Opening statement:
“First of all, thanks for being here. Today will be our seventh of our 30 practices that we get leading up to our first game. Up to this point, it’s been competitive, and that’s what we want. We’ve tried to put a great deal of emphasis on improving our depth. We’ve had a great deal of numbers last year, but what we really wanted to do opposed to last year more than anything was get as many reps throughout the summer leading into this fall for Kyle Alexander, Derrick Walker, John Fulkerson and Zach Kent. Zach’s been down for a couple weeks now. That’s allowed D.J. Burnsto get some of those reps, which he desperately needs. We’ve tried to play around with different guys at the point to do that. I think all in all, we’ve got some things accomplished in the offseason that we wanted to get done. Now, we’re putting it back together in terms of the different roles and what we need each guy to understand what he needs to do.”

On preparing the players for the higher expectations coming into this season:
“We really started that process a week and a half after the season ended last year. Once we got through with the season and they had a little bit of time, which wasn’t much, we went in a room and talked about where we were and what we had done last year. We simply said, ‘Now that’s over with; that’s done with. We’ve got to start over like every team in the country. We don’t get to start back where we finished.’ We start off the season zero-and-zero like everybody else, and the question will be can we improve as much each day as we did a year ago? That’s really our whole process that we talk about here is ‘can we get better today?’ We started that last spring, and a year ago that was our goal. Can we get better today? When you walk in our practice facility, there’s nothing about winning the SEC or winning a national championship. All of that stuff is a given. That’s what you play for. Our goal is can we get better today?

“This summer, we wanted to make it uncomfortable for some guys that we felt like were able to hide because we’ve got a couple guys on our team that want every single rep they can get. They won’t come out of practice. So we put those guys in different spots so the guys that normally go in and out of practice, they had to stay in practice the whole time. I think that helped them a lot, and it also showed us that we can put different lineups on the floor. We’ve moved around a lot of different lineups, which has been fun. I think you can do some of that with an older group of guys. I think that’s where being older and having some experience you can do that. Especially, if you have some players that have the basketball IQ that they’re willing to want to do that, we’ve got that.

“Once we get into the season, I’ll go back to last year. I don’t know where it started, but I do know that we were the highest ranked SEC team coming down the stretch, and we finished up 8-2 in conference. When you have that number in front of your name, I don’t care whether it’s a 25 or a one, it’s a big game. Our guys know that it’s really hard to win in this league. In terms of the outside expectations, if they’re hearing it, I can tell you that they’re hearing a whole different story in practice. It’s the same story that we talked about four years ago. It’s about us getting better, and that’s where we’ll keep it.”

On worrying about players get complacent with success:
“If that happens, that’s my fault. If complacency sets in, that’s my fault. I can assure you that’s not going to happen, because it’s up to me and my coaching staff. I think I have the best coaching staff in the country, and we’re not going to let that happen. I think we have the kind of character on this team. With our older players, they expect a lot from themselves too. They know it’s not going to be easy. They do. But they know every time they come in, that practice is going to be really, really hard. They know the details are going to be called out if they don’t do it. You guys have been here with me from the beginning. When you see practice, you see nothing changes. We’re not going to let complacency set in, and if it does with any particular player, I think we’ve got legitimate depth that we can go to. There’s not a better motivator than sitting on that bench.”

On older players holding younger players accountable: 
“You talk about leadership. We feel like we’ve got Brad Woodson and Lucas Campbell, who have been with us from day one too, really. We told those guys they’ve got as much right to speak up if they see something that’s not right as Admiral, Kyle and Lamonte Turner. They’re the guys that have been here with us from day one. There’s day that guys will hold each other accountable, and there’s day that guys are somewhat out of line with it. It’s the fact that you can’t hold somebody accountable, and then you turn around and do the same thing the next day. That’s a little bit of still being young. Even though we’ve got experience and we’ve got an older group of guys, we’re still dealing with young people who sometimes find it hard to hold themselves to the same level they expect other people to. Overall, I do think we’re a whole lot further along than we were four years ago. I will say that. When you really get there, that is exactly what you’re saying. They hold each other accountable. Even the best of the best, when he’s not doing well, wants somebody to call him out. The question is can they take it? That’s what you find out. Some guys can call guys out, but they can’t take it. That’s what I will say we still have to get better at.”

