Easley Impressing With Toughness, Hustle

Charlie Easley, a freshman walk-on from Lincoln, and graduate of Lincoln Pius X High School, has quickly become a fan favorite on the Nebraska men's basketball team. The 6-foot-2, 190-pound Easley has earned significant playing time only months after leading Pius X to the Class B state championship. His father, Ed, also played at Pius X, and then Nebraska Wesleyan, and played in one of the most memorable high school state tournament games in Nebraska history, albeit a heartbreaking loss to Wahoo. In Sunday's victory over Purdue, Easley played a career-high 10 minutes and impressed coach Fred Hoiberg with "big-time toughness" plays. "Charlie easily works as hard as anybody that I've been around," Hoiberg said. "For him to go out there and keep himself prepared and keep himself ready when you're out of a rotation … you wait for these types of opportunities, and the amount of work you put in will help you prepare to go out and have a positive impact on the game." Easley, who bypassed his lone Division I scholarship offer, from The Citadel, visited with Brian Rosenthal of Huskers.com about the key to his strong start and many other topics in this QnA.
 
BR: What motivated you in accepting this walk-on opportunity?
Charlie: "Definitely belief in myself and what I can do. I felt that I proved as much as I could've. I couldn't have done anything else that I'm a D-I (scholarship) caliber player. It's just things didn't work out. All my family's in Lincoln. I'm from Lincoln. I've grown up loving the Huskers. I thought I could help them out and eventually see myself playing. I want to prove … I obviously want to get a scholarship. That's one thing. Walking on, I never was going to be a walk-on. That was never in the plan. Definitely that. Yeah, I got a bunch more to prove."
 
BR: Did you expect to see these significant minutes this early in the season?
Charlie: "No. If I'm being honest, no, I didn't. But I know I'm ready. It's what I've worked for. You can't shy away from the moment. The moment came, and hopefully it keeps coming, and I'm going to keep being ready."
 
BR: Why do you believe you've been able to play so soon?
Charlie: "Just hard work, always being in the gym. Just being a gym rat. Always doing the little things right. Just being tough."
 
BR: What does it take for a walk-on to succeed and make an impact on the Division I level?
Charlie: "You got to have a different attitude. You can't come in and … I mean, some of the common things that happen with guys that don't play, like walk-ons who don't play over the course of their careers, is it kind of wears them down and they don't have that same motivation. That's one thing I told myself when I committed here. I'm never going to lose that. If I ever lose that, then I'm doing something wrong. I just told myself I always got to stay motivated."
 
BR: What was the one thing that's maybe surprised you about Division I basketball?
Charlie: "Just kind of the principles on defense. It's a lot more complex than high school. It's more on where you got to be all the time. You got to always be vocal. Vocalizing is a big thing that I wasn't as good in high school, so it's definitely learning having to use your voice a lot more. That's been a big thing for me."
 
BR: Speaking of defense, what's it been like learning from Doc Sadler?
Charlie: I love working with Doc. He'll get on you, which I like. He's definitely intense with the defense, and I think that's going to help us in the end, because that's what wins games."
 
BR: There's a clip of you boxing out and frustrating 7-3 Purdue center Matt Haarms on Sunday. What does that particular play say about you?
Charlie: "I'm not going to shy away from anybody. I'm not scared of anybody. It's just something you got to do in a game. If somebody's there to box out, you just got to box him out. You just got to be physical. It doesn't really matter, height. I mean, it matters to a certain extent, but you just got to want it more, basically."
 
BR: Do you think Coach Hoiberg sees a little bit of himself in you, especially in terms of attitude and work ethic?
Charlie: "I can't say whether he sees me in himself, but I just hope he sees a guy that just never stops working."
 
BR: How do you think fans who watch you play would describe you as a player?
Charlie: "Just always an effort guy. Never going to take a play off. Always going to play with energy. Just be tough out there and do whatever it takes to win."


 
BR: What's been the biggest factor in the team's sudden turnaround, and what steps must it take to stay on this trajectory?
Charlie: "It definitely hasn't been one guy. It's definitely been a team as a whole. The coaching staff and the players have just kind of come together and started to figure things out. You definitely saw a shift there at Indiana, and you definitely could tell we were close there. It was good we could pull it together for Purdue. Coach Hoiberg has been saying trust in each other. There's been a lot more of that, which I do agree with. Just being always prepared. I think we're preparing a lot better and being more focused now."
 
BR: Who have been your influences throughout your basketball career?
Charlie: "My parents for sure. They've taught me the work ethic and focusing on the things you can control. The one thing my dad tells me before every game is defense and rebounding, and everything else comes with it. Definitely, my high school coach, AAU coaches, Brian Spicka, Andy King.
 
BR: Have you seen a change in your body in terms of strength and conditioning since you came to Nebraska?
Charlie: "I had always taken lifting pretty seriously and I was pretty strong coming in, but definitely Coach Wilson has helped a lot with mostly legs and quickness. I came in and I was coming off surgery, so I had to get back in it. R.J. helped me a lot, just getting my mobility in my ankles.
 
BR: How much of your high school senior season did you play injured?
Charlie: "All of last year. It got really, really bad at the end of the year. They did a lot of stuff on my foot, especially around state time. They did a lot of different treatments, and I had to sit out the whole week leading up until state. I didn't do anything. I knew it was going to get bad, but I just had to get through those last three games."
 
BR: Have you ever talked to your dad about the famous Wahoo-Pius X game?
Charlie: "He doesn't like to talk about it. He said it was always going bother him, but now that I won state last year, it's gone. It's not going to affect him anymore. But yeah, he doesn't like talking about it."
 
BR: Do you remember when and how you first heard about that game?
Charlie: "I think he might have showed me a video, or I might have seen it, but I think he probably showed me it. He didn't watch, of course. Now, my siblings, anytime they want to make him mad, they'll say, 'Go, Wahoo!' or something. That's the little ones, Emma and Thomas. It's more a joke than anything, but it's kind of funny."
 
BR: You mentioned winning the state championship. What was the feeling, the euphoria of ending your high school career on that note?
Charlie: "It was as good of a feeling as I could've asked for. That's all I've worked for throughout all of high school. That was the main goal, to get a state championship, and to go out with that, I couldn't have asked for a better ending of my high school career. Just a good transition coming into college, going out like that."
 
BR: What are your aspirations now?
Charlie: "To help Nebraska win as many games and be as successful as possible. To prove people right, to prove people wrong, to work as hard as I can to become the best person and player I can be."
 
Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.