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Post by coyotecrazie5 on Jan 17, 2018 15:11:55 GMT -6
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Post by kiyoat on Jan 17, 2018 17:23:17 GMT -6
Nice find! Here's a transcript from Mooney's interview: (part I)
You have a reputation on your team for being the celebrity of the group. Where does that come from?
The guys kinda hype me up. And there's some fake accounts on Instagram and Twitter. I don't know.
Do you pay much attention to those fake accounts? Or is that not your thing?
I let them have their fun, but it gets annoying sometimes. People ask me about my Instagram, and say like "why did you post that?", and I'm just telling them It's not me. I didn't post anything. I don't know what you're talking about.
How long has this been going on?
It started last year. And actually: Tyler Flack. Turns out he made one of the accounts. And he didn't tell anybody. Nobody knew who it was. Finally before he left he told me: (whispering)"Hey, that was me. I made that account."
What's one of the craziest things people have asked you about these accounts?
People just think I'm really weird. These posts are like, really weird. They think I'm a weird guy, and I'm just like: "I don't even HAVE an instagram" I try to stay off "Insta". Limit my distractions. I like Twitter, though. Twitter's where it's at.
What kinds of stuff do you do with your twitter?
In season I kind of just try to focus on the season. Tweet about upcoming games, after games, maybe some scriptural verses here and there. [...] I try to stay off tweeting during the season, for the most part. I follow a bunch of basketball. My timeline is all basketball stuff. I'm a hoops junkie.
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Post by kiyoat on Jan 17, 2018 17:39:01 GMT -6
Part II:
This season the South Dakota Coyotes are the Big Dogs, so to speak [...] Not a highly touted team last year. Picked to finish seventh. Did you guys think it was just a matter of everything falling in place to reach your potential? Or were you guys saying "we're the best-kept secret in this league"?
We knew we were good. We had three transfers sit out. We had some young guys coming in that looked good. We knew Flack was good. We knew they were sleeping on us, but we didn't expect anything. South Dakota hadn't done real well in the past, but we knew we were really good. It was just a matter of time before we got it all together. When we did, we got it rolling.
You weren't recruited much out of high school, but next time around you drew a lot more buzz after announcing your transfer. How is it different the second time around?
I didn't know what I was going to get when I decided to leave Air Force. I probably picked up 15 or 20 mid-major offers. South Dakota was one of the first ones to call. Out of High School I got interest from Air Force, UMass, some other schools. NDSU was actually interested in me a little bit. UC Davis, Cal Poly, but nobody really offered. [...] I love it here at South Dakota. I don't know if I really answered your question, Matt. Sorry about that.
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Post by kiyoat on Jan 18, 2018 12:31:06 GMT -6
Mooney Part III:
Why did you end up picking South Dakota?
The coaching staff. The new facilities definitely played a role, they're beautiful. You can get in the gym any time. It makes it a lot more enjoyable to get into the gym and work on your game. But first is the coaching staff. Love Coach Smith, Love Coach Hansen. He recruited me. All of them.
In college basketball, there are a lot of coaches that aren't genuine, that don't really care about their guys. To be honest, it IS a business. But, I really felt like these guys cared about their players. And they do. That's the main reason I chose here.
You've gotten the chance to play some big teams on the road this year. What's it like playing at those historical venues?
If you had to pick one or two places to play at in the country, those would be right up there. Duke, UCLA, Kansas. It was definitely cool, but people asked me this, and I told them it was overrated. It's never fun to go somewhere and lose. Our mindset was to go in there and get a win.
Against Duke we played them tough, but it was a blowout in the first half. Against UCLA we should have won. To be honest, there's only one team we've played this year that I thought was better than us, and that's Duke. TCU we came up short. UCLA we came up short. I just don't think we played to our capability. But definately fun to play in those environments, and those atmospheres.
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Post by kiyoat on Jan 18, 2018 14:11:41 GMT -6
Mooney IV:
After Oral Roberts you've got Omaha, then SDSU. How big are these Dakota rivalries, and how would you describe them to fans around the Summit League.
These games are nuts. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. It's crazy. People out here, I'm not gonna say it's ALL they care about, but definitely EVERYBODY is watching those games. Last year after we beat them at home, that's kinda all people wanted to talk about. They didn't want to talk about "Summit League Champs", about winning the league. It was all about USD vs SDSU.
Now that they are at the top of the league, and we're at the top of the league, it's gonna be amplified a little bit. It's absolutely crazy. People out here, it's South Dakota, South Dakota State. There's no pro teams. Those are the two Division 1 Colleges. SDSU's been good for a long time. Obviously they had Nate Wolters go through there. So they've kind-of ran the state for a little bit, but we're coming in, and we want people to know that this is OUR state. And we want it to be our state. It's a big game. It's crazy.
Historically, they've always packed the house at the Summit League Tournament, but in the last few years, since South Dakota has joined the Summit, they no longer have an exclusive monopoly on that. You guys are an hour away from Sioux Falls. What's that like, being able to play so close to campus?
It definitely helps us. We had a lot of students at those games. It's definitely like a home crowd --- unless we're playing SDSU. Like our first game against Western was definitely a home crowd. It was packed. We really appreciate the people coming out during the Tournament, cause that really helps us. It's a great atmosphere up there, a great environment. Top ten attendance in the country for a conference tournament! It's a really nice venue.
