Guy Landry Edi Interview: Part II

Below is Part II of our Guy Landry Edi series - The interview: 

Gaz: Thank you for taking the time out from your busy schedule to answer some questions for Zagaholic.com.

Edi: Hey, no problem, don’t even mention it.

Gaz: I wanted to start with asking why you chose Gonzaga when you had interest from schools such as Michigan State, Minnesota, and Tennessee? 

Edi: I just felt real comfortable during my visit. Everything clicked and I made up my mind pretty quickly. They had one of the best programs and coaches in the country and they were always playing in the NCAA Tournament. I had family ties and went to high school on the West Coast, so that helped. 

Gaz: Which coach was most influential in your decision, did you make the right decision?

Edi: It was Coach Lloyd mainly recruiting me. Oh yes, I made the correct decision and I love it here. The fans, school, coaches, and teammates are great. 

Gaz: How you are doing in school? Will you graduate? And what is your major in? 

Edi: It’s going great, and the answer is yes. I’ll graduate on time but I still have a few requirement classes to take. My major will be in sports management. 

Gaz: Are you staying in Spokane this summer to work on your game? 

Edi: Absolutely, I will not be playing any international ball again this off-season. I will be staying on campus. It’s my senior season and I want to give it all of my time.  

Gaz: How did the 8 game suspension affect your season? 

Edi: The suspension was crazy and it really hurt. I had to come in and could not play for a lot of games. It set me back not being able to get into the lineup and get comfortable. People don’t realize that its hard to miss 8 games and come back in when the rotation is kind of set up. By the time I was eligible the lineup was starting to gel so it really affected things. 

Gaz: Do you feel with a year in the system and your knee 100% that you’ll do better next season? 

Edi: Oh yes, definitely. I am more familiar with the system, the speed of D1, as well as being in the rotation and having a better feel for my teammates and getting the timing down. It’s nice to have the time to work on my consistency and get down all of the things that take time to adjust to and that coach wants me to get down. 

Gaz: How is your knee? I understand you injured it playing for Ivory Coast during last summer and it affected you all season. Are you 100%? Did you have surgery on it? 

Edi: Oh, no worries at all. I sprained my ACL last summer playing for Ivory Coast. I had some bad treatment on it initially overseas and it was not done right. It has healed by itself without surgery. The physical therapy treatments and massages that I got after coming back here helped a lot. It took some time, but I do not need surgery and I am 100% so there are no problems at all with it. 

Gaz: The stats that you normally put up in high school and in Junior College were not maintained at GU, why do you suppose that was? 

Edi: Lots of things affect that. My knee had been bothering me, getting into the speed of D1 and getting into a flow with my teammates was made more difficult because of the suspension and also being gone playing in FIBA for Ivory Coast. There will be improvement.

Gaz: Have you grown any taller than your reported 6’6 and how much does your weight fluctuate during the regular season vs. the off-season?

Edi: Right now I am about 222. That is because I do a lot of lifting and play less basketball. During the season I drop down to maybe 215 to about 212 and that’s where I want to be. 

Gaz: Which coach do you work with the most? 

Edi: All of them, it really just depends. During the off-season it’s mostly Lloyd and Daniels. Different coaches do different drills but pretty much all of them during the season. 

Gaz: Because Robert Sacre made such a dramatic improvement in his free throw shooting, I am curious as to if there is a coach in particular that helps players with their free throw shooting technique? 

Edi: Actually yes, it’s Coach {Jerry} Krause. He’s really big on that kind of stuff. Helping with the mental aspect, how you see things in your mind. It helped me as the season went along. 

Gaz: Did you get a good chewing out by coach Few for the attempted off the glass dunk from Gary Bell stunt during one of the games?  

Edi: Actually I didn’t, but Gary did {he laughs}. It would have worked if I hadn’t been pushed.  

Gaz: Maybe you should fine-tune it at practice so if the chance ever comes up again, you could make it happen? 

Edi: Hahaha, Coach Few was actually pretty cool about it but I don’t think so, wouldn’t want to push my luck. If it had worked it might have been on ESPN highlights though, {more laughter}. Few is a really laid back coach, he gives us a lot of freedom. He’s a good coach. 

Gaz: I have heard that the team votes on potential recruits, did you vote on Karnowski and what did you think of him? 

Edi: No, we didn’t vote on anything. The coaches decide all that. We really like Karnowski, he’s a talented big guy and we need a guy like that on our team. It’s really hard to find a guy that’s bigger than Rob, and he is…we need the size. 

Gaz:  Tell us a little about what you do with your free time, are there certain players you hang out with more than others?  

Edi: We go to movies, clubs, downtown, the mall, and we eat out a lot.  Sam, E and Carter we are really tight, we love each other and everybody is cool with everybody on the team but we go out a lot together, hang out, laugh and have fun. 

Gaz: What is your favorite thing to eat? 

Edi: Oh man, that’s a hard one. I eat everything, I’m a fatty. I love all kinds of food. Mexican, Italian, French, pretty much whatever’s out there. 

Gaz:  What thoughts do you have on playing pro ball after the season? Can you get to the NBA, or Europe? 

Edi: That’s a long way off. And a lot depends on this season. I want to just do the best I can and see what may come later. This season is very important because we want to do better than last year. We have good coaches and a very good team. I am excited about what we can accomplish. 

Gaz: Thanks Guy, I can appreciate how busy you are and it’s super cool that you took the time for an interview…good luck this season, we’ll be cheering for you. Do good things and bring the house down! I’ll send you a link so you can see the write up when it runs! 

Edi: Hey thanks man, I appreciate it.

 This ends our two part series with Guy Landry Edi. It was a pleasure to interview Guy. I found him to be very personable, friendly, and accommodating. He may very well be the wildcard as to how far the Zags can go next season. With a year under his belt in the system and his knee 100%, the upcoming season might be magical indeed; the hardest part is the waiting.

* Follow Guy Landry Edi on Twitter: @llcoollandry