OwlScoop.com caught up with first-year Temple men's basketball coach Adam Fisher at his Pearson-McGonigle Hall office to talk about practice, the roster, the schedule and much more.
You can listen to the first part of that conversation here and read a transcript of it below.
OwlScoop: It’s not new for you to be working with this team or running practices with them, but is there anything kind of special where you catch yourself saying, ‘OK, now it's preseason practice, my first as a head coach.’ Is there anything special about it, where you look around and say, ‘This is kind of everything I've worked for’?
Fisher: “I think you get excited, right? You used to have the October 15 (start date for preseason practice, so you couldn’t work with your guys (before that,) so there would be that big excitement building up for that. Now I'm excited that you don't have just 45 minutes or an hour. You can go longer, you can teach more, you slow down a little bit. And then what's been really good is seeing some of the stuff we didn’t put in, seeing our guys get better at it, so that's been the exciting part. But it's good. It's exciting to be out there.”
OwlScoop: How much father along do you feel the team is as compared to where they were in the summer? I know some of those answers probably aren’t going to come until you see them in scrimmages and stuff like that, but how different does it feel now?
Fisher: “I think we have made some huge steps. I think we did a lot more offensively this summer than defense. And now to start practice, we've done a lot more defense, so that progressed better than I thought quicker. Offensively, we're starting to get some concepts a little bit better, so it's been fun watching that as we go. But like you said, I think until we see another opponent, we’ll see what it's like.”
OwlScoop: You guys added (Houston Christian transfer) Sam Hofman since the last time I interviewed you. What do you like about him so far, and what was intriguing about him in the portal?
Fisher: “Everything. I like his personality. He's a 6-5, old school big man. He can pass. He can shoot. He’s a great leader. He just knows how to play. He's doing things right now that either we did over the summer or we haven't even put it in yet, and he just does it. He's been a great addition, just especially personality around campus, throughout our team. He's been awesome.”
OwlScoop: What about (Providence transfer) Quante Berry? He was dealing with a wrist injury in the summer. He’s fully healthy now?
Fisher: “Yeah, he's fully go, so we're excited to have him back and not on the sidelines. So he's out there.”
OwlScoop: How has he progressed? He hasn't played and redshirted Providence (as a true freshman.) What have you seen from him?
Fisher: “He's still a freshman, so he’s going through that, picking up some things and concepts like that. But super talented, can really score, so we're working on, again, some of the concept stuff with him defensively, but we're excited. He's got a lot of talent.”
OwlScoop: About a month away from the start of the season, do you have an area where the team has been at its strongest and an area where they’ve been at their weakest?
Fisher: “We've been really doing a much better job of team defense, helping the helper and doing some things like that and learning our system defensively. We’ve got to continue to work on our rebounding. That's something that we know we've got to do a better job, and some of the transition stuff, which we know will come.”
OwlScoop: You can't talk about who you’re scrimmaging, but when you’re setting them up, is it fun? It’s not always just a straight game. It's situational stuff. Is it kind of fun and strategic setting that stuff up?
Fisher: “You know, it's funny. I think they evolved a bit over the years, I've been a part of some where you just play a straight 40-minute game. I’ve been part of some where you play four quarters, and then you have five situations each and then you flip. I've been a part of some that just do two halves, and then maybe an extra five minutes if you want to see some guys go, so they both vary. I have not spoken to the other two head coaches about what they want to do. But whatever they want to try to work on, I'd be happy to deal with and whatever we're trying, hopefully they'll accommodate to see that.”
OwlScoop: Are you happy with how the schedule played out?
Fisher: “Yes. I think it's one of the most challenging things to do in college basketball is put together your nonconference schedule. First with dates, then you try to figure out opponents and what was already set. What can you add? So I think we are very excited about how it all came together. So a lot goes into it, a lot behind the scenes. So we're excited about it.”
