10.30.2007

Media day

Players and coaches from GW's men's and women's basketball teams gathered at the Smith Center early this afternoon for the annual media day. On the women's side, Whitney Allen, Sarah-Jo Lawrence, Kimberly Beck, Jessica and Jazmine Adair, and coach Joe McKeown were made available, while Maueece Rice, Rob Diggs, Wynton Witherspoon, Damian Hollis, and coach Karl Hobbs represented the men's side.

The goal is to post the full audio sometime tonight, but here are a few points of interest:
-Robin Murphy tore her ACL in August about a month before returning to school and is out for the season.
-Nearly every women's player who was present mentioned reaching the Final Four as a team goal.
-The women's players admitted that preparing for this season has been a little different. "We expect to be on top of our game," said Allen. "Last year was a preview of what is to come."
-Watch out for junior transfer Antelia Parrish. In the little bit of practice we got to see before the event began, she was knocking down some deep outside shots with defenders right in her face. McKeown noted that she is "pretty good" an that she is "going to play."
-Rice will take over the point until Travis King returns from his injury. Rice said he doesn't feel any pressure to take more shots because there are a lot of guys on the team who can fill up the scoring column.
-Diggs said Rob Ferguson of St. Joseph's is the toughest interior player to cover in the Atlantic 10.
-The men's players were a lot more relaxed at media day than they were in the past couple of years. Witherspoon is a funny guy. This team genuinely enjoys being together.
-Hobbs had a number of good comments: he said that he's never coached a player who works harder than King; he added that Miles Beatty and Xavier Alexander are physically ready to play Division I college basketball; he noted that Witherspoon and Cheyenne Moore will bring the team "athleticism we haven't seen since J.R. (Pinnock) left." Finally, he said that "we're about overachieving," and that he hopes to be at a point where they can compete for an NCAA Tournament bid each season.

Update, 10.14 p.m. - I have added the full audio from media day. Some of them are long, but worth listening to if you're looking to get as much information as you can before the exhibition games this week. Please let me know if there are any issues. Anyhow, here you go:
-Joe McKeown
-Kimberly Beck
-Sarah-Jo Lawrence
-Whitney Allen
-Jazmine and Jessica Adair (Jazmine is the one doing most of the talking)

-Karl Hobbs
-Maureece Rice
-Rob Diggs
-Damian Hollis
-Wynton Witherspoon

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