Pac-12 Media Day Summary 22-23
By Rocco Miller
For the final time, Media members, coaches, and players gathered together at the Pac-12 Studios on 360 3rd Street in San Francisco. The league intends to not renew the lease on the beautiful property at the end of this school year. For me, that hurts a little. We need as many College Basketball events in San Francisco as we can get, the city loves basketball - and we saw just how popular the NCAA Sweet 16/Elite 8 were here last March. For a league on shakier ground than ever before, due to the departure of USC and UCLA in 24-25, the financials aren’t making sense for the league offices to remain in the City. Alas, we have one final Media Day for MBB today.
Commissioner Talk - George Kliavkoff, Commissioner & Jamie Zaninovich, COO & Deputy Commissioner
Kliavkoff and Zaninovich were hit quickly with UCLA/USC departure-type questions to go along with the future of the PAC questions, which inevitably get asked at this type of forum. For us in Basketball only, it was a tad frustrating because it can set a tough tone for the rest of the day. Kliavkoff handled the questions as well as possible and had his answers ready. Once we got rolling onto more basketball-centric topics, I asked about the league’s scheduling strategy as a response to the league statement surrounding optimizing at-large bids. Right up our alley, eh? You can see Zaninovich’s response and the question around the 29-minute mark below. Also, the full 35-minute Q&A is in here as well.
Stanford
Spencer Jones & Harrison Ingram were both selected to the all-Pac12 First Team, and had this to say about why they decided to come back to Stanford instead of pursuing professional opportunities:
HARRISON INGRAM: Definitely just my conversations with Coach Haase and just seeing the bigger picture. My dream is the NBA, but another dream is making March Madness, and I feel like we have a great chance to do it this year. I trust Coach, trust Spencer, trust my teammates to get it done.
SPENCER JONES: I was certainly ecstatic coming back. I feel like our play styles feed off each other well, him being an excellent passer and playmaker and me being an excellent shooter. Yeah, I felt like we had some unfinished business end of the year, definitely knowing we could do better, and now we have the chance to do it.
Head Coach JEROD HAASE enters his seventh year as the Head Coach at Stanford and is seeking an NCAA Tournament appearance for the first time since taking the job. He understands that is the expectation this year. Here is his opening statement:
Certainly excited to be here, and excited about the season. Last year was a year I think we can build off of. Culturally we did some really nice things and on the court we did some nice things. We were pretty
young last year, and having said all that, I think it builds into this year. Generally, we're a year older. These two guys next to me coming back (Ingram & Spencer Jones) is going to be a big deal for us. We have an extremely difficult schedule but also an opportunity to make some noise in the nonconference schedule.
Arizona State
The highlight here was when Desmond Cambridge, Jr. discussed being at dinner with his brother and now teammate - Devan Cambridge and Head Coach Bobby Hurley - only to suddenly get texted by Danny Hurley, Head Coach at UConn (Bobby’s brother).
BOBBY HURLEY had some reflecting to do over the offseason, and here are some of his thoughts on what 22-23 will look like.
As far as like coaches always self-evaluate and you take a look at what you can get better at and what your team needs to do better. Certainly for us is put more points on the board coming off last year's team. We were top 30 in the nation defensive efficiency, and we struggled to score all year. I think we've addressed that through recruiting and bringing some guys in, like Desmond Cambridge, who are capable of making shots. Hopefully Marcus Bagley is healthy right now and will continue to stay that way and take a little pressure off this guy to my left who really carries a load for us offensively, D.J. Horne.
Colorado
As TAD BOYLE casually strolled onto the stage (seen in video above), it was a microcosm of how content he feels about his Buffaloes program heading into this season. Here are some deeper thoughts from Tad:
We haven't taken a lot of four-year transfers at Colorado. We've had a handful of them in the 12 years I've been there. But we really look at the graduate transfers as a way to plug holes in your roster, and we've got two of them this year, both from the Ivy League, Ethan Wright from Princeton, and Jalen Gabbidon from Yale. We feel like graduate transfers bring a certain amount of experience. They've done what they set out to do, which is graduate from college. So they usually come in with an attitude of I've got one year, let's make the most of it. Ethan and Jalen have both done that. They're coming from winning programs, Yale and Princeton. Well coached, big-time culture guys that understand the team comes first. We really shy away from a lot of four-year transfers because you don't know what you're going to get.
Washington State
The highlight here was TJ BAMBA, when asked about the prospects of facing his former teammate and roommate, Noah Williams (now at Washington):
I know Noah; Noah know me. He knows what's going to happen when we play them. Practiced against him for three years. He know my tendencies. I know his. Every time he call me, I feel like he's trying to soften me up. Every call I tell him, you know you're a fool, right? Just to remind him he's on the other end. It's going to be fun playing against him. He's a competitor. He talks a lot of smack. I'm just looking forward to locking him up and getting that W versus UW, you know.
HEAD COACH KYLE SMITH also had admiration and confidence stemming from San Francisco’s 2022 run to the NCAA Tournament, a program he helped build prior to taking the Washington State job.
California
I thought Cal had one of the more interesting appearances on stage during Media Day. MARK FOX was candid about the Bears summer being a challenge, and “it wasn’t all ice cream.” Coach Fox also went on to add that this Cal team “is the most enjoyable team he has coached in over a decade.” The overall sentiment from the Bears was that they are much more athletic than before and there are multiple players on the roster that will catch people by surprise this season.
One of the better quotes of the day, came from Lars Thiemann on the goals for the season:
Break Time for lunch meant a great opportunity to go visit with multiple coaches, media members, and players. It also meant Bill Walton and Commissioner Kliavkoff would roam around the rooftop and say hello to several folks - a warm and friendly environment. And ICYMI - the PAC-12 Donut Bar stole the show!
