Opening statement:
“We have as quick a team as we’ve had since 2005. I think we have some good guards, our perimeter is strong. But we haven’t done a thing, and we have a long way to go. We have to understand as a group the level of commitment it takes to compete at a high level in the Pac-10. A bunch of kids are in a home, and dad and mom provide the lights and food and shelter, and they leave and all of a sudden the foods gone. You take it for granted. We can’t stumble into our season and think that because we’ve had success we’ll have it this year without hard work.”

On rebounding:
“The mark of a successful program ongoing is that maybe you lose some players, and the new ones pick up where the other ones left off. It means we’ll have to rebound like we did before Jon Brockman was there. We’ve got to have more of a concerted effort by our group to attack the glass.”

On the youth of the conference:
“The way things are now with the ability to come out early makes it a little tricky for a lot of programs. It’s hard to replace a situation like USC, where they lose guys before the eligibility is up. It makes it a little more difficult, and when you recruit, you have to be creative and strategic.”

On Abdul Gaddy:
“He fits in really well. He’s the purest point guard on our team. We have a whole host of guards on our roster. Abdul is more of a point guard. He’s a pass-first point guard. He’s a point guard with size, understands how to run a team. He’s beyond his years in term of maturity.”