February 3, 2025 • 18 mins
XU Head Coach Sean Miller joined us to talk about his team's defensive improvement, Tuesday's game against Georgetown, his bobblehead, and when he's having Mo on his podcast.
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Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Seeing away from four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty
on Moleger. Xavier did not play this weekend. The Musketeers
are home tomorrow night for a tilt against Georgetown eight
point thirty the tip off. First three thousand fans at
the Centas Center get a Sean Miller Bobbleheadley head coach
of the Musketeers with us this afternoon. It is.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's good to have you, coach. How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Thanks, Moe.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Great to be on your message publicly after the Creighton game.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
We're not done. We could take off.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I would imagine that you have imparted at least some
version of that tier guys, if not on Wednesday night,
certainly in the day's subsequent.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, that's I mean, look, that's the name of the game, right,
you know, to be a really good team in February,
entering March, playing your best and playing for something, you know,
having the opportunity to play for the NCAA tournament, having
an opportunity to play in games that everybody in the
world wants to watch and be a part of it.
And we have that in front of us. So many
(01:00):
different teams in college basketball. It can go both ways,
there's not a guarantee for us. We've dug ourselves a
certain hole by how we performed, especially in the month
of December. But we're playing our best, even at Creighton.
You know, playing in Omaha against Creighton this year is
a tall order. You know, they've they've beaten Saint John's,
(01:23):
they've beaten Kansas, they have arguably the best center in
America and Ryan Kulkbrenner, who is in his fift year
playing for them. That you can go there, play well
and not win, And I think the perspective of that
is important. So you know, our our schedule in the
month of January has been very difficult. We played Marquette twice,
(01:44):
Saint John's twice, Yukon twice, and at Creighton. The rest
of our league is certainly not easy, but there's a
heavy tilt right there. So with that, uh, you know,
playing our best during that stretch, I think give this
confidence that we can play well and perform well in
(02:05):
this in this month that everybody cherishes in college basketball.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
It's got to be tough because on one hand, you
talk about the teams you've played in the league and
the Gauntlet. I mean, it's it's the most overused word,
but it applies the gauntlet and then you get six
days between games, and so I'm sure there's a part
of you that wants to take a breath. At the
same time, you do play a team tomorrow night that
the first time you played them it didn't go your way.
Your team doesn't have a ton of margin for error.
(02:32):
So that strikes me as to be a little bit
of a balancing act.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yeah, No, your points while taken in this case for us,
because of the type of schedule we played, and you know,
in the Big East, we play each other ten times,
and sometimes people forget that, you know ten and home
ten on a road, it's around robin. There's not like
a team that we don't go to their court, or
there's not another team that doesn't come to our courts.
(03:00):
So it's a twenty game schedule, not eighteen, and you
play everybody two times. And so with that, there's these
buys in which each of us get an opportunity twice
to have one break, so you don't play two or
three games in a week, you only play one. And
it took us eleven games to get to that buy.
So I think it was us in de Paul that
(03:20):
you know, had played eleven games and without a buy,
so you know, everybody else kind of had that buy
along the way. We are the last to arrive at it,
and we played a very difficult schedule, so that combination mode,
this break came at a great time for us. I
think we were smart with it. We've certainly practiced, but
we've had a chance to take a couple of days off,
be at home, not travel, and I think it's a
(03:42):
healthy break for us as we almost restart here for
the rest of this this month.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
You know, there's a lot of us who I was
at the Saint John's game here and kind of walked
out of Centau Center going, man, I don't know if
this is going to change and this is going to
turn around, It's going to have to start on the
defensive end, and it has you know, you guys holding
market the road to fifty seven.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Even the other night against Craton.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
As good of an offensive team as that is, you
guys got stops, you know, down down with four minutes
to go, you guys got stops. We saw what you
guys did defensively here against Yukon. What's been the biggest
difference on that end of the floor.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Yeah, well you had it. The Saint John's game was
our low moment. I think each season represents a single
moment where I just that was, like, I don't want
to say a turning point, but maybe a fork in
the road where it just didn't feel right, you know,
on that particular night, we lost our crowd. I think
we had a snowstorm before the game. Saint John's is
(04:38):
really good. Probably at that point, I don't know if
everybody truly understood the type of team they have so
and they put it on us. They were way more physical.
