Julius Mays: 2009 Media Day Interview

JULIUS MAYS TALKS TO WOLFPACKHOOPS

WPH: What is the difference between last year this time, and this year?

JM: I feel a lot more confident in myself and my teammates. We’re all on the same page this year. Every guy is about the team and nobody is about themselves. We all feel we have something to prove and nobody has confidence in us and every poll has us coming in last. We want to go out and compete and prove a lot of critics wrong.

WPH: What is it like to have Scott Wood here?

JM: It’s good having a high school teammate here. He knows how I play , I know how he plays, I know where he wants the ball , he knows where I want the ball. It’s also good to have a friend off the court. It’s not really homey, but it brings the ‘home’ feeling. I like it a lot.

WPH: Coach Lowe wants to push the ball up-tempo this yaer, do you see the ball moving a lot faster this year?

JM: Definitely. The stuff we did around this time is nothing like what we’re doing now. The way we conditioned last year is nothing like we’re doing now. Everything has changed, the way we play, the way we condition this year. I’ve never ran as much as I have in my life. Coach really wants to push the ball. He made sure we got in the shape we need to get in. That’s what we’re going to do, push the ball.

WPH: Talk about your game. Where have you improved this off-season?

JM: I think I’ve become more of a solid point guard. I make a play for somebody else before I make a play for myself. I’ve gotten a lot more confidence than I had coming into the season last year. No one thinks we have a point guard so I’m ready to show everyone that we do.

WPH:Do you feel like in this offense the 1 and 2 blend? Do you see yourself playing a little of both?

JM: I think as the season goes on you’ll see that a lot of people’s talents are going to come out and you could have me pushing the ball and CJ pushing the ball up to me, Scott pushing the ball up to me or Farnold pushing the ball to me, and me pushing the ball to Farnold. It’ll be a real interesting year, seeing as we changed our whole style of game., turning into a more up-tempo team.