| Over the Edge, March 24 - April 7 2010 Page 3 Interviews with the Timberwolves basketball teams Ecaterina Ciugureanu Contributor We cheer them on, root for them, and let them rep- resent our university with pride. But who are these glo- rious men and women and what do they eat for breakfast? Ecaterina sat down with eight Timberwolves and found out (minus the breakfast part). Women’s Team Do you have a favourite team that you played against this season or the toughest team that you play against? | think everyone kind of pales in comparison to us. There is a pattern in your games where the Tim- berwolves lose in the first half of the game and then dominate in the second. Why do you think that is? In the first half, | think the teams can keep up with us and once it gets to the second half they get tired. We don’t get tired. We do way too much cardio to get tired. So, what does the future hold for you? When | am done, | was thinking about going to Eu- rope and playing basketball over there. Basically, | want to play until my body just doesn’t allow it. Looking back, would you change anything about the season? Maybe | wouldn’t have made a Facebook profile of my assistant coach, Rachael, and gotten in trouble for that. This rookie on our team, Jennifer Bruce, gets in a lot of trouble; she’s mischievous. She and | thought it would be funny to make a Facebook profile for our as- sistant coach, who’s actually a really sweet coach. We made the profile, began adding people and changing her status and then actually what happened is she found out. She wasn’t mad at all, she thought it was funny. We ended up changing the prank around onto Jennifer Bruce and told her that, since Rachael is a teacher, her students saw the profile and she got into huge trouble from her principle back in Duchess. We called Jennifer into the room and we made a big deal about it. She was just like, “Do you want me to call the principal? I'll call the principal and explain everything.” So, the joke didn’t even work on her. Our team is just so fun and really funny. | am just joking. Kind of. Why do you think our team was so successful this year? A big part of it is that we all get along. We all want to win and are willing to do whatever it takes to win. We all know our roles. From what we hear of other teams in the league, we are definitely the hardest working team. We have track, three hour practices, and are willing to put in the work to get the champi- onship. Is there overlap between your game mind set and your life philosophy? | try to do my best with everything | do in school and bas- ketball. But also life has taught me it’s never the worst ever. With losses in basketball and whatever happens, | always think there could be worse things. That’s why | get over losses eas- ier now. | used to hate to lose, bawl my eyes out, even if it did- n't matter. | still have that competitive fire in me too. Do you have a favourite team that you played against this season or the toughest team that you played against? UBC-O. We lost to them the first time, so playing them again and beating them by that much was a great feeling. So, what does the future hold for you? After | am done school, | am not coming back. | want to own my own candy store. What is the biggest piece of advice you would give people trying out for the team next year? Gotta love running. Why do you think our team was so successful this year? We have been working really hard in practices. Loralyn has been running us like crazy. We are lot more like a family this year. We have a really tight bond, which helps us play together better. Is the team dynamic fairly supportive or do you guys challenge each other? We all challenge each other in practice. We push each other so much and we get really angry with each other, but then after we are like “What do you want to do now? Do you want to see a movie?” It’s really good. Do you have any good luck charms or rituals before a game? Before every home game, me and Soili do a chest bump in the team room and slap everyone’s hands. We also have a lit- tle cheer but I’m not sure if I’m supposed to say it. Is it secretive? Yes Men’s Team What has changed over the two years you’ve been on the team? Last year, we won a lot of games after Christmas, once we got used to each other. | think that’s where team closeness came in. Our only losses were before Christmas. The coach was new, a lot of new guys, 7 new guys out of 12. The coach really didn’t know anything about them. This year, the coach re- cruited all of his own guys, and the coach does a really good job recruiting just good guys. He knows they will work hard. From day one this year, we were really close. Do you feel the female basketball team is underrated at all? | don’t think they are underrated. People in the know would- n't say they are not as good as they really are. Bu as far as support goes, the girl’s games in general is just slower, no dis- respect or offence. It doesn’t go up and down as fast. It’s much more fundamentally sound. It’s just slower for whatever rea- son. It’s not even that they are not as athletic, but as far as fans’ point view goes, no one will dunk it in a girls game. It’s a different game, and it’s coached that way. When you’re on the court, what goes through your mind? | try to make it as little as possible, hence the calming music before a game. Just trying to blank out and let the rest take over, because when you’ve done it so many times, your mus- cles know what to do. | find when the head gets in there, it just gets in the way most of the time. | don’t think over thinking does anything useful. Most of the time, just let things go. When asked if he would rather go about his normal day naked or fall asleep for a year? What did Matt say? | have a story for you. Matt has the cra- ziest dreams out of everyone. He was in a 100 meter sprint with Usain Bolt and broke the world record. This is what he woke up and came to tell us at practice. What else did Matt dream about? He dreamt that one of the coaches, who helps out with the team came in (and he’s a really