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00:00 So Raekwon, just, I mean, take, I mean, we've talked to you several times after games,
00:04 the first pregame thing. Just take me from when you got eligible to now.
00:08 Tough transition for you. Where are you in terms of getting your whole game back to where you want it to be?
00:14 I mean, it is a little tough. Like, I have no room for error, you know, at all.
00:19 Everybody else in the country is guaranteed those 30, 35 games.
00:24 You know, I've only 25, you know, 25 games and that's all I get.
00:28 You know, but it hasn't been too difficult. You know, I've been playing basketball for years,
00:33 so, you know, just kind of being confident and consistent as well.
00:36 Do you try to make up for lost time a little bit? Do you find yourself, "Oh boy, I missed some games.
00:41 I want to make the most of this." I don't want to say you're putting up shots, maybe you shouldn't,
00:45 but do you find yourself trying to make up for what you missed?
00:49 Yeah, I mean, shoot, you saw those first two, three games I was trying to make up for a lot of time missed.
00:53 But other than that, you know, I just slowed down a little bit.
00:57 The defense, you know, teams watch film, so now I got to have to like tweak my game a little bit
01:01 rather than just putting shots up.
01:04 Are you angry about what you had to go through or what kind of emotion is there about that?
01:11 No, I never was really angry. I definitely thought it was unfair, but, you know,
01:17 God has a plan for everybody, you know what I mean?
01:19 So I didn't want to kind of dwell on what happened and just kind of keep it positive.
01:24 How many times did you have heart-to-heart meetings with yourself about while you were going through that?
01:30 Every night. Yeah, pretty much every night. You know, I just want to think of what I could do.
01:35 You know, it wasn't very much that I could do in that moment, but, you know,
01:38 I just wanted to go to practice every day. I was practicing like I was playing, you know.
01:45 But, you know, just getting my team better and trying to figure out ways, you know, to win.
01:49 You handled yourself, you know, reasonably well, you know, considering that you're not a politician.
01:56 I mean, you know, you're not at all in a situation where, you know, you couldn't say what you could say.
02:04 Did you get a lot of help with that or did you just go from the heart?
02:08 No, I went from the heart. Like when I was like on the stand and stuff, you know,
02:11 and they're cross-examining me, like all of that was just natural, you know what I mean?
02:15 Because I felt like I was a prime example of somebody treated unfairly by the NCAA.
02:20 Greg, I'm kind of interested. So, I mean, this thing obviously became a federal case, literally.
02:26 Literally, yeah. Yeah. And you kind of became the face of it.
02:32 I know there were other athletes there, but now that the rulings have become what they've become,
02:38 everyone's kind of gotten eligible. Have you heard from any of those other athletes?
02:44 Text message, tweets, phone calls? Hey, Rayquan, thanks for, you know, making the sacrifice you did.
02:52 Yeah, a few people reached out to me, you know, over message or whatnot.
02:56 A couple of coaches that I know that, you know, their players were ineligible and they reached out to me,
03:00 you know, and they're like, "Yo, appreciate that," for, you know, many reasons.
03:04 And I actually met somebody in person, you know, I met one person, you know,
03:07 he came up to me and he was a wrestler here and he was ineligible and he was very, you know,
03:11 grateful of what was going on. He's like, "Bro, you helped me. You know, I don't know my life was going to go
03:15 if I didn't, you know, wrestling, if I didn't get, was able to wrestle this year."
03:19 So, you know, he was very appreciative. These are guys, obviously, like you said, you didn't know.
03:23 Yeah, never met them. And to hear these stories, what's that like? It feels great, you know.
03:29 You know, it was kind of, that's why I'm like, I'm not too upset about anything.
03:32 I was still able to make an impact those first 10 games without even being on the floor.
03:36 You know what I mean? It took a minute, but, you know, I was able to make a big difference.
03:41 Take me back to when you decided to leave Montana State and transfer. Give me a little bit of
03:45 background of why you came to West Virginia. At that point, did you ever have any thoughts that
03:49 you wouldn't be eligible? Wait a second. When you left Montana State, did you not think that
03:54 you'd be eligible right away at West Virginia? No, yeah. How long did it take to get to the point of,
03:59 "Uh-oh, I may not be eligible this next year." Yeah, there was a chance. There is like a chance,
04:03 I mean, a thought of me not being eligible. You know, I always kept that in the back of my head.
04:08 But I believe my case was strong enough to, you know, get my waiver, but, you know,
04:13 NCAA wasn't really hearing it. But I mean, once I realized I wasn't going to get it,
04:19 it was probably the second denial. Was the second denial, okay, then I might not play at all this
04:24 year. So, you know, we sat down with the coach and administration, just figured out a plan.
04:30 I've got a basketball question for you because we're kind of in a hurry up mood here.
04:36 You guys have played a lot of different defenses, and even like before you were eligible,
04:40 they played a lot of different. So from week to week, you know, one week it might be okay. Well,
04:45 for this team, we're going to play this, and for this team, we're going to... What's that been
04:48 like to not... It could be something different game to game defensively, strategy-wise,
04:55 and getting used to that. What I've noticed in like this league, it's a lot about matchups.
