Point Guard Cat Barber is one of NC State’s representatives down at the ACC Operation Basketball event down in Charlotte today…aka Media Day. Here is a transcript of his time with the media:
Q. Cat, how would you rank the point guards in the ACC? There’s a lot of good ones.
ANTHONY BARBER: You know, point guard is the best position on the floor.
Q. How would you rank the individual player point guards in the league that you compete against?
ANTHONY BARBER: Like individually or just?
Q. Yeah, who do you think are the best point guards in the ACC?
ANTHONY BARBER: There’s a lot of them. Marcus Paige is a good point guard, Demetrius Jackson is a very good point guard, myself. There’s a lot of them in the ACC. I can’t name everybody right now, but it’s pretty much a lot of them.
Q. Mark asked you to describe or rank point guards; describe your teammate Beejay here.
ANTHONY BARBER: Beejay is a great teammate, great player. He blocks the shot well. He has a great motor. If somebody is on the perimeter and it’s a breakdown, a defensive breakdown, and they get past them, you know you’ve got Beejay back there to block the shot. Once he block the shot, you just better be ready to get the rebound. So Beejay is a great player, he’s a great help, and he’s good.
Q. Do you find yourself pushing him at all during practice or during the game?
ANTHONY BARBER: Yeah, I push Beejay a lot. He can fend for himself. In practice when he’s not doing what he needs to do, I’m on him. When I’m not doing what I need to do, he’s on me. I feel like that can help us throughout the whole year and throughout the game, so I’m on Beejay a lot and he knows it. And he knows I’m going to be on him, so that’s not going to change.
Q. We talked to Coach Gottfried over the summer and all he could talk about was Cat Barber and how good you’ve gotten over the summer. What have you done?
ANTHONY BARBER: I think it started at the end of the year in the Georgia Tech game when I came out and had a big game and just carried over throughout the other games, throughout us making it to the Sweet 16. I just think he believes in me and everybody on my team does, and I feel like this upcoming year is going to be the same, like as I took over from last year. But I feel like it’s a great year for me and my teammates. I feel like it’s a great year for me, so I’m just going come out and do what I have to do.
Q. Cat, are you more of a pure point guard or a scoring point guard?
ANTHONY BARBER: I would say a scoring point guard. I can get my teammates in positions to score the ball, but my whole life I’ve been able to score the ball, just be a variety of players, do different things. But right now I feel like I score the ball more.
Q. You seem to try really, really hard your freshman year to be a college basketball player. Last year it looked like you settled in just a little bit more, a little bit more composed, saw the floor more. What do you expect for yourself for this year as you continue to evolve?
ANTHONY BARBER: You know, my freshman year, you want to live up to the hype that you came in, so there’s pressure on you to do what you did in high school. But the game changes. And I feel like this year, I mean, the year that just passed, I settled in a lot more, and as another year goes past, I feel like I’m better at pace, you know, doing what I have to do with pace, slowing up the game, going fast, getting people in positions where they can score the ball and just scoring for myself. So I feel like this year is going to be great.
Q. You mentioned getting on Beejay. Are you a vocal leader now much more so than you used to be? The point guard is always the on-court general in that sense, but are you vocally that way, as well?
ANTHONY BARBER: Yeah, a couple of past years I didn’t talk as much, but this year I talk a lot. When we’re doing our conditioning, when we’re doing training, running, I try to make sure everybody is clapping, everybody is involved. I’ve just been talking more throughout the off-season and during practicing.
Q. What do we need to know about Terry Henderson?
ANTHONY BARBER: He’s going to slide in and be a great player. Terry can shoot the ball very well. He can create his own shot off the dribble. I’m just ready to see what he can do this year.
Here is a VIDEO of Cat’s Press Conference.
