Latest / Coaches Corner / MBB Coach Dan Hurley Sept 26 Practice 1

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MBB Coach Dan Hurley Sept 26 Practice 1 · Coaches Corner

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  Guys are bragging about the cupcakes your wife onesday. There they got all different
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  tastes too, and they're not shy about you know, red velvet with buttercream
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  and sour patch kids and that verse tastes could be a sidehouse before. The
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  problem is like if we like once or twice or more than that, probably
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  there's been like birthday cupcakes waiting for somebody. But then we have like a
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  bad practice and maybe even a second bad day, and you just can't sing
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  Happy Birthday. So those cupcakes have then they've been sitting in refrigerator and you
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  don't want anyone to get you know, stomach problems, so then we have
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  to get rid of those, and she's got to go make him again.
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  So that's happened. I know some media guys probably take him Polly Polly wet
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  him and PAULI that happened to him him last week, I was out of
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  tear to analysis that talked about how complicated and offers you run most complicated in
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  the country with one hundred and thirty three steps. So when you get a
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  whole new group of guys coming in, how do you get them to understand
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  what you want? Do you simplify things at the beginning, or or you
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  at a point now where you can just get afferent veterans that you can just
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  run right into it. You know. I just think that, you know,
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  for us, it's really just been studying this group, and it's a
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  different type of team, you know that then last year's group. So a
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  lot of the actions and different things that we're doing, you know, offensively
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  or especially early to start the year are going to be different than things that
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  we shout on film last year. And you know, we're tailoring what we're
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  doing to the personnel that we don't necessarily have a shooter like Jordan, you
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  know, and so the elements of the team are different. But yeah,
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  I mean our offense, you know, it's it's different because the ball moves
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  and players move and it's not h ball screen you know, like reliant to
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  function at a high level. I think you know, get pretty simple concepts
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  if you if you study the game and you love the game. You know,
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  it's just like she had a college football quarterbacks and all those guys they
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  they remember all these things, so like our guys need to be able to
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  remember him too. What changes is the coach you have? So many young
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  guys, or does anything change? I think, uh, not much changes.
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  I mean we've been going since June, and we've been pushing hard,
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  and Solo and Jaylen Stewart had had a had a slower start because of injury
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  and in circumstances with Jalen school. Uh, but you can see, you
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  know, Solo is is really caught up to speed and Jalen had his best
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  day today. And you know, we feel great about where all the freshmen
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  are right now, and and they all have to play important roles on the
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  team. If not, you know, maybe a starting or at least giving
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  us the type of bench we had last year that really put us over the
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  top. Yeah, how is Donovan accepted the leadership role? Yeah, Donovan,
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  He's just got a great personality and a great vibe about him. So
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  I think everybody loves to coach him and everyone loves being on a team with
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  him because he's, uh, he's so alive, and he's and so so
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  much you know, so much fun to be around. I would say that,
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  you know, the evolution for him is you know, is is to
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  demand the ball and demand that his teammates, uh play up to a certain
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  level. I mean sometimes you gotta be the bad guy too. You just
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  can't be you know, kind of a jolly giant, you know. Sometimes
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  you've got to be the angry giant. Yeah, it's so hard to climb
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  the mountain. Yeah, it's so hard to climb mountain. What's it like
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  now to try to maintain it? I mean, you know, you know,
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  becoming is is always better I think for me than than being I think,
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  uh, you know that the chases for me is always you know,
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  the exhilarating thing, the exciting thing, you know, the the accomplishment fades
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  quickly in your mind very quickly gets too. But that process that you love.
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  I mean, I love the work, so it's not hard for me.
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  Uh. I love coaching, so it's easy for me. I love
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  coaching way more than I like celebrating. Do you think idea Dan about like
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  and we'll be in a big shape if Donovan averages or if Christians they're meeting
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  Spore or I mean those kind of things. I mean, I know last
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  year had an idea of what Jordan should average. I think you were around
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  on the other Yeah, yeah, I nailed that right. Yeah, I
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  would say that the thing that's interesting about this team is. I look at
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  it and it's like four guys in most situations in high may your schools.
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  I would say you would look at Alex, Donovan, Tristan and Cam as
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  guys that in most situations in high major they would average all over fourteen per
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  player, if not more. So, you know, to have four guys
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  that are potentially fourteen fifteen, sixteen point of game players this year, you
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  know it's gonna have to be sacrifice, uh, you know, with that
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  group, and you know, willingness to let it be someone else's night.
