11/14/23 - The Sean Miller Radio Show

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
On the Xavier Sports Network from learField Live from the Dilly Vistro in Marymont.
Welcome to the Sean Miller Radio Show, presented by Bud Late, Easy
to Drink, Easy to Enjoy,and by Try Health. Try Health provides
surprisingly human care that drives the besthealth outcomes. Be seen, be heard,

(00:24):
be healed. Visit tryhealth dot com. Now Here are Joe Sunderman and
Byron Larkin. Welcome to the SeanMiller Show. I'm Joe Sunderman along with
Byron Larkin and the head coach ofthe Xavier Musketeers, Sean Miller. The
Xavier Musketeers are now two and onein the season. Xavier last week knocked
off Jacksonville ninety nine fifty six andlast night traveled on the road to Blake.

(00:48):
Purdue lost eighty three seventy one anda hard fot ball game. Sean,
it's been two games since the lasttime we've had your show and kind
of talk about where do you thinkthings are right now? You found a
way to win against Jacksonville and youknow, dropped a game last night to
Purdue. But overall, how areyou feeling about how your team's developing?
Yeah, but Byron. You know, I think it's very straightforward with our

(01:12):
team, and you know it's it'swhen you bring in, you know,
ten new players, and six ofthose guys are freshmen. We're never going
to be the best version of ourteam early. It's just we may have
I think glimpses, and I thinkin both the Purdue and Jacksonville game,
we had segments of that game wherewe really played well. Sometimes we played

(01:34):
well on both offense and defense.But you know, I would look at
it. It's almost kind of likemy comments to the team afterwards, where
you know, if you're growing aplant or a flower, you know,
you just you got to try toget everything perfect around it and try to
get the perfect sunlight and the fertilizerand the environment, et cetera. But

(01:55):
what it really needs is time,you know, And if you do everything
right in time, if you lookat the end result, you're gonna have
which you signed up for. Butthe process of getting there, you know,
there's going to be twisting turns andyou're gonna have to see things for
what they are. The last twogames are a great example of that.
So if you go back to Jacksonville, you know, the final score was

(02:17):
seventy nine to fifty six. Thething we didn't do as well in that
game is we did not block out. We did not defensive rebound, you
know, and it's scary to thinkthat a team like Jacksonville could punish us
on the offensive glass like they did. Well, if you really look hard
at their at their roster, thatwas their gift, that was what they

(02:37):
were really good at. I mean, they were big athletic. They tested
us in a very high level.But I think coming out of that game,
the point was we have to rebound, block out, guards bags everybody
plays in a game and do somethingthat a lot of times the fans don't
always see. But who wins thebattle on the glass, as you know,

(02:59):
is usuallyicative of who wins the game. If you transitioned at to Purdue
one year ago, Purdue was thethird best offensive rebounding team in America.
You know, Zach Edy alone averagesmore than five and quite a few of
the players that played in last night'sgame a year ago did a great job
on the offensive glass. Playing atPurdue in our third game the next game

(03:21):
after Jacksonville, you know, weheld them to five second shots. Edie
had three of the five and oneof our goals for the game, we
really reached, And I thought itwas a great sign for us that we
can play at Purdue against that typeof quality opponent something they're good at and
really do a great job of blockingout and getting rebounds and doing it as

(03:42):
a team. So a great exampleof us improving maybe behind the scenes.
One game we won, one gamewe lost. Now I think the other
part for Jacksonville is first time weplayed against the zone and we had several
possessions against the zone where we didn'tlook as comfortable as I know we are.
We were able would have learned fromit. And although Purdue didn't play
us zone, I think that thatright there really allows us to uh to

(04:05):
again put another check in the boxa first thing, and now that we
know through film, through trial anderror, what we need to do better
the next time we see zone.And I'm confident then when we go to
Vegas here this week in those twogames that we're gonna see zone in the
Jacksonville game, and what we've learnedfrom that game I think will really help

