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UConn MBB - Natl Champ Presser Sun 4-7 · Coaches Corner

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  With Tristan Newton and Cam Spencer. This is a twenty five minute news conference
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  with student athletes for the first ten. Coach Early Well, that's gonna make
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  an opening statement. Then we'll take questions for all three. Yeah, obviously,
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  you know deep into the uh you know, the the prep for both
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  of us. Uh, you know, just the uh you know basically,
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  you know, a day and a half prep uh, you know, for
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  each other here. So uh yeah, I think I said this about Marquette
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  during the season, you know, playing certain programs it's you know, feels
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  like a you know, privilege because of uh, you know what they stand
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  for, how they do it, and and you know how good they are,
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  so uh, you know, to be able to play in the national
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  championship versus Purdue, you know, and how good they are and how Matt
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  runs things. Uh, it's real privilege to play them for the championship.
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  Questions for coach EARLEYE, Tristan, and Cam. Let's start in the middle
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  of the room with Matt. We're gonna use the back left microphone. Dan,
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  good afternoon, congrats and winning I'm right here, congrats and winning National
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  Coach of the Year. I couldn't help but notice you sat down at the
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  day as with a with a little Manila folder. If you could take us
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  into, uh where you are with prep and is that just a typical scouting
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  report, genuinely genuinely curious about where you're at right now. Yeah, So
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  you know, immediately after the game, you know, after the media was
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  done. You literally you'll get that tablet as soon as you get on the
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  bus. And I was into, uh, you know, you're you're into
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  You're into Purdue. On the on the way back to the hotel. We
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  were able to you know, probably you know, I was able to consume
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  you know, three games, uh before I went to bed last night.
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  Luke Murray, Uh, obviously he was prepping for the winner of that game.
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  So I've been able to you know, catch you know, six of
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  their games already. I'll imagine I'll watch, you know, maybe eight,
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  and then that's all kind of the the analytics, uh scouting report, Uh,
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  some of that type of stuff. We'll go up front on the left
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  side. Fanta John Fanta, Fox Sports for Dan and the players. Can
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  you guys reflect on how great of a matchup this is for men's college basketball,
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  and this is one versus two throughout this season. Obviously Donovan versus Zach,
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  but there's so many other pieces to both these teams. Just what it's
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  like knowing that you're gonna step on the floor against this Purdue team tomorrow and
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  how big this is, how great this is for the sport, that this
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  is how we end what's been a remarkable season. Well, a's Cam to
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  take the first Interesting then, coach, Yeah, I think it's a great
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  matchup, you know, between two teams who have had two great years.
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  Obviously, you know, we have a lot of respect for them in the
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  program. You know, they're in national championship for a reason, and you
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  know, I'm sure people have been waiting to see this one for a while.
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  But you know, we're locked in and we'll be ready to go.
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  Interesting. Yeah, we've been the two best programs the past two years.
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  Us some Purdue and disagree match that. We're looking forward to it. You
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  know, the coaches are gonna, you know, get us well prepared and
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  ready to have a good game tomorrow. Anything bad, Coach, Yeah,
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  I would just say I'm sure that uh, you know, Cam endeared himself
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  to their fans, uh while he was into Big ten on the right side
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  Brian Brian Hamilton from the Athletic DAN. When you look at the way you've
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  constructed your roster this year, last year way Pruse constructed the roster, we
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  go back to, you know, Kansas, Baylor, Virginia winning titles.
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  What have we learned about what wins or what should everyone know about what wins
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  to get teams to this level? I mean, I think all of us
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  should just shut up about it and stop trying to help the people that don't
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  know what they're doing. Uh. You know, you got to be able
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  to score obviously, you know, to win a six game tour, a
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  six game single and nation tournament. You know, I think that the days
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  of of of of that kind of the rock fight style of play in modern
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  basketball, I think it's gonna be tough to win that way. You know,
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  I think obviously balanced roster, you know, you know, young players
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  with with talent that are insulated by you know, returning players to your program
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  with uh, that that could uphold the culture. And then strategic you know,
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  portal additions that can put you over the top. But I think it's
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  you know, the roster construction skill. You know, you know, skilled
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  players that can process the game, and uh, you know, and and
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  balance in terms of veterans and young players. We'll go up front on the
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  right side. Jacobs Aliga ARIZONAVARSI Coach Hurley, your team has done a very
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  good job as a whole with your lineup in terms of crashing the glass as
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  a unit playing in the East, is uh going up against guys such as
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  Joel Soriano, Klkbrenner, Osoli goodoro, How well did you think that attacking
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  the glass as a team against those great post players are going to help prepare
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  you to go up against a guy like Edie who controls the post as well
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  as he does. Yeah, he's obviously, you know, you may coach
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  or play your whole career and never you know, coach or play against somebody
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  of his stature, you know, true truly, you know, a giant
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  player. So yeah, I mean we we're not you know, we're a
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  pretty physical team, but you know we more so which fly to the ball,
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  you know, And then I think we, you know what, we're
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  disciplined like they are. I mean, they're they're an excellent rebounding team.
