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 Larry Hunter enters his fifth season at the helm of Western Carolina's men's basketball program. |
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Oct. 30, 2009
Interview Audio with WCU Head Coach Larry Hunter
Cullowhee, N.C. - In just over two weeks, the rigors of preseason workouts and the several two-a-day sessions will be a distant memory and will be replaced by game-planning, scouting reports and brushing up on fundamentals to keep fresh. But until then, Western Carolina head men's basketball coach Larry Hunter and his squad are focused on building upon last year's success to take the next step.
Practice opened on Friday, Oct. 16 and has continued almost daily since for the Catamounts. Western Carolina opens its 2009-10 schedule on Saturday, Nov. 14 by hosting St. Catharine College at 7:00 pm in the Ramsey Center.
Sessions this preseason have averaged about three hours and vary to include film sessions, fundamental ball handling and foot-work skill sets and the implementation of Hunter's precise offensive and defensive schemes.
"Practices have been going well. I am really pleased with the energy level and concentration," said Larry Hunter, who has amassed 559 career victories in a combined 29 seasons and is entering his fifth at the helm in Cullowhee. "At this time of the year you are putting your system in. You have to work to make sure the fundamental habits are established. Then you build your offensive and defensive packages."
"There is probably a lot more that goes into the first three weeks of preparation than most people would ever imagine. It's like cramming an entire semester into three and a half weeks. We have an experienced basketball team, so it's been easier to institute," Hunter added.
The experienced squad in which Hunter alluded includes five seniors and a combined six players that started 12-or-more games a season ago. Two-time All-Southern Conference guard, senior Brandon Giles, leads the group of seniors, with classmates Jake Robinson and Brigham Waginger also having played all four seasons in the purple and gold. Transfers from a season ago, Adrian Gailliard and Kendall Russell, round out the Catamounts' five seniors.
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"Harouna (Mutombo) is a very confident player. He is just allowing the practices and the games to come to him. He has really worked on improving his defense. He has worked on improving several other things and he has. He is a much better basketball player than he was last year, so people have to be really excited about that," said Hunter.
WCU, which claimed a share of the Southern Conference's North Division crown, enters the 2009-10 season with high expectations and a cloud of excitement around the program. Various preseason publications have ranked the Catamounts highly through the preseason, including the preseason favorite to again win the SoCon North Division by the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook.
Official predictions and all-conference teams as voted upon by the league's head coaches will be released on Thursday, Nov. 5.
"Our guys are very passionate about the game of basketball," Hunter explained. "They want a taste of a conference and a tournament championship and make it to the NCAA Tournament. You can't coach that because that comes from within. I think they have it. It remains to be seen if they can maintain it and have it be infectious on our team. Hopefully they will get their minds set to where they are absolutely possessed and will not let anything get in the way of achieving their goals and getting to the tournament."
Hunter only has three new faces in the huddle this year: junior transfers Mike Williams, who should contend for time at point guard; Anthony Phillip, who is a strong, athletic wing player; and freshman Trey Sumler, who is expected to red-shirt this season. Sam Smithson will make his collegiate debut this winter after sitting out last year with a red-shirt.
All told, Hunter will have the luxury of his deepest and most talented squad during his five-year tenure in Cullowhee this season.
"We've got a number of players that are really working hard and competing. I think the competition and depth that we have really helps create that scenario. If you take a little bit of a breather then someone has a leg up on you," said Hunter. "We just need to get back together as a team. Even though we have a team with a lot of experience and did a lot of good things a year ago, we have to get back to that point where we were and get better. We are not there yet. We have a lot of work to do before we mesh together as a team at this point."
The team will have a pair of closed scrimmage sessions before the season opener on Nov. 14.
Trio of Western Carolina Opponents in Preseason Top 25
Three teams on the Catamounts' 2009-10 schedule graced the national preseason top 25 polls released on Thursday, headlined by the No. 3 team in the nation, the Texas Longhorns. WCU visits Austin as a part of the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic on Nov. 18 at 9:00 pm ET in a game that will be televised live on ESPN-U.
Other opponents in the preseason national rankings include the Louisville Cardinals, who are 19th in the USA Today Coaches Poll and 23rd in the AP poll, and the Clemson Tigers, in at No. 24 by the pundits in both preseason polls. WCU travels to Freedom Hall to face Louisville on December 12 before visiting Clemson in Littlejohn Coliseum on Dec. 22.
Catamounts on the Tube
At the present time, two of Western Carolina's men's basketball games will be televised during the 2009-10 season. The January 25th meeting between WCU and the College of Charleston in the Ramsey Center will be shown on Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast (CSS), while the rematch between the two co-North Division Champions from a season ago, WCU and Chattanooga on February 27th, will be shown on SportSouth as a part of the "SoCon Saturday" package. Both games will tip at 7:00 pm.
