille there. LW: Have you learned to read any braille from him? SY: Not at all. I don't understand how he begins to understand it. LW: For your own music, I've heard that you play the parts to a few rap songs ... SY: A few times I've done that. I was trying to play by ear from stuff I heard on the radio. R&B songs, rap songs, I pretty much can play them. There's also a guy on our team, Maurice Polen, who can sing to anything. I just try to make up a beat and then he'll sing to it. As for songs, I've played some Dr. Dre, and R. Kelly's I'll Never Leave, and Dru Hill's Incomplete. I have a keyboard in my room, and there's a piano in the student union, that's the main place kids go and relax, and there's always one in the hotel lobbies that we go to on the road. LW: Coming into Thursday's showdown with Duke, you're 10-0 but you haven't played much of a schedule -- as compared to maybe another undefeated team like Texas, which has already faced Tennessee and UCLA. Do you want to play a tougher schedule early in the season? SY: Definitely. Why wouldn't I? I'd want to play a schedule like that, just because I want people to know how good I really am, or how good I'm not. And I definitely want to know how good I am myself. You only can learn from a tough non-conference schedule. Playing a team going into the game that you know you can beat, you can work on your execution and stuff like that, and work on running stuff as a team. Other than that, it doesn't test you as much as a big game would. LW: You said you didn't watch much basketball growing up, but what do you think of the mystique around the Duke program? SY: Once I became friends with players, and a student of the game, I knew that Duke always had a crazy rep. Coach K has been doing a great job there forever. But that reputation isn't anything if you can't back it up, so I'm not worried about the reputation part. If they don't come to play, and back it up, then they'll be in trouble. Labels: Interviews, Pitt Blog Q&A With ... Kansas' Brandon Rush
Luke Winn: Before you played your first game at Kansas, you were asked to describe your offensive repertoire, and you said, 'Highlights.' Is that still the description you'd offer, or would you revise it? Brandon Rush: I wouldn't say it's highlights anymore. It's smooth plays. That's my style now. Guys on the team -- mostly [sophomore guard] Brady Morningstar, whose locker is right next to mine -- will call me 'Smooth.' LW: The 55-footer you took at the end of regulation against Arizona got a lot of rim before missing. [Here's the YouTube.] If the Jayhawks held a beyond-halfcourt shooting contest in practice, who would win? BR: Brady [Morningstar]. That's all he does during practice: shoot from halfcourt. He's redshirting this year, so he doesn't have to do too much. LW: You're one of the rare guys who goes for the two-wristband look. Any particular reason for it? BR: My first year in college, I was really nervous, and my hands were getting covered in sweat. Coach [Bill Self] told me that if I wore wristbands in that first game, I had to wear them the rest of the year. He's superstitious like that. So I had to wear them the rest of the year. LW: Was there ever a point where you wanted to ditch them? BR: No. I would have had so many turnovers if I did. The ball would have been slipping out everywhere. LW: KU made a controversial font change on the front of your jerseys for this season, going with "Trajan" lettering. How do you feel about the new look? BR: As long as it says Kansas and has our numbers on the back, it's fine with me. I heard they paid a pretty penny for this font, too. [It was $88,900.] Some people are upset about it, but there's nothing we can do; it was a thing the athletic department decided. LW: If you could pick any college retro jersey to wear, whose would it be? BR: I like the Tar Heels jerseys -- the baby blues -- and I've always loved Jordan, so I'd wear his old 23. I don't have it, but I'd wear it if I did. People on campus might get mad about that, though. LW: You went to high school in North Carolina [at Mount Zion Academy] but you're a local kid, from Kansas City. Did you get to spend your Thanksgiving with family? BR: I got to go home for a few hours. I went over to my grandmother's. We had a big Thanksgiving dinner down here, with my mom, uncles, all of them came. It was fun. Most of the [Kansas] players who didn't get to go home either went to Mario [Chalmers]'s or Brady's, since their families live in Lawrence. LW: What's your favorite Thanksgiving food? BR: This apple salad that my grandmother makes only once a year, for Thanksgiving. I don't know how she makes it, but it's got apples and mayonnaise and a bunch of other stuff. LW: Last Sunday -- three days after Thanksgiving -- you guarded Arizona's Chase Budinger while you were still recovering from the knee injury, and he scored 28 points. That had to be a tough matchup, but who's the most difficult guy you've guarded in three years at school? BR: Kevin Durant. He could do everything possible to score: he could shoot in your face, go off the dribble, post up. He was the complete package, the toughest guy to defend. I was trying to guard him before he caught the ball, so he wouldn't even get a chance to make moves, but that didn't work out too well. LW: Do you guys play pre-game music in the locker room to get yourselves ready? BR: Shady [Darrell Arthur] will come in sometimes and play some of his crazy Texas music. LW: Crazy Texas music? BR: Just crazy stuff that Texas people listen to, all the Chopped and Screwed stuff. If