UCLA HMD: Drew Gordon

Opening thoughts:
"Young team this year, real young, but it's good. We know everybody from the AAU circuit and high sfchool ball. A lot of us have played on the same AAU teams. The chemistry coming in is good. We're all still trying to get used to Coach Howland hoops, so both classes will be learning at the same time. It's not like there are set people who know when coach is upset or when coach is happy. We're basically all learninga at the same time."

On Coach Howland basketball:
"The get-after-it-ess, a Drewism I guess, how he plays. It's hard to describe in words the kind of bball coach Howland plays. Tough defense, the offense is always good, real discipliuned basketball."

On Jrue Holliday's defection to the NBA:
"Jrue's one of my good friends I'll forvever think he's one of the best players I've played against. As far as him leaving, I'm glad he left, because he's my friend and it's good to see one of us make it. At the same time, we're gonna miss him."

On the team's potential with such a young team:
"I wouldn't come here if I didn't think that we had a chance of winning. I have confidence in my freshmen that they are going to step up to the plate. They want to impress Coach Howland, they want to play well for us. We want to play well for them. We want to play well for the seniors, obviously - this is their last year and they want to play well for themselves and us. It's positive energy inside and out."

On lowered expectations:
"This is good for us, it kind of knocks us down a little bit. I guess they were trying to put us on that pedestal after back-to-back-to-back Final Fours. When you get knocked down, the target kind of gets lifted off our backs. It's not us any more. It's good, because we're a sleeper team - we're a lot better than people give us credit for.
"Just because we're young doesn't mean we're not dangerous."