Latest / The Craig Way Show / Jordan Pope and Julian Larry on the Longhorns' start and room for improvement

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Jordan Pope and Julian Larry on the Longhorns' start and room for improvement · The Craig Way Show

0:04
Speaker 1: Back to the Craig Way Show.
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Speaker 3: All right, thanks again to ron Jo Wallace joining us
0:20
Speaker 3: live high school football under television screen tonight with Lexington
0:24
Speaker 3: and Rice Consolidate and tomorrow night Westlake against mister Rich. Okay,
0:29
Speaker 3: I wanted to get to basketball. Jump over to basketball.
0:32
Speaker 3: Long Horn men's basketball two and one and they play
0:35
Speaker 3: Misissippi Valley State on Saturday. Rodney Terry's six new faces
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Speaker 3: through the portal in addition to the six rattorneys in
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Speaker 3: the four freshmen. Two of those new faces both point
0:45
Speaker 3: guards Jordan Pope and Julian Larry, joining a media zoom
0:51
Speaker 3: this morning. So I wanted to give you an opportunity
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Speaker 3: to hear the questions for the media. And here these
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Speaker 3: two guys, these two transfers, Julian Pope, Julian Larry and
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Speaker 3: Jordan Pope.
1:00
Speaker 1: And Parker lead us off.
1:01
Speaker 4: Please thank you.
1:03
Speaker 5: Yeah, hey, guys, I guess question for both of y'all,
1:06
Speaker 5: but you know, first, just how do you feel like
1:09
Speaker 5: you're adjusting now that you have a few games under
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Speaker 5: your belt. And then second part to this is just
1:15
Speaker 5: I guess how much of these early games does it
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Speaker 5: feel like he's serving as a time to maybe work
1:20
Speaker 5: on you know, rotations.
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Speaker 6: Definitely, I feel good in terms of justin you know,
1:26
Speaker 6: it's definitely a process, but my teammates are are helping
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Speaker 6: me through it, pushing me through my coaches, so it's
1:32
Speaker 6: going good. And then yeah, these these first couple of games,
1:35
Speaker 6: it's just a good time to really work on our
1:37
Speaker 6: geling and our chemistry and get guys at all on
1:40
Speaker 6: the same page and the same rhythm, so you know,
1:42
Speaker 6: when when the conference comes around, you know we're all
1:45
Speaker 6: ready to go. So they're definitely good stepping stones for us.
1:48
Speaker 7: Jordan, good morning, and if Julian's here, good morning too.
1:52
Speaker 7: Hey you guys, as point guards, I'm gonna ask you
1:54
Speaker 7: Trey Johnson question because you're gonna get a lot of those.
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Speaker 7: Where's his room for improvement? I mean, we've seen this stroke,
2:01
Speaker 7: but from a point guard's perspective, where's his room for
2:05
Speaker 7: growth as an offensive player? You know, you know, on
2:07
Speaker 7: the offensive end of the of the court.
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Speaker 6: I'd say probably just sometimes slowing the game down, you know,
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Speaker 6: making the simple play because you know, he could do
2:17
Speaker 6: everything out there. He can shoot the three, the mid range,
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Speaker 6: get to the basket. But you know, he's a really
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Speaker 6: good playmaker. I think if he really showcases his his
2:24
Speaker 6: passing ability, everything would just be like a lot lot
2:27
Speaker 6: more easier for him, which it already looks like it is,
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Speaker 6: so I guess just playmaking more.
2:31
Speaker 2: And Jordan just want to ask you, generally kind of
2:33
Speaker 2: picked backing along the lines of getting adjusted to a
2:35
Speaker 2: new team, where do you kind of feel you're at
2:39
Speaker 2: in terms of just being able to play freely with
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Speaker 2: the guys out there on the floor and and and
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Speaker 2: you know, maybe you know how much of it out
2:45
Speaker 2: there is still a thinking process versus just being instinctive
2:48
Speaker 2: as far as what you want to do as a player.
2:50
Speaker 8: You know, it feels good.
2:51
Speaker 6: I'm definitely in a lot more situations where I'm playing
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Speaker 6: more freely and I'm getting a lot more open looks
2:57
Speaker 6: to where we can just read and react off one
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Speaker 6: another and not so much just relying on something like
3:03
Speaker 6: so heavily. So it's definitely it's definitely a new experience
3:07
Speaker 6: for me that you know, I'm adjusted to compared to
3:09
Speaker 6: last year. But you know, it's a good It's a
3:12
Speaker 6: good spot to be in and I'm looking forward to
3:14
Speaker 6: you know, working that better and uh, just finding finding
3:16
Speaker 6: my rhythm more.
