Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Live from the Dilly Bistro in Marymont. Welcome to the
Sean Miller Radio Show on the Xavier Sports Network from
lear Field, presented by Try Help. Try Health provides surprisingly
human care that drives the best health outcomes. Be seen,
be heard, be healed. Visit trhealth dot com. But late,
(00:22):
easy to drink, Easy to enjoy, and by Dilly Bistro,
presenting sponsor of the Sean Miller Radio Show. Now Here
are Joe Sunderman and Byron Larkin.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Welcome to the Sean Miller Show. Thanks everybody for joining
us here live at Joey Bistro, another pack house. I'm
Joe Sundering along with Byral Larkin and the head coach
of the Xavier Musketeers, Sean Miller. Xavier's now won for
the last five games all the Big East, and on Saturday,
in a spectacular environment, Xavier knocked off the nineteenth ranked
Yukon Husky's final score Zacre seventy six, Yukon seventy two,
(01:00):
and Sean, my question is about that night. It was
a wonderful night of basketball sent us. What stands out
the most of you about that night?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Well, a lot of things, Joe, I think The biggest
thing that stood out is just our crowd.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
It was just electric.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
You know, it always starts with his students, and I
think that's the case in every arena. Our students have
been just awesome really the last three years since I've
come back. I don't know if they've had a bad night,
they show up in full force. And the other night,
you know, I thought they were the heartbeat of the arena,
and then everybody else that was in there just joined in.
(01:35):
And what it made for is an incredibly spectacular environment
for us, but an equally difficult environment for the visiting team.
Yukon clearly got our best crowd and best shot, and
that's part of being in the Big East. As you
guys know, because we traveled together. You know we're going
to go to Creyton on Wednesday, and you already know
what to expect. An amazing student section with eighteen thousand.
(01:58):
We had that against Market on an amazing weekend where
they honored one of their former teams, and it just
felt like every seat in that Milwaukee Bucks arena was
filled and with somebody wearing gold, and even in Madison
Square Garden, which can be hit or missed sometimes in
New York City. You know, their crowd was a big
part of that comeback that we went up against. The
(02:21):
place just got you know, maddening, and that's what makes
our conference so great. But for us to have that
home court every game, it has an amazing meaning. And
the other night, our crowd really was a big factor
and why we played and how we got to the
finish line winning against the team that doesn't lose often.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
Coach, when you talk about the crowd, where do you
see that in your team? Like the where do that?
Do you see that more on the defensive end, offensive end?
When you when you're playing in the centa Center and
they're really hyped up and there's a lot of energy
in the building, is there a certain part of your
game that you see that it's a little bit more
elevated and when the crowd maybe is not as loud,
(03:02):
you know where.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
You really feel it, Byron is a lot of times
when things aren't going well, you know, you have a
couple of turnovers or they make a run and you
just you know, the building stays with you. You know
where it encourages you, and you know the crowd kind
of like stands and roars to to just get some
wind back in your sale. It's not always when you're
(03:23):
on a run and the place is going crazy and
the other coach has to call time out. Yeah, that's
part of it too. But the other part, when you
have a crowd like we had the other night, you know,
it's hard. It's difficult when things aren't going well to
just let it happen. I mean, you just you fight
to get it back. The crowd helps you fight to
get it back. And I think that's the best home crowds,
(03:44):
and we have one of the best home crowds in
the country. How the crowd was the other night, would
it would be how I would have remembered Centas when
I was gone for a long time and you think back,
what was it like playing in the Santas Center, I'd
say it was amazing, And it was very difficult for
every coach and every opposition that came in. You know,
(04:05):
they felt that they're playing against the team and they're
playing against an incredible crowd. A long time ago at
Cincinnati Gardens Byron and you guys know this Schmidfield House,
it was always the same. You've had Xavier tonight and
you're like, got it playing against a really good team.
These guys played together, and hard coaches over there, coaching
and his crowd is just it's tough.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
It's all of that.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
I think that goes into having just a great college
basketball program. And you know, the other night in the
sentas against Yukon, whether you were on television watching it,
you know your opinion.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Was, Man, that place is crazy.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
If you were in the game as a student, as
a fan, as a player, our players, Wow, that was amazing.
And I think that's what makes our program such a
special place to play at. And there's an element of
recruiting that happens. You know, there's an element that the
players in our program, you know, they know they're at
a special place. And and you know, I think the
(05:04):
standard is set across the board when your home court
feels like it felt the other night against Yukon. And look,
we don't have ten more home games left. We have
I think five, and to have a version of that
and then these next five and to try to win
every one of them would be very meaningful towards what
we're all trying to accomplish.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
The coach It happened early because an hour and a
half before the game. I was. I was doing an
interview with the Yukon guys and we started to record
at the same time they started to let the student
section in and we had to stop the recording because
some of the things they were saying and some of
(05:45):
the energy, it was like, yo, we gotta stop, we
gotta wait to make But they were so energized, and
I mean they came in screaming, like they just knocked
the doors in and just came in and just kept
that energy. Yep, the entire time. I understand that they
were out there a couple hours before, right.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Many hours before. Yeah, yeah, they were out prepp and
they were getting ready. So by the time they opened
the doors up, they were ready.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
Yeah, the pipe frothed up and ready to go.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
You know, on the other side of the coin, you
go to Marquette, that place is that capacity, it's eighteen
thousand plus and there it can be a wild group
too if you let them go. But that game's Avercy
sees the lead early in that ballgame, and I actually
mentioned the byron during the time out that the broadcast
actually sounded different to me because the building was so
quiet or used to kind of that background noise it
(06:34):
was very very quiet.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
You know, in that game, we never trailed. We led
two nothing or three nothing, whatever it started out as,
and we led wire to wire. And I think that's
one of the optimistic parts about following our team right now,
that if you really track us and we're playing right
now what I think is the most difficult part of
a big East schedule. And you look at at Marquette
(06:57):
followed by at New York Madison Square Garden Garden playing
Saint John's, we strung together about seventy six consecutive minutes
of play with never trailing, and we weren't able to
hold the lead, and Saint John's made the comeback that
they did and earned a hard fought victory on their court.
(07:17):
But man, you when you can go seventy six minutes,
and then if you really think about the other night,
you know, for most of the game we led there too,
And now you think, well, that's three teams, that's Yukon
at home, that's at Saint John's at Marquette. You know,
you're thinking about who they are, the level of play,
and the level of play we're playing at now for
(07:38):
one hundred and twenty five minutes, and you know to
me that that's the most important part of it, the
level of play that we're at, and we have to
continue that, build on it, figure out how to keep it.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
And even grow it.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
And now you know that really any place or any time,
you have the ability to win regardless because that's the
level of play.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
That you're at.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
And you know, I've I know it, and I know
a lot of people have talked to me about it.
You know, our defenses is continuing to develop. We're a
more difficult team to score against. We can disrupt easier
deflection steals. We have a lot of guys playing with
the highest level of intensity and energy on that end.
And now you know you don't have to outscore the
(08:22):
other team. You can win with your defense and your offense.
And that's really what all of us are after when
you try to build a team and you start to
talk about building a program or a culture, you want
that defensive side of the ball to have a standard
as well. And it's really taken us some time to
get there. But from this point forward, and we have
to keep it, we have the ability to play some
(08:44):
really good defense. Look, Yukon is one of the most
difficult challenges to guard in the country. They've been that
way the last couple of years. Their offense is no
different than it would have been a year ago or
even two years ago. Their defense is a little bit
different than the last couple of years, but not their offense.
When we go to Creighton, they're one of the most
(09:05):
difficult teams to defend in the country. And so you
know the teams were playing against right now. You know
they may get seventy two points, but they're among the
nation's best at what they're doing. And again, that's the
conference we're in.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Got you mentioned one hundred and twenty five minutes the
last three games. I believe you led one hundred and
two of those minutes, which you've talked about. You played,
as you indicated, some of your very best basketball of
the year. You also indicated after the Yukon game the
game was one. But at the same time, you want
to play better than the last two or three minutes
of the game. How do you achieve that we made.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Better plays at the end, you know, to seal the win.
