Speaker 1 00:00:12 Hello, welcome to the roundhouse podcast. This is Paul Saul and tromp of Wichita state university strategic communications. Today we have Kenny Poteau with us. Kenny is a freshmen center for Wichita state men's basketball team. He is from Stockholm, Sweden attended sunrise Christian academy located in Bel air near Wichita. Kenny average is 6.9 points 3.2 rebounds over the first 10 games of the season. He is coming off a one of his better, maybe his best effort of the season. Season high, 14 points, season high, eight rebounds, and Tuesdays win over out corn state. So Kenny, let's go back to Tuesday. First. I thought from a team perspective, it was really good. A lot of moving the ball, a lot of assists, uh, what happened? What kinda got the team going in that good direction? On all sense?
Speaker 2 00:00:58 I feel like we really pushed the bottom transition and got a lot of points in transition. Um, personally I crashed the board, like a lot of cars. Um, I told her go into the quarter. So Scott has to like, um, we have the bigger teams, so Acosta, offensive boys and get offensive rebounds. That's what I did. And that's how I got like many of my points.
Speaker 1 00:01:20 I'm glad you mentioned the transition points because I've noticed you do a good job of running the court, not all big men do that. What has that been burned into your brain? That that's a good thing for big men to do that. You can get some easy points that way.
Speaker 2 00:01:32 Yeah, of course. Um, cause the bigger men are usually slower and like, um, bigger. So I try to take advantage of that or something I'm infested and most of the big guys, so around on the floor gets some easy buckets and that way and hubs often it's too, when I run down the floor and they can just pass it to me. Easy points.
Speaker 1 00:01:55 You have a knack for offensive rebounding. What's the key to being a good offensive rebounder.
Speaker 2 00:02:03 I feel like it's just like try to crash every time because you never know the, the play, the boxing yard and that I might like sometimes just relax a little bit and then you might just, um, swim by him and get to the offensive rebound. Like you just never know. So just trying to go to the offensive rebound every time and you might get it.
Speaker 1 00:02:24 You, are you looking at it playing a lot of angles, trying to judge is the shot short. Is it going to come off on this side of the rim, the other side of the room, what's kind of going through your mind as the shooter is going up.
Speaker 2 00:02:36 Yeah, of course he got like think a little, like if you see the baller, if you see the fight with the ball going like a little further than, um, like you gotta see the angles of, you said like I try to see what, um, where it could like land and try to from that like kind of put myself in a position to get the ball.
Speaker 1 00:02:58 Nice. Start for your freshman year. What do you think has been most helpful? What factors have there been and you getting comfortable and you being able to contribute what you're contributing?
Speaker 2 00:03:08 Um, I think it started off like my, my confidence has always been like, um, not the highest. So like that's the thing, like I've been working with the most just like no thinking by like, um, has it not hesitating too much? Just like going out and doing like what I can do, like I can shoot. So I just let it fly. Like when I get, I get away open shots. So just working on my confidence has been like a big factor and I feel like the weight room is like a really big factor too. Cause when I first came here, I felt like a little weaker and not as strong as I feel now after the season been going on for a little bit now. So I feel I can, uh, I'm going up against more everyday. I feel like I got a lot stronger in the weight room, coach characters talking about helping me a lot. And I feel like I can go to big men on the, on the court not to.
Speaker 1 00:03:58 Yeah. When I talked to Kerry Rosenblum about that, he was very complimentary. He said, you are one of the guys you're there. You're on time. You're doing extra work. You're lifting on game days. All those kinds of things that strength and conditioning coaches love to, uh, love to see. Have you always been a big fan of the weight room?
Speaker 2 00:04:16 Yeah, I feel like I always been back home. I try to get like stronger keep in shape too. Yeah. I got some trains back home that I stay in so it can stay in shape. I was like bigger, but um, like being strong and being in a strong, stronger, got into cords.
Speaker 1 00:04:32 And you mentioned the weight room in connection with being confident. And I think people say that a lot. Explain that. Why does, you know, putting in the time in the weight room, how does that help you get, get confident?
Speaker 2 00:04:44 'cause like when you, if you were stronger than like everybody else, then you can feel like you, like, if you look stronger, you might intimidate people too. So, and if you was just stronger than you, I help you. Cause it's going to make it easier for you to score back buckets or under him maybe. And just overall, if you just be strong, like if you have a strong structure, so you can be strong with the ball going like a good, better balance, like overall just make you a better basketball player.
