Rafael Araujo - Questions and Answers

Question: Who recruited you?

Answer: The first time I went to UNLV and the second time I chose BYU. I was also recruited by Kentucky, Illinois, Kansas, San Diego State, Texas Tech, New Mexico, and Washington State.

Question: Why did you choose to play junior college ball in Arizona?

Answer: Because he was my coach of my selection team in 2000 and he saw me play for my country. I never knew the place. I had a big dream to come to the United States.

Question: You saw the United States lose last summer in Indianapolis, what was it like?

Answer: I saw their first game with Argentina and then against Spain. We lost to Puerto Rico so we didn't get to play USA. Argentina played a real good game. The United States had a lot of individual play. In international competition, you have to help your teammates, if you try to play yourself you aren't doing good.

Question: Had you been to the United States before?

Answer: I went to Dallas before I came to the United States my freshman year, our junior selection team won the tournament with China and a couple of teams from the United States.

Question: Did you talk with Luis Lemes before coming to BYU?

Answer: I talked to him on his cell phone, but mostly on the e-mail. He asked me what I thought. We thought it was a pretty good program and we are both happy here.

Question: Had you ever heard of BYU before you came here?

Answer: My first time I played in a tournament in Phoenix and Coach Rose came to recruit me as a freshman. My coach said BYU had been looking at me, but I didn't speak much English and I could only say "nice to meet your sir." He sent letters and I started to watch BYU games on TV I started to like the program and thought "why not."

Question: Does anyone try to speak Portuguese with you around campus?

Answer: A couple guys try and say hey are you from Brazil? Do you want to speak Portuguese and we exchange a couple words. They speak it pretty good.