INTERVIEW WITH COACH SCOTT!!
Reporter-Thanks for joining the show Coach. You guy's are off to a great start (9-3) and already have more wins then last season. Did you have any goals coming into the season?
Scott-Thanks for having me. To be honest with my first year on the job I wanted to set some high expectations. I felt like we could be a .500 program. We have a solid roster, it just needed some tweaks and some guy's playing the right type of style.
Reporter-Speaking of style, your offense seems to rely on the 3pt shot and you guy's seem to use the press quite a bit. Could you give us a breakdown of your coaching profile?
Scott. We run a Princeton style offense, I like to run a 2-3 matchup zone and depending on the team will have the guy's play alot of man to man, but we like to press after shots made with a 2-2-1 Zone. So far we have been pretty good at not giving up easy baskets.
Reporter-Before we get to Big West play, I wanted to talk a little about the roster. Senior Guard Blake Blannister is playing some great basketball (19.3 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 1.5 SPG (7/21 33% 3PT). What other players have really stood out to you?
Scott-Vinnie Eversten.. The kid is a Walkon but he is one of our best shooters on the team (7.5 PPG 29/53 37% 3PT). He and Luke Troutmand (11.5 PPG, 21/50 42% 3PT) have really opened up the ability for us to score some points. I have also been really impressed with Dominic Diame. The kid didn't see much PT last year being a FR from the Senegal, but he has really stepped up into the PF spot giving us a solid (7.0 PPG, 8.5 RPG).
Reporter-Right now you have a 11 man roster with only 1 Senior (Bannister) and it appears 3 active scholarships to hand out. What type of players are you looking to bring in?
Scott-I typically look for shooting and skills as my main 2 goals, with size also very important. If you can land a bigman who can dominate the middle and a couple guy's who can shoot the 3 then you will win alot of games in the Big West.
Reporter-Can you give us a preview into what players are currently on your recruiting radar?
Scott- Right now landing a PG is important. With Bannister graduating, we have Troutman who will probably slide over to PG next year for us, but we really like
6'1 Ime Goff. He is from L.A. and is a
2* ranked #597 Overall, but he is a guy we feel like could be a solid player after a redshirt season.
We also like
3* SF Torris Okosa. He is listed at 6'6 and is r
anked #339 Overall.. Those 2 guy's are probably locks for us right now. The 3rd scholarship is currently being saved for what we hope to be the gem of next year's class.
6'7 PF Casey Wilson is a 3* but is almost a Top-100 player in the nation
(#115 Overall/#18 PF) . Right now he has a couple other programs chasing him (Saint Mary's and UC Davis) but rumors are he is keeping his recruiting open hoping one of the bigger schools end up offering him a scholarship. We offered early and we are hoping that's what ends up sealing the deal for us if he doesn't get someone else to offer. If not we have a couple other guy's we will continue to look at.
Reporter-You guy's won just 2 games last year in Big West play. This year you were picked to finish 7th ahead of UC Davis (currently 2-7) and Long Beach State (3-8). UC Santa Barbara (10-2) and Pacific (8-2) are considered to be the favorites. What's your take?
Scott. UC Barb has a pretty amazing player in Ike Mendoza (80 Overall) who currently is avg 16.5 PPG and a solid post player in N. Grundy (14.1 PPG, 7.9 RPG). They will be tough to beat, but to be I like our chances with most of the other schools. I really feel like we could pull off 8-9 wins and to be honest a 17-18 win season would be pretty solid in Year 1.
Reporter-Coach obviously this is your first year as a Head Coach and I know you signed a 2 year deal, but how long do you hope to stay at UCR?
Scott- I made it very clear with the school that their is only 1 program I would leave for and that's Boise State. If I can't get back to Boise, then I would love to stay here and build a Gonzaga type program with the Highlanders here in the Big West.