Speaker 1 00:05:11 You mentioned Morris, who does, is he the strongest guy on the team or maybe Joe pleasant. Those would be the two first two that would come to mind. And we know who the strongest guy on the team is.
Speaker 2 00:05:20 Joseph big guy, late football player. But I mean most probably the strongest stuff.
Speaker 1 00:05:27 It's probably the strongest quake grant looks like a strong guy too. It was smaller. But uh, yeah. Is there a returning shock or you mentioned Morris and you play the same position. Is there a, uh, guy on the team who's been really helpful as far as helping you learn college, learn college basketball, you know, kind of helped you through some of those, you know, navigate this new life?
Speaker 2 00:05:49 Oh yeah, definitely because we pay the same position and like, he's been there for four years now, so yeah. He's like a veteran that has to be helping me a lot. Um, we were in the same position, so he was helping me like, like you said, navigate, um, through like plays and the stick positioning. Cause he's really good with like angles and stuff. So he's been helping me a lot in practice talking to me like where to be like as if in situations and yeah.
Speaker 1 00:06:17 Yeah. You mentioned the angles with Morris and I always think his skill at scoring around the rim is because he's kind of unorthodox. Uh, he's pretty good footwork. What's it like guarding him. What makes him such a good score?
Speaker 2 00:06:32 I mean, he's not just like bully bald. He CA he got like good food. Well, you said like he can't, he got some moose in the low poets. He can, uh, do some shall fix. And my get you with some, some were in a good mood. I like when I first came here, I didn't think it was that, that like skilled, like in the, uh, moves, but it surprised me, but he's, he got some moose in the low post.
Speaker 1 00:06:57 Okay. So the shockers have a big win. Uh, you play well, that kind of a thing. Who's the first person you're texting or calling to kind of share your, your, share, your excitement with,
Speaker 2 00:07:07 Um, usually it's my mom texted me right after a game. Like I come back to the locker room, see more fallen, miss my mom has shoes. I like, uh, you were saying it was a good game. I would say bank is going to be honest with me. Like, is she gonna tell me like, if I didn't play well, cause she gonna tell them like, yeah.
Speaker 1 00:07:23 So she's able to watch and she's not, she's not afraid to give you a
Speaker 2 00:07:26 Critique.
Speaker 1 00:07:29 Okay. That's important to have a, if you weren't playing college basketball, is there another sport that you would've picked up? Probably soccer. Soccer. Tell us about your soccer background.
Speaker 2 00:07:40 I used to play soccer when I was, uh, younger from like when I was six to like, I want to say like 12 ish. I don't remember exactly, but I used to play soccer when I was younger and I don't really, I had a big passion for both of us, sports, basketball and soccer, but I chose basketball.
Speaker 1 00:08:04 What position did you play in soccer? That's what I would've guessed. All right. What is your favorite sports moment?
Speaker 2 00:08:13 Um, probably when we would be mothered in the sunrise last year in the tournament was called a bubble. Like, yeah, but we beat them. That was a big, like 50,
Speaker 1 00:08:40 A big way in Mount vert is a prominent prep schools. So that was a big, big win for sunrise. Tell us about the basketball culture in Sweden. What's it like playing that sport? Growing up
Speaker 2 00:08:52 Basketballs. Nobody would be all this with them. I it's always soccer. And like, most of your play soccer everywhere has the biggest sports, but it's, it's growing still coming. Um, I would love it to be the face of basketball in Sweden. Like just like tobacco, like grow and see the consumer potential. Like we have a lot of good players in Sweden. There's like, um, I never had like a lot of people in the states playing and it was getting bigger and bigger. So I just hope it's going to be like one of the biggest sports one day. Who is the
Speaker 1 00:09:25 Face of basketball in Sweden?
Speaker 2 00:09:27 Um, probably good. A guy named Lou Hawkinson and he plays in span think, and you want us to be ethical, right? Yeah. Jeffrey Taylor. That's probably the biggest ones. We got
Speaker 1 00:09:48 You just ones. So when you're growing up and you're interested in basketball in Sweden, are you following American college basketball? Are you following the NBA? What kind of role models do you have
Speaker 2 00:09:59 At home? Yes. Um, yeah, what's um, I try to watch the NBA. I mean, it's like, it's, it's difficult. Cause like time change to like, it's usually like three, 4:00 AM, like over there when I'm when the game goes on over here. So it's hard to watch, but like I tried it like watch, um, uh, what's it called? The replace question. What's it like when I wake up in the morning,
Speaker 1 00:10:27 Is there a particular NBA player that you really enjoyed or maybe you try to steal some steal? Some things from,
Speaker 2 00:10:32 I tried to like take from different players. Um, some guys I'd like to watch this like, uh, Nikola Jyotish and John is onto compa. Yeah. I like, I like them too.
