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Shocker Basketball Coach Paul Mills checks in as the start of the season looms large.
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00:00all right welcome back in happy to have wichita state headman's basketball coach paul mills in
00:04as we get ready to start the back coach i can't remember uh who's your football team
00:11i don't have one okay all right well i was gonna say i there was a part of me that
00:16wondered if you
00:17were a cowboys fan like i am and to watch what happened to the cowboys and then the chiefs back
00:21to back makes college basketball starting so sweet to hear this week uh there's a lot there's
00:30a lot of football fans out the k-state ku had bad football weekends everybody's ready for some
00:35college hoops are the shockers ready for some college hoops how excited are you guys yeah i
00:40mean there there is a level of enthusiasm you know this time of year and and fill it in the
00:46weather
00:46change and uh watching yesterday and rome italy villanova playing notre dame and it's one of
00:54those things where like holy cow it's here and i know some games started at midnight tonight
01:00and i saw somebody played at three o'clock in the morning and i was like that that's we're
01:08enthusiastic but i'm not going to subject our players or myself uh to a 3 a.m game because that
01:14would require about two weeks of prep in order to get your your body ready for a game like that
01:20but
01:21all that to say we're uh looking forward to to wednesday night yeah coach it's about here and uh
01:30all the off season of excitement and and hype and and just everything we're looking forward to it it's
01:37finally getting here um i i guess how are you controlling the vibes you know going into that
01:43keeping everybody kind of even keel and and you want that excitement but how do you manage it
01:49yeah it's a great question because you know you use the word hype and it really is that and was
01:57texting i'm not sure if you're familiar with the site ken pomeroy but ken kind of ranks all the teams
02:03and i was texting with him last night and i was like ken how did we jump like one game
02:08has been played
02:09how did we jump 16 spots already and he said well i forgot to uh insert kenyan giles and i
02:17was like
02:18okay yeah he can kind of you know elevate your team and make you level up so i'm glad to
02:23know that we
02:24jumped 16 spots but at the end it's just a whole bunch of basketball on paper and that's not the
02:31way
02:31this stuff is done so trust me we're pretty honest around here we're pretty frank uh with how
02:37uh we deliver messages and what's going on and we praise when there's praise to be due but
02:43at the same time um we we make sure we're doing the thing so we'll knock out practice 29 today
02:51we'll
02:51knock out practice 30 tomorrow that's how many they give us and i can assure you there's not a whole
02:57lot of hype that happens during these practices but uh it is good to be recognized for not only the
03:04players that we have but the character of this team and and you know which a lot of that hype
03:10in a good way i think is coming from the outside too like it's nice to see the hype around
03:16the
03:16community for shocker basketball um that that means the offseason went really well for you guys but
03:23now the real thing has to go really well to live up to it all these guys coming back i
03:29would imagine
03:30they they got a pretty good grasp of that though you know losing in the championship game and then
03:37losing on a conference opponent's home court you know tulsa in the nit and then losing to south florida
03:44to go to the ncaa tournament i i think it keeps you on edge and there is a chip on
03:51your shoulder that
03:52feels like you were weighed down on account of everything that occurred last year so you know the good news
03:59is
03:59is having this many players return they've gone through that experience you know there there's
04:05not as much novelty as as there has been in previous years with this group so you know i think
04:13november
04:13will be a good test for us nine really difficult games in my opinion and we'll go through this process
04:20we'll reevaluate here at the end of november but it's a good opening night game against cal state northridge
04:29well and that's a perfect segue into it let's talk about cal state northridge especially you got
04:34that that's your opener then right after that you know the big game against usc four days later but
04:41this is a matador team 120 games last year fall and uh how do you make sure that that everybody's
04:47focused on this one not looking too ahead to usc because again this is a 20 win team that you're
04:52facing to start the season yeah won't won't be the case and you know we we talk quite a bit
04:58about we're going to compete with a great deal of respect and a great deal of humility and we have
05:04tremendous respect for cal state northridge josiah davis is the returning player of the year in that
05:11conference and they surrounded him with really good shooters they're actually number two in the country
05:16in tempo and so we can't get caught up in that because they do like to play fast and you
05:22know
05:22that's not going to be us we do have a nascar mode uh that we talk about quite a bit
05:28but that that's not
05:29a every possession thing for us where it is for uh for for those guys and they shoot it really
05:36quick
05:36and we've got to do a great job on the glass and they're a good rebounding team so you know
05:41i've
05:42mentioned this before i don't know where we'll stack up from a rebounding perspective and and i really
05:47didn't know last year on the offensive glass that you know we would be top four in the country but
05:52i think we're much more skilled than we were a year ago and i mean we'll probably see somewhere between
05:59a four to six percent increase in our shooting percentages behind the three-point line but i feel