They killed us on the glass, you know, they they
kind of give you the illusion like that Zinger's not
playing hard, and really I think the reality of it
is we were overwhelmed with their quickness, physicality and rebounding.
(05:02):
But you know, I think you have choices when those
moments happen, you know, kind of run and hide, point
fingers sometimes not fix things. To our group's credit, we
went on several week journey and we were better. I
think that it starts within. You know, our guards are
doing a better job defending the ball, pressuring the ball.
Dylan Swain's playing his best basketball of his career, and
(05:26):
I think just as a group, you know, understanding that
the level of intensity and being able to, like you said,
get stops and be a team that can win with
both defense and offense. That's really what's going to be
required because the margin for air, as you stated, isn't big.
You know, we're in fifty to fifty games virtually every night,
so our effort level and our consistency on defense has
(05:48):
to be there. And since that game, I can tell
you that it's been not just better, but I think
at times we've been a really good defensive team that
becomes the storyline moving forward. We have to be that
team the rest of this month.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
And I think with that the conversation for me at least,
you mentioned Dalen Swain and what he's done for you,
and you know, it's fun to think about what that
might look like five or six weeks from now. It's
fun to think about what that might look like next year.
What's it been like watching him progress on the defensive side.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah, No, it's just what makes college basketball and coaching,
you know, such a such a special thing, especially for
a coach, because you know, when you see players in
your program grow and develop and do it because of
their work ethic, their their will, their unselfishness, and those
are all terms that I would use to describe Dylan Swain.
(06:43):
A year ago, he was the youngest player in the
Big East Conference. This year he's still nineteen years old
as a sophomore. Every week, every month that he's been
a part of what we've done, it seems like he
incrementally improves. He adds to his game and he's more physical,
he's confident. I think that he has a chance to
be one of the most versatile players in the Big
(07:05):
East Conference. And it's from the watch. He's really putting
it together, shooting a huge percentage from the free throw line.
He's shooting almost ninety percent from the line. When you
think of his game, you don't really think about that,
but he's also getting to the free throw line, I
think as much as any player in our league, which
shows you like his growth and his development. Defensively, if
(07:27):
you give our team credit, you have to give him
a lot of credit because many times he's the anchor
of what we do on defense.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Ryan Conwell scores twenty eight in the second half against Villanova,
and I mean there was a time in that game
where I think you fell behind by five and he
makes a three and it felt like God, if they
don't score here, you know, maybe this unravels and then
you know, who knows what kind of conversation we're having
right now. Instead, you win the game. He's awesome, And
my takeaway was, that's cool. He's not going to give
(07:58):
you twenty eight in the second half every year. What's
gonna happen when he doesn't? And then you go to
Marquette and offensively he doesn't shoot it well and you
still figure out a way to win that game. And
so if you look at the last five he's had,
you know, games where he's been awesome shooting the basketball.
He's had games, you know against Yukon where he's not
great shooting it, but he gets to the line you
have to play where he fouls out Caravan and still
(08:19):
makes the two free throws. Do you have a conversation
with him about, look, we love the highs, but we've
got a flat line this a little bit.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Yeah, No, he wants to do that for sure. No.
What what what Ryan gets is the other team's most attention,
you know, their best perimeter defender. From a scouting perspective.
You know the takeaways. We're not gonna let Ryan Conwell
do this when they call this this is this is
his play and they're very aware of him though, And
with that, I think there's an adjustment for the player himself,
(08:49):
but also me and the rest of our team to
help him. And the other part of it is, you know,
when you can really play, which Ryan can, it's not
just a set player screen that's going to free him up.
