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| Jeff Hironaka |
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Men's Basketball Assistant Coach Jeff Hironaka on Thursday, November 10 at 10:00 a.m.
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| Moderator: Good morning Cougar fans and thank you for visiting WSUCougars.com and today's chat with WSU Men's Basketball Assistant Coach Jeff Hironaka. The Cougars open the season, Monday, Nov. 14 at Gonzaga for a 9 p.m. tip. Coach, thank you for joining us today. |
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Jeff Hironaka: Great to be here. Looking forward to talking about Cougar Basketball. |
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| Moderator: Let's get to answering some questions. |
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| Nate (Bellevue, WA): I know when you were at SPU you were a Seattle area gym rat. Do you like recruiting nationally or locally in Seattle area better? |
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Jeff Hironaka: Nate, speaking for myself, I would prefer locally in Seattle because I had a better feel for the players in the area and was able to evaluate them many more times than the kids I see nationally. Therefore, the chances of making a mistake were less likely with the Seattle kids than nationally. |
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| Benji (Colfax): Is it true that people in town refer to you as "the machine" for your daily running regimen? |
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Jeff Hironaka: Yes, a broken down machine! I love running. It is a good stress relief for me. |
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| Phil from Olympia: Good size, physicality, and rebounding down low seems to be a major issue, with the absence of Casto and even Thompson. How are you going deal with them being gone and how will it change the way you play interior defense against most of these bigger teams you will face? |
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Jeff Hironaka: Phil, we are going to have to rely on our guards becoming very involved in our rebounding, due to our lack of overall size. We want to give the opposing post players a lot of different looks to think about; therefore, he can't get comfortable in attacking the basket. |
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| Matt Bellevue: Coach Hiro.
Love the new class great work out on the recruiting trail.
Do you see the Cougs playing more full court high pressure D this year? With our clear strength being guard play it seems ramping up the pressure could be a good idea to make it harder for opposing teams to get set up and feed the post. |
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Jeff Hironaka: Matt, yes, but a lot will depend on who we are playing and if we feel that is the best strategy for us to be successful. Our depth is at the guard position, and in order to play more guards you have to play more pressure defense to get them involved in the game. |
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| Reid (Arlington): What's your impression of the recruiting class the staff signed yesterday? Who from the class do see making an immediate impact? |
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Jeff Hironaka: Reid, it is a very solid class for our program. We added some size and they are quality kids. Que Johnson, from Westwind Prep in Phoenix, potentially could have an immediate impact on the program offensively. |
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| Dale & Susie (Sedro-Woolley, Wa.): Good luck this season. Will be following the Cougs. |
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Jeff Hironaka: Mr. & Mrs. Wardell, thank you very much! Tell Adam hello! |
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| Jim (Spokane): Coach, I've been reading a lot about the players and their community service. Can you talk about the emphasis the staff places on the players giving back to the community? |
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Jeff Hironaka: The Cougar community gives great support to the program so we want to return the favor by showing our support to them. Just some of the things we have done are Habitat for Humanity, visiting the Pullman Senior Center, a free kid's clinic, participating in the Lentil Festival where we signed autographs, handing out posters to businesses. Again, as a basketball program we are just so thankful for the Cougar community rallying around our program that we want to return the favor. |
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| Moderator: Okay, that's all the time we have. Coach thank you for joining us once again. |
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Jeff Hironaka: Thank you for having me. I hope we can provide the Cougar community with an exciting season. Look forward to seeing you at our games! Go Cougs! |
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