Mr.Bottomtooth
07-27-2006, 08:51 AM
USA Basketball: July 25, 2006 Press Conference Transcript
The following is a transcript from USA Basketball's press conference on July 25, 2006 from Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball Senior National Team Managing Director:
First of all, as I ... look back on this first stage of our training camp, everything was just terrific. The accommodations, the location of coming to Las Vegas, the ... hotel property, Cox Pavilion, everything could not have been any better than it was, and we're appreciative of all that. Secondly, we're certainly abreast of what's happening out here with the media and my read on how we we're covered is that you really did get it in terms of what we're trying to do. And we appreciate that, too, because it's kind of a [change] relative to what's happened in the past and what we're trying to accomplish, and it puts USA Basketball in a very positive place and direction, and we we're making progress, we really feel that way. One small step. We're looking forward to coming back for the second part of our training camp. And the next exhibition game we're getting ready to launch our trip to the Far East and so far it's been terrific. And we appreciate your involvement and what you're saying about what we're trying to accomplish. We appreciate it very much.
The only other thing I'll mention in background is that when I took on the responsibility and thought of what was the best infrastructure, a national team seemed to be the best infrastructure we could put in place. And then of course three-year commitments on the part of coaching staff and players. And in doing so, you can build continuity. And the roster size was a number that we collectively just talked about. We ended up with 24. That, too, is very pliable. It could have been 26; it could have been 18. The good news is, because we had the roster size that we did, it gave us flexibility. And things happen in life -- babies are born, injuries take place, and it's not going to, therefore ... what's transpired here is that we have a lot of healthy players ready to go. And that number has been successful all week, and with that, I'll just turn it over to Coach K.
USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski:
We want to thank everybody for all their cooperation during this week. Nothing went wrong, at least with the coaches and the players, except maybe some turnovers. But the only thing wrong is this morning -- I'm wearing shorts and there's usually a table ... so you have to look at a 59-year-old guy's legs, and I saw a few people turning their heads, so I apologize for that ... At this point it's been great, the ability to focus as a team, it's a fabulous place and it turned out to be the perfect place for us. As we go forward now, there's numbers of 24, 25, 15 ... they're just arbitrary numbers until you get to 12. That's when it's concrete, because a couple of days ago we decided we were going to go forward with 16. We just didn't announce that. We weren't ready to make a decision because the guys were playing so hard. So we are announcing that without the 15, two of the players who are not going forward are Adam Morrison and Luke Ridnour, who are both outstanding players. They were talked to just like Jerry has talked to everybody face to face, and I met with them individually and thanked them. They were appreciative ... and we'll go forward. The other player who is not going to go forward is Shawn Marion. Shawn has a knee problem, and he's going to have an MRI today. We don't think it's going to be a serious thing, but it's going to preclude him from going on the trip. That roster of 15 ... we feel very confident about them when we come back on the 31st. We'll scrimmage the next day, the exhibition game against Puerto Rico, and then go forward. And we will get down to 12 just before we go over to Japan. So that's when we have to get to 12. We have to announce our roster at that time. And we'll do the same thing for the Olympics, whenever we have to announce the roster, we will keep more than that [players] until that time, just because a lot of things can happen -- they have happened. We feel great about this. Remember, this is the start of the program, not just the start of the team. This is how US Basketball can do things from now on and it's so exciting to be a part of it. But that's where we're at right now.
Q: (Inaudible)
Krzyzewski: Basically, I don't ever think about what if you can have somebody. What if -- with the group we have -- what can happen? Unless those things happen -- boom -- you turn the page and we're on to the next thing. That's the only way to focus and it would be unfair to the guys that we have to be "You guys are good, but we'd reallybe good if Kobe and Chauncey were here." That's not something my credibility can stand up during that. But we'll be really good with this group. Really good.
Colangelo: It certainly would have been more difficult to get down to 15 or 16 if all of those players were here. And that was very exciting when you started with that number [and] who composed the 24. And again, those things take care of themselves.
Q: (Inaudible)
Colangelo: It made sense and thank goodness we did.
Krzyzewski: I'd just like to say something. Coming from the collegiate ranks, NBA players, the national team, they get a bad rap that they don't have to work hard ... they don't "coach" as well. I mean these guys work hard. We haven't had one attitude problem. I always thought highly of the NBA, but it's off the charts right now. And the coaches, too, they were fabulous, when you talk about professionalism. It's professionalism at the highest level. Very very impressed.
