Hall of Fame Holiday Showcase Head Coaches Conference Call Highlights

Dec 12, 2018
2 min read

During the early afternoon of December 12, 2018, I joined the media conference call for all of the head coaches participating in the Air Force Reserve Boardwalk Classic presented by Citi at Boardwalk Hall and Airforce Reserve Holiday Showcase presented by Citi at Mohegan Sun Arena.

As a professional in any profession should, David Cox arrived to the conference call early (at 1:18pm to be exact). The first question for all of the head coaches on the call was in regards to how much they were looking forward to attending the events that their respective teams would be participating in. When talking about the Holiday Showcase and the Mohegan Sun Arena, Cox said, "We’re really excited about it. We haven’t been back in a couple years. We had a thrilling late game victory over Cincinnati... [Though] it wasn’t the result we wanted with Duke.”

After the moderator referenced Rhode Island's impressive season from last year, Coach Cox said, "We obviously lost a lot from last season… we're looking for daily and weekly growth." When asked about any player that is taking the lead on the team, he said, "Jeff Dowtin, on and off the floor, being the point guard...". Moreover, he talked about all the experience that Dowtin gained while playing so many minutes on a senior-laden team last season. Additionally, the leader of Rhode Island men's college basketball talked about Fatts Russell as an emerging leader and noted that he is struggling with his shot.

When asked about the impact and status of Jermaine Harris, Rhode Island's head coach mentioned that Harris was "Taken out of the air on a dunk attempt at Holy Cross, he hurt his hip... wasn't really able to recover." Finally, he talked highly about his young team's defensive abilities this season, "Defense has been pretty solid. Our defense has kept us in games.”

On the flip side of the equation, Bob Huggins showed as much excitement as he is known for when talking about playing at the Holiday Showcase, since West Virginia has three former players in the Hall of Fame and he previously coached at similar events with Cincinnati. When discussing the development of his guards, Huggins said, "They are working on throwing it to the guys with the same colors on and keeping the ball between the lines." Overall, West Virginia's head coach gave an update on his team by asserting, “We’re getting better. We were not very good early. I think our intensity against Pitt was good.”

December 16, 2018 should be a matchup to never forget between the Rhode Island Rams and West Virginia Mountaineers.