He frees himself up by just being the consonmate player
where he can get to the free throw line on drives,
(09:11):
he can score in transition, he could play off of
other other teammates in the team game, and you know
he can use fakes to use their their their quickness
against him, right, So you know, just kind of learning like, hey, look,
if they're going to sit on this, this now becomes
my counter and it's up to us to help him
and teach him. What I love about Ryan though, during
(09:31):
the stretch you talked about, is when he hasn't shot
the ball well, his demeanor, his mindset hasn't changed. He's defended,
he's he's playing the team game. He doesn't you know, pout,
he doesn't get frustrated and allow those other aspects of
his game to diminish, you know, his defensive fight and
his passing, and his playmaking and all the different things
(09:53):
you want from him in addition to scoring. He keeps
and that's allowed us to win when he hasn't shot well.
But make no mistake, when we're at our best and
we need him to play well, and I think scoring
is a big part of him playing well. We want
him to score.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
You joined me before the season, I think it was
before the exhibition game against Dayton, and we were talking
about the nature of the preseason, and look, college basketball
has changed in so many ways, and I think that
the task of getting ready for a season is a
lot more difficult, just because you know, you have players
from other programs and you're trying to piece everything together
and then you're gonna you know, the season starts earlier
(10:30):
than ever, you play games. The count you're asked to
schedule really tough. So the NCAA is allowing you guys
to now have every program to have two preseason games
against D one opponents. The secret scrimmage, I guess doesn't
have to be secret anymore. Have you I'm sure you've
thought about it, but can you I don't know, let
us in and know maybe what the plan is going
(10:52):
to be for your program moving forward as it relates
to the preseason and maybe having a better chance to
kind of hit the groundrunning once the real games actually start.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Yeah, you know, in terms of the two exhibition games,
you know, I think that you can bring fans in
and with those fans, you know, you have the opportunity,
uh to potentially make money for your program, and I
if we have the opportunity to do that as we
you know, as we did in a lot of ways
at U d Arena. It was for certainly the mental
(11:24):
health part of it, you know, Anthony Grant's initiative and
how important that part was to him. That was a
big reason we wanted to partner with Dayton to play
that game to raise money, uh, you know, for suicide
prevention in the state of Ohio, et cetera. But I
think entering the fans, I think that's something will will
lean heavily on MO moving forward, because you know, from
(11:47):
just if you look at it just from the basketball perspective,
you can play a quality opponent and then you get
the pressure of the crowd, which always helps prepare you
for the season. I would say, like the other part
of your question of you know, you get the whole
to be around your team more now than ever, and
I learned that this year. This is only like I
wouldn't even say this is my second go around in
(12:08):
doing it, because I think in some ways it's my
first go around, because you know, how does it feel
to have turnover each year? Some guys come back, most
guys are coming from other programs. You have a couple
of incoming freshmen. How do you build your team? And
by the way you're in the summer, isn't it supposed
to be fun?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Et cetera.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I think for me, I got the answer to the
test on this one. To be the most ready, you
have to hit all aspects, in my opinion, in June, July, August,
and September, all aspects of your team. Meaning I think
you have to teach defense. You have to look at
it as a version of your practice. You know, the Hey,
(12:49):
it's June, let's get some shots up and have fun.
Not that you know, playing basketball is always fun, but
you just don't have as much time as you think
to get ready for the month of November. In this
when you have eight new players, six new players, I
mean that like, I don't care if they're a freshmen.
I don't care if they're coming from a program where
(13:09):
they've been a four year starter and they're super experienced.
The fact they've never played for you at Zader and
you have a group of guys that have not been
on a court together. That's not a good thing. And
I think the way you make up for that is
that in those months, you know, you start to teach
them the value of terminology and everything you need to
(13:31):
be successful. In November December, you can't wait. And that's
at least my opinion.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Do you like the Bobblehead?
Speaker 3 (13:39):
You know it makes me look thin, So anytime something
makes me look thin, I will sign up for it.