04:59 Like it's really a matchup type of thing. Like with Kansas, you know, we were full, you know,
05:04 confident that we were going to go out there and win that game. You know, teams like Baylor and
05:10 UCF, these very physical defensive teams, you know, we kind of have to be a little more strategic
05:14 rather than, you know, being, you know, pushing, you know, the floor and, you know, fast breaks
05:20 and, you know, just getting threes up. Now we've got to be more strategic.
05:22 Josh said that you had a unique, sounding a little bit tough upbringing, and said,
05:28 you know, he didn't want to get into it, but it allowed you to do so. So within reason of what
05:32 you want to talk about, how tough was your life coming up and representing Native Americans is
05:38 one of the few to play at this level. What's that been like? I mean, my life was, you know,
05:43 ordinary for the most part, you know, but, you know, just growing up on the reservation,
05:49 it comes with hardships and, you know, there's a lot of drug and alcohol abuse and suicides that
05:54 go on. And, you know, sadly, a lot of my family members fell victim to a lot of that stuff.
06:00 But, you know, it kind of made me push, you know, for what I wanted even harder. You know,
06:04 I wanted to work a lot harder than, you know, I ever imagined. And once I realized I can like
06:11 go, you know, play like professional or go to college, you know, that was wraps for everything.
06:16 You know, I didn't care about, you know, even school, sadly, you know, all the kids listening
06:20 and go to school, do your schoolwork. But, you know, I was so focused on getting better and,
06:24 you know, maximizing my potential to go play basketball and whatnot. So to keep my,
06:29 you know, mind off of, you know, losing people I grew up with.
06:32 Does it feel like as far as your college career goes, does it feel like the end is coming for you
06:39 or have you thought about that? Because I mean, it's, you know, we're talking weeks here instead
06:43 of months now. Yeah, I think it was about last week, actually. I think after the Texas game
06:49 in Austin, I was just sitting there and my brother flew out to me and he said,
06:53 you know, he's like, you're five, you're almost done. And, you know, I haven't seen him since
06:57 Christmas too. So I was just like, you're right. I only like six, you know, seven, eight games left.
07:02 It's different though. You know, I mean, I'm not, I'm not nervous about, you know,
07:08 going out into the real world and really having basketball be my job rather than it just be my
07:13 sport at, you know, at a school. So, you know, I'm excited. I'm excited.
07:17 Why West Virginia when you decided to transfer? Did you know Emmett Matthews,
07:22 Eric Stevenson at all from their Washington, you know, state?
07:27 Yeah. So you guys were on the team together at one point, right? So,
07:30 yeah. So did you, I mean, did you reach out to him and ask him,
07:34 hey, would that be a good fit? How'd you get here?
07:37 So in my recruiting process, West Virginia was kind of one of the last schools to reach out to
07:43 me. Jay Coons called me great, you know, great recruiter, Jay Coons, you know, I love him to
07:47 death. So after Jay called me, Emmett reached out, he FaceTimed me because I had his number.
07:52 I actually met Emmett that, like officially met Emmett that summer before. And he said,
07:57 because my first year at Montana State, I did pretty well, won the six man award.
08:02 And he was just giving me words of wisdom. He's like, you're from Washington, bro. You know,
08:05 I got connections at West Virginia and a couple of other institutions. If you want to,
08:09 you know, go back to the high major field. And, you know, I kept that in the back of my head,
08:13 you know, the whole year. I was, you know, the year turned out great for me.
08:16 And then he reached out, he said, are we, you know, is there a chance, you know,
08:21 you would come to West Virginia? I said, yeah, no doubt, you know, especially you looking now.
08:24 And Eric reached out to me as well. Because me and Eric, you know, we, we weren't the best team
08:29 when we were at Washington. But I mean, we, you know, I trusted him because we, you know,
08:34 we were at our lowest together. So. >> Was he as outspoken at Washington
08:38 as he was here at West Virginia, Stevenson? >> No, no, actually, you know, you can hear that
08:42 from me, but Eric, he was a little quiet then, you know, he still had his little,
08:47 funny thing is actually, I met Eric in high school. So I played Eric in high school and his,
08:52 or my first interaction, I'll never forget it with him, is, you know, we do in a captain's huddle,
08:55 and, you know, during warmups, and we, you know, we shake the hands after. He was committed to
08:59 Wichita State at the time, and I was committed to Washington. And he was just like, looking at me,
09:04 just looking at me, dead in my face, you know what I mean? And he didn't shake my hand after that.
09:08 And I was okay. You know, I don't know who Eric, this Eric guy is, but I'm about to beat him up
09:13 right now, you know? So we actually ended up beating them by like 15, 20 points, you know,
09:18 and we held him, and it was, that's one of the, that's the main interaction I've had with Eric,
09:23 you know, I was just, you know, every day, and you know, and I'll end up playing with him,
09:27 I tell him all the time, I'm trying to play one-on-one with you every time, every chance I get,
09:31 because I will never forget the first time we met, you know what I mean? So, but he's great,
09:34 though, one of my good friends now, so, yeah. >> Great one, thank you.