Latest / Coaches Corner / Dan Hurley - Pre Northwestern March 23

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Dan Hurley - Pre Northwestern March 23 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Obviously excited to uh, you know, to advance and uh you know,
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  get a chance to uh you know play, Uh, you know, an
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  outstanding Northwestern team, you know, great coach, uh you know, and
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  Chris so I got to you know, as much respect for him as anyone
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  you know in our profession. So uh, you're excited, you know to
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  get in here tomorrow night. Uh you know, maybe you know, to
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  have a great you know Yukon hopefully uh you know, a big Yukon crowd
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  in here tomorrow night. But excited to advance and play. We'll go on
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  this side of the room in row four, close to the aisle. How
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  did your father address complacency? And have you studied other great coaches and as
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  to how they handled complacency? Yeah, yeah, my dad obviously, you
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  know, he he he, you know, he handled complacency with a constant
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  intensity and a consistent intensity, and he modeled, uh, just a work
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  ethic and a commitment of just pouring everything that he had of himself into his
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  uh you know, into his job or into his you know, his lifestyle
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  and and uh as a coach. And I think that's what you you know,
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  you you see from from every coach Uh, or at least the best
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  ones is that you know, you could tell that they're emotionally, physically,
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  you know, mentally, they poured everything they have into their team, their
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  preparation, rooting out. Uh, you know, any types of behaviors or
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  habits that they believe could potentially undermine. Uh, you know the success of
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  an organization or the championship success of an organization. Oh yeah, I mean
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  I I read. I'm a I'm constantly listening to podcasts and and reading about
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  great leaders. Uh, you know and and and you know the Nick Sabans,
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  the you know, the you know, the the greatest coaches, the
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  John Woodens, Uh, the Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick. Uh, anything
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  that I could read or listen to or or go and visit and watch.
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  Yes, I'm superstitious. I need my lucky hat, good hustle, Chris.
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  Uh, We'll go to the other side of the room, row four
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  on the end. Go ahead, just raise your answer, coach and knows
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  where you are, BRAZILA to your host or something, what's up. Sack
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  Hassan was obviously a big recruit coming out of high school and didn't quite live
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  up to the expectations at A and M. What what did you guys see
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  out of him that made you think he would be good for you? And
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  what has he kind of meant to you this year. I think we were
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  torn. You know we uh, we had a lot of guards uh when
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  he was coming out of high school, but we kind of felt like we
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  might have been making a mistake by not recruiting him. And you know he
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  ended uh you know, we went in and when he went into portal and
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  we looked at the end of his sophomore year there he had a great stretch
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  and n I t so he played his best basketball late and it just felt
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  like, uh, you know, big East guard wise, he fit the
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  mold junkyard dog defensively, you know, a guy with you know, with
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  with a lot of guts and a lot of heart and a lot of swagger.
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  And you know, it was a guy that you know, performed at
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  a high level of grassroots throughout. Sort of pedigree was there. But I
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  just think, you know, it takes a special type of guy to play
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  or coach at Yukon because you know, this pressure all the time and and
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  you know, so we knew he had a guy with the with the stomach
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  for it. His role Yeah, I was telling him his role was obviously
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  expanded this year with with not on what does he meant to you guys this
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  year? And was it say about a guy who was such a big recruit
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  that he's you know, able to buy, you know, play that role.
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  Yeah, that was the question, biggest question mark about this team coming
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  in. I think, uh, you could see what the starters look like.
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  That wasn't too hard to project. But the unknown would would be the
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  depth part. And you know, could we get to to eight deep,
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  nine deep with quality you know, to keep us bulletproof and you know,
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  we wouldn't be where we are without how he's played for us, without Samson
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  Johnson, the emergence of Jalen Stewart and then what solo ball's done for us
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  throughout the year. So just being able to go eight or nine deep with
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  quality, just you're able to survive, you know, a bad night from
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  from some of your better players because of that depth. Stay on this side.
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  We'll come on the island. Row two coach David Gold inside and you
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  Northwestern's missing it. Starting center Matt Nicholson, playing a retro freshman, Luke
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  Hunger now is starting his five is there an a business in your game,
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  played hard to get the ball down load of dominant and use those size of
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  edge to his match up with the starting five out for the Wildcats. Yeah,
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  yeah, obviously that that's something that in some way that you you hope
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  you can, you know, you can take advantage of. They do a
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  great job of scheming from a defensive standpoint. Uh, you know with their
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  post traps, you know, in the way that they rally to the ball
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  in the paint. You know, they're a tremendous, tremendous help team.
