Bryce, when you see the video that Matt (Fisher-Davis) had kind of owning the NCAA (Tournament fiasco), at was the reaction to the video when you saw it?
Matt’s had a sensational spring and summer. He’s been really good in the fall so far. I think when a play like that happens, it can send you two different ways. Right now, he’s chosen the path of motivation, and it’s made him a better player and it’s making our team better every day. I’m excited about it.
We’ve seen him in mock drafts some. You played in the NBA, is he a legitimate NBA guy?
You know, the NBA, from my experience, they want guys who are excellent at doing at least one thing. He has as good a skill as anyone in the country at shooting the ball, and if he can shoot it at a high mark this year and have a good year, there’s no reason why he can’t be in the NBA.
When you say he’s gotten better as a player, what has he done? How is he different?
You know, his work ethic has been really good on a consistent basis. Late at night. you’ll hear a ball in the gym and he’s down there by himself shooting. He’s coming in a lot on his own and working out, and he has gotten a little bit stronger. He’s been more aggressive. His focus is just at a different level than what it was last year. All indications are right now is he’s preparing himself to have a great year.
More off the bounce for him this year?
He is. On our summer tour, he got to the free throw line significantly more than he did last year. He’s aggressive attacking the rim, and he’s playing with a lot of confidence. I think when you have more confidence, you do be more aggressive.
How different are things right now compared to this point a year ago, when you’re in Year 2?
I think we’re definitely further along with principles and philosophies, just because we’ve got a lot of players returning from last year who understand what we want to do, and things that we’re trying to implement into both our offenses and defenses. But on the other end, you take out a player like Luke Kornet, Nolan Cressler, some guys that had great experience, and you’re throwing in 17-year-olds and 18-year-olds, it doesn’t look quite as good out there. So getting those guys up to speed is going to take some time.
It seems like maybe on the perimeter, you’ve got the depth that you can absorb the loss of Cressler. Inside, without Kornet, what have you seen so far from your bigs?
You know, as a coach, I think you want to get old as quick as you can, or get experience. Our guards definitely have the experience. Our bigs have to gain that experience. A lot of them just don’t have a lot of mileage on the court. D’jery Baptiste comes back as a sophomore eligibility-wise, but he does’t have a lot of mileage on the court. He hasn’t really played significant minutes, and he’s really the most experienced of anyone at the center position.
As a coach, there’s a lot of uncertainty going in, but there’s also a lot of anticipation that hopefully, you know these guys are going to take big strides.
How unique was (Kornet) that you not only had a guy that was a rim protector, but could stretch the defense? Just how hard is that to replace?
You can’t substitute one guy in for Luke and get the same quality of production, just because he was so good. And he was so good at practice every day, also. So we have a lot of guys that we can play at that center spot, so it’s going to be by committee. We’re going to be putting a lot of different guys in there and hopefully by committee, we can get up to those numbers that Luke was doing for us.
When you see the scandal in college basketball—since birth, you’ve been in a college basketball family—does that bother you that people outside of college basketball see that image, a stained image?
It’s definitely unfortunate, being in the profession. It’s unfortunate. If I was not in the profession—I was a college basketball fan ever since I can remember, 3-4 years old, I love college basketball and I love watching it—it’s definitely sad when you see some of the publicity college basketball is getting. But there’s no doubt in my mind we’ll come back with even a stronger product as we get through this.
Fan on the street says, “Well, everybody does it. Everybody cheats.” How accurate is that?
That’s not accurate. It’s easy to clump in all the time, ‘Everybody does it.” But I’ve been around college basketball my whole life and I know that’s not accurate.
Were you shocked by anything that came out of it? The details?
You know, definitely very surprised. We go about recruiting and coaching and doing things a certain way. Definitely was very surprised.
There was talk out there. I’m sure behind close doors, you guys talk about, “This program’s doing this, this school’s doing that.” Right? So you know some of that stuff’s going on.
You know, whatever profession, if it’s basketball, if it’s any profession, there’s always speculation of things going on, but, I’m always a glass-half-full guy. Everyone’s always innocent until there’s enough proof and so I always take the high road on things.
Do you think this changes things? Do you think this change recruiting significantly moving forward? Does it make things easier for other programs?
You know, time’s only going to tell on those, and right now I’m just focused on really coaching our team and trying to get better. I go back and tell our team to control the things you can control, so we’re going to go about recruiting the same way, going after and trying to publicize Vanderbilt the best way we can.
What gives you faith that the sport is healthy enough to kind of endure this?
It has great people. Again, there are great people in this sport. There’s great players, great young men who are great ambassadors for our university who will go on to represent in the NBA or the professional world. I think the people will get us back to where we need to get.
What are your thoughts about Kentucky—again, they’re No. 1—and the strength of the SEC from top to bottom?
Cal does a tremendous job of bringing in young talent and blending them together. Any ranking, they’re definitely well deserving. As you look as a whole, it’s only my second year here. Last year, I thought the league was very underrated, and it proved to be true at the end, getting five teams in the tournament and three in the Elite Eight—I think it’s the first time (the latter has happened) I think in the SEC since 1986, they said.
If you look on paper, we have more top 100 recruits coming in our league than any league in the country. We have more projected lottery picks than any league in the country, according to some draft scales. So again, all indications are that the league should be even better.
What did it mean to get (South) Carolina in the Final Four, a team that’s not Kentucky or Florida?
You know, they were great throughout the year. They had a stretch where they got into the league and again, it’s hard to win in the league especially in the road. They played excellent at the end, and Florida was well deserving to make the Final Four, and I thought Kentucky was—a couple of teams there.
Bryce, now that you’ve been in the league a couple of years, is there a recipe that you need to build to contend for the title and compete with Kentucky?
You know, good players! This league, the best players in the country are coming to this league right now, and you have to be able to get a high caliber of player that can compete obviously at this level. But with that, we want to make sure that they’re hard-working and going to fit into what we’re doing.
Yes and no, we’re looking for the right person, but we have to find the best talent also.
Speaking of that, I know you can’t talk about specific guys, but we all know that you’re on some high profile recruits right now. How is recruiting going and how is the selling of what you want to do going? Is it well received?
A lot of great things going for Vanderbilt. The school’s at an all-time high with academics and quality of life, and happiest students in America. So the Vanderbilt product is at an all-time high. The city of Nashville is at an all-time high, and you know, I’m optimistic, I think the SEC’s going to hopefully climb and get to be at an all-time high with the basketball. A lot of great things we can hopefully have recruits come, and be interested in, and want to come.
Regarding the FBI stuff, have you all been contacted at all in regards to that investigation?
No.