Q: Talk about the strength of the team.
Krzyzewski: The strength has got to be depth; depth and athletic ability. This is a very young team. Some people say I wonder how would we be if the college kids came back. Well, we've got a lot of them, there just in the NBA right now. We've got guys that are 20, 22, Dwyane Wade's 24. First day I asked Dwight Howard, "How old are you?" "I'm 20." ... The concern would be is how we adjust to the number of minutes we play. And I think we're going to be OK with that. But you don't know until you start playing minutes. But as far as how we can play, I'm not concerned, I think we can do the job as long as we continue to buy into the contributions of everyone. Actually, we just had a meeting and Chauncey Billups was at everything this week even though he's not going forward which shows amazing commitment. And Chauncey before [he left] just talked to the team and said, "I wish you well ... this isn't about any one individual. Don't worry about points or rebounds or how many minutes you get. It's all about one thing: it's about U.S. When you get back to your home court, you can start doing your other roles." And you could see the guys nod their heads ... they were paying attention. That's the type of thing we've seen this week -- guys stepping up and ... there was a great cooperation on and off the court by all these guys.
Colangelo: Chauncey's last words were, "Don't forget to bring back some electronics for me." One other thing I would add to your question of the strengths of our team ...for sure, when we get to 12, it doesn't matter which twelve are selected, that will make up what we said it would, and that is a team composition of a whole bunch of ingredients. One of the things that came out of this camp that Coach K brought up is [role players.] .. In reality, everyone is a role player, everyone has a role And roles are different in each case. The team that represents us will look like a real team.
Q: How much time will you spend on coaching the team to play the international game?
Krzyzewski: I think it's about talking about adjustments and using those adjustments. We all have to adjust. We'd be much more successful with an NBA game and let them adjust to us. That's not the case, so we've given them balls -- the international balls -- that have 12 panels instead of the eight ... they're going home with them so they can work on ... keep shooting. We talked to them about ... transition -- how we have to defend the three-point line a lot more than the initial low post. We talked about the fact that they're accustomed to in the lane ... [defense] can stay in the lane. That's what we've been practicing, those things. What the trapezoid does to help you defensively if don't let the ball come in the middle and how it affects you offensively because you don't have as good a low post game and how you would adjust. So we're trying to do that in every drill we do. Another thing is we're going to play against zone and it's the kind of thing out there that the U.S. has never played a zone and can't attack well and I'm not sure that that's true.So we play against zone every day. If you do that -- in the NBA there are a lot of catch-and-dribble guys which is what their game is -- we have a lot of drills this week with catch-and-shoot. There's more than that, but those are some of the key things, but we talk to them every day about that.
Q: What’s a comfortable number for you coming off the bench?
Krzyzewski: I'm still comfortable with 12 -- I'm comfortable with coaching 12, that doesn't mean all 12 will come off the bench or play in every game, although we would hope that that will be the case. One of the things you have to be careful about ... we're asking these guys in July and August to be in a level of shape that they -- they don't get paid for this; they get paid for the rest of the year -- so they have to be in good enough shape where they can play X amount of minutes, and as a result, no one's going to play 40 minutes. So we will use ... the whole thing lends itself to using more depth and the style of play we'll have which will be more full-court, up and down both offensively and defensively, will lend itself to that. The word that we don't want to add to our team is "pace." We don't want our team to pace themselves. If someone is pacing themselves, we probably should get someone in for that person. The NBA game is more of a long race; this is a sprint ... And the game goes by fast, 40 minutes goes by fast. And this trip will go by fast. And that's how we have to do this.
Q: What are the points of emphasis for the next phase of camp?
Krzyzewski: We'll get much more detailed. We haven't put in a lot of sets yet, quick hitters, out-of-bounds situations. We'll get them more ready to play a game. This week was more about getting a good foundation for a system and building comradery. I don't think you can ask somebody to do something and get their best effort if they don't know who you are. Somebody is more apt to give you something if they trust you, if they buy into what you're saying ... and I think we accomplished that this week and now we have to start doing more basketball stuff where we actually have to look like we know what we're doing out-of-bounds side, game situations, things like that.
Q: Do you have a sense of who your starting five will be?
