White Eyeing Return To The Court

AMES, Iowa- Finals week is officially over, putting to bed the 2010-11 season for the Iowa State men's basketball team. After a couple of weeks, most of the Cyclone basketball players will return to Ames for the summer in preparation for the 2011-12 campaign, and you arguably won't find a more excited Cyclone than Royce White. White sat out last season as a redshirt transfer and is ready to put his individual stamp on the program. White recently sat down with cyclones.com and talked about the excitement for next season.

What did you learn while sitting out this past season?
"It was another year of maturity. Watching it from the sideline you notice when the right play is made, your percentages go up. Sometimes when you are in a game you don't really see that. Definitely watching the games from the sideline the whole year you can see when we played the right way and did the right things, we won. When we didn't, we still played competitively, but most of the time we came up short."

Your first year at Iowa State is over and you are now ready to start playing competitively with the team. How does that make you feel?
"It has been a long time coming for me. I have sat out a lot of games. This is big for me. I have a lot of inner hunger and I am ready."

How important is this summer for you in your development?
"I will continue to work on my game. Keep talking with the coaches on how I can improve. Building relationships with my teammates is also important. Successful teams start with team chemistry and cohesiveness. Helping build relationships will be something I will focus on. The trip to Italy will allow us an early chance to see where we stand. More importantly than working out and working on my game individually, is building chemistry."

Talk more about the summer trip to Italy and how important it is for the team?
"This is going to be big for us. The trip will really help us, especially in building chemistry. As a team we can go through situations and see how we react before the season even starts. I think it will be a great opportunity for us."

Talk about how important it was for you to have other players like Chris Allen, Chris Babb and Anthony Booker being in the same position as you as transfers sitting out?
"I think we are going to shock a lot of people. Maybe some people don't give us the credit we deserve because we are kind of the misfit bunch. I feel bad those other guys are getting tied in as misfits, because I am the real misfit. I think a lot of heat we are catching from that media-wise and what people are saying on the message boards and things like that is because of me. I am excited about playing with these guys. We are excited and we are hungry."

Players Mentioned

Chris Allen

Chris Allen

Chris Babb

Anthony Booker

Anthony Booker

Royce White

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