Bill Herrion's Comments From Media Day
November 04, 2002 | Men's Basketball
On Travis Holcomb-Faye
"He really knows how to compete and has done a great job running this basketball team. He has got a chance to become the career assist leader at East Carolina University early this season. If you look at the wins we had in Conference USA, typically when we won he played well. He's our only senior and we're expecting a big year from him."
On defense
"We've spent an awful lot of time the first three weeks of practice on our man-to-man defense. I've always been a man-to-man defensive coach. Defense wins games, defense wins championships. If we're going to win non-conference games early this year and get some confidence and have any chance of winning on the road, we have to do it on the defensive end of the floor. I like the aggressiveness and intensity that we're playing with on the defensive end of the floor."
On the psychology on preparing the players
"I spend very little time trying to convince these kids to play hard, compete hard and work hard. That comes from having good veteran players. I think for the first time since I've been here that we now have our guys. We've got good older players that are leaders and are now handing it down to the younger guys. "
On the level of practice
"The intensity and how hard we go never changes from day-to-day. I don't think you can turn that stuff on and off at this level. It's a mentality that we've ingrained in our kids."
On team chemistry
"I like the chemistry of this basketball team. I like the 12 guys we have right now and don't want anything getting in the way of that. I think we can play nine, 10, 11, 12 people. I think we can play any kid in our program and put them on the floor if we need to. We finally have some options with this basketball team.
Style of offensive play
"Typically the way I like my teams to play on the offensive end of the floor is with three perimeter guys. I like guys who are versatile, that can play out on the floor, put it down, pass it, shoot it, score. We've got more options this year. We can player a bigger lineup, which we will, but we can also play a smaller and quicker lineup because we are deep and that's a real positive thing for us this year."
On Erroyl Bing
"He can lead Conference USA in rebounding this year if he wants, as long as he continues to go get the basketball and play with that kind of heart and desire. For him to take the next step in his game he needs to improve his ball handling ability and ability to do things off the dribble on the perimeter then he becomes a really, really tough match-up."
