Seg 3 - MBB Show Nov 6 w Dan Hurley

Looks ahead at Lowell & Columbia, an injury update and then, a must listen old school rant.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the Yukon men's basketball coaches showed Dan
Hurley with US Husky's with a couple of games coming
up you Mass Lowell People's Bank Arena that's on Friday
and then Columbia on Monday at Gamble Pavilion.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Dan, let's get into some.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Of the newcomers that folks maybe saw off for the
very first time at Gamble Pavilion the other day. Starting
in the backcourt, Silas Demery Junior. He played a little
over twenty minutes. Malachi Smith played twenty two minutes. Two guys,
who you're gonna I'm going to assume you're going to
be depending on on that perimeter to defend for you.
How do you assess where they're at in terms of

(00:37):
developing here as Yukon basketball players.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I think that the potential
is there. I think, you know, I think the vision
is there for what they could become, you know, and
and I believe we can get them there. But you know,
just from a defensive standpoint, you're not anywhere near where
we need him to be. Uh And and I thought

(01:02):
Silas did it, did a really good job of like
getting to the rim. I think he's got good size,
and he's got good change of pace. Uh you know,
I think that the offensive end is an area that's
it's gonna take time.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
It should take more time.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
I'd say that I'm more you know, I'm much more
interested in in in those guys being able to help
us fix our defense.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
That's in large part of what was you.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Know, most appealing with with with with Silas in particular
was his defensive abilities. And and he was he was driven.
Uh you know, he was driven by their guards a lot,
and uh be and and uh, yes, that's an area
of concern.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
But I think that.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
You know, he's got I think we can I think
that we can get him there. Uh you know, we're
obviously we're coaching them hard and trying to get him
where where where they need to be at.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Two other guys who transferred in Dwayne Coroma and Alec Millander.
I had three steals in the game they played play
about twenty minutes. Alec Milnder in maybe six minutes. But
the experienced guys that you do have on your bench,
as this thing you know opens up and floor, you know,
it becomes a season, can you expect that that veteran

(02:17):
experience can help.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, I mean it will, and I think it has
to because I can't watch you know, more than one
or two possessions of players just you know, getting getting
driven and scored on. So just having the ability if
if we've got guards that can't guard the ball, you know,
I've got to get him off the court. I get
him off the court quickly. So having a guy like Alec,
I think I probably should have played the more the

(02:42):
other night to either to send a message or to
just get a better defensive player on the court. So yeah,
I mean, I think just having potentially three point guards
that are all veterans that can play is helpful, you know.
But then also if there are guards, there are other
players off the ball that are you know, that haven't
made the strides defensively that we need him to make.

(03:04):
We've got to be able to put better defensive players
on the court. And uh And I think that's that's
that's that's critical, especially early in the year, because I
think we have enough talent to be a really good
offensive team.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Even Dwayne.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Dwayne had a chance to have a great night, he
had a couple of steals, but in the back court
he should have passed it to a teammate, got it
back and finished. You know, instead he tried to drive
guards and he ended up smoking layups. So you know,
but Dwayne, I think is going to be a very
useful player for us. I think, you know, with Tarris back, uh,
you know, and and and and Eric, potentially having three

(03:41):
different type of centers is very useful.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah. Eric Robert was my next question, played eighteen minutes.
Got some good time here in those two exhibition games
about terras Reid available? Where where is he at? Where
can he get to? I mean, to me, he's got
a lot of talent. He looks like he's you can
finish with both hands. I only the only thing I
saw him and maybe you can you can you know,

(04:04):
comment on this. When he got it down down low
and deep, sometimes he instead of trying to just crush
it over the rim, you try to finesse it off
the board or something like that. Is that something that
he's capable of doing? He's seven to one, he's get
a strong dude.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Well, I mean he was three for three from the
field and and and you know, you know Alex missed
him on a layup. You know he was uh, you know,
we were, you know, we were in a kind of
a money play to get him a bucket because you
know that the center in their team was hitting very
very hard shots on him. So yeah, not the type
of shots that he's used to guarding. So I think

(04:42):
the game is still really fast for him, and you know,
he's he's playing, he's got to play a little faster.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
He's got to react a little quicker.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Especially defensively, and and and on the glass, he's got
to react and he's he's got to try to protect
a rim a little bit quicker. But you know, Alex
took two points off the board for him. He should
have had eight. He was wide open. Alex threw through
a laser pass to him that ended up, you know,
going to Jalen Stewart, who ended up shooting a three.
So instead of Eric getting a dunk and get into

(05:12):
eight points, you know, he has an opportunity to catch
if you just recognize there's a chance to dive on
a broken play, he would have had another two point
dunk which would have got him to ten. And then
Alex Caraban threw him a great pass on a two
on one situation where all he had to do is
catch and go up and just finish it. And he
tried to like wedge dribble into a recovering player, lost