I mean, look, the obvious one is Marcus Foster going
to the line winning by two points, and you know
he didn't make one to put us up three. He
made two to put us up four, which inevitably sealed
the game. But that's something that there are times we
haven't done that. You know, we had a couple big
offensive rebounds, you know, Dylan had one, Marcus had one
(10:04):
that kept the ball alive, kept the possession alive, ran
more clock on one of the two. We actually scored
on an underneath out of bounds play that followed that
offensive rebound, and then look, we got consecutive stops to
win it. I mean, you know, it's not like they
were open and missed the layup or you know, we
broke down, we made them miss. We really did a
(10:24):
good job defending them on those last several plays without fouling,
so I thought we were better. We still had a
couple of plays there, Joe that you just you know,
you'd say, oh my god, here we go again. And
we had kind of an ill advised turnover.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
We gave up a.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Second shot with like one second on the clock where
their point guard put it back in at the end.
And again we went over that today. And all we
can do is just continue to strive to be better,
address it, and if we can be a better finishing team.
That's going to make the month of February and moving
forward a lot smoother for us. Just be the same
team as you are throughout the game at the end,
(11:02):
and that's obviously plagued us at times this year.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Coach, I know you you talk about your defense being better.
The last four opponents you've held underneath their scoring average,
And why do you think that is? It's and I
know teams come together. Different teams come together at different
times for different reasons, but it seems like the better
teams obviously come together a little faster. And I think
(11:27):
it's more of a challenge now with the transfer portal.
You got one year guys who really don't know the culture,
or the expectations, or or really how you want them
to play defensively. So what do you think has made
them turn the corner defensively or just playing at a
(11:48):
better level of defensively.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yeah, I don't think it happened overnight, you know, like
a particular moment changed things. I do think our Saint
John's home game was a low moment for us, and
I think we came out of that game with the
fork in the road of you know, hey, we either
are going to fix this work to be better in
these areas, or we're going to go the other way.
And clearly I think from that game moving forward we've
(12:13):
been better. But overall, it just takes time. There's a
lot of different faces coming from different different programs that
are on not only our team Byron, but all teams.
And every time you play a game each month that
goes by, I think you get more accustomed to the standard,
the way of doing things. And then the other part
of it is you could talk about playing in the
Big East, but until you actually go through several games,
(12:36):
you just don't know. And I think we fell victim
of that as well, where we don't have a lot
of guys that have played in the East, and once
we got a few games under our belt, I think
everybody took a deep breath and said, I now know
what to expect more as well. But I'll also tell
you this, Dalen Swain, just as an individual player, has
impacted our defense in a significant way. And he's our
(12:59):
youngest player. And again the more experience he gets, the
better he gets. But his ability to guard a variety
of players and get deflections and block shots and do
things in a correct manner on defense and play at
a higher level of intensity. You know, I think that
it can become contagious, and I think just his own
individual defense has continued to evolve, and I would say
(13:23):
right now he's at a level where he's one of
our conference's best defensive players, and I think he individually
has really impacted.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Us as well.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
You're listening to the Sean Miller Coaches Show from Billy
Bistrow and Marymont on fifty five KRC and the Varsity Network.
Welcome back to the Sean Miller Show from Billy Bistro
and Marry.
Speaker 5 (13:43):
Matt Xavier fans. For a limited time, you can take
advantage of the Men's Basketball Flash Sell. That's a purchase
of a twenty dollars upper level ticket with no additional
fees for upcoming games against Georgetown on February fourth, Butler
February eighteenth, and Evidence on March the eighth. Remember the
sale is only for a limited time and tickets can
(14:05):
be purchased at goldsavery dot com.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Terry John's Happy birthday today. Appreciate you being here here
every week, so happy birthday, celebrating that's beg for us
to be here on that day like that, so we
appreciate it. Coach Davion McKnight played for college basketball for
five years now, five straight years. He's had one hundred
or more assist in every one of those season. That
to me is an amazing accomplishment. And what consistency.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Yeah, you know, Davion is really a remarkable young person.
I don't think I've ever been around anybody that is
more consistent with who.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
They are every day than him.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
You know, whether we lose, we win, he plays really well,
doesn't play well at all. You see him, he's there
and he goes through his routine. He practices very hard.
He does what you ask him to do as well
as any player that I have ever been around or coached,
you know, and.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
His consistency wins out.
Speaker 6 (15:03):
You know.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
One of the things that we're looking at with him
this year, especially because of the way our schedule has unfolded,
where we've played against these pressure teams Saint John's twice,
U Gone twice, Marquette twice, and he's playing, you know,
heavy minutes, leading our team in minutes almost thirty seven
minutes a game. And I think we're at a point
now where we're starting to recognize that that's too much.
(15:27):
You know, not that he's playing for his his performance,
but to bring out the best in him and allow
him to be the best he can be from this
point all the way to the end. You know, the
thirty seven becoming more towards thirty four or thirty two.
And that might not seem like a lot to people
if you say thirty six thirty seven to thirty two.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
But it really is.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
You know, you in real time during a game, how
long that is. It's longer than the minutes, and getting
him a chance to just take a deep breath, getting
him out when he's winded. I think it will allow
him finish game stronger. I think it won't be as
much wear and tear from one game to the next.
And that's something that we're talking to him about. I
thought we started to see it a little bit at
(16:10):
Saint John's, where man, it's just there pressing and we're
asking him to push the ball, break the press, play defense.
It's playing an even higher level defensively than he ever
has before. We move a lot on offense, and you're
doing a day in, day out, game in game out.
Now we're in February, the last thing I want to
see is him not having a chance to be at
his best moving forward. So how do you do that.
(16:34):
You have to trust your bench more. You have to
get quality play when you get those guys in. But
I think we're at a point where, you know, for
us to truly play, to win, to be the best
that we can be, we have to push that button
right there and give those guys a little bit more opportunity,
give him a little bit more rest, play without him
for a segment of the game so that when he's
(16:55):
in there, and I think he can be even more effective,
especially towards.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
The end of the game.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
Coach, you talked about trusting your bench more, but in
order for him to get some time off, the bench
has got to come in basent things. Because I've seen
you exactly right take him out five seconds later back
in there, you know, so, so the bench has got
to give you a reason to play him. And you know,
at least against Yukon, your bench showed up in a
(17:22):
big way. Dante Maddick, Yes.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Well, Dante was amazing. You know, he was the player
of the game for us. We always give out a
player of the game and be you know, the analogy
is you look at the football when they give the
football to somebody on their roster who may be impacted
winning on that day in a significant manner. And Dante's
the guy who basically got our game ball. We give
(17:45):
a Golden Necks out for the player of the game
in each game. I don't think we win without him.
He played twenty three minutes. He was five for six
from the floor, three for four from three. I couldn't
believe he missed free throws. He was one for three.
He's a great free to shooter, had three assistants, zero turnovers,
had a couple of great passes in the game, and
(18:06):
really just came off the bench, like you mentioned Byron,
and was a valuable player for us. And look when
that's happened, and he's done it in numerous games, that's
when our team's level of play seems to be at
the highest, because we get the spark off the bench.
Second part, somebody's resting while he's in, we're fresher, And
(18:29):
I just think they were an overall more difficult team
to defend. I also thought Jerome Hunter in the twelve
and a half minutes that he played, and again he
couldn't play more than.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
Twelve and a half because he fouled out. But he
did score twelve points in twelve minutes.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
He scored, and he scored every way. Coach, he made threes. Yep,
he ducked in really hard. Yeah, offensive rebound.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Like Dante had a huge part in the outcome of
the game. And it was great to see because look,
in both of their cases, they didn't feel well, very
well about how things went for them individually. At Saint John's.
