1-On-1 With Curtis Douglas

Tucson Roadrunners Forward Curtis Douglas joined Adrian Denny, Kim Cota-Robles and Arizona Daily Star’s Brett Fera this week on Roadrunners Happy Hour. Catch Happy Hour every Tuesday at 5 p.m. on Fox Sports 1450 AM and the Roadrunners Happy Hour Podcast on the iHeartRadio app. For the complete episode, and to find out which jersey Matt Villalta is taking to the All-Star Classic, download below.

Listen to “Big Man Curtis On The Show” on Spreaker.

Q: Talking about the Saturday’s game a little bit. I imagine that seeing your teammates sticking up for each other like that has to bring the team together. Is that the case?

Yeah, I think it just attests to the character of the group that we have. Everyone stands together and stands together as teammates. I think we have a really close, and great group of guys here. Sometimes you don’t really see what’s going on behind the scenes during the games and stuff, and I think a couple of guys didn’t like what was going on and kind of took it into their own hands, just nice to see. The extracurricular kind of suspensions hurts us a little bit, but I think if they were to do it over again, they’d probably do the same thing.

Q: When you became teammates with him this year, did you have any background with Matt Villalta being from Ontario too? Did you run into him and Hunter Drew at all, anywhere up there?

It’s such a small world over there. I don’t live too far, so I knew a lot of new mutual friends and some other people; had heard only heard good things about both guys. I have grown to be really close with both. I’ve been super fortunate in that way. And yes, I’m excited to just continue to grow those relationships and they’re amazing people and amazing players. So it’s pretty lucky over here.

Q: General Manager John Ferguson and our coaches Steve, John, Zach and Jake have put together a team of great human beings as well as a team of great hockey players it seems.

I think they’ve done a tremendous job with identifying roles and communicating what those roles should be or shouldn’t be and just making sure that everyone vibes together. We have some really great guys here. The staff has helped us a ton and we’re just looking for to keep winning.

Q: If you were stranded on a desert island with three of your teammates, who would you want it and why?

Justin Kirkland would be one for sure. He’s very resourceful, and he’d be easy to get along with. There’s absolutely no chance I’d bring Ryan McGregor. Not even close. He would be in the boat. I live with Ryan, (laugh). So probably Justin Kirkland, Austin Poganski and maybe Hunter Drew? Maybe Matty Villalta, he’d be super easy out there. I think he’d just be kind of hanging out in the sun.

Q: What are you doing during the All-Star break?

I don’t know yet. Ryan McGregor and I live together. I think we’ll probably just hang out, relax a bit and maybe play some golf. That’d be nice.

Q: What do you think has made the team so good this year?

I think, game plan wise, everyone’s really been buying in. I think we have a lot of depth and I think, like I said, there are a little bit earlier, it’s like with the roles thing, I think when everyone sort of knows what they need to be doing day in and day out. It makes it easier to just go out there and put your head down and do it. I think it’s been really good with that this year, and people knowing kind of what they need to do to help the team even if it’s a little less flashy than maybe you’d want it to be. I think everyone just really wants to see us do well as a team and that’s why we’ve had a lot of success and hopefully we’ll just continue to grow like that and get better.