Krzyzewski: There won't be a starting five. I think it's important if we're going to play all 12 guys that the player ego of being able to play at your best has got to be high. And designating five guys -- I don't know them well enough. One day ... I might want to change it. What does that do? I'd rather keep it fluid. We'll have different starting lineups. We would expect that each guy that starts a quarter feels like he's a starter. Start the second quarter, it's just like another game ... I think keeping the ego of each guy hot ... like Jerry had mentioned that everyone's a role player, Battier, Jamison, Bowen, these role players -- they could start ... I don't want them thinking that they're the 12th man. I want them thinking that they have USA on the front and I want to play my butt off.
Colangelo: (Inaudible) Salad reference
Krzyzewski: (Laughing)
Q: How concrete is the roster? If Kobe wants to join the team …
Krzyzewski: He's [Kobe's] on the team. I mean all these guys ... he's on the roster. Luke Ridnour is on the roster, Adam Morrison is on the roster, they have not been cut from the U.S. National Team.
Q: Could there be someone else joining?
Krzyzewski: (Inaudible)
Colangelo: Flexibility was built into the system that as we go forward, not only for the next couple of years but for maintaining the national team concept, you will have a little bit of turnover, you'll have additions, you'll have deletions, but the 24 that were selected today are still on the national team. So next summer, hypothetically, if we're successful this summer, we'll be back in Las Vegas with all 24. And I think you'll have even more interest because it's never been done before, there was a skepticism even by players like, "OK, I'm not an all-star, so can I still be on the team?" Some people will never pick anybody who's not an NBA All-Star, and that's wrong. And we're going to pick the people who put in the best.
Q: (Inaudible)
Colangelo: Sure. When we started this, we said everyone starts with a clean slate. We proceeded, we checked the players we wished to, and we're going to continue to monitor everyone's progress as we go forward and there may be some change for next summer, but that's for next summer that's not for now. We've got a job to do starting next week.
Krzyzewski: I would say this: if we do a great job this summer, players who are with us will still come back to it. There's no question about that.
Q: Talk about whether there were distractions.
Krzyzewski: We look at it as there [would] be less distractions because everything is so self-contained here and instead of nothing to do there is something to do and why would someone assume that something to do is bad. There is so much to do here, but I think they're really tired, I'm not sure ... I know a couple of nights ... the next morning was like, "Room service seemed really good last night." What we want to do is show class. Having it here is the ultimate class, dignity. I think it's great. And our players love it.
[B]Q: Have you noticed anyone emerge as the natural leader of the team?
Krzyzewski: I think leadership is going to be ... from a pool. There's one guy that everyone looks up to because of his most recent accomplishment [that's] Dwyane Wade. I was talking to Bruce Bowen and all of a sudden I see him walking out [with a brace on his wrist] and I thought, "Oh, this isn't good." And he had his MRI on his wrist and everything was fine, but the trainer said he couldn't move his hand real well and probably wouldn't be able to play. And the next morning he's at every drill. Every drill ... the kind of leadership by example. [Miami] just won an NBA championship, [Wade] won MVP ... guys look up to him, so he'll be a key guy in that regard.
Q: (Inaudible)
Colangelo: We set out to make this team America's team. One particular way to accomplish that is to engage the military and the armed forces with this team for a practice session when we come back. We have 5,000 military people who are going to be our guests. We've arranged for t-shirts and caps, etc. to be distributed and when we get over to the Far East, where actually going to be practicing on military bases, we're going to engage with them, eat with them, where going to have fun with them. So we really are engaging ourselves and I think that can have a big impact on the morale of our troops, especially at a very difficult time in the world today.
Krzyzewski: In that regard, the only people this week we brought in was Colonel Rob Brown and three of our heroes from Iraq who were wounded and those very powerful 45 minutes stayed with us for a day and a half ... some of the guys were crying and a number went out to eat with them. Real powerful ...we wanted to keep that connection there.
Colangelo: We have some other [people] coming in to speak that we feel will have an impact on our players.
Q: Do you feel you have enough guys who can attack the zone defenses?
Krzyzewski: We have enough. Our roster is a roster that should play outstanding basketball. If we don't do that, then it'll be our responsibility. We have no excuses. Everything is there. And we have to do it.
Q: Talk about the health of the team?
Krzyzewski: They're are in real good shape. I mean, there are some bumps and bruises. Amare coming back from a very serious injury. But we see him compared to when he was with the summer league at a whole different level and who knows where it'll be two weeks from now ... but he's fine.
Q: Can you talk a little bit more about Shawn Marion?
Krzyzewski: I can't talk specifically about the injury ... the thing that we'll miss is that he's a good team player and one of the great athletes in the NBA.
