Latest / Coaches Corner / Geno Auriemma NCAA Rnd 1 Presser 3-22

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Geno Auriemma NCAA Rnd 1 Presser 3-22 · Coaches Corner

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  We're joined by Gina Moriema. Coach, you have an opening statement, you
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  wanted to write your questions? Leave it up to you. Uh yeah,
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  how about we get started questions for coach. That's all right, that's a
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  good one. We'll go right to patent in front row, patt eat and
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  rub from the associated press. Gino, with with such a short bench going
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  into the NCAA tournament, what have you been talking to them about in terms
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  of being able to stay fresh and being able to stay out of foul trouble
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  and all the things that go with only having this many players. Uh yeah,
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  it's funny because, uh well, we talked to our team about and
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  what we talk about among ourselves as a coaching staff sometimes can be two completely
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  different things. You know, we talked to our team about how we've got
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  all the pieces in place. You know, we have everything that we need.
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  We just need to try to recreate another weekend like last weekend. Obviously
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  different different competition that we haven't seen before and different stakes, and for some
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  of our older guys, which is you know, three of them, it's
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  not anything that they haven't experienced before, and trying to give them as much
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  confidence as possible going in to the younger guys. Obviously among ourselves and the
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  coaches. Hey, look, we have one way to win. If that
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  way doesn't work, we're screwed and early vacation. So you know, we
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  haven't such limited ways of winning games that we have to be great at the
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  one or two things that we are are really really good at, and we
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  have to maximize those things and limit all the other things that can be going
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  against us. Question Alexa Alexa Philibo ESPN. Do you know you mentioned the
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  seniors that you do have. What do you need to see from them over
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  the next few weeks to get to where you think you guys can go.
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  And on the kind of flip side of that, how do you hope that
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  they can help the freshmen kind of move along and do what they need to
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  do At the same time, Well, our seniors they've got to play a
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  role that is both within the control of who they are. They've just got
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  to be who they are, and then they've also got to play the role
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  of putting up a front that if things if they're struggling, if they're struggling
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  with something, they can't let the younger guys know that we're struggling. They've
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  got to keep a certain level. And I think the the scoring, the
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  rebounding, the leadership, the defense, all those things that those three are
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  capable of doing, Uh, they're going to do. There's no doubt in
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  my mind there they're going to do it. And I always go into every
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  season and maybe this is a new season with the understanding that we have to
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  win this with our with our veterans, and if the younger guys contribute,
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  then that makes it that much easier to accomplish our goal. But we can't
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  go in thinking, well, if our three seniors really struggle, the other
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  guys will pick it up. It's not fair. That's not to say can't
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  happen, but it's not it's not fair. As far as the the the
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  younger guys, without mentioning any names, you know, like there's four of
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  them, right, They range from DNC tournament, what's happened? Two delusional,
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  I can win a national championship by myself. So they run that gamut,
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  all four of them. So be interesting to see which one of those
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  shows up to Laurie Laurie, Riley Hartford current. Do you know, can
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  you just talk a little bit about Elia's decision that you made yesterday. Nothing
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  that was unexpected. To be honest with you, you know, there's only
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  been actually two conversations that that I've had with with Aleah about this. One
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  was a while back when it was brought to my attention she might consider coming
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  back. So I talked to her about it and gave her all the pros
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  and cons, and at the end of the day, I said, it's
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  going to be your comfort level, and whichever way you go, you know,
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  obviously we'll be fine with it. But I always thought it was a
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  real, real long shot, because I think there is a cycle in college
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  basketball. You know, you you spend four years someplace, you give it
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  like same thing Nica said, You know, you pretty much pour everything you
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  have into it, and then it's time to move on and go on to
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  the next phase of your life. You know, Nika's reason for doing it
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  may have been different than Eliah's. And I don't think Nika's going to be
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  a top five, six or seven draft pick, so her reasons may be
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  different for going, and Page's situation is different for staying. So I think
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  everyone did what I thought they would do. Let's put it that way.
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  None of them surprised me. Got to Maggie and I left maggieven on ect
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  insiders speaking about death. You know, Jackson State Place if almost double what
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  you guys played with in terms of just available bodies. Just how do you
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  what do you see from them that really impresses you so far? The The
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  interesting thing is you don't get to see much of some of the teams you're
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  going to play in the n CTATE tournament. So there's this, First of
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  all, there's this misconception that because you never hear of them and you never
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  see them, that well, how can that be any good? So obviously
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  we've never subscribed to that. And then and then watching them play, you
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  could see why they've dominated that league and why they're so well coached, and
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  how hard they play, and the things that they do are the things that
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  make it difficult to play against it. It doesn't matter whether you're in their
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  league or whether the non conference games that they've played. Yeah, this is
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  the reason you want to be a number one seed. So you don't get
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  this matchup in the first round. You know, I always say during you
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  know, later in the season, I don't care what see we are.