06:06like our players have gotten better and we have some experience and and so that level of veteran
06:12leadership won't allow us to get caught up in what cal state northridge is trying to do
06:17in regards to pace and i'm glad we're playing at home yeah it's at 6 30 tip time for everybody
06:24out
06:24there let's get the roundhouse filled up for that opener and then it's it's you know then it's a one
06:30of the big ones early this weekend and we won't talk to you next week because you guys will just
06:34barely
06:34be done with your game by the time we hit the air usc sunday night 10 o'clock at night
06:41um when you mentioned the ken palm they're up at about 36 i think a lot of people think they
06:46could
06:46end up higher than that kind of a high upside team but that's a pretty unique and cool opportunity
06:53early on i doubt you guys look ahead too much but obviously it's a big one on the schedule
06:59yeah i mean haven't watched them at all so i know nothing about usc and you know we we have
07:06thursday friday saturday in order to prepare and you know whether it be actions or personnel guys
07:13pick up things pretty quick especially again a veteran group so we'll turn our attention on
07:20thursday evening uh because we have to review wednesday's game and get ready get out there
07:26saturday and as you said it's a 8 p.m tip uh there 10 p.m my daughter told me
07:32last night said dad
07:33would you be offended if i end up falling asleep during that game and i'm like not at all uh
07:39you
07:39know what people really try to evaluate is not necessarily every possession they just look at
07:45the score and so i just said i hope when you wake up or you roll out of bed somewhere
07:50around two
07:51going i wonder if if the shockers won that when you look at your phone it's good news so
07:56yeah yeah it's a it's a big week for us and coach kind of talking a little bit about this
08:02new era
08:04and uh you know talking about how you haven't looked at usc yet how hard is it to look at
08:09teams this early in the season when we know that in this nil era rosters are so so different every
08:16year i imagine that uh there's there has to be even extra scouting time not with your assistant
08:22coaches as well you know all the guys that you have do those sort of things it's not like it
08:27was
08:27back in the day where it's like well we know you know these guys are back it's almost a new
08:31roster
08:31every time especially this early in the season i'm sure that's a a new part of the new era
08:36yeah and you know the good thing with nil in is guys changing teams is you have film from their
08:44previous stop so you got an indication about some of the things that they need to do so you know
08:50schematically you're you there'll be some questions just about how teams are approaching it but you know
08:56what they're and that's the truth week to week everybody's gonna add stuff or you know condense
09:01their playbook in in order to attack a specific team based upon what's happening defensively but
09:07it takes about 120 hours to give you an idea uh to put together a scouting report and so this
09:15stuff
09:15gets started a long time ago and you have one coach who usually every two weeks um one coach has
09:23a
09:23designated team and then by the time everything gets it's played into it uh once all of the facets
09:30we usually have a pretty good handle and then obviously you're not you're not throwing all of
09:36that at your players uh then you got it the hard work is trying to condense it down to a
09:4110 minute film
09:42going these are the areas we need you to focus on so it's a it is a lot of time
09:48but the good news is
09:50in this nil era with people changing that they have previous film and we can lock in on that and
09:57there's exhibition games and i think usc actually plays tonight a lot of teams do i think we're the
10:02only team in our conference that isn't so we'll have at least one game under our belt from a schematic
10:07standpoint uh coach paul mills joining us here on sports daily weekly visits next week we'll be off
10:15coming back from usc we saw pierre kuznard will be out for the season tough news there otherwise with
10:23the health of this team are you guys full strength or close to full strength or what can we expect
10:28out
10:28of the gates here yeah i haven't talked to the uh i haven't talked to todd fagan uh our chart
10:33trainer
10:34today but there's always you always have things this time of year from ankles to hamstrings to
10:40you know knees and and it's just that's the nature of it so um i i feel like we're in
10:48a really
10:48good spot we've had some guys with some minor uh issues and we'll see who's clear today uh i usually
10:55get a report around noon so that we can plan it plan accordingly but we'll see um but nothing that's
11:03you know that's earth shattering here regarding uh i mean there'll be guys that miss a game or two
11:10through the course of the year and and just because that's the nature of it but i i right now
11:16i don't have any news for you okay coach i know it's still early and we'll probably revisit this
11:23once we do kind of get later in the year in the conference play but just kind of a quick
11:27quick look
11:28before the official tip-off of the season with the american we know that wichita state uh favored in
11:34the conference this year but what what do you see in the rest of the conference uh compared to last
11:38year do you see kind of more of a carryover as far as the strong teams from last year anybody
11:42you're
11:42expecting to maybe surprise us yeah i know you're gonna think this is an absolutely moronic answer
11:49given that you know paul mills is the head coach of of the shockers but that's all i pay attention
11:56to
11:56i'm aware of some of the other teams um you don't play them till january so will i look at
12:03some
12:03scores sure and have a be mindful about it but because of the turnover that exists i just i don't