On having consistency from his coaching staff:
“It’s hard to describe exactly how helpful it is. It’s trust. There’s a trust level that we have. Some of us have known each other now for 25 years. I know that I count on them to hold me accountable. I think I’ve got a group of assistant coaches that are willing to do that if they think I’ve gone too far one way or another. They know I have a tendency to do that. They will say, ‘Hey, you’ve got to do this, that, or whatever.’ And I do listen to them, because I’ve got one thing in mind, and I’m just lucky that they’ve got the same thing in mind. We all want to be the best that we can be. It goes to Grant’s question about complacency. Do I subconsciously wish that could happen? Yes. We get ourselves ready for practice everyday. We all have different roles that we play in it, but I just know the experience that my guys have is tremendous. Not just what we do on the court but what those guys do with these guys day-to-day. Just talking to them about getting them ready every day. We know every day they’ve got academics; they’ve got things going on in their lives. But when they come in the building and we get ready to work, we’ve got everybody going in the same direction. Hopefully, if there’s anything going on beforehand, we know that and we can deal with it so it doesn’t interfere with what we’re trying to get done in practice.”

On if there’s a difference in the way opponents come after highly ranked teams:
“I think it’s good when people know you’re good, because that means you have to be able to play every night, and if you’re not, you’re going to get beat. You’ll never hear me say, ‘This is what people on the outside think; they expect us to do this or that.’ Because believe me, our expectations are much bigger on the inside. I’m not ever going to defer to what outside people might say about this or that. I’ve learned that. I’ve told this story before. When I was at Clemson and Providence, I used to talk about, ‘Man, I’d like to have the kind of situation that Syracuse or Georgetown back in the Big East days had. North Carolina, Wake was great. Duke.’ Those teams. But when I got to Texas, and I got those kind of guys, what I found out is if you’re not ready every single day, you’re going to get beat. Because of that, it helps your guys stay sharper because they know it’s a big game for everybody. I don’t care where you are or what school you’re at. If you’ve got a number in front of your name, it’s a big game. If that’s what we want, it’s something that you have to embrace, and it’s something that you should want. That’s what we do this for.

“With excitement around the program right now, I’m really happy for our guys, because I know they worked hard. But that excitement alone won’t get done what we need to get done. It’s going to continue to take hard work, it’s going to take commitment, and it’s going to take focus. It’s going to take putting some things aside for a couple months here and staying totally focused on what we need to do every single day. Taking care of our bodies, the way we eat, everything. We’ve got a group that I think totally understands that. I think it’s good. To be frank, there are some players that don’t want the spotlight on them every night. They want to be role players. There are some players that are like, ‘Hey, let me have it.’ That’s the kind of team you want. We’re ranked, we’re good. Let’s go and see what we’ve got. We’re willing to go play anytime, any place, anywhere. I like that. If you lose, you say good job and go back to work and see what you can do.”

On making players uncomfortable:
“Back to that last question, I think that Kyle Alexander has really improved since he’s been here. But I think he could be so much better. I think when you have two really physical players in Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield — guys that go out there and they’re hunting for it every single day — it’s easy for a guy to say, ‘I want to defer a little bit.’ We don’t want them to defer. We don’t want Derrick Walker to defer. We don’t want a big drop off. We don’t want any drop off when we have to go to our bench. I like to think of every players being able to start for our team if needed. Great case and point, a year ago when Kyle got hurt in the tournament, we didn’t get the step up that we needed. That’s what we went into the offseason knowing. That if some players get hurt or something happens, who is going to be the next guys that not just fills in but takes it to a higher level?

“With that said, we wanted to challenge Kyle. We wanted to challenge Derrick. We wanted John Fulkerson to get back to the guy that we knew that we recruited two years ago. I think all three of those guys are answering that challenge. I really do. There’s no question that when we needed Jordan Bowden to be able to play the point if need be. “We wanted to see Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield expand some things that they were doing, because we know how they’re going to be played at different times this year. We needed Jalen Johnson and Yves Pons to be more than just a go-in type of player. We needed them to be more aggressive. We went after them every day as if they were starters, and we put them in the position that they had to play almost every possession in practice.

