Andrew Jones Transcript

Here is the transcript of the interview Chris DiGiacomo (CD) and I (MP) had with redshirt sophomore forward Andrew Jones III (AJ) earlier today. Last year, Jones saw increased playing time after the injury of Geary Claxton. He posted season-highs in points and rebounds against Ohio State January 29th, scoring 11 points and pulling in 10 rebounds. In the Big Ten tournament loss against Illinois, Jones impressed again with 10 points and 6 rebounds.

MP: Andrew, last year you saw a lot of progression, especially towards the end of the season, both as a team and for you personally. What kinds of things are you looking to do this year to carry over that momentum that you had at the end of last season into this year?

AJ: Just building on my strengths and trying to work on my weaknesses. Finishing around the basket a lot more, I think that some of the weight and strength games helped me with that, and my confidence has been through the roof. And pretty much just rebounding the ball, you know, not letting guys relax on the defensive glass or on the offensive glass, knowing that I’ll be coming through the lane trying to snag them. Just trying to keep defenses on their heels, continuing to run the floor cause we want to play a more up-tempo game. Not letting defenses set up, stuff like that.

CD: Especially last year, we saw you work your way into a bigger role onto this team, and now a year under your belt, what do you see with this team as a whole, improvements and what not, going into the Big Ten and hopefully the NCAA tournament.

AJ: As hard as we’ve worked, I definitely can’t see us doing anything but reaching the NCAA tournament. I mean, we go hard at it every practice. We’re constantly trying to make each other better, constantly trying to buy into the concepts that Coach and the assistant coaches are trying to instill in us. And I just think that our work ethic and our will to win is definitely so strong that we pretty much can’t accept anything but that. And with the talent we have on this team, there’s definitely no reason we can’t achieve that goal.

MP: You talked about putting on more weight in the off-season coming into this year. How do you think that’s going to help you compete in a physical Big Ten?

AJ: Well because the Big Ten is so physical, and even in a lot of our regular season games, you gotta be able to hold your own. You know, you can’t be pushed around, you can’t be thrown around the lane. You know, you gotta hold your position, you gotta hold your box-outs, hold your low-post position so you can score around the basket and stuff like that. You know, when a guy is driving, you gotta be able to body up, push him back out, stuff like that, and a lot of that comes with core strength. We do a lot of core strength, stuff like that, so it’s just like the little muscles that you need to rely on when your bigger muscles break down, stuff like that. So I definitely think stuff like that, as far as all my teammates, that we’ve done is gonna help.

CD: Especially last year, we saw against Michigan State and a few other games, like Indiana, you guys really fed off the crowd and it really helped you late in games. What do you gotta do this year? What do you have to say to the fans out there who really started packing into this place last season? What do you say to them about this team and to continue coming back here to the BJC and watch you guys?

AJ: I think the first thing is thank you, cause like you said, we feed off of their energy. That’s where we get ours from. You know, a lot of times when we’re fatigued, we hear them, we look over to the side, see Nittany Nation, and that gets us going. So we definitely appreciate all their support and all of our season ticket holders, their support. They come out and support us all the time here at all the functions when we’re out here. And we see that kind of support, it just wants you to work harder. It forces you to buckle down, you know, get that extra stop on defense, you know, hit those extra free throws that we need.

MP: You talked about some of the things you want to improve from last season. What are some of the things that you yourself are looking to improve upon from last season. Is it scoring? Rebounding? What are some of those things for you personally?

AJ: I’m looking to improve everything: defense, post defense, perimeter defense, finishing around the basket, free throw shooting, scoring, more offensive rebounds, and more defensive rebounds. So pretty much anything that I can do to get us better is what I’m looking to do.

MP: You guys lost to Illinois at the end of last season to end your season, and we’ve heard a couple guys say ‘Yeah, you know, it was upsetting. We weren’t happy with the way that the season ended, and we’ve kind of used it to focus in the off season.’ Do you find that true with yourself?

AJ: Definitely. I didn’t get over that for awhile. That whole week, just watching them continue to move on in the Big Ten tournament, that was tough to see them get all the way there, knowing that should have been us. But, we just use it as motivation. About a week or two after that we were right back at it, right back in the gym trying to get better, using that as motivation. We still have a sour taste in our mouth to this day. That’s just still motivation to come out here and work hard and do what we gotta do so we can win more games.