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Postgame Presser - SD State Sweet 16 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Congrats, gentlemen, coach one of your settle. If you just want to
• 0:02
  give us an opening statement tonight's victory, that'd be great, Thank you.
• 0:05
  Yeah, obviously, you know, thrilled with the performance. Uh. And
• 0:09
  it's you know, just playing against Brian Brian's teams. Uh, you know,
• 0:14
  it's just it's it's it's always an honor to play San Diego State.
• 0:18
  They've been one of the best college basketball programs in the country for the last
• 0:23
  you know, several years. The job he's done there, it's incredible.
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  Couldn't have more respect for their players, you know, how they show up.
• 0:31
  Obviously, you know, we had our best night and uh and they
• 0:34
  didn't have one of their best nights and uh obviously didn't expect a game like
• 0:38
  this versus those guys. But you know, ultimate respect to San Diego State,
• 0:42
  true true champions. Thank you, coach. It's a good question here
• 0:46
  in the front, Zach brazila New York Post. Damn, that's now nine.
• 0:58
  You've won nine straight tournament games by an average of twenty two point eight
• 1:02
  points. Can he ask me or so? Coach? Yes, yes you
• 1:08
  can. You can't ask me. Yeah, So that's nine straight. Tornment
• 1:12
  wins by an average of twenty two point what twenty two point a points?
• 1:15
  What when you hear that number? Just what is is it hard to believe?
• 1:21
  Or I mean, We're not supposed to be this easy. I mean
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  we suck at winning close games, so you know, you gotta go with
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  the alternative. Now. I think the group we got a killer instinct.
• 1:34
  Yeah, we play every possession with great desperation. We got NBA level players
• 1:40
  that are incredibly well prepared. Uh, you know by Luke Murray and Kamani
• 1:44
  Young who to the best coaches in the country assistant head coach, just to
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  the best that do it. Uh. And uh, you know obviously,
• 1:52
  Uh, we're very comfortable in tournament play. We're hard to prepare for a
• 2:00
  Hi. Tara Sullivan from the Boston Globe caim, I guess I wanted to
• 2:04
  ask this of you. Having joined this team this year, could you how
• 2:07
  would you describe the hunger level for this team and how much does it mean
• 2:12
  to you to see teammates who have already won kind of play with as much
• 2:16
  hunger as it seems you guys do this year. Yeah, I think everybody
• 2:21
  very hungry. You know. Obviously the team had great to death last year.
• 2:23
  But you know it's a different group and you know a lot of those
• 2:27
  returners came back wanting to, you know, go do it again and help
• 2:30
  the new guys experience, you know, a national championship. So you know,
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  I think that's just a part of the Yukon culture and you know,
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  I'm happy to be at Yukon and happy to be a part of it regularly.
• 2:40
  Back right, Dan Mike Abilson, New Hampshire union leader. Alex drops
• 2:46
  eight right off the rip in the first four minutes. How much do you
• 2:49
  think that settled the team in? How much did that settle you in as
• 2:52
  a coach? Know when this was a real wildcard game. Yeah, I
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  mean we expected to have a very difficult time offensively versit. These guys,
• 2:59
  they're top ten defense and you know the physicality, you know, just that
• 3:05
  start by Alex you really settled us. Obviously, Cam's first half, you
• 3:12
  know, t News second half. You know, Donovan got it going.
• 3:15
  I mean just you know, the balance basically to have the four guys in
• 3:19
  double figures, two more guys with eight, you know, we have a
• 3:23
  lot of answers. Are you here in front? H Donaldmory Hartford current Steph,
• 3:29
  Can you discuss what you saw, what you thought going into the second
• 3:32
  half, and if you feel like this this game maybe represented even a breakthrough
• 3:37
  to a different level for you. I mean I just saw that, you
• 3:40
  know, I kind of missed out on a couple opportunities to kind of you
• 3:44
  know, grab some offense rebounds, kind of make some more plays for my
• 3:46
  teammates, and second half I just try to, you know, trying to
• 3:51
  make up for those and you know, to trying to do whatever I can
• 3:53
  to you know, win my matchup and have my teammates right here in the
• 3:57
  middle. Hi kind of Sergeant day campus Dan, I was wonder if you
• 4:00
  could speak upon how the defensive, how the defense really stepped up in the
• 4:05
  second half, specifically when you look at how Lady performed in the first versus
• 4:10
  the second. I mean there's a real starch difference there, and it really
• 4:13
  seemed to shut down the SDSU offensive attack. I mean, in the in
• 4:16
  the first half, I think, you know, we made some uh you
• 4:19
  know, you know, he made three perimeter shots against Donovan uh out in
• 4:25
  space and then uh, you know, two kind of broken play buckets.