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  We're an excellent rebounding team. We both block out and uh, you know,
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  A lot of the time, it just comes down to uh, you
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  know, tracing that ball and and uh you know who's uh uh, who's
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  going to make that life for death pursuit to get it. Continuing up front,
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  Cac Bartley Boiler Upload Rivals, Dan considering the narrative of Pod getting here
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  for the first time since sixty nine, You guys are getting back. Are
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  there differences between getting here the first time and doing it again? You know?
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  I think, uh, listen, when you when you you know,
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  when when you break through, that that euphoria that you feel when you know
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  when you when you punch your tickets to the final four, and just you
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  know, the bigness of this event, uh, just participating in it for
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  as a as a as a coach or a player. Uh, the experience,
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  you know, this setting, uh you know, the buses, the
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  police escorts, the seventy thousand people in this day. I mean, it's
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  uh, you know, it's a it's an incredible it's an incredible experience.
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  And it doesn't uh you know, the second time you make it feels just
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  as good as the first. Moving over to the left, second row,
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  second seed, Kyle Tucker with the athletic Dan you've talked I think you talked
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  in the Big East Tournament about meaning you're jolly, jolly green giant to sort
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  of get nasty. How good of a job has he done in this tournament
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  of doing that and how easy is it to get him in that mindset when
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  the two time National Player of the Year is on the other side. Yeah,
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  you know the thing with Donovan is he just uh, he just got
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  he got healthy at the absolute you know, right right time of the year.
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  And then you know, in a similar way, you know where like
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  you know, Steph Castle at the end of his freshman year is now probably
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  playing like a sophomore. You know, you've got you know, Donovan now
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  who has enough experience and enough experience in big spots you know where where he's
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  perfectly conditioned, he's healthy, he's confident, and and he's playing more like
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  a junior player, and you know he understands the challenges you know that that
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  he's dealing with. You know, with with Zach Edie, it's uh,
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  it's it's just a it's a unique matchup and he's played against some outstanding centers
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  and Soriano and Coulkbrenner, but this is a different animal, and and and
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  and and they use him in a much much different way. So, uh,
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  it's gonna be a heck of a challenge for our front court, for
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  our guards, for our whole team, because it's gonna have to take a
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  team effort to to try to slow him down a little bit. Second Row
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  Zach Zach Brazilia in New or post Damn. What you reflect on, just
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  what it's like been like to coach your son and what like you remember when
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  he was at finishing high school, like kind of the thought process like you
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  know about you know, probably could you know obviously his decision to want to
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  play for you, even though he probably knew he wasn't really gonna play.
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  Yeah, yeah, I mean he was good enough to would have been a
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  you know, division two, Division three play. He could dunk, you
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  know, I could never dunk. I got short arms and I couldn't jump
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  that that high. He humanizes me a little bit. I don't know what
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  he does in the locker room when I'm like, when I'm on like a
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  heater and I'm being completely it's a complete brutal ass to everybody. I don't
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  know if he goes in the locker room and you know endears himself to these
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  guys by crushing me and say yeah, he's the worst, or if he
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  or if he goes in there and says, you know, hey, guys,
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  he loves you. He just cares. I don't really know what's going
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  on back there. I don't know if these guys will tell me either before
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  it's over. But you know, as a coach, you miss, You
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  sacrifice a lot, especially at the college level or the NBA level, and
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  oftentimes your wife and your kids, you know, suffer with that time loss.
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  So to be able to get that time back and be together eleven months
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  a year and see each other every day, multiple times a day, you
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  know, the highs the lows of everything we go through made up for a
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  lot of time we lost. Tom is your question for a coach or for
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  the players? For coach? Okay, well, we'd like to thank Tristan
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  and Cam for joining us. They're going to be part of the breakout session
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  that starts at two five. Thanks guys, Oh oh yeah, I get
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  here. They'll take their place cards to the breakout sessions as well. This
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  is the front left microphone question from Dom for coaching Yea, Dom and Maorrey
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  Hartford current. Dan, you you've talked quite a bit about how much pressure
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  there is in that first round game, and you know, you guys kind
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  of went through it and came back and won a championship the next year.