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us. When you look at thePurdue game, Xavier played some zone,
Like what was the purpose I knowyou don't play a lot of zone typically,
but you did go in that game. What were you what were you
looking to achieve? At that point? You just sew them down a little
bit. You know, we reallyjust tried to give them a different look.
You know, I think Zach Edie, when you're in the game,
you realize the analogy that I wouldgive it. It's like a great offensive

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line in football with a terrific runningback. You know, you can hold
them for a while, but itjust seems like as the game keeps going,
third quarter, fourth quarter, thatit's just it's just like pounding,
a wearing down effect, and ZachEdy can do that in basketball. I
mean, he can file out yourwhole team. The ball keeps getting in
there. And you know the otherpart of it is, don't underestimate if

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you run at him and double teamhim. He's big and he can see
over the top and deliver great passesto the perimeter. So that wearing down
effect, you know, I thinkthe zone for us was a chance for
us to give him a different look. And look, you know, at
the end of the day, ifyou say, how did we do against
Zach Edy, and we've watched ita couple of times. We did the

(05:31):
best we could, and I thinktwenty eight points and eleven rebounds he played
thirty three minutes. He earned them. But he's a heck of a player.
You think about it. Nine forseventeen from the floor, ten for
eleven from the free throw line.Like a lot of big guys, Joe,
you know, they're not always comfortablefrom the free throw line. He
is. He had eleven rebounds andfour blocks. So that's what happens when

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you can get the National Player ofthe Year to return for another year.
Said he's not a natural shot block. For my goodness, he looked pretty
natural blocking shots last night. Theother thing, Perdue, they led America
in fewest fouls per game, andlast night, you know, if you
look at the story of the game, we shot six free throws. And
that's really what they do coming intothe game. I believe Morehead State played

(06:17):
them the night before and they shotfour free throws. So is Zach Edie's
presence in the lane. It justmakes their life a lot easier on the
perimeter. And and that's why they'resuch a terrific team. I think he's
so big, it takes a littletime to adjust to play against you.
I mean, you play against tallguys all, you know, a lot,

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but not a guy who's seven footfour, three hundred and thirty five
pounds. And I remember one timeDesmond claud got the ball around the free
throw line and he he took awondribble in and kind of thought he was
going to get a little runner off, and Akiti just put his hand up

(06:59):
an almost shot the ball into hishands, and and that just kind of
too You have to adjust to that, the range of somebody like that.
And I thought, as the gamewent on, especially late in the second
half, the guy started to understandhow to play against him. And I
always thought, playing against the shotblocker, you want to take it right
at him. You don't want toextend away from him, because he wants

(07:23):
space to get up in time youand block your shot. I always tried
to just take it right at theirface, maybe get an offensive foul,
punch him, hit him in theface on an accident. So yeah,
okay, I'll take a flavorant oneon that one. But the next time
you come to the bucket, he'snot just going to just come over and
try to maul you. He'll justkind of keep his head back. What
were you telling your guys throughout thegame on how to play against that length,

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at least on offense, because Ithought abu Uzman did a tremendous job
against him. He did it.You know, a Boo we got him
the ball a couple of times whenZach Edy was behind him and a Boo
was poised. He took his timeand scored on the left jump hook and
the right jump hook. I mean, I think moving forward, that's great
for a booze confidence and it's goodfor our team to see him be able

(08:07):
to score in that setting. Butthe biggest thing with Zach Edy is just
you just got to try to movehim. And you know, I think
the thing that really could be problematicfor Purdue down the line is just playing
against somebody like a Jack Nunjee,a picking pop threat from five from the
five spot. You know, wehave that with Lazar Djokovic. Lazarre hasn't

(08:30):
played yet, but in that game, not that Lazarre would have been the
answer for a win, but theywould have had to account for his ability
to shoot the ball from the perimeter. You know, without Lazarre, we
really don't have that at the fivespot. So I think, like there's
a couple of things you can do, but you also have to have the
personnel to do it. And Barron, you know, again, this is

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only our third game, and watchingthe film, we might have had anywhere
between eighteen and twenty three segments onoffense. That's twenty three possessions. Twenty
possessions where I would put D NRP and that means did not run play
right or so it's like one ofthe four, two of the four,

