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"But they also had some tough days, but they fought through it and stayed with it and that's what we need. Now we fast-forward two years from now, we have to be heavy in our junior and senior classes and try to stay that way. I think that's where we are. We have also had some people leave and if you have people who aren't happy, then it's best that you make the best decision for them. The last thing you want is people who aren't happy here and not doing what you are asking them to do and making it worse for your program." Gold and Black: What's more important now, experience or maturity? Or are they the same thing? Painter: "I think they're mostly the same. Obviously the experience isn't the amount of games you play, but how you go about it. The maturity is really the preparation of your everyday life, academics, how you handle things socially, how you prepare for games and practice. The better you can do in your preparation, the better success you're going to have. The experience of a game is one thing, but what you really want in a program is the experience of success. We want to have that experience of having success as a group and having that confidence around each other to know where they are in the game." Gold and Black: As experienced as your team now is, half of it is new. Is that an adjustment the same way last year was? Painter: "It's nice being able to practice in the summer. It's two hours a week for eight weeks, so it's not much, but they are allowing us to do things with the players early. f So it allows us to have a more efficient practice (when official practice starts) and also makes the workouts better in the fall, being able to advance things more. We're talking about a lot of the same things we were talking about in the summer and the fall. Sure, you're adding stuff and putting stuff in you wouldn't have put in before. But that's a thing that is part of team-building as you are getting ready for games. I would say that part has really helped." Gold and Black: You seem to have depth, but also versatility enough to amplify it. Painter: "We have 11 scholarship guys. All 11 guys, in my opinion, are going to play. Maybe there's a guy or two that don't play in particular games because of matchups. But we're going into the season with all 11 guys that we think will play pretty significant roles and help us win. I think it will really help us and I think we'll be pretty healthy because now you don't have anybody going into games where they're not going to play and putting themselves into a bad position (by not preparing). "I think Rapheal Davis was a great story for us. He simply beat out other guys that weren't even at his position. If you just play at a high level and do anything it takes to win … there's always a place for you out there. Hopefully we have a lot of guys like that." Gold and Black: What's your sense with this team relative to last year? Painter: "You're always optimistic. I liked our talent last year. I think I made this statement last year before Italy: 'You can be young, but you can't be immature.' There's no doubt that we're more mature this year. Are we a mature team? We will find that out when adversity sets in. Me trying to predict whether we'll be fine in that area would be foolish on my part. I think we have guys who have made strides, got stronger and into better shape, and I think there was some embarrassment there from last year, that pride about (even if you get) beat you can still outwork people. "I think my patience with them last year really helped them at times, but I also think it really hurt them. I was trying to be more patient with a younger team but, in reality, we probably should have pushed them a little harder. At times it was a fragile group, so I think if I would have been really hard on them at first it may have helped, but we also could have lost a few of them. It's a hard thing to do, hard as a coach to keep re-evaluating to make sure of what's right for a particular team, but there's no doubt we will be more demanding on the team this year." Gold and Black: Do you treat this team like an experienced team or a young one? Painter: "As an old team, because they can be one in February. I don't think they are old today, but they can be in February. We have four guys who are 22-23 (years old) and then also a few two-year starters by that point. Then you have the four young guys with talent in Jay, Basil, Bryson and Kendall. They are not short on talent." Gold and Black: Will this be a better shooting team because of individual improvement or because of players you added? Painter: "More because of guys we brought in. But I think our guys IllustrateD volume 24, issue 2 25