You know, they put me in all black, and ye
know Bobblehead can't be fat, but I don't know how
much it looks like like me. Yeah, hopefully. Look, there's
two ways to look at the first three thousand people
get one. That may mean only fifteen hundred show up,
or you know, maybe it works works the way they
(14:00):
want to. But I will tell you this mode. You
were at the Saint John's game, and you know I've
been I've been in the Centas for eleven seasons, right,
you know, three as an assistant, eight as a head coach, obviously,
two different periods of time. And if anybody has ever
asked me during my you know, lifetime as a coach,
(14:21):
what's it like to coach in the Centas Center, I
would just give them one word, awesome. It's tough on
the opponent. There's pageantry, our student section is second to none,
the building is full. It's just it's a tough, minded crowd.
They love college basketball. That game I'd have been the
(14:41):
only game that I would have left. And we didn't
give our fans anything to cheer about on that night.
But you know, you leave a little bit concerned because
you know, Rick Patino and Saint John's did not compete
against our normal sentace crowd. For example, I would say
that if Yukon came in with Danny Hurley last weekend
(15:04):
and had that version of our proud the Saint John's crowd,
I'm sure of this, we would not have worn and
and and I just think that the competitive advantage at Xavier,
there's always things you wish you had more of. But
I've never felt, ever felt that we could ever have
a better home court than the one we have. That
(15:26):
that is our biggest competitive advantage. And you know, a
season ticket holder, student section, they have sometimes no idea,
no idea, the impact they have on winning, on on
on the consistency of our program. I mean Schmidfield House,
Cincinnati Gardens, MCC Horizon League, whatever those leagues used to
(15:48):
be called, right, Atlantic, ten, Big East, Like you play
at Xavier. Everybody knew that was going to be a
game and part of a hostile, well oiled crowd in
addition to a team. And you know, our crowd has
always came to watch us, you know, not because the
other team's coming, but they came to watch Xavier and
(16:09):
they hold us to a high standard. And you know,
my hope is tomorrow night. It's a later game, eight thirty,
but it's such an important game. We only have five
home games left. They're going to go by quickly, and
for us to be the most successful in those five
games will have a huge bearing on how this season ends.
And my hope is that we can get that Yukon
crowd for five more times this year. It's so important.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Eight thirty provides more time to get as you put
a coach well oiled.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
So I'm here for it. So that's going to be
fun to mark. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Look, I'm looking outside. It's sixty five degrees. There's there's
no snow, so we can get through that. I understand
when the weather's crazy, it's it's not easy to attend
on every game. But I think you know what I
mean when I say like there are certain programs when
you think about their home crowd, yep, you know they're
coming to cheer for their team, not the opponent. The
(17:03):
how big the game is. It's always big because they're
going to you know, fog Allen Field House and they're
watching the Jayhawks. And I just believe that our crowd
in Centile Center and Xavier has always been synonymous with
that is a ferocious crowd. And you talk to Pete Gillen,
you talk to Bob Stack, and talk to Dad Mauna,
(17:24):
Chris Mack, They're all going to say the same thing.
And I just my hope is we can be we
can have that for these final couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Here, all right, Well, I hope. So it's a huge
one tomorrow night at eight thirty. I know, I know
you kind of push podcasting off to the side during
the season. You know, you don't do it as often.
But I am waiting a lot official invite.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
So okay, we'll do it, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I this off season. Yeah, I've had people ask me like,
when's it going to happen. I'm good, didn't you.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
We'll do it. We'll do it right, yeah, they You
know what, when you're getting your ass kicked out, I
think at some point you just say, you know what.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
People don't want to hear from me.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
They just want to see me win. So I put
the focus just on that, you know. But I'll die,
I'll return back to the podcast and we'll definitely get together.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
I cannot wait. Coach, good luck tomorrow night and the
rest of the way. Always appreciate your time. You're always
so generous to us. We'll talk soon, man, Thanks so much.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
All right, thank you?
Speaker 1 (18:18):
You got a Shawn Miller, coach of the Xavior Musketeers.