(09:16):
like it's didn't start in the rightposition. That happens early in the season.
What that game does is it reallyilluminates that if you if you're not
organizing, you don't execute, reallyexecute all five players that against that team,
you're not gonna get a great shot. The way you're going to create
the best opportunities is you really haveto do on your end what you're supposed

(09:37):
to do, screen hard, screenwhere you're supposed to be cut hard.
The ball has to move, youhave to start in the right places.
So that will be I think agreat learning opportunity for us to go from
Purdue to the next two games inVegas, where just our overall, execution
can be better. Some of itis just the noise of the crowd,
you know, where you have aquiet point guard and a freshman point guard,

(10:00):
man, you have to be responsiblefor the four other players. Now
you know what we mean when wesay that. So that experience, to
your point, it brings out thebest in a lot of things. But
what I was going to say iswe made twenty three two point field goals
in that game, and we shota good percentage. You know, with
Zach Edy, they can bait youinto taking some more twos because what they

(10:22):
do with the four perimeter players,they hug the three point line and they
just put him in the middle.But our ability to score inside the arc,
that's not why we did not winthe game. As a matter of
fact, that's what we did wellto be in the game that In the
fact, we played with ten turnovers, and if you consider that Des who
was very good with the ball,had five of the ten turnovers. I

(10:45):
think that's the second thing we reallydid well in the game, with the
third being our defensive rebounding. Soif you could defensive rebound at the level
we did play at Macki Arena inthe third game of the year with ten
turnovers and be able to score twentythree to two point field goals. There's
a lot of good that we leftthe game feeling. You know, we

(11:05):
also took probably anywhere between ten andtwelve bad shots. Five or six are
what I would call fireable, likeyou can leave the court, go to
the locker room, wait on thebus. You're actually playing for Purdue.
That's the worst shot, the mostselfish shot, a shot that if you
ever shoot it again, you're nevergoing on the next trip again. So

(11:28):
you'll see that a couple of shotsthat went up will never go up with
me being over there from this pointon, because you can't win against a
really good team when a guy isshooting a twenty seven foot or off the
dribble or on the first pass fromthirty feet and by the way, I'm
looking at the percentage and you're notmaking it either. So I think for
us it's a little bit like wedealt with early last year. You have

(11:52):
to go through it, and thenthey know. Our players know, everyone
knows what's a good shot, what'sa bad shot, because we have too
many good opportunities that we never getto when you take that shot, you
know, and we have to cleanup our shot selection. So what I
would say, the ten turnovers,you can really make that number more fifteen
byron because there was a half dozenshots that went up that had no business

(12:16):
of being shot in the first place. The number to call in and talk
with coach Sean Miller is five one, three, seven, four nine,
fifty five hundred. This is aSean Miller Coaches Show from Billy, Bastrill
and Marmott on fifty five KARC andthe Varsity Network. Welcome back to Dalli,

(12:37):
Bastrill and Marymont in the Sean MillerShow. When you're out of town
and want to keep up with livecollege sports, be sure to download the
new Varsity Network app, available onboth Apple and and Android. Listen to
college sports Live with Varsity with theVarsity Network app. Coaches, you build
your roster looking forward over the nextseveral years in it and really the way

(13:01):
recruiting's going, where the players comefrom around the world. How big a
role will the international players be aswe move into the future. It's going
to remain a really big part ofwhat we do. Joe, you know,
I think you look at it asthree ingredients, right your traditional high
school players from the United States,which certainly, I mean that's something that

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we're on top of as early asthe best tenth graders ninth graders, and
we want to do a great joblocally, want to do a great job
in our region nationally, and beaware of the best players. We have
several on our roster right now,and you know, two that really jump
off the page early or Dylan Swainwho came to us from our state,
Ohio, and Trey Green who's fromCharlotte, North Carolina. You know,

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that remains a pivotal part of whatwe do, Joe, of bringing them
in, developing them, letting themgo from freshmen to sophomore, sophomores to
juniors. You watch Desmond Claude comingin as a freshman, how much he's
improved from his fresh into a sophomoreyear. That player development with those types
of players is number one. Youknow. Number two is sometimes you're able

