Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboy Basketball Hosts Media Day
October 22, 2012 | Cowboy Basketball
Oct. 22, 2012
Head Coach Travis Ford
General comments on the upcoming season
“We got kind of an early start to our season, being able to take a summer trip to Europe. We got a lot accomplished during that time to help us prepare for the early start of our practices. We got a chance to see combinations of players and see things kind of X-and-O-wise. Now, looking back on it, it's even more beneficial than we even anticipated because we have been absolutely riddled with injuries and illnesses since the beginning of practice. Pretty much the whole first week was all four-on-four basketball. We were still able to get a lot of things accomplished last week, but we are kind of in a slow-down pattern at this point because we probably got in a third or a fourth of the things we need to get in before our first game. We're still banged up still and a little sick, but I like our team. Once we get everybody healthy, I like the competitiveness and the make-up of our team. I think we've got more pieces than we've had in a while. Injuries are never good, but when you look at our best defender and most high energy player, Brian Williams, that isn't good. We'll have other guys step up and fill some of his roles as far as rebounding defensively and his energy level. I think everybody on our team from last year has improved. Markel Brown had a great summer and he has continued with that through the preseason with his terrific play. Le'Bryan Nash seems to have learned a lot from last season. He's a lot better at this point in the season than he was last year. Michael Cobbins has gained some weight but we're still obviously encouraging him to eat as much as he can. Keeping the weight on is obviously the biggest challenge with Michael, but we're looking for much more production from Michael than we did last year, mainly with scoring, shot-blocking, rebounding and things like that. Marek Soucek might be the most improved player on our basketball team. He still has a long way to go but he has improved as far as his physicality and as far as him understanding what he needs to do to get on the court. He's been riddled with an injury his first week on the court, but he's about at 50 percent. Add in the new guys like Marcus Smart, Phil Forte, Kirby Gardner and Kamari Murphy, and they're still in the learning process. Phil did not practice last week and still did not practice this week.”
On high-profile freshman Marcus Smart
“Marcus is what I like to call an old-school player. In this day and age, especially when you come out of high school and you are a top-20 or top-25 player in the country, it's usually based on scoring and it's all about them. Marcus Smart is just the opposite. He's totally consumed with winning, he's totally consumed with doing whatever I ask him to do, his priorities are to try and make everyone around him better and he has made an instant impact on our team, as he would make on any team. He practiced the first weekend and was immediately involved in every play, from rebounds, to loose balls and assists. He just has no quit to him. He is always making the extra effort. He's always doing something to try and help his team win. He's the ultimate competitor. He's made an instant impact on everybody. There's not too many freshman that can do that.”
On Marcus Smart's leadership abilities
“We had some great leadership last year in Keiton Page. I think we can replace the 17 points Keiton would give us, but my biggest concern is if we can replace the leadership that Keiton gave us last season that was developed over four years as a starter. Marcus has sort of picked up a lot of that. Markel Brown has even done a great job of that. Marcus almost does it by how hard he plays. I think it's contagious to the other guys. When you play as hard as he does, it almost exposes you if you don't play hard. Indirectly, I'm always telling my guys that they've got a great example out here and to please follow it. I have coached guys who have played extremely hard and have been as unselfish as Marcus is, but Marcus can go a whole practice without shooting and not care less. Everybody around him knows that he's just trying to win. There's no way anyone could have a problem with Marcus. He's not selfish in any manner. It's easy to coach a guy like that.”
On the overall team outlook
“It's an interesting point guard position with Marcus being his size. With this basketball team, we're probably going to shoot more three pointers than we did last year. With that said, we're going to have to feed the post more than we did last season as well. We can't get caught up with living and dying on jump shots. We did that a lot last year. We've got to get post production out of Michael Cobbins. Kamari Murphy is coming along, but I don't suspect he will be a big inside presence this season. He will score some points. [Philip] Jurick has shown us in the last day or so that he has lost 40 to 50 pounds over the summer. I think that has really helped him around the basket. He has shown some glimpses of scoring a little bit around the basket even though he gave us none last year. We're going to invert the court a lot. We're going to send our big guys out on the perimeter. We still thought that even when Brian Williams was playing, teams would put their big men on Brian, but now we're going to be going with a more conventional lineup with three guards. Against solid mid-major competition, we came out of Spain averaging 87 points a game. We definitely want to score more than we did last year, for sure. We're obviously putting an emphasis on pushing the pace.”
On Jean-Paul Olukemi's eligibility issue
“You know as much as I do. I'm just hoping for good news. Obviously that becomes more important with Brian being out. I'm very optimistic about JP. I know the case and I know other cases like it where guys have been granted semesters or even years. We're just asking for a semester that he basically lost last year. You're talking about a young man who has done nothing but excel in the classroom. He has never been a problem. There were several extenuating circumstances that are the basis for him getting his semester. We're very optimistic that he will get it, but you never know.”
