Latest / Coaches Corner / Dan Hurley Pre Marquette Media Avail March 5

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Dan Hurley Pre Marquette Media Avail March 5 · Coaches Corner

• 0:01
  You look say we had all right? Yeah, Dave, sorry, can
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  you hear me? Yeah? Yeah, I mean just he's such a unique
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  player. It's really there's no one quite playing that position, you know,
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  the way that he he plays that position. Uh, you know, and
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  then obviously him with with him and the guitar out the last game. It
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  was it just was strange watching like two of the most unique players not playing
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  a game, uh, and then almost winning the game, you know,
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  being right there, uh, at the under four with a chance to win
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  it. Uh. But you know, obviously you know other you know that,
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  Yeah, they're they're you know, it's hard to play, you know
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  without obviously the preseason player of the year and and as good as he is.
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  But Cam Jones has been you know, on a tear, you know,
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  Joplin uh being the gadar will be back for us. You know,
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  I got tremendous respect for for Ross as a player. And and then Gold's
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  development there something to watch. Uh. You know, they're still champions and
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  uh and and have one of the best cultures in in college sports. What
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  what have you seen from Cam Dillons, like you said, on a tear
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  lately? You know, he was the league he scorer last year for the
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  team. So he's not jump you know, sneaking up on anybody. But
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  what have you seen from lately? See twenty seven over the last four or
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  five or and I just see a guy who's you know, it's just dangerous
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  at all three levels. Uh, you know, playing, Uh, just
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  being super aggressive and and uh you know it's obviously it's gonna be a huge
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  challenge. Uh, you know, because of the range and his ability to
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  finish at the rim, he's one of the best rim finishers and at the
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  guard spot in the country. He got the shooting and uh so he Uh
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  watching his reaction at the end of the Creighton game, Uh, you know,
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  we we know how hungry he's going to be tomorrow night. Thanks,
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  we got it. Any Dan, how did your guys respond, you know,
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  you had the championship celebration on Sunday, when you went back to work
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  and practice on Monday. How'd they kind of responded? Was it quick to
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  refocus? Yeah, I mean we've got to find a way to finish,
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  you know, to finish this, you know, this this regular regular season
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  off uh with with the mindset of going into these games like we haven't won
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  any games. We've got to fight off human nature. And uh, obviously
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  when you get to Big East tournament time, the uh, there's gonna be
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  a different level of urgency n c u W A tournament you know, win
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  or you know, win or your win or go home, you know,
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  creates that urgency for you. You know, my last year at Roady,
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  we didn't we didn't handle things after clinching, you know very well. So
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  hopefully that experience, it will come in handy. I think there is a
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  chance right now too, you know, to go for eighteen conference wins,
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  which would be the most ever in the regular season. You know. So
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  there's that, you know, if you need externals, if you're not if
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  you're not competitive enough, competitive enough, Uh, then there's some externals that
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  you could find also. And does it help to get their attention that you
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  have two tough road games to finish. I mean, all the games of
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  this league are tough. Once you play these two games, everything else is
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  on a neutral court where we've been huh. You know, with the exception
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  of the semifinal loss to Marquette, a neutral site record, which is where
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  everything's going to be played from here on out. It's pretty dominant. So
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  it's just a chance to uh to keep getting better, keep creating momentum,
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  well and confidence. Thanks not Adam. Yeah, this is Eddy Vedder coming
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  from Seattle. How are your coaching? What's up? But there's a lot
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  of biggest a lot of biggest teams on the bubble here last week Saint John's
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  don't know, Providence. How much will you be kind of paying attention to
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  those games? And you know, how much will you be rooting for them
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  to make the tournament? You know, doesn't eleven and nine, twelve and
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  eight big East team deserve to be in over you know, maybe maybe more
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  of a mid major or somebody's from up Yeah, yeah, obviously it's better
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  two. Uh for all this recruiting and in terms of interest in the league,
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  I'm going to get more teams in. It's in everyone's best interest.
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  Uh. Really just comes down to who you beat, you know, and
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  and uh and you know, and it starts in a non conference. Uh.