I clearly made sure that they knew that. I didn't
think that they did a good job against Saint John's.
And look, when it happens, it could go sometimes it
(19:15):
can go different ways. But their response, I think is
exactly what you want. I think you learn and grow
from those types of experiences. And my bigger hope is
that moving forward, as these guys have experienced success against
a team like Yukon in that environment, that they can
then be the same and do it again and again.
Because you know, we don't have an iron five where
(19:39):
we're gonna win games just.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
With our starting group.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
We need players who come in off the bench, you
don't start to help us in a variety of ways
and The three guys that were electing to play in
that role right now are Dante Maddox, Jerome Hunter and
John Huglely, and each of them can come in and
really help the cause. You know, John Hugly against Creighton.
We all know Ryan Kulkrenner, who was in his fifty
(20:02):
year it feels like he's been there even longer. You know,
he has such a big presence on both defense and
offense that it's helpful when you're not dependent on only
one player matching up against him for the entire game.
Where a guy like Zach Freemantle can do his best,
Jerome Hunter can do his best, and then you can
throw in a big body like John Yuglei who can
(20:24):
do his best, and you have three of those guys
working together against against him, and I think that gives
you a better chance.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Coach.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
I want to go back to Dante Maddox against Yukon.
The thing that I've never seen him do is he
basically took the ball from dr their point guard. He
was on him and he just kind of smacked the
ball away, took it from and went coast to coast.
That was really really impressive to me and Jerome Jerome
(20:54):
looked like Kennesaw State Jerome. Yeah, where he basically won,
was the best player on the floor in the NCAA tournament.
Kind of saved that game for you so you can
go on and be pitting in the next round.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Yeah, Jerome is at his best when he's really focused
on the task in hand that this is my job,
this is it, this is what is expected of me.
I'm gonna nothing else matters. Is going to go into
it and do it well. And you know why he
doesn't have it all the time, especially where he's at
in his career. You know that that's something that we're
working with him on to be better at. But going
(21:28):
into the Yukon game, you know, I think he had
a chip on his shoulder coming out of the last
game to prove that he was going to impact the
game in a positive way, and his way of doing it.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Was really selfless.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
I'm gonna be great on defense, I'm gonna rebound on
both ends. I'm going to be physical, and whatever happens scoring,
I'll take it. But that's not my job, Like, that's
not why I'm going out there. I'm going out there
to do these other things and a lot of times.
When he's done that, he also scores twelve points. You
know they used to teach you a long time ago
as the big man Joe. Right, if you set good screens,
(22:03):
the ball has a unique way of finding you for
a basket.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Right.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
That's our way of encouraging guys like you to screen right.
For guys, it's the carrot because it's always three times.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
In a round.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I want to I want to flare out in the
corner and do something.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
If we can get you to set an unselfish screen
to help guys like Byron and I and once in
a while you get the ball and you know that
that's the carrot for the guy.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
You know, that's that's it.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
And guards, I think we need to take a break.
We drop the pass right drop, We're taking a break.
You're listening to the Sean Miller Coaches Show from Billy Bist,
Joe and merrymant On fifty five k r C and
the Varsity Dead Work. Welcome back to the Sean Miller
Show from Billy Bist, Drill and Mary Mint Knew.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
This season Behind the Mic presented by Deer Park Roofing,
allows fans to watch every Sean Miller Coaches Show live
from Billy Bistro. Check out the Men's Basketball Facebook page
to receive notifications on upcoming shows, and check out the
shows you may have missed.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
All right, we have a phone call. It's Joe. Joe.
Thanks for calling again. We've missed you, Joe. Yeah, thanks
for calling, Joe.
Speaker 6 (23:16):
And you're welcome. I want to good Dad, lead you
on your victory over Duconnor. With the battle on Dort today.
Me and my wife are underwhether we couldn't make the game,
but my daughter did and her husband. Uh. One, I
wish your good luck against Crayton, and I want to
ask you two quick questions about the new guys are
coming in next year. The two high school players tell
us something about both of them. And by Daylan is
(23:38):
he working on his gym shot? Is all he needed
to be is a little bit above every sumpshooter may
be an All American?
Speaker 4 (23:45):
Yeah, yeah, you know, well, thanks for calling in, Joe.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Dylan is working on it, and uh, you know, like
a lot of things, you know, you see incremental growth.
One of the things that I'll point out about him
as a shooter is he's shooting right now, right below
ninety percent from the free throw line on a lot
of attempts. You know, part of why he's scored in
double figures here recently is when he gets fouled, and
he's getting fouled more as he's more aggressive, he's going
(24:12):
to the line and making two. So you know, it's
always a good sign when somebody is a very good
free throw shooter. He was solid last year from the line.
He's really good from the free throw line right now,
and I think that's a sign of things to come.
He shoots threes religiously daily as a routine. In practice.
He's taking in competitive segments open threes, and you know,
(24:33):
it's just a matter of him starting to do that
even more in games. We want him to do that.
I've talked to him about doing it, and clearly that
becomes like the next step for his growth. But you know,
I don't know if there's anybody that's improving more game
in and game out, maybe in the country than what
Dalen is doing here. From about Christmas towards here the
(24:54):
beginning of February, it's been a lot of fun to watch.
He deserves a ton of credit, and all of his
hard work and talent are starting to show up in
really big moments in every one of our big games.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Coach, he go ahead, Jillivan of the question.
Speaker 6 (25:11):
Two guys come in, Yeah, freshman next year.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
Guys, yep.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
So Nick who's a combo guard from Gonzaga High School.
If you follow Gonzaga High School, really good sports, both
on the basketball and football side. Kayleb Williams, the quarterback
for the Chicago Bears, played at Gonzaga High School. The
young man who hit the game winning shot from Villanova
(25:38):
in the National championship game. Chris Jenkins went to Gonzaga.
A lot of good players, Nate Britt who played at
North Carolina and so very very well coached high school player,
very good student. Thing that I love about him is
he's got a physical, strong body. As an incoming freshman,
he's not thin. I think he could play either guards
(25:59):
by with them without the ball. Defensively, I think he's
more along the lines of really what we're building here,
and that is these sturdy, tough minded defenders who can
guard a variety of players that fit our scheme and
our style and fit the conference that we're in. So
he's gonna come to us battle tested, you know, Jayden,
(26:20):
like Nick he plays at a prep school away from
his home, but very competitive more on a national schedule.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
And the thing that Jayden.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Can really do is he can really shoot the three
point shot. He has the ability to shoot it off,
to catch off the dribble off of screens played this
summer on the Nike circuit eyb L and if you
look it up on the eybl who is.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
The best three point shooter?
Speaker 3 (26:46):
The best three point shooters, makes percentage, et cetera, He'll
be right up there, near near or.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
Even maybe at the top.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
So with him, I think that his development, physically, his development, dribbling, passing,
all those things are are working behind his shot. But
if you can really shoot the ball at the very
elite level, you have a funny way of being able
to contribute early and I think that's a special skill
to build from. The Other thing about him is, you know,
(27:15):
Nick's about six to two, Jaden's he's about six four
maybe six ' five, so he's got good size as well.
Both great, great kids from families and great schools, been
well coached, played on the competitive circuit both in the
summer and with their high school, and we're really excited
about both of those guys.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
All right, Joe, thanks for the phone call. We appreciate it.
When you talked about Dylan Swain, he has the ability
out from the top of the key and to dribble
a load to the floor. But he can fake right
and go left, or go left and fake left and
go right. For his size, to me that that's in
a unique talent. But once he gets you going backwards,
there also has the ability to stop and spring up.