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  We just want to get in. Yeah, well that's a bunch of crap
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  because you're trying to avoid this game in the first round because they're good question
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  from Vicky on the right, Vicky focuson from the New London Day. Do
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  you know I was going to ask you that, like they have a six
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  six post player, so just automatically that makes things like interesting, right,
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  Like that's one of the things that like, you know, Elia has to
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  handle that and not get fout and foul trouble and it just like you said,
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  it complicates the whole thing. Yeah, it does us And a lot
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  of times the NC tournament is truly about the matchups that you that you get.
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  You know, you know, each coach probably sits down and looks at
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  their bracket and says, all right, here's the sixteen teams in our bracket.
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  We're gonna have to play six of them. Here's the sixth we want
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  to play because they fit our matchups perfectly. The chances that are ever happening
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  are zero, all right, So you're gonna run into situations where you're gonna
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  have to deal with something that's not your strength, and obviously size is not
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  our strength, so that does pose a problem. Immediately their depth. You
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  know, there are things that you're going to come across. You know,
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  they rebound the ball hard, they get out and transition. You know,
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  they they just they're they're They're undefeated in their league for a reason. You
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  know. One of the things I like to ask when we're getting ready to
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  play in the NCAA tournament and we're playing somebody we've never seen before, I
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  always ask, so, how do they win? And then when they tell
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  you how they win, it makes it sound like they're the favorite to win
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  a national championship. And a lot of times when you say, well,
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  how do they lose? And then they let they list fifteen things why a
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  team loses. Oh, I asked their guys, so why do they lose?
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  And they said, well, they don't lose in their tournament and every
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  game they did lose early on, it was a really tough game. So
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  you can tell a lot about a team's losses, almost more than you can
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  tell about their wins. And this is complicated. Tomorrow, this is complicated.
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  We're going to patent the front row. Do you know the portal opened
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  before the tournament even began, And I think there's some crazy number like five
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  hundred and seventy players in it right now. Several coaches have talked about how
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  it's not that much fun anymore with these with these new rules, and do
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  you expect there to be a lot of turnover in coaching because it's just become
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  so different, And how do you deal with, yeah, preparing for the
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  tournament and then keeping an eye on the portal and yeah, you know,
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  I love the people that do TV or media or sit up there, and
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  you know, are holier than now advocating for how the the student athletes have
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  been punished all these years and they're actually indentured servants and they should stop be
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  treating as such. If any of them ever got a coaching job, they
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  would flip one hundred and eighty degrees immediately. So, yeah, talking about
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  playing tomorrow's game is complicated. This whole thing is complicated, and it's gotten
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  more complicated because the adults in the room don't know how to fix it,
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  and every decision they make is wrong, so you're left to deal with it.
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  Any one of those things and the portal would have been a challenge for
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  most coaches in the country. Putting the two of them together and having to
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  navigate both of those things, and for all those people out there, and
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  coaches included, to say, well, you just have to adapt, all
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  right. So if it's so easy to adapt, why are so many coaches
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  so quick to get out all of a sudden at an age when you don't
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  see people get out at that age. So not only are players deciding I've
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  had it with this school, coaches are deciding I've had it with this profession.
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  And it's not about I can't adapt or I can't do it. It's
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  you know, those two things combined, the portal and the nil left to
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  its own devices the way it is is not only going to hurt the coaching
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  profession and people are going to get out. First of all, it's killed
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  the high school recruiting because why would you recruit a high school kid when you
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  can recruit a college kid. And second of all, it's killed every mid
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  major in America who've now become junior colleges, so to speak, because as
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  soon as they develop a good player, that player is leaving. And then
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  the high majors, it's costing you money to get the kid there, and
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  it's costing you money to keep the kid there, and it's costing you more
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  money to make sure they don't leave. So no one is skating through this
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  scenario going yeah, I got this figured out. No wady, not the
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  players, not the coaches, not anybody has it figured out. And that's
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  unfortunate. But that's the world that has been created for us as coaches and
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  the players as players, and unless somebody gets a grip of it and put
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  some you know, guidelines around it, it's only going to get worse.
