Live from New York...
Written by: Todd Rosiak
...it's Jerel McNeal.
Live on the phone, anyway.
Here's what he had to say about assorted topics from Big East media day at Madison Square Garden:
You guys are picked for sixth in the coaches' pre-season poll. Does that have any significance to you? Not a lot. We've been getting that question a lot today; like I've been saying all day, pre-season rankings, whether they be in conference or national, they're pre-season. It means exactly what it means -- it's before the season. The only thing that matters is where we stand when all the games are done, and where we end up finishing off at.
You earned all-Big East honors. What does that mean to you individually? It's the same with that, too -- it means something if I make it during the regular year. Right now, I've just got to come out and focus on winning games for me to do anything, or all that stuff doesn't mean anything. If it's not at the end of the year you're not getting a plaque for it or an award for it when we come in for the Big East Tournament. I'm just focused on continuing to get better each and every day in practice and try to come out and have the type of performance where I can be an all-league player.
You're in NYC with Wesley and Dominic for the fourth time in as many years at media day. Is it just a business trip now? It's always a neat experience. We all enjoy it. Me and Nic and Wes have been coming for four years now, so it's been an unbelievable experience each and every year. We enjoy it, we have fun with it. Just getting to see what you're going to go up against, night in and night out. The regular faces, it always gives you a little bit of extra juice when you're getting ready to go back to practice. You kind of put this away in the back of your mind, and once the conference season rolls around and you're in the thick of things, then it's on. That's just what you look forward to -- not everyone just dressed up in a suit, but coming out when we're all in our uniforms.
You guys looked real good the first three years at media day. Did you bust out some new suits for your senior year? Oh yeah, you missed out. This year we're looking real clean. Everybody cranked it up a notch. Everybody's looking real, real nice. (laughs)
You had a chance to return home to Chicago last weekend as part of MU's 'training camp'. What was that like? I think it was real good for us. We had a chance to go back down to Chicago, stay downtown, got a chance to work in practice and see how things are going to be for the rest of the year, our practice schedule and our routine, things we're going to do on a day-in, day-out basis. It was a real good experience. It gave us a chance to be away and around each other and to kind of bond a little bit as a team. So we got in the gym and we had fun. We had a chance to go to Dave & Buster's and the Hard Rock Cafe and things like that. We got a chance to show some of the guys around the city a little bit downtown. So it was definitely a good time. We all enjoyed it. Now we've got a chance to go back home and start up practice again in the Kasten Gym. That's home for us.
What should people expect at Marquette Madness on Saturday? I have no idea yet. We were actually just talking about that, throwing some ideas around. We've pretty much got the format laid out for it, but we're still trying to add a couple twists and things like that to make it new and exciting for the fans. That's the most important thing at Marquette Madness, the fans, making sure they have a good time. That's their first chance to see our team. So we're throwing around some ideas, bouncing around some ideas off each other right now to try and figure out what we want to do with things. I'm sure we'll figure out something soon, and it'll be a great night.
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