Eight thirty tomorrow night is the tip off and again
the first three thousand fans in get a Shawn Miller
dressed in black bobblehead. We are way late, but it
was worth At four o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty
Seeing away from four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty
on Moleger. Xavier did not play this weekend. The Musketeers
are home tomorrow night for a tilt against Georgetown eight
point thirty the tip off. First three thousand fans at
the Centas Center get a Sean Miller Bobbleheadley head coach
of the Musketeers with us this afternoon. It is.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's good to have you, coach. How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Thanks, Moe.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Great to be on your message publicly after the Creighton game.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
We're not done. We could take off.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I would imagine that you have imparted at least some
version of that tier guys, if not on Wednesday night,
certainly in the day's subsequent.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, that's I mean, look, that's the name of the game, right,
you know, to be a really good team in February,
entering March, playing your best and playing for something, you know,
having the opportunity to play for the NCAA tournament, having
an opportunity to play in games that everybody in the
world wants to watch and be a part of it.
And we have that in front of us. So many
(01:00):
different teams in college basketball. It can go both ways,
there's not a guarantee for us. We've dug ourselves a
certain hole by how we performed, especially in the month
of December. But we're playing our best, even at Creighton.
You know, playing in Omaha against Creighton this year is
a tall order. You know, they've they've beaten Saint John's,
(01:23):
they've beaten Kansas, they have arguably the best center in
America and Ryan Kulkbrenner, who is in his fift year
playing for them. That you can go there, play well
and not win, And I think the perspective of that
is important. So you know, our our schedule in the
month of January has been very difficult. We played Marquette twice,
(01:44):
Saint John's twice, Yukon twice, and at Creighton. The rest
of our league is certainly not easy, but there's a
heavy tilt right there. So with that, uh, you know,
playing our best during that stretch, I think give this
confidence that we can play well and perform well in
(02:05):
this in this month that everybody cherishes in college basketball.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
It's got to be tough because on one hand, you
talk about the teams you've played in the league and
the Gauntlet. I mean, it's it's the most overused word,
but it applies the gauntlet and then you get six
days between games, and so I'm sure there's a part
of you that wants to take a breath. At the
same time, you do play a team tomorrow night that
the first time you played them it didn't go your way.
Your team doesn't have a ton of margin for error.
(02:32):
So that strikes me as to be a little bit
of a balancing act.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yeah, No, your points while taken in this case for us,
because of the type of schedule we played, and you know,
in the Big East, we play each other ten times,
and sometimes people forget that, you know ten and home
ten on a road, it's around robin. There's not like
a team that we don't go to their court, or
there's not another team that doesn't come to our courts.
(03:00):
So it's a twenty game schedule, not eighteen, and you
play everybody two times. And so with that, there's these
buys in which each of us get an opportunity twice
to have one break, so you don't play two or
three games in a week, you only play one. And
it took us eleven games to get to that buy.
So I think it was us in de Paul that
(03:20):
you know, had played eleven games and without a buy,
so you know, everybody else kind of had that buy
along the way. We are the last to arrive at it,
and we played a very difficult schedule, so that combination mode,
this break came at a great time for us. I
think we were smart with it. We've certainly practiced, but
we've had a chance to take a couple of days off,
be at home, not travel, and I think it's a
(03:42):
healthy break for us as we almost restart here for
the rest of this this month.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
You know, there's a lot of us who I was
at the Saint John's game here and kind of walked
out of Centau Center going, man, I don't know if
this is going to change and this is going to
turn around, It's going to have to start on the
defensive end, and it has you know, you guys holding
market the road to fifty seven.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Even the other night against Craton.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
As good of an offensive team as that is, you
guys got stops, you know, down down with four minutes
to go, you guys got stops. We saw what you
guys did defensively here against Yukon. What's been the biggest
difference on that end of the floor.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Yeah, well you had it. The Saint John's game was
our low moment. I think each season represents a single
moment where I just that was, like, I don't want
to say a turning point, but maybe a fork in
the road where it just didn't feel right, you know,
on that particular night, we lost our crowd. I think
we had a snowstorm before the game. Saint John's is
(04:38):
really good. Probably at that point, I don't know if
everybody truly understood the type of team they have so
and they put it on us. They were way more physical.
