Indiana University Athletics
Marco Killingsworth Q&A
8/8/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Aug. 8, 2005
Senior forward Marco Killingsworth, who was selected as a member of the Big Ten Foreign Tour, recently sat down with iuhoosiers.com and answered questions about the event, the upcoming season and many other things.
The annual tour, headed this year by Illinois coach Bruce Weber, will play five games in Spain from Aug. 9-19 The team, boasting of 12 members from Big Ten teams, will depart for Spain on Aug. 9 and arrive in Barcelona on Aug. 10. After two days of rest and sightseeing, the squad will open competition against the Huesca Basketball Club on Saturday, August 13. After a day off, the Big Ten contingent resumes competition against the VIC Barcelona Basketball Club on Monday, August 15. The Tour squad will then travel to Valencia, Spain where they will take on the Alcora Basketball Club on Tuesday, August 16 and the Pamesa Valencia Basketball Club on Wednesday, August 17. The team wraps up the Tour facing the C.B. Valls Basketball Club on Thursday, August 18 in Barcelona, Spain. The Big Ten Foreign Tour team will return to the United States on Friday, August 19.
Please stay tuned to iuhoosiers.com for complete game coverage of the Tour and quotes after each game from Killingsworth.
What have you been working on this summer and trying to improve?
"Right now, I have been working on shooting and in the gym trying to get a little bigger. I want my game to improve from the outside and make my shot more consistent."
How do you see your role with this team heading into the season?
"I see myself more as a leader and a role model. I want to lead by example in the classroom and on the court. I want to be the first one in the gym and the last one to leave. When they see me going all out, the other guys will want to beat me and that will only make them better in the long run."
How do you feel after having a year off and not playing, coming into this season?
"I have really seen how the game is from a coaching point of view now. When you sit on the sidelines you see stuff that you wouldn't be able to see on the court. When you're on the court, you really don't get a chance to see plays develop but you just react to them. It's the same thing with Lewis (Monroe). We both saw the same things throughout the season and I think it made us better for it."
Coach Davis has referred to this season's post players as the best he has had on any one of his teams. How good can this year's post be?
"First I want to say with D.J. (White) and Ben (Allen), they are going to be great post players, but I feel I am the point guard (laughter). I'm just kidding about that, but what Coach Davis is saying is true. We all can score down there and all of us are really aggressive getting rebounds. D.J. and I can run, dribble and we are athletic. In this conference, there are not many big guys who can run the floor like we can. That is something else we noticed from sitting on the sidelines last season, some of these big guys can't get up and down the court like we are going to be able to do. We are all versatile players and that will only help our guards out as well."
How do you feel about being named to the Big Ten Foreign Tour?
"I'm really excited about going on the Foreign Tour and even more excited to finally get back on the court. I get a chance to get myself back into basketball shape and get used to playing with referees again. During pick-up games you can foul all you want but in regular games you have a referee, so it will be nice to get to play with refs again."
How has the team been looking playing pick-up games during the summer?
"Everyone is looking good. All the freshmen from last season look really good. (Robert) Vaden is playing a lot more consistent, A.J. (Ratliff) is playing really, really well and D.J. has been running his mouth on the sideline because he can't play right now (laughter). Just to be around D.J. now, he seems more enthused than last year. As a freshman he was quieter, but he was in a shell. But now he laughs, jokes and plays around which were things I wasn't used to seeing him do. But he really sounds excited about our team."
What do you think about the potential of this year's team?
"I am one of those who don't like a lot of hype and I hope they (prognosticators) don't pick us very high in the conference. We are going to go into this season with nothing to lose and play real hard. They are going to say what they want to anyways, so we just have to play hard every game and it will take care of itself."
