The interview took place over the phone on April 9th.
What in particular are you the proudest of your team during this past season that we have not talked about in this interview yet?
I think the other big thing that I think was our trip to Greece was probably the highlight of the year. I think it was a tremendous social opportunity for those kids and I think they learned a lot educationally also, I think it was a trip that bonded that team for life even though kids are leaving and going their own way I think that team will be bonded for life with those memories from Greece.
You and your program have officially signed three players, would you be able to talk about those three players?
Yes, Joey (Holifield) ended up being the Northwest Ohio player of the year, 1st team all-state, lead his team to 20 win season. He is a combo guard and can play the point. He will be given a chance to be our point guard and he also had over 500 rebounds in his high school career. So he is a physical, back you down, get to the rim type of guard. He is more of power type of point guard and looks like a little fullback.
Philips (Joseph) is kind of an undersized post player, he can step out and shot the three. He is a high energy player, somebody we hope to be a great rebounder for us especially at the offensive end. Looks like Xavier, a little bit shorter but has that type of physicality to him.
Chris (Conway) he is 6-10, when we signed him he was 188 pounds, over this (past) season he is grown and he is now almost 220. He is very skilled at the offensive end, very skilled. He is someone who can step out and make a three but he is also very skilled with the jump hook over either shoulder and can pass the ball well out of the post. He is somebody that there is a lot of excitement in our coaching staff over him. We have had a lot of really good bigs over the years and he comes in with a skill set as good as most that we have ever had.
With Xavier Hill-Mais graduating with this year, what will you miss most about him as well as Brad Brechting, especially a particular moment or play?
I think the little play we ran at the end of the Green Bay game, when it looked like we had it lost and Xavier and Brad had to work together. Trey had to miss the free throw on the right side and Brad got Xavier open with a screen it allowed Xavier to get the rebound and lay it in to send it in to double overtime. I think that those two working together and growing you know with senior day, their last (home regular season) game and they won the game. You know what, with a play with the two of them had to work together to do it and I think that is probably the moment you are talking about for me.
With Rashad Williams coming back this upcoming season, how well can he develop for you and your team next season?
I have had a lot of great scorers. We have had multiple guys over the years led the nation is scoring being in the top 5 in scoring and Rashad is that caliber, he is a guy who can do something like that. He’s got to shot a better higher percentage than he shot this year but I think he was put in a really tough situation to start playing 13 games left. I believe he will shot it at a much higher percentage next year and you saw there were a couple of games when he did shot it at a high percentage he was well into the 30’s you know, he is a guy who can score the ball. His shots were highly contested but he still found a way to get to the rim and I expect him to be a guy that we rely upon heavily next year to score points for us. Next year I think we will be able to go back to playing at a faster pace and that will only help him.
With Hill-Mais and Brechting graduating, how do you see Babatunde Sowunmi’s role changing for next season?
He has been in the program for two years, on the first day of practice next year he will walk on the floor as our starting five and we open the season at Ohio State and a month later if he is not on the starting five then someone would have beat him out. He’s got two years in and we have worked with him hard to try to develop and he will be given a shot to win that job and it all comes down to this off-season and how hard he works weather he can handle the moment.
