Latest / Coaches Corner / MBB Coach Dan Hurley w Wayne Norman April 20

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MBB Coach Dan Hurley w Wayne Norman April 20 · Coaches Corner

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  I'm so pleased to be joined by the head coach of the NCAA champion Yukon
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  men's basketball team, Dan Hurley. Dan good morning was April third, Maybe
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  the third best night of your life? Yeah? Right? Number one was
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  August twenty ninth, twenty five years ago getting married, And then maybe the
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  or second was the first night we met my beautiful wife Andrea. What was
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  your night like after the championship? Can you soak it in? Or are
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  you being pulled from a million different directions with interviews? No, there there's
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  a lot of that. There's a lot of being pulled around, and it's
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  a little bit of a numbing effect because you just you don't get a lot
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  of time with the people that were actually very intimately along with you, either
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  during your career or during the building of this program. So in a lot
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  of the aftermath of this, it's just you feel like you're not getting enough
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  time with the actual people that helps you get here. Tell the folks what's
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  going on in the two and a half weeks since the season ended. What
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  are the players doing in the interim, including the guys who aren't going to
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  be back, And what was your last couple of weeks like it's chaos really
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  that first week after you know, you know, that Monday night, you
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  get back on campus and as a you get the PEP rally and gample and
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  you know, for the rest of that week, you know, the players
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  and you know, the staff was pulled in a million directions, and the
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  players I think, you know, really celebrated the championship, uh, you
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  know, unlike they probably ever have. And then you get into that that
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  second week and you know, we got back in the weight room and we
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  started to have meetings with you know, with the players to get their sense
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  of what they wanted to do. And um, at the end of that
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  week, which was last week, UM, you know, we got on
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  the court and worked out and today we're being back in our second you know,
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  this will be our third practice since the national Championship. Everywhere where I
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  go people asked me if I saw this coming. I remind them how good
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  Yukon was in November and December. But to me, it was about how
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  the new guys would fit in and replace some good players you lost r J.
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  Cole, Tyrese Martin, Isaiah Whaley, Tyler poly I saw a caravan
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  shoot last spring. I knew he would be good. Klington did it against
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  high school guys? Could he do it against seven footers and the transfers they
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  meshed perfectly well. He hoped it would. And we knew, we knew
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  we had a big three with Jordan and Andrea and Adama, and you know,
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  we knew what we knew what we thought we had in Caraban and Donovan
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  and m and we were very intentional in the portal. I think we identified
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  Tristan as somebody that would fit great next to Jordan and Andrea on the perimeter
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  and would give us that great size at point guard as great as r J
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  was the first team All Conference player and productive as heck. You know,
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  Tristan's a really big guard that changed our complexion defensively. He was a guy
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  that you had two triple doubles, you know, could facilitate and can score,
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  you know, made threes. He was a huge piece being able to
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  like, you know, give us what he gave us at point and then
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  you know, the bench pieces. Joey, Joey was awesome. Naheim was
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  solid, you know, and and and Hassan, uh, you know,
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  Hassan was you know, gave us that toughness too, and now you're in
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  the same position all over again. Four big pieces of the puzzle have to
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  be replaced. Yeah, I think we knew in a perfect world that this
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  is the position we'd be in. I think, uh, that's why we
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  went so hard for for the big freshman class we have coming in. I
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  think we envisioned, you know, Jordan killing it and becoming a lottery pick.
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  We envisioned a Dhama, you know, having this year and turning pro.
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  We envisioned Andre you know, potentially becoming a first round pick and not
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  being back, you know. And obviously we knew we would lose a couple
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  of these transfers, so we went hard for Steph and Solo and Jalen and
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  Jaden and Yusef and you know, now we also, I think we're gonna
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  be very very intentional with any other pieces that we bring in because we know
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  we've you know, we're in a great place. Were you more nervous before
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  the first NC double A game against Iona than you were before the championship game
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  against San Diego State? I would say initially, until I got a chance
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  to watch Iona, I would say I was initially more nervous about Iona until
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  we really took a deeper dive and saw how fast they played and how open
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  the court was going to be, and that there was gonna be a lot
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  of possessions in the game. Once I started watching them, I think any
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  fear of them, you know, dissipated within a day or two. I
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  was more nervous from the end of the Miami game to San Diego State game,
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  really up until the anthem, because they knew we had the best team
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  and that we didn't have to do anything special in that game except just played
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  our identity and just really not haven't melt them well. My question also related
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  to losing in the first round the prior two years, so this year's first
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  NC DOUABAA game must have been nerve wracking. Yeah, I think you definitely,
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  But I think that you you mostly really kind of look at the matchup.
