City of Basketball Love

Varun Kumar (@vrkumar8)
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PITTSBURGH -- On Tuesday, all 14 coaches of the Atlantic 10 made their way to newly-named PPG Paints Arena in the Steel City for the conference’s media day.

They talked with reporters and spoke about a range of matters, including the move of the conference tournament to Pittsburgh.  Here are a few of the best quotes from ten of the league’s coaches.

Jim Ferry (Duquesne)
On the tournament moving to PPG Paints Arena...
“I’m a New York guy who spent ten years in Brooklyn, now going into my fifth year here in Pittsburgh. I think this even here is going to be great. It’s a great sports town. The city is easy compared to New York. The fans the community, the sports fans in Pittsburgh are all going to come in. I just think it’s going to be easier. The hotels, the sports bars, the whole environment is going to be great here. Pittsburgh is football town, so they say. Well, every hockey game I go to is sold out. It’s a hockey town. The Pirates have great crowds, it’s a baseball town. It’s a basketball town too. Pittsburgh’s really going to surround us.”

On being picked 13th out 14 teams...
“When I was picked first in my career, I never looked at it. When we were picked last in my career, I never looked at it. Look, if us coaches were always right, we’d be in Vegas somewhere.”

Travis Ford (Saint Louis)
On being picked last in the preseason poll...
“One thing we talked about was media day. I asked them where they think they would be picked. They all said the same thing. We’re going to be picked at the bottom. I said what does that mean? It means nothing. It should not influence how we practice. It should make you play that much harder. We’re in control of how hard we play. We’re in control of how well prepared we are. We’re in control of what type of shape we’re in, how tough we are. It has nothing to do with where we’re picked. There’s not a rule in place I’m aware of, unless I haven’t checked it yet that says if you’re picked at the bottom you can’t play as hard or you’re not allowed to win or not allowed to come out and play like you’re picked to win.”

On his first game against UMass since leaving...
“Well there’s a lot of mixed emotions. We absolutely loved our time at UMass. I think people don’t know how much we did love our time there. I know there’s things written since I wasn’t from that area. We absolutely loved it. I still have a lot of relationships there. We had people from Amherst visit us in St. Louis two weeks ago. From that standpoint I’m excited about it. I loved the Mullins Center, I loved everything about. Is it a little bit weird? A little bit different? Yeah it’s weird. Sure it is. In a lot of aspects I’m looking forward to it, because for me, it was a great experience. Now, some fans might have a different approach to me coming back. It comes with the territory, I fully get it. For me and my family, we loved living in Amherst and enjoyed our time at UMass.”

John Giannini (La Salle)
On coaching his first legacy recruit in B.J. Johnson...
“We skip a step. A step in developing a player is making them understand the history of your school, the traditions of your school and the great things that have happened there. Those great things should give you pride and inspire you to carry on your school’s tradition. We have to educate recruits on the fact that La Salle’s won a National Championship, been to twelve NCAA Tournaments, had 22 NBA Players, has had three national players of the year, only behind Ohio State and Duke. B.J.’s grown up knowing all of that. He knows his dad [Bobby Johnson] played on a 30-win team, he knows his dad played with a national player of the year [in Lionel Simmons]… B.J. grew up with the La Salle tradition and I think he had that kind of pride from day one and it’s one of the biggest reasons I think he chose us.”

Phil Martelli (Saint Joseph’s)
On recruiting in Philadelphia...
“I think it’s very very very difficult for a Philadelphia kid to pick a Philadelphia school. Because if it doesn’t work out and he doesn’t play, there’s only one person that gets blamed. It’s the coach. That’s not easy for them. They want to be loyal and they want to be honorable. But when the fellas say to them “Yo, the dude is doggin’ you man,” what are they going to answer? They’re not going to say, no I looked in the mirror and I came up short in this area or that area. That’s why a kid like Chris Clover, I’m really anxious for him to have success this year, because he was the Player of the Year in Philadelphia and didn’t play much. Now, he played behind an NBA pro and a fifth-year kid. He played on a championship team and has a championship ring, but now I want it for him and for him to have an opportunity.

On junior forward James Demery...
“I like James Demery. I just like the kid. He’s always blessing me, telling me god is blessing me. I always respond by saying I hope god blesses him by making some baskets.”

On the challenges facing transfer players...
“When those guys practice with you and they don’t have eligibility, so they’re not going to play in the games, they play freer and easier. And yet now, there’s a little bit of pressure to prove something to the guy from where they came from. We’ve been in that situation like when Marvin O’Connor transferred to us from Villanova. At our banquet that year, he got most valuable player. He didn’t play a second. And then the next year, he’s trying to play two games at once, because he missed a whole season. That’s a little bit of a challenge for these kids because they’ve been playing since they were seven years old. Now they spent a whole year sitting, but you’re not getting everything back in one game.

