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Gold and Black Illustrated, Vol 26, Digital 2

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VOLUME 26, ISSUE 2 29 him. He's going to be here when I leave. He's going to be here right next to me when I'm playing with him. It's what you've got to do. It's what you have to do to win, so that's what I did." Gold and Black: A.J., your coach also thinks you took too much of the blame when things weren't go- ing well. You feel that way? Hammons: "Everyone's always saying how I'm the best player, so everyone always throws the blame on somebody." Gold and Black: That bother you? Hammons: "I don't pay attention to it. It's cool. I'll take the blame." Gold and Black: Rapheal, do you think he caught too much blame from people? Davis: "Yeah, people needed someone to blame. It's easy to pick the biggest person. That's life, though. When something goes bad, somebody is going to get blamed. It could be the coach or the best player. We took a lot of it as a whole team, though. Basketball isn't tennis or golf. It's not individual. So when you try to point the blame, you've got to point it at every single guy from top to bottom. I think that's how it should have happened but it's not and we learned from it." Gold and Black: Rapheal, how have you evolved as a player from high school? Davis: "I think I've transformed a lot. When I came in, I only cared about having the basketball in my hands, shooting, scoring. I went through four different coaches in high school so I didn't have that background with coaching and trusting in a coach. So coming here, it was tough at the beginning. I never played defense, didn't really know how to play defense. I didn't understand the language and terminology and all that. So I think now I'm just a better overall basketball player. I play defense, I talk, I rebound. I can make plays and I can score the ball still, but I do a lot of things, where before I was just focusing on myself. I think the biggest thing I learned was that when you don't talk on the basketball court, you're hurting the team. I never understood that until college, so I'm more vocal now." Gold and Black: Have you surprised yourself? Davis: "A little bit. I think I surprised a lot of people. I think I surprised the coaching staff, being able to pick up things defensively and all that, coming in and watching film. I'm not satisfied where I am, but I'm definitely above the level of when I first came in, and I'm proud of that." Gold and Black: A.J. you've changed your body and you kind of captured consistency last season for the first time. Are you surprised at what you've become? Hammons: "I knew I wanted to do it. It was about just coming in and putting in the work, but I wasn't expecting to come in here and play (immediately). It was a shocker. I used to primarily play defense, and when I came here I had to play offense a lot more, which I wasn't really used to. It was a change, but it made me better at the end of the day." Gold and Black: How'd you suddenly get consistent last winter? Hammons: "Confidence. My teammates had confi- dence in me and knew I could do it, so I had to do it." Gold and Black: What was it about last year's team that gave you that confidence? Hammons: "I don't know. I really don't know. I didn't have it at first. When we got to games and I started scoring, I knew what I had to do. I just relaxed, and it happened." Gold and Black: Now the challenge is to do it for an entire season. Hammons: "It's going to be a little different, but I got it." Gold and Black: Who's going to be Big Ten Defensive Player-of-the-Year this year? Davis: "I'm calling a repeat, so take that for what it's worth. I think the Defensive Player-of-the-Year from last year will be the Defensive Player-of-the-Year this year. I'd probably have to Google it or something. I can't remember the kid's name." Gold and Black: Do you wish you two could share it? Davis: "I think this year we could share it. I think people have shared it before. I think we work well with each other. We co-exist on the defensive end. I think teams have to game plan for both of us, so I don't think one of us is better than the other. We just do two separate things, but they go hand-in-hand. When you have a rim-protector, a shot-block- er (like Hammons), it changes everything. When you have someone who chases ball screens and doesn't let people get shots and things like that, it helps your overall defense. That's what we do for each other." Gold and Black: Rapheal, do you feel like you've overachieved at all? Davis: "I'm not a guy that overachieves. I've done some things that a lot of people didn't think I could do. I went to

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