Yesterday was the 2015 men’s basketball Big 12 media day in Kansas City. Tubby Smith brought along senior guard Toddrick Gotcher and sophomore forward/center Norense Odiase to address the crowd. It looked like everyone had a great time…

Norense, Toddrick and Tubby at #Big12MBB Media Day. pic.twitter.com/FubDCXEiV6

— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) October 20, 2015

My man @leagueme20 not only has his jersey on display @Big12Conference Media Day, but gets his Masters in December pic.twitter.com/XEl912UApn

— Fran Fraschilla (@franfraschilla) October 20, 2015

. @CoachTubbySmith with his crew at #Big12MBB Media Day. @TexasTechMBB pic.twitter.com/7Va5NY3i3J

— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) October 20, 2015

You can find most of the info and all the quotes on the Big 12 website , but let’s take a look at what the team had to say…

Tubby Smith Q&A

Q. What is the biggest area of improvement you’ve
seen in your five sophomores so far?

COACH SMITH: Well, strength. Obviously just a year
of conditioning and weight training. I think that’s
helping. The experience of playing in the Big XII, and I
think the foreign tour we took helps us realize that their
maturity level, that they’ve improved in all areas pretty
much.

All the frosh seemed to pick things up along the way last season in terms of experience. We still may have some growing pains this year, but we should see a much more confident and less turnover prone team take the floor this season. Also, these guys went through a full off-season trying to gain strength which will come in handy when playing the grueling Big 12 conference schedule.

Q. What is the biggest challenge for you in trying to rebuild this program in such a talented league?

COACH SMITH: Well, believing. When you’ve
struggled so long to win, like we have at Texas Tech,
just changing the mindset and the culture. Although
we have great fans and great student support on our
campus, and in Lubbock in general, there are a lot of
great fans, we still have to continue to grow the
program when it comes to recruiting to keep improving,
whether it’s facilities or other areas. We know that the
competition is stiff no matter where in trying to
influence or persuade down the middle to attend the
university.

But always, Kirby Hocutt, our AD, and Duane Nellis,
our president — our school is growing. We have the
largest freshman class we’ve ever had, over 35,000
students. All those things are pointing us in the right
direction.

I think in basketball in particular, men’s basketball,
we’re on the right track. We have the right kids on
board. It’s just a matter of time and continuous
improvement from the skillset.

It helped with access to the players last summer. We
went on a foreign tour. Those things have been
beneficial. So I think it’s going to be much more
competitive this year.

It’s been a long and winding road for the Texas Tech basketball program. We have been waiting a long time for a rebuild to happen after Bobby Knight had left the program. All of us know the details all too well, and it has been a blessing of sorts to get a guy like Tubby Smith to come help the team rebuild. I still don’t know if Tubby Smith knew exactly what he was walking into when he came to Lubbock. Though it looks like he has figured it out and has an excellent future route to keep us trending in the correct direction.

There’s more in this interview that can be found by clicking here.

Gotcher and Odiase with the AJ Media

Also, Gotcher was on a Tech Talk Interview with Double T 104.3 that can be heard by clicking here.

As of right now there is no content via the web that shows what Gotcher said with his official Q&A quotes, but I will update if they become available.