The following is a transcript from USA Basketball's press conference on July 25, 2006 from Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball Senior National Team Managing Director:
First of all, as I ... look back on this first stage of our training camp, everything was just terrific. The accommodations, the location of coming to Las Vegas, the ... hotel property, Cox Pavilion, everything could not have been any better than it was, and we're appreciative of all that. Secondly, we're certainly abreast of what's happening out here with the media and my read on how we we're covered is that you really did get it in terms of what we're trying to do. And we appreciate that, too, because it's kind of a [change] relative to what's happened in the past and what we're trying to accomplish, and it puts USA Basketball in a very positive place and direction, and we we're making progress, we really feel that way. One small step. We're looking forward to coming back for the second part of our training camp. And the next exhibition game we're getting ready to launch our trip to the Far East and so far it's been terrific. And we appreciate your involvement and what you're saying about what we're trying to accomplish. We appreciate it very much.
The only other thing I'll mention in background is that when I took on the responsibility and thought of what was the best infrastructure, a national team seemed to be the best infrastructure we could put in place. And then of course three-year commitments on the part of coaching staff and players. And in doing so, you can build continuity. And the roster size was a number that we collectively just talked about. We ended up with 24. That, too, is very pliable. It could have been 26; it could have been 18. The good news is, because we had the roster size that we did, it gave us flexibility. And things happen in life -- babies are born, injuries take place, and it's not going to, therefore ... what's transpired here is that we have a lot of healthy players ready to go. And that number has been successful all week, and with that, I'll just turn it over to Coach K.
USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski:
We want to thank everybody for all their cooperation during this week. Nothing went wrong, at least with the coaches and the players, except maybe some turnovers. But the only thing wrong is this morning -- I'm wearing shorts and there's usually a table ... so you have to look at a 59-year-old guy's legs, and I saw a few people turning their heads, so I apologize for that ... At this point it's been great, the ability to focus as a team, it's a fabulous place and it turned out to be the perfect place for us. As we go forward now, there's numbers of 24, 25, 15 ... they're just arbitrary numbers until you get to 12. That's when it's concrete, because a couple of days ago we decided we were going to go forward with 16. We just didn't announce that. We weren't ready to make a decision because the guys were playing so hard. So we are announcing that without the 15, two of the players who are not going forward are Adam Morrison and Luke Ridnour, who are both outstanding players. They were talked to just like Jerry has talked to everybody face to face, and I met with them individually and thanked them. They were appreciative ... and we'll go forward. The other player who is not going to go forward is Shawn Marion. Shawn has a knee problem, and he's going to have an MRI today. We don't think it's going to be a serious thing, but it's going to preclude him from going on the trip. That roster of 15 ... we feel very confident about them when we come back on the 31st. We'll scrimmage the next day, the exhibition game against Puerto Rico, and then go forward. And we will get down to 12 just before we go over to Japan. So that's when we have to get to 12. We have to announce our roster at that time. And we'll do the same thing for the Olympics, whenever we have to announce the roster, we will keep more than that [players] until that time, just because a lot of things can happen -- they have happened. We feel great about this. Remember, this is the start of the program, not just the start of the team. This is how US Basketball can do things from now on and it's so exciting to be a part of it. But that's where we're at right now.
Q: (Inaudible)
Krzyzewski: Basically, I don't ever think about what if you can have somebody. What if -- with the group we have -- what can happen? Unless those things happen -- boom -- you turn the page and we're on to the next thing. That's the only way to focus and it would be unfair to the guys that we have to be "You guys are good, but we'd reallybe good if Kobe and Chauncey were here." That's not something my credibility can stand up during that. But we'll be really good with this group. Really good.
Colangelo: It certainly would have been more difficult to get down to 15 or 16 if all of those players were here. And that was very exciting when you started with that number [and] who composed the 24. And again, those things take care of themselves.
Q: (Inaudible)
Colangelo: It made sense and thank goodness we did.
Krzyzewski: I'd just like to say something. Coming from the collegiate ranks, NBA players, the national team, they get a bad rap that they don't have to work hard ... they don't "coach" as well. I mean these guys work hard. We haven't had one attitude problem. I always thought highly of the NBA, but it's off the charts right now. And the coaches, too, they were fabulous, when you talk about professionalism. It's professionalism at the highest level. Very very impressed.
Q: Talk about the strength of the team.
