DENVER - The University of Denver hosted its weekly press conference with men’s basketball head coach Joe Scott and hockey head coach George Gwozdecky in the Champions Room in Magness Arena on Tuesday afternoon.
Gwozdecky discussed the preparations that his team has been taking for the upcoming Wells Fargo Denver Cup and the work that the coaching staff has done during the break. Scott spoke about the importance of his team keeping focus and carrying the current five-game win streak with them on the road as they will face two tough Sun Belt Conference opponents in Louisiana this weekend.
Coach George Gwozdecky
“It’s been a unique holiday experience for us. We’ve had a real nice break, a lengthy break, where the guys got a chance to go home and recharge. We had a very unusual preparation time. Normally, we have about two days or less to prepare for Denver Cup and we’ve been able to coordinate it so that we’ve had a full week of practice. We’ve had good practices this week to get us ready for the cup. We are ready for the first round game against Holy Cross.”
“During the break, our staff did a great job of preparing for the second half of our season. Recruiting has been in full swing and we’ve got some real good news coming up, eventually, when we can announce our recruiting. Things have gone really well, over the course of the last two weeks, since we broke for Christmas. Obviously we are looking forward to the Friday night game against Holy Cross, in our first step in trying to defend our championship in the Denver Cup.”
Coach Joe Scott
“Right now we are playing well, winning six of our last seven. It’s the best indicator that during that time our guys are growing up and are getting better. Obviously Andrew Hooper was out for three games, like we’ve said before, but if forced us to play Justin Coughlin, which was a blessing in disguise. When Hooper came back, he played well. We have another guy in Coughlin that plays and what I think it did was to allow us to establish some roles and get some order to our team.”
“During that time, Nate Rohnert started to play pretty well too. We started to give him the ball more and put him in charge of the team a little bit and he’s responded pretty well. So we’ve been able to define some roles and now guys know what their jobs are. I think when you do those things, a team can develop an identity and obviously over this time frame, we’ve been able to identify and develop the identity that we want. Our defense is getting better and is taking care of the ball. We’re winning games by being calm and patient and I think that really showed up the other night with those last two possessions when we needed to score. We were calm and patient, and just stayed with our stuff.”
“That’s what you need to do to win close games and that’s what you have to do even more when you go on the road and want to win those close games. I think it’s the right time to be playing some road games and we will see just how much we have grown up when we go on the road this weekend.”
Denver Weekly Press Conference Schedule
Tuesday, Jan. 6 11:30-12:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Jan. 13 11:30-12:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Jan. 20 11:30-12:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Jan. 27 11:30-12:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 3 11:30-12:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 10 11:30-12:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 17 11:30-12:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 24 11:30-12:30 p.m.
Tuesday, March 3 11:30-12:30 p.m.
-PIONEERS-