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  They're very, very physical. You know, Chris is one of the you
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  know, one of the one of the best pure, you know, tactical
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  coaches in the game. You know, Chris and his staff at both ends
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  of the court, so you know a lot of those things. You know,
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  they're uh, you know, we we we may both go into the
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  game feeling like it's an advantage. Obviously, you know, they're going to
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  be prepared for us to to try to go inside with the basketball. We'll
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  go to the other side of the room. In row three. Just raise
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  your hands and coach can see you go ahead. Yeah, and you should
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  go all ding Northwestern not Coach Northwestern has beating a number one teven purduer back
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  to back seasons. What if, if anything at all have you taken from
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  those games as you're preparing for the same team tomorrow. Yeah, just the
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  level, you know, the the level that that that Chris has got his
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  his his program at uh you know where where they're you know, they could
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  beat the best teams in the country. You know, at Northwestern, the
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  program that I guess hadn't been to the Anseimbly Tournament in an incredibly long time
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  and now uh, you know, they're as dangerous opponent as you could face
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  uh at this point in the tournament because they've shown the ability to beat the
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  high end teams. You know what they have on the perimeter, Boo booi
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  one of the best guards in the country, all American caliber player, you
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  know, would be an easy Big Ten Player of the Year if it wasn't
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  for Zach Edy obviously, uh Langborg who you know, lit it up last
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  March, and then his performance yesterday was was tremendous, you know, and
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  then Barnheiser, Uh, you know, it is a tremendous playing three guys
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  that can go for twenty plus and you know, you win in this tournament,
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  you know, with tremendous perimeter play. We'll go to the other side.
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  We're in row four. Just go ahead, yep, Jamal Murphy,
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  Bill rodo sports about Tristan, and you've mentioned a bunch of times you can't
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  believe how underrated he is. He's gotten some college basketball accolades, you don't
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  see him on draft boards. I'm wondering why you think he's underrated. But
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  and also do you think real NBA guys know when so when that time comes,
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  he'll he'll have that career. Bill Roaden's the best Tristan. I think
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  that. Yeah. I think a lot of mock drafts right now. You
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  know, in particular, I think a lot of those are manipulated. A
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  lot of those will change by the time we get closer to the drafted and
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  the actual draft is going to look different because there's a lot obviously a lot
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  of agents that are you're jockeying for their clients so that they don't lose clients
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  right now because they're not showing up in the mock drafts. They put a
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  lot of pressure on the folks that put those out there, the analytics people.
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  I know, you know when you look at you know, most efficient
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  players in the country. You know, I think Tristan ends up somewhere top
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  five in a lot of things in terms of his impact. And I think,
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  uh, you know, these front offices are a lot of it is
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  analytics based. I think a lot of teams value him a lot more than
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  these mock drafts. Do you know he's a first team All American. You
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  know, he's a guy that obviously was up for Big East Player of the
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  Year. Didn't get it or at least didn't get get it from the coaches,
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  got it from AP. But yeah, he's got he six' five,
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  he rebounds, he he uh, he facilitates playmakes he you know,
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  he shoots NBA threes with pretty good efficiency. And he's a champion. I
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  think he's gonna play in the NBA for twelve to fifteen years. We'll stay
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  on this side at the end row one way Norman Yukunn Sports Network, Dan,
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  your bench was such a key factor in postseason last year. The last
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  three games, Jalen Stewart has really emerged. Can you talk about what that
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  means to your bench, how deep your bench has become, and the confidence
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  that he's gotten in these last three games. Yeah, just getting you know,
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  getting to eight deep and uh, you know, and and all three
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  guys you know, bringing bringing quality, offensive impact, defensive impact. You
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  know with Jalen he brings six seven athleticism in length, multi positional versatility.
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  You know for him, he's uh, you know, he's come on late
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  and you know he's he's added like to that kind of big wing three four
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  matchup problem spot, which is what everyone's looking for in the sport. Uh,
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  you know, he's a guy with obviously he's going to help us down
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  the stretch here and big future staying on this side, row five in the
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  back. Coach Mike Fitzpatrick, AP, you and your family have been you
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  know, Connecticut residents now for a while. I know you're completely focused on
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  on what you're doing, but how much have you paid attention to what Yale
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  has done through the IVY League and then their their win yesterday and and just
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  any fun stories you know people back home paying attention to both and even I'm
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  not asking to get ahead of yourself with the prospect of you guys playing each
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  other in the next round back in New England. Yeah, that that don't
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  even that last part is something that hasn't registered. Me and James, you
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  know, been texting, you know, since a couple of weeks ago,
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  and and uh, you know, his his win in uh in the conference
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  tournament. They're incredible. Uh, his leadership is coaching. You know,
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  he's one of the best out there. Uh, one of the most underrated
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  coaches in the country. And uh, you know, just a total beast.
