EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Preseason practice continues for the Purple Aces men's basketball team as the season is quickly approaching.  We caught up with head coach Walter McCarty to get the latest update.
 
"Practice has been going really well.  Our guys are continuing to get better each day, understanding what we expect from them and what our standards are," McCarty said.  "They are seeing how we want things to happen, where you need to be as far as positioning, knowing how we want to play and how we want to look.  We have been getting better each day."
 
NCAA rules have allowed coaches to have more practice time with their teams and for a first-year head coach, that time has been extremely valuable.  McCarty spent the summer implementing his system and feels like his team is doing well in learning what is expected of them each day.
 
"The time that we have been able to work with the guys before the official start date has really helped.  It allowed us to introduce some initial things," McCarty explained.  "As practice has started, it has moved along much easier because guys understand what we are doing and they have been introduced to it before."
 
"It keeps us on schedule as far as what we want to get accomplished."
 
The University of Evansville is in the middle of its fall break and McCarty gave his guys a few days off to recharge and believes that this opportunity will help his guys in every way possible.
 
"We have been going at it and this gives guys a quick break, but hopefully it makes the guys hungrier to come back and get at it and get back to work," McCarty said. 
 
With the team gaining more and more experience with McCarty's system, his team looks to get better in the final weeks of the preseason while introducing a few more aspects of the game before the year.
 
"Our goal is to continue to grow and get better at what we are doing now so we can introduce some new stuff that can only help us get better," he exclaimed.  "Getting into zone defenses and zone offenses, things that we want to add to the makeup of our team.  The more time we spend with our team, the more we can put in and get to work at it."
 
Fans will have their first opportunity to see Coach McCarty and the 2018-19 Purple Aces on Wednesday, October 17 at Hoopfest.  Coach reflected on the event.
 
"I think it will be fun and am looking forward to it.  I have not thought much about it because we have been really focused on getting better daily," McCarty added.  "That is our goal – every time we get on the practice court, we want to say that we have gotten better."
 

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