(27:55):
I don't know how you would stop that. Well. He
can shoot from ten feet, eight feet, six feet whatever,
basically whatever he desires at that point once he gets
a defender backpedaling, which he seems to be doing more
and more.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
The other thing he's doing well, Joe, is he really
is passing.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
The ball well at four as system.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
You know, he's tall, and you know he can see
over the defense and sometimes you know you think something's open,
but the size of the players doesn't allow. It's like
the quarterback, right, like the smaller quarterback and see, I
think guys are open. They just they can't see over
the line and they just can't be as clearly seeing
the field maybe because of their limited size. Dylan's like that,
(28:33):
you know, he's that six foot eight guy that he
can see over you. So you know, we're constantly looking
for ways to put the ball in his hands a
little bit more every game where he can both make
the decision to pass or shoot and be a playmaker,
and he's certainly ready for that.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Were you surprised he played Parmie Byron in that ballgame
when he went down with the ankle sprain the way
the initial reaction, I thought maybe we lost him for
a week or two. Of course you don't know. And
how tough was it for him to shoot up for
that game? I know we wanted to play. Was he
one hundred percent he will? He wasn't one hundred percent.
I could have seen it either way. A lot of guys,
(29:10):
a lot of kids, they would choose to sit out,
sit out practice, sit out the game and look at
for example, I'll be better and have a better chance
individually to be more sure of myself against Creighton. You know, Dalen,
he didn't want to sit out and he didn't miss anything.
We sat him out in practice, but even today, you
know he was a full participant in practice. He's worked
(29:31):
tirelessly with Connor Barnes, our trainer, and again I think
it says a lot about Dylan as a teammate, as
a player, how much cares about winning.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
To to do what he did and go out there
and play and then play as well as he did.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
This is a Sean Miller Coaches Show from Dylly Bistro,
Marrimont on fifty five KARC and the Varsity Network. Welcome
back to the Sean Miller Coaches Show where Dyl Beastro
and Marrymout and Bud like proud sponsor your athletics. Easy
to drink, it, easy to enjoy, Sean.
Speaker 5 (30:06):
We talked about a number of players and this was
not my comment, but one of the somebody in the
stands boiled me to the side and talked about Ryan
Comwell and his development as as a player relative to
making good decisions. Now you know he's your second leading
(30:26):
scorer on the year at sixteen points a game. He's
a great, prolific three point shooter. But against Yukon, he
had it just was in his night. They did a
great job against him. But instead of trying to shoot
himself into it and maybe taking some ill avised shots,
he only took six shots and he and for him
(30:49):
to like show that growth and to do other things
out there when a SHOT's not going to be you know,
a good teammate to continue to not tie his offensive
show to his defensive effort or his ability to share
the ball is big. And I'm not saying that's that's
I think he's always been that way, but I think
it showed a lot of growth that he did that.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
He was no doubt Byron, and you know, Ryan is
continuing to become You talked about our defense. You know
it's the players on the court that are improving, doing better,
making it happen. And he's a big, big part of
this as well. Defensively, he's in the right place, he's
drawing tough assignments, he's switching, he's talking more and knows
(31:37):
where to be how to do it. He's more physical,
he's rebounding the ball better for a guard. All those
things are things that are really helping our team be
a better team. And you know, when you can do
that even when your offense doesn't work, that says everything
you need to know about how a guy's wired. And
Ryan is the consummate teammate. He's a great competitor, cares
a lot about his own performance in a good way.
(31:59):
Puts a lot of time and effort into being a
great offensive player and shooter. But you're right, you have
to tip your hat sometimes to the defender or the
defense or the scheme. Thought Yukon did a really good
job of trying to take him out of the game,
and with that they opened up some other things that
we took advantage of. But he's done that, and he
(32:20):
did a good job of being a really good defensive
player and playing it all the way to the final
buzzer against Yukon. But the game against Villanova is also
telling too, where he didn't have a good half, he
wasn't shooting the ball well, and he really think about
what he did in the second half, and in particular
near the end of that game, where you could put
that behind you and then be the best player on
(32:40):
the floor. Scoring twenty eight points in one half, right
a lion's share of those twenty eight points in the
final minutes, and doing it in a close, one possession
game in which your team needed every point to win it.
So you know, he's shown us those things. Like Davion McKnight,
I would say the same thing about Ryan. He's the
(33:00):
same every day. His demeanor doesn't change a whole lot.
Works at the game, cares about it, really wants to win,
and he's certainly having an excellent season.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Got you had a situation in the ballgame. We're seventeen
seconds on the shock lock, your team was midway through
an offensive set. I believe there were maybe two and
a half minutes left in the ball game. You were
down to one time out, and you elected to call
that during at that moment. You know, right away you think, well,
maybe the coach wants to save it for emergency later on,
but I guess you felt that was critical at that
(33:31):
point to call that time out. Give us your thought
process behind that, what you discussed at that point.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Yeah, you know, just with with how many close games
we've been in, and especially coming off of the Saint
John's game, anything that I think I could do to
get the guys closer to the end is something that
I was going to do going into our Yukon game.
Called a really early timeout I think, you know, in
the maybe the first half on a made field goal,
(33:56):
just to get our defense back on track one time,
use the timeout just to get our guys rest. Just
looking at him, it seemed like the game was fast,
and maybe we just needed to be able to take
the time out, clear our minds and go back out there.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
But in that.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Particular time out, you know, look, here's the thing about
these timeouts. You could save them, but sometimes that emergency
you're saving them for never comes, and what instead comes
is I come from behind situation that maybe you created
by saving the timeout. So just trying to make sure
we got a good shot talking things out, making sure
(34:32):
that we were clear in what we were doing. And
I don't even remember what happened when we came back
on the court, but that that that weighed into my
decision to use them all versus saving that one. Sometimes
it isn't as applicable as you might have thought it.
Speaker 5 (34:47):
It was going to be coach. We talked about a
lot of people. We haven't said anything about Zach Fremantle yet.
Who's every game he's played for you this year he
scored in double figures. Yeah, so he's been consisted of
a statement and it's yeah, I mean yeah. One of
the things that you know, when I was playing, I
wanted to be reliable. I wanted it to be consistent
(35:08):
and knowing what the coach was going to get out
of me every game. And it looks like he's consistent
and he's your leading rebound er, second leading scorer. But
his consistency, his defense is better this year.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
Defense is better.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
He's more, he concentrates, he's more alert, he's more hard playing,
he's in the right position.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
You know.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
It just he understands the value of being a good
defensive player more now later in his career than he
ever would have as a younger player, which is typical
as guys developed. But the one thing about Zach is,
you know, I watch him every day and we have
a number of guys who love the game on our team.
I've talked about this as far back as the fall.
Like you know, when guys love to be in the
(35:49):
gym and work. Duante Maddox is like that, Ryan Conwell
is like that. You know, Zach Fremantle is like that.
I mean, he loves to be in the gym and
he's constantly working on his shot in his game. And
you know, before practice, after practice sometimes we actually have
to calm him down and say, no, you know, you're
not gonna work out before practice today. We're gonna we're
(36:10):
gonna you know, wait, we need, We need you to
be fresh. But he's due for a big night from
three he is.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
We want him to shoot threes.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
He's missed a couple open ones, and it can't become
a source of frustration for him because taking open threes
for him makes our team better. And he's due. He
is due for a big night and it's gonna come.
Let's hope it comes on Wednesday. But I want him
to shoot him. He's taking good open threes and it's
a matter of time before I believe his percentage is
(36:38):
gonna even out. And so that's the one thing that
I think if you talk to him, he would say,
I was just knocking down my three, like I believe
I'm capable of, I would really be playing well. You
look at that he had fifteen points. He could add
twenty one points on two shots, and I thought he
had three or four great looks that didn't go down.
But we're gonna stick with him in that one area
(37:00):
because I think, again, if we're playing to win and
be the best team we can be, we're gonna need
him to take and make some open threes, and he's
more than capable of doing it.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
You listen to the Seawan Miller Coaches Show from Dentley B.
Streeler Marrymunt on fifty five KARC and the Varsity Network.
I'm back to Dentley B. Strowl, Merriymount and the Sean
Miller Coaches Show.
Speaker 5 (37:22):
Coach another tough game on the road at Creighton on
Wednesday night. What do you expect out of them?