They killed us on the glass, you know, they they
kind of give you the illusion like that Zinger's not
playing hard, and really I think the reality of it
is we were overwhelmed with their quickness, physicality and rebounding.
(05:02):
But you know, I think you have choices when those
moments happen, you know, kind of run and hide, point
fingers sometimes not fix things. To our group's credit, we
went on several week journey and we were better. I
think that it starts within. You know, our guards are
doing a better job defending the ball, pressuring the ball.
Dylan Swain's playing his best basketball of his career, and
(05:26):
I think just as a group, you know, understanding that
the level of intensity and being able to, like you said,
get stops and be a team that can win with
both defense and offense. That's really what's going to be
required because the margin for air, as you stated, isn't big.
You know, we're in fifty to fifty games virtually every night,
so our effort level and our consistency on defense has
(05:48):
to be there. And since that game, I can tell
you that it's been not just better, but I think
at times we've been a really good defensive team that
becomes the storyline moving forward. We have to be that
team the rest of this month.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
And I think with that the conversation for me at least,
you mentioned Dalen Swain and what he's done for you,
and you know, it's fun to think about what that
might look like five or six weeks from now. It's
fun to think about what that might look like next year.
What's it been like watching him progress on the defensive side.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah, No, it's just what makes college basketball and coaching,
you know, such a such a special thing, especially for
a coach, because you know, when you see players in
your program grow and develop and do it because of
their work ethic, their their will, their unselfishness, and those
are all terms that I would use to describe Dylan Swain.
(06:43):
A year ago, he was the youngest player in the
Big East Conference. This year he's still nineteen years old
as a sophomore. Every week, every month that he's been
a part of what we've done, it seems like he
incrementally improves. He adds to his game and he's more physical,
he's confident. I think that he has a chance to
be one of the most versatile players in the Big
(07:05):
East Conference. And it's from the watch. He's really putting
it together, shooting a huge percentage from the free throw line.
He's shooting almost ninety percent from the line. When you
think of his game, you don't really think about that,
but he's also getting to the free throw line, I
think as much as any player in our league, which
shows you like his growth and his development. Defensively, if
(07:27):
you give our team credit, you have to give him
a lot of credit because many times he's the anchor
of what we do on defense.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Ryan Conwell scores twenty eight in the second half against Villanova,
and I mean there was a time in that game
where I think you fell behind by five and he
makes a three and it felt like God, if they
don't score here, you know, maybe this unravels and then
you know, who knows what kind of conversation we're having
right now. Instead, you win the game. He's awesome, And
my takeaway was, that's cool. He's not going to give
(07:58):
you twenty eight in the second half every year. What's
gonna happen when he doesn't? And then you go to
Marquette and offensively he doesn't shoot it well and you
still figure out a way to win that game. And
so if you look at the last five he's had,
you know, games where he's been awesome shooting the basketball.
He's had games, you know against Yukon where he's not
great shooting it, but he gets to the line you
have to play where he fouls out Caravan and still
(08:19):
makes the two free throws. Do you have a conversation
with him about, look, we love the highs, but we've
got a flat line this a little bit.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Yeah, No, he wants to do that for sure. No.
What what what Ryan gets is the other team's most attention,
you know, their best perimeter defender. From a scouting perspective.
You know the takeaways. We're not gonna let Ryan Conwell
do this when they call this this is this is
his play and they're very aware of him though, And
with that, I think there's an adjustment for the player himself,
(08:49):
but also me and the rest of our team to
help him. And the other part of it is, you know,
when you can really play, which Ryan can, it's not
just a set player screen that's going to free him up.