12:12know enough um jayden reed at memphis i know is projected as a really good player and seen him
12:20before when he was at south florida prior to the northwestern and now memphis jay sean stevenson at
12:25north texas is just a phenomenal player miles rigsby and jaylen lawal at tulsa and so you're aware of
12:32some players but you're not aware about how much has their game changed uh who have these other
12:38teams added in in order to you know add value to their roster and so i kind of you know
12:44can palm wise
12:45look at projections but i i don't know much um you know utsa uh is in a position to where
12:54they had a
12:55situation with their head coach and so they're that last week and so there's just so many moving
13:00factors that i don't jump into it november the second but you do have a better idea somewhere
13:07around december 1st about where the league stacks up and then to be honest with you all that goes out
13:13the door too once you start to the play in january so because you know as mentioned earlier there's
13:19going to be injuries and things of that nature but the the league is good that that i can attest
13:24to
13:25and i think if you pay attention to south florida and tulsa and memphis and you know again it's a
13:31it's
13:31a long list florida atlantic that i do think this will be a year to where we're a multi-bid
13:36league
13:37and and that's a good thing and so i know the last two years we haven't been but i do
13:42think the next
13:43uh for the foreseeable future you'll see multi-bid league out of the american i was just looking at
13:49kim palms you guys he has the highest i think we mentioned that 75 is where he has you then
13:54there's
13:55like nine teams total over the next 40 or 50 spots so yeah very little separation yeah like not not
14:04much there uh coach we're getting ready for cal state northridge on wednesday do you envision with
14:11this group playing a lot of guys early there's so much of this team that we we we feel like
14:19we know
14:19about whether we do or not we'll find out but from the way you what you guys do but you
14:23know with
14:23kenyon and tj williams and dylan battee and williamberg who you mentioned as a player of the
14:31year candidate in the league there's a lot of known with this group so how do you handle that early
14:37with
14:37the unknown yeah i mean you we have a rotation of nine we talk to our players uh just in
14:45individual
14:45meetings and collectively that this is this is what we're doing at this particular juncture
14:50so we've been very up front i go back to the old adage that it is unkind to be unclear
14:58and it's best
15:00that you just let guys know this is how you can function best for the team doesn't mean that's going
15:05to be the case for the entire year but you know right now we we plan on just having a
15:10nine-man rotation
15:11and you know the great thing about so many of our guys is they watch dylan battee who played
15:16little does none uh the first half of the year and then really came on strong at the end due
15:22to
15:23you know a jared valencia injury and he was able to insert himself and made the most of it you
15:29know
15:29it's a wally pip situation you're soon forgotten uh if you can't show up and produce so all that to
15:37say
15:37uh we plan on just playing nine guys um it's kind of in the rotation but again i mean uh
15:44we had a
15:45very spirited practice on saturday and so i'm not sure right now uh who's available but we'll figure
15:52out nine guys in order to ensure that no nobody got any season ending injuries just for clarification
16:00but uh we'll find nine guys and we'll be ready to go on wednesday night coach outside probably almost
16:07uh learning enough to have a law degree on the side this offseason uh what's some of the things
16:12that you're most proud of as far as accomplishments or goals that you set out to achieve this offseason
16:17and how do you feel like they were achieved yeah i mean the number one goal of a coach of
16:23a staff
16:24is you have to assemble a team and i just again you can go out and think that you can
16:30find other
16:31people but the the value is in having guys the first go around that you brought these guys in
16:38that you believe in them and they believe in you and so just really proud of you know 11 guys
16:44returning and i know it's a a statement that we continue to harp on i just i just think it's
16:50rare
16:50you know i'd be shocked if you know as we get to play in that there's just this many teams
16:56that
16:56have this level of experience and and that's a plus and not only do they add value on the court
17:01they
17:02add value in the community they add value in the locker room so i just it's one of those i
17:07don't want
17:08to lose sight i've mentioned i know people have going away parties at various businesses for whoever
17:14it is leaving they go buy buy some store-bought cake and you know people will say hey uh we'll
17:20miss you some of them mean it some of them don't um but nobody ever throws stay parties for the
17:26people
17:26who you you know what the fact that you stick this thing through because we believe in you and you
17:33believed us so there's a great deal of satisfaction in the culture that we created to bring back this
17:41many guys and it requires a number of people uh in order to do it but i'm i i take
17:47a great deal of
17:47pride in that coaches coming back players coming back and it all comes to fruition starting wednesday
17:54you guys get it going against cal state northridge 6 30 charles coke arena coach good luck good health
18:00this year uh we'll talk to you in a couple of weeks i guess as you guys will be on
18:04a plane probably
18:05coming back from usc but man we're we're fired up to watch it we cannot wait brady jacobs
18:11thanks for the time there goes head coach paul mills wichita state oh man we're there we may
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