3:17
Speaker 4: I say, Jordan, thank you for being with us. So
3:20
Speaker 4: two quick questions. When you thought about coming to Texas
3:24
Speaker 4: and the value that you wanted to add to this team,
3:28
Speaker 4: what was that value that in your mind you're going
3:31
Speaker 4: to bring X? What is that? And then real quickly,
3:34
Speaker 4: the second question is behind you is a board that
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Speaker 4: says basketball team rules. What's the number one rule on
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Speaker 4: that chart?
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Speaker 6: Oh, that's our commitments, each player's commendments that we all
3:46
Speaker 6: pledged individually to one another, that will be committed to,
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Speaker 6: you know, bring along every single day, which I'll i'll minded,
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Speaker 6: leadership effort on both ends, and being a great teammate.
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Speaker 8: These are all the things that we committed to one another.
4:00
Speaker 6: We went on one of our team retreats that we
4:02
Speaker 6: be dedicated to bringing forth every single day. And so
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Speaker 6: your first question I thought about the value I could
4:09
Speaker 6: bring was just being a winning playmaker, you know, bringing
4:12
Speaker 6: my scoring ability, my shootability, which I'm still trying to bring.
4:16
Speaker 6: You know, I'm in a bit of a funk right now,
4:18
Speaker 6: but you know, just you know, my score, my passion,
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Speaker 6: and just being a threat on offense and someone that's
4:23
Speaker 6: active on defense and just making winning plays. That's what
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Speaker 6: I thought. You know, I bring great value for this team.
4:28
Speaker 4: Thank you.
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Speaker 9: Hey Jordan, you've obviously got a ton of guys that
4:31
Speaker 9: have college basketball experience. What's the balance with Trey of
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Speaker 9: bringing him in and kind of acclimating him to the
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Speaker 9: college game and you guys doing your own thing versus
4:44
Speaker 9: we've got to we've got to obviously a pure scorer here, Like,
4:47
Speaker 9: how do we how do we acclimate our games with
4:49
Speaker 9: him and his game with ours? Yeah?
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Speaker 6: Defin because high school in college is two different completely games.
4:56
Speaker 6: So just you know, with the guys that have a
4:58
Speaker 6: lot of experiences, being able to walk him through and
5:00
Speaker 6: teach him certain things maybe that he hasn't seen or
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Speaker 6: known or been through obviously, and just help him keeping
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Speaker 6: his head because you know, he's still young, so sometimes
5:06
Speaker 6: he might you know, have a little outburst or.
5:08
Speaker 8: Just get emotional like we all do.
5:10
Speaker 6: So just being able to walk them through things like
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Speaker 6: that and just help them, just help them make the
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Speaker 6: easier adjustments and reasons and whatever whatever it may be,
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Speaker 6: given whatever their circumstances.
5:20
Speaker 10: Are.
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Speaker 11: Yeah, Hey, Jordan, you know you and Treyer are similar
5:25
Speaker 11: in respect that you both played high level high school stuff.
5:28
Speaker 1: Right, you were at Prolific Threp playing grind Session.
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Speaker 11: He had a similar high school experience when you played
5:34
Speaker 11: that level of high school basketball.
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Speaker 1: Does that make the transition to college just a little
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Speaker 1: bit easier for a kid?
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Speaker 8: Yeah, definitely.
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Speaker 6: Coming in my freshman year when I was at organ State,
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Speaker 6: a lot of people like would say like I'm super
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Speaker 6: super like mature, or like I played like I'm seasoned.
5:46
Speaker 6: But you know that comes from playing high level in
5:49
Speaker 6: high school. Like you said, like, i was at Prolific
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Speaker 6: for three years, so I've basically been playing college basketball
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Speaker 6: and against like top recruits and draft prospects and whatnot
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Speaker 6: for three years lean up to college. So by the
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Speaker 6: time I got here, it was a lot easier year
6:01
Speaker 6: of an adjustment. So it's the same thing for Tree.
6:03
Speaker 6: He's been playing high level basketball in high school, so
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Speaker 6: coming here is really nothing new that he hasn't really
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Speaker 6: seen from a from a skill or talent standpoint. So
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Speaker 6: that's why he's been able to adjust and do what
6:14
Speaker 6: he's been done doing and he's been doing great and.