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  And the last thing I would say the unintended consequences of all this is that's
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  five hundred Division IE players in the portal after four or five days. What
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  do you think is gonna happen after this tournament? How many more are going
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  in? And you got till May eleventh. I think it is something like
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  that. So there's a long way to go between now and then. How
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  many of all these kids that get in when the musical chair stop have no
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  chair to sit in and they're an actually worse situation than they think they're in
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  right now. No one talks about that they should be free to go wherever
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  they go. Good. What they don't understand is that school is free to
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  not take you and you're stuck. So that's all this is, unfortunately the
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  way it's played out. We'll take a question from zoom Kurt. Maybe no
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  zooming allowed. I guess not no zooming allow. If you're not here,
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  you're not here. Everyone who's here is here. Urpologies, apologies, coach,
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  no worries. Yeah, and you're yeah, I should be clearly I
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  should be there. Just quick question. It's Kirk Bermans from TS in Canada
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  with with Aliyah. Uh Alison asked me, yes, I'm wondering if you
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  are able to just kind of reflect on her on a more overarching her four
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  years of development or growth at Yuko. Yeah, Aliyah coming out of high
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  school. I remember watching her intently at the the NBA Academy. They actually
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  that they had it at the final four. Actually I think we were in
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  Tampa, and ironically she and Nica were roommates. But watching her play was
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  just this young competitive, you know, run up and down hard every possession
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  and obviously very impressive, but needed like most kids that age, to kind
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  of harness all that and develop certain basketball skills. And over the four years,
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  you know, she's been able to add something each and every year that
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  she's been here, and her competitiveness is still, you know, way above
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  average. Her athletic ability or you know, her toughness is way above average.
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  And learning how to play against players where she's undersized, uh, probably
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  gets her ready for the next level, because that's what's going to happen a
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  lot at the next level. And it's unfortunate that we've not been able and
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  this goes for Nika and Page as well, that we've not been able to
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  surround these three seniors with an entire team the almost the entire four years that
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  they've been here. So you know, Leah's had to work under much more
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  trying situations than most players would have had to. And I think she's been
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  you know, I'm unbelievably consistent and and when you've had to do it by
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  yourself so long's it's wearing. And she's managed to to just you know,
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  be great for us every night because you know, she has no choice,
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  really, she has to be great. We have time for two more.
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  Carl on the right, and then over the mag in the left, Carl
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  Outam at Chross Media. Do you know know how the freshmen have contributed?
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  But I want to ask about Cadence in particular, what kind of progress do
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  you think she's made? How do you see her what she needs to do
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  in the off season, looking ahead, and you know just the role she's
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  kind of filled. I asked her to look up Vinnie Johnson from the Detroit
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  Pistons, the microwaves sort of thing. But and I noticed you shake your
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  head. But anyway, can you talking about you encourage her to do that?
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  Well? Jamel Jamal said this yesterday. He said, she just looked
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  at me and she was smiling a little bit, and she said, coach,
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  you saw something in her during recruiting, and whatever that was, you
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  still keep seeing in her, and she keeps showing you that the things you
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  saw are really, really, really there. She's a gamer, she's competitive,
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  She's not shy about shooting the ball. She finishes instinctively around the basket,
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  way different than anybody other than Page on our team. She's long,
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  she's got a toughness about her. At some point in her life, she
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  will she will Exteuse's way to say, she will come to understand that not
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  every shot is a great shot, just because you have the ball in your
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  hands, that there are times when it's best not to shoot it. I
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  don't want to say that earlier in the year, and we're probably going to
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  have to live with those in the tournament because some are going to go and
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  some are not going to go. So for the summer, understanding what that
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  is is going to be a big key. And then being better with the
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  ball when you don't shoot it. I think that's the next thing for her,
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  going to be better with the ball when you don't shoot it, be
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  better with where you're going on the dribble, be better with where you're going
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  with the pass, and I expect her to do that time for one more
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  Maggie and the Left maggieven on Ect Insider Ergy know. I'm just wondering if
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  you saw Shay's win on a Wednesday, and it's what she's done so far
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  at Vanderbilt. She was complaining that uh getting in about uh might have to
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  be in a playing game. Oh my god, I hope we don't have
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  to go here like all the things that coaches obsessed about. And I reminded
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  her that just getting in in her second year was already a huge accomplishment and
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  she could coach at Vanderbilt for the rest of her life just for doing that.
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  Because it's been so long, you know, since that feeling has happened
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  at Vanderbilt. And no surprise that they want and won't be a surprise if
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  they win the next one. I don't even know who they play, but
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  it won't be a surprise to me because there's a style of play that they
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  have, you know, she and Tom. You know, Tom brought a
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  lot of his stuff that he was doing and Shay brought a lot of stuff
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  that she's been doing. And that match I think has been terrific for them.
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  And they have an identity, they have a style, and those are
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  two very very competitive people, Shay and Tom, and they've passed that down
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  to their team. Their team is super competitive. It doesn't usually happen that
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  fast. You know. They won their first NCAA tournament game. I texted
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  her and I said, I'm jealous. I said, it took into our
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  third try for us to win our first, our first game, and and
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  uh and both of those were home that we lost. So I'm super proud
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  of her. I can't say enough about the job that she's done. And
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  they're in our bracket? Aren't they not in ours? Though they're important?
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  Right? Are they in our bracket? I didn't even check that for them.
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  I only know this weekend they are. Is there a chance that we
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  would play them if we keep winning? No fun? Alright, I hope
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  we play them then. Hell yeah, I hope we play'em. So
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  i'm'a be rooting for her until then, coach, Thank you, alright,
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  thank you? Oh does remind your hamming