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VOLUME 27, ISSUE 2 31 ing two different looks will make it hard for teams coming into games to know what they need to figure out to defend all of our sets." Gold and Black: What do you need to see in them from a per- sonality standpoint? Painter: "I think we have it. I think that with the addition of Spike and now that (P.J. Thomp- son) is older, we have two experi- enced point guards. I think we have very steady hands at the 2 with Da- kota (Mathias) and Ryan (Cline), and Vince (Edwards) has a calm- ing presence because he can han- dle the ball very well. I think with those guys, we have very good de- cision-making and guys who know what's going on. And Swanigan, the way he plays at the 4 and the 5, I thought his passing on our Spain trip was very good. He let things come to him and picked his spots well. From a decision-making stand- point all those guys really make for a good offense." Gold and Black: Were the problems last season against pressure related to preparation, person- nel, intangibles or what? Painter: "I think that it was personnel for us. To put our best team out there defensive-wise, we had a shutdown defender (Rapheal Davis) and a shot block- er at the rim (A.J. Hammons). That helped us a lot at everything else, like in halfcourt offense because we could rebound due to the fact that we were bigger at every position. (Caleb Swanigan) is a big 4, Vince (Ed- ward) is a big 3, Davis was a big 2, but no one had just the straight-up guard skills to cut and make plays. We have added and grown guys to help in that regard and it's also something that you need to face. "We did that on our own by facing West Virginia (in a closed preseason scrimmage), like how we went to go play Dayton. Both are very athletic and it helps that we can start off like that. West Virginia is going to play hard and come at us in waves with the press. Some could argue that they are the best pressing team in the country. I think that this will be a good gauge for us to see how we are in that standpoint." Gold and Black: Do you do anything different with this group due to the troubles last year? Painter: "It wasn't anything from our schematic de- sign. It's not that hard if someone presses you. What you do with a 1-2-2 or what you do against a 2-2-1 or what you do if it's man, you've got to be able to be aggressive and be able to attack. You just can't drib- ble into the trap or pass into a double team. You've got to be strong and we have to be more fundamental, and you've got to stay away from some of those danger zones in those different types of presses." Gold and Black: A couple times you have men- tioned helping them. What do you — as the coach — have to do to help them? Painter: "I think it's the mental approach. I have al- ways tried to stress to people around me and in coach- ing that they have to feel good about themselves. In times where we got ourselves in those positions, they knew what they were doing, but they also have to feel good about themselves and feel confident. At times, you could see they didn't feel that way. "It's an outward feeling, and you could see it a cou- Tom Campbell Painter hopes that Dakota Mathias, in combination with Ryan Cline, can stretch defenses.