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  Can you imagine what they went through losing one sixteen game and doing what they've
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  done. What does it tell you about them and the character that you're going
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  to be facing tomorrow. I mean, we could relate, and everyone's motivations
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  are different for it, uh but you know it was very relatable for again,
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  the the covid ensemb A tournament. You know, I like to throw
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  that one out for me. You know, I'll accept responsibility to a degree
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  for that brutal performance. But you know that New Mexico State loss and then
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  the Iona game, I mean, we felt the heat. I know,
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  you know, I know that what what that felt like. And you know
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  for them it probably was even even more so than that. But you know
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  that they're such a classy program. Their their culture is as good as anyone.
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  You know, they're as well coached as anyone. You know, they
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  uh you you could see they they had a uh an attitude about them going
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  into this tournament. Throughout the season where I don't think anyone thought that this
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  would be a similar situation for them, but I could certainly relate to the
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  pressure they felt. Center they're towards the right coach early Kobbe Moseley USBWA questions
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  about Donovan Lean. You talked earlier about this week about Drestin Newton and how
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  he's kind of growing as a leader. How do you think Donovan is going
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  out a leader, especially after you guys winning a championship and all his seniors
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  leaving after last year, You just you you learned so much in coaching and
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  just just when you see how different personalities affect, you know, just the
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  team vibe, especially when you're going into these big, high leverage moments.
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  You know, I think my experience with Donovan and some of the folks we
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  brought in the last couple of years, the Joey California's and the Andre Jackson's
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  and just you just realize how important it is to have people that are alive
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  and you know they're they're they're not zombie like creatures. You know, they're
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  just like they bring life to the locker room. They they they they've got
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  passion. You the people that you can lose with and still be able to
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  pick the pieces up because they're just they're good people. They're charismatic, and
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  they're they're they're just great in the locker room because it's it's a grind left
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  side ap right there. Dan David Brandt from the AP, you talked a
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  little bit about Steph Castle a couple of minutes ago, but it's it seems
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  like for a five star McDonald's all American guy, he's remarkably low maintenance and
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  and just wondered how why he's been able to fit in so well with your
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  roster and how he's grown over these last couple of months. I think he
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  told on himself, Well, I mean, he's got the great parents and
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  uh Stacey and Kwan, they keep they've kept him humble all the way through
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  in a sport where we put these kids on a pedestal, you know what,
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  way before they should be, and we we treat him like they've arrived,
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  way before arrival. And they didn't allow that to happen with him.
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  The way he handled the recruiting process, it didn't turn into a fiesco.
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  It didn't go from a list of I've narrowed my list to twenty now I've
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  narrowed it to eighteen, now, twelve, now nine. You know,
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  like he was decisive. He watched us practice, he saw our culture.
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  He wanted to be coached hard. They wanted an old school environment for him
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  to be challenged in and to be held accountable. And it's just been the
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  perfect situation for him because his draft stock is right where they want it to
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  be right now, and he's one big You can still do both and everyone
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  could win. Sent her the room. Amanda Christovitch, Front Office Sports.
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  Just from a big picture perspective, do you feel like Yukon could have reached
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  this level of dominance if you hadn't rejoined the Big East a few years ago?
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  Oh? Yeah, absolutely. We were well on our way, you
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  know, in a similar similar way to what coach Sampson was doing in the
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  AAC. Obviously, going to the Big twelve is you know, every everything's
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  bigger, you know, tougher league. But you know, we we were
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  recruiting at a very very high level and we would be where we were regardless.
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  I got the best staff in the country, got one of the biggest
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  brands in college basketball. It has certainly helped, but we've also had had
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  a big impact on the Big East as well. Left side of the aisle
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  all the way left Killian Johnson Sports illustreet Kids coach as reigning champions. How
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  you've had a target on your back all year? How has that motivated you?
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  I mean, well, number one, my my biggest motivation really for
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  the last two three weeks. I just don't want to deal with the portal
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  shit. And uh, I mean that's why we're trying to win so hard.
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  Right now as I'm seeing what other people are doing, it's it's chaos
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  and I can hide behind. Hey, my season is still going on.
