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Q&A with Wyoming Shooting Guard Xavier DuSell

Wyoming Shooting Guard Xavier DuSell did a Q&A with us during the Cowboy’s off week.

This past week I had the opportunity to do a Q&A with Wyoming Shooting Guard Xavier DuSell. We talked about everything from the Cowboys’ hot start to his favorite player growing up. It was definitely a unique and fun experience.

https://twitter.com/wyo_mbb/status/1468802675626098692?s=21

MWW: I appreciate you taking the time to answer some questions for me!

XD: Yeah! No Problem!

MWW: Finals are this week; how are finals going for you?

XD: They are going well; tomorrow is the last day so I’m looking forward to being done with my semester.

MWW: Has it been better this year doing classes in person? As compared to the remote learning of last year?

XD: I am actually still all online, and so are a few other of my teammates, but all the other guys on the team have seemed to enjoy it.

MWW: What are you majoring in?

XD: I am a Journalism major.

MWW: Oh nice! So do you want to do Sports Journalism? Or a different type of Journalism?

XD: Oh, I definitely want to do Sports Journalism for sure!

MWW: Well, let’s jump right into it question wise!

MWW: This year being your second year on the team, what has been the biggest adjustment from year one to year two?

XD: Definitely becoming more of a leader and trying to impact the game in more ways than one. Besides just scoring, this year I have been more of a defensive presence than I was last year, and I have taken a lot of pride in the role of guarding the other team’s best guard.

MWW: What adjustments have you made over the past year to step into the role of the team’s defensive stopper?

XD: Just watching other great defenders, Patrick Beverly and Marcus Smart in the NBA, and just seeing what those guys do, and the tendencies that they have. The way they have their feet when they are guarding someone a certain way, or how they are getting through ball screens. Mostly it is just learning from other people that do it better than me.

MWW: What do you feel like the biggest adjustment, as a team, has been for this year as compared to last year? Also with that what has been the biggest adjustment been from year one to year two under Coach Linder?

XD: Last year with COVID Protocol and everything we weren’t able to play five-on-five as much as we would have liked, and practices were very drill oriented, but this year all of our practices have consisted of five-on-five and some drills, but the majority of what we do in practice is just playing and competing against each other. I think that is definitely the biggest adjustment we have made, and that is why we have been so successful. Every single day we are playing, so when it comes time for the game it’s nothing that we haven’t seen before.

MWW: Do you feel like that has helped you guys gel better as a team this year?

XD: Absolutely! I think our chemistry is really good! Everybody knows where everybody else likes to be on the floor, what type of shots everybody likes to take, and on defense we are just one big unit. I definitely think it has helped a lot.

MWW: Of your teammates, who is the hardest for you to guard?

XD: I mean there’s a couple, for me personally one of the freshmen, Noah Reynolds, gives me a hard time. He is very fast and strong, so I like guarding him in practice because I like the challenge, having to guard people smaller than me but that may be stronger than me. I like to challenge myself in practice so that when it comes time in the game, I am more comfortable.

MWW: Coming out of High School you originally committed to Northern Colorado, where Coach Linder was the head coach, and then you followed him to Wyoming when he was hired. What about Coach Linder attracted you to his programs?

XD: Definitely who he is as a person first and foremost. He’s a great guy, a family guy, and it is the same way with rest of the coaching staff. I just like the culture that they built at Northern Colorado, and I knew that they were going to implement it here. On a higher level it’s a better conference, and I just wanted to come here and show that I can play at this level just as well as I could have played in the Big Sky, so I wanted to take on the challenge.

MWW: Going back to the team, the stats show that you guys are playing really unselfish basketball. You guys have five players averaging double figures. What do you feel like has contributed the most to this?

XD: I think it is just the way that we play. We are a very unselfish team and we are always trying to get the best shot possible on the offensive end. Whether it is a layup, a three, whatever the highest quality shot is, that’s what we are trying to take. Sometimes it might not be your night where the shots are going down, so we try to move the ball around and get everyone a touch at least once a possession, so everyone has a look.

https://twitter.com/wyo_mbb/status/1469888722527297536?s=27

MWW: I am not sure how much you guys pay attention to the advanced analytics and stats, but as a team you guys are one of the most efficient teams on both sides of the ball. Do you guys, as a team, pay attention to the analytics and stats?

XD: As a player, I don’t really pay attention to it, I just try to play the right way and let the rest take care of itself. Our coaching staff is big on analytics and statistics so they are always looking at that kind of stuff to see how we can be better as a team. We do take a lot of pride in being at the top of those lists.