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  I mean, you look at the numbers, you look at the personnel,
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  you look at the metrics. New Mexico State was like an outstanding rebounding
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  team that had one of the slowest paces of play in the country, and
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  they were really super physical and excellent defensively. So we knew, like that's
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  like just a terrible first round game. You know, it's a brutal style
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  to play against. When you see that, you know, I own a
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  You know it was going to play the way that they were going to play
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  it. It just lined up perfectly for us to be a high possession game.
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  And you know, even at halftime, I was pretty calm. Come
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  on, he was the guy who was I think freaking out a little bit.
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  I saw him grabbed Jordan and trying to shake him and tell him to
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  wake up. Your we're not doing this again year. But I was pretty
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  cold, man. That was pretty cold, and Jordan Hawkins had a big
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  second half in that game. We talked after the parade about how good your
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  defense was in that championship game, and to me, that's one big difference
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  this year. San Diego State shot just thirty two percent. In fact,
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  your last four ncable opponents combined to shoot thirty two percent. Overall, defense
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  wins championships. What made your d so good this year and in the NC
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  double as It was great early in the year and that's how we got off
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  to that start. And then you know in January we lost our way defensively
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  and that that coincided with a bad stretch as well. As you know,
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  I wasn't coaching my best players. I think a number of players went through
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  a cold streak all at the same time. A bunch of things happened that
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  way. But I just think that we had great you know, we got
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  great size on the perimeter. A Caravan really came a long way defensively.
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  I mean his job at the four provement there defensively was huge. And then
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  obviously to have the two centers that both protect the rim, both gave you
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  different looks in ballstream defense. And then the commitment that the group made the
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  depth you'll be able to play nine quality players and even sometimes ten gives you
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  a chance to stay fresh late in the year when a lot of people are
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  tired. And your three point defense was excellent too, one of the best
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  in the nation. Do you believe all roster activity has ended or is more
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  activities still possible? Oh? Good question. I'm looking out the window here
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  to see who's coming down the hallway. Really, you never know, you
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  know, you just don't know. In this business. You think you know,
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  you can have a conversation with a player and they could be in the
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  portal the next day. We've experienced that as of late where they seem happy
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  and returning and then they're gone the next day. You know, obviously Andre's
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  got a process that he's going through. Tristan as a process that he's going
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  through. Relative to know their NBA and professional considerations, we feel like,
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  uh, you know what, we're going to turn a really really strong core.
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  The freshman class is going to just I think it's going to blow away
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  our fans just how talented that group is. And I think several of those
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  members are ready to play and help us the way Alex has, the way
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  Donovan has, the way Jordan has, the way book Night has, the
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  way Andre has early Adama has early in their career. Got studs coming in
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  and you know, as far as the portal goes, we don't expect to
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  you know, to be in there with the exception of making some maybe some
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  some surgical moves. But we feel good about where we are. Let's look
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  to the future. You have two very highly recruited guards and stuff on Castle
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  and Solomon Ball coming in. Can you tell us something about those two guys.
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  Yeah, we feel like they're they're high level guys you know that,
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  uh that bring different things to the table. It's like It's like fire and
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  ice in a similar way to like a you know, Jordan Andre, where
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  you have a staff who's like this, you know, uh, you know,
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  cool, tremendous, facilitating, big athletic guard, you know, who
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  can guard multiple positions, and it's just really hard to deal with off the
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  dribble as a finisher and as a guy that could spread the ball around.
