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South Alabama HC Richie Riley + G Chaze Harris - NIT Auburn Loss · The Auburn Undercover Podcast

• 0:00
  This mic's for Stephen. It's too tall
• 0:01
  for me. I don't know if you can you hear
• 0:03
  me? Am I good? Is that even on? Um, you
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  know, first and foremost, what a what a
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  rewarding season for
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  for me personally. Um, and I don't say
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  that because we won 21 games and we got
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  to the NIT, but it was rewarding that I
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  got to coach these guys. We had a
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  special group of guys. Um, you know, I
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  don't know, you know, if you know a lot
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  about our program, we got underdog
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  mentality. We um you know our
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  our roster salary in terms of putting it
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  together is as low as there is in the
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  country period. It's lowest in the Sunb
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  Belt. It's low. So these guys come here
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  and it's a credit to them what they do.
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  Like this guy beside me, he's the Sunb
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  Belt player of the year. He put us on
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  his back all season long. These guys
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  came here to play at South Alabama. And
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  in college basketball, that's a rarity.
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  That that does not happen very many
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  places. And we understand what we have.
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  We understand we're underdogs. We
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  understand all that. Um, but you know,
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  it
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  I said this when I talked to one of the
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  other deals. Uh, when I was a kid
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  growing up, we didn't we didn't come
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  from much. And I used to go to school
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  and you'd see what people had on their
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  shoes or whatever they had. And I used
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  to go home and ask my my mom, "Hey, are
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  we rich or are we poor?" And she would
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  say, "We're rich in love."
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  >> And it our program is rich in love. It's
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  rich in culture. It's rich in who we
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  are. And that's how we've been able to
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  fight through all the things going on in
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  the new age of college basketball. And
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  I'm proud of that. I'm proud to get to
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  coach guys like him that not only got
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  their first crack at division one
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  basketball and showed that they belong,
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  they showed that he showed that he could
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  excel. This is one of the best guards in
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  college basketball, period. Um, and
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  there's a lot of guys in our locker room
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  that have stepped up and shown that. Um,
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  so I I just want to thank our guys and
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  say how blessed and thankful I am to get
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  to coach these guys. It's been a really
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  fun year for me. Um, in terms of the
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  game, they they did a nice job of of
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  hurting us on the glass, which we knew
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  coming in was a concern. Their size and
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  athleticism and they got power for SEC
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  front line. We don't see that, you know,
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  we don't see that type of size and that
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  type of athleticism. Um, I thought
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  Overton stepped up the second half and
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  made some deep ones, some tough ones.
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  And he's a he's a winning kid. I said
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  that. I've watched him all year. I've
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  watched Auburn. Got a ton of respect for
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  their program. Ton of respect for Steve
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  and and Coach Pearl before that. And um,
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  Overton Overton's a winning kid and he
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  stepped up and made some really, really
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  big ones when they need it the most.
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  >> Questions.
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  >> Chase from from Cleveland. Do you did
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  you know Keshan? I mean you guys kind of
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  went back and forth there in the first
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  half bucket for bucket history.
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  >> Yeah, I know Keshan. We played against
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  each other in high school. We cool.
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  >> I guess for coach Travis, you guys got,
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  you know, came out started really well
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  defensively. What What did they kind of
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  do differently in the second half that
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  gave y'all some problems?
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  >> Made shots. They uh they made shots. I
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  don't think it was anything
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  schematically. They got us on a couple I
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  call them a purple screen where they
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  screen outside of our guards and we
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  didn't get under and up well enough and
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  we didn't squeeze from the wing. So they
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  got us two ways that way a couple times
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  but um they came out and they really
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  shot it. I mean 11 of 18 versus five of
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  26. I mean when you think about that and
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  some of the shots were similar to the
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  first half they were deep. Um but I
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  thought our energy dipped too. I thought
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  we got tired. Um, we're we're obviously
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  limited for the depth with Olsson out
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  and Pton Law has been out all year and
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  we we're limited. So, and I asked these
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  guys to play really hard and they give
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  everything they have to it. It wasn't
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  the fact that they gave in. They never
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  gave in. We didn't give in all year. It
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  was the fact that we got worn down a
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  little bit and um and then we didn't see
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  the ball go in a whole lot. I thought we
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  got some quality looks and it didn't go
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  in and and we let that affect our
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  defense a little bit and you just can't
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  do that. Anything
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  else
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  >> I guess for Chase early in the game and
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  then you know even a little second half
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  too you kind of got a rhythm getting to
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  the basket I guess what did you you know
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  what did you see on those instances?
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  >> Uh well that's pretty much my game
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  getting to the basket so that's what I'm
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  trying to do every time I get the ball
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  in my hands.
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  >> Thanks.
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  >> Thank you guys. Appreciate it.