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Post by kiyoat on Jan 18, 2018 17:22:48 GMT -6
Mooney Part V:
You mentioned earlier the new venue that you guys play in. Tell me more about why you like it there.
It's just really nice. It gets really loud in there. It's not too big, not too small. It's the perfect size. I do wish we could get more fans, more students out to the games. I love our fans to death, but we haven't really been able to fill that place up yet this year. It'll be filled for SDSU, but It would be nice to get it filled up just for regular games. [...] We've done pretty well in there. It gets really loud. It's just a really nice arena. They did it right when they built this place.
There are a lot of new arenas in the area. The SCSC, the Sanford Pentagon, and the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls. [...] It's gotta be fun to play in all those.
Yeah, it is. For sure. [...] seems like Sanford just runs everything around here. The name's on everything. Definitely a lot of fun to play in all three of those places.
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Post by yotebewithyou on Jan 18, 2018 17:54:56 GMT -6
Good stuff. I've seen some schools that do their own podcasts and I think a weekly USD podcast would be awesome
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Post by kiyoat on Jan 18, 2018 22:10:39 GMT -6
Mooney Part VI: (I had no idea how long this interview was when I started this transcript, but I may as well finish it. Mooney is a funny dude, and a good interview!)
Matt, you've got a couple of siblings that have gone through college athletics. Joe is at UC-Davis playing basketball, and your big brother Daniel played baseball at Miami. How have you guys helped each other in athletics?
We were always real competitive growing up. My older brother; he's pretty much my role model. [...] He worked his tail off to get as good as he could in basketball and baseball. And he was always pushing me. Every day. He got me better. He still calls me after games.
My little brother, He's playing college ball. The coaches here, they tried to get him on the schedule. Gotta take a shot at UC-Davis, they were scared to play us.
Was that because they knew how all the pick-up games in the driveway had gone?
I don't know if they knew, but my little brother has never beaten me in a game of one-on-one.
And you remind him of that all the time, right?
I do. I do remind him. Hopefully he listens to this, and he can hear that. We definitely got after it growing up. Every time we go home we work out together. We keep in touch all the time. My little brother, he's gonna be a really good player. He's starting to get more minutes for UC-Davis, starting to contribute. They're a good team We just pushed each other growing up.
If I ever ate something like a cupcake, a doughnut, or something - My older brother would be like: 'That's just gonna slow you down. It's not gonna make you faster, not gonna make you stronger.' Just little things like that.
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Post by kiyoat on Jan 18, 2018 23:05:00 GMT -6
Mooney VII:
You're a big NBA guy. Super competitive, too. And I heard from Ryan, your S.I.D that You've created a game somewhere along the way. Twenty questions about NBA players. And the guy that they finally got you on was apparently Caron Butler. [...] Where does this come from, and what kind of questions are you asking?
Actually this game started when I was driving out to South Dakota this summer with my younger brother. We were just bored, cause it's a long drive. [...] Then I started doing it with my teammates because you've got a lot of guys into that, obviously. I don't know. I think I have a pretty good knowledge of the game, and I follow the game a lot. They tried to get me with Gilbert Arenas, Andre Miller, you could pick anybody. It just has to be a current or former NBA player. And the other guy just plays twenty questions to try and figure out who you're talking about. It gets kind-of hard. Especially if the guy hadn't played for a long time in the league, or never was an all-star, won a championship, or anything. Just a fun game to pass the time on road trips.
Who's the most obscure player that anybody's played on?
Logan picked.... I can't remember the guy's name...he played one year at Kentucky, and one year in the league. Ended up getting sick and couldn't play anymore...
We're pretty deep down the rabbit hole, right? This is some Matrix stuff.
Yeah. I was like, 'Lopo!' (That's what I call him) "Lopo!, pick somebody that I at least KNOW HIS NAME!" If I don't know his name, I got no chance.... Oh, yeah. It was Dejuan Wagner. Yeah, he was on a 30-for-30 for Calipari. But I didn't remember the guy.
Who's your favorite team right now, and your favorite team historically?
My favorite team is the Warriors, just because I love Curry. Love watching him play. I like Klay, too. Historically it's the Bulls. I would watch the Bulls every day when Rose was playing. When he was in his MVP year, I'd watch him every day.
What NBA lineup would you build to play with, including yourself, for that starting five?
Including me? I'd have to be a point in the league. Put me at point. I'd have to take Curry. Put him in. I'd be a little bit small. KD at the three. Lebron at the four. Anthony Davis at the five.
Which NBA player do you think your game best compares to?
A guy I work out with at home sends me a lot of clips of Bradley Beal. He thinks my game's kind of like Bradley Beal. I don't know. It's hard to do. To compare yourself to an NBA player is tough to do, cause those guys are so great. I would say Bradley Beal. A two-guard in the league. I'm a two-guard here in college.
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Post by kiyoat on Jan 18, 2018 23:23:21 GMT -6
And just for fun, here's Emily Clemens' comments about the SCSC:
What's your favorite other gym to play in (in the Summit League)?
I really like South Dakota's new gym. I think it's just the perfect size for a mid-major school, and they fill it really well. Just the enthusiasm and the fans that they bring to that gym. Just a good representation of ... a good following for a mid-major school. And obviously it's a brand-new facility, so I think that it's really nice.
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