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to go around the world internationally andin particular the way our coaching staff is
put together. That is also somethingwe're well aware of, and it's an
ingredient that sometimes may come in theform of one player in a class.
We may go a class where youdon't see one, but we may have
a class like we just did wherewe brought three international players in to help

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us, to help us develop andbuild our program. You look at the
impact that Getas has had already,Sasha and now Lazarre is the third guy.
I believe all three of those guyswill really help this year's team.
Two of the three are freshmen,so and then the last one is just
the transfer portal. And I goback to a year ago with an ingredient

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that we really needed. We wereable to find with sue Le Boom and
Souley was the first team All Biggiesperformer. You know this year, you
know with Daveon McKnight, Abou Oosmainand Quincy Oliveri. And again, I
don't think we're going to be bringingten players in anytime soon, at least
I hope not. So that's whythose three ingredients, you really can speak

(15:18):
to all three in a big waywith this year's roster's that's how we were
able to build our team with asmany losses as we endured. See American
players that you're recruiting for a fewyears, there seem like they're reaching out
freshmen even some eighth graders, youknow, if they were spectacular enough where
your schools will make contact with them. When does it start? Is it

(15:41):
still pretty much the same, likeafter the freshman year, sophomore year,
when you really start contacting high schoolplayers. Is that when you can start
to make judgments, Sin say,I need to start to cultivate this relationship.
You know, each situation is different, Joe, but I think when
somebody's in tenth grade, for themost part, you're well aware of them
and the process has to begin atthat point or else to some degree,
you'll be late to the opportunity.So we have a coaching staff right now

(16:06):
though I'm our guys, we've reallyworked exceptionally hard. I mean sometimes I
wake up and it's like, God, how long have we been here for?
You know, about nineteen months,you know, and it's zoomed by.
But in that nineteen months a lotof recruiting has taken place because of
the turnover that we experienced from seasonone through season two, and our guys,

(16:27):
our staff, I think, hasdone a really good job of working
at it. And look, youhave to continue to do it both for
this spring and next year, butalso beyond that coaching in terms of is
there a priority relative to Okay,you got three areas, you got the
international players, are transfer portal,and you've got high school players. Is

(16:48):
there kind of a general feeling on, hey, you know, our kind
of priority is going to be highschool players, international players or what?
Or is it going to change kindof every years the situation, I think
it's situational byern because in one givenyear, for example, we may have
a great opportunity to recruit an internationalplayer who's a difference maker, who's somebody

(17:10):
that we feel could really impact ourprogram, but also comes in extremely talented,
so that's where we would go.There's certainly going to be times where
through our own efforts, we feellike we have the opportunity to build a
good class here with high school playersthat are in the United States, and
therefore we're not going to go internationally. And same thing with the transfer portal.

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But one thing about the portal isyou have to get the ingredient that
you currently don't have, because ontheir end, it has to be a
good opportunity for them. You know, you don't want to there's no development
when you take someone on a transferbecause they're already leaving school a to come
to you. So I think withthat there'll be less of that for us

(17:57):
and more of the high school recruiting, whether it be international or whether it
be here in the States. So, coach, how long does it take
for you to recognize when you seelike a really good player, international,
high school, transferred player, portalwhat have you? You know, say,
a guard or a big where youcan tell you like that, like,

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oh, yeah, that guy's goodenough or not, because you know,
I see a lot of really goodhigh school players. Oh man,
that that guy should be really goodin high school and are in college and
then he's doesn't have enough talent.But then others, you know, you
see a guy who's kind of amarginal player on his high school team that
may be really talented. He comesto college and this kind of takes off.

