FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (November 12, 2020) – The Northern Arizona men's and women's basketball programs took part in Big Sky Basketball Media Day, aired on Pluto TV on Thursday. Head coach
Shane Burcar and junior guard
Cameron Shelton represented the men's team and head coach
Loree Payne and redshirt junior guard
Nina Radford represented the women's team.
Below are select excerpts from Media Day leading up to the start of the 2020-21 Lumberjack basketball seasons. The full Men's and Women's Basketball Media Day interviews can also be viewed below.
Men's Basketball
Head Coach
Shane Burcar
On his Media Day remarks last year regarding being on a one-year interview as interim head coach:
When you have a leader like
Mike Marlow, who is a progressive thinker, I don't know if we won the Media Day with the hire but we have zero interest in winning Media Day anyway. A year later, I feel we're in a lot better spot than we were a year ago because of the progression. I feel a lot more comfortable a year later knowing what the future holds for us. When you've got players like Cam Shelton,
Luke Avdalovic,
Jay Green – a great addition to our program –
Isaiah Lewis and
Nik Mains – guys who have been here – I feel even better about it.
Cameron Shelton
On how fun the preseason has been in the gym:
It's incredibly fun. We know nothing in life worth accomplishing can be done without a team and everybody on this team knows that. One of the things we stress is not about who scores or who gets the assist or who gets the stats. It's that we got it. One of the other things we stress is root for your teammates. It's incredibly fun to be around and everyone is happy for each other. Everyone competes and everybody holds each other accountable and it's a great standard and culture we have here.
Women's Basketball
Head Coach
Loree Payne
On how she feels this year's team is poised to build on last year's success:
I was super excited with how we finished last year and how strong we came on especially in conference play. For our players to get the experience of playing in the Big Sky Tournament in a semifinal game, obviously to play the top seed to just a few points basically on back-to-back weekends, it was something that I feel like took our program up a notch. It helped us to gain that experience. With significant pieces to the puzzle coming back, we're really excited to pick up where we left off. We have some great new incoming players and I feel like despite all the challenges of what this season will look like, we'll be in a pretty good place come game time.
Nina Radford
On how satisfying it was to have a successful season after redshirting and earning Newcomer of the Year honors:
I was happy with how I performed last year, but I'm not satisfied. I feel like I can always improve my game and that's what I look forward to doing this year.