I'm on my iPod I only do Lil' Wayne. Anything by Lil' Wayne is my pre-game stuff. LW: Students at Allen Fieldhouse have been waving those giant-head cutouts of Jayhawk players, which are kind of eerier. Which one do you think looks the scariest? BR: I'd have to say Sasha [Kaun]'s, because his sign has got such a mean look to it, it is scary. I think it has more of an effect on people too, because they don't hold it up that much. It comes out, maybe, when he makes a free throw or a big dunk. LW: Do you own any of those giant signs, by any chance? Maybe for your place? BR: Naw, I don't own one. Darnell [Jackson] and I just have a giant, five-foot poster of the team in our main room, though. LW: I've read a lot about all the rehab you went through on your knee before coming back to the court in the past few weeks. What was the lowest moment during that whole process? BR: Just watching everybody else play. Watching everybody else get better in the summertime, when I couldn't do anything but rehab. It was depressing not to be able to get my reps in. I found ways to work. I couldn't run or anything, but I would dribble in place, and shoot without jumping. That was all I could do. LW: Who was the first person you called when you hurt your knee in that pickup game in June? BR: I called my mom first. Then I called my AAU coach [John Walker]. Then I called coach Self, and then my teammates. When it happened I didn't know what it was at first; I just told my mom I tweaked my knee a little bit, and that I was going to be out for a while. Then I came back to school, and it was still swollen, and I got an MRI. Before I even got the MRI, the doctor was saying there was a strong chance I tore my ACL, and that's what it turned out to be. LW: Had you already packed up your college stuff to move out of Lawrence? You had declared for the draft the month before, and it seemed like a lock that you would stay in. BR: I didn't have any of my stuff packed. I was really going to wait and see how the draft stuff worked out anyway. LW: You declared for the NBA Draft out of high school in 2005, then pulled out, and now you're in your third year of college. Honestly, back to '05, where did you expect to be in '07? BR: I was expecting to be in the NBA. But it didn't happen that way. I stayed an extra year at Kansas, then I got hurt this summer, and that changed some things. It's been a good experience. I'd had a lot of ups and downs in my life, but I've learned a lot just by being at a school like Kansas. LW: What's the funniest thing you'll remember Bill Self telling you as a player? BR: Just how he always talks about how my left arm is crooked. That brings a smile to my face all the time. I broke my arm when I was 11 doing backflips, on concrete, and I had to go through years of healing to get it back to normal. It's still a little crooked, though, and everybody on the team loves to make fun of it. If I fumble away a ball or something, coach Self will be like, "Just straighten out that left arm, and you would have caught it." LW: Finish this sentence for me: If we don't make the Final Four this season ... BR: It would be kind of a disappointment, because we've got the team to do it. We've got the team to make it happen. But even if it doesn't happen, I'd be happy that we went as far as we did. Labels: Interviews, Kansas Blog Q&A With ... Vanderbilt's Shan Foster
Luke Winn: You made the 12-man roster for the U.S. Pan American Games team this summer. [Foster was the squad's second-leading scorer over five games in Brazil.] Which players do you keep in touch with the most from that trip? Shan Foster: Either Derrick Low or Kyle Weaver from Washington State, or Roy Hibbert -- he was my roommate at the time. Those are the main three. LW: How much did you and Roy talk about the Vanderbilt-Georgetown Sweet 16 game [which was won in the final seconds on a controversial travel/shot by Jeff Green]? SF: Not much at all. We talked about it a little bit, obviously. I messed with [Hibbert]: I printed out the picture of me dunking on him, and I got him to sign it for me. He's a stand-up guy; he was like, 'Yeah, man, I'll sign it.' LW: Is that prominently displayed somewhere now? SF: No, it's in a safe place. It really just started as a joke while we were down there in Brazil. A few guys were talking about that game, and we were looking at some pictures on the Internet one day. They saw it [the dunk photo] and thought it was funny. So I printed it out as a joke. I didn't think he was going to sign it. I probably wouldn't have signed it, had it been the other way around, but he's a good guy. LW: I read that you still won't watch film of that game ... SF: Yeah. It definitely was tough. It ended and I was just like, 'No, I can't believe it's over.' We played so well that game. We were enjoying it being a tough game, and playing at our highest level. For it to end in that fashion ... was just ... [tails off]. LW: What's your instant reaction now, when you hear the name Jeff Green? SF: He's a good player. A great player. He was a great player that whole game, and that whole season, and he's going to be a great NBA player. I got a chance to talk to him a little bit [from Brazil] because Roy was talking to him on the phone. LW: And you had to ask him about the play, right? SF: I did. I was just like, 'C'mon man, the game is over. Just for me, did you travel?' He said, 'Yeah, I traveled, but the ref didn't call it, and I made the play.' So he did travel, but he made a great play. He did what he had to do to get his team the victory. LW: Georgetown lost