Speaker 3 (37:29):
You know, it always starts with Kulkbrenner, the big center,
who does such an amazing job of anchoring their defense.
And you know they foul the least amount of any
team in the league. You know, he just block shots,
He just camps in the lane and just makes the
game different than virtually any other game you play. On offense,
they take more three point shots than every team in
(37:53):
America except nine. So they're the tenth most three point
attempts per game in college basketball. They're number one in
our league. So when you think about how many threes
Villanova and Marquette and even Yukon take, Creighton takes more.
Almost fifty percent of their field goal attempts are from
three four of their players. If just look at their
(38:17):
shot profile, they basically eighty percent of their shot attempts
come from the three point line.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
So being able to.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Defend the three point shot, how many they make, what
percentage they make? You talk about our defense buyer, and
we're also number one in the Big East right now
in our three point defense. It's a great stat to
have on your side.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
We have to keep that.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
But our ability to defend the three and then on offense,
really just attacking with intelligence, their defensive scheme with Karl Brenner.
Those are the two things I will tell you. To
win the game, we have to have a single digit
night in turnovers. They don't force turnovers. We're gonna need
to really take great care of the ball.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Thank you for joining us for the Sean Miller Show
from Billy Bus Drollingberry about fifty five K and the
Varsity Network.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Live from the Dilly Bistro in Merrimont. This has been
the Sean Miller Radio show on the Xavier Sports Network
from Learfield. Presented by Try Health. Try Health provides surprisingly
human care that drives the best health outcomes. Be seen,
be heard, be healed. Visit tryhealth dot com, bud Light,
(39:29):
easy to drink, easy to enjoy and buy. Dilly Bistro
presenting sponsor of the Sean Miller radio show. The preceding
has been a Learfield presentation on the Xavier Sports Network.
Live from the Dilly Bistro in Marymont. Welcome to the
Sean Miller Radio Show on the Xavier Sports Network from
lear Field, presented by Try Help. Try Health provides surprisingly
human care that drives the best health outcomes. Be seen,
be heard, be healed. Visit trhealth dot com. But late,
(00:22):
easy to drink, Easy to enjoy, and by Dilly Bistro,
presenting sponsor of the Sean Miller Radio Show. Now Here
are Joe Sunderman and Byron Larkin.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Welcome to the Sean Miller Show. Thanks everybody for joining
us here live at Joey Bistro, another pack house. I'm
Joe Sundering along with Byral Larkin and the head coach
of the Xavier Musketeers, Sean Miller. Xavier's now won for
the last five games all the Big East, and on Saturday,
in a spectacular environment, Xavier knocked off the nineteenth ranked
Yukon Husky's final score Zacre seventy six, Yukon seventy two,
(01:00):
and Sean, my question is about that night. It was
a wonderful night of basketball sent us. What stands out
the most of you about that night?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Well, a lot of things, Joe, I think The biggest
thing that stood out is just our crowd.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
It was just electric.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
You know, it always starts with his students, and I
think that's the case in every arena. Our students have
been just awesome really the last three years since I've
come back. I don't know if they've had a bad night,
they show up in full force. And the other night,
you know, I thought they were the heartbeat of the arena,
and then everybody else that was in there just joined in.
(01:35):
And what it made for is an incredibly spectacular environment
for us, but an equally difficult environment for the visiting team.
Yukon clearly got our best crowd and best shot, and
that's part of being in the Big East. As you
guys know, because we traveled together. You know we're going
to go to Creyton on Wednesday, and you already know
what to expect. An amazing student section with eighteen thousand.
(01:58):
We had that against Market on an amazing weekend where
they honored one of their former teams, and it just
felt like every seat in that Milwaukee Bucks arena was
filled and with somebody wearing gold, and even in Madison
Square Garden, which can be hit or missed sometimes in
New York City. You know, their crowd was a big
part of that comeback that we went up against. The
(02:21):
place just got you know, maddening, and that's what makes
our conference so great. But for us to have that
home court every game, it has an amazing meaning. And
the other night, our crowd really was a big factor
and why we played and how we got to the
finish line winning against the team that doesn't lose often.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
Coach, when you talk about the crowd, where do you
see that in your team? Like the where do that?
Do you see that more on the defensive end, offensive end?
When you when you're playing in the centa Center and
they're really hyped up and there's a lot of energy
in the building, is there a certain part of your
game that you see that it's a little bit more
elevated and when the crowd maybe is not as loud,
(03:02):
you know where.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
You really feel it, Byron is a lot of times
when things aren't going well, you know, you have a
couple of turnovers or they make a run and you
just you know, the building stays with you. You know
where it encourages you, and you know the crowd kind
of like stands and roars to to just get some
wind back in your sale. It's not always when you're
(03:23):
on a run and the place is going crazy and
the other coach has to call time out. Yeah, that's
part of it too. But the other part, when you
have a crowd like we had the other night, you know,
it's hard. It's difficult when things aren't going well to
just let it happen. I mean, you just you fight
to get it back. The crowd helps you fight to
get it back. And I think that's the best home crowds,
(03:44):
and we have one of the best home crowds in
the country. How the crowd was the other night, would
it would be how I would have remembered Centas when
I was gone for a long time and you think back,
what was it like playing in the Santas Center, I'd
say it was amazing, And it was very difficult for
every coach and every opposition that came in. You know,
(04:05):
they felt that they're playing against the team and they're
playing against an incredible crowd. A long time ago at
Cincinnati Gardens Byron and you guys know this Schmidfield House,
it was always the same. You've had Xavier tonight and
you're like, got it playing against a really good team.
These guys played together, and hard coaches over there, coaching
and his crowd is just it's tough.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
It's all of that.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
I think that goes into having just a great college
basketball program. And you know, the other night in the
sentas against Yukon, whether you were on television watching it,
you know your opinion.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Was, Man, that place is crazy.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
If you were in the game as a student, as
a fan, as a player, our players, Wow, that was amazing.
And I think that's what makes our program such a
special place to play at. And there's an element of
recruiting that happens. You know, there's an element that the
players in our program, you know, they know they're at
a special place. And and you know, I think the
(05:04):
standard is set across the board when your home court
feels like it felt the other night against Yukon. And look,
we don't have ten more home games left. We have
I think five, and to have a version of that
and then these next five and to try to win
every one of them would be very meaningful towards what
we're all trying to accomplish.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
The coach It happened early because an hour and a
half before the game. I was. I was doing an
interview with the Yukon guys and we started to record
at the same time they started to let the student
section in and we had to stop the recording because
some of the things they were saying and some of
(05:45):
the energy, it was like, yo, we gotta stop, we
gotta wait to make But they were so energized, and
I mean they came in screaming, like they just knocked
the doors in and just came in and just kept
that energy. Yep, the entire time. I understand that they
were out there a couple hours before, right.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Many hours before. Yeah, yeah, they were out prepp and
they were getting ready. So by the time they opened
the doors up, they were ready.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
Yeah, the pipe frothed up and ready to go.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
You know, on the other side of the coin, you
go to Marquette, that place is that capacity, it's eighteen
thousand plus and there it can be a wild group
too if you let them go. But that game's Avercy
sees the lead early in that ballgame, and I actually
mentioned the byron during the time out that the broadcast
actually sounded different to me because the building was so
quiet or used to kind of that background noise it
(06:34):
was very very quiet.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
You know, in that game, we never trailed. We led
two nothing or three nothing, whatever it started out as,
and we led wire to wire. And I think that's
one of the optimistic parts about following our team right now,
that if you really track us and we're playing right
now what I think is the most difficult part of
a big East schedule. And you look at at Marquette
(06:57):
followed by at New York Madison Square Garden Garden playing
Saint John's, we strung together about seventy six consecutive minutes
of play with never trailing, and we weren't able to
hold the lead, and Saint John's made the comeback that
they did and earned a hard fought victory on their court.
