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| Head Coach Ray McCallum |
Ray McCallum Chat Wrap
UH men's basketball answered questions from Cougar fans Monday.
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| Larry (Houston): Coach, I hope all is well and you and your family are in good health. My question is how is the team progressing so far and what are your concerns heading into the season? |
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Ray McCallum: We are progressing very well. With so many new and young players, we have stressed the importance of conditioning, how hard you have to play and we are at the stage where we need to play a different important. That is what I am excited about tonight is to see us play against a different opponent. My concern is interior defense and rebounding. |
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| Jeff (Houston): Cedrick Hensley showed some flashes last year of being a good player. How is he doing this fall and what will his role on the team be? |
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Ray McCallum: He had a very good offseason and stayed here in Houston working in the weight room and worked on his jump shot and ball handling. I look for him to put everything together as a sophomore and improve his consistency. We need him to take up some of the slack on the boards. |
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| Jeremy (Missouri City): How is Marcus Oliver doing this fall. |
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Ray McCallum: Marcus has come back very healthy and that is pleasing. He is gaining confidence in his knee. His experience and leadership has been a real positive for us and will make a difference in this team. |
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| Chris (Sugar Land): How is recruiting going this year? |
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Ray McCallum: At this point, we have three scholarships to give. We have signed a 6-11 player and we are really excited about him. |
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| Jordan (Houston): Hello Coach Ray!
Best wishes on the upcoming UH Men's Basketball season Coach!
I noticed that Grega Nachbar will be a walk-on point guard for the squad, that is exciting.
What can you tell us Cougar Basketball fans about him?
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Ray McCallum: He is a player when you see him he is typical European in that he can handle the ball with both hands and can shoot well from the three point line. His strength is that he can catch and shoot very well. We are still waiting for him to be cleared. |
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| Trey (Houston): What do you think of the new format in Conference USA and how do you see the league race this season? |
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Ray McCallum: The format gives us a chance to play everyone in the Conference in search of a true conference champion. Preseason predictions has Louisville, Marquette, Cincinnati and UAB contending for the title with their key personnel returning. Our focus is to win a conference championship and from a basketball standpoint, we will miss the schools who are leaving the league. But, we feel we can still build a Top 20 program here at Houston regardless of who is in the league. |
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| Robin (Katy): How are you going to replace Louis Truscott? |
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Ray McCallum: Louis was a great rebounder for us and a player we could depend on scoring inside. We are stressing rebouding as a team. It's going to take some time to replace his experience. Playing games like tonight and through the non-conference schedule, we are going to have to get it done by committee. The candidates to get it done are Anwar Ferguson, Elijah Miller, Ramon Dyer, Andrew Francis and Aaron Anderson. We also will have Andy Ikeakor later this December. |
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| Oliver (Houston): Coach Ray,
How does the depth at the Point Guard position look this year since that was a big concern from last years squad? |
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Ray McCallum: It will be a strength this year because we have a true point guard in Lanny Smith even though he is a freshman. He is a true leader and a winner. We had to play two guys out of position there last year in Andre Owens and Bryan Shelton. They have developed where we can depend on them and we also have Kevin Barber who was a valuable reserve for us last year. |
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| Jordan (Houston): How do you plan on distributing the minutes for tonights exhibition game? |
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Ray McCallum: We would like to give our top nine or 10 players to get the experience of playing in front of people and officials. We are going into the game planning to play nine or 10 games. We would love to win, but we want to look at some different combinations of players on the floor. |
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| Ruben Jarrin (Houston): Greetings Coach.
My question is: when you feel that you have achieved your ambitions for the Cougar Basketball Program. I look forward to this year's team's growth, & I will be there cheering you, the staff & the team on.
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Ray McCallum: I think what you will see that we have a great base for Cougar Basketball in the years to come. We have some guys who are developing the kind of pride in our University that we emphasize as we build on the tradition Guy Lewis established. |
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| Ruben Jarrin (Houston): Coach,
When you have achieved all your ambitions with this program, what will the program look like and what should be our yearly expectations at that point?