Green and is still a consensus top-10 team to begin this season. Vanderbilt lost Derrick Byars and yet is unranked in nearly every poll. Does that anger you at all? SF: No. [The media's] job is ranking the teams, and our job is to play. My thing is, we'll play and we'll see where we are when all is said and done. LW: There's a lot of buzz about your new Australian center, A.J. Ogilvy. No one knew anything about him a few months ago, and now he's being talked about as a big-impact freshman. What is he capable of this year? SF: Based on his work ethic, he's a guy who's capable of reaching his potential. He comes to practice with a hard hat on every day. He wants to be better. He wants to help the team win in every way possible. And skill-wise, he has great hands for a big guy; he catches post feeds real well. LW: Is there anything about him that you've noticed that's uniquely Australian? SF: He had on some shoes the other day that were pretty interesting -- some grey boots that looked Australian. I have no clue what they were. But for people who don't know he's from Australia, you'd never guess that he is. He fits in. LW: I've heard that you're somewhat of a connoisseur of formal wear -- particularly suits worn in postgame appearances. SF: Definitely. I have an aunt who owns her own clothing store -- called Alpha and Omega Creations, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, about an hour away from where I grew up [in Kenner, La.]. She takes care of me in that regard, and keeps me looking fresh. LW: So what's your preferred style of suit? SF: I love pinstripes. I like a little flash, I guess. I have a large range of suits. A lot of flashy stuff, but also some business-wear that isn't as flashy, but looks fine and fits all tight. I'm not as big of a fan of those. But people seem to like them. LW: What's the flashiest one, then?
LW: Your on-floor rep is as a long-distance gunner. Who are some of the famous shooters that you admire? SF: Growing up, it was Reggie Miller. He was a great shooter. And Michael Jordan in terms of being able to create his own shot. But Reggie was the main one -- I loved how he was always ready to shoot. If his man relaxed on him a little bit, he was cocked and ready and releasing by the time the guy got there. As a shooter you've gotta do that: be ready at all times. LW: Music is a big part of your life. You were in a recording session in October for a gospel compilation CD; what, exactly, did you perform? SF: I wrote a song with one of my music teachers [at Vanderbilt]; it's called He's the Answer. It'll probably come out some time after the end of the season, because of the NCAA regulations. LW: And what's the song about? SF: It's about somebody who's trying to find an answer -- a person who's looking at their life and things they go through and ways they go about them, and what people are saying about them. It's about thinking through those things, and trying to find something to believe in. And toward the end of the song, that person realizes that Jesus has been there all along; he just had decided not to go that way. And then when he does decide to go that way, Jesus will be there with open arms. So, Jesus is the answer. LW: If you're not playing basketball professionally after this season, and you go into music full-time, what kind of musician would you like to be? Would it be solo, or in a band? SF: What I would definitely be is a gospel singer. And I'd probably start off by myself. But it all depends on where God takes me. LW: Who are your favorite musicians right now? SF: I like John Legend a lot. J. Moss. Judith McAllister. I love her music. Yolanda Adams. Smokie Norful. And Stevie Wonder. LW: If you had to play one Stevie song, which would it be? SF: Well, Ribbon in the Sky is the only one I know how to play. LW: I also heard you learned not by reading music, but just by playing it back after listening to it a few times. SF: I've always done it that way. My family kept me in church when I was young, and pretty much everyone in my family either plays an instrument or sings. So I've sung on the choir since I was young. I've always had an ear for music, and always loved music. It wasn't until my sophomore or junior year in high school, though, that my mom bought me a keyboard for Christmas. I was determined to learn how to play; I'd go to people's houses that had pianos, and try to play using two fingers. But I stayed with it. It gave me something to focus on away from basketball. LW: And do you still go by that method -- playing by ear only? SF: I had one teacher in high school that did her very best to teach me some things. But I just didn't have interest in reading music, so that didn't go over too well. This past year at Vanderbilt, though, I met a lady by the name of Deanna Walker, who is a great influence on my musical talent. She's taught me a lot in terms of music. Not just reading music, but understanding chord progressions and different types of music. I'm taking another class of hers next semester. LW: Last one: If [Vanderbilt] coach [Kevin] Stallings were in a band, what kind of music would they play? SF: Definitely country. I feel like he'd be a country music guy. He actually plays the guitar, you know. LW: So have you ever played with him? SF: We were talking about it after practice not too long ago. I told him we should play something together once the season is over. He said, 'If I can get any good at it, sure.' Labels: Interviews, Vanderbilt Blog Q&A With ... Michigan State's Drew Neitzel
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