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Dan Hurley - Day before Presser - Stetson · Coaches Corner

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  But in the meantime, we welcome coach Hurley up to the podium. Why
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  don't we start with an opening statement? Coach. Yeah, Hey, Uh,
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  I've was excited to be back in New York. Uh you'll feel like,
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  uh, you know, really excited to get on the court. Obviously
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  coming out of Big East Tournament. Uh, you know, definitely a little
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  drained over the weekend, but now uh at full energy and and uh fully
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  locked in and and uh really excited to take the court tomorrow. We'll start
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  here in the front row. First two questions will come from this front row
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  on the far side. Dave Bords. First, Connecticumedia. You guys throughout
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  the year, you've you've talked about how you guys can do something that very
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  few other teams have done, and you've mentioned that to us. I don't
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  know if you've mentioned after the team throughout the season. And how much are
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  you thinking about that now? And have you burnt it up with the team
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  recently? Yeah, I mean, let'sten. We started in April, I
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  know, when camps are visited, and when we talked to the returning players
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  that had to make decisions like Donovan and Alex about you know, Tristan about
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  returning or foregoing their college eligibility. I think are our vision was, you
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  know, Brooklyn to Boston and Phoenix. You know, when we recruit a
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  camp spencer, you know this is the type of year we think we can
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  have if you uh, you know, you joined this program and this is
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  what we're going for. Obviously, it's you know, one step at a
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  time in terms of the teams, the quality of teams you play. Everyone's
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  vulnerable in every game in this tournament. So obviously we've got to take care
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  of business on Friday to get to Sunday. But you know that this road
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  is what we've been manifesting and talking about for a long time. You always
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  have to have your sight set on something that you want to achieve. Stay
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  in the front road, Go ahead. Joe rud of Hartford current Dan.
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  Obviously, you guys have had a target on your back all season long.
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  But has there been any added pressure with the number one overall seed, with
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  pretty much everybody picking you guys to win this whole thing? And how have
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  you dealt with that? Yeah? I think just playing and coaching at Yukon
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  just it prepares you for pressure. We we don't have the luxury of of
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  playing and coaching under the radar, and uh, you know, and and
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  anything that you do is is uh is surprising and good. Uh So just
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  when you play a place with the history and the standards and uh and all
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  the success. I think every game you play at Yukon is pressurized. Uh
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  So I think when you when you get to these moments, uh Biggie's Tournament
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  MSG n CB A tournament lights are super bright. You know, we're we're
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  used to playing with a big target. We're used to playing, uh,
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  you know, with with pressure, so we perform well under pressure. We're
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  on the other side here Roe four, go ahead, Hey Dan, Ralph
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  Russo from the Associated Press. I asked Dusty about coaching while his name is
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  circulating for all these jobs, and there's all this speculation. You went through
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  that at Rhode Island. How'd you handle it? I thought, well,
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  I think you know you again, I don't know his situation, but you
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  tell your agent to uh to leave you alone and let you coach out,
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  uh, your coach out your season. Obviously, players have decisions to make
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  once the season's over, and coaches have decisions to make, uh you know,
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  once the season's over. So uh if for school watch you badly enough,
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  they'll wait for your season to be over and you could deal with the
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  business of basketball. Then we'll go on the other side. We're on the
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  isle in the back. Just raise your hand real quick so coach knows go
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  ahead, yep, Roger Rubin News Day, Dan, the actions of the
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  selection committee have been pretty highly scrutinized since the field was announced, particularly with
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  respect to your conference. Do you believe that the Big East needs a top
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  to bottom philosophy about scheduling to avoid what happened this season? Looking at Dave
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  Benedict, hey, listen, I thank you. They're smart things to do
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  with non conference scheduling. You know. The first thing you gotta do,
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  though, is you've got to play some big time non conference games, and
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  then we got to win them. I used to watch PJ. Carlssimo during
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  the non conference season, like like while we're traveling or we're a restaurant or
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  somewhere, and he'd be watching other Big East teams play non conference games,
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  and he'd be rooting like heck for the other teams because he knew that winning
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  big non conference games, not losing by games, Winning big non conference games
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  is the best thing that you could do, uh for your conference. So
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  but I do think that, you know, we've got to obviously we've got
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  to get together and and really figure out, you know, what happened.
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  I do think though, obviously the moves at the Paul, the moves at
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  Georgetown are going to strengthen those programs Providence, Saint John's or in you know,
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  great hands. Seaton Hall was right there, Butler's in great hands.
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  I think the league is in a great place. I just think, uh,
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  you know, we'll come back across in front of me and row three.
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  Go ahead, Jamal Murphy, Bill Rodenho Sports Dan. You you've kind
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  of expressed some disdain for the transfer portal. Uh. I was wondering,
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  do you do you see any fixes or tweaks to it or are you just
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  kind of accepted as it is? Yeah? I mean it should be open
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  right now. I mean it. Uh. The fact that on Monday of
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  the best week in college basketball, that it's open is it's it's it's bizarre
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  and it's led to even more chaos. Yeh. You know, listen for
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  us, uh, in my perspective, changes, Uh, Listen, if
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  if you run a great program, and you're doing things the right way,
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  it doesn't and you serve your players great, It probably doesn't impact you as
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  much as it impacts others. We've been able to hold on to the players
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  that you know, we've been desperate to keep and build around those core players
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  on a yearly basis. So I just think the timeline of the portal and
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  I don't know, man, it's like, I think it's bad for kids.