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So is there something about a playerthat you look for, like when
you're recruiting that that you can tellkind of right away if you think that
he's going to be, you know, your kind of guy. I think
so, Byron, I mean sometimeswhen I look back at in the past,
you know, self reflection or selfevaluation, when you make a mistake,

(19:04):
you know, and when you thoughtmaybe a player was a certain way
and ended up not working out.And that happens sometimes even if the player
is very talented, and even ifon your end you thought you did everything
right, it's not always going tobe the perfect fit. But usually the
one common theme with that mistake iswe didn't really drill down and watch them

(19:26):
enough. We didn't We made aquick judgment on one one performance or more
word of mouth, and we didn'tfollow up on what we heard with our
own efforts. So I think whatwe try to do is don't make a
rash decision on watching someone play onegame, because, as you know,
anybody can have a real bad orreal good performance when you watch them just

(19:49):
one time. So you try towatch them multiple times and then certainly learn
more about who they are, wherethey're from, what they're looking for.
Will they be a good fit.I also go to this. Billy Donovan
is a good friend of mine,and when he was at Florida, he
would recruit the nation's best. Andone time, you know, we were
talking about recruiting and he said,you know what, I've come to realize

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that if I'm I'm going to watcha guy a couple of times, and
I'm saying, boy, is hegood enough? He's not. If you
have to ask that question, you'retrying, you're trying too hard to like
him. And what you know,like it's like you watched him, you
watched him again. You know,your staffs watched him. You've doubled down
and really got some good feedback andyou've you've learned more about Then you watch

(20:34):
him again and you're and you're stillfighting to like him. You got the
answer. You got to see itfor what it is. So that's you
know, that's that's that's the otherway of looking at it. And it's
not and it's not an exact sign, you know. I'll give you a
great example Justin Doleman. When westarted to recruit Justin Doleman, I would
have been the assistant coach here atXavier and Thad would have been the head

(20:56):
coach. And if you remember,Dolman was from northern Kentucky, you know,
in the state, and at thatpoint he really wasn't being recruited very
very heavily. Mike Price is anexcellent high school coach here in Cincinnati and
still an excellent high school coach,would have been his travel team coach,
and you know, just through ourrelationship with Mike Price, he would talk

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about Justin Dolman and say, boy, he's a really good passer and he's
very thin, but his dad istall, and god, I really love
the way he plays when he practices, he's smart. I really enjoy coaching
him. Have you seen him?And you know, we followed up and
watched him, and I really likedhim. But if you just looked at
Dolman at seventeen years old and said, god, but no one else is

(21:41):
recruiting him, and you know hedoesn't play against great competition, why isn't
everybody recruiting him? In what positionwould he play? You could you could
clearly talk yourself out of it.But if you said, okay, what
is it that he can do?Well, he's a great passer. He's
six' eight, he's probably gonnabe six if the more you watch him,

(22:02):
he's got a toughness about him.I think he's a winner. And
who cares who's recruiting him? Andjust think about Justin Dolman as a freshman,
not as a junior or senior,but as a freshman was a key
part to our team. That wentto the Elite eight and lost the Duke.
And then if you get his fouryear career, he had a great

(22:23):
career, and then his pro careerin Europe was even better. But I
oftentimes used him as the example,even when I was coaching at Arizona.
You know, don't get caught upand who's recruiting the player. Sometimes you
could see all these other schools recruitinghim, and that may mean like,
that doesn't mean he's good enough forus or that he fits what we do.

(22:45):
And the contrary is somebody like JustinDoleman. Make sure you really see
him through your own eyes, notwhere he's ranked or who else is recruiting
him. All right, this isa Sean Miller Coaches show from Dilly b
stroma Marry My not fifty five KRCin the Varsity Networks. Very much of
The Sean Miller Show, but likeproud sponsors a for athletics, easy to

(23:07):
drink, easy to enjoy. Let'sgo right to the phone line. How
are you, Joe? I'm allright, go ahead. Uh uh?
Don't I see your improvement? Everygame you improved? Thank you, Joe.
I'm uh, I'm dying you guys, are really beginnings long as you

(23:30):
want. I wanted to ask youabout you brought on. Some guys are
really good shooting, and so farthe I as good as I think you'd
like. Ye, the only thingI liked last year? What do you
know about play this weekend? Howmuch do you know about him? Yeah?