Good luck this year. |
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Ray McCallum: We will be contending for a Conference USA Championship year in and year out. The program will be filled with talented players who are committed to our University and as student-athletes who want to be the best they can be and have pride in being the Cougar. |
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| Ruben Jarrin (Houston): Coach,
Where do you see this program with respect to the ideal position, and what weaknesses do you see need to be addressed?
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Ray McCallum: We have to improve our low post scoring and the lack of experience and minutes on the front line. We have a young group of players who need to just gain experience on the floor. |
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| Howie (Houston): What is the best thing about being at the University of Houston and most difficult task you face coaching here? |
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Ray McCallum: The best thing for me has been the people within the University have great pride in our school and being a Cougar makes you feel special. As I go around town and on campus, you get a good feeling from people who have attended the school and played here. It is a young University and it is great to sell that. It's great to be part of something growing. We have some great programs to sell academically, a beautiful campus and a good program. We take a lot of pride in helping guys get better as players and stress the importance of being good people. The most difficult task coming in here was recruiting because we were on the bottom. We had to convince kids to be part of a turnaround and challenge them to be pioneers. That's the exciting thing about the four freshmen in our program. We are now in position to have the players recruit for the program. That is a great position to be in. They all had opportunities to go elsewhere out of state and decided to stay here and make a difference. We are now establishing ourselves to be involved with the top players in the Houston area. |
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| Chesapeake, VA: Have more high school players shown and interest in coming to U of H?
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Ray McCallum: Yes. This year's freshman class includes Lanny Smith, Elijah Miller, Andrew Francis and Parker Pinkalla. They are a very important class for us in that they decided to stay home and make a difference. |
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| Oliver (Houston): What are your goals for this upcoming season Coach? |
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Ray McCallum: As a head coach, we prepare for victory each and every night. As we head into the season, I am excited about the improvement we have made over the last month. We are a team that will improve in every game this year. We are shooting for postseason tournament play and our theme is to establish ourselves at home and make sure our opponents understand they will have to fight for everything they get in Hofheinz Pavilion. |
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| Cay & Jalen Davis, Missouri City: Coach,
Good luck this season! (Go Coogs!) How do you think your new players will adjust to the college level of play and what are you doing (the coaching staff) to prepare them. |
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Ray McCallum: We are stressing the importance of playing hard every play and play with intensity. That has been an adjustmement for all of our new players. The rigors of study table, conditioning and practicing every day have been a test for them. Now we have to adjust to them against players at this level and playing in new roles from what they played at the high school level when they were the star players. |
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| Ken (Houston): Who will be the most improved player this year? What newcomers do you expect to make the most difference? |
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Ray McCallum: I think we have several candidates because our fans will see an improved play and confidence in Anwar Ferguson after having a year in the program lifting weights, being on the training table. He is going to be a key for us in what he provides inside. |
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| Mike from Victoria: How much do you feel you will get from Smith,Pinkalla, and Nachbar this year? |
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Ray McCallum: Lanny Smith is a true point guard and it will be a natural position for him to contribute immediately. Parker is a proven outside shooter and we will need him to continue that this year.