(07:17):
But man, you when you can go seventy six minutes,
and then if you really think about the other night,
you know, for most of the game we led there too,
And now you think, well, that's three teams, that's Yukon
at home, that's at Saint John's at Marquette. You know,
you're thinking about who they are, the level of play,
and the level of play we're playing at now for
(07:38):
one hundred and twenty five minutes, and you know to
me that that's the most important part of it, the
level of play that we're at, and we have to
continue that, build on it, figure out how to keep it.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
And even grow it.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
And now you know that really any place or any time,
you have the ability to win regardless because that's the
level of play.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
That you're at.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
And you know, I've I know it, and I know
a lot of people have talked to me about it.
You know, our defenses is continuing to develop. We're a
more difficult team to score against. We can disrupt easier
deflection steals. We have a lot of guys playing with
the highest level of intensity and energy on that end.
And now you know you don't have to outscore the
(08:22):
other team. You can win with your defense and your offense.
And that's really what all of us are after when
you try to build a team and you start to
talk about building a program or a culture, you want
that defensive side of the ball to have a standard
as well. And it's really taken us some time to
get there. But from this point forward, and we have
to keep it, we have the ability to play some
(08:44):
really good defense. Look, Yukon is one of the most
difficult challenges to guard in the country. They've been that
way the last couple of years. Their offense is no
different than it would have been a year ago or
even two years ago. Their defense is a little bit
different than the last couple of years, but not their offense.
When we go to Creighton, they're one of the most
(09:05):
difficult teams to defend in the country. And so you
know the teams were playing against right now. You know
they may get seventy two points, but they're among the
nation's best at what they're doing. And again, that's the
conference we're in.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Got you mentioned one hundred and twenty five minutes the
last three games. I believe you led one hundred and
two of those minutes, which you've talked about. You played,
as you indicated, some of your very best basketball of
the year. You also indicated after the Yukon game the
game was one. But at the same time, you want
to play better than the last two or three minutes
of the game. How do you achieve that we made.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Better plays at the end, you know, to seal the win.
I mean, look, the obvious one is Marcus Foster going
to the line winning by two points, and you know
he didn't make one to put us up three. He
made two to put us up four, which inevitably sealed
the game. But that's something that there are times we
haven't done that. You know, we had a couple big
offensive rebounds, you know, Dylan had one, Marcus had one
(10:04):
that kept the ball alive, kept the possession alive, ran
more clock on one of the two. We actually scored
on an underneath out of bounds play that followed that
offensive rebound, and then look, we got consecutive stops to
win it. I mean, you know, it's not like they
were open and missed the layup or you know, we
broke down, we made them miss. We really did a
(10:24):
good job defending them on those last several plays without fouling,
so I thought we were better. We still had a
couple of plays there, Joe that you just you know,
you'd say, oh my god, here we go again. And
we had kind of an ill advised turnover.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
We gave up a.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Second shot with like one second on the clock where
their point guard put it back in at the end.
And again we went over that today. And all we
can do is just continue to strive to be better,
address it, and if we can be a better finishing team.
That's going to make the month of February and moving
forward a lot smoother for us. Just be the same
team as you are throughout the game at the end,
(11:02):
and that's obviously plagued us at times this year.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Coach, I know you you talk about your defense being better.
The last four opponents you've held underneath their scoring average,
And why do you think that is? It's and I
know teams come together. Different teams come together at different
times for different reasons, but it seems like the better
teams obviously come together a little faster. And I think
(11:27):
it's more of a challenge now with the transfer portal.
You got one year guys who really don't know the culture,
or the expectations, or or really how you want them
to play defensively. So what do you think has made
them turn the corner defensively or just playing at a
(11:48):
better level of defensively.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yeah, I don't think it happened overnight, you know, like
a particular moment changed things. I do think our Saint
John's home game was a low moment for us, and
I think we came out of that game with the
fork in the road of you know, hey, we either
are going to fix this work to be better in
these areas, or we're going to go the other way.
And clearly I think from that game moving forward we've
(12:13):
been better. But overall, it just takes time. There's a
lot of different faces coming from different different programs that
are on not only our team Byron, but all teams.
And every time you play a game each month that
goes by, I think you get more accustomed to the standard,
the way of doing things. And then the other part
of it is you could talk about playing in the
Big East, but until you actually go through several games,
(12:36):
you just don't know. And I think we fell victim
of that as well, where we don't have a lot
of guys that have played in the East, and once
we got a few games under our belt, I think
everybody took a deep breath and said, I now know
what to expect more as well. But I'll also tell
you this, Dalen Swain, just as an individual player, has
impacted our defense in a significant way. And he's our
(12:59):
youngest player. And again the more experience he gets, the
better he gets. But his ability to guard a variety
of players and get deflections and block shots and do
things in a correct manner on defense and play at
a higher level of intensity. You know, I think that
it can become contagious, and I think just his own
individual defense has continued to evolve, and I would say
(13:23):
right now he's at a level where he's one of
our conference's best defensive players, and I think he individually
has really impacted.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Us as well.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
You're listening to the Sean Miller Coaches Show from Billy
Bistrow and Marymont on fifty five KRC and the Varsity Network.
Welcome back to the Sean Miller Show from Billy Bistro
and Marry.
Speaker 5 (13:43):
Matt Xavier fans. For a limited time, you can take
advantage of the Men's Basketball Flash Sell. That's a purchase
of a twenty dollars upper level ticket with no additional
fees for upcoming games against Georgetown on February fourth, Butler
February eighteenth, and Evidence on March the eighth. Remember the
sale is only for a limited time and tickets can
(14:05):
be purchased at goldsavery dot com.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Terry John's Happy birthday today. Appreciate you being here here
every week, so happy birthday, celebrating that's beg for us
to be here on that day like that, so we
appreciate it. Coach Davion McKnight played for college basketball for
five years now, five straight years. He's had one hundred
or more assist in every one of those season. That
to me is an amazing accomplishment. And what consistency.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Yeah, you know, Davion is really a remarkable young person.
I don't think I've ever been around anybody that is
more consistent with who.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
They are every day than him.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
You know, whether we lose, we win, he plays really well,
doesn't play well at all. You see him, he's there
and he goes through his routine. He practices very hard.
He does what you ask him to do as well
as any player that I have ever been around or coached,
you know, and.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
His consistency wins out.
Speaker 6 (15:03):
You know.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
One of the things that we're looking at with him
this year, especially because of the way our schedule has unfolded,
where we've played against these pressure teams Saint John's twice,
U Gone twice, Marquette twice, and he's playing, you know,
heavy minutes, leading our team in minutes almost thirty seven
minutes a game. And I think we're at a point
now where we're starting to recognize that that's too much.
(15:27):
You know, not that he's playing for his his performance,
but to bring out the best in him and allow
him to be the best he can be from this
point all the way to the end. You know, the
thirty seven becoming more towards thirty four or thirty two.
And that might not seem like a lot to people
if you say thirty six thirty seven to thirty two.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
But it really is.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
You know, you in real time during a game, how
long that is. It's longer than the minutes, and getting
him a chance to just take a deep breath, getting
him out when he's winded. I think it will allow
him finish game stronger. I think it won't be as
much wear and tear from one game to the next.
And that's something that we're talking to him about. I
thought we started to see it a little bit at
(16:10):
Saint John's, where man, it's just there pressing and we're
asking him to push the ball, break the press, play defense.
It's playing an even higher level defensively than he ever
has before. We move a lot on offense, and you're
doing a day in, day out, game in game out.
Now we're in February, the last thing I want to
see is him not having a chance to be at
his best moving forward. So how do you do that.