Oregon
Perhaps the most significant item is that Oregon appears to be down a couple of players heading into the season. This type of thing has hurt Oregon in previous Novembers, so we will wait and see what the severity is. Here is what DANA ALTMAN had to say about it.
Our preseason practice has been a little disrupted by injuries. We've had a little hard time getting everybody on the floor and playing five-on-five, we haven't had enough guys to do that. So we're moving along slower than I anticipated, but I do like the guys. I think eventually we'll get most of the guys back on. I'm a little worried about two injuries that we have that we may not get a couple of guys back for a while. But I think the rest of the guys we can get back and get to work.
In general, the Ducks are widely picked third in the league and considered to be a tournament team, despite last year’s bumps in the road. Altman went on to talk about how that was their worst defensive team since he took over at Oregon, and a lot of roster issues were addressed.
Oregon State
There is no sugarcoating that the Beavers are in full rebuilding mode. Here is what Head Coach WAYNE TINKLE had to say about addressing that exact issue.
We didn't think going the route of veteran guys out of the portal to sell to our program what's really important, the tradition, the pride. We wanted to do it with a younger group, much like we started it with that 2015 class. We know there will be some road blocks along the way, but we've got a group that will be able to dust itself off, get up, learn from it, and move forward. When we have guys that will be able to take coaching, play hard, play together, we've had a good amount of success at Oregon State, and we expect to get right back there quicker than most people think.
Washington
Coming into the day, a lot of the recent UW buzz in practice was about true Frosh Keyon Menifield, Jr. Head Coach MIKE HOPKINS did not mince words when asked a questions about his progress:
HOPKINS later went on to talk a lot about how the improved defensive front line will move the needle this season with the additions of Franck Kepnang (via Oregon) and Braxton Meah (via Fresno State). When I asked him about UW having a closer to help win tight games decided in the final minutes, he had this very entertaining answer for me:
It's why you practice. You have multiple guys who can be put in multiple positions. You look at Jaquez from UCLA. Tiger Campbell might have it sometimes. It could be who's growing at that time. You win games at the end by being able to get a stop, make foul shots, and execute on the offensive end because a lot of these games come down to really being close. The big thing I want to focus on is the scoring thing about to happen. We've got talented players. We've got multiple go-to type guys that we can put the ball in their hands in areas that we can produce. We've got to be able to get stops. That's the biggest thing. That's who we are. That's what we're about. Tougher together, baby. Get in the zone. Be active. Multiple-player mentality. Come on, Ben. Let's go, baby. And we've got them.
USC
I got to catch up a little bit with Drew Peterson behind the scenes, he is extremely tall for a wing and in person! The overriding theme was working hard to become a long-time professional and help this USC Trojans team make their fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament. Here is a clip of both Peterson and Boogie Ellis taking about improvements to their game.
Utah
Head Coach Craig Smith brings great thinking and energy to Media events. He is joined by Branden Carlson and Marco Anthony.
The overall theme from CRAIG SMITH was that he is pleased with the renewed depth of this revised roster, especially if they can get Gavin Baxter (BYU transfer) back from injury sooner than later. He inherently understands the value in playing in altitude and outlasting opponents. As well as keeping guys fresh throughout the campaign. Smith really likes the versatility of this roster. Here is what he told me when I asked about depth:
The Utes very well could be the team that too many people are sleeping on. One thing is for sure, they will improve from their 122nd rating in KenPom last season.
Arizona
TOMMY LLOYD was joined on stage with KERR KRIISA and AZUOLAS TUBELIS. Of course, the first thing that jumped out at me was Kriisa still wearing his headband at a media event. Does he go to dinner like this? to Movies? to the Park? It’s becoming quickly iconic for the man who routinely fires up fans at McKale Center and gets under the skin of his opponents.
I also had a question for LLOYD about any takeaways from playing against TCU and Houston in the NCAAs, two incredibly physical squads and the prospects of facing a team like that again this season. Here is what he had to say:
Well, you're right. TCU and Houston are two really good programs. Incredibly physical. Very well coached. I thought we were a really physical team as well. For me, that's the number one standard. You have to like can you check that box? Can you go play in physical, high-level games. Are you a team that can go toe to toe? And so I really want to see if we can continue to build that at Arizona. I think we have some guys now in our program that do have -- that have shown that toughness. I think we have maybe some other guys in our program that might not be, quote, unquote, you wouldn't say they're a tough guy, but I think we need to establish that identity, and we're going to continue to grow.
UCLA
Behind the Scenes: UCLA’s Jamie Jaquez cross-over dribble for the cameras.
UCLA’s Head Coach MICK CRONIN was joined by TYGER CAMPBELL and JAMIE JAQUEZ.
In reviewing Campbell’s shooting numbers between the ‘21 season to the ‘22 season, Tyger took a tremendous step forward, going from 25% from distance to 41% year-over-year. Thats a dramatic increase. Campbell already brings a high level of leadership, ball protection, ball distribution, and on-ball defending to the table. This is the final feather in his cap. Here is what he had to say about the improvement made:
Yeah, that was just in the summer coach was on my back telling me to get in the gym. So I was there four or five times a week and trying to get game-ready shots. Just stay in the gym, living there, because it's helped. You've seen the results, and it makes you want to just keep doing it.
The other thing I asked Tyger about was his size. With so many opposing teams getting longer and bigger by the year, His 5-11 frame is beginning to stand out as one of the smallest guys in the league. Here is what he said.
I've always been a smaller guard. I've always had to play with a chip on my shoulder. Just what you said, all the rosters around the country, their point guard is 6'2", 6'3". That's never really bothered me. I've always gone out and tried to play with as much heart as I can, and I've been like that since I was a kid.