6:17
Speaker 1: Just to quick file up. You know you did reference
6:18
Speaker 1: that you are in a bit of a funk to
6:21
Speaker 1: open the year. You know what what has to happen
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Speaker 1: for you to to break through, I guess, and get
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Speaker 1: out of the funk and just get back the plane.
6:29
Speaker 6: Just trust my work, not not overthink it. Uh, don't
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Speaker 6: lose my confidence. That's that's the biggest thing, is just
6:34
Speaker 6: to trust my work, keep my head and just keep
6:37
Speaker 6: just keep trusting it. I'm getting a lot of good looks.
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Speaker 6: I just gotta I just gotta start knocking them down.
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Speaker 6: I think with the support of my teammates and my coaches,
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Speaker 6: which have been have been great.
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Speaker 8: You know, just just keep just keep going and.
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Speaker 6: Don't let the missige gets me the mixed start start falling,
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Speaker 6: and just the biggest thing is don't overthink it.
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Speaker 10: I think, Hey, Jordan, when you just look at this month,
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Speaker 10: you know what do you feel like the team's goal is.
7:01
Speaker 10: You know for the month of November.
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Speaker 6: You know, we're building our identity, which we hold our
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Speaker 6: hats on the defensive end where we want to be
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Speaker 6: a top ten defense in the country.
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Speaker 8: We know the offensive come. We know we have a
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Speaker 8: lot of good scores, but we're.
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Speaker 6: Really adding a lot of emphasis on our defense and
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Speaker 6: our principals and playing as a unit and for the
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Speaker 6: full thirty seconds out there on the defensive defensive end
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Speaker 6: and putting our will against our opponents. That's the main
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Speaker 6: thing we're focused on this the home on November and
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Speaker 6: to follow through the whole year.
7:28
Speaker 4: And Parker, go.
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Speaker 5: Ahead, please yeah, one more for me. You mentioned, you know,
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Speaker 5: the retreats and team bonding as you had to turn
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Speaker 5: around and you know, say the commitments and if you're
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Speaker 5: really committed to it, feel like you shouldn't have to
7:41
Speaker 5: turn around and read off the board. But we're we're
7:43
Speaker 5: not going to hold you against that. What I want
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Speaker 5: to ask here is just about all those retreats and
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Speaker 5: this emphasis on team bonding that you guys did. How
7:52
Speaker 5: much have you seen that payoff so far? In these
7:54
Speaker 5: first few games.
7:56
Speaker 8: It's paid off a lot.
7:57
Speaker 6: You can see, you know, moments were like we're really
7:59
Speaker 6: really connect I think stuff like that off the court
8:02
Speaker 6: really spills on into the court. So whether it be
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Speaker 6: retreats or just all of us hanging out each other
8:06
Speaker 6: off the court and being around one another, it builds
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Speaker 6: that chemistry and making sure we're all familiar and comfortable
8:12
Speaker 6: with one another, given that we're all we all coming
8:14
Speaker 6: from different places and bring different skill sets and whatnot.
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Speaker 6: We don't want things to spill over, egos to get
8:19
Speaker 6: too mixed up. So just being able to like one another,
8:22
Speaker 6: get along with one another, and just play freely ego
8:26
Speaker 6: lists and play for one another. And I think we've
8:28
Speaker 6: been doing a good job of that, and we'll continue
8:30
Speaker 6: to do that. And we all we also want to
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Speaker 6: see each other when we have a model we go
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Speaker 6: by which is ebe, which means what stands for everybody eats,
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Speaker 6: So we don't mind someone being highlighted or whatnot, because
8:41
Speaker 6: we know for winning everybody, you know, we'll get the
8:43
Speaker 6: love that they deserve.
8:45
Speaker 4: Jordon, thanks for your time.
8:46
Speaker 1: Really appreciate and keep that going, Julian, and be right
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Speaker 1: in there.
8:50
Speaker 2: More than joying A two part question for you one.
8:53
Speaker 2: Just keep talk about how much easier this transition was
8:56
Speaker 2: made to Texas having one of your guys from Deanna
9:00
Speaker 2: with you and Jason Kent and then all has to
9:01
Speaker 2: follow up after that.
9:04
Speaker 12: It was him coming with made it an easy transition,
9:08
Speaker 12: you know, it just for like the emotional sides, you know,
9:12
Speaker 12: for us connecting, you know, just us being always being
9:15
Speaker 12: there for each other. And then on the basketball side
9:17
Speaker 12: as well, you know, we know so much about the game,
9:20
Speaker 12: so just continue to build off learning from each other
9:22
Speaker 12: and then helping other guys learn and other guys helping
9:25
Speaker 12: us learn.