Speaker 1 00:10:47 You'll get just so much fun to watch. What do you like about his game
Speaker 2 00:10:50 Justice vision? Like you got the vision and he can, he can score like anywhere. I mean, you can handle the ball really well. You can score into post, like, um, he got a good moose and deposed. He can pass the ball really well. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:11:06 How about learning the game in Sweden or in, I guess in Europe we often hear about European players are different, maybe better shooters, maybe better fundamentally than the people growing up in the United States. What was it like learning the game there?
Speaker 2 00:11:21 I mean, there is a lot of fundamentals back home, um, at a young age, like, um, I feel like when you start like playing games over here, like playing like food court games and like, like how your rooms and we play, we still playing on lower rooms and like doing fundamentals, like passing, um, like shooting technique and working on like all the basic stuff that like, when you're over here, like playing games already, we just over there working fundamental still. I mean, that's like, I feel like that's helping me do like, um, like defensively. Like we work on like a lot of defense and stuff too. Like just basics of everything. So it's good that like, I started from like the beginning and just been working myself up back or like, uh, all this time. So when I came here, um, took that with me and I got out, I've got, um, like a lot of compliments, like for my defensive side too. Like, um, how was, uh, court like defensively, like kind of read, read stuff, like not off, like, not just on the ball, like off the ball, like court vision. I can see the help beside a lot and yeah.
Speaker 1 00:12:33 Okay. Does being a soccer goalkeeper help you defensively? Are there some similarities in your, you know, you're watching a big space and you're kind of, you know, getting in the right spots?
Speaker 2 00:12:42 Um, my, I haven't thought about it like that, but like when I played soccer I did like a lot of food work too. So I feel like that's been helping me, like not me a lot in the long run. So like, I feel like I got like faster feeding, not that most big man,
Speaker 1 00:12:58 Sunrise, Christian and academy. How did you end up there?
Speaker 2 00:13:02 Um, I had, I was 16, 15, 16. I'd always wanted to like come to the states and play basketball, uh, because I was, I was like back home and it wasn't really competition for me cause I was at tall, this guy, biggest guy in like my age group a few years up and like, so I needed some competition and so it's been a dream of mine to come to the states and play. So, I mean, I had some family friends over here. Um, they helped me like find some schools over here and I talked to some schools. Uh, I ended up at sunrise. I don't even know what more to say, but yeah, I ended up at sunrise and I was different three years. Couldn't be better. Like I had no idea actually, when I first came to sunrise, I didn't, I didn't talk to coach Lou too much before I came there just pretty much came to like, as like not knowing much about it, then just came there and took a, took a chance and worked out with well, worked out well.
Speaker 1 00:14:15 What do you miss most about Sweden?
Speaker 2 00:14:17 Of course, my family and friends. Um, the most burden probably mom's cooking,
Speaker 1 00:14:29 Cooking. Food's always a good one. What, uh, have you introduced your teammates here at any, any foods?
Speaker 2 00:14:36 No I haven't. Yes. Lastly, due to,
Speaker 1 00:14:41 Yeah. What's your mom's favorite dish or what's, what's the one thing you look forward to eating the chief?
Speaker 2 00:14:47 I really like anything she makes, but, um, Mr. She's from Finland. So it's a finished dish called, uh, I'm not good on it. Logical. Say that again for the people just call it and describe it. What kind of food is that? Um, it's like, um, I wouldn't say like macaroni and cheese, but it's something similar. And so you got like ground beef in it and some kind of seasoning. We didn't know actually myself. Just, she does. It comes out really good. How about here in the United States? Is there a food that you've really taken a liking to? Um, like chicken tenders. Chicken tenders. Okay. A favorite video game. Favorite, but you have a NBA, two K or fortnight favorite Netflix series or show? Oh, money heist. That's a good one. That's a good one. Alright, Kenny, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker 3 00:16:13 Thank you for listening to the roundhouse podcast, courtesy of Wichita state university, strategic communications. We appreciate your time. We encourage you to rate review, subscribe, wherever you get your podcasts such as on iTunes or Google play. You can find more roundhouse
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Speaker 4 00:16:34 And they let him pass it up court and then it gets picked off a long three by Pancoast. No good. One second. It's over. It is over. And what your task has beaten. The number one team in the nation to go to the sweet 16 go crazy Wichita.