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  This whole season for us is going to come down to you know that the
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  bench, You know, can we get my best or the team's you know,
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  my best teams always have that depth that go nine deep. And you
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  saw how fresh we were in March last year because of the depth. And
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  you know, and I just think that our starting five is is gonna be
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  as good as anyone's is. Can we get the bench? D how much
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  how much value to place in the Song of Rows, place in this polled
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  or whatever guy who were necessarily every game might get the rewards on a player
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  plight group. Yeah, no, I mean listen to him and Sampson Johnson.
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  Hassan and Sampson are probably, you know, the two most important players
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  in the program this year, and I think it's like pretty pretty simple that
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  way for us to have vets off, you know, veterans off the bench
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  that feel like a sixth starter or you know, if those are your sixth
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  and seventh men or seventh and eighth or whatever it is, or you know,
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  we envisioned when Hassan came here that he would play starter minutes or would
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  have the impact of a starter coming from A and M. The way his
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  sophomore year ended. They're playing so well in the n I t uh and
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  then he is a big East type of guard. He's a he's a he's
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  a he's got that dog in him. So, you know, last year
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  didn't go the way he wanted. He's obviously an X factor, you know,
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  along with the freshman. But we need him if we're gonna really try
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  to push to have a year like last year year of the transfer portal.
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  How do you preach patients to some of these guys, especially freshmen who have
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  been told their whole life they're the greatest thing on earth and now they're suiting
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  on the bench for playing the minutes they might want to and they could leave
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  if they want to. Yeah, well, all a freshmen, you know
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  that they're they're going to play for the most part, they'll if they're not
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  a starter, they're gonna have an opportunity to play impact minutes. And you
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  know, you know freshmen that are playing impact minutes for us, if they're
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  not starting this year, what we're gonna expect them to start as sophomores.
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  It's just kind of the rhythm as we're looking at this team, in this
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  program and where we're at, you project a year out that you know and
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  like Jordan, listen, I need I need seventeen minutes a game from you
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  as a freshman off the bench on a really good team, and then as
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  a sophomore, we're going to turn you loose. And we have a couple
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  of you know, freshmen, I imagine they're going to be in a similar
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  situation like Jordan and you know Andre Jackson was where Yeah, I mean they
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  were key players as freshmen and then things open up as Tristan cam you know,
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  potentially others depend on how their season goes. You know, things could
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  open up a lot. Oh, could you think it can be defensively,
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  because that's one thing it really rose to the occasion last year, especially when
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  you have to lying younger guys you may not. Yeah, I just know
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  we're obviously much further ahead offensively right now because I'm not grinding these guys up
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  in the summer about defense. You know, we're working on a lot of
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  offensive concept our running game, which we want to you know, I think
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  we were two hundred and pace of play last year and we want that,
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  you know, to get closer to one hundred. On the flip side,
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  we were so efficient in transition last year. The teams that played at a
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  faster pace, we scored more transition baskets than them because we were we were
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  lethal when we got in transitioned. So yeah, I mean I would say
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  right now, at this time, late September two through October, like we're
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  trying to get that defensive identity right now. And you know, you can't
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  compete for national championship for the most part unless unless you're top ten and offense,
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  top ten and defense. I think the analytics show that. So and
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  then you've got to be a great rebounding team, high assist, low turnover
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  shoot three you know. Yeah, how do you replace Andre's one of that
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  one of the kind voice, yeah, forcefulness, personality, yeah, village
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  Yeah, I mean just a group. I just think after our emphasis on
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  team, our emphasis on you know, on the boys, you know,
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  if any of their girlfriends are listening or families or anything like you just like
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  the you know, the boys are going away for six months right now.
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  You know, it's like a look maybe like going to war or something.
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  You know, it's like we these guys need to be all about each other
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  and you know what we're in the wee season. It's about just you know,
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  most having a cult like mentality in terms of just does nothing else exists
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  in your world right now besides academics and just the team. And that's uh,
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  we were so great that way that when the adversity hit last year,
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  we uh we didn't fall apart. Not sure at this time. Depth was
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  one of your concerns. How did how did that group kind of rise to
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  the occasion. Do you think this group is capable? Yeah, I mean
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  i'd say the way Solo solo today and and uh, like Hoss was great
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  and he's been really good and and uh Solo, I don't think he might
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  have made eleven threes today in here, I can ask Luke maybe off the
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  record, Uh, I take that back. I don't think I was supposed
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  to tell you that that didn't happen. Yeah, that didn't Uh, that
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  didn't happen. But yeah, you know, Samson looks great. Uh.
