Latest / Coaches Corner / Seg 6 - MBB Show w A. Karaban Mar 3

Transcript

Seg 6 - MBB Show w A. Karaban Mar 3 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We're back with Alex Caraban. You con men's basketball Coaches
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: show Dan Hurley earlier on Mike Chrispino. Let's talk about
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: your game since you got to stores to where you
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: are today, I've noticed in the last you know, I've
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: done every one of your games on radio, I've noticed
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: you are taking it to the basket more and more.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: You're able to drive it and make some difficult shots,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: difficult angles, little tear drops. Is that something that you
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: started to do, I'm thinking maybe last year, and is
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: that something you can actually practice?
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you can definitely work on.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: I've worked on a lot during the offseason, just really
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: working on my touch in the float game. As you know,
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: I'm not the most athletic guy out there, so I'm
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: not going to go down the middle and dunk on people.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: So you just got to find other ways.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: And you got athletics seven footers down there that could
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: manipulate and block shots, so you got to find other
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: ways to score. And I've always felt like I've had
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: a good touch around the basket ever since I was
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: in middle school in high school, and really just get
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: team to work on that heading into college.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, those are great shots to have Believe me, I
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: don't care what level of basketball you play, whether it's
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: you know, grammar school, high school, college, pro. The guys
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: in the pros that do that are very valuable guys too. So,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: you know, along with the physical development for you, how
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: about the mental toughness you've had to develop? You comes
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: down a lot of winning obviously in the last four years,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: but you've learned, I think as much as anybody, to
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: bounce back from bad days. I mean a couple of
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: years ago, you guys collapsed in January, but you rallied
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: to win the national championship. Recently you lost to Creighton
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: at home, gave up ninety one points. That's not fun.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: But you got to find a way to overcome that, right.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Always, you always do, And I think I grew.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: I grew a lot last year heading into this year
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: with my mental toughness, just having a lot of games
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: where I didn't play my best, didn't shoot it well.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: Also not having the year that Yukont's you know, typically
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: expected to have, just losing a lot more games than
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: we should have coming off back to back national championships,
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: Like there's a lot going on, and just really growing
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: mentally there, just making sure I'm staying strong as a leader,
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: no matter how good or bad. I am just making
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: sure the team's always hearing my voice. And that's something
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: that I've had to work on and just always having
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: confidence in my shot, whether it's going in or not.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: And you know, even responding after losses too. You got
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: to use it as fuel and anger heading into the
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: next game and really just learn from him.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that really implied in the Seaton Hall game.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Your final game is a senior at Gamble Pavilion. I mean,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Pirates were giving you, guys all kinds of trouble. They
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: led by eight with about eight minutes left. I mean,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: it wasn't going your way. I'm just curious in that
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: under eight time out, what was the conversation. Like in
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: that Yukon huddle.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: It was just really staying together, staying together and finding
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: a way to win that there were plenty of essions
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: left in the game and just making sure that we
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: capitalized and just played better basketball. We knew we weren't
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: playing our best and we knew we had to respond.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: And throughout this entire year, we've had games where we
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: found a will to win and you know, let's just
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: do it.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Again, I thought that would be a difficult day for
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: someone like you because they kind of surprised you. They
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: put you in the Huskies of Honor. Yeah, I mean,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: you're gonna play a game a very tough opponent, it's
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: gonna be your last one in that building. That experience
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: before the game had to be amazingly unique for.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: You, super unique. I mean, it's something I'm never going
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: to forget. And I already knew heading into how emotional
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: Senior Day is going to be for me, just for
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: how much I care about this program and knowing it's
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: the last game and just everything surrounding it, just how
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: much how much I've given into Yukon and how much
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: Yukon's given me. I knew it would be emotional. Then
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: on top of that, I had no idea what but
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: the Huskies of Honor, So that that also made me
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: even more emotional. But at the end of the day,
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: when the ball goes up, we're playing basketball. Winning a
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: championship is more important to me than all the emotions
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: that surrounded and how badly we needed that game to
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: you know, keep our hopes high for the regular season championship.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: So but you know, after the game, I was able
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: to celebrate, really reflect on it, and you know, became
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: more emotional realizing how special of a relationship I have
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: with Yukon, how special my relationship is with Coach Hurley
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: and the coach and stuff, and how much of an
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: honored is to be a Huskies of Honors. That's you know,
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: when I first slept on campus, I never thought that
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: I could do that.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I tell you, well, you are one of the
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: more most appreciated players ever to play for the University
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: of Connectic. I can tell you that we got about
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: another thirty seconds to go here, Dan Hurley and you
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: were hugging center court, and that happened with a lot
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: of players. I've seen it over the years.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: What was that moment like special?
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: Just really getting a little like you see the video
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: and you get like a little recap of our little
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: four year journey, and just I thought it was unique,
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: as I really thought. It was just me and him
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: and my parents and my family just standing at half court,
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: just really trying to take in the moment.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: And He's changed my life.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: He's been the most influential person to me, and I
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: wouldn't be where I'm at without him and He's made
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: me so much of a better man. I mean, I
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: could speak on and on about him, and he just
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: impacted my life in ways I could only try to
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: repay him.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: So he's one of a kind.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: He's I have a special relationship with him that's not
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: just going to end at Yukon.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: It is going to be for the rest of my life.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: No, that's for sure. He's one of a kind. But
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: so were you. Alex Caraban, and we certainly appreciate everything
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: you've done. It ain't over yet. A lot of things
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: going to happen here in the next few weeks.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, we're not done yet, all.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Right, we appreciate you, Alex Caravan and the Yukon Men's
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Basketball Coaches Show thanks to Dan Hurly. I'm like Chris Bina,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you again soon.