(23:52):
So, I think the first questionon shooting is I'll start with Trey
Green. Every time he shoots it, I think it's going in. We're
really dialing in and making sure thathe's taking good ones, and for the
most part he is. It's justa matter of time. It would not
surprise me if he doesn't have oneof those big nights. He was close
based on how he started off inthe first half against Purdue. But he's

(24:18):
not somebody that lacks confidence. Andyou know, he misses a few and
it bothers him. I don't thinkhe worries about it, which is a
good thing Byron. But I havegreat faith that that will turn around.
I watch him shoot it every day. I also think Quincy is a better
shooter than he's shown. Quincy isis taking too many tough shots right now,
and they're not going to go inunless he improves his shot selection,

(24:41):
and we have to help him understandgood shot, bad shot. But in
terms of their ability to shoot thethree, you know, I'll go to
Soul Boom or Adam Cunkle a yearago, or Kobe Jones, three guys
who shot a very good percentage forus. Trey and and Quincy are every
bit is good, if not evenmore accurate on a daily basis than those

(25:03):
guys. So we have a greatbelief in them, and it's good to
see Geetas shooting the ball. Wewant him to take them. And when
Lazarre shows up and plays for usand it gets comfortable, Lazarre, as
a big guy, is also acapable three point shooter, especially from the
top. They're gonna have to honorhim and guard him. So, but

(25:26):
you're right, our percentage right nowthrough three games isn't what we would like.
Look if we had a better nightfrom three last night, that game
would have gone to the last fourminutes and it would have been a much
different feeling down the stretch than thecushion that they had, in large part
because we did not shoot the ballwell from three. In terms of this
weekend, Washington, I'm very familiarwith you know coaching against them in the

(25:49):
Pac twelve. Traditionally they've played atSyracuse two to three zone. This year
they've not played any zone for thefirst time. They're all man demand.
We will prepare for both both thetwo three zone and also man demand.
They have a brand new team interms of the transfer portal, I don't
think anybody has more new faces fromone season to the next through the transfer

(26:14):
portal than Washington has. And theyhave a very talented roster. A lot
of their current players were their bestplayers on their previous team. So talent,
speed of the game, playing aman a man or zone both,
and you know, playing in TMobile Arena, which is it's like the
Staples Center where the Clippers and theLakers play. It's an amazing arena.

(26:38):
Been in there many times, andso it's a great, great opportunity for
our players right there. In termsof winning loss. San Diego State they
were in the National Championship game lastyear, very very good, great coach.
And Saint Mary's, who could bea Final four team this year from
Gonzaga's league. Randy Bennett another justgreat coach. Like two real good programs.

(27:03):
San Diego State, Saint Mary's yearin, year out. They're a
lot like Xavier, how like we'vebeen the last twenty thirty years. This
is a Sean Miller Coaches Show fromDilly Bistro and Marrimant on fifty five KARC
and the Varsity Network run. Goback to Dilly Bistro and Marrimand, by
the way, wonderful crowd again thenight. We appreciate you taking the time
to join us here at Dilli Bistro. Always a good night. And this

(27:26):
is the Sean Miller Coaches Show.Xavier fans helped sin Steady Cancer Advisors achieve
victory over cancer. At the nexthome game at the Cinti Center, just
grab a souvenir cup for a chanceto win great prizes like a private VIP
suitek courtside seats or Xavier merchandise.Sean. Sometimes during the break we have
people come up and ask questions,and someone was asking about the relationship with

(27:52):
the staff and players who have transferredaway, like Saysar Edwards, Kiki Tandey
those guys. Is there any kindof relationship and if there is, what's
that like when they leave? Yeah, you know, Byron, I think
it's different in every case. Youknow, sometimes the best next move for
a player is to leave and givehimself a bigger opportunity, because at the

(28:15):
end of the day, when collegestarts for you, you know, you
envision playing starting, having a roleand being on the court, and I
think there's always a progression. Maybeas a freshman you don't get an opportunity
or as big of an opportunity,but if things are moving in the right
direction, that opportunity should grow asyou get older within the program. And

(28:38):
sometimes when that doesn't happen, beingable to make change and go and put
yourself in a better position, that'swhat's best for him and his family.
And that's easily understood. So everyrelationships a little different. As we follow
guys that leave where we once werethat there were with us, obviously we
want them to do well. Shetalked about the freshman even right there the

