BleedGopher
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Full Recap: Kimani Young interview on 1500 - talked player development & recruiting
Hat tip to EG#9 about this interview. Kimani was on 1500's Coaches Show last Monday as Coach Pitino was out recruiting. Here is a recap of the interview. It is not verbatim, but it is close.
Young on instilling more confidence late in the game…I think Coach has taken some time to have heart to hearts with all of our guys. What life is about, what sports is about. What pressure he’s had to deal with being the son of a hall of fame coach. The importance of locking the noise out. Play with confidence, trust in what you believe in. I feel like the guys are taking it to heart. I think Coach has done a great job with helping the guys deal with it down the stretch of the season.
Young on the effort level…The reality of our season is we haven’t had games where we come back to watch the film and we’re disappointed. A bounce here, a missed free throw here, a missed block out. We are getting better through film and practice. We have a lot of basketball left.
Young on freshman wall…We agree with that (on Mason) and coaches have addressed that with him. We’re working on getting some extra shots for that. We’ve thrown him to the fire. He’ll be fine, he’s shown tremendous promise, he works very hard. The future is bright for him, we’re excited about him and gotta put some pieces around him.
Young on Mason’s future and whether he’ll be a leader by his junior season…It’s hard to tell. He has some limitations athletically and his size and that may prevent him from breaking through to being a superstar in this league. He’s got tremendous confidence and tremendous IQ. He’s just a solid player. We need to get more players like him and some size to go with that.
Young on when the coaches use athletes like Tom Brady to teach the players…Kids do resonate with something like that. They know who Brady is, who LeBron is who Kobe is. They listen to that. Coach does an unbelievable job tapping into the psyche of our players. He reads books, researches other coaches, other athletes, other coaches. Anything we can do to help build their confidence.
Young on getting the kids to change their mindset…The good teams force you to beat them. You watch Duke play. They will force you to beat them. That’s what good programs do. The Duke’s the Michigan State’s, the Wisconsin’s. That’s the point that we gotta get to and that will come through success and experience.
Young on Kobe’s comments on AAU not being good for development…That’s tough because it puts a blanket on everything. There are programs that just roll balls out and play, but there are also AAU programs that help with academics, career development, and truly care about the kids. There are great programs here in Minneapolis and across the country. It’s tough for someone like to make a statement like that because he’s so far removed from AAU now. He has to be smarter than that.
Young on Kevin Dorsey…Kevin has a tremendous upside. He was the first one that we locked in on last Spring. He’ll be one of the best on the ball defenders in the country next year. He’ll be great in our style of play, great off of pick-and-rolls. He can come in and play a role right away next year. He was a guy on our recruiting board, but when we got to see him in April, he really stood out to us. He plays with fire and competitive edge and that jumped out at us.
Young on Jarvis Johnson…Jarvis was a guy that as soon as we got the job, we started to recruit. We knew that if we could get in early (on the relationship building) with Jarvis that we’d have a good shot. He is tough, aggressive and he plays hard. Guys from Minnesota play with a certain pride.
Young on Dupree McBrayer…He’s a combo guard. About 6-4, and he might be skinnier than me. He’s got tremendous upside. There is no telling where that guy can end up. He’s a lefty, he can drive, he can pass. He has speed and quickness. We just have to lock him in the refrigerator and get our strength and conditioning coach with him. I’ve known him since the 8th grade. He is from my neighborhood, I watched him grow up. I wanted him to develop his own relationship with the coaches and he and Coach Pitino have done that.
Young on Jonathan Nwankwo…He’s probably a 5, we’ll play him at the 5. He’s a mountain of a man. He’s ready to go from the gate, but picking up on the speed of the game, but he’ll provide defense, rebounding and screening from day one.
Young on the open scholarships in the Spring…We will add this Spring. You can never add too many big men, and some small forward depth. We want to add some small forward depth and maybe another big guy.
http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/gophers
Go Gophers!!
Hat tip to EG#9 about this interview. Kimani was on 1500's Coaches Show last Monday as Coach Pitino was out recruiting. Here is a recap of the interview. It is not verbatim, but it is close.
Young on instilling more confidence late in the game…I think Coach has taken some time to have heart to hearts with all of our guys. What life is about, what sports is about. What pressure he’s had to deal with being the son of a hall of fame coach. The importance of locking the noise out. Play with confidence, trust in what you believe in. I feel like the guys are taking it to heart. I think Coach has done a great job with helping the guys deal with it down the stretch of the season.
Young on the effort level…The reality of our season is we haven’t had games where we come back to watch the film and we’re disappointed. A bounce here, a missed free throw here, a missed block out. We are getting better through film and practice. We have a lot of basketball left.
Young on freshman wall…We agree with that (on Mason) and coaches have addressed that with him. We’re working on getting some extra shots for that. We’ve thrown him to the fire. He’ll be fine, he’s shown tremendous promise, he works very hard. The future is bright for him, we’re excited about him and gotta put some pieces around him.
Young on Mason’s future and whether he’ll be a leader by his junior season…It’s hard to tell. He has some limitations athletically and his size and that may prevent him from breaking through to being a superstar in this league. He’s got tremendous confidence and tremendous IQ. He’s just a solid player. We need to get more players like him and some size to go with that.
Young on when the coaches use athletes like Tom Brady to teach the players…Kids do resonate with something like that. They know who Brady is, who LeBron is who Kobe is. They listen to that. Coach does an unbelievable job tapping into the psyche of our players. He reads books, researches other coaches, other athletes, other coaches. Anything we can do to help build their confidence.
Young on getting the kids to change their mindset…The good teams force you to beat them. You watch Duke play. They will force you to beat them. That’s what good programs do. The Duke’s the Michigan State’s, the Wisconsin’s. That’s the point that we gotta get to and that will come through success and experience.
Young on Kobe’s comments on AAU not being good for development…That’s tough because it puts a blanket on everything. There are programs that just roll balls out and play, but there are also AAU programs that help with academics, career development, and truly care about the kids. There are great programs here in Minneapolis and across the country. It’s tough for someone like to make a statement like that because he’s so far removed from AAU now. He has to be smarter than that.
Young on Kevin Dorsey…Kevin has a tremendous upside. He was the first one that we locked in on last Spring. He’ll be one of the best on the ball defenders in the country next year. He’ll be great in our style of play, great off of pick-and-rolls. He can come in and play a role right away next year. He was a guy on our recruiting board, but when we got to see him in April, he really stood out to us. He plays with fire and competitive edge and that jumped out at us.
Young on Jarvis Johnson…Jarvis was a guy that as soon as we got the job, we started to recruit. We knew that if we could get in early (on the relationship building) with Jarvis that we’d have a good shot. He is tough, aggressive and he plays hard. Guys from Minnesota play with a certain pride.
Young on Dupree McBrayer…He’s a combo guard. About 6-4, and he might be skinnier than me. He’s got tremendous upside. There is no telling where that guy can end up. He’s a lefty, he can drive, he can pass. He has speed and quickness. We just have to lock him in the refrigerator and get our strength and conditioning coach with him. I’ve known him since the 8th grade. He is from my neighborhood, I watched him grow up. I wanted him to develop his own relationship with the coaches and he and Coach Pitino have done that.
Young on Jonathan Nwankwo…He’s probably a 5, we’ll play him at the 5. He’s a mountain of a man. He’s ready to go from the gate, but picking up on the speed of the game, but he’ll provide defense, rebounding and screening from day one.
Young on the open scholarships in the Spring…We will add this Spring. You can never add too many big men, and some small forward depth. We want to add some small forward depth and maybe another big guy.
http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/gophers
Go Gophers!!