Krzyzewski: The strength has got to be depth; depth and athletic ability. This is a very young team. Some people say I wonder how would we be if the college kids came back. Well, we've got a lot of them, there just in the NBA right now. We've got guys that are 20, 22, Dwyane Wade's 24. First day I asked Dwight Howard, "How old are you?" "I'm 20." ... The concern would be is how we adjust to the number of minutes we play. And I think we're going to be OK with that. But you don't know until you start playing minutes. But as far as how we can play, I'm not concerned, I think we can do the job as long as we continue to buy into the contributions of everyone. Actually, we just had a meeting and Chauncey Billups was at everything this week even though he's not going forward which shows amazing commitment. And Chauncey before [he left] just talked to the team and said, "I wish you well ... this isn't about any one individual. Don't worry about points or rebounds or how many minutes you get. It's all about one thing: it's about U.S. When you get back to your home court, you can start doing your other roles." And you could see the guys nod their heads ... they were paying attention. That's the type of thing we've seen this week -- guys stepping up and ... there was a great cooperation on and off the court by all these guys.
Colangelo: Chauncey's last words were, "Don't forget to bring back some electronics for me." One other thing I would add to your question of the strengths of our team ...for sure, when we get to 12, it doesn't matter which twelve are selected, that will make up what we said it would, and that is a team composition of a whole bunch of ingredients. One of the things that came out of this camp that Coach K brought up is [role players.] .. In reality, everyone is a role player, everyone has a role And roles are different in each case. The team that represents us will look like a real team.
Q: How much time will you spend on coaching the team to play the international game?
Krzyzewski: I think it's about talking about adjustments and using those adjustments. We all have to adjust. We'd be much more successful with an NBA game and let them adjust to us. That's not the case, so we've given them balls -- the international balls -- that have 12 panels instead of the eight ... they're going home with them so they can work on ... keep shooting. We talked to them about ... transition -- how we have to defend the three-point line a lot more than the initial low post. We talked about the fact that they're accustomed to in the lane ... [defense] can stay in the lane. That's what we've been practicing, those things. What the trapezoid does to help you defensively if don't let the ball come in the middle and how it affects you offensively because you don't have as good a low post game and how you would adjust. So we're trying to do that in every drill we do. Another thing is we're going to play against zone and it's the kind of thing out there that the U.S. has never played a zone and can't attack well and I'm not sure that that's true.So we play against zone every day. If you do that -- in the NBA there are a lot of catch-and-dribble guys which is what their game is -- we have a lot of drills this week with catch-and-shoot. There's more than that, but those are some of the key things, but we talk to them every day about that.
Q: What’s a comfortable number for you coming off the bench?
Krzyzewski: I'm still comfortable with 12 -- I'm comfortable with coaching 12, that doesn't mean all 12 will come off the bench or play in every game, although we would hope that that will be the case. One of the things you have to be careful about ... we're asking these guys in July and August to be in a level of shape that they -- they don't get paid for this; they get paid for the rest of the year -- so they have to be in good enough shape where they can play X amount of minutes, and as a result, no one's going to play 40 minutes. So we will use ... the whole thing lends itself to using more depth and the style of play we'll have which will be more full-court, up and down both offensively and defensively, will lend itself to that. The word that we don't want to add to our team is "pace." We don't want our team to pace themselves. If someone is pacing themselves, we probably should get someone in for that person. The NBA game is more of a long race; this is a sprint ... And the game goes by fast, 40 minutes goes by fast. And this trip will go by fast. And that's how we have to do this.
Q: What are the points of emphasis for the next phase of camp?
Krzyzewski: We'll get much more detailed. We haven't put in a lot of sets yet, quick hitters, out-of-bounds situations. We'll get them more ready to play a game. This week was more about getting a good foundation for a system and building comradery. I don't think you can ask somebody to do something and get their best effort if they don't know who you are. Somebody is more apt to give you something if they trust you, if they buy into what you're saying ... and I think we accomplished that this week and now we have to start doing more basketball stuff where we actually have to look like we know what we're doing out-of-bounds side, game situations, things like that.
Q: Do you have a sense of who your starting five will be?