(16:34):
You have to trust your bench more. You have to
get quality play when you get those guys in. But
I think we're at a point where, you know, for
us to truly play, to win, to be the best
that we can be, we have to push that button
right there and give those guys a little bit more opportunity,
give him a little bit more rest, play without him
for a segment of the game so that when he's
(16:55):
in there, and I think he can be even more effective,
especially towards.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
The end of the game.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
Coach, you talked about trusting your bench more, but in
order for him to get some time off, the bench
has got to come in basent things. Because I've seen
you exactly right take him out five seconds later back
in there, you know, so, so the bench has got
to give you a reason to play him. And you know,
at least against Yukon, your bench showed up in a
(17:22):
big way. Dante Maddick, Yes.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Well, Dante was amazing. You know, he was the player
of the game for us. We always give out a
player of the game and be you know, the analogy
is you look at the football when they give the
football to somebody on their roster who may be impacted
winning on that day in a significant manner. And Dante's
the guy who basically got our game ball. We give
(17:45):
a Golden Necks out for the player of the game
in each game. I don't think we win without him.
He played twenty three minutes. He was five for six
from the floor, three for four from three. I couldn't
believe he missed free throws. He was one for three.
He's a great free to shooter, had three assistants, zero turnovers,
had a couple of great passes in the game, and
(18:06):
really just came off the bench, like you mentioned Byron,
and was a valuable player for us. And look when
that's happened, and he's done it in numerous games, that's
when our team's level of play seems to be at
the highest, because we get the spark off the bench.
Second part, somebody's resting while he's in, we're fresher, And
(18:29):
I just think they were an overall more difficult team
to defend. I also thought Jerome Hunter in the twelve
and a half minutes that he played, and again he
couldn't play more than.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
Twelve and a half because he fouled out. But he
did score twelve points in twelve minutes.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
He scored, and he scored every way. Coach, he made threes. Yep,
he ducked in really hard. Yeah, offensive rebound.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Like Dante had a huge part in the outcome of
the game. And it was great to see because look,
in both of their cases, they didn't feel well, very
well about how things went for them individually. At Saint John's.
I clearly made sure that they knew that. I didn't
think that they did a good job against Saint John's.
And look, when it happens, it could go sometimes it
(19:15):
can go different ways. But their response, I think is
exactly what you want. I think you learn and grow
from those types of experiences. And my bigger hope is
that moving forward, as these guys have experienced success against
a team like Yukon in that environment, that they can
then be the same and do it again and again.
Because you know, we don't have an iron five where
(19:39):
we're gonna win games just.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
With our starting group.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
We need players who come in off the bench, you
don't start to help us in a variety of ways
and The three guys that were electing to play in
that role right now are Dante Maddox, Jerome Hunter and
John Huglely, and each of them can come in and
really help the cause. You know, John Hugly against Creighton.
We all know Ryan Kulkrenner, who was in his fifty
(20:02):
year it feels like he's been there even longer. You know,
he has such a big presence on both defense and
offense that it's helpful when you're not dependent on only
one player matching up against him for the entire game.
Where a guy like Zach Freemantle can do his best,
Jerome Hunter can do his best, and then you can
throw in a big body like John Yuglei who can
(20:24):
do his best, and you have three of those guys
working together against against him, and I think that gives
you a better chance.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Coach.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
I want to go back to Dante Maddox against Yukon.
The thing that I've never seen him do is he
basically took the ball from dr their point guard. He
was on him and he just kind of smacked the
ball away, took it from and went coast to coast.
That was really really impressive to me and Jerome Jerome
(20:54):
looked like Kennesaw State Jerome. Yeah, where he basically won,
was the best player on the floor in the NCAA tournament.
Kind of saved that game for you so you can
go on and be pitting in the next round.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Yeah, Jerome is at his best when he's really focused
on the task in hand that this is my job,
this is it, this is what is expected of me.
I'm gonna nothing else matters. Is going to go into
it and do it well. And you know why he
doesn't have it all the time, especially where he's at
in his career. You know that that's something that we're
working with him on to be better at. But going
(21:28):
into the Yukon game, you know, I think he had
a chip on his shoulder coming out of the last
game to prove that he was going to impact the
game in a positive way, and his way of doing it.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Was really selfless.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
I'm gonna be great on defense, I'm gonna rebound on
both ends. I'm going to be physical, and whatever happens scoring,
I'll take it. But that's not my job, Like, that's
not why I'm going out there. I'm going out there
to do these other things and a lot of times.
When he's done that, he also scores twelve points. You
know they used to teach you a long time ago
as the big man Joe. Right, if you set good screens,
(22:03):
the ball has a unique way of finding you for
a basket.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Right.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
That's our way of encouraging guys like you to screen right.
For guys, it's the carrot because it's always three times.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
In a round.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I want to I want to flare out in the
corner and do something.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
If we can get you to set an unselfish screen
to help guys like Byron and I and once in
a while you get the ball and you know that
that's the carrot for the guy.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
You know, that's that's it.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
And guards, I think we need to take a break.
We drop the pass right drop, We're taking a break.
You're listening to the Sean Miller Coaches Show from Billy Bist,
Joe and merrymant On fifty five k r C and
the Varsity Dead Work. Welcome back to the Sean Miller
Show from Billy Bist, Drill and Mary Mint Knew.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
This season Behind the Mic presented by Deer Park Roofing,
allows fans to watch every Sean Miller Coaches Show live
from Billy Bistro. Check out the Men's Basketball Facebook page
to receive notifications on upcoming shows, and check out the
shows you may have missed.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
All right, we have a phone call. It's Joe. Joe.
Thanks for calling again. We've missed you, Joe. Yeah, thanks
for calling, Joe.
Speaker 6 (23:16):
And you're welcome. I want to good Dad, lead you
on your victory over Duconnor. With the battle on Dort today.
Me and my wife are underwhether we couldn't make the game,
but my daughter did and her husband. Uh. One, I
wish your good luck against Crayton, and I want to
ask you two quick questions about the new guys are
coming in next year. The two high school players tell
us something about both of them. And by Daylan is
(23:38):
he working on his gym shot? Is all he needed
to be is a little bit above every sumpshooter may
be an All American?
Speaker 4 (23:45):
Yeah, yeah, you know, well, thanks for calling in, Joe.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Dylan is working on it, and uh, you know, like
a lot of things, you know, you see incremental growth.
One of the things that I'll point out about him
as a shooter is he's shooting right now, right below
ninety percent from the free throw line on a lot
of attempts. You know, part of why he's scored in
double figures here recently is when he gets fouled, and
he's getting fouled more as he's more aggressive, he's going
(24:12):
to the line and making two. So you know, it's
always a good sign when somebody is a very good
free throw shooter. He was solid last year from the line.
He's really good from the free throw line right now,
and I think that's a sign of things to come.
He shoots threes religiously daily as a routine. In practice.
He's taking in competitive segments open threes, and you know,
(24:33):
it's just a matter of him starting to do that
even more in games. We want him to do that.
I've talked to him about doing it, and clearly that
becomes like the next step for his growth. But you know,
I don't know if there's anybody that's improving more game
in and game out, maybe in the country than what
Dalen is doing here. From about Christmas towards here the
(24:54):
beginning of February, it's been a lot of fun to watch.
He deserves a ton of credit, and all of his
hard work and talent are starting to show up in
really big moments in every one of our big games.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Coach, he go ahead, Jillivan of the question.
Speaker 6 (25:11):
Two guys come in, Yeah, freshman next year.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
Guys, yep.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
So Nick who's a combo guard from Gonzaga High School.
If you follow Gonzaga High School, really good sports, both
on the basketball and football side. Kayleb Williams, the quarterback
for the Chicago Bears, played at Gonzaga High School. The
young man who hit the game winning shot from Villanova
(25:38):
in the National championship game. Chris Jenkins went to Gonzaga.
