By Paul M. Banks
Welcome to a new feature here at TSB where I’ll give you the highlights of the many Bruce Weber press conferences that I attend over the course of the season. As we get closer to March Madness, I’ll be publishing for you the most meaningful statements I’ve heard Weber make.
I asked him if the best player on conference champ Michigan St. Kalin Lucas reminded him of Dee Brown, his recent superstar point guard, being that both were usually the quickest guy in the court
“He does, from top of the key to top of the key, he gets there really quick, and it puts you in a bind, puts you on your heels, he might be quicker than Eric Snow or Mateen Cleaves, he seems like one of those little bugs that just flies down. And they work at it. Tom and I talk a lot of times about the league and the image, you know we all try to run, it’s just that in the league you get a great home court advantage, with the filled arenas, people guard in our league and they take things away because they prepare and they take away that transition.
In the NBA playoffs you don’t get transition, you have to play half-court basketball when you get to the Finals, but when you get the opportunity to play, they’ll take those baskets and it makes a difference.“
The gist of Michigan State…
“Suton is the key to them, he’s a fifth year senior, he’s strong, physical and really improved as a player. Their deep and they can keep coming at you with a lot of people, a lot of different weapons.”
Unintentional comedy in describing Northwestern’s signature play in the Princeton Offense…
“We got back-doored twice, in the last two years we’ve been back-doored once and we got twice in the first few minutes of the game, again that’s not being ready to play. I noticed last year’s film to this year: their body language is so much different. They are confident they are aggressive they like to play, they play to win”
All about MSU’s Kalin Lucas, the Big Ten player of the year…
“He’s as quick a player as anyone in the country, it’s kind of back to the days when snow was there and Mateen Cleaves and he’s got ‘em running up and down. The big ten sometimes gets a knock for not running up and down and playing transition basketball but Michigan State to me has always been one of the best teams in the country as far as fast breaking.”
Working on Mike Tisdale’s fragile confidence…
“He does come around the office more than anybody. A lot of guys come in when they have good days, they don’t come in when they have bad days. He listens he’s coachable, he’s just a young kid and sometimes gets down on himself. He probably beats on himself more than anybody”
I asked if the team’s leading scorer and most athletic player, Demetri McCamey can be the closer, the go to guy..
“Our team doctor mentioned to me before the Michigan State game, the one thing we don’t have is someone who can just take it over and make a play when we need it, Alex {Legion, Weber’s highest rated recruit} jumped up and made some shots against Michigan St. but if one guy would made a couple plays in gut check time, we could have found a way to win that thing. I think he {McCamey} has the potential. He’s got to learn the game: how to use screens, how to play without the ball, and if he could do that he could be the guy. He passes well, shoots the three, he’s got a big body and can pull-up,”
Another reporter followed up my question by asking “if not McCamey, then who?”
“I’m not sure right now, I think Alex has the potential to make big shots because he can just jump up and shoot it over people and maybe Mike Davis can continue to develop a triple-threat game so he can beat somebody by doing his little half-hooks and turnarounds, but Demetri has the most potential no doubt,” We have enough good shooter s and enough good passers that we can spread people and when we move the basketball we’re pretty effective