“So with all that, we had a plan for each one of these guys that we wanted to see them do. The bottom line is we want them to get better and embrace the fact that you might have to play a bigger role, and we want you to play a bigger role. I think these guys do understand that even though we’ve got guys that start, I think we’ve got all five starters back. I think if somebody can beat somebody else out, I do believe they know we will change the lineup. I do believe they know that. I don’t care who it is, we want to foster that competition every day and that’s what we try to improve on. In a nutshell, improve our competition every single day at every position. We don’t want guys to just come in and say, ‘Well, this guy is going to play, and whatever I get, I get.’ We want them to fight for it. I give credit to those guys. I think they’ve worked hard to do that.”

On what he’s seen from the freshmen:
“Well I think, for one, simply understanding what they are good at, trying to really play to that strength and understanding where they are most effective on the court. Defensively, they know that’s non-negotiable. They have to guard and they know that, and they know if they want to stay on the court they have to prove that they can guard. Because we were a good defensive team last year – better then we have ever been – but we still missed a lot of our defensive goals that we set for ourselves that we want to get better at this year. With that being said, on the offensive end, we don’t want to be in a situation where we are playing five against four or five against three, we want every guy to improve his offensive ability and where they can be effective. We do think that we have post players that maybe aren’t the tallest, longest guys, but are skilled, can pass and initiate some things for us. With Yves Pons and Jalen Johnson getting them to understand a lot of their improvement is going to have to be how to move without the ball and let the offense take care of what we need it to do, that they are going to have to make hard cuts to do that. A guy like Derrick Walker, fighting for his space, where he can really be effective, and not just with him but all those guys. We have spent a great deal of time working on the details of fundamental footwork. Passing is still a problem for me, I want to see us become a much better passing team and that goes not just to the post but also to our guards. It’s up to us as coaches to put them in those positions to create game reps at game speed and we are trying to do that for all of them. It’s really about getting them better as individuals, not just physically. I do know we are a well-conditioned team, Garrett Medenwald and Chad Newman both do a great job at keeping them there, but we also want to see them all improve fundamentally as basketball players.”

On the possible advantages of utilizing some bigger lineups: 
“I do like length. I don’t know if we can get much longer inside, but we can get longer on the perimeter – obviously Admiral Schofield has played there. Our wings basically do the same things, they really do and they are pretty much interchangeable, and same with our post guys. We even have a couple of guys that if they get a rebound, can run the point. We have tried to do some of that because we want to if we can play faster, we want to see if we can be more effective, more efficient, and don’t want to go long droughts without scoring obviously. We want to play at a pace. Jordan Bone has had a great offseason, Lamonte Turner had some surgery on his shoulder but he is getting his way back, pretty much went through the whole summer with it,  and then at the end of the summer got that taken care of. The competition is what we are looking for every day in practice, and we are pretty much getting that.”

On his expectations for Lamonte Turner this season: 
“We have a core group of guys that just love the game and are working hard every day. We are going to still need one of our point guards to be a terrific defensive player. Last year we really worked hard at trying to disrupt point guard play on the other team,  between he and Jordan Bone. And I mentioned Jordan Bowden too, those guys are the guys that we want to see do some of that. We are trying to use Yves Pons in a defensive role too, where we think he is the one guy on our team that should be able to guard any player on the court, from one through five, we think he can do that. So we are trying get him to understand that role. Yves is one of those guys that will do absolutely whatever you tell him to do, and he is still learning but there’s nobody that cares more than he does. With Lamonte, we know he is not afraid of the moment, he is a guy that will look to take a shot if it needs to be taken and you obviously need some guys like that. The biggest thing we want he and Jordan Bone to do is to really know our offense and defense inside and out and be able to really direct and keep our flow going throughout the game.”

On who the offense will mostly run through:
“Well after we get down the floor, we expect the point guard to see what we are looking for and hope we can get into it. If not, once we get into our offense, we really run an offense pretty much where everybody has got an opportunity to score. We are going to run some things to get the ball to certain players at certain times, certain spots on the floor. Honestly we have something for every one of those guys, at every position we have got a way we can call something out of our offense that if we see something that we want take advantage of. This summer, and as a staff we talked about this a lot, sometimes we will put a guy at a position just to understand how hard that position is. The other day we had a drill we were running and I had Jordan Bone do what the center does, or what the other post does. He found that’s pretty hard to do too. So it’s all hard to do, none of it is easy. But at that point position you have got to have vision, see what’s going on as opposed to looking and that’s where I like to think Jordan and Lamonte have gotten better at. I think that having a chance to play the point is good for everybody and we have had some think they can do it and found that it’s a little harder than they think. I think all that stuff is good to keep your team from getting bored. I think they get excited when they know you’re not putting them in a box and not trying to say, ‘hey this is all you can do’. Our job as coaches is to work as hard as we can to help them be what they can be and you find out sometimes that guys can do more than you might think if you just give them a chance.”

