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New Mexico center Alex Kirk and forward Cameron Bairstow finished their runs at the World University Games in Kazan, Russia on Thursday. Bairstow played for the silver medal-winning Australian team, and he averaged a team-leading 12.8 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. For the ninth-place American squad, Kirk averaged 3.7 points and 5.3 rebounds playing roughly eight minutes per game.
Returning to the Rudy Davalos Center on Friday afternoon, Kirk spoke to five local media outlets, including the Daily Lobo, during a press conference about his experience in Russia. Bairstow was not present at the press conference.
Q: What was the experience like of going over there and playing for your country?
AK: It’s almost an experience that you can’t really describe. We go up to Colorado and we absolutely went at it for four days, and they put you in a small video room and say “here’s 16 guys who made the team.” And you come back that night and we had about a four-hour practice, and then you’re like, “I’m not so sure about this; I don’t know if this was the right choice for me.”
That next Sunday or whenever, Monday I think it was, we took off and took on a flight all the way to Kazan, Russia, and you get there and we had no idea what to expect. None of us had done anything like this before, and then you start meeting all these people from different countries. There was nobody who spoke English in the cafeteria unless you’re talking about a Great Britain or Canada or Australian person. That was a tough aspect of it.
By the time it got down to start playing games, you just look down at your jersey and it says “USA” right there, and you just got chills immediately. It’s just something. You’re out there warming up and you’re just looking around. This was just an environment like it’s still hard to believe that the goal was 10 feet. It was a different game.
But the experience, it was probably one of the best experiences of my life to be able to say I did that. I told the coaches at the end of it, “Thank you guys — You just fulfilled one of my dreams, like my lifetime dream.” … How many people get that chance to be able to go and play? I have no complaints. I have no regrets. I’ve never had an experience like that. To meet all the people I met, play with the kids I did, be coached by the coaches I was, I don’t think there was a better situation.
Q: You say you have no regrets, but were you surprised in that game against Australia? You guard Cam every day and then the coach had you just sitting there.
AK: They did what they felt was right. I think you have to understand in a lot of these things there is a lot of politics going on. I’ve kind of done that since an early age coming up through the AAU circuits. There’s a lot of politics in that stuff, all the different players who make the McDonald’s All-American game, so I was used to it.
Honestly, I didn’t really know what to expect. That was the one game I did expect a lot. I was like, “I’d play big minutes this night.” A big team, very physical, need a lot of rebounding. I did what I could. I supported my team from the bench. It was hard; It’s hard not playing when you lose. That’s like the toughest thing because you just sit there. Why wasn’t I given the opportunity to go out there and do this? Coach (Jim) Boeheim, Coach (Bob) McKillop, they apologized after and said they probably would have done things differently there.
But it’s fine. I’m completely OK with it. They put me on the team. No complaints at all. It was an amazing experience. They’re great, amazing coaches and they’ve had their careers. They know what they’re doing. I just followed their lead.
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Q: What changed from Game 1 — where you played the 17 minutes and had the double-double — to the rest of the games while you were over there? Did anything change?
AK: The Arab game … how do I describe them — as a 1A New Mexico school? Somewhere in there. I think Los Alamos could have taken the floor with them. The problem was, we were talking with them afterward and they’re millionaires and their parents are billionaires. It’s not really a big issue for them. They’ve kind of got life figured out for them while we’re still getting scholarship checks. Hey, it was just one of those games where I got the opportunity to play. I took advantage of it, got the double-double.
The reason why I don’t have a regret is because every minute that I get I take advantage of it. I put up my numbers that I could in the limited time I had. I still got to wear the USA. That’s all I cared about. I wish we did better, I wish things went a little differently, but hey, they didn’t. I went to Kazan to play basketball. No complaints.
Q: Even though you didn’t see a lot of minutes, did you witness anything in terms of style of play than what you normally see here in the United States?
AK: Oh, it’s a different game. It’s like it’s almost a different sport. I mean, the ball goes through the hoop, but it’s totally different — the reffing, even from the beginning when we scrimmaged Russia, I think we had 25 traveling calls. You can’t use your hands at all, which is a lot different. The game is very physical, but you can’t use your hands — you can only use your body, which I think a lot of our guys weren’t quite ready for. But we had time to adjust for it. I think I was a little more used to it playing with Cam. He does use his body. That was a big, big difference.
These guys aren’t interested in the high-flying dunks. They can all shoot, but they’ll take you to the rim. They’re all quick, physical guys. They finish around the rim, but I saw and I met some amazing players that — I don’t know how they would do in the college game over here — but it was amazing just to see the different styles of play, the different coaching. There was a lot of different things.
Q: What did you learn about your game out there, especially at those practices against some guys who are sure-fire first-round draft picks?
AK: We practiced every day, like practiced an hour, two hours every single day no matter if we had a game. Every day I got it in going against (Michigan State’s) Adreian Payne, going against (Baylor’s) Cory Jefferson. I played against (Marquette’s) Davante Gardner, (Purdue’s) A.J. Hammons. I went up against those guys.
The thing I take the most away from them is I’m right there. I’m not any different from them. I’m just as talented as them.
Obviously Cory and Adreian are quite a bit more athletic, but in that case I have some skills that they don’t have. That kind of opened my eyes, but you take a lot.
… I met some great guys, friendships for a lifetime. Going up against those guys, you only get better. I only got better in practice, and then I was able to take that to the floor and produce a little bit.