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  If you end up your college that you go to the staff that you
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  play for, it becomes your network for life, Like that's the group of
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  people that are going to help create opportunities for you, you for for the
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  entirety of your life. Your support system if if if you play in four
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  or five schools in four or five years, like what type of support system?
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  You're just kind of a mercenary at that point. At that point and
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  you have no you know, no base in life. We'll stay on this
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  side in row one and then we'll go across Zach Brazil and you're a post
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  with something. What's your players said? You've been tougher this year than last
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  year. I was told you two weeks after you won it all you started
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  again. Indeed, so I mean, what was I know you said you've
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  talked to Billy Donovan and any other people you talked to about what it was
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  like after winning a title, because usually teams that go on to run like
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  that lose that hunger. And you have a lot of the same guys from
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  last year, so and that cheerly doesn't happen to you guys. Yeah,
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  And I talked to Billy, I talked to Jay, talked to you know,
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  Tom Izzo. I mean, in the end, I just I love
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  being a coach. I love the work. So two weeks after being over,
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  I was ready to just I wanted to start practicing again because I love
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  to coach. I love to be around my team. That's the best part
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  of the job. And then you're dealing with the human nature element for both
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  your program and with the you know, the organization and with the individuals where
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  you just won the championship, and it's really easy to get seduced into think
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  and it's going to be easy to do it again, or it's gonna be
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  easy to make another run, especially when we did it in such dominant fashion
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  like we did last year. So yeah, I mean, I've been tougher
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  on the group throughout the season because just been trying to like root out any
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  any form of complacency or entitlement with this team. You're not entitled to You're
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  not entitled to nothing, especially this time of year, and anything we've done
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  this year, we can't trade it in for Jack. You know what.
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  At this point, like the only thing that matters is what happens at thirty
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  on Friday. All right, we'll stay in the front row. On the
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  other side, Adam Adams are going to Zag's blog. I think Andrea said,
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  Cam Spencer, is you with blonde hair? What do you think about
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  that? And you know, any good stories of how similar you feel Cam
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  as to your intensity and and just what was kind of your message when you're
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  I'm a bald him balding because I've kept this length it's this like to state
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  for like the last three years, guys and gals. He he's a unique
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  competitor. He's just perfect with Tristan in the back court, it was like,
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  uh, you know, you got fire and ice there, he's the
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  fire and hunger. I think that that's been a you know something for us
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  too. Like he hadn't been to the instantly tournament. He hasn't won championships
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  at this level. He has an experienced college basketball at you know, the
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  top of sport. So, you know, having a critical player that hasn't
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  experienced this thing has been great for our team because it's instilled a you know,
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  a wild ambition with the group. Because he's got such a big personality.
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  He's just so damn competitive. Take last two questions on the aisle,
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  row one and then row three. Jadan Daly Dalios hoops Dan. This is
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  a different role for Donovan this season. Last year he was coming off the
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  bench behind Adama on the championship run. Now he's one of the more dominant
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  faces on this team. How much has this season prepared him for this run
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  and what he's doing to face at a higher level. Yeah, in a
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  weird way, I think, you know, his injuries in the preseason and
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  then in the start of Big East play really helped the team develop. It
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  also allowed him to get kind of fully healthy, get his weight down,
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  and then he's gotten himself into great shape and now I think he's peaking at
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  the right time. And then you know, you go deep in this tournament,
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  you do damage, you win championships. You know, when you when
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  you just go out and perform at a high level here and uh, you
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  know what, We're gonna need him to be as good as Snogo was for
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  us last year. A Doma absolutely dominated the tournament last year, and we're
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  gonna need a dominant run from Donovan to to do what we did last year.
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  Hi, last question standing on the aisle Row three coach Mike Fitzpatrick,
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  Associated Press. You guys, obviously there's been for a long time no number
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  one seed ever went down. It's happened a couple of times now in the
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  last few years, including last year. You've talked a lot about new players
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  about how well you've stayed focused this year on on the goals at hand.
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  But you remind them of that that the number one seeds that that got toppled
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  the last few years. They do they need feel like they need a reminder
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  like that or you do it anyway. Yeah, I think in every game
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  that you play, I mean, whether you know their early season November,
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  if we get away from our identity, we have issues. I didn't like
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  how we got hearted obviously in the Saint John's game. Part of it was,
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  you know, we're playing an NCAA caliber team, that had a great
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  night, you know, the team that should have been in with a couple
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  of other big eie schools. And then, uh, you know, like
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  what keeps us bulletproof though, is like, you know, we're number one
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  in the country in offensive efficiency, we're top tennis in defense. Uh we
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  we generally rebound the ball as good as anyone in the country. Uh we
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  we play harder than our opponent, and and we're elite with our preparation and
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  we don't care who the hero is on a given night. You know that
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  that's a formula that will keep you bulletproof in a lot of games and make
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  it really really hard for somebody to get you. So we stick to that
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  script. You know, we could come in here with confidence, but we
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  respect stats and we respect everyone that we play because you know, we know
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  what this tournament's all about. Okay, coach, appreciate it. Thank you.