(05:33):
the ball, slapped it out of bounds, so he had
a chance to end up with twelve, you know, twelve,
And you know, we got to get him.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
On the offensive glass.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
He's not offensive rebounding, and he's not protecting the rim.
I think he'll be fine offensively. He's just I think
this time is valuable for him, just with Taris out.
I think it's been good for him to get all
of these reps because there's not a lot of freshman
centers starting right now college basketball at our level.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
No, sure, Terris Reid, where's he at? Can he play
this week? Can he play on Friday? Can he play
on Monday? I'm putting you on the spot here now.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, I mean listen, you know, we're We've got a
medical staff, I've got a strength coach. I've got all
these all these people that are smarter than me. They
were in school way longer than I was. That uh,
you know, just making sure that he doesn't come back
and and and and and aggravate it. Uh, you know,
he's uh, you know, he's a critical player for what

(06:30):
we're trying to do. So you know, he practiced. Uh
you know, he practiced four straight days leading up to
you know, leading up to New Haven, and uh, you know,
he did not play. That was the decision, you know,
I know Taris wants to play, wanted to play. The
medical people are doing their job and making sure that
he's ready to go. So uh yeah, I I don't

(06:52):
want to predict Friday. I guess we're still in game
time decision mode. But yeah, he practiced again today.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
All right, one final thing where we go to right,
gonna talk to Mike Nardi with your new assistant coach,
Jersey guy Saint Patrick, Saint Anthony's. That was a heck
of a rivalry over the years. Yea, it was part
of a few of those for MSG and calling those games.
I mean, is that some of the best high school
basketball you might see around the whole country.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, I mean, I'm going to be I don't want
to be that older person that enjoyed basketball in the seventies, eighties, nineties,
early two thousands right.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Through for me.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
You know Kareem, you know Kareem through Kobe, you know
that just loved that era of basketball, and you know,
the passion, the intensity fact that these guys you know,
felt they owed it to show up every day and
practice hard and play hard, and there's load load management.

(07:54):
Those games, I mean games were wars, they were battles.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
I mean the intensity, that tension.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
The crowds, you know, it was you know it was
that was just incredible basketball. I mean they would outdraw
the biggest college programs in the state. When they played
at Rutgers. You'd get nine thousand people for St. Anthony
Saint Pat's Parochial B state championship game or a tournament,

(08:21):
a champions final at the Continental Airlines Arena, the old Meadowlands,
you'd get eleven twelve thousand people to watch the tournament Champian.
It's just basketball back then, was it was different?

Speaker 3 (08:34):
It was.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
I don't want to be the old old you know,
like this new generation they accuse you of being a
hater if you loved basketball.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
Back then, it was different, Dan, I mean, the aau
thing became a thing after you were involved on the
high school level, didn't it. That's why those high school
rivalries to me, were so tremendous because you weren't getting
guys going all over the place to school. They went
to the Catholic schools.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
Well, make sure this goes viral.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
For me, the biggest misnomer is that the players play
too many games now. The problem is they play too
many games that are meaningless. Now, you know, they play
all these AAU games that mean nothing. You know, you
lose at eleven, you play it two. You know, like
you used to players played just as many games as
these players play now. But we played them. You played

(09:28):
them outside, you played them in parks. You played them
at PS thirty school in Jersey City, or you played
them in Brooklyn, or you played them in these cities
in parks. And if you didn't win the game, you
didn't you went to the side for an hour or two.
And then in order to keep the court, you had
to keep winning. So every game felt like this intense battle.

(09:50):
Now these kids they just play games. If they lose
the game, they could play another game in an air
conditioned gym in Memphis or Kansas City or Texas. I mean,
the kids should go back to playing in the park. Man,
should go back to playing on the black top. Should
have to like should I have to like go to park,
go go play you know, be a fifteen year old,
go play against a twenty five year old, really learn

(10:12):
how to play basketball, and learn how to learn how
to compete, you know, learn how to compete.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
And I think that.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
They've you know, like these guys, they play a lot
of meaningless games in college. They play a lot of
meaningless games in AAU. They don't play these huge games
anymore that mean everything, these big showdown games where it's
time to strap up, and so they don't really understand
how to play with pressure, play with intensity, play with
play with passion.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
I'm with you, I completely agree. Those were great. When
Saint Pat's sat Anti's. I will talk to Mike about
that a little bit. I think we'll get his viewpoint. Coach,
we appreciate it. Good luck this week and next week
and going forward, and we'll talk to you again soon.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
All right, guys, appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
All right, that's Dan Hurley back with more of the
Yukon men's basketball Coaches Show in a moment on lear
Field