Mississippi State's Achor Achor hungry to prove himself

After dealing with minor injuries this summer, Mississippi State forward Achor Achor is back healthy again and is looking to take advantage of a new start at a new school. Last season saw Achor leave Kansas State’s program after a handful of games and he is eager to prove himself in a Bulldog uniform.

After Saturday’s practice session, Achor met with a few media and talked to the media for the first time since arriving in Starkville:

Q: How much did losing Gai Chol hurt and how much do the others have to step up now?
Achor: It is unfortunate that we lost Gai and he is a really good player. But I think we have a really good frontcourt this year, big guys that are athletic like Q (Quincy Ballard). JMar (Jamarion Davis-Fleming) and BWalk (Brandon Walker) can really play. We got a really good group.

Q: You have played a lot at the four in your career. But with Gai out, do you anticipate having to play some at the five this year?
Achor: Yeah. If we get in foul trouble I can slide to the five. It will be easy to do.

Q: This team has a lot of new faces. How is the team chemistry so far?
Achor: We are gelling really well. It is kind of surprising how well we are gelling. Outside of here (the court) if you see us around each other, you would think we’ve been together 3-4 years. So it’s a really good thing. We have bonded well.

Q: It appears that this team all like each other?
Achor: I feel like we’ve embodied what Coach (Chris) Jans told us. Coach Jans is a winner and is proven. We all buy in to what the coach said before we all got in here. We know it’s tough and we are going to come in and play hard like he told us during recruiting. Everybody bought into that and we are trying to get a ton of wins this year.

Q: I’m sure you don’t have too many fond memories of last year. How hungry has that made you being back at a Power 5 school?
Achor: Extremely hungry, extremely hungry. I fee like the Achor that was coming out of Chiplia (Junior College). Getting back to Division 1, I feel the same way. I’ve been working my tail off over the summer. So I’m ready.

Q: You’ve been at three Division 1 programs now. How different are practices under Jans?
Achor: Especially from last year it’s different. He’s tough. He expects perfection from you, you know, which I love. You give it 100 (percent) he is going to push you to make you give 120. That is always what you want in a coach. You want someone that will push you to the next level. I appreciate that a lot.

Q: How much does the competition at the four spot push you and others in practice?
Achor: It pushes us a lot. It always makes it easy when practice is harder than the games. I feel like here the way we practice and the competition at that position, it makes it harder. Every day you got to come and go A+. If you are just a C today, somebody is going to be on their game and punk you out. So you got to bring A+ every day.

Q: You guys start practice with so many defensive drills. What kind of tone does that set for the whole day’s work?
Achor: The whole tone. Defense wins games, man. Defense wins games and we’ve seen that. In the Final 4 with Duke and Houston, you seen the defense they put on in the last 30 seconds of the game. It was turnover, turnover, and that won them the game.

Q: With some young guys in the post like Davis-Fleming and Tee Bartlett, how much have you tried to help them with your experience at this level?
Achor: I kind of took them under my wing, you know. With JMar, he’s a worker and I’m not going to lie. He just needs more time by himself. He sees the level of competition here and he is not backing down. He’s doing what he needs to do off the court every day, putting up extra shots or getting in extra work transitioning. Then with Tee, he is working his tail off, too. Trying to cut down some weight and get his body back in shape.