I very much running out of time this morning, but I did manage to get the basketball presser summarized.

Head Coach Mark Adams:

• Very challenging 5 months with a new staff, recruit old guys and bring in news guys. First time to have this experienced of a team that hasn’t played together, a lot of enthusiasm, and excited to play together.
• Just trying to get to know each other, as coaches trying to evaluate strengths and weaknesses. Have a strong athletic defensive team, very excited. Looking forward with a team to push the ball, a big team and a better offensive rebounding team than in the past.
• Daniel Batcho first came on campus and didn’t have the strength and endurance, but has been the most improved player we’ve had. Has a high IQ and works very hard. Really looking forward to his future.
• Clarence Nadolny had such a great summer and works hard every day, one of our toughest players. Had a hip injury and was expected to return in January or December and is working extremely hard. He jumps out and starts playing on a scrimmage, but he has a lot of enthusiasm.
• KJ Allen is a popular player on social media and is was 25 pounds overweight and has lost 20 of it. Has tremendous dedication, a sophomore and is our best offensive rebounder. He’s glad to be here and how he loves Texas Tech. His playing weight is 260, he has broad shoulders and is a great athlete, has the ability to get his body to do things quicker. He’s a natural athlete.
• We’ve been at this since the summer, expect them to play hard and be coachable and be better than the day before.
• We like our schedule early, have a good non-conference schedule with Providence, Gonzaga and Tennessee.
• The Womble has been awesome, one of the best facilities it has a wow effect with the kids, makes it more fun when you have a facility like that.
• Chibuzo Agbo is in the gym every single day and is a gym rat a tremendous young man and our best three-point shooter other than Ethan Duncan or Kevin Obanor. Has a lot of confidence coming into this year.
• Kevin McCullar and Marcus Santos Silva, they are very vocal, Bryson Williams leads by example, gets up at 6 and lifts weights. We like this older group, they like each other and they like me most of the time.
• Davion Warren averaged 21 points at Hampton, has great hands and aggressive. A two-way player. Malik Wilson have a lot of respect for him and he has a lot of steals, have been the most impressive on defense, along with McCullar and Marcus and TJ is one of our best defensive guys as well.
• One of the things that we’re talking about is sharing the ball and one-more pass, one of the challenges is taking great shots and recognize who gives you the ball.
• Obanor is a great shooter and great offensive rebounder, good because of his size. When we got him on our roster it completed us from a 3-point shooting perspective. Bryson has been diligent and good with his three-pointers. We have a lot of guys who can make an impact on the offensive end.
• We’ve got one of the biggest teams we’ve had and McCullar is 6’6″ playing point guard, and Malik Wilson is 6’3″ but one of our best athletes, this may be our Achilles Heel, it may be by committee.
• I hope we have better spacing and we’ll have that with Bryson and Kevin and we’ll have different sets and more of an attacking with ball movement and spacing with three-pointers. Have a team that shoots more three’s than in the past. We’re looking at those stats and would like to get up more three’s.
• I love coaching and God’s blessed me with this skillset, I have a passion for it, I enjoyed getting back on the floor and have a great coaching staff and the players are great leaders and they want to be coached.
• As a coach we’re always trying to figure out better ways to do things. From our managers to our GA’s to our coaching staff, always looking for better ways to do things. We’re going to be aggressive on both ends of the floor and take good shots.
• Our overall theme is “together we attack” and “together” is us getting together, the “we” is all of us and “attack” is both ends of the floor for 40 minutes. The season is a month and a half away and have a sense of urgency to get as much as we can in and get the right things in and trying to get these guys to accentuate their strengths on both ends of the floor.
• Zones are useful at certain times, they can change the tempo of games and are useful with teams with good three-point shooters. We’ll live and die by our man-to-man defense and will continue to have that suffocating defense and may extend that to 94′ this year. Have not had a team with so many players that can help us, but have 13 guys that I think can all contribute.
• We have an idea now who that 8 or 9 will be, but we have very competitive practices. Won’t play favorites and guys that are working the hardest and see what guys mesh well together. We like to have those guys in place before we get into those tougher games.
• A lot of the recruiting success is the coaching staff and it is about hard work and relationships and have an experienced staff. We were behind the 8-ball when we came in. Have been blessed to be involved with some good players and will have an announcement with a couple of other guys. So fortunate to have Kevin, Bryson, Davion, but they are good people and our fans were good too.
• Have a big staff that have gotten to their strengths, guys like Coach Williams, Sutton and Peery all have head coaching, with Hester having DFW and East Texas experience. Rick Cooper as the chief of staff and some other guys. So thankful and they all love basketball.
• The best part is putting this staff and team together, it started with myself, Sutton and Taylor (administrative assistant) and enjoy getting on the floor as a head coach
• Sutton has a great basketball mind, I think about his dad who is a mentor of mine, has a tremendous basketball knowledge, can pick up the phone and talk to any coach in the country, he has a lot of respect and I lean on him on scheduling, coaching, and things on and off the floor. His loyalty has meant a lot to me, he said he wanted to be with me.