University of Massachusets Athletics
Lappas Pregame UConn Quotes
December 08, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 8, 2004
Lappas on where the team is at this point in the season: We've been up and down. We played a decent game against Gonzaga. We're starting four sophomores so we have experience, but we still have some guys finding their way. We have to go out there and compete and go play.
Lappas on the high preseason expectations: There are expectations all around, there's no doubt about it. That's the nature of the business. We have everybody back from our team last year. Even though we didn't have a really good year last year, there's potential and that's why the expectations are high.
Lappas on what makes Rashaun Freeman such a good player: He's very deceptive in the low post. He can really maneuver in that area extremely well. He's left-handed which helps. He just has that knack around the basket to make what look like tough shots not really tough. He has great footwork and a great feel around the basket.
Lappas talks about coach Pat Sellers: I think he's tremendous. I love Pat. He left in a brief time of 14 or 15 months, but he left a lot of great ideas here. I appreciate him saying that he learned a lot from me, but I learned also learned a lot from him. He has had a great career and has a great future ahead of him and I wish him nothing but the best.
Lappas on encouraging Sellers to take this step: It was very, very hard for me to lose him especially at this juncture, at this stage in the program. We're in a situation where winning is obviously a paramount thing for us this year. To lose a guy like that was very difficult, but I try to look at life as not being just about Steve Lappas. These guys have careers; he has a career. If he came to me about going to another place, I might've said `that's not a good idea,' but he's going to a place that is going to, without a doubt, help his career and there was no way that I was going to stand in his way. If anything, I was going to tell him that that's what he needed to do.
Lappas discusses the team's strengths and weaknesses: Our strengths are that we've been a pretty good defensive team so far this year. We're holding people to about 40% from the floor. We're a pretty smart and patient offensive team at times, but we need to be able to do that for forty minutes. That's the big thing now.
Lappas talks about Jeff Salovski: He's got a great feel for the game and he's got tremendous hands. He can really pass the ball and he knows how to play. His mind is well advanced, but he's got to get his body up to the level of his mind and his skills standing still. When he works on his running and his conditioning, he has a chance to be a very good basketball player. He's learning now how much faster everything is moving in practice and in games than he ever imagined. He's got to learn how to play like that and function in that environment. We're very, very high on him and ,regardless of the fact that he's only been playing a couple minutes a game, he's going to be a good player for us.
Lappas on the keys to the game: There are three keys to this game. Rebound, rebound and rebound some more. It's that simple. I think that if you rebound, you have a chance to slow them up a little bit, which is very important. Rebounding really has a chain reaction on a number of things. That's really the main thrust of everything we are going to try to do.
Lappas comments on how Jim Calhoun has changed as a coach: I think he has mellowed, but he's the same intense competitor and the same fiery guy. I think he accepts what a player's individual talents can bring, both good and bad, and I think that's a good thing. I think it's something that we all struggle with--when to bend and when to break. I think that Jim has done a great job, obviously with the tremendous success that he's had. I don't see anything different X and O wise, they play just as hard as they've always played and just as intense. I think it's the subtle things on the sidelines.
Lappas on how depth will affect the game: I know depth up-front has a good chance to have a mark on this game. We've been in some foul trouble with our big guys in almost every game that we've played. They run a lot of big guys at you every second between Hilton Armstrong and Ed Nelson besides, obviously, Josh Boone and Charlie Villanueva. You've got a guy like Rudy Gay, who really could be playing the four spot for us, playing the three for them a lot. The inside depth is a definite problem and the only way to negate that is to do our best job rebounding and trying to keep the pace and the possessions in this game down a little bit. I'm sure they're going to do everything they can to make it fast, which I don't blame them.
Lappas on finding Stephane Lasme: We had dismissed a big kid from the team who was a freshman. We went out on the road just recruiting in the summertime for the following September. We saw an All-Star game, an Eastern Invitational, and there was a kid who had an unbelievable dunk and I said we should put him on our list. Somebody in front of us working at the camp told us that kid was looking for a school now. So we found out that he was living in Dorchester, Massachusetts with a relative. We had him in for a visit that week and got him to come.
Lappas discusses the A-10: The league is a good league. Every year somebody's going to emerge that people don't think about that all of a sudden is going to be really good. Two years ago, Saint Joe's had a bad year, they went to the NIT and people were down on them. Then all of a sudden Jameer Nelson (has a great season) and the team goes crazy. Now you've got GW, which is an excellent team. Somebody else is going to emerge before the season is over, maybe us. It's a good league. Anytime you have a league that sends three or four teams to the NCAA Tournament, you have a really good league. Last year it was proven that we had a much better league than most people thought. What's going to happen this year? We'll talk about it at the end of the season. That's when we'll know.