9:26
Speaker 2: And then the follow up. You know, as a point guard,
9:29
Speaker 2: what's the most challenging part about being the ball distributor
9:33
Speaker 2: with so many talented scorers? And on the flip side,
9:35
Speaker 2: what is the easy part about being the ball distributed
9:38
Speaker 2: with so many talent scores.
9:39
Speaker 12: I would say that being a point guard, you have
9:41
Speaker 12: a lot of responsibility. That's the hardest thing, so you'll
9:44
Speaker 12: probably have to do a lot of things different than
9:47
Speaker 12: everybody else does on the court. And the easiest part
9:51
Speaker 12: is that we do have a lot of talented guys around,
9:53
Speaker 12: so there's a lot of dudes to choose from. You know,
9:56
Speaker 12: when you're penetrating and looking to kick or penetrating and
9:59
Speaker 12: you know, looking to make that next play.
10:02
Speaker 1: Hey, Julian, It's a very small sample size, but you
10:06
Speaker 1: know there have been moments here through three games where
10:08
Speaker 1: you and Jordan are on the four at the same time.
10:11
Speaker 11: Essentially two point guards, two ball handlers, two guys that
10:14
Speaker 11: that need the ball in their hands.
10:15
Speaker 1: What has that been like for you?
10:18
Speaker 11: Just trying to get that going and make sure that
10:20
Speaker 11: everybody's on the same page with two guys like that
10:22
Speaker 11: on the floor.
10:24
Speaker 12: I mean, it's been great. We've played together in the
10:27
Speaker 12: summer so too, so we've had a little bit of
10:29
Speaker 12: familiar familiar arity with each other before. But it's still great,
10:34
Speaker 12: you know, great to you know, if I have it,
10:36
Speaker 12: he gets out and runs and I can have somebody
10:39
Speaker 12: to kick ahead to kick ahead too, and the same otherwise.
10:42
Speaker 12: So it's worked out really well so far to me,
10:45
Speaker 12: because we've really played off each other really well.
10:49
Speaker 13: And just a quick follow up again, three games in
10:51
Speaker 13: small sample size, what is something that that maybe is
10:55
Speaker 13: lacking from this group right now that is noticeable that
10:58
Speaker 13: needs to get better.
11:02
Speaker 12: I would just say, I would just say just little
11:06
Speaker 12: communication things like within the game, so like there might
11:09
Speaker 12: be some time he might be a little late here,
11:11
Speaker 12: a little late there, a little bit of miscommunication on
11:13
Speaker 12: the offense. But I mean, as the year goes on,
11:15
Speaker 12: we're going to clean that stuff up.
11:17
Speaker 1: Thank you, Baba Jones.
11:20
Speaker 7: Please, Juliana, good morning, good afternoon. Hey, everybody's talking about
11:24
Speaker 7: your freshman so I gotta ask about Trey Johnson. You know,
11:28
Speaker 7: where's his room for improvement? From a point guard's perspective.
11:32
Speaker 7: He's done great, but where's he going to improve as
11:35
Speaker 7: an offensive player as a year goes on?
11:37
Speaker 12: You think I would just say, continue to do what
11:40
Speaker 12: he's doing and just continue to learn different ways to score,
11:43
Speaker 12: because I mean, everybody's going to play him different. We're
11:46
Speaker 12: going to see all different types of defenses. So really
11:49
Speaker 12: just him learning the different types of defenses and you know,
11:53
Speaker 12: just getting his baskets easier. Just keep finding, keep finding
11:57
Speaker 12: ways to get him easy baskets.
12:00
Speaker 5: Hey, Jordan mentioned just this emphasis on team bonding that
12:04
Speaker 5: you guys had in the off season, a lot of
12:06
Speaker 5: retreats and everything, and especially when you do talk about
12:09
Speaker 5: you guys being on the court at the same time.
12:11
Speaker 5: How much is that How much of you guys benefited
12:14
Speaker 5: from that?
12:15
Speaker 12: Oh, we've definitely benefited a lot, Like those times in
12:18
Speaker 12: the summer where it's maybe not a retreat or maybe
12:21
Speaker 12: not like a team sanctioned something, but to where we
12:23
Speaker 12: kind of just like got together and did stuff on
12:26
Speaker 12: our own, Like you can really see it coming out
12:28
Speaker 12: now in the court, Like when we get those runs,
12:30
Speaker 12: and you know when we strain those stops together, when
12:33
Speaker 12: that ball's you know, moving, that ball's humming on offense.
