Blue White Illustrated

Mike. Josh is obviously a stat-sheet stuffer, Lamar is coming off the Most Outstanding Player in the NIT where I thought he raised his level. He was one of only 25 guys to be invited to the Nike Basketball Academy this summer. And Mike, he's on his way back to full health. So you have those three as your corner- stones and, again, Josh and Mike were All-Defensive Team, Lamar honorable mention. That's a great place to start. You can look back in my seven years, we haven't had that type of talent re- turning. You add in a guy like John Har- rar, who's playing great right now. He looks like a basketball player. Last year looked like a football player. But he's still playing as tough as ever. And then Ja- mari Wheeler is shot out of a cannon. He's really going to facilitate. So I think when you have those five guys and then you can plug in a Deivis Zemgulis or a Trent Buttrick, and you're still old, there's not that much pressure on your freshmen. But the freshmen are really talented, really skilled, really fun to watch. They have high IQs and shoot the heck out of the ball. You're going to love them. So with that, every day we've got to get a little bit better and we're going to have to take care of the little things. I think the little things prevented us from get- ting that one other win that we needed to get into the NCAA tournament. I felt like we were an NCAA tournament team. I felt like because Mike got hurt and maybe because we beat Ohio State three times and no one else, we didn't get in. If we would have beaten someone else other than Ohio State, maybe then we get in. But we've just got to do simple a little bit better. BWI Were there lessons that you took away from not being included in the NCAA tournament field? Your noncon- ference schedule is much more chal- lenging this year. CHAMBERS Yeah, we have DePaul, N.C. State, Alabama on the road, Duquesne on the road, Wright State is a top 125 RPI. If you get through that game, you've got SMU, and then every mid- to low-major that is coming in here is ei- ther picked to win their league or in the top three of their league. So the schedule is going to be really challenging. Does that mean we're going to be in? I have no idea. Last year, I thought it was Quad One, Quad Two, but it turned out to be the RPI. They can finagle it how- ever they want to get in who they want. We've got to make sure that we don't give them the choice. We've got to make sure that they say this is a no-doubter, a no-brainer. So our nonconference schedule, that's why we beefed it up. And now you've got 20 games in the Big Ten. We've got great opportunities, more opportunities for a better resume to get in. I look at some teams last year, they were under .500 in the league. So now that's not the barom- eter anymore. It's quality of wins and where you play them. BWI You've already mentioned pres- sure on the young guys. Have you iden- tified that as something you need to alleviate? CHAMBERS One hundred percent. Tony, as a freshman, everything was on him, Lamar and Mike. They were all young. So it's unfortunate that we had to rely on freshmen to learn how to win in the Big Ten, to score the basketball, to defend, to do everything. It just wasn't fair. But it helped us in their sophomore year. But that's the beauty of having these guys, these five guys who have played quality minutes. Now the freshmen can really play. They have great leaders and the pressure is not on them to produce. The pressure is going to be more on Lamar, more on Mike, more on Josh. Hey Lamar, you've got to average 18 again. Hey Josh, you averaged 10, now you've got to average 14. Hey Mike, you aver- aged 10, now you've got to average 14, and that's a fun thing. BWI Are those three ready for that? CHAMBERS I think so. I think Mike in a little bit. I think he looks really good in practice, but he's still not 100 percent. I think he's about 85. His body's not there yet, his conditioning is not there yet, but he's getting there. And his second jump, Mike is a freak, and it's not where it was as we were heading into Michigan. He was just on another level. But he'll get that back in the preseason. BWI When do you anticipate he'll be back at full strength? CHAMBERS I think it'll take a little time. He didn't have the conditioning of what the other 13 guys did all summer. He couldn't do anything. He worked with our trainer the entire summer. BWI What are the expectations for the freshmen? CHAMBERS You said alleviate, and you're right. They understand if they have an open shot, shoot it. I mean, that's easy. But if you miss it, it's OK. When Tony shot his freshman year, we needed him to make that. "Please get in!" When Lamar got in, "You've got to score! You've got to stay out of foul trouble!" They don't feel that type of pressure. BWI Can you talk about the young guys on a one-by-one basis? CHAMBERS We'll start with Bolton. I think Penn Staters are going to love this kid. His shot is unbelievable. Wait until you see it. It's just as smooth, as silky... I'm not going to say Steph Curry-esque, but very similar style. Freak of an ath- lete. Going down the lane, he could dunk on somebody. Great speed, high IQ , very good passer, and a lot stronger than what the eye may see. He looks thin, but he's one of the strongest guys on the team, and he's 19. He went to prep school, so he's also got that maturity level, too. Myles Dread shoots the heck out of the basketball. Kevin Freeman gave the ex- ample of Dennis Scott, because he has that body. This kid is 6-5 and just has a nice, high release. Silky smooth shot, and he's very tough. He's well-coached, so he's got really good habits, talks the entire time. He's maybe a hair above where Shep was as a freshman. Shep played the point, too. I don't think Myles is going to play the point. He could, but I don't think he will. Myreon Jones just gets buckets. It's in- credible. He can get you a shot at the end of a clock, and we needed him. We needed somebody who could get us a

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