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  It's like, uh, you know, the season doesn't start when when
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  league play starts. You know, the season starts in the non conference because
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  everything that goes on in the non conference, uh affects everyone else. You
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  know what we've done in a non conference with Marquette's done in the non conference.
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  What uh Freighton and Villandova even though they they lost a couple you know,
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  the big Big five games, but beating Carolina and Texas Tech and doing
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  what they did strengthens the league. So I know that with relative to you
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  know, uh, you know, the how many teams will get in?
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  You know, I think I think Volodova, you know, think Volodova is
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  definitely definitely going to get in. I think, you know, I think
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  Seaton Hall, you know, certainly they finished strong, is definitely going to
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  get in. You know, Providence, Uh, who we're going to see?
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  I mean, I know we've a butler. You know, there's a
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  lot of teams I think that are that are deserving. Uh. And it
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  certainly helps when you you know, when you when you come in with a
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  great net from non conference and you see different coaches complaining in other leagues,
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  you know, the best thing to do to help your league get more teams
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  is, you know, you gotta win some games. You gotta win some
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  big non conference games, you know, and you gotta that that's the best
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  thing you could do for your league rather now then than you know, complain
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  about it, Ah, like, go win some big non conference games in
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  November and December and uh, and don't complain in in February March about nets
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  and ken palms and all this ship. All right, good stuff, thanks
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  coaching, got it. We'll go to jail. Hey, Dan, Obviously
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  you talk about getting ready for the tournament and everything. How much does getting
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  some of the bench guys involved a little bit in these last two games?
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  Does it change anything that you won the regular season already or you know,
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  is that something that you're focused on trying to get, you know, fully
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  ready for the tournament. Listen, you know, the the we we get
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  together, you know, you know, we meet and talk about our team
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  NonStop. And you know, I think obviously, you know, Jase stew
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  and Solo, you know, having those guys confident and feeling like they can
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  help us, you know, down the stretch here postseason. So it's obviously
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  you know, something that you know, we we we we talked about and
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  wanted to get those guys more minutes and you know, more opportunity. And
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  I think, uh, they you know, they they practiced well, you
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  know, uh, and we don't We're not going to do anything that's gonna
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  obviously you heard our chances of you know, of winning the next possession,
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  but also too, you know, getting to eight, getting to getting to
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  nine down the stretch here with three you know, with potentially if you win
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  the Big East Tournament, three games in three days. Uh you know that?
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  Yeah, I mean you you'd love to you know, play more.
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  You know, we'd love to be playing deeper than we are right now.
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  I guess we'll see thank you, brutal answer all over the place. Sorry,
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  I'll get around here. And then pat Man, how important is it
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  to carry momentum into the postseason and not just you know, maintain over the
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  next couple of games, but kind of matching it up a little bit?
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  You know, I think you just obviously you you practice smart, and at
• 11:01
  this time of year, you're trying to find a balance to keep your team
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  fresh and getting enough reps where you feel sharp, you know, and and
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  you play with a level of desperation in every game to win it. You
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  know, I personally feel like important for me to put pressure on the team
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  to win the next game or to win every game because we're in that pressure
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  point a year. So, you know, I think our mindset gotta be
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  just you know, how can we find a way to win this game at
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  Marquette tomorrow. I don't think how we finished this year is necessarily going to
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  affect our play at the Big East Tournament or the eng of a tournament,
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  because it becomes a reset after all three of these things, or all two
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  of these things and the regular season, you know, Big East Tournament,
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  there's kind of a reset and a rebirth there. So but I just think
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  that it's not okay for us, you know, to not give our best
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  performance. We've had a great, great year. We know the physition we're
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  in, and you know, we want to keep achieving, playing to our
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  identity. You've also talked a lot this year about how you expected sophomores by
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  the end of the year would be at a different level. Right now,
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  it looks as if Donovan is at that point and Alex may be struggling to
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  get there. But are you confident that they're both going to be better players
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  as you go forward here? Yeah, Donovan has obviously found his form and
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  and is moving great, and he's finally healthy, and he is in a
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  great, great position to finish strong. And Alex, I don't know if
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  Alex is a plus thirty seven. H you know the other day in that
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  game. So you know, Alex played the played great. He made so
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  many winning plays. Uh. He did so many things to to have us
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  play at our best when he was on the court. You know, he'll
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  make shots, he'll uh. And then even if he's not making shots,
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  he creates such spacing and he does so many things to help us win that
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  obviously the shooting we trust. But you know he's a great player. And
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  Donovan playing better is that you mentioned a few times about how he's moving better,
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  but he also seems to be finishing a little bit are around around the
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  rim and just more rhythm. Is he gaining like momentum as he's going on?