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  And he got Solo who's just this, you know, I don't want to
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  say, you know, he's as athletic as andreas Andre's an athletic freak,
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  but he's got the same type of intensity. He's got like a Westbrook type
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  of athleticism and a rage to the way he plays. And I think the
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  fans are gonna love him because they're just different type of players and different types
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  of skills. And what about the rest of the recruiting class, Jaden Ross,
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  Jalen Stewart, us off singer. Yeah, but both those guys will
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  will play a big role for us. And yeah, I think Jaylen Stewart
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  is, you know, just a tremendous positionless player with you know, all
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  types of game. You know, he could score it every level, tremendous
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  passer, guard multiple positions, you know, he's a guy that's going to
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  be able to get right in the court and help us and make a big
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  impact. Yusef was a guy that we really liked that with our site set
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  on, you know, losing Adama potentially just a rim protector and somebody that's
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  different than Donovan, that gives you a different look in terms of the running
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  and the athleticism and the length. And he still gives it a rim protection,
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  but he's different, you know. And then Jayden, If Jayden comes
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  in here with the type of attitude I think he's going to bring, you
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  know, I think he's got the type of guy that down the road,
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  he's got NBA potential. And he grew so much this year at lu High.
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  I mean, he had a great year there. So I think five
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  guys that are going to be big parts of Yukon basketball. And I think
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  quickly early last year, you remove Yukon's four previous trophies from your desk because
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  they weren't quote yours unquote. Is it safe to assume all five will be
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  now? And can spick? He was display for any recruits who might drop
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  in, Well, I have mine in here now or are it's excuse me.
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  It was the wee season. Now it's the me season. The other
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  four somewhere else. I don't even know where they are, but I know
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  we got the crystal. We got the crystal in which is that one's pretty
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  sweet in here? And I got the two. I got the Regional,
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  and I got the I got the championship trophy in here with the nets.
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  And we used to I mean, we had those those four round here just
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  we had to sell something back in the day. We had to sell a
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  hope, we had to sell a dream. Yeah, and now anyone that
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  we bring in here right now, we're talking about getting number six. There
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  was a much discussed difficult stretch during the season when league play began. The
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  loss is hurt, but do you think it help you restructure some of the
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  offense and find a better role for Andre Jackson afterwards? Yeah, I think
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  we know the best coaches in the country are in the Big East. I
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  think that some of the best teams in the I think it was the best
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  in terms of top four, that no one's was better than us Create and
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  Xavier Marquette. So we went through some tough scheduling. We went through I
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  think an identity crisis. I think, you know, I didn't do a
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  very good job of handling the frustration of getting to as high as number two
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  in the country, and then it all kind of started to fall apart to
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  a degree, I think we all developed a lot of character, a lot
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  of trust. We had to look inward. There was a lot of external
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  noise, a lot of a lot of people gave up on us. A
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  lot of people tweeted something or posted something on our Instagram that now they've got
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  to go look back at and they look like a complete idiot. Yeah.
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  I mean we had to look internal and develop a character from within. And
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  when you go through adverse conditions, it either kills you or it makes you
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  stronger. And we got stronger thanks in large part to having great people in
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  the locker room, a great coaching staff, and having great leaders like Andrea
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  and Adama. AJ actually had more assist in the last ten games than Tristan
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  Newton did. But talk about the game Tristan had in the championship game.
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  He had his best game of the year in the biggest game of the year.
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  Yeah. The tough thing is when you have the season we had,
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  some people get too much credit some other people maybe don't get enough credit.
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  Maybe I get too much credit, and maybe guys like Caravan and Tristan probably
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  don't get enough credit for what they did for the team. I mean Tristan
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  in particular, again losing what we lost at point and then to not miss
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  a beat and to even help us play offense and defense at a higher level,
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  just because he's an easy guy to play with. He gets off the
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  ball, he could create for others. He can score when he needs you
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  when you need him to score, he could beat you from deep. He
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  can beat you with the paint. He's a clutch free throw shooter. He
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  gets to the line a lot because he's so big, and then you know
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  he up shone the backboard too. And I think that you learn to appreciated
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  his approached the longer that you go because he's very, very even keeled.
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  So it's good for a guy like me to have a point guard like Tristan
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  who balances off some of my emotion. It's actually becomes a very good marriage.
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  Tristan Newton had nineteen points against San Diego State and equal to season high
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  with ten rebounds. I was also intrigued by what appeared to be a coaching
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  style shift with you. You had three technical fouls in November and December.
