Pittsburgh News, Ray Mernagh

BRAD WANAMAKER: CHARACTER, DEFENSE & CHEMISTRY KEYS TO PITT SUCCESS

Brad Wanamaker will undoubtedly play a huge role for Pittsburgh this coming season as the Philly native is the most experienced Panther — by far — available to start the season (and even would be were Gilbert Brown and Jermaine Dixon not on the shelf for the time-being). Wanamaker answered a few questions from the assembled media — and NBE’s Ray Mernagh, last week at Pitt’s media day.

Q: You guys averaged around 78 points per game last year, will the stress/focus be more on defense with this team much like the teams of the past?

Brad Wanamaker: More so with this team yeah you could say defense will come first but I believe we all have scoring ability in our own right along with a mentality to score. In high school we all scored, we were all the best players on our team and were always that go-to guy.
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Q: You guys feel comfortable getting back into that defensive mode if that’s what’s called for without the guys that scored a majority of the points last year?

BW: Yeah I mean we all have a defensive mindset and a focus to do whatever it takes for us to be successful, we don’t really care about which one of us scores the most and defense turns to offense and that creates easy buckets so we’re all about that.
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Q: To start the season you have the most experience of anybody on the team, talk about that leadership?

BW: We had good leaders last year so most of that just wore off on me just being around them and it’s easy to lead these guys because they’re all willing to listen and very mature in terms of knowing what they have to do.
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Q: How is the character with this group compared to the past?

BW: From my first year to now it’s gotten better but we always had good character on the team.
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Q: How important is that with the youth of this team, is it more important because the margin for error is smaller with such a young group?

BW: It’s good that everyone’s on the same page, when you have good frienships, which we all have, it’s easier to talk to your teammates about things.
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NBE: How comfortable are these new guys now with the program as far as the way you guys do things and how long did it take them to adjust and get acclimated?

BW: They all came from really good programs so it clicked pretty quickly, they’re still learning but compared to the first year guys in the past — especially my own experience as a freshman — I feel like they’re way ahead of where I was at the same time.
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NBE: Any specific aspect of your game you’ve really focused on in the offseason?

BW: Continuing to be a play maker, getting a lot of shots up and mostly being more vocal with guys.

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