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How is your knee and how is your confidence with it?
“Last Monday was the first day I played 5-on-5, and at first I was a little timid. I was a little hesitant to make a quick move, but once I got into the flow of the game and played a couple of games, then I felt confident in doing the things that I’ve been doing my whole life. I’m not where I want to be, but I can do the things and I’m not hesitant now.”
How does the injury affect your earlier work in improving your quickness?
“There is a little setback, but you spend so much time rehabbing that one leg that it almost becomes stronger than the other one. I’m probably not there yet, but I feel that if I keep doing my rehab and doing my strength exercises, then I’m going to be as good, if not better, than where I left off.”
On any concerns about playing on the knee:
“I’m not scared. I love this game. I’ve done things differently with my body, I’m taking care of my body and I’m stretching more, just so that I can prevent any injury possible – hopefully, knock on wood.”
Does this team feel any added pressure with everybody coming back?
“I don’t know if we’ll feel the pressure because we were No. 1 pretty much most of last year. Of course we’re going to have a target on our back, but I don’t think we’re going to say from Day One, ‘Oh, we have to win a national championship to make it a good season.’ But we’re going to go out, play our game, do what Coach Williams tells us to do and we have enough talent to win a couple games here and there, and then hopefully we can get lucky in March and win the tournament.”
But you know about the expectations –
“We know that we’re returning basically our entire team and adding three McDonald’s All-Americans. There’s going to be those expectations, those hopes, [and] those predictions, so it comes with the territory but hopefully we’ll be ready for it.”
How tough is it to improve your game when your focus is on your rehab?
“It’s been a while since I’ve consistently shot the basketball, so that’s one of the biggest things right now, finding that rhythm and getting my shot back. But I’m cleared to play, and once I get back home this offseason, which there’s still a lot of time left, I have a lot to improve on and I can just go about it like I normally would.”
Were you surprised at all of the attention you got with your jump off the frat house?
“I was. I think if Tyler [Hansbrough] had not jumped off, I would not have gotten that much attention from it. Locally, when it first came out, I thought, ‘Oh, this is bad.’ But as time went on and I saw the comments and how people reacted to it, I thought it was kind of amusing.”