• 4:29
  But obviously he had he had fifteen at the half and then uh, just
• 4:33
  obviously to hold him, you know, an All American caliber player like like
• 4:39
  Jayden to three points in the second half. I think we just you know,
• 4:43
  Donovan made it hard on him. Samson made it hard on him.
• 4:46
  Guys were helping off the right, people on the perimeter, just showed him
• 4:49
  a lot more bodies and played much better one on one defense. But you
• 4:55
  know, we're we're a top ten defensive team as well. So again that's
• 5:00
  the best way to keep yourself from being vulnerable in this tournament by guarding at
• 5:03
  a high level. Are you in the front left, Dan Joe rud of
• 5:08
  Hartford Current? You went to Donovan a little bit, you know, in
• 5:11
  the first half, he's he's putting up a bunch of shots, not really
• 5:14
  hitting. But but those three guys combined for fifty one. So how were
• 5:19
  you able to what was your focus in this game in terms of backcourt versus
• 5:23
  front court and scoring? Yeah, I mean it's uh, you know,
• 5:27
  Donovan had some some good opportunities with you know, you know, with Ladie,
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  the opportunity to get three fouls out him there was it was too tempting
• 5:34
  not to give him a couple of opportunities there. Uh, but that guy.
• 5:39
  You know, sometimes it's hard for seven to three guys to score against
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  a freak athlete who's super strong, who could kind of leverage them a little
• 5:46
  bit. I had that low leverage. But you know, you look at
• 5:50
  the three guards and the performances by these guys, you know, the you
• 5:57
  know, seventeen and four, eighteen and three sixteen, Little Oven and then
• 6:01
  Has you know, I thought Has Wash Has was really really good too.
• 6:06
  Here to the right, Nick Gally Field level Media. This is for any
• 6:11
  of you guys. Supposed to be a neutral site game, but a lot
• 6:14
  of Yukon white in that crowd tonight. What does it mean to kind of
• 6:15
  have that fan support in a game like this? That's the fun. I
• 6:20
  mean it means a lot, you know, just to be able to travel
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  with our fans. I mean we traveled very well. I feel like it
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  gives us, you know, kind of a boost, a little bit of
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  an advantage. And I mean our coach said before, I mean we try
• 6:31
  to make it like Stores North a little bit. So I mean they showed
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  out for us, and you know, it was definitely electric in there tonight.
• 6:38
  Committee didn't give that to us too. We had to we a shit
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  ton of games to get that right here the left Mattville Tour, Mass Live
• 6:48
  Dan building off that a little bit, when you looked for a second,
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  when you're putting your walk ons in, look like you looked up into that
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  crowd for a second, do you allow yourself to take a moment at that
• 7:00
  point you've got the game in hand and realized this is kind of special to
• 7:04
  have this around you. What you're just accomplished on the court in front of
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  you and have the people and the support behind you. Is that a moment
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  that you can kind of pause and keep for later. Yeah, I mean,
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  listen the way that defending champs have fared in recent history. Yeah,
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  it's kind of been against the odds in terms of the season we're having following
• 7:30
  up the national championship with an even better season. You know, win in
• 7:34
  the biggiest regular season by multiple games and setting a program record for now for
• 7:40
  wins on the season, and you win in the Big East Tournament and now
• 7:44
  getting to an Elite eight. You know that this team has defied you know
• 7:46
  what past champions have done and taken this program to a completely different level.