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  But yeah, you know, I think we we've used that, like for
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  a lot of the year, we've used the external slights to perceived slights,
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  all those things the world's against us mentality. I think that gets you through
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  like the regular season Big East grind January February, where the team's tired and
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  you've got to create these different things, you know, where we really use
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  that motivation external. Everyone's trying to get us. They want what we got.
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  We're the champs. Somebody's gonna have to someone's gonna have to rip this
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  out of our hands. I mean, we use that a lot, but
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  once you get to this time of year, everything is just you are,
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  who your identity is, the way you play. It's very automatic, and
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  it just comes down to you hoping that it's hoping at your night Dana on
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  the left side, towards the back, Dania O'Neil with the athletic Dan.
• 17:14
  You and Matt come at it maybe differently, but you're both pretty strong in
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  your convictions about how you want to do things. Both have taken some heat
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  for it sometimes. Perhaps how do you kind of maintain the courage of that
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  conviction as you go through this in the world kind of rolls around you.
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  Yeah, you know, I think we do have a lot of similarities in
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  terms of, you know, the the culture and and and the old school,
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  you know, values that we have, in terms of the type of
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  people that we recruit and the type of teams we have, you know,
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  so maybe the personalities are a little bit different. On the sideline, I
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  wish I had his composure at times, and you know, I just think
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  that you know, we're we've been involved in the game our whole lives.
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  We were both players, we both played for incredible coaches throughout our careers,
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  and I think those coaches that we've played for have made us stubborn and strong
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  in what we believe. And I think we're both very confident people that that
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  are authentic and aren't trying to put on a show. I don't think there's
• 18:26
  anything fake about either one of us. We just we are who we are.
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  Third drill on the left, Uh, Dan, what do you what
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  is having an enormous backcourt like you have and like you had last year,
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  what strategic advantages that give you, particularly against a smaller backcourt like Pridue has.
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  Yeah, just the sizic guard just to you know, to have a
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  six' five Tristan Newton, you know, Steph Castle who's six six,
• 18:53
  to be able to put him on a point guard or on a wing score
• 19:00
  to one of those guys. It just affects passing windows, I think for
• 19:04
  guards, whether it's the ball screen game or postfeeding. Obviously it shrinks the
• 19:10
  court for the opponent as well, allows you to contest a three point line
• 19:15
  at those spots. And even Caraban, who's you know, six eight sixt
• 19:21
  ' nine, but he's got really really you know, uh, he's got
• 19:25
  great length at his position as well. U kont Locker room is now open
• 19:30
  and breakouts are beginning with players. Will continue with coach question from Wayne Norman
• 19:33
  all the way on the right. Hi, Dan, You're a very good
• 19:37
  three point shooting team, and Donovan Klington plays a big role in that.
• 19:41
  Purdue is the second best three point shooting team in the country. Is it
• 19:45
  a similar formula with Edie in the middle to open their three point shooters?
• 19:49
  Yeah, you got to pick you know, you got to pick your poison.
• 19:53
  I think you got to mix things up, you know. Single coverage
• 19:59
  for Zach Edi is uh, it's a scary proposition, even with Donovan because
• 20:06
  you know, he's, uh, he's a game changer, Uh, you
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  know for us at both ends of the court and on the backboard. So
• 20:15
  I just think that we, you know, we we can't give them one
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  look. You know, they're they're they're too good in a lot of ways.
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  We just we mirror each other. You know, they're two or three
• 20:26
  in offense in the country and their twelfth in defense. There's just not a
• 20:30
  lot of holes in either team. It's NBA level talent up and down each
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  roster, and and teams that are just well rounded without a lot of vulnerabilities.
• 20:41
  We're gonna go to Matt, then Brendan and Billy, and then my
• 20:44
  guess is we're gonna have to wrap this up. Let's get a microphone for
• 20:47
  Matt. He's got the blue shirt right there holding his arm. Oult,
• 20:48
  he has a microphone. Matt Norlander, CBS Sports. I'm gonna ask you
• 20:52
  to extend that thought. Because Edie is combining for close to about forty four
• 20:56
  points and rebounds a game. Uh, are you anticipating the necessity to double
• 21:03
  team him some or are you as a competitor, Dan, and how you're
• 21:06
  gonna prepare for this? Are you preparing for Edie to just go Edie again?
