Seg 3 - MBB Show Nov 13 w Dan Hurley

Mike & Dan look ahead to BYU Saturday and Arizona Wednesday in Storrs

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Back with Dan Hurley the Yukon Men's Basketball Coaches Show
and the Basketball Coaches Show airing on Thursday this week
where we tape it after practice on Wednesday. Wednesday was
National Signing Day. Dan a couple of the prospects coming
to Yukon Junior County colbyan Landrew. When you when you

(00:21):
go after young men, you are going to be freshmen
coming into the program. What's the general recruiting philosophy that
you use when you're trying to decide, Okay, this guy's
going to really help us.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, I mean it's a lot that's going on.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
You're you know, you're obviously trying to assess character, maturity,
you know, who are the people influencing the player?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Like, what are they all about? What do they stand for?
Do you do you?

Speaker 3 (00:50):
You know, are you aligned the values? Are you aligned
with the vision of how the career is going to
play out. I think we've been able to hold onto
a lot of of, you know, players that may have
transferred out, but I think things that have saved Solo
and some different players that didn't play as much as
they wanted as a freshman was just having a shared,

(01:11):
you know, honest vision of the player while you recruit them.
You know, we're not over promising every player and telling them, hey,
you're going to be a one and done. It's not
like cookie cutter recruiting. So I think our honesty and
just how clear we are about how you know player
is going to have to earn certain things, and what
the timeline is going to look like, how long we

(01:33):
expect them to be on campus. I mean, there's all
that stuff, and then you're looking at the player during
the summer. Do you believe in the talent?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
You know? Do you do you believe in the field?

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Do you does the player look like he's over rated
and delusional or is it a player that you think
can get a lot better and is on.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
The way up.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah? Well, listen, everyone faces the reality of transfers. Guys
leave because they're not getting what they want out of
the program. Per se. You lost a couple of guys
last year. When you get guys in like you every
year you get a couple of freshmen, you know, Jacob
Furphy now with you and Eric Raiba and you get

(02:13):
a look at him in the summer. Can you tell
within a few weeks that I made the right call
or do you have to wait until we get into
the games and find out, Well, this guy's going to
be just what we thought he was. He's got to
be good for us.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
You know, I would say, you know, pretty good pretty early.
You know, like if they're not the players aren't you know,
like flashing, I mean they're most young players. They come
in and it's struggling straight away. I mean it's not
you know, we've had a guy, including Staff or Donovan

(02:49):
or any of the you know, the guys that are
being the most successful in the NBA, they've gotten their
butt kicked, you know, pretty much early on. I mean,
Donovan was getting destroyed by Adama until you know, until
a month or six weeks in then he's Yeah, but
even early on he was flashing, but he was still
you know, he was still losing, but he would make

(03:10):
a big play where he's saying himself, when this guy
figures it out, you know, this is this thing. So
when the players aren't flashing like that for you and
they're just getting their butt kicked, you're you're saying that
you're starting to maybe have some questions, but you never
give up on the player. You know, I even't had
a player that I've ever asked to leave here, you know,
the players. I think that we've never had a player

(03:32):
want to leave here.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, well that's saying something, that's for sure. We're going
to talk to Jayden Ross a little later in the show.
He and Jalen Stewart and their junior seasons got some
you know time last year and then made some contributions
and both guys are making contributions again in their junior seasons.
What does it say about this program that you were
able to hold on to these guys because you know,

(03:55):
the way it is today, players are very impatient. They
always think the grass is greener. And I'm sure you
had discussions with these these guys in the off season
and you don't have to tell me what you said
to him, but it must have worked because they came back,
they're working hard, and they looked like they're going to
be contributors this year.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah. I mean, if you.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
You know, if you go, if you play college basketball
at Yukon, it's hard to play college basketball at another place.
You know, it's like it's a special place. It's a
handful of you know, a small number of schools where
like the best places you can go and play college basketball.
So that helps you know the way that these guys
are connected, the culture that they're able to form the

(04:37):
team to team that gets passed down. And then how
I think how hard the coaches work for the players.
You know, I think that the players appreciate how much
that the coaches invest in them, and I think that's
why you know, they'll take you know, some you know,
me ripping them or the player or the other coaches
coaching them hard.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Because because of all those things, A couple.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
Of big, big picture topics. Dan here, if we could
Big East a couple of years ago, had just three
teams in the NCAA Tournament. Kind of some rough results
here to start the season. Villanova lost to be at BYU,
no shame in that. But Georgetown had a good win
at Maryland, but Creighton got whacked, Gonzaga to Paul lost
at home to Buffalo, Santa Clara wanted Xavier. These early results,

(05:26):
does that tell you anything about the conference? Or do
we have to get into the conference season to really
find out what these guys are about.

Speaker 3 (05:31):
I mean it's early, you know, it's early. Most of
us have only played you know, two or three games,
you know, just got to you know, we've got to
as a league to try to put each other in
as good a position as we can and for our
own you desire to get more teams in and to
have better metrics. You know, we obviously, you know, we

(05:53):
got to try to finish up strong here. I think
that's it. I don't want don't do what I did now.
We last year where you lose one game and you know,
it kind of becomes this crushing loss and it turns
into multiple you know, it's like we've had some good wins,
we've had some bad losses. So of a lot of
other conferences, let's just.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Go yep, yep.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
What about ratings and stats early on? I mean, you
talk about this as the season goes on. Right now,
you're i think fourteenth in the country, points allowed, tenth,
and field goal percentage by the opposition. Are those meaningful yet?
Or is there a little bit of a trend that
you can hang your hat on?

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah? I think the.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
Numbers are a reflection of how you've performed.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
I think you know pretty you know pretty clearly.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
You know you're not going to have a real sense
of how good you are until you've played several you know,
really high level teams. See what the numbers look like
once you get ten, twelve, fifteen games into the season.
You know, there's the predictive measures I think, you know,
give you a sense of who's got the most returning

(07:02):
and and who's got the best chance to have a
good year.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
But it doesn't always.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
Reflect Yeah, all right, going to wrap it up with
my book report. I was in the Noble the other day, Yeah, looking.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
For your book. Did they have it?

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Was in Yeah, and it was prominently displayed by the way,
was it really Yeah? I was walking over, you know,
I get my Starbucks there, but I saw the table.
I go, oh, there it is.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Dan Hurley's book.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
Never stopped.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
It was pretty cool. I liked it.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
So anyway, they got you in a prominent spot at
Barnes and Noble.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Anyway, Yeah, you know, it's fun.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
It's Dan Hurley something to find something probably negative about
almost any situation. It's just it's it's what keeps me
on edge and on guard. I remember the one we did.
The day the book was out. I went to the
Barnes and Noble that I would usually go to and
they didn't have it in the store. The day it
was released in Antiquette.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
So that Yeah, that's a bummer.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
Have been, all right, coach, I'm ordering online now. No.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
I like bookstores still.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
I'm just one of my I love bookstores. I love
walking around I I do too.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
I'll be back, but I'm mad, amazing, amazing what you
find in bookstores anyway. All right, coach, appreciate you. Uh,
we'll see you in Boston.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
All right.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
I'll be back with more of the Yukon Men's Basketball
Coaches Show on lear Field in a moment