(29:02):
need need to grow, and thatgoes for any freshman where they're on the
bench, on the floor, whateverit might be. But I've noticed over
the last couple of years the playersthat come in season, they come in
the portal transfer and even Schuley boomlast year. I thought early on was
trying to find his role, howmuch you should shoot? Maybe I shouldn't
shoot so much? Do I defer? Now you had McKnight, you have
olivery, and they've got to fitinto your system and play the way you

(29:25):
want. Is that something you expectto see and is that moving in the
right direction for you? I thoughtMcKnight played very well. I'll have very
missed a few shots, but thatcan happen. Yeah, Daveon that was
the best game that he played inhis Avier uniform, and I talked to
him, and you're right, Joe, you can't judge any of our players
in the month of November, andin particular the team that we currently have

(29:48):
because of the obvious and I knowI'm repeating myself with so much change,
it takes time, but you're right. Just because a player played in college
and is experienced and transfers in,he's not going to necessarily hit the ground
running game one, And if hedoes, I think what you'll find with
him is he'll have his bumps inthe road, no different than a young

(30:08):
freshman. So I think for usis to make sure that everybody knows the
expectations first every day and then oncethe games begin. Shot selection, your
role did this well, didn't dothat well. And I think part of
the feedback for me given Davon isDavion played with a great pace last night.

(30:30):
I mean he pushed the ball andthere's something to be said about a
point guard who can push it theway he pushed it for the thirty plus
minutes that he played in that gameagainst Purdue on an away court. And
you know, we want to playwith pace. You can't play with pace
when your guards, especially your pointguard, doesn't have his own throttle and
pace. He's the engine of ouroffense. And I also thought Daveon,

(30:53):
you know, defensively competed. Hehad three steals, he had a bunch
of deflections. He gave us greateffort on both sides of the ball,
and I believe we have a reallygood two way player with Quincy. It's
about shots selection right now. Ithink the better shots he takes, the
more he sees his opportunities and maybehe's a little bit more patient in letting

(31:15):
them come. I think you'll seethat he'll be more efficient defensively. Quincy
has done a really good job andI thought, again he played with very
good effort when he played last night, coach, you talk about guys different
roles. You know, Desmond Claude, he's your leading scorers, averaging seventeen
points a games, you number fiftypercent from the floor, and he's asked

(31:37):
a lot. I mean he's nowfrom a guy who averaged four points a
game last year, you know,third, fourth maybe guy relative to when
teams are preparing to stop you.Now he moves to the top. You
know, what he is experiencing nowis living at the top of the opponents

(32:00):
planning for him. And you know, that's a lot for a guy who
just averaged four points a game lastyear, and now he has asked to
you know, when things aren't goingwell, you know, you got to
get us out of it. You'vegot to re establish our confidence. You
need to be the leader out there. And that takes some time. You

(32:22):
can't just turn that on on andoff like a switch. That's for sure.
And it is and you know,and that's the I think the the
hardest part for us with without Zachand Jerome. With Zach and Jerome,
it really takes some of that burdenoff of Dez, not that he wouldn't

(32:43):
be required to do more and makethe jump that we're watching him make.
But you know the person on theother teams scottering report of how to take
him away, putting your best defenderon him, showing clips, giving great
hell oh, making a game difficultfor him. That's what des is going

(33:04):
to get the next thirty plus gamesof the year. He got it last
night. To his credit, aftera subpar first half, he really came
out after halftime and was more ofhimself. And I think if you judge
Dez by the second half he playedagainst Purdue, he did a really good
job and he ended up with doublefigures and had only one turnover and was

(33:24):
much more sure of himself in thesecond half. That's the adjustment that I
think you're going to watch him makefrom time to time. These two games
that we play in Vegas, andthe same thing is going to happen,
and you know, putting their bestperimeter player on him, chasing him,
making the game difficult. And thenthe other part for Dez is we're asking

(33:44):
him to be a very good defensiveplayer on our end. But when you
ask someone like Dez, who's reallytalented and has the attitude that he has
to do these things, I thinkwhat you find is that he that he's
going to keep getting better. He'sgoing to keep improving. Where you see
him today, a month from now, two months from now, three months
from now, He's just going tokeep growing and growing and growing. And