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  And and uh, it's just great. It's great for Connecticut, it's
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  great for the state. You know, you know, we we I know,
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  we say stores Connecticut, uh, you know, is the basketball capital
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  world and and we don't run from that, but you know, maybe just
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  the state of Connecticut kind of feels like the basketball capital of the world.
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  And we just we add that, you know, store into New Haven.
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  You know, maybe we stretched that a little bit. Right now, We've
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  got a couple up here in the road too, proudly locker inside on you.
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  Northwestern has not just say it was lost only one game all year by
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  double digits and came back down too late against FAU kind of what did they
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  say about the caliber of the team to avoid late holes. I mean,
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  they play in the Big Ten, which is one of the best leagues,
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  and it's a brutally physical league, and I just think it speaks to to
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  Chris and the class and the pedigree and the culture and what he's built there
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  is amazing. It's one of the best, you know, program building jobs
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  that we've seen in the last ten fifteen years in our sport. They got
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  obviously tremendous talent, you know, but they got the right type of talent,
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  the right type of players, and you know, it's just I say
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  this about Marque, I say this about certain people. Do we get a
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  chance to play like there's just no other like feelings Sometimes when you play against
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  programs that you know, you know there are a house of cards. It's
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  just based on just having really good players and talent, but you know,
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  their whole program is a house of cards. You play against a Northwestern or
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  a Marquette, like you there's just like, you know, in some ways,
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  you feel like it's a privilege when you take the court against a program
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  that's got culture and it's got tremendous players and great coaching. Uh, because
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  it's it's gonna be an honorable matchup. We'll stay in that same row.
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  Are you dowing inside in your coach? Northwest all three of you, guys,
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  all three of us. Yeah, let's go boys. Thank you slow
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  paced team. Northwest's the slow paced team doesn't turn the ball over a lot.
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  The biggest is prett unique because you guys play a bunch of teams at
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  different speeds. I'm just wondering how you what you've learned from the slow paced
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  games in terms of how you run your motion off and maintain that speed in
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  the half court. Yeah. I think we're we're pretty versatile, I obviously
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  on stops and off turnovers, and Northwestern is hard to turn over. You
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  know. We we feel like we could play any type of game. I
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  don't you know, I don't know necessarily we prefer, you know, just
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  like a half court exclusive half court battle, but we're comfortable in that type
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  of game as well. We we you know, we feel like we can,
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  uh you know, we're fishing enough offensively as the as a number one
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  offense in the country that that that we could beat you in a possession game.
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  We feel like bringing in a top ten defense that that that we can
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  guard people in the half court. And and then we've excelled as a rebounding
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  game, not at times yesterday and not for Saint John's at MSG that was
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  disappointing, but uh, not that I'm still thinking about that. But you
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  know, we feel like we're well rounded enough that we can win a lot
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  of different types of games. We'll stay on row four on this side and
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  then we'll go to the other side for the next couple. Coach uh Stefan
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  Castle, You've talked about this before too, but just the five star comes
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  in to already made team. When you were recruiting him, did you know
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  what you were getting in terms of mentality wise, that he wasn't a diva
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  that he would be able to fit in or is that something you had to
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  cultivate? No. I saw his Stacey and Kuana's parents who saw him them
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  rip his you know what multiple times. You know they're not his parents,
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  aren't fans. You know their parents. They hold him accountable, responsible to
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  have elite work ethic and being coachable and you know, not thinking that the
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  world spins around him at seventeen eighteen years old, So you know, we
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  knew what we were getting. In NBA teams, you know they're there,
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  they salivate over him because obviously we're a balanced team. So he doesn't get
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  to show everything that's in his bag. That's why NBA teams from when the
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  summer starts, they come and watch us practice, and they come and watch
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  practices throughout the year where he gets a chance to showcase more of what he
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  can do. So, you know, game night, you know, because
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  he's on a a team that's that's really high level, obviously he doesn't get
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  a chance to show everything. But he's got the parents, man, and
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  when you've got great parents, Uh, it makes our job really really easy.