He frees himself up by just being the consonmate player
where he can get to the free throw line on drives,
(09:11):
he can score in transition, he could play off of
other other teammates in the team game, and you know
he can use fakes to use their their their quickness
against him, right, So you know, just kind of learning like, hey, look,
if they're going to sit on this, this now becomes
my counter and it's up to us to help him
and teach him. What I love about Ryan though, during
(09:31):
the stretch you talked about, is when he hasn't shot
the ball well, his demeanor, his mindset hasn't changed. He's defended,
he's he's playing the team game. He doesn't you know, pout,
he doesn't get frustrated and allow those other aspects of
his game to diminish, you know, his defensive fight and
his passing, and his playmaking and all the different things
(09:53):
you want from him in addition to scoring. He keeps
and that's allowed us to win when he hasn't shot well.
But make no mistake, when we're at our best and
we need him to play well, and I think scoring
is a big part of him playing well. We want
him to score.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
You joined me before the season, I think it was
before the exhibition game against Dayton, and we were talking
about the nature of the preseason, and look, college basketball
has changed in so many ways, and I think that
the task of getting ready for a season is a
lot more difficult, just because you know, you have players
from other programs and you're trying to piece everything together
and then you're gonna you know, the season starts earlier
(10:30):
than ever, you play games. The count you're asked to
schedule really tough. So the NCAA is allowing you guys
to now have every program to have two preseason games
against D one opponents. The secret scrimmage, I guess doesn't
have to be secret anymore. Have you I'm sure you've
thought about it, but can you I don't know, let
us in and know maybe what the plan is going
(10:52):
to be for your program moving forward as it relates
to the preseason and maybe having a better chance to
kind of hit the groundrunning once the real games actually start.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Yeah, you know, in terms of the two exhibition games,
you know, I think that you can bring fans in
and with those fans, you know, you have the opportunity,
uh to potentially make money for your program, and I
if we have the opportunity to do that as we
you know, as we did in a lot of ways
at U d Arena. It was for certainly the mental
(11:24):
health part of it, you know, Anthony Grant's initiative and
how important that part was to him. That was a
big reason we wanted to partner with Dayton to play
that game to raise money, uh, you know, for suicide
prevention in the state of Ohio, et cetera. But I
think entering the fans, I think that's something will will
lean heavily on MO moving forward, because you know, from
(11:47):
just if you look at it just from the basketball perspective,
you can play a quality opponent and then you get
the pressure of the crowd, which always helps prepare you
for the season. I would say, like the other part
of your question of you know, you get the whole
to be around your team more now than ever, and
I learned that this year. This is only like I
wouldn't even say this is my second go around in
(12:08):
doing it, because I think in some ways it's my
first go around, because you know, how does it feel
to have turnover each year? Some guys come back, most
guys are coming from other programs. You have a couple
of incoming freshmen. How do you build your team? And
by the way you're in the summer, isn't it supposed
to be fun?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Et cetera.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I think for me, I got the answer to the
test on this one. To be the most ready, you
have to hit all aspects, in my opinion, in June, July, August,
and September, all aspects of your team. Meaning I think
you have to teach defense. You have to look at
it as a version of your practice. You know, the Hey,
(12:49):
it's June, let's get some shots up and have fun.
Not that you know, playing basketball is always fun, but
you just don't have as much time as you think
to get ready for the month of November. In this
when you have eight new players, six new players, I
mean that like, I don't care if they're a freshmen.
I don't care if they're coming from a program where
(13:09):
they've been a four year starter and they're super experienced.
The fact they've never played for you at Zader and
you have a group of guys that have not been
on a court together. That's not a good thing. And
I think the way you make up for that is
that in those months, you know, you start to teach
them the value of terminology and everything you need to
(13:31):
be successful. In November December, you can't wait. And that's
at least my opinion.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Do you like the Bobblehead?
Speaker 3 (13:39):
You know it makes me look thin, So anytime something
makes me look thin, I will sign up for it.