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  Yeah, I think you know the ball ball more. Thank uh we
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  we we we learned that in the in the Creton game that he's got to
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  get touches, whether it's in the ball screen game or postops or as a
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  facilitator, and then he'll be an even and more engaged defensive player and rebounder.
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  Thank you got hey, Dan, it's Pat from the AP. Dartmouth
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  players voted to unionize today and with the changes in n AL and all of
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  this. I just wanted to get your thoughts on players now being treated a
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  little bit more like employees and whether you think that's the future of college basketball.
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  Yeah, it is the future. And again I'm not sure you uh
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  you know Dartmouth, Uh, you know, it's interesting that they were kind
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  of first on this, but yeah, the uh, I think it is
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  a situation where, you know, the the there's gotta be some uh I
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  think a situation relative to n I L and portal you know, where where
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  there are some some structures in some in place. Uh you're recruiting a kid
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  out of high school and you believe he's you know, a year player or
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  or uh, there's gotta be some you know, commitment level. I think
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  in two ways. Number one, you know, with with with the player
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  ram in a in a university with all the resources that we do invest in
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  them. And then also too from a player standpoint, I think a lot
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  of schools and a lot of uh, you know N I L. You
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  know, they've lied to players the last two years about about you know,
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  opportunities that they would be afforded, and schools haven't come through. So I
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  think that there's definitely whether it's you know, contracts, stipulations. You know,
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  there's also a lot of other things. You know, we'll be playing
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  another game, and the Big East has done this to us a bunch this
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  year, you know, where we have one day less prep than than the
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  people we play. But we'll be getting back at four point thirty in the
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  morning, five o'clock in the morning. Uh on uh, you know,
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  on Thursday morning, and then we'll have a Saturday game and then our players
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  will have to be in an eight am class you know, which there's there's
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  obviously, and then you know the twelve credits and or the nine credit and
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  all the different eligibility rules while our players are putting in you know, and
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  these players are putting incredible work days, work weeks for five six months.
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  Yeah. I think there's so much there that are going to have to be
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  settled if this thing does union unionized. Excuse me, thank you last one
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  for them. On. I just wanted to ask, uh, how what
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  you have liked about Samson. Johnson's performance over the last two games. Seems
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  like he's been a little bit more active on the scoring front end on the
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  glass, Yeah, sturdier, you know, sturdier on the backboard. No,
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  doubt and you are more decisive at offensively putting pressure on the rim and
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  the paint, and it opens up so many things for him and for others.
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  You know, he's he's playing against tomorrow. You know, the kind
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  of the perfect uh you know template template, whatever that is. Uh,
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  you know for what for what we would like Samson to be, you know,
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  moving forward, Uh, in terms of what a Gadar does as a
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  as a movement center, hopefully in the off season. You know, Samson
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  could you know, could put out enough physical strength to get as sturdy as
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  as Igdara is, but you know, getting him getting him as a movement
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  center, uh, you know, to really give us, you know,
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  the quality minutes it gives us with where with the way Donovan's got it going
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  right now, Samson finding his stride and you know, being an impact player
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  right now gives us that that that that no breather at center, the two
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  headed monster that uh, you know most teams don't have. Thank you,
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  you got it all right, Thank you everyone, Hi guys, Thank you
• 19:33
  guys. Thanks