Grega will be behind the other two because we are still waiting for him to be cleared by the NCAA. |
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| Steve (Alief): Ray,
How has Andy Ikeakor looked? Will he be able to give us that inside banger we need? |
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Ray McCallum: He has the potential to because he is 6-8 and 267. He can be a physical player on the block. We need him to be a good defender and rebounder for us. He can be that physical player we didn't have a year ago. |
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| Jordan (Houston): Grega at the Point... |
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Ray McCallum: Yes, believe it or not. He has the ball handling skills to help us there although Lanny Smith will see most of the time as our point guard. |
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| Mike(Victoria): Will we ever be able to recruit with the likes of Texas? |
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Ray McCallum: We are working to be able to recruit with anyone in the country. We have some players who can play not only at the University of Houston, but at any major conference. |
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| Jordan (Houston): What is your number one goal as a TEAM that you will write on the chalkboard for the players to see for this year? |
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Ray McCallum: Play Hard. Play together. Play with Enthusiasm. Play Smart and Play to Win.Our hope is to improve each and every game, each week and as I said earlier, we prepare for victory. We go into our non-conference season and our conference season with hopes of being in postseason tournament play. |
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| Parker (Houston): Good luck tonight, Coach! Tell us about the frontcourt rotation. Thanks. |
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Ray McCallum: We have two guys who can play the five spot in Anwar Ferguson and Elijah Miller. They will play the four spot as well. Then, you have 6-8 Andrew Francis, 6-7 Ramon Dyer and 6-5 Aaron Anderson. They are not the most physical players, but they have quickness. They will have to learn what they need to do to survive in the post. Their development along with the addition of Andy Ikeakor will determine how we do this year. |
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| Snoopy (Houston): How are we going to get the stands full of Cougar fans this year at Hofheinz? |
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Ray McCallum: My hope is to get to the point where fans want to come out and see us because of how hard we play, how well we play and the potential this group of players have in the future. We are going to have to have success first because that seems to be the way things are created. We are working hard to put guys out on the floor who will play hard and put us in position to win games. |
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| Coach A.: As a Cougar Alumni I am very excited about the upcoming season. I think we are going to surprise alot of people. What freshman do you expect to contribute the most? |
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Ray McCallum: Lanny Smith in the position he is at as the point guard. He is a tremendous player and Parker being a threat to shoot the three-point shot. Elijah at 6-10 and Andrew at 6-8 will all get a chance to contribute as we build towards a successful future. |
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| Patrick Peden: Coach-How is Ramon Dyer's knee and how has he been playing in practice. |
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Ray McCallum: The offseason surgery kept him out for four months. He is just coming back to full strength and like most knee injuries, he has good days and bad days. His good days give us a player who is versatile, athletic and can play with anyone on the floor. His bad days make it difficult for him to compete at the level he needs to. |
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| Ian Blake (Houston): now in your 4th season, how do you rate your progress so far? |
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Ray McCallum: I think the highlight has to be winning 18 games and making it to postseason play in 2002. We played good basketball and defended our homecourt well then. From that point, injuries and early defections really set us back last year. Fortunately, we have a strong freshman class to continue the building process towards winning a championship. Having some of the best kids in the area and interest from not only all over the state but all over the country, we are establishing ourselves with great players who want to be a part of Cougar Basketball. With the completion of this recruiting class, we will have the players to make a run for a conference championship. |
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| John F. Hopkins (Houston): Coach, Good Luck this season! We support you 100%. What happened to Dwight Jones? (Go Coogs!!! Fight for Red and White) |
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Ray McCallum: He is currently redshirting. |
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| Oliver (Houston): Five Freshman right, including the walk-on Nachbar? |
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Ray McCallum: Yes, We have five freshmen this season. |
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| Mike from Victoria: Did you sign anyone during the early signing period? What does the possible class for next year look like? |
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Ray McCallum: As I stated earlier, we signed a 6-11 junior college player who we are waiting on all of the i's to be dotted and t's to be crossed with the clearing house. We will sign two more players during the spring signing period. |
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| John F. Hopkins (Houston): Coach, Good Luck this season! We support you 100%. What happened to Dwight Jones? (Go Coogs!!! Fight for Red and White) |
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Ray McCallum: As I state earlier, Dwight is a redshirt this year. |
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| ELEANOR WILLIAMS: COACH I JUST WANTED TO WISH YOU LUCK FOR THE UPCOMING SEASON AND TO REMEMBER IF NO ONE ELSE IS THERE YOU KNOW I'LL BE THERE LOVE YA ""EL"" (THE BOOK-SCRAPBOOKS"" |
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Ray McCallum: Thanks so much for your support. |
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Ray McCallum: Thank you for participating in the live chat this afternoon. I have to go get the team ready for tonight's game. Hope to see you there either tonight or Friday night for our regular season opener against East Tennessee State. |
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