After covering the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Providence back in March, I had theory that St. Mary’s was having way more fun than any other team. It was clear the way the players bantered with each other when they were together facing the media and with the passion they showed on the court, where they upset both Richmond and Villanova.
Following his pre-draft workout for the Washington Wizards, Gaels center Omar Samhan backed me up: “If they gave the national championship according to fun level, it was a 30-point blowout, St. Mary’s won it all. National champs.”
But that wasn’t even close to the best of the highlights from his media session earlier today. Here they are.
On the Wizards workout after Samhan had tweeted that his first workout in Miami wasn’t good:
“The one Miami didn’t go well. Today went much better for me. It was just making shots and stuff. The workout was intense but it was good. I like working with the coaches, and a lot of the teaching points they had were very good it was a much better day today, and im happy the way it went… The biggest difference was in Miami, they had a lot of dunking and stuff, which isn’t really my go-to, but here they had more skill stuff, which is more home for my skill set. I liked it a lot more, as far as the stuff they asked us to do.”
How much did the NCAA Tournament run help you get noticed?
“It’s one of those things where before the tournament, I was doing the same stuff I’m doing now, but a lot of people didn’t know, didn’t know about St. Mary’s or myself. Now, even walking down the street last night, I walked to Chipotle, and people were like, ‘Omar! Omar!’ Random people on the street knew my name in D.C., which is crazy but is awesome. It’s helped a lot, not just with the coaches but with America, across the country knows more about me and St. Mary’s as a team.”
How much of it is your game, and how much of it is your personality?
“Guys parade up here, everybody can play. You gotta bring something different. Guys are up here, boring, ‘The workout was good.’ Nobody wants to here that. It’s boring. It’s crap. You guys can’t write about it. We don’t want to read it, so you gotta come up here and tell it how it is. In Miami, I sucked. Here, I did well. Stuff people want to hear. I’m a sports journalism major so I know it’s hard to do interviews with guys who are just mumbling and barely speaking. I think that helped a lot, just being open to the camera and to you guys. We’re just all friends chopping it up.”
What allowed St. Mary’s to be so loose and enjoy the NCAAs so much?
“Part of it is just the way we play and are coached. We played to have fun, that’s why we play as passionate as we do, because we love the game, and part of it was because nobody expected us to be there so we had absolutely nothing to lose. Villanova, they had a lot to lose. At one point, they were the number one ranked team in the country. We weren’t ranked all year so what did we have to lose? We had fun and enjoyed the heck out of the tournament and made history, for our school at least. Nobody had ever done anything like that before so it was great.”
Comcast SportsNet’s Chris Miller says, ‘I have a feeling you must’ve had some interesting exchanges with [Wizards assistant coach] Sam Cassell.’:
“Sam’s the man. They asked us to do a dunk, you can go up and do any dunk you want. Guys are up there doing crazy stuff, and I can barely jump so I look at Sam. He said, ‘Lob?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ So I dribbled up like I was going to dunk it, threw it to Sam, he threw it back, and I dunked it so it was fun. I barely got up. I threw down a hoop today from Sam Cassell. That was the highlight.”
What are the things you’ve done to trim down so much (from 300+ pounds as a freshman)?
‘I’ve lost about 50 pounds, and a lot of it is just eating better. I don’t eat what I want to eat, which is horrible. I live to eat. It’s my favorite thing to do so it’s hard to do. The next biggest thing is work. You just gotta constantly workout, constantly be burning calories and figure out everything you put in your mouth so it’s a necessary change. It’s why I’m here talking to you guys today, but it was definitely a long, hard road.”
Is how much you’ve changed an asset?
“A lot of the NBA guys aren’t sure where my body is. Pat Riley was like, ‘I don’t know if your body type is going to work.’ That’s kind of my selling point. We’ll, I’ve lost 60 pounds, and if you need me to lose another 60, I will. I just want to play basketball so I think it’s a real big selling point and a tribute to how much I like the game and how serious I am about changing to make it work.”
What do you need to work on the most?
“The biggest thing is just knocking down open shots, especially with a team like this. You’ve got Gilbert [Arenas]. You’ve got a bunch of guys that can drive it, and they can get their own shots so I’m not going to have to create a ton. I’m just going to have to get that 15-foot, 17-foot jumper and knock it down at a high level, kind of like a Brad Miller type.”
More on Arenas:
“I grew up loving Gilbert. We’re kind of alike in some ways, I think, just because he wears the zero because a lot of people doubted him over the years. That’s like me. I’ve had more NBA workouts than official college visits. More NBA teams have called me than colleges when I was coming out of high school so it’s one of those things. I look forward to it, and he’s a guy I’ve always looked up to.”
Arenas has gotten himself in trouble with his social media exploits. How do you avoid doing the same?
“I got asked a similar question by Riley, and you gotta be careful. But at the same time, I think that if you’re open and honest with people, that they respect that and understand that you’re just like them. I’m no different. You happen to do media, and I happen to put a basketball into a hoop. That guy happens to be a doctor. It’s all the samee thing, we’re just pople. But you gotta be careful because the more you talk, the second you slip up, thye’re going to revert back and say, well, he’s always joking around, how serious is this guy. It’s a fine line, but as an athlete, it’s your job to entertain, and it’s your job to bring the people in and be close with the community. If I came here, I’d love it because it’s a big city, and a lot of stuff going on. I think it’s your job, to a certain extent, to extend yourself.”
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