BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Georgia basketball coach Tom Crean, along with seniors Tyree Crump and Donnell Gresham, Jr. took part in Wednesday’s SEC Media Days, which were held at the Grand Bohemian Hotel in Birmingham.
After the session, Crean sat down with UGASports for this exclusive Q&A, touching on a number of different subjects about this year’s Bulldog squad.
How is Anthony Edwards been from a leadership standpoint?
Crean: “What you want out of leadership—you want guys to raise the level of those around them, and that means they’ve got to raise their level. That’s where the standard comes from. That, to me, is what has to happen, and the next step is, if guys aren’t working as hard, if guys aren’t practicing as hard, if they’re not playing right, then the leadership can make it uncomfortable for them in the sense of, hey, you’ve got to play up to this standard.
“That doesn’t happen because you talk about it, it happens because you do it. It happens because you do it every day. That takes time. The seniors and juniors have the advantage as far as experience of it, but leadership and being a leader is from the moment you walk in. You’re either leading in a positive way, or you’re falling back. The bottom line is, I’ve seen it so many times. Victor Oladipo walked in, he was an unknown, one scholarship offer guy and he was in that gym every day. That’s the bottom line. I’ve not been around any great players that don’t absolutely love the game. I’ve had guys who have made it that I wondered if they really loved the game, but I’ve not had guys who flourished at that level who did not love the game. Anthony Edwards absolutely did.”
Is installing a system with 10 brand new players on the team different than last year?
Crean: “It’s different. You’re teaching so many fundamentals. You’re teaching about spacing, cutting, being ready to shoot, moving without the ball, and what it takes defensively, how physical you have to be inside of a game, how physical; the rebounding it, communication. Talk for every team walking in is really hard. I think what we’re trying to understand is, OK, everybody walk in, and it’s an individual group. The teams that walk in with experience back, they have an edge on that, because they’ve been through it; we don’t have that edge, so we’ve got to build it every day and we’ve got to build it together.
“I think that’s what everybody is learning. We’re learning a lot of different things and doing a lot of different things that we didn’t do a year ago, but I think the older guys, when it comes to knowing the pace, knowing the intensity, knowing the demands, what’s expected—that really helps. It’s going to take us some time, but I have no complaints on our work ethic, no complaints on our desire, and our team is going to get better and better as time goes on.”
How interchangeable are the freshmen?
Crean: “That’s something we’re trying to teach. That’s what we recruited them as, to be able to do multiple things. We want to become a switching defensive team, and we haven’t worked on switching yet, because we have to learn how to be responsible for your man, or how important it is to be responsible in a ball screen coverage, or how responsible you have to be in a zone, those types of things. We’re trying to get the level of responsibility that you have to one another down and build from there. That’s the most important thing we’re working at.”
What are thoughts on freshman Toumani Camara?
Crean: “Toumani Is not a typical freshman; there hasn't been one time that he has not brought a high level of focus and energy. He’s got to get better, get stronger, finish better, all those types of things that go into it, and he will, but Toumani has been so well coached over a period of time and has a level of intensity and enthusiasm, movement, quickness, skill level. He’s just going to get better and better. He’s going to have to play an integral part on our team.”
Same question on freshman Mike Peake
Crean: “Mike missed the whole summer, obviously, because he was playing and didn’t know if he was going to go to college when the summer started this year. But for him, it’s like a lot of the freshman, it’s consistency and it’s not consistency day by day, it’s consistency segment to segment. You’ve got to get the consistency of parts of practice before you get the day by day consistency. There’s understanding the speed of the game, understanding the expectation of the game, controlling what you can control which is effort and running, rebounding, which is defending, those types of things but I think he’s going to get better and better. I think he’s got a good skill level, he’s a very good person. At the same time, remember, we’ve got a bunch of guys getting used to going to the 16th-ranked public university in the country. It’s not easy. There’s a lot of work and ethic that goes into this, so you’ve got to have a strong work ethic and a strong work capacity and that takes time to develop.”
How has Rayshaun Hammonds come back from his injury?
Crean: “He hasn’t been as consistent as he needs to be, and that’s got to happen for him. The injury is not an issue, it’s more the intent and intensity that he’s got to bring on a daily basis. For him to be productive for us and for him to have a future after us, he’s got to be a very versatile player, he’s got to be a productive player, an efficient player. He’s got to be a player that takes to challenges and defensively, especially, he’s got to and decision making with the ball, he and Toumani have to pick up a lot of what we’re losing with Nic (Claxton). If we’re sitting here today talking about Nic, we’re probably talking about a preseason All-American and a potential lottery pick if he’s back with us as a junior. “
Obviously, he’s in the NBA, so we’ve got to make up for those things. Nobody has to be Nic Claxton but making up for and doing some things will make him better. So, Ray’s decision making, his shooting, his ability to rebound, his effectiveness defensively, is really, really important. And we’re going to expect more and more leadership from him because of those things, not just for what he says, but how he does it on a consistent basis. That’s where his leadership has to grow.”
What’s being expected from Tyree Crump and Jordan Harris?
Crean: “They’ve both got to improve. Jordan has got to play with more of a consistency, more of a grit. I told him yesterday that he’s got to bring more competitiveness to everything that he does and he has the ability to get quiet. At times he’s playing efficiently and at times he’s playing inconsistently. But if he’s competitive and he’s gritty, he’s got to play like a senior guard.
“In the case of Tyree, same thing. He’s expanding his game, but he’s got to play with confidence, he’s got to know he’s a good player, he’s got to prove that he’s a good player. I think he is and he’s definitely expanding his game. He wants it at a very, very high level. I think they both do.”