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  Go to the other side in row one and then we'll go to the
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  back. Gavin keithl in London Day, Dan, you guys only lost one
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  to one non conference opponent in the last two seasons. What what makes you
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  why you've been so successful against in that situation? I think our uniqueness,
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  uh, you know, from an offensive standpoint, I think, uh,
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  the lack of familiarity with uh, with just the different aspects of what we
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  do from an offensive standpoint, the inside, the outside, the movement,
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  the ball screen game. I think we could come at you in a lot
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  of different ways. So we're a tough preparation uh on on short prep time,
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  you know, And I think that the biggest thing that that makes you
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  bulletproof in tournaments is you know, if you if you play elite defense,
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  if you play elite offense, if you're a real, really strong rebounding team,
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  if you play really really hard, if you share the ball, if
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  you're not reliant on one or two players to carry you. You know it,
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  if you've got Kamani Young and Luke Murray that prepared these teams for opponents
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  as good as most head coaches prepare their teams for opponents. You know,
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  just it puts you in a position. You know, we're you're not too
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  vulnerable. We'll stay on that same side in the back Roger Roger Rubin from
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  News Day. So, hey, Dan, so now that we know that
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  you have a lucky hat, can you, uh, can you share with
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  us some of the other things that the national champion coach is superstitious about.
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  I mean, you know about the draws, right with the draws, the
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  underwear. You know, my wife's you know, she was churning the hand
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  hand washer last night. Uh, and then when I left this morning,
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  they were hanging and they looked droopy. But she had the hair dryer on
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  the hot and she had a concoction set up to dry them. The socks
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  got holes in them because I'm running the same socks. And then I got
• 17:11
  this. I've been running back with the same suit. See because the problem,
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  the reason why we lost in New Mexico State. Throw out the COVID
• 17:18
  and Cuba tournament, that whole thing man that Maryland loss. But the New
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  Mexico State game, I got cute, and I tried to wear like a
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  nice blazer and some really nice shoes, and I didn't wear the same blue
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  suits that I was wearing at Roady when we beat Craton and played Oregon in
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  that great game and then beat Tray Young in Oklahoma and then lost that Duke
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  game. When I was having success in the tournament, I was just wearing
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  that plain blue suit and that same dress shirt. I broke it back out
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  last March and at things at the dry cleaner. I'm gonna wear that until
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  somebody takes me out. We'll come stay here on the front row. And
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  the shoes too, brutal shoes. The shoes are brutal, like the brown
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  shoes that would barely have a sole left Annie Castable from the Chicago sometimes following
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  up on this superstitious trend, when did all of this start? Have you
• 18:15
  always carried these superstitions with you through your career, through the coaching. I
• 18:19
  think as a player, you don't even you know, you just get out
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  there and you just go whoop. But sometimes you're just in the back in
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  the locker room by yourself. A lot everyone else is out there and it's
• 18:30
  just you and your thoughts, and you know you're going to turn a TV
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  on. So now like your mind is racing. So a lot of kind
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  of the superstition things, the m and ms and you know, the clothes.
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  It's almost like you're putting on armor. It's almost like watching rof and
• 18:47
  the doll before he serves, you know, he goes through this like weird
• 18:49
  process of things that settles him before he serves the ball. It just kind
• 18:53
  of takes my mind off of away from thinking about all the bad things that
• 18:59
  could happen. And of course, in the next couple hours, we'll do
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  one final question down here, Row two on the aisle inside in you fuch
• 19:10
  typical inside and you coach Collins talking about knowing you and your whole family since
• 19:14
  he was around eighteen. Was there a moment for you when you knew that
• 19:17
  coach Collins is going to take the Wildcats and make it into a program that
• 19:19
  could reach back to back NCAA tournaments. I mean, he played like a
• 19:23
  coach, and anyone that max is out the playing career the way Chris did,
• 19:26
  and then you know, we obviously have their fathers in common. I
• 19:32
  don't think that there's a coach that I probably can relate to more in our
• 19:36
  game than Chris, especially you know the way our two dads coached. I
• 19:41
  mean our two dads poured every part of themselves and coached with such incredible emotion,
• 19:48
  passion intensity. You know, watching his dad at games get so emotional,
• 19:56
  and knowing how my dad feels at my games. I just think that
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  there's probably not a coach besides my brother that I could relate to in our
• 20:03
  profession. Then Chris and I think we're so similar in so many ways.
• 20:08
  It's, uh feels like you're kind of looking in the mirror. Just a
• 20:12
  follow up on that you mentioned Maxine I was playing. Were you a fan
• 20:15
  of Chris collins finish basketball career? His what finish finish basketball? I didn't
• 20:21
  know about that. I thought, like Duke I was talking about when he
• 20:23
  got to the Final four. My brother dragged me out there to see Duke.
• 20:29
  I want the Yukon fans hearing me talking good about Duke. But yeah,
• 20:33
  yeah, I mean I was a fan. I was in Charlotte when
• 20:36
  he when he was in the Final four playing Arkansas on those teams. So
• 20:41
  always been a fan of Chris. And then we're Chris recruited my players at
• 20:44
  Saint Benedi's when I was a high school coach. So I'm really happy for
• 20:47
  his success. He's he's one of the one of the great guys in our business.