On if he likes Lamonte Turner more off the ball:
“I think there will be games this year where he and Jordan will be in the game at the same time. I like Jordan off the ball some, they both are arguably, probably our two best shooters. I like those guys spotted up and having a chance to attack closeouts. Again playing the point is really hard in practice for our guys cause of how much pressure we put on them. I think, like I said, we want Jordan Bone, when the ball is not in his hands to get ready to score because he can shoot it and Lamonte is the same way. Those guys can make shots, are quick, can attack closeouts and it’s up to them to make the right decisions in terms of passing the ball when they don’t get the shot they want.”

On Admiral Schofield’s work approach after going through the NBA Draft process: 
“I think it’s really hard for him to whittle it down. It’s in his DNA, he just works, works, works. Did he slow down a little bit? He did, but that’s really where he lives, in Pratt Pavilion, that’s where he stays. But he really is mature to the point, where he knows he has to take care of his body. What we want to see him do now as a coaching staff is now embrace the mental side of it. I can’t imagine anybody working harder than Admiral Schofield, I really can’t. But we spoke the other day, he was working on his body form, and I talked to him about the mental side of it, where he is old enough now that he has really got to understand how the mental is maybe even more important than the physical. But he is a guy that just loves the game, he loves putting time in, honestly his passion is to just really be admired.”

On what he wants to see Grant Williams improve on and what he has seen from him since last season:
“What I wanted him to focus on was getting better in every area. I will always talk about conditioning with all our guys, I think that part is important and I think you can always take that to another level. You have got to be smart how you do it, but I think that really will continue to be a big part for him, to where he can play longer, harder, smarter. I watch it every day, when guys get fatigued, they break down, they forget the details. You have them where they make bad decisions with the ball to just try to get the play over with and Grant has a tendency to do that when he’s tired. So the fact is that he is going to have defend better, smarter, because he has definitely got a target on his back. People are going to make him guard, put him in positions where they are going to go at him in that way. So he is going to have to be able to defend ball screens without fouling, he is going to have to do his work early in the post without fouling. I would like to see him rebound more. I think Grant Williams should be a double digit rebounder, and he hasn’t done that in the two years he has been here. That’s something he should really want to add this year where he is a much more consistent rebounder. But again Grant is one of those guys that’s always working, we have got some guys that love working at it. They come in every day wanting to get better, and that goes back to the question of complacency, in terms of their individual commitment to our team, I haven’t seen any complacency there. If anything I think I have seen guys embrace the fact they want to get better, they certainly are open to when we tell them what they need to do to get better and they want to be coached which is all good but any guy on our team, not just Grant, I would say I don’t care what it is you are doing you have got to get better there. I told him he’s just getting started in this game. You are going to have continue to get better the next 10 years if you want basketball to be a part of your future.”

On if there is any concern this year to get some guys to embrace their roles: 
“I’m not concerned about any of that stuff because, to me, it’s no different than when I got here four years ago – we’re starting over. I expect guys to embrace their roles, and if they don’t, they won’t play, it’s that simple. The good thing is, they know that, and so I am so happy with what we did a year ago. Nobody thought we would be very good, and the same people that thought that now think we will be pretty good. But I promise we have not changed our approach, we are going into this thinking that it’s a new ball game for everybody. We are going to be playing one of the toughest schedules in the country. We didn’t have to do that, we didn’t have to do the series with Memphis, or go to Gonzaga, we didn’t have to do any of that. But we are doing it because we still want to build this program where it is consistently one of the best basketball programs in the country. Have we got it going in that direction? Yes but to keep it there, it’s about getting better every single day and not letting what happened a year ago, what happened yesterday in practice affect us. Today’s a new day and I expect our guys to embrace that, and they have. Because to be truthful, we are very transparent with our players, there’s no secrets. It’s very transparent, there’s absolutely no question about what we expect every single day from each one of our guys.”

-UT Athletics