Tisdale a valuable mentor for Leonard

"For me personally, it was a struggle at the beginning," Leonard said. "My conditioning, with two and a half months of not playing, it was hard to start again. But I'm starting to get more confidence in my game. They're really competitive. Maybe last year they were a little sluggish and weren't showing up on time or whatever - I don't know. But this year all the games are competitive because people want to win.

"Also, people know they're competing for playing time this year. That's why everyone's playing so hard."

Klee