Seg 5 - MBB Show Dec 19 w Solo Ball

The UConn Guard with Mike Crispino on the UConn MBB Coach's Show 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Or Welcome back to the Yukon Men's Basketball Coaches Show.
Just spent some time with Dan Hurley talking about Yukon
start to the year eleven and one. Now we have
solo ball with us solo. This schedule you guys played
here in the first couple months of the season has
been challenging. How did you view it? I mean, you
had some really interesting things. You played BYU in Boston,

(00:22):
you played Illinois at the Garden, You played Florida at
the Garden. Now those are big time opponents. How do
you think you guys came through that?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, I mean I feel like playing those games early
on in the season only just show you your potential
and how far you could go in March and it
kind of just gave us a bookmark of just things
we could work on. And I think this was just
the best way to just give ourselves a test. Really
just going into conference play too, as difficult as it is,
I think just playing against these teams and top five,

(00:53):
top ten, top twenty five teams, it just gives you
your best shot later on in the year.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah, the win against Florida at the Garden. I know
you love playing in the Garden. You always play.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Yeah, that was fun because Florida. You know, I still
have a I still I'm upset about those guys because
they knocked us out last year and then they went
on to win the whole thing. So get a little
bit of revenge. How that feel good, didn't it? Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah? Absolutely playing them again. They're a incredible team, really
really talented. So I mean, getting a win in the
Garden is always always a big deal, especially getting against
a team that took you out last year. But I
mean just another great team with great, big, great guards.
So I mean getting a win like that for our
resume was definitely important for us. Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Rebounding the ball as a team. First eight or so games,
you guys were you know, a little bove average. But
now these last two games against Texas and Butler, both
really good rebounding teams. You guys have really done a
nice job there. What have you been talking about in practice?
How do you how do you improve rebounding because it's
a kind of a different thing. It's not like you're
practice shooting. You practice when guy miss and you get

(02:01):
better at that.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, I feel like rebounding a lot of his mentality
and I feel like rebounding can also go in with defense.
So like defense and rebound has been a big focus
to the whole coaching staff and for us as a group,
because I mean last year defense, defense and rebounding was
also like our Achilles heel, to be honest with you,
and uh, that was what was holding us back from
being as cessful as we could have been. And I mean,

(02:24):
I think that was the biggest thing just going into
this year, having being able to lean on our defense
and lean on our rebound to help us win big games.
And that's what we're gonna need down the stretch too.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah, solo ball with us on the Yukon Men's Basketball
Coaches Show. The other night against Butler, they came rumbling
in here. I asked coach about this, but I want
to get your perspective those first six or seven minutes
while Butler looked like the Lakers are something the way
they were running around out there. And I know, you know,
you guys are well prepared for every game, but I don't,
I don't know, you took kind of a shot in

(02:56):
the chops in that one first seven or eight minutes.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, yeah, I want to say that. First media that
first like four minute stretch like before those media timeouts.
I mean that was a coach had always brought up
the mentality just to have a killer instinct, and we
definitely didn't have that going into the game. So I
mean our approach after that and within the next we
call them wars like between those media timeouts, but our

(03:22):
approach going into those next few wars was definitely definitely
much better going into each ward just one step at
a time, just continue and running the score up and
actually just getting back in the game. We knew we
had to keep them off the glass, So I mean
once we kept up off the glass and we got
in transition, I think that's when they were it was
getting difficult for them. And then also we just got

(03:43):
so many bodies to go through, just because we have
nine to ten people that you could play in row traates.
So I mean that's always a strict.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
No doubt depth really helping the Huskies. So far, we're
with solo ball. Will take a quick time out back
with more in a moment on the Yukon Men's Basketball Coaches Show,