WICHITA, Kan.—Wichita State head coach Isaac Brown talked about the challenges of building culture on a brand-new roster, emerging leadership and some of the keys to a successful 2022-23 season at Tuesday's media day press conference. Read on for the transcript:
HEAD COACH ISAAC BROWN ON…
… Opening statement:
"I'm excited for the start of the season. We're only 10 days away from our (closed door scrimmage), and the guys are getting better and better. It's a new basketball team, 12 new faces, but they're picking up everything. From a defensive standpoint, we talk about our culture and defense. Rebound and play with toughness on defense. That's the thing, we've got to do a better job of this year. We can't give up second-chance shots. Offensively, we want to play faster. We want to get the ball up the floor, take good shots and not turn it over. We have a point guard in Craig Porter Jr. who is the leader of our team and he can get everybody in the right spots. We've got some veteran guys inside with Kenny Poto, James Rojas and Quincy Ballard. I feel like we've got the shooting that we really needed in Colby Rogers. Xavier Bell, Jarron Pierre and Jalen Ricks. We've got size. That's the number one thing we wanted to get out of the recruiting process. We wanted to become more athletic, so we went out and got bigger, faster, more athletic guys and I'm excited for the season."
… Remaking the roster through transfers instead of true freshmen:
"The teams that win in college basketball are the teams that have the most experience. We've had success here because we're always older than other teams. The only difference this year is we have 12 new faces. These guys have never played in our program."
… What he's learned about this team in the last few weeks of full practice:
"We're getting better defensively. You talk to the guys again about our identity, our culture. The teams that win in this league… are at the top of all the defensive stats. So that's what we talked about. We've made it our identity, our culture. We've got to defend, we've got to rebound, we've got to play with toughness. On top of all that, we've just got to be a smarter basketball team. We can't turn it over. We've got to take good shots."
… How the American Athletic Conference looks:
"The conference is getting better and better. Houston has been in the top-10 the last couple of years. Memphis is always going to have one of the top recruiting classes. Cincinnati's got a lot of guys coming back. Tulane has one of the best guards in our conference, and they made a tremendous run. Temple, who we didn't play last year, watching those guys on tape, they've got a lot of size. I think all those teams have a chance to get into the postseason. Everybody else has a new team. I think everybody did a good job in the transfer portal, going out to get good players."
… Being picked eighth in the conference's preseason poll:
"These guys are playing with a chip on their shoulder, kind of like they did two years ago when we were picked seventh. But you can't worry about preseason rankings. You've got to go out and play the basketball game. We feel like we have enough in our locker room in order to win games this year. We've just got to continue to do the little things and get better on the court every day in practice. These guys have been given 110% everyday practice.
… Emerging leadership on the team (beyond Porter):
"It's been multiple guys every day stepping up, I would say our two graduate transfers, James Rojas, who played in back-to-back NCAA tournaments at Alabama. James came in after having an ACL surgery last year, and now he's 100 percent. I think he gives us scoring in the front court. He gives us a leader in the locker room, and he's good defensively. Gus Okafor, who transferred from Southeastern Louisiana was first team all-league in the Southland Conference. He's another experienced guy. Those two have been our vocal leaders. They're the older guys on the team, and that's what we expect from the veteran guys on our team.
… Keys to successful year:
"I just want these guys to get better and better every day in practice. Just take it one game at a time, to learn from their mistakes and to always play hard. We've got to defend at a high level again. I just keep telling the players that we've got to defend, we've got to rebound, and we've got to play with toughness. On offense, we've got to be a smarter basketball team. We've got to take good shots. We've got to play fast and we've got to do the little things and not turn the ball over."
… Outside shooting:
"We're a better shooting team than we were last year. I think we've got multiple guys that can shoot the basketball. As a coaching staff, we worked on a lot of different drills this summer: transition shooting, making contested jump shots, and shooting after being fatigued. We do a lot of drills where the players have to make a certain score in practice. If they don't get that score, they have to continue to do it until they make it."
… Establishing rotations early in the year with so many newcomers:
"That's the biggest thing as a head coach is giving out the playing time. Right now all of the guys are excited. All the guys feel like they're going to play 30 minutes a game. But at some point, I've got to be able to pick out 10 or 11 guys that are going to be playing in games. I told them that in order to get on the floor, all you have to do is defend, rebound and play with toughness. You're not going to get on the floor because of your offense. On offense, just don't turn it over and be a good teammate. But you've got to defend to get on the floor. I'm locking in their heads right now that the 8 to 10 guys that are going to be on the floor are the guys who are going to defend."
CLICK HERE to download the Hutch Post mobile app.
CLICK HERE to sign up for the daily Hutch Post email news update.