You know, they put me in all black, and ye
know Bobblehead can't be fat, but I don't know how
much it looks like like me. Yeah, hopefully. Look, there's
two ways to look at the first three thousand people
get one. That may mean only fifteen hundred show up,
or you know, maybe it works works the way they
(14:00):
want to. But I will tell you this mode. You
were at the Saint John's game, and you know I've
been I've been in the Centas for eleven seasons, right,
you know, three as an assistant, eight as a head coach, obviously,
two different periods of time. And if anybody has ever
asked me during my you know, lifetime as a coach,
(14:21):
what's it like to coach in the Centas Center, I
would just give them one word, awesome. It's tough on
the opponent. There's pageantry, our student section is second to none,
the building is full. It's just it's a tough, minded crowd.
They love college basketball. That game I'd have been the
(14:41):
only game that I would have left. And we didn't
give our fans anything to cheer about on that night.
But you know, you leave a little bit concerned because
you know, Rick Patino and Saint John's did not compete
against our normal sentace crowd. For example, I would say
that if Yukon came in with Danny Hurley last weekend
(15:04):
and had that version of our proud the Saint John's crowd,
I'm sure of this, we would not have worn and
and and I just think that the competitive advantage at Xavier,
there's always things you wish you had more of. But
I've never felt, ever felt that we could ever have
a better home court than the one we have. That
(15:26):
that is our biggest competitive advantage. And you know, a
season ticket holder, student section, they have sometimes no idea,
no idea, the impact they have on winning, on on
on the consistency of our program. I mean Schmidfield House,
Cincinnati Gardens, MCC Horizon League, whatever those leagues used to
(15:48):
be called, right, Atlantic, ten, Big East, Like you play
at Xavier. Everybody knew that was going to be a
game and part of a hostile, well oiled crowd in
addition to a team. And you know, our crowd has
always came to watch us, you know, not because the
other team's coming, but they came to watch Xavier and
(16:09):
they hold us to a high standard. And you know,
my hope is tomorrow night. It's a later game, eight thirty,
but it's such an important game. We only have five
home games left. They're going to go by quickly, and
for us to be the most successful in those five
games will have a huge bearing on how this season ends.
And my hope is that we can get that Yukon
crowd for five more times this year. It's so important.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Eight thirty provides more time to get as you put
a coach well oiled.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
So I'm here for it. So that's going to be
fun to mark. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Look, I'm looking outside. It's sixty five degrees. There's there's
no snow, so we can get through that. I understand
when the weather's crazy, it's it's not easy to attend
on every game. But I think you know what I
mean when I say like there are certain programs when
you think about their home crowd, yep, you know they're
coming to cheer for their team, not the opponent. The
(17:03):
how big the game is. It's always big because they're
going to you know, fog Allen Field House and they're
watching the Jayhawks. And I just believe that our crowd
in Centile Center and Xavier has always been synonymous with
that is a ferocious crowd. And you talk to Pete Gillen,
you talk to Bob Stack, and talk to Dad Mauna,
(17:24):
Chris Mack, They're all going to say the same thing.
And I just my hope is we can be we
can have that for these final couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Here, all right, Well, I hope. So it's a huge
one tomorrow night at eight thirty. I know, I know
you kind of push podcasting off to the side during
the season. You know, you don't do it as often.
But I am waiting a lot official invite.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
So okay, we'll do it, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I this off season. Yeah, I've had people ask me like,
when's it going to happen. I'm good, didn't you.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
We'll do it. We'll do it right, yeah, they You
know what, when you're getting your ass kicked out, I
think at some point you just say, you know what.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
People don't want to hear from me.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
They just want to see me win. So I put
the focus just on that, you know. But I'll die,
I'll return back to the podcast and we'll definitely get together.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
I cannot wait. Coach, good luck tomorrow night and the
rest of the way. Always appreciate your time. You're always
so generous to us. We'll talk soon, man, Thanks so much.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
All right, thank you?
Speaker 1 (18:18):
You got a Shawn Miller, coach of the Xavior Musketeers.
Eight thirty tomorrow night is the tip off and again
the first three thousand fans in get a Shawn Miller
dressed in black bobblehead. We are way late, but it
was worth At four o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty
Mo Egger News
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