12:36
Speaker 12: So that's when you really see that together in this
12:38
Speaker 12: team bonding come together.
12:40
Speaker 4: Right then, Julian, thank you for being with us today.
12:45
Speaker 4: So question, you seem like the type of person that
12:47
Speaker 4: will probably be involved with basketball for the rest of
12:50
Speaker 4: your life. You just have this energy of Baya. I'm curious,
12:54
Speaker 4: what are you studying at Texas and your postgraduate degree
12:57
Speaker 4: and how do you see that fitting in with your
13:00
Speaker 4: career whatever your what is your career aspirations?
13:04
Speaker 12: I'm studying communication and leadership, and what I want to
13:07
Speaker 12: do with that is obviously I want to continue to
13:10
Speaker 12: play once I'm done, but really once I'm done playing,
13:13
Speaker 12: either being a coach or getting involved with some type
13:16
Speaker 12: of school deal. So the communication and leadership will just
13:19
Speaker 12: helped me in those different situations of communicating with people.
13:25
Speaker 12: You know, how to communicate with certain types of people,
13:28
Speaker 12: and you know, just communicating with other individuals with maybe
13:33
Speaker 12: like bosses or like teammates and players. So really just
13:37
Speaker 12: different ways of leadership and different ways of communicating how
13:40
Speaker 12: to respond to different situations. That's what It's helped me
13:43
Speaker 12: out fantasic.
13:45
Speaker 4: Thank you.
13:48
Speaker 10: Hey, Julian, just you know, you have a much better game,
13:52
Speaker 10: you know, against Chicago State compared to Houston Christian. What
13:56
Speaker 10: was working really well for you? And how do you
13:58
Speaker 10: keep that going as we had this next stretch of
14:01
Speaker 10: games here.
14:02
Speaker 12: I would just say my aggressiveness the Houston Christian game,
14:06
Speaker 12: I would say I was aggressive, but I also was
14:08
Speaker 12: very passive as well. You could really see the aggression
14:12
Speaker 12: come out against Chicago State. So really just me keeping
14:15
Speaker 12: my aggressiveness and just keep being hungry to make the
14:18
Speaker 12: right play.
14:20
Speaker 10: And just quickly I asked Jordan the same thing. You know,
14:25
Speaker 10: just when you look at the month of November, what
14:27
Speaker 10: do you feel like your team's biggest goal is to
14:30
Speaker 10: accomplish here this month?
14:32
Speaker 12: Just really have all of these games in the month
14:34
Speaker 12: of November prepares for when we get the conference. That's
14:37
Speaker 12: really the biggest thing, just because we know the challenges
14:41
Speaker 12: that we have ahead of us and what we have
14:43
Speaker 12: to do. So just using these games obviously like we
14:46
Speaker 12: want to win every game we play in, but just
14:48
Speaker 12: using these games are almost as like tune ups, Like
14:51
Speaker 12: tune ups that you know mean a lot. You know
14:53
Speaker 12: what I'm saying. So that's how we want to use
14:56
Speaker 12: the month of November.
14:58
Speaker 14: Did you let coach Terry, a defensive minded coach really
15:01
Speaker 14: wants to get after it. What are some of the
15:04
Speaker 14: keys and things that he has talked to you guys
15:06
Speaker 14: about as a whole as a team defense?
15:10
Speaker 12: Obviously Number one, playing hard. That's the biggest thing, because
15:14
Speaker 12: like he says every day, defenses want to If you
15:16
Speaker 12: want to do it, you'll do it. But just some
15:19
Speaker 12: things within it is just communication. Obviously, that that communication
15:22
Speaker 12: part ties everybody into it and continuing to follow our scheme,
15:27
Speaker 12: just trusting our scheme, trusting where everybody's at, trusting that
15:31
Speaker 12: you know you're going to have that backside help with you.
15:33
Speaker 12: And so that communication, trusting each other and playing hard.
15:37
Speaker 12: Those are really like the three things that we, you know,
15:39
Speaker 12: hang our hat on or that really ties all the
15:41
Speaker 12: defense in together to help us be successful.
15:44
Speaker 3: A couple of long worn basketball transfers point guards Jordan
15:47
Speaker 3: Pope Julian Larry, talking some long worn hoops again. Their
15:51
Speaker 3: next action is Saturday afternoon. You'll follow the football game
15:55
Speaker 3: eleven am on the kickoff and four o'clock on the basketball.
15:58
Speaker 3: All right, We'll be back to wrap up our number
16:01
Speaker 3: two here on sports Radio AM thirteen, under the Zone
16:03
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