Krzyzewski: There won't be a starting five. I think it's important if we're going to play all 12 guys that the player ego of being able to play at your best has got to be high. And designating five guys -- I don't know them well enough. One day ... I might want to change it. What does that do? I'd rather keep it fluid. We'll have different starting lineups. We would expect that each guy that starts a quarter feels like he's a starter. Start the second quarter, it's just like another game ... I think keeping the ego of each guy hot ... like Jerry had mentioned that everyone's a role player, Battier, Jamison, Bowen, these role players -- they could start ... I don't want them thinking that they're the 12th man. I want them thinking that they have USA on the front and I want to play my butt off.
Colangelo: (Inaudible) Salad reference
Krzyzewski: (Laughing)
Q: How concrete is the roster? If Kobe wants to join the team …
Krzyzewski: He's [Kobe's] on the team. I mean all these guys ... he's on the roster. Luke Ridnour is on the roster, Adam Morrison is on the roster, they have not been cut from the U.S. National Team.
Q: Could there be someone else joining?
Krzyzewski: (Inaudible)
Colangelo: Flexibility was built into the system that as we go forward, not only for the next couple of years but for maintaining the national team concept, you will have a little bit of turnover, you'll have additions, you'll have deletions, but the 24 that were selected today are still on the national team. So next summer, hypothetically, if we're successful this summer, we'll be back in Las Vegas with all 24. And I think you'll have even more interest because it's never been done before, there was a skepticism even by players like, "OK, I'm not an all-star, so can I still be on the team?" Some people will never pick anybody who's not an NBA All-Star, and that's wrong. And we're going to pick the people who put in the best.
Q: (Inaudible)
Colangelo: Sure. When we started this, we said everyone starts with a clean slate. We proceeded, we checked the players we wished to, and we're going to continue to monitor everyone's progress as we go forward and there may be some change for next summer, but that's for next summer that's not for now. We've got a job to do starting next week.
Krzyzewski: I would say this: if we do a great job this summer, players who are with us will still come back to it. There's no question about that.
Q: Talk about whether there were distractions.
Krzyzewski: We look at it as there [would] be less distractions because everything is so self-contained here and instead of nothing to do there is something to do and why would someone assume that something to do is bad. There is so much to do here, but I think they're really tired, I'm not sure ... I know a couple of nights ... the next morning was like, "Room service seemed really good last night." What we want to do is show class. Having it here is the ultimate class, dignity. I think it's great. And our players love it.
[B]Q: Have you noticed anyone emerge as the natural leader of the team?
Krzyzewski: I think leadership is going to be ... from a pool. There's one guy that everyone looks up to because of his most recent accomplishment [that's] Dwyane Wade. I was talking to Bruce Bowen and all of a sudden I see him walking out [with a brace on his wrist] and I thought, "Oh, this isn't good." And he had his MRI on his wrist and everything was fine, but the trainer said he couldn't move his hand real well and probably wouldn't be able to play. And the next morning he's at every drill. Every drill ... the kind of leadership by example. [Miami] just won an NBA championship, [Wade] won MVP ... guys look up to him, so he'll be a key guy in that regard.
Q: (Inaudible)
Colangelo: We set out to make this team America's team. One particular way to accomplish that is to engage the military and the armed forces with this team for a practice session when we come back. We have 5,000 military people who are going to be our guests. We've arranged for t-shirts and caps, etc. to be distributed and when we get over to the Far East, where actually going to be practicing on military bases, we're going to engage with them, eat with them, where going to have fun with them. So we really are engaging ourselves and I think that can have a big impact on the morale of our troops, especially at a very difficult time in the world today.
Krzyzewski: In that regard, the only people this week we brought in was Colonel Rob Brown and three of our heroes from Iraq who were wounded and those very powerful 45 minutes stayed with us for a day and a half ... some of the guys were crying and a number went out to eat with them. Real powerful ...we wanted to keep that connection there.
Colangelo: We have some other [people] coming in to speak that we feel will have an impact on our players.
Q: Do you feel you have enough guys who can attack the zone defenses?
Krzyzewski: We have enough. Our roster is a roster that should play outstanding basketball. If we don't do that, then it'll be our responsibility. We have no excuses. Everything is there. And we have to do it.
Q: Talk about the health of the team?
Krzyzewski: They're are in real good shape. I mean, there are some bumps and bruises. Amare coming back from a very serious injury. But we see him compared to when he was with the summer league at a whole different level and who knows where it'll be two weeks from now ... but he's fine.
Q: Can you talk a little bit more about Shawn Marion?
Krzyzewski: I can't talk specifically about the injury ... the thing that we'll miss is that he's a good team player and one of the great athletes in the NBA.