(34:06):
I think the best is yet tocome for him. All right. Where
Dalli Bistro and Marrimont. This isa Sean Miller Coaches Show. We're on
fifty five KRC in the Varsity Network. Welcome back to the Sean Miller Show.
We're at Delley Bistro and Marrimont.We're on fifty five KRC in the
Varsity Networking. We're glad that youhave joined us, Coacha. I don't

(34:28):
think we've talked enough about Daylan Swainyet. I mean he is his last
two games, he's been in doublefigures and has played shot the ball well,
has been active on the glass.Defensively, I think he's very active
with deflections and just as you know, playing defense and kind of all over

(34:51):
the floor, making his presence feltimpact in your impacting winning in multiple ways.
Talk about his emergence and how howyou see him playing for your team
right now. You know, he'sbeen the most pleasant surprise of our freshman
not that we didn't believe in Dalen, but he is so young for being
a freshman in college. He's eighteenyears old. He won't turn nineteen until

(35:15):
July or June or July of thissummer. And so when you think about
that, Byron, I mean,you know, that should be the hardest
adjustment from high school to college forhim. But I can make a case
that he's probably had maybe this mostseamless transition simply because of what you said.

(35:36):
He isn't dependent on just one thing. He can contribute in a lot
of different ways. You know,we went zone last night and he's the
guy who intercepted the pass, wentcoast to coast for the dunk. You
know, we got out another timein transition and he caught a lob and
dunked the ball. He's gotten acouple of good second shots, and we
want him to do that more becausehe can be an even better offensive rebounder.

(35:59):
Defensively, you know, he's justdifferent because he can impact the game
with deflections and steals and guard avariety of different players because he's six foot
seven and from an offensive perspective,he's one of our team's best passers and
he takes good open threes. Andwhen he takes good open threes right now,
he's worked very hard this summer andfall and has improved his shot.

(36:21):
Same thing from the free throw line. He's consistent from the free throw line
when he gets there, and he'sreally impacted each of the three games that
we've that we've played this year sofar, and I've been really happy with
him. I'm happy for him,and you know, I think the best
is yet to come for Dalen.And what's he liked to coach every day?
He's he's really a fun guy tocoach because he has a lot of

(36:44):
talent, and he loves the gameand he's very bright. You know,
we were talking about Justin Dowman earlierand one of Justin's great strengths was just
his his ability to see the gameand have a feel. And with Daylan
and you see those similarities where hesees the game and has a good feel

(37:04):
for the game, and that allowshim, I think, to improve more
rapidly than sometimes other freshmen. Coach, I know where your teams, you
like when they don't foul Swayin hasplayed twenty minutes a game for three games,
only committed three fouls. So that'sjust you got very good, no
question, Joe. You're you're right, and you know fouling and Purdue teaches

(37:27):
you right that you could play withgreat effort. Nobody's going to accuse their
team of playing lacka day's ago.They play with tremendous hustle and effort,
pick you up the full court right, chase cutters, and yet they don't
foul. And you know the mythof the harder you play, the more
you foul, that that's not true, you know, I think the more
the harder you play with discipline andbeing in the right place the right time,
always being in the stands and nothaving to use your hands because you're

(37:52):
in great position. It takes alot of work, a lot of discipline.
But you know, to make thatteam make shots without putting him at
the foul line, you know,for a young team, that's sometimes very
difficult to teach, and it's oneof the many things right now we're trying
to instill in our team this year. All right, The Musketeers are on
the way to Las Vegas tomorrow onFriday night at about eleven fifty nine.

(38:12):
They'll tip off against Washington State,that game will be on seven hundred WOW.
I like to thank everybody for joiningus for the Sean Miller Show.
We appreciate the great crowds from Dabscrowon fifty five KARC and the Varsity Network
live from the Dilly Bistro in Marymont. This has been the Sean Miller Radio
Show presented by bud Late, Easyto drink, easy to enjoy and buy

(38:37):
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