UC Guard Day Day Thomas on His Hot Start, UC's Offense, Cincinnati Chili, And More
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00:00 Russ Heltman here with UC guard Dede Thomas, new UC guard, making a big impact.
00:05 The first four games, a 4-0 start for Cincinnati basketball for the second time in three years
00:10 under Wes Miller. Welcome everybody to Talking Cats with Russ Heltman.
00:13 So Dede, obviously off to a hot start, shooting over 50% from the field. Last time I checked,
00:18 it's either you number one on the team in average points or Dan number one.
00:22 What's kind of allowed you to just get off to such a sparked good start?
00:27 I mean, my teammates from the start with everybody just sharing the ball. Whoever
00:33 opens take the best shot, just sharing the ball together. I'm mostly open most of the time,
00:38 so most of my shots either in transition or open shot and a half court set.
00:42 How fun is it just from the moment you found out what kind of system Wes runs
00:47 to being able to run it now and it's in live action? How fun has that process been and how
00:52 fun is it seeing it work out the way it has with you guys averaging right around 80 points?
00:55 No, it's way more fun because I like playing fast because of my speed and quickness. So
00:59 us, he likes playing fast in transition, so us playing fast in transition is great for me.
01:04 I love sharing the ball with my teammates, especially people like Dan who's going to
01:08 always run, John Newman, TJ Frasier, you know, my teammates like that.
01:12 Talking about transition, you got an eye for the rim when you're going down the lane in transition.
01:17 A little bit different than what fans are used to with David DeJulius last year where he would
01:20 kind of be a little bit more reserved with how hard he was going up for dunks and stuff like
01:24 that. Winslow, the first time you remember being able to dunk with that kind of ferocity and how
01:30 much fun is that for you as compared to other parts of your game?
01:33 I've always been like that since like high school. So every time I'm in transition,
01:37 I'm looking, I'm attached to the rim. People don't think I'm athletic and
01:42 jump because of my height.
01:43 Do you have opponents be like, "I didn't think you would be able to run down like that."
01:46 It'd be guards on the court trying to talk to me, but I don't be talking back to them.
01:49 I be talking trash.
01:50 I love it. I love it. Day Day Thomas, UC guard here with us on Talking Cats.
01:54 With Russ Heltman, top reason you think the offense has been so efficient so far with you
02:01 and Gisle, kind of your first experience in Division I and it's still worked out
02:05 very well to start the season.
02:07 Really just us as a team. We play as a team and sharing the ball well. So if we keep sharing the
02:11 ball, everybody's going to take the best shot they can when they open.
02:14 Your excitement personally to get Aziz Bandaiga back and hopefully eventually down the line,
02:20 Jameel back. Aziz is the first one to get his waiver cleared. How excited are you as a guard,
02:25 as a guy that's going to be connecting with him on a lot of his buckets because he's a big fella.
02:29 He's going to need those assists.
02:30 Man, I've been so excited. When Coach told us, I was like, "Let's go, man." I was excited.
02:36 I don't have to just wait for Jameel to come. Then we have the whole team back. We'll be good.
02:42 How close do you feel like this team is compared to your Kilgore teams in the past?
02:48 How close does this vibe feel or even high school teams in the past?
02:51 Really, this team is really close because we got the on and off the court chemistry together.
02:56 Aziz being around each other every day is making us closer every day, having that chemistry.
03:00 Is there a certain activity off the court you guys like to do the most together?
03:03 Playing 2K. Everybody playing 2K at Madison. So playing the video games is really having us close.
03:08 What's Day Day's team in 2K?
03:09 In 2K, I either go with Bron or I go... I really just like matchups. I might go with
03:15 Day a little bit too.
03:16 Okay. Get your kind of vibe right there on the court.
03:20 Yes, sir.
03:20 So, obviously a good start so far. 4-0. You guys are kind of easy into the season.
03:26 Haven't played a giant amount of heavy competition yet. What do you feel like you need to work on
03:31 personally so that when those bigger non-conference games, and especially the Big 12 slate,
03:35 obviously starts up in the beginning of the year, you can be the best player version of yourself?
03:41 Really just keep competing more and keep attacking them around,
03:44 being aggressive, finishing through contact.
03:47 Okay. What stands out about this Georgia Tech team on film when you guys have been going over it for
03:52 the past 24 years?
03:53 They're a pretty good team. They got a little height on them. They're pretty good. They got
03:58 some players. So it's going to be a great matchup.
04:01 Has the coaching staff kind of hammered home that you guys got to be cognizant of the boards,
04:06 especially on defense, making sure that these guys, top five in offensive rebounding this year,
04:10 aren't getting those extra opportunities?
04:11 Yeah, he's definitely been on us about boxing out. As long as we're boxing out, we'll be good.
04:16 That's the main thing on Georgia Tech right now.
04:19 Has it been a good test so far for your box outs this season? Because coach mission in the
04:23 press conference, how many good offensive rebounding teams statistically you guys have
04:27 faced so far this year?
04:28 Yeah. That's really been our biggest thing in practice. He be just telling us to box out,
04:33 we have to box out, get back in transition.
04:35 I like it. A couple more questions here for Day-Day Thomas. A couple fun ones.
04:39 So media day, we talked to you on media day. You said you had not had any of the Cincinnati
04:44 Chili yet, any version of it. Has that changed? Have you tried out the Cincinnati Chili? Can we
04:50 get a review on the Cincinnati Chili?
04:51 I actually had a Connie and it was pretty good.
04:53 Yeah, I really liked it. I kind of like this guy.
04:56 Did you ever have like a chili cheese dog or anything like that before?
04:58 No, I didn't. I didn't.
05:00 He's a fan, people. There we go. Your favorite part as we close up here about living in
05:05 Cincinnati, your first few months here, I'm sure it's been a whirlwind, but what's been
05:09 your favorite part about living here in the city, living in Clifton, being in Ohio?
05:13 It's good. I mean, really just being away from home and seeing the type of vibes around Cincinnati.
05:20 I mean, downtown is pretty good. It's great views down here, you know, when you first
05:24 come to Cincinnati. So just seeing the views and everything.
05:26 All right. Day-Day Thomas, UC Guard, everybody.