Wyking Jones, Paris Austin, and Connor Vanover Share Their Thoughts

Wyking Jones, Paris Austin, and Connor Vanover share their thoughts on this team and the progressions they have made this summer.

Point Guard Paris Austin:

• On his ability to make others better: “I spend a lot of time with my teammates, on the court off the court I want to know what they like to do, so I know where they like to catch the ball, where they like to shoot it, and where they don’t like to shoot it.”
• On where his freshman teammates like to catch the ball: “Jacobi Gordan, I know he likes to catch transition threes and come off screens. Matt loves to get the ball in transition and going to the basket strong. Dre, I know that if I am coming off the pick-n-roll, I know he is going to pop and knock down the shot. I come off the screen with Connor, and like most of the times, I already know where he is before passing him the ball. Once it goes up, I am running down the court because its good.”
• On if he has played with a seven-footer who can shoot: “Nah, not like him, not like him.”
• On having to sit out a year: “Excited is an understatement. I got fire in me; I am ready to play. Like if we were going play right now, I have my jersey underneath. Just being on the home court, watching Cal growing up, having my family come to every game, me getting out there with my teammates, and coaching staff fighting every day, I can't wait to get out there.”

7'3 Big Connor Vanover

• On what his game is: “I am 7’3 post player that can stretch the floor out. A really big part of my game is that I can shoot. Rebounding, defending, anything else a big can do That’s me.”
• On what got him shooting from the outside: “Ever since I was little I had my coach who always believed in a shooting big, so he always let me shoot. My mom also played for Arkansas, and she had a good stroke too.”
• On the strength and conditioning program this year: “This summer was really good for me to fit kinda in and kinda learn how to develop. Since school started its gone uphill from there, I started gaining weight and getting stronger.”
• On the competition with the other freshman big Andre Kelly: “Its good, it's really good. We are roommates, so we keep it pretty nice off the court, but on the court, we go at each other.”
• On the chance to play early: “I think it would be really good for me. Even if I don’t do well, it will be a good learning experience for me.  I feel like this year will be a good year for me, I am getting stronger and faster, and I think it will translate into the court and I think I will have a good year this year.”

Head Coach Wyking Jones

• On his thoughts on this team this year: “I feel good about our guys. I am happy with our depth, and I am happy with the competition in practice because the second team, I feel like the second team is strong. So they are pushing the first team. I don’t feel like there is a lot of drop off when we go with our gold team, which I call our second team.”
• On Paris Austin: “Having a guy out there like that, who also has a ton of leadership, toughness, drive, and you know having him out there running the team feels good to me.”
• On how having Paris on the floor helps the rest of the team: “It helps everybody, Darius it takes the stress off of having to run the team and lets him do what he does naturally very well, which is score. It helps everybody because everybody they are going to know they are going be taken care of, they know they are going to get their touches and looks, they just have to do its part.”
• On how Jacobi Gordon's achilles is holding up right now and where he is at mentally: “He is good, and he has days where it flares up, and we have to pull him out, but when he is out there he plays hard. He has a high I.Q, and out of all the freshman he probably picks up things more than the other freshman.”