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UConn Presser - Postgame St. John's · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  That we could win any type of game, all the way on the right,
• 0:03
  Ralph, Dan, Ralph Russo from the associate press. Actually, maybe
• 0:07
  I'll go to the players too. You're always pretty intense, Dan, it
• 0:11
  did seem like maybe a little more so tonight. I don't know if that
• 0:14
  was the case. Probably asked the players, did you feel like your coach
• 0:16
  was you've seen us? No, I've seen a lot. That's why I
• 0:19
  want to make sure you know if I say that, do you think there
• 0:23
  was a little more intensity or something, you know, as you're running out
• 0:26
  to the floor, uh, pumping up your team? The players see anything?
• 0:29
  Or was after the business as usual? Christ? Why you take that?
• 0:33
  Honestly? Today I thought it was a little more calm. Cam.
• 0:38
  Did you have a problem with you? Did you have a problem with me
• 0:40
  today? No issues? Coach? All right, Dan, and right here
• 0:46
  sad coach. You haven't coached in this game before, but you played in
• 0:51
  this biggest championship game before. What do you remember from that time? At
• 0:54
  seeing all? I mean that was that was a pretty long time ago.
• 0:58
  We put it on a pretty good in that one, and you know,
• 1:03
  I just think for us, uh, you know, obviously getting to win
• 1:07
  thirty. You know, we won thirty one all of last year, so
• 1:11
  you know that was a big number we wanted to get to, uh before
• 1:14
  we got to Dance Away tournament, and I got like, you know,
• 1:17
  guys, you know with me up on the dais here that uh you were
• 1:19
  looking for that that last jewel and uh, you know, not the triple
• 1:23
  crown, the quadruple crown, you know, get the regular season Big East
• 1:26
  Final four national championship now in a Big East tournament. I know that's what
• 1:30
  Tristan and alex and and Cam are all you know, shooting for, and
• 1:34
  we wanna try and deliver over here on the left, right here, second
• 1:38
  round, Coach, you guys move the bole incredibly well, you're very unselfish.
• 1:42
  Uh, you run the floor. Well, have we seen the best
• 1:46
  of what you guys could do? And what would you like to approve of
• 1:49
  uh with your team right now? Yeah, obviously the defense let us down,
• 1:51
  and we had been trending, you know, coming into the game,
• 1:53
  we were second offense and tenth in defense, and we're generally an excellent rebounding
• 1:57
  team, but Saint John's is one of the best offensive rebounding team. So
• 2:00
  obviously that defense tonight and what we did on the backboard was not sustainable.
• 2:05
  Uh, but you know, we we've got a bunch of NBA players.
• 2:07
  We had NBA level talent that that's willing to uh, you know, to
• 2:12
  screen and share and play for each other on offense. Yeah. I mean,
• 2:16
  it's just it's it's a unique uh. You know, it's a unique
• 2:19
  group of players that have NBA ability but are but are humble and about team
• 2:23
  over here on the left, So Dan, all those a small sample size.
• 2:28
  In first half, Jalen Stewart put together a good solid eight minutes of
• 2:31
  work, and I was wondering, could you speak upon what he did tonight
• 2:35
  for you and what we could possibly see in the future considering the long grind
• 2:38
  of March. Yeah, you uh, he had a great night. He
• 2:42
  helped us big time in the first half. You know, with all of
• 2:45
  our young freshmen that are kind of you know, playing on a high level
• 2:47
  team, you just you know, you hope they'll wait, wait, they'll
• 2:51
  wait their turn, keep developing with us, and then you'll become the stars
• 2:55
  of the program moving forward. He's the type of player that freshman year,
• 3:00
  sophomore year, you know, could we'll take an enormous jump and we'll be
• 3:04
  playing at the level of these guys up here, so you know, we
• 3:07
  just plead on him on a daily basis to uh, you know, we
• 3:09
  know that portal's calling and there's a lot of tampering going on. So hopefully,
• 3:14
  uh, our young players stay with us, cause we're gonna lose number
• 3:16
  of players from this team. Over here on the right, Dan can't can
• 3:21
  you just describe other things about approaching the in general, the intensity of this
• 3:24
  game, between the the way the game was played in thescality, the atmosphere
• 3:29
  or the energy doesn't what did feel like out there? Uh? I mean
• 3:31
  as a competitor, either the environment that you want to play in, you
• 3:35
  know, at the high level basketball game, you know, working do or
• 3:38
  something that we've worked for all year and you know, the biggiest championship is
• 3:43
  something that we wanna go get. So probably one of the highest, I
• 3:46
  guess in more intense games of this year. And rightfully so two more we're
• 3:52
  doing two more back there on the left. Coach right here, Josh Barbara
• 3:55
  from UH Dean College, I just had a question for this is really for
• 4:00
  the players as well. Here. This is gonna be the first time that
• 4:01
  you guys are well, this is the first chance at a for the biggest
• 4:06
  championship. You know, you guys haven't won since two thousand and eleven.
• 4:10
  What does this mean to you guys to possibly bring this back to stores?
• 4:14
  Yeah? I mean stores. You know. Uh, Yukon is a historic
• 4:16
  program who wins a lot of championships and you know haven't The National Championship last
• 4:21
  year was great, but you know, I, like Cam said, we've
• 4:26
  been striving all year to to win multiple championships and this is one of the
• 4:29
  stops. And throughout the two years, we've been making a lot of history.
• 4:32
  So I guess tomorrow after the game, were trying to make more history.
• 4:36
  That's one. Jaden Dan just to follow up on that, and you
• 4:41
  mentioned Markata is still eat said you get you guys a little bit to play
• 4:46
  for the championship tomorrow. What does it mean for the program and the list?
• 4:50
  Yeah, I take the lesson every time we take the court. You
• 4:54
  know, we're yeah, we obsessed over we want to achieve next. Listen
• 4:59
  to regular season champions is uh, Especially in the league which is true round
• 5:02
  robin like ours, the regular season champion is the biggest champion. You know,
• 5:06
  it's uh, you know, through the twenty game gauntlet, whoever wins
• 5:10
  that thing true round robin is, you know, is the champion. Obviously,
• 5:14
  the Big East Tournament champion, you know, is a chance to experience
• 5:19
  what it feels like, you know, in terms of confetti and cutting down
• 5:24
  nets and you know, winning that third championship that we've strived for. We
• 5:27
  wanted the MT you know that that championship we wanted. The regular season we
• 5:31
  want Obviously we got three ahead of us that we're trying to get and uh,
• 5:35
  you know, tomorrow we're gonna treat like it's a super Bowl. You
• 5:39
  kind thank you, thank you. Yeah,