This afternoon the GW men’s and women’s basketball teams both held their media day events, which meant that each team had three or four players sit at tables as reporters walked around to each one before everyone sat down for the big press conference from the head coach. Not very much news typically comes out of these things, but they’re good for getting a pulse on things heading into the season (general update: everyone is excited, everyone is working hard, everyone is ready for the season to start) and getting to know some of the players.

But before we get into all of that, people had some questions they wanted asked. Here are your answers:

• Redshirt junior Travis King was, unfortunately, not made available to the media. But! At the open practice event a few weeks ago, King said he is “100 percent, ready to go.”
• Junior Joseph Katuka was the only of the three big men at the event, but he said his role hasn’t changed, it’s just that he will be playing more. He said that the things being asked of him, specifically rebounding, are the same as before and that having senior Hermann Opoku and redshirt sophomore Jabari Edwards helps because they are all sharing the burden of low-post production.
• I asked sophomore Tony Taylor about what the players do to foster support and turnout. Besides organized events like the Colonials Run, Taylor said that he and his teammates are all very social and that they try to get friends and other students that they meet to turn out and support the team. As a personal aside, this year’s men’s team does seem to be more extroverted and outgoing than any I have seen before. They should be plenty visible on campus, the freshman class especially.
• To be honest I forgot to ask about the towel thing, but I’m about 99-percent sure they do it to keep track of who is subbing in and out so that every person entering the court has a corresponding teammate leaving it. It’s not a unique practice and, well, it’s not always foolproof either.

For the men, Katuka, Taylor, senior Damian Hollis and sophomore Aaron Ware were made available, in addition to head coach Karl Hobbs; for the women, it was sophomores Tiana Myers and Tara Booker and freshman Danni Jackson, as well as head coach Mike Bozeman. Because the players weren’t there the whole time, I didn’t get a chance to speak with Ware, Hollis, or Booker.

I had a good conversation with Myers, however, who told me about what it was like growing up as a left-handed basketball player when everyone is first taught how to defend righties and being a self-described “military baby,” born in at a U.S. Air Force base in Japan and bouncing around the states until her family settled down in Maryland when she was six.

I met Jackson, who seems like the team’s most-hyped newcomer, for the first time and she seemed pretty comfortable in the media setting despite being new to college basketball. She said she looks to Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade as inspirations for her playing style, explaining that both have the ability to score and shoulder the offensive load but also excel at setting up teammates for buckets. She said she’s looking forward to doing the former for GW this season.

During the men’s time, Katuka told me about how he is heeding the coaching staff’s advice to slow his offensive game down in order to keep it under control and not rush things. He also said he worked on his strength and put on some weight this offseason, laughing when he pointed out that we could look at the media guide and see the increase in his listed weight.

Taylor’s excitement for this season was very apparent as soon as we started talking. He said he has taken on more of a leadership role in his second season and that all of the Colonials have been leaders, making sure the team’s half-dozen freshmen get acclimated to the school and team. He also said he is looking forward to playing in the team’s up-tempo offense this season and that they will have the roster depth to wear opposing teams down.

As far as news goes, that’s pretty much it. There were some other things of interest here or there, but most of that will be covered in Thursday’s Basketball Preview, a six-page section with seven stories and comprehensive coverage of both teams to prepare you for their upcoming seasons. I’m excited to run it, so I hope you’re excited to read it too.