intimidating fel- Women’s team low), and called Matt a “hamburger,” which means a a : : —— bad defensive player apparently. So, the entire team Lene! cone ~~ — ane EE picked up on this now. So, | would think Matt would Play a home or away game? Home Home Home Home want to sleep for a year. poner ae SANE at Always lose Always lose Always Never play Do you have any good luck charms or rituals B kn le ketball Basketball = ball |Basketball before a game? an unknown minor league Basketh: asketbal asketball Basketba ; ‘Carvery sete? secant | like to eat pasta a couple of hours before a professional badminton star? game. I'll watch TV or basketball highlights. On my Go about your normaldaynaked || really like sleeping Naked Sleep Naked way to the gym, I'll be listening to Jay-z, just in my or tal ectenn Bet veer? zone. | don’t talk to anyone really and just listen to Have invented breakdancing or Slam dunking Break dancing Slam Slam music slam dunking? 4 4 . ; 7 coat nn | What has basketball taught you about school Be a star player on a mediocre Star player Average player Star player Average ifn i team or an average player ona player or life In general? great team? Basketball has taught me a lot and has brought Have athirdlegorathirdarm? = lf alegcould help |A third arm. | wonder |Arm Third arm | me along way. Coming from Toronto, | lived in the me dunk, | would — jwhere it would come area where a lot of people were into bad stuff. In my beanstt out of... younger days, | never really took basketball seriously. Men’s t | was just fooling around. | was cut from my elemen- en's team tary school team. | was never really good until | met Would yourather: Francis Jose Inderbir Matt my high school coach in grade 9 and then he coached Play ahome or away Away. Thereis not better 7 Home Away. ¥ou are more Home me again in grade 11. In the time he left, | just trans- game? feeling than having the ability focused inan away game. | f . . to silence the entire 2000 would like to play in Prince ormed into somebody else. | guess, | was like a rude people who came to see the George as an away team. kid, | just wasn’t right. | met him again grade 11 and he \nsratnnersa taught me working as a team, being disciplined, com- ee ee Never play |Never play Always lesel ing to practice on time. It transferred to things like ay tr . . . Be anunknown minor Badminton star. Can't take Basketball Basketball, although! Badminton coming to work early, because if | come late, | will be seas beet pevee not being the best at Sia e es we letting my team down. My college coach had a quote, Sc ate sstona |omething. “If you’re on time, you're late. ‘aicakinvaee Mass tava ae os Ta abad So, what does the future hold for you? day naked or fall asleep | . Hopefully a lot. My plan is to graduate here and for a year? get my degree. | am also a part of the national team Have invented break — Slam dunking Slam Slam dunking Slam for my country, so I'll be playing some tournaments danci lar dunking? ‘ nm : catalan Dunking dunking | with them. They fly me out here and there, whatever. Kons eg deabinced Average player Average Average player Average Hopefully, once | get my degree, | would like to see if cnaiea habia rs aiacicl player player | could get my basketball career onto something else, team? say if | could get a pro contract or something else. Have a third leg or a Third Arm Third Arm [Third Arm Third arm What does this team have that other teams third arm? don’t? We have heart. Most of the teams don’t. We like challenges. Some fans have nicknamed you Avatar for your su- perhuman ability in playing. How do you respond to that nickname? Are you flattered or offended? It was a great movie so I’m flattered, | guess...except for the physical features. But I'll take that as a compliment be- cause | like the movie. * *Francis mentioned Inderbir’s fan generated nickname last year was the Mayor, because he “runs the show’. Is there an overlap between your game mind set and your life philosophy? As far as personality goes, | think | have a split personality. On the court, | am much more aggressive, more talkative and way more open. In real life, | am really shy, don’t talk much. | think it kind of balances out my life. There is a pattern in your games, where the Timber- wolves lose in the first half of the game and then domi- nate in the second. Why do you think that is? As a team, maybe we are not focused enough in the first half. | think also we are nice guys, we don’t just go for the neck in the start. We kind of want the other team to attack first. You know Yao Ming? He’s such a nice guy, plus his culture. In bas- ketball, you have to be rowdy. When you block someone, you embarrass them. And he says, “No, that’s not my culture.” So maybe, it’s some personalities. Is the team dynamic fairly supportive or do you guys challenge each other? We challenge each other all the time. People get fired up; we are working as hard as we can because we are all com- peting against each other in practice. But then when the game comes on, we are really supportive. | think we are a really tight knit group. Every other team I’ve been on has a couple guys that nobody gets along with or that nobody likes except for on this team. Everyone likes each other and everyone gets along. We count every player on our team as a good player, so that helps us in practice too. We get along off the court, which helps us on the court. What did number 5 from VIU say to you after your last game of the season? He is my good friend. | played at a Bible College in Ab- botsford for two years, and that’s in the same league, he played there too. He was congratulating us and saying that we deserved it. | know you don’t have to deal with a lot of losses, but if you do, how do you handle them and bounce back? The one loss that we had, everyone was down for awhile, but we just had to reflect and learn our lesson. | think before we took them lightly when we shouldn't have. We hate that feeling. We hate losing. It’s a bad feeling. So we are going to do every- thing we can to never experience that feeling again.