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  Jaden Ross has been just incredible surprises, so far ahead of where we thought
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  he'd be. Uh. You know, you know Jay stew was catching up.
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  You know, I think it's there. You know, I think Apostlist
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  is a vet. He's been here, you know again like Sam, I
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  mean, we've got the pieces there to put the bench to, you know,
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  potentially put a bench together if those are the guys coming off the bench.
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  But I mean it's competition for you know, I think we played nine
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  guys easily last year and even got the ten at some different points. So,
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  uh, there's roles an opportunity there to be one can use to help
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  you off the bench. I mean, he's it's obviously with with Donovan and
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  Samson, it's hard to get to, you know, a third center.
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  But he's improved a ton and I mean he's got so much better from the
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  summer because you know, we worked so hard with these guys, uh,
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  you know, and we've got just great guys that love basketball. So we're
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  we're we're serious basketball people here. We don't do uh, you know,
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  fake basketball or you know, social media basketball or celebrity basketball, and we're
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  real basketball here, so uh, we work hard at it so much burner
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  are you ahead right now than you would have been if you hadn't been able
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  to spain to do what you did with them? Those time practices were big.
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  Yeah, And my message to the team was, I think with you
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  know, and there are several of the programs that probably feel the same way
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  that had the summer trip, was we have a big advantage with the way
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  we were able to work this summer, and we have a lot of offense
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  in and let's not get back the advantage right now, you know, like
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  you know, pedal to the metal and and uh you know, and and
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  stay ahead of stay ahead of our competition, and develop that defensive mindset right
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  now. That's what these are early practices are about defensive mindset and team toughness.
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  We're there, freshman as far as adopted our mentality, I mean,
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  it was it's a whole thing for them. Yeah, I mean, listen,
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  it's it's it's easier for some of these guys than others, just based
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  on kind of where they're from and what the basketball was like there. You
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  know, we'll get them up to speed. Everyone at this time and it
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  has days where they just they don't think they could finish practice. They just
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  can't believe how intense practice was my message to them when practice was over.
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  The other benefit of how hard we practice and the energy, the intensity,
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  the pace, the tempo is that when you practice that hard for two hours,
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  you don't really have to get ready for the games. You know,
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  you just kind of you know, if you don't practice hard like we two,
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  no, you got to get your level of game up, So embrace
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  that. You know it's going to be the It's it's the secret sauce here
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  for us is how hard we go. And once you could kind of handle
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  that pace and pressure of practice, you know, the games, you know
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  you feel comfortable. Yeah, I know there's going to be like like a
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  million things over the next six months that determine how this team actually does.
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  But when you look at what you have in the room on day one,
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  does it look to you like a team that could win a map? Checks
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  we're we're we're ahead of where we were last year. Now, obviously the
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  leadership questions, there's, uh, there's bench depth questions. Obviously, we're
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  we're you know, more traditionally like back in the day, reliant on a
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  number of freshmen to uh, you know, to play with a majority of
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  the other teams are older through the portal, so we're still a mix,
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  leaning more towards the high school. So, I mean, we showed him
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  before we got out here. You know, the the two defending national champs
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  that that it went right for Florida and oh six oh seven who went back
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  to back and then uh, Michigan State who won it and then went to
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  the final four. Uh, and then you have the two that you know
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  didn't go so well for North Carolina and then Kentucky in the early twenty ten
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  that that so yeah, I mean we all the analytics say that we have
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  enough in that room. You know, we got a lot of work to
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  do. I mean I personally, I mean I love the way that the
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  team looks with a guy like Cam. How have you seen him tackle some
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  of these early challenges throughout these early practices. Cam is he's an older guy,
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  and he loves basketball, and basketball's his whole life. Uh. And
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  he's a he's an unbelievable competitor, and you know he's embraced every part of
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  what we do. And but you know, listen, when you do official
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  visits with recruits, you know the ones that you want, and you know
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  the ones that are going to fit in and uh, and they know whether
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  they fit in with you or not. So I mean when he was here
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  on a visit, he already felt like he was on the team. With
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  some of the criteria that you saw that stuck out too immediately from those some
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  of those early business just the conversations we had about basketball, Like ninety percent
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  of what we talked about what it was about at the time, like NBA
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  playoffs or or our season, or different players, or the style of play
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  in the Big Ten or the Biggie. I mean, everything was our family.
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  We both come from insanely competitive basketball families or sports families. The Spencers
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  and the Hurlies. I like to you know, recruit in you know,
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  families that are obsess over basketball. That seems to fit good. So we're
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  like kindred spirits