• 7:51
  So yeah, I think what about thirteen seconds left. I allowed myself to
• 7:55
  enjoy it as I screamed to get the ball to Andrew's hands so we could
• 7:59
  dribble out the clock. That's been kind of a uh another superstition. Get
• 8:03
  him the ball please, and then just to be able to go over and
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  hug my wife Andrea, who uh you know she uh she got put up
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  with me and she's got to deal with my socks and underwear and everything after
• 8:16
  this. Have about two or three more here over here to the right,
• 8:18
  uh adasenaccuiki. A lot of sports talk coach congratulations, uh to lose Jordan
• 8:24
  and Andre, but have players like Cam and Stefan step in to help fill
• 8:28
  those roles. How impressive was the most impressive part of two newcomers, even
• 8:33
  though they're in different stages of their careers, in filling that uh gap and
• 8:39
  uh speak to the chemistry as well of those two. There a couple of
• 8:41
  tik tac toe passes between them. Yes, yeah, well, I mean
• 8:45
  those Jordan, Andrea, Dama, Yo, Joey Nahim, all those guys
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  are your big reason why we are where we are right now with this season
• 8:52
  two. What they were built in terms of the championship culture, and you
• 8:58
  know, this is just where our program's at right now. This is where
• 9:00
  our program is going to be. I don't think we feel tremendous pressure going
• 9:03
  into these round of thirty two or sweet sixteen games. Obviously we feel pressure
• 9:09
  because we want Cam and Steph and some of these guys that are maybe on
• 9:11
  there, you know, their last run at Yukon to experience a final four
• 9:16
  in the national Championship. But as a program, we don't feel a lot
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  of pressure. I know as a staff we don't because you know what,
• 9:22
  we feel like the position that we're in right now is going to be our
• 9:24
  level and that we're going to be able to maintain it because we've got the
• 9:28
  formula right here in front Dan on Steph. You know, you guys have
• 9:33
  talked about how unselfish he is as a freshman, and you know, for
• 9:39
  as a big five star recruit. What do you just see of the progress
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  he's making obviously first career double double tonight eight and you know his defense and
• 9:46
  now his rebounding just as you as he's gotten you know, more experienced.
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  What do you think of just the strides? Yeah, I mean he's a
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  pleaser and he's he's a humble kid, and he's got the great parents.
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  And and then I think what makes it easy for Steph as he's again he's
• 10:01
  insulated with a great group of older players and a great mix on the roster.
• 10:07
  You know, his relationship with Tristan, you know, has helped him
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  a great deal. You know, Donovan, Alex Caraban, Cam Spencer.
• 10:13
  He's got like veteran players that aren't threatened by you know him and these mock
• 10:20
  drafts, and you know all of his abilities and talent. You know,
• 10:24
  we don't have that petty shit in our program. You know, like we
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  uh just got a great group of people that support each other. These the
• 10:31
  players have a really special bond. And I'll credit you know, Steph's parents
• 10:35
  and and and these guys he gets to play with. When we got about
• 10:39
  two minutes left, going to take two questions, go ahead, Tara Dan,
• 10:43
  maybe a little bit more about that. But what I was asking Cam
• 10:46
  like that hunger, what do you see in some of the guys who have
• 10:50
  one? How do you see it manifest that they really are pulling for guys
• 10:54
  who haven't experienced it to feel it too. How do you know that?
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  How do you see that. Yeah, you know they're just uh, we
• 11:03
  just got people that are uh that that that just they're they're desperate to win
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  more. We have winners. We have uh you know, we've got we
• 11:11
  guys, We've got you know, we've also too talked about legacy. I
• 11:16
  mean you're talking Tristan Newton right now is uh, you know, make a
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  case for you know, the the greatest career that any guards ever had while
• 11:24
  wearing a uniform at Yukon right now, like while he's at Yukon, Like
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  what he's accomplished in two years, you know, Donovan Klingen, you know,
• 11:33
  like these guys right now are leaving a legacy in a place that's hard
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  to leave. A legacy we're making. It's been a historical season and a
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  tough place to make history. So uh but that they're they're galvanized by that
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  special Take one last one here, we'll wrap up. Tristan. What level
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  of confidence does that give you going into Saturday to be sitting right next to
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  your coach and hear him saying that about you right now? Yeah, it
• 12:00
  gives me a lot of confidence. You know, this isn't this isn't anything
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  I haven't heard before from him. You know, he praises me behind closed
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  doors. And you know my teammates they you know, they give me great
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  confidence. So you know I got the most confidence and I can't wait for
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  Saturday. Thanks Shelming, good luck on Saturday. H