May 11, 2009

As head men's basketball coach John Groce heads into his first full summer at Ohio University, ohiobobcats.com had the chance to catch up with him for a look back at last season and a look ahead at the 2009-10 campaign.

ohiobobcats.com: You wrapped up your first season in March and the recruiting cycle is on a lull until later this summer. How does it feel to finally be able to take a break?

John Groce: The biggest thing is - and a lot of people know this about me - that I don't take too many breaks. It does feel good to be back in Athens. More importantly, it feels good to be back around our current players on a daily basis. We tried to arrange our recruiting schedule so that I could see our current players as much as possible, just to be around them in the weight room, during skill instruction and during some of the academic things they're tackling down the home stretch as we approach the end of the quarter. From that standpoint, it's good to be back home. It's also great to be able to spend more time with my wife and son.

ohiobobcats.com: You mentioned skill instruction and the fact that the guys have been hitting the weight room hard. From a non-X's and O's standpoint, what changes have you seen from the returning players since the season ended?

John Groce: There have been a lot of changes. It starts with Kenneth van Kempen, who's kind of our lone senior. He's really gotten himself in much better physical shape, and he's worked really hard in the weight room. DeVaughn Washington has gotten a lot stronger, Asown Sayles is getting healthy and fully recovered from the shoulder surgery, and both of those guys have done a nice job in the weight room. Armon Bassett is starting to get his conditioning and explosiveness back, as he hasn't played a game in an extended period of time. Tommy Freeman is getting stronger and has put on good weight, and Tunji - as you'd expect from watching him play - has brought good energy to our workouts. Steven Coleman's body has really changed, he's put some weight onto that 6-4 frame. He's a guy whose body blows up when he gets in the weight room. We've made some real inroads there, and that's an area that we were committed to doing well in this spring.

ohiobobcats.com: The latest APR data came out this week and the team was above the national average. The last two quarters have seen the team produce grade-point averages that rank among the best in recent program history. Can you talk a little bit about the job that the players have done in the classroom?

John Groce: The guys have done a great job academically, and we're always striving to get better. I'm thrilled with our team quarter GPAs. Randee Duffy, who works with our team out of the Academic Services department, as well as Aaron Fuss and the rest of the staff, have done a great job of providing our guys with structure and putting them in a position to achieve academically. We place a great deal of importance on academics, we make it a part of our culture and the players feed off of that. I believe that we have the platform here to do well both on the court and in the classroom. We're excited about the progress we've made there.

ohiobobcats.com: When you came in last year, you were really excited about the group of guys you had to work with in your first season. How did they meet or exceed your expectations in your first year on the job?

John Groce: Everybody wants to win more. If you win 15, you want to win 16. If you win 16, you want to win 17, but the thing that was most important to me in the first year was to form the foundation and the culture of how we wanted to do things. We have expectations academically, socially, work ethic, unselfishness. From that standpoint, our first year's team did a great job of putting us in position to make that happen. We have three seniors who are leaving us - Michael Allen, Justin Orr and Jerome Tillman - and I'll be forever grateful to them for that because, as we get ready to turn the corner, the foundation that they helped us lay in year one is going to pay huge dividends.

ohiobobcats.com: Aside from the players or coaching staff, is there one person or one group of people who really helped you out last year, away from the court?

John Groce: There were a lot of people who provided great help. The greatest thing that made the transition easier was the willingness of a lot of people to step in and say, `How can I help?' Jim Schaus and Dr. McDavis were extremely supportive as we laid the foundation of our program. The greatest thing about Ohio University is that people are willing to extend their hands to help. People at Ohio University have been nothing but willing to help us build the platform we talked about earlier, where we can be successful and compete for championships, and do it in a way that will make the community proud.

ohiobobcats.com: Let's shift our focus back to the players. This incoming class or recruits began to take shape almost a year ago and just recently came completely together. How excited are you to finally get these guys in the gym and start coaching them?

John Groce: I'm very excited. I think that the biggest challenge we'll have is that each team is different. The expectations on these guys are going to be high, and they've certainly earned that through their tremendous accomplishments. We're at a stage right now where approximately half of our team is going to be guys who didn't play a minute for us last year. I've tried to get the incoming players to understand that we're a collection of talent right now, we're not a team yet. The exciting thing about them arriving this summer is to start the process of building relationships between our returning players and our new players. Our chemistry and our ability to become a cohesive unit is going to be more important than any X's and O's or any practice time. I'm anxious to get them here so we can blend two groups of guys into one.

ohiobobcats.com: What kind of qualities or traits do you see in this veteran group that will help smooth the transition for the incoming players, and thus help build those relationships?

John Groce: The fact that the veterans have been through it for a year and know what to expect will be a big factor. Each team is different, as we mentioned, but I think that will be helpful from several different standpoints: work ethic, commitment to excellence, academics, etc. That will make the transition easier for these newcomers because the older guys have been through it for a year and know what we expect.

ohiobobcats.com: Lastly, to put the focus back on you one more time, what are some of things you'd like to see the team accomplish this summer before the next academic year begins?

John Groce: The biggest thing for me is a desire for us to improve in a lot of areas, both on the court and off. I've got a staff that has been through a year and done a terrific job, and they'll continue to become more and more streamlined. We've got a recruiting formula that we've put into place, and it's starting to fit together in terms of how we want to mold our program as we head into the future. From a basketball standpoint, the biggest things are chemistry and our ability to formulate a defensive identity. Those are the things that are paramount for us to have the kind of success we're looking for this coming year.