OU Basketball: Q&A With Sophomore Christian James

Fresh off a Final Four appearance, the OU Men's basketball team enter the 2016-17 season without a lot of familiar faces. With Buddy Hield, Isaiah Cousins and Ryan Spangler all graduated, the Sooners will depend on a different group of guys to get the job done on a nightly basis. 

One of those guys is sophomore guard Christian James. The Houston product averaged three points per game last season as a freshman, but it expected to take on a much bigger role this year a a perimeter scorer. 

James took the time to talk with News 9 at OU basketball media day on Tuesday, and here's what he had to say: 

On how the offseason went…

“Great offseason. A lot of shooting, ball handling and stuff like that. I was just pretty much working on my body trying to get my agility back, you know I broke my leg junior year (of high school). Just learning the system, keep learning the system, trying to lead these guys.”

On how people compare him to Buddy Hield and if that affected how he prepared in the offseason…

“Definitely not, I’m up for the challenge to try to figure out how to win games. A lot of people compare me to Buddy but we have different games. Yeah, I can shoot the ball, but I like to get people involved first and then I’ll go get mine. I’m up for the challenge.”

On playing more minutes towards the end of last season…

“It was definitely a confidence booster, just learning my teammates and my coach trusting me, just out there learning, feeding off of them. This year I have to bring energy and try to lead these guys. It’s going to be a challenge for us and I’m ready for it.”

On what he’s seen out of highly recruited freshman Kameron McGusty…

“Kam, he’s going to be crazy. He kind of reminds me of Jamal Crawford because he’s so shifty and so fast with the ball, he’s going to be a good player here.”

On not being ranked in the top 25 despite making the Final Four last season…

“We don’t care, we just want to win games. We’re not worried about rankings or anything like that we just have to go out and play our game. If we play how we’re supposed to play, at the end of the day we’ll win.”