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American Athletic Conference Media Day Quotables

10/24/2016, 4:00pm EDT
By Austin Lederman & Graham Foley

Austin Lederman (@AustinLederman) &
Graham Foley (@graham_foley3)
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PHILADELPHIA -- The American Athletic Conference held its Media Day in the Philadelphia Airport Marriott. Players and coaches from each of the 11 teams in the conference were on hand to discuss the upcoming season with the media.

The American had four teams make the NCAA Tournament last season and it would’ve had five, but SMU was under NCAA sanctions. Here are quotes from six of the coaches about the upcoming season and a few other topics.

Fran Dunphy (Temple)
On being picked sixth in the preseason…

“It’s not something you think too much about. To be honest with you, when I turned around [to look], that was the first time I saw where we were. It’s not that big a deal. It’s preseason prognostications. We need to figure out where we’re going to be in a few weeks.”

On changing defensive plans to fit new personnel...
“We have to be creative defensively. We have to pressure a little bit more than we have in the past. But you’ve got one thing that those young guards can bring and that’s energy and enthusiasm, and they may make a mistake or two, but hopefully they’ll make up for it in determination.”

On how Trey Lowe is doing in his recovery from a February car accident...
“He’s coming to practice every day, rehabbing and doing as good a work as he can, taking care of his academic load as well. He’s doing a really good job. They respect Trey so much. That’s their brother and they want to take care of him.”

On Media Day being in his backyard…
“It’s perfect, to be honest with you. If you said to me every American Athletic Conference media day is going to be right here I’ll be fired up about it. You don’t have to travel at all and we’re not going to practice today -- we’ve decided to take today off, but if we wanted to we could’ve practiced this afternoon as well. It’s good stuff.”

Mick Cronin (Cincinnati)
On being No. 1 in the AAC preseason poll...
“There's a responsibility that goes with being the preseason favorite to win the league. Everyone is gunning for you. You’re not sneaking up on anyone. There’s a responsibility that goes with that and you’ve got to be prepared to take everybody's best shot. And you better have a veteran team that can handle that...as a coach, it makes your life a little harder, to be honest.”

On the affect their game against UConn in the AAC Tournament has had...
“We really move on and don’t talk about things like that. Each team has a different dynamic... If anything we learned that you better play until the clock hits zero and you don’t want to ever put the game in the hands of the officials or the timekeeper, who didn’t start the clock on time.”

On the great coaches in the AAC this year...
“Well I think it says a lot about the basketball in our league that guys like Tubby Smith, Mike Dunleavy and Johnny Dawkins want to join our league. It says a lot about where basketball is at in our league and what people think of it... It just shows you that we have a strong, strong basketball conference and it’s only going to get better.”

Frank Haith (Tulsa)
On what needs to be done to build up the program…
“Our first start was getting good quality young men that can play. I think we’ve done that. I’m excited about this group. We’re young, but we have some older guys, but older guys that people haven’t seen yet like Junior Etou, TK [Edogi] played two years ago. Even a guy like Eugene Artison, Jaleel Wheeler, Cory Henderson -- those guys are older and will be a focal point of our team and Pat Birt. I think that we’ve got a good nucleus and I’m excited to see how it works out this year for us.”

On ability for young team to make the tournament...
“Our goal every year is to get into the postseason and that’s never going to change regardless of what new guys we bring in. That’s the goal of our program. We’ve got to play well, we’ve got to come together. I think the teams that are able to achieve the maximum and get back to the tournament always play with good chemistry and that will take us some time. I don’t know that we will be playing our best basketball early, but by January and February hopefully we’re playing well enough to give ourselves a chance.”

Orlando Antigua (South Florida)
On standout young players…
“I’m looking at the continued growth of Jahmal McMurray, who is now going into his sophomore year, the return of Troy Holston from knee injury to play his sophomore year athletically, and the addition of some of our freshmen and redshirt freshman Tulio Da Silva who was able to practice all last year and get that experience and now is able to translate that into games.”

On what it takes for the young team to develop into a tournament team...
“Well it certainly takes committment, chemistry, a commitment on defense, and a selflessness to share the ball and play for one another instead of for yourselves.”

On what it is like to coach with other fantastic coaches in the AAC...
“It’s great to be a part of such a brotherhood when we’re competing against other people. But you realize that night in and night out when you get into conference [play] that teams are going to be well coached, well prepared, and you have to be playing at your best in order to come out with a win.”

Jeff Lebo (East Carolina)
On necessity for size in the conference…
“You do, you really do. We could get you to miss the first shot. It was the second and third one. We would be in position a lot of times and just the size and the length of the guys would just hurt us on the second and third shots. That was the big area we really struggled. The biggest thing when we came from Conference USA to here after two years of being in the league, 2 or 3 inches bigger at every position. Not just inside. Maybe inside at the 4, 5, maybe four-five inches bigger, 20 pounds heavier in there. That’s been a big adjustment for us to make and to play that on a nightly basis has been difficult for us so it’s taken us awhile. Hopefully we’ve got a group now that’ll be able to hopefully hold their own there inside even if it’s not a big offensive threat for us but defensively be able to challenge some shots and make you miss around the rim.”

On making the jump from Conference USA to the AAC, which his program did in 2014-15…
“Well it’s hard, it’s not easy for them. It’s always difficult when you change leagues and you move up like we’ve done. We’re playing teams that are now -- really last year five teams that should’ve gone to the NCAA Tournament. So you’re looking at 10 games playing against that competition. It’s exciting for our guys, it’s exciting for our program. We have to elevate to them. They’re not going to come down to us. We have to go meet them where they are and that’s a fun thing. To have the chance to compete on television and to play against the UConn’s of the world, the Cincinnati’s of the world, the Memphis’, Temple’s -- these are national programs that have a history and tradition so that’s fun for us.”

Mike Dunleavy, Sr. (Tulane)
On adjustments to college after coaching in NBA for 17 years...
“No adjustment at all really. The only problem I have -- the only complaint I have about anything is two hours a week in the offseason you can work on basketball. It’s moronic. You have a chance to help them get better and they limit you on that. It’s like telling the kids at law school and business school you can’t spend more than two hours a week at the library. They made a ruling and I get it -- I’m just coming in and they used to be able to do nothing. But now they have eight hours [of offseason conditioning and practice per week]. Eight hours is plenty, but let the coach decide conditioning or basketball or how you get it done -- your strength and your conditioning and your basketball together. Why handcuff them? Just say ‘all I’m giving you guys is eight hours figure out how to use it to the best of your ability.’ That’d be great. Two hours a week [for practice], that’s a joke.”

On if he really wants to stay in Tulane 10-15 years...
“Yeah, I do. It’s a great city. I have friends and family there. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law went to Tulane. So I’ve been visiting every year virtually since 1976 so I know it well. I got to meet some of the people when I was with the group we were looking for some local investors to have, local people -- we didn’t need their money but just to have local flavor. So I got to meet some really nice people as well. It’s got pro sports, great food, great music. I don’t know, where else can I get all of that?”


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