Bob McKillop (Davidson)
On St. Joe’s and Phil Martelli...
“They’re very very well coached. They do the simple things. They don’t have a lot of pizzaz about the way they do things. That’s because Phil Martelli grew up as a high school coach and matured as a college coach. He’s been there and created a culture over all these years. You see a team that knows what they’re doing, they do it very well and they don’t beat themselves.”

Archie Miller (Dayton)
On the A-10 Tournament moving to his hometown...
“Winning an A-10 title in anyone’s town is special to me. I’m excited about being in Pittsburgh in March for the A-10 tournament. We’re in another championship, world-class venue. The city is a sports crazy town. The setup for the fans for all the schools from the hotels to the places they eat to how they move around is gonna be really really comfortable for them. I think environment may be as juiced as up as any we’ve been in. I think it would be really really fun to win the tournament here.”

On the quality of coaching in the league...
“The Atlantic 10 is a first class coaches league. Take the players out of it, take the school’s out of it. You have really good coaches. You have coaches that have been all over the place. Big time winners. Bob McKillop in my mind is a Hall of Famer. And Phil Martelli. Chris Mooney has had over a decade’s worth of success at Richmond and he’s been to the Sweet Sixteen. Dr. John has been to the Sweet Sixteen. Travis Ford at UMass and Oklahoma State has had a lot of success, is now back in the league. Will Wade what he did in first year at VCU, taking over the reigns there, won a tournament game a year ago. Every single coach has had a tremendous amount of success. When you have all those guys in one league, when you recruit the players you recruit, they stay together for along period of time and develop classes, you’re going to have programs that are very good year in and year out. I say this all the time- it’s probably as underrated a league there is in college basketball. Part of it is because I don’t think some coaches in this league get credit for how good they are at their job.”

Chris Mooney (Richmond)
On the best student sections in the A-10...
“I think it’s a great part of the game. I remember being one time at St. Joe’s and I was being interviewed at halftime. There were like six students in my ear off-camera. They were saying all these different things about my background because I’m from Philadelphia that were totally opposite of the questions being asked. It was very distracting but really clever. I would say [St. Joe’s] and VCU are probably the two who are really good.”

Jeff Neubauer (Fordham)
On the evolving attitude among his players...
“I think a big part of it is simply expectations where we have guys in our program right now that truly believe they’re going to win. That compared to twelve months ago is literally night and day. The guys we had inherited had just experienced so much losing that it was hard for them to believe they could win. Right now they believe they are going to raise the standards of Fordham basketball this year.”

On his alma mater, La Salle, as a potential wildcard in the standings...
“La Salle is the one everyone is looking to because they had three really good players sitting out. One of them, my college teammate, Bobby Johnson’s son, is now playing for La Salle. I think they’re going to be very very good. I think Coach Giannini does a great job and this business is so humbling. He’s taken a team to the Sweet 16 and last year had to endure just a really really hard year. With that said, they’re going to be really tough to beat this year.”

Dave Paulsen (George Mason)
On sophomore guard Otis Livingston...
“I’ve never coached a kid who’s worked harder than Otis. I’ve had a few, maybe a handful that are in the same category. Just like I’m a father, so I can’t say one of my daughters is my favorite- they’re all tied. None have worker harder. I’ve never coached a kid with more passion or commitment to wanting to get better. At times I have to say it’s okay you have to reel it back a bit. He’s in unbelievable shape- he’s in the best shape of anyone on our team. He’s got as strong as he can. We gave him a couple things to work on- a midrange pull up game, a step back jumpshot, a floater game. He’s really improved in that area. He’s improved in his leadership. One thing I’m pretty confident- Otis Livingston will be as good a player as he can possibly be. He’s going to work that hard at it.”

Will Wade (VCU)
On senior big man Mo Alie-Cox’s defense...
“He takes a lot of pride in his defense. He takes a lot of pride in everything, really. He’s tremendous defensively. He probably doesn’t lead in blocks and I know people vote based on who leads the league in blocks and who leads the league in steals. But there’s not a better positional defender in our league than him. He knows where everybody is supposed to be. He covers our tail so much. And because we have him back there, we’re able to take some gambles with our wings. I’m gonna love having him this year but I dread not having him next year without him. He talks, he knows exactly where everybody’s supposed to be, in all the right positions. He’s vital to everything we do on the defensive end. It’s like having a middle linebacker make all your calls in football. He makes all our adjustments.”