Bruce Weber Q&A Part 1

Ninth-year head coach Bruce Weber recently met with the media to discuss the opening of the practice during one of the most unusual seasons in college basketball history, as the Wildcats work towards the start of the 2020-21 season, which will come at home against Drake in the Little Apple Classic on Wednesday, November 25 at Bramlage Coliseum.

This Q&A has been broken into two parts, the first discussing scheduling, preseason workouts and general thoughts heading into the 2020-21 season and the second one focusing on individual player development.

Q: What is the status of the 2020-21 schedule?
A: "The scheduling has been really, really difficult. There are so many unknown questions for everybody. Obviously, games were canceled. MTE's (multi-team events) were canceled. The testing procedures for every league are a little different. We may be able to announce some things in the near future. It also may change, and I can see that happening. It's been very chaotic to say the least. Our league, obviously, has one protocol for testing. I know football has dealt with this. I know other leagues will have other testing protocols. We want to get as many games as possible. Hopefully, it will all work out."

Q: How have the players adjusted to being back and how has individual workouts gone?
A: "We have been happy about our guys. The workouts have been good. We talked way back in the spring that we just wanted to get them to campus. They were anxious to get to campus. We finally got them here in the summer. We were able to have workouts, they are not ideal. We had small groups, we had masks. We got to expand that for them.

"We have been fortunate, really. Our guys have done well. The NCAA did expand on how many hours you can be with the guys. Our doctors allowed us to start with some mini practices. I think the biggest concern with the NCAA, the doctors, the medical side, is not only the COVID-19, but also the athletes have not played basketball in many cases for six months or so, going up and down.

"With the start of practice, we wanted them to be ready. They gave us a two-week window where we can be with our guys for eight hours, plus the weights, four hours, and conditioning. The one thing we have been able to do is open the gym without masks, without us in there. Just a mental health part is to be excited and be on the court, it has been great for them."

Q: How have you structured your workouts?
"We've really emphasized working on their fundamentals, their shooting. They've gotten a whole bunch of shots up. And to our guys' credit, we can go five days right now but the voluntary workouts, coming in on the weekends. We allowed them back in the gym if they want to come in and I would say most of the guys have gone six days a week, some of them have gone seven days a week, so they've worked at it.

"Part of it is that they have nothing else to do, so coming to the gym is almost a mental relief to be able to get shots up and be in the gym and they're excited about it. I've had to be creative, sometimes you get an injury and now you got five guys so you can only go 2-on-2, 3-on-3. We do a lot of 5-on-0 actions, just kind of introducing some offense. And then we started with some little mini practices and an open gym. Again, be creative but just be happy they're in the gym."

Q: Have you had any big problems with COVID-19?
A: "We have been pretty fortunate. We did have some guys who have had it, but they had it earlier. It is really hard to be a student on a campus right now. I feel bad for them. You talk about winning the wait. Another quote we used is 'the best ability you can have during COVID-19 is availability'.

"If you get COVID-19, it is a minimum 14 days plus the testing, heart echoes, blood tests. If you have any issues, then you are talking about being out for a month. That's a long time. We talk to the guys about being disciplined. It's really monitoring what they are doing. It's hard. I talked earlier about mental health. It's hard on really young people, it's hard on college students, it's hard on older people that have been isolated. It's hard on everybody. I'm sure with your families, it's hard to have a normal life.

"I don't know what to do with them on the weekends to be honest. Normally, we would let them go to the movies, we would take them paint-balling, bowling, etc. We would do team activities, team-building activities. Right now, it's hard to do that because you could put your team in jeopardy and not have them available to be in practice. It's been a test of discipline, a test of patience. We try to continue to give them hope, give them a purpose, and we are going to try to continue doing that. We actually took them on a bowling trip one afternoon, when we thought nobody would be in the bowling alley, just to do something different. But again, we got to try to limit who's there, who we are around, masks, and all that stuff. We made it this far. It would be sad if we got shut down for a while."

Q: On how recruiting has looked this year…
A: "You're learning as you go. We're trying to be creative, think outside the box. We did a lot of Zooms early that our coaches put together. (Director of Player Development) Mike Furlong, (Video coordinator) Mason Schoen and even (assistant) Shane Southwell jumped in. And then every month when they said we couldn't go out, we had to figure something else out.

"We kind of put together a little thing where we have a home Zoom visit zoom then a campus virtual tour, where you can go around and see campus, trying to be creative with that. A basketball video to see where they fit in. We are staying on the phone, text messaging, anything we can do to stay connected. Hopefully, we will have an opportunity to sign some people."

On having Shane Southwell as the assistant coach…
"I think he's done a great job. Obviously, he was here, he knew Mike (McGuirl), DaJuan (Gordon), even some of our other guys, Monty (Montavious Murphy), those guys. He was here last summer before he left for Robert Morris, so he had a relationship with them.

"I know when Coach (Brad) Korn accepted the job at SE Missouri, his name was the first that a lot of the guys brought up to me. I'd already known at the time that he was the guy I really wanted to bring back. He gives us some youthful excitement. He's still a young guy, he just played professionally. Not long ago he was here part of a Big 12 Championship. He's been a player here, he's been a student-athlete here, he's been a graduate assistant, so he can bring a lot to the table for us.

"We're excited to have him back and I know he's done a great job. He gives us a different voice than probably the other coaches, kind of that youthful voice which I think is important. I've always tried to have that as part of our staff."

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Montavious Murphy

Mason Schoen

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