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  Your last team was December thirty first at Xavier. You had none from January
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  through April. Was that a conscious decision on your part to lay off the
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  officials and let the players do their thing? Well, there was an obvious
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  effect of the meme and the gift where I had referenced an official, a
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  great official, in a way I should not have referenced him and listen,
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  I think that that's human nature. Are my relationship. For a couple of
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  games with Big East drafts, it was strained. There was a lot going
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  on behind the scene. It became a major distraction for me and the staff
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  and our program, and that affected I think our performance. In my mind
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  when I went back at that technical of Xavier, I don't think the technical
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  was warranted, but there were some calls in that game that I still look
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  back and say, wait a second here, yeah, And I feel like
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  some of my reactions a lot of time, when I go back and watch
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  the film, they're justified in the moment the frustration. But you know,
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  I did learn to kind of control my emotions more. I've got some great
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  mentors and my wife Andrew and my son Danny. I think I had some
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  interventions there that, you know, you're too good of a coach. You
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  need to be able to focus on managing the game and get your mind off
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  the zebras. So, yeah, that's good. I got to try to
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  keep that street going. Another thing I was impressed with was Howard Domas and
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  Ago avoided foul trouble this year. In his first two years he got an
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  early foul trouble a lot, but that wasn't the case this year. Tell
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  me about the improved and Adamas staying on the court this year. His numbers
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  reflected that, Yeah, he was. He's a reclassified out, so he
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  moved up a year. His first year was a COVID year, which was
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  kind of like a half a year, you know. Really it was his
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  sophomore and a half year to start the year. So he's still a young
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  player, and I think he learned a lot from, you know, from
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  a sophomore year, especially at the end of the year. And I just
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  think that the less minutes allowed him to be fresher. And then when when
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  you're a fresher player, maybe you make less mistakes and you have more discipline
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  and you commit less Dallas. Going back to AJ for a second, looking
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  back on my years covering Yukon, I think of glue guys Nadov Hennefeld in
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  nineteen ninety, Donnie Marshall in the mid nineties. They just made the team
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  better with their presence on the floor. I think Andrey Jackson is the exact
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  kind of player. Explain why AJ was a glue guy on this team.
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  Yeah, because he doesn't care self. Self is the last thing he thinks
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  about. And he's a you know, it's like the ultimate unifier, the
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  ultimate facilitator, or the the ultimate teammate and captain. I mean, it's
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  just a unique individual that people gravitate towards him. You know, recruits,
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  you know, like freshman recruits that that that understand that if he returns it
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  may affect their minutes. I think that they all like are want him to
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  return. I mean most most players want like, you know, the decks
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  cleared so that it could be you know, the me time. But the
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  that's a strange thing about Andre Jackson is like like no one wants him to
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  leave, even if it means a little bit less for them. So I
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  think that that that tells you everything you need to know. What has been
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  the influence of your dad and Jim Calhoun, even Gino Oriema. How valuable
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  were they when the stakes got higher and after losses? Yeah, yeah,
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  I think, you know, starting with Coach Calhoun, it's like, you
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  know, I always modeled myself as a coach obviously after my dad, but
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  I always like envisioned like a Thomazzo, Billy Donovan. Coach Calhoun were like
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  the coaches that I tried to, you know, model the way my team's
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  played and my my approach in terms of either like I like the way the
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  team's played, or I'm a similar type of coach in terms of my personality.
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  So I'm just always trying to just pick coach's brain about you know,
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  about that piece and tournament play and and and you know, roster building and
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  how to deal with the NBA stuffs and like all the stuff that only coach
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  knows, and you know, Gino, I just think it was just always
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  uh, you know, kind of asking him more like what he sees in
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  me and the way I'm carrying myself, in the way I'm handling the media,
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  and the way the way I should be leading and more things like in
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  terms of like leadership in a way that I present myself publicly. He's just
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  he's a brilliant guy. And my dad, I just think again, I'm
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  the college version of what my dad would be if he if he did the
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  college level. I'm just worse. You know. Maybe I'm just a little
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  bit worse, or maybe I'm a lot worse. I don't know, but
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  you know, I represent what Bob Senior would be like if he was a
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  college coach. So now you'll have more reading time. I do. I
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  got that's it. I mean, I'm I'm almost done. I've almost finished
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  my second book since we've been done. So that's gonna be like my that
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  I'm gonna get out in nature, start hike and Dan awesome stuff. It
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  was great to catch up with you again, and it was great to be
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  sitting in Row one on the way to the national championship. Let's do it
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  again. Trust me, we've moved on. That's Dan Hurley, head coach
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  of the national champion Yukon men's basketball team.