• 21:11
  And then whatever we can do to shut everyone else down, We're just
• 21:12
  gonna win that way. Obviously other teams have tried to approach, most have
• 21:17
  failed when they face Purdue. Yeah, it's a unique challenge. He's a
• 21:22
  unique player. I don't think that that one thing is gonna work in the
• 21:26
  game. I think you've got to, you know, try to try to
• 21:30
  keep him off balance, you know, Matt. Unfortunately for us, you
• 21:36
  know, really constructed a great roster around such a unique player. Obviously,
• 21:41
  the you know, the blind spot for them last year was, you know,
• 21:45
  was subpar three point shooting, which allowed you to to surround him,
• 21:51
  whereas now if you put two on the ball with him, you're now turning
• 21:55
  loose team that's shooting forty pc from three. If you single coverage him.
• 22:00
  Even with Donovan, a player of his caliber, he obviously gets fouled a
• 22:04
  lot or he's had the free throw line a lot. So now we're putting
• 22:10
  maybe our most impactful player in position to maybe get in foul trouble, uh,
• 22:15
  you know, which would cause big problems for us at both ends n
• 22:18
  on the backboard. I just think that even though it's a short prep,
• 22:22
  we've played a lot of games this year, and you know, I think
• 22:26
  there's there's a number of different things we're gonna have to try to do and
• 22:29
  and mix up and see what's effective. Brendan Dan Brenan Quinn from the Athletic
• 22:36
  When you deal with alums of a certain era, you know, dude who
• 22:41
  played in the Yankee Conference and stuff like, what's been your experience like seeing
• 22:48
  them process what this place has become the you know, let's say u U
• 22:57
  Coon's unique, because I mean we've got we're Yukon's the pro sports franchise of
• 23:07
  the state. And uh, obviously it's two things. The impact that basketball
• 23:15
  at Yukon has had on the university and the growth of the university and what
• 23:19
  it was like in the eighties and nineties, the small agricultural college that uh,
• 23:26
  you know, you I think when I drove through campus in the early
• 23:29
  to mid nineties, I thought I missed the campus and as I arrived at
• 23:34
  Gamble. So the explosion of basketball, what it's meant to the state,
• 23:38
  what it's meant to you know, the you know, the campus becoming a
• 23:42
  world class university. The impact has been great, and it's uh, you
• 23:48
  know what what what what d row and and Coach Calhoun and Gino and and
• 23:56
  the former players that want to be around and not just for the final four
• 24:00
  when the cameras are around, but the uh, the amount of folks that
• 24:03
  come through to watch your practice, to talk to the boys. You know,
• 24:08
  it's it's a unique relationship. Special. We'll wrap things up with Billy
• 24:15
  Uh, Billy wits with the New York Times. Dan this era with there's
• 24:21
  so much, you know, with conference realignment and the portal and n I
• 24:25
  l it it feels like it should be harder to win back to back championships,
• 24:30
  which is obviously his history has proven, is rare. To begin with,
• 24:34
  what is it? I wonder if you can identify a couple things that
• 24:40
  maybe about your program that have allowed you to be in this position. Yeah,
• 24:45
  I think we were were at this point. I think we understand that
• 24:52
  we could, as Teddy Atlas would say, like you pass on uh some
• 24:56
  of the neon talents, uh to to get our type of people. Obviously
• 25:03
  there's you know that there's a there's a baseline that you need in terms of
• 25:07
  size, athletic ability, you know, just ability with the basketball to do
• 25:11
  things. But we really hold out, uh to to get our type of
• 25:15
  people. The staff continuity, you know, we've made it, you know,
• 25:19
  so so good I think for guys like Kamani and Luke to to not
• 25:26
  take a lower or mid major jobs. Uh So I've been able to keep
• 25:30
  my staff intact, you know, by by making sure they're they're taken care
• 25:34
  of, you know, that way. But we we just haven't changed a
• 25:38
  lot, you know, like uh, you know, we we don't kiss
• 25:41
  the kids uh you know asked and recruiting, we don't kiss it while they're
• 25:45
  on campus. You know, we we bring tremendous value to our players because
• 25:51
  we're old school, and we push them to get better and to become better
• 25:55
  people, and we teach them what you know, how to become successful.
• 25:59
  I just, you know, I think we truly have I think we try
• 26:03
  to play modern basketball with the use of analytics as I bought more into that,
• 26:07
  but have really held on to like old school values the way you know
• 26:14
  coaches, you know, maybe used to be more where you know, we're
• 26:21
  in charge and we hold people accountable, but we play a modern style of
• 26:27
  ball. I loan to thank Coach Early for joining us here in the main
• 26:30
  interview room. Thank you, coach, good luck tomorrow. Thank you guys. See it