They said it

Good morning! Hope you’re ready for a loads of media day news nuggets. Let’s dive in.

1. Big insights from Big West media day

We frequently feature East Coast teams and can get accused of East Coast bias. So let’s push back on that narrative a bit.

Let’s open with the Big West and its media day event.

But first, a quick overview.

There isn’t an overwhelming Big West favorite, so when all else fails, why not trust Russ Turner at UC Irvine? The Anteaters finished second or better in 10 of the past 11 seasons. But it speaks to the league’s depth that it only reached the Big Dance twice in that span.

UC Irvine returns four scorers who averaged 9+ ppg, including guard Justin Hohn and 7-foot center Bent Leuchten.

Hohn is one of five players on the All Big-West team, joining Barrington Hargress (UC Riverside), Keonte Jones (CSUN), TY Johnson (UC Davis), Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones (UC San Diego), and Stephan Swenson (UCSB).

Onto the media day insights. If you’ve got six hours to spare, you can watch Jeff Goodman and Rob Dauster talk to all the coaches and some of the players.

But since I’m a nice guy, I’ll pull out the highlights:

• CSUN coach Andy Newman spoke highly of his two big ticket transfers, PJ Fuller( Washington) and Marcus Adams (BYU), calling them “our two most talented players.” The Matadors (formerly Cal State Northridge) is sixth in the preseason with Adams Jr and Fuller joining All-League selection Keonte Jones.

• UC Santa Barbara’s best player is Stephan Swenson. The Belgium native detailed why he came to the U.S.: “One of my biggest dreams was to play in America, Swenson said. Obviously dreamt of playing in the NBA. But a simple mindset of mine was the best players play in America.”

• Eran Ganot won’t be changing much. There isn’t a real reason to when you’ve sustained seven straight winning seasons at Hawai’i. “We have a style, a blueprint for how we run our offense and defense, the glass and we’ll wrinkle it for the strengths of our personnel. That won’t be any different. We’ll work hard, we’ll go for loose balls, we’ll scrap, we’ll claw.”

• What can Long Beach State fans expect from former Cal player Devin Askew? Beach coach Chris Acker provided some thoughts. “We’re expecting him to be an impact guy. A guy who can run the show. A guy that can come in and run the show but pick and choose his moments. When to score, when to get other involved but also how to communicate with guys when their not doing well.”

• UC Riverside coach Mike Magpayo gave serious props to Alabama’s Nate Oats. “He (Oats) is probably the closest thing we have to an NBA coach in the college game.” Magpayo also thinks balance will be the key to winning. “You have to be a top 80 offense and a top 80 defense to win this league.”

• Eric Olen had to endure the past four years of San Diego not being NCAA Tournament eligible as a transition team, but he wants better for future transition teams. “I do hope the rule changes. I hope they shorten that window. That rule needs to change and will change.”

• What’s the secret sauce to Russ Turner’s success? “What I learned along the way is you have to have a program that matches your university. I think we’ve done that here. We have great people who are hard-working, underdog type guys with a gritty edge to them.”

2. Hard to avoid the main SEC storyline

One coach garnered all the attention during the first day of SEC Tipoff. You can probably guess who.

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