Opening statement:
"We're excited to get going. We got an early look at the guys based on what the NCAA allows us to go on for the preseason, four hours a week, so I have a pretty good feel. We're healthy and we're excited to get the regular season practice started tomorrow at Viejas."
On what he wants to see in the early going:
"I want to see how quickly the freshman come along. I have a pretty good feel for my veterans. We have 11 players available to us to play this year and eight of them are freshmen or sophomores. So even though I have three sophomores, they have great game experience. Matt Mitchell started almost every game. Jalen McDaniels was a starter and then Jordan Schakel was sixth man off the bench, so they have great experience. I kind of know what to expect from them. My upperclassmen, Jeremy Hemsley and Devin Watson, are senior guards, and Nolan Narain has been in the program for four years. So I have a feel of what to expect from them. I want them to be better and they are, but it's the five freshmen that I want to see how quickly they adapt and adjust to the difference between high school basketball and college basketball. I am most excited to see how quickly they develop."
On his philosophy:
"No matter what the season, we want to get our defense together first, so we spend a lot of time on defense in the preseason leading up to tomorrow. We will continue to spend a lot of time on defense because defense travels and if you suffer through an off-shooting night, you can still win games or stay in games with your defense, so we are always defensive first in practice and we will continue to make an emphasis on defense and rebounding. After that, it's obvious our pace of play was greater last year, we want to continue that. We want to play faster. We want to not play out of control, but we want to push the pace of the game as best as we can and increase our offensive production by pace of play."
On playing Duke in the Maui Invitational:
"The guys will be ready. They're excited. I promised them when they come here that we will play games like that. As much as we know the value of the Mountain West Conference and how hard it is, these kids want to play Pac-12, they want to play ACC, they want to play Big 10 teams. And that's a promise I made them when they came here and, like I said, Maui is a perfect example. We open with Duke and then we get the winner or loser of Xavier and Auburn. And then on the other side we have Gonzaga and Arizona and Illinois and Iowa State. We have a road game with Cal. We play Illinois State, which they will think 'Well, oh, Illinois State,' but Illinois State will probably be picked to win the Missouri Valley in some of the stuff I've seen. And (MVC member) Loyola Chicago went to the Final Four last year and they got a lot of players back, so our not-conference schedule is very challenging and will provide us with a great opportunity to learn about our team in the preseason."
On the team's physicality:
"Some of these freshman I got are really strong. They may not look it by their shapes, but they're strong kids. Nolan Narain who is a junior has gained great strength and so I think we will have strength and athleticism and I think that will help us on the defensive end."
Brian Dutcher News Conference Video/Quotes
