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Luke Murray - Postgame Xavier 2 · Coaches Corner

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  Hard Utter group. Postgame show continues were courtside Mike cris Pino joined by Luke
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  Murray. You kind assistant. You know, if you were Bob Gibson and
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  you're facing the Mets when I'm a Mets fan and you threw a three hit
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  shutout, that's what happened here today. You don't get that much in college
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  basketball. Yeah, I mean, obviously that's not what we anticipated. You
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  know, we have so much respect for Xavier's program and Xavier's coach, and
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  you know, we obviously practiced, you know, all week leading into this
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  game, expecting a total dogfight, but really really proud of the way the
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  guys played, especially the way we guarded to start that game. You know,
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  I think they were single figures with three or four minutes ago in the
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  first half. Yeah, they didn't shoot it well, obviously, and you
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  had a lot to do with it. I mentioned that during the game too.
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  I mean it looked like the defense you were playing against Creighton that day,
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  where everything was difficult and just getting a shot off, a decent shot
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  for the opposition was difficult. What goes into getting to that point defensively,
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  because you'd love to be there every game Yeah, absolutely. I mean I
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  thought the preparation, you know, these guys having played Xavier once before,
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  and I think the most part defensively, we did what we wanted in Game
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  one, where we got hurt was on the offensive lass. You know,
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  obviously Donovan wasn't out there and we gave up twenty offensive rebounds and that resulted
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  in them getting to the foul line and then getting some putbacks. So we
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  felt like with Donovan in there, we were gonna be able to take care
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  a lot of the defensive rebounding issues. And you know, with all that
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  preparation time leading into this game, I thought the guys are really on it,
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  you know, but when it comes to a noon game, you know,
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  we haven't been able to get into Excel the last couple of days because
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  of hockey and other things. You know, obviously it's it's always up for
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  grabs. But really proud of the guys. Yeah, and everyone contributed to
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  it. Let's get back to Klingon for a second. Eighteen points, eight
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  rebounds, and I was saying during the game, he's such a deterrent.
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  If you're an offensive player and you get by your guy and he's back there,
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  you're saying yourself, now, what do I do? And I think
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  that's one of the real beauties of his game. Absolutely, I mean it's
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  a total game changer. I don't think people talk about him as a National
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  Defensive Player of the Year candidate, Big East Defensive Player of the Year candidate.
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  I'm not necessarily sure why. Obviously he missed a little bit of time.
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  But you know, you saw it in the creaton game. You saw
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  it again tonight. You know, guys like Desmond claw in Olivari and McKnight
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  are so good and they get downhill all the time, you know, but
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  they see him and there's just a little bit of hesitancy and it really helps
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  our defense. And the twenty two by Tristan Newton. Good to see him
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  now, back to back games getting off to good starts, nine for fourteen
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  from the field, four for seven from three. When when he's aggressive like
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  that, do you even concern yourself about how many shots he takes because he
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  feels like, to me, he can score it pretty much any time.
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  He's not been shooting great percentages, but here today he did. Yeah.
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  No, he made some big threes. You know that that really helped us
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  out early in the game. In particular, but he played great. I
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  thought he had a really good floor game all around. Defensively, he did
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  an excellent job. You know. Olivery made four threes in the game,
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  but three of them were where twister Tristan was out of the game, so
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  he was really really locked into his matchup with one of the better players in
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  the Big East. So really proud of the effort that he gave us on
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  both ends. But like you said, when he's making shots, you know,
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  he makes us even better. Yeah. And Steph Castle's defense, I
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  talk about it every game. He's just a tough guy to go against.
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  It and tell me about that because you see him every day. Lateral movement,
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  strength, muscle, what is it with him? Because he's a real
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  tough guy to play against. Yeah, I'd say all three of those things,
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  you know. I mean, he's got really good lateral quickness. Obviously,
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  he's got great physical strength and size. You know, a guy like
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  Desmond Claude, he has had a lot of success posting up the last couple
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  of games, you know, Providence Butler Creighton you know at the rim and
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  using his physicality, and he just can't really do that as easily with Steph
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  you know, because he's so big and so physical. You know, did
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  a great job with Sharman the other day, did a nice job with Justin
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  Moore in the Villanova game. So he really helps our defense as well,
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  you know, just with his physicality and his ability to really hold up down
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  there. And finally you get a week off. Obviously the guy's had a
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  lot of jump in the legs. You've got a stretch here. Now you're
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  gonna be playing a lot of basketball against tough oponents over the next week or
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  two. Getting that rest was helpful, I'm guessing I think it really was.
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  You know, we had played a lot of basketball leading up to the
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  Villanova game, and I think our guys really benefited from some time off and
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  a little bit of recovery. But you mentioned it, you know, it's
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  a pretty qui turnaroun. I'm playing on a Sunday as opposed to a Saturday,
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  so we know we have to get ready for a good Providence team,
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  which obviously just had a great win yesterday, and then going back to the
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  Garden to play Saint John's, who's playing really good basketball right now. Obviously
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  there's still some really big games out there on the horizon for us. So
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  you know, we have to really stay locked in and be mature in the
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  way that we pair and approach. And by the way, someone just told
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  me today that that Saint John's games already sold out. It's going to be
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  rocking. And you've been in that place a lot. I've been there lots
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  when that place is rocking with a college crowd. I don't know. I
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  don't think there's a better environment, even Houston. No, I mean,
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  there's no better place on planet Earth to play a basketball game than right there.
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  All right, Coach, we appreciate it. Luke, hurry with us.