A lot of good players, Nate Britt who played at
North Carolina and so very very well coached high school player,
very good student. Thing that I love about him is
he's got a physical, strong body. As an incoming freshman,
he's not thin. I think he could play either guards
(25:59):
by with them without the ball. Defensively, I think he's
more along the lines of really what we're building here,
and that is these sturdy, tough minded defenders who can
guard a variety of players that fit our scheme and
our style and fit the conference that we're in. So
he's gonna come to us battle tested, you know, Jayden,
(26:20):
like Nick he plays at a prep school away from
his home, but very competitive more on a national schedule.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
And the thing that Jayden.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Can really do is he can really shoot the three
point shot. He has the ability to shoot it off,
to catch off the dribble off of screens played this
summer on the Nike circuit eyb L and if you
look it up on the eybl who is.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
The best three point shooter?
Speaker 3 (26:46):
The best three point shooters, makes percentage, et cetera, He'll
be right up there, near near or.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
Even maybe at the top.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
So with him, I think that his development, physically, his development, dribbling, passing,
all those things are are working behind his shot. But
if you can really shoot the ball at the very
elite level, you have a funny way of being able
to contribute early and I think that's a special skill
to build from. The Other thing about him is, you know,
(27:15):
Nick's about six to two, Jaden's he's about six four
maybe six ' five, so he's got good size as well.
Both great, great kids from families and great schools, been
well coached, played on the competitive circuit both in the
summer and with their high school, and we're really excited
about both of those guys.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
All right, Joe, thanks for the phone call. We appreciate it.
When you talked about Dylan Swain, he has the ability
out from the top of the key and to dribble
a load to the floor. But he can fake right
and go left, or go left and fake left and
go right. For his size, to me that that's in
a unique talent. But once he gets you going backwards,
there also has the ability to stop and spring up.
(27:55):
I don't know how you would stop that. Well. He
can shoot from ten feet, eight feet, six feet whatever,
basically whatever he desires at that point once he gets
a defender backpedaling, which he seems to be doing more
and more.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
The other thing he's doing well, Joe, is he really
is passing.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
The ball well at four as system.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
You know, he's tall, and you know he can see
over the defense and sometimes you know you think something's open,
but the size of the players doesn't allow. It's like
the quarterback, right, like the smaller quarterback and see, I
think guys are open. They just they can't see over
the line and they just can't be as clearly seeing
the field maybe because of their limited size. Dylan's like that,
(28:33):
you know, he's that six foot eight guy that he
can see over you. So you know, we're constantly looking
for ways to put the ball in his hands a
little bit more every game where he can both make
the decision to pass or shoot and be a playmaker,
and he's certainly ready for that.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Were you surprised he played Parmie Byron in that ballgame
when he went down with the ankle sprain the way
the initial reaction, I thought maybe we lost him for
a week or two. Of course you don't know. And
how tough was it for him to shoot up for
that game? I know we wanted to play. Was he
one hundred percent he will? He wasn't one hundred percent.
I could have seen it either way. A lot of guys,
(29:10):
a lot of kids, they would choose to sit out,
sit out practice, sit out the game and look at
for example, I'll be better and have a better chance
individually to be more sure of myself against Creighton. You know, Dalen,
he didn't want to sit out and he didn't miss anything.
We sat him out in practice, but even today, you
know he was a full participant in practice. He's worked
(29:31):
tirelessly with Connor Barnes, our trainer, and again I think
it says a lot about Dylan as a teammate, as
a player, how much cares about winning.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
To to do what he did and go out there
and play and then play as well as he did.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
This is a Sean Miller Coaches Show from Dylly Bistro,
Marrimont on fifty five KARC and the Varsity Network. Welcome
back to the Sean Miller Coaches Show where Dyl Beastro
and Marrymout and Bud like proud sponsor your athletics. Easy
to drink, it, easy to enjoy, Sean.
Speaker 5 (30:06):
We talked about a number of players and this was
not my comment, but one of the somebody in the
stands boiled me to the side and talked about Ryan
Comwell and his development as as a player relative to
making good decisions. Now you know he's your second leading
(30:26):
scorer on the year at sixteen points a game. He's
a great, prolific three point shooter. But against Yukon, he
had it just was in his night. They did a
great job against him. But instead of trying to shoot
himself into it and maybe taking some ill avised shots,
he only took six shots and he and for him
(30:49):
to like show that growth and to do other things
out there when a SHOT's not going to be you know,
a good teammate to continue to not tie his offensive
show to his defensive effort or his ability to share
the ball is big. And I'm not saying that's that's
I think he's always been that way, but I think
it showed a lot of growth that he did that.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
He was no doubt Byron, and you know, Ryan is
continuing to become You talked about our defense. You know
it's the players on the court that are improving, doing better,
making it happen. And he's a big, big part of
this as well. Defensively, he's in the right place, he's
drawing tough assignments, he's switching, he's talking more and knows
(31:37):
where to be how to do it. He's more physical,
he's rebounding the ball better for a guard. All those
things are things that are really helping our team be
a better team. And you know, when you can do
that even when your offense doesn't work, that says everything
you need to know about how a guy's wired. And
Ryan is the consummate teammate. He's a great competitor, cares
a lot about his own performance in a good way.
(31:59):
Puts a lot of time and effort into being a
great offensive player and shooter. But you're right, you have
to tip your hat sometimes to the defender or the
defense or the scheme. Thought Yukon did a really good
job of trying to take him out of the game,
and with that they opened up some other things that
we took advantage of. But he's done that, and he
(32:20):
did a good job of being a really good defensive
player and playing it all the way to the final
buzzer against Yukon. But the game against Villanova is also
telling too, where he didn't have a good half, he
wasn't shooting the ball well, and he really think about
what he did in the second half, and in particular
near the end of that game, where you could put
that behind you and then be the best player on
(32:40):
the floor. Scoring twenty eight points in one half, right
a lion's share of those twenty eight points in the
final minutes, and doing it in a close, one possession
game in which your team needed every point to win it.
So you know, he's shown us those things. Like Davion McKnight,
I would say the same thing about Ryan. He's the
(33:00):
same every day. His demeanor doesn't change a whole lot.
Works at the game, cares about it, really wants to win,
and he's certainly having an excellent season.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Got you had a situation in the ballgame. We're seventeen
seconds on the shock lock, your team was midway through
an offensive set. I believe there were maybe two and
a half minutes left in the ball game. You were
down to one time out, and you elected to call
that during at that moment. You know, right away you think, well,
maybe the coach wants to save it for emergency later on,
but I guess you felt that was critical at that
(33:31):
point to call that time out. Give us your thought
process behind that, what you discussed at that point.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Yeah, you know, just with with how many close games
we've been in, and especially coming off of the Saint
John's game, anything that I think I could do to
get the guys closer to the end is something that
I was going to do going into our Yukon game.
Called a really early timeout I think, you know, in
the maybe the first half on a made field goal,
(33:56):
just to get our defense back on track one time,
use the timeout just to get our guys rest. Just
looking at him, it seemed like the game was fast,
and maybe we just needed to be able to take
the time out, clear our minds and go back out there.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
But in that.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Particular time out, you know, look, here's the thing about
these timeouts. You could save them, but sometimes that emergency
you're saving them for never comes, and what instead comes
is I come from behind situation that maybe you created
by saving the timeout. So just trying to make sure
we got a good shot talking things out, making sure
(34:32):
that we were clear in what we were doing. And
I don't even remember what happened when we came back
on the court, but that that that weighed into my
decision to use them all versus saving that one. Sometimes
it isn't as applicable as you might have thought it.
Speaker 5 (34:47):
It was going to be coach. We talked about a
lot of people. We haven't said anything about Zach Fremantle yet.
Who's every game he's played for you this year he
scored in double figures. Yeah, so he's been consisted of
a statement and it's yeah, I mean yeah. One of
the things that you know, when I was playing, I
wanted to be reliable. I wanted it to be consistent
(35:08):
and knowing what the coach was going to get out
of me every game. And it looks like he's consistent
and he's your leading rebound er, second leading scorer. But
his consistency, his defense is better this year.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
Defense is better.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
He's more, he concentrates, he's more alert, he's more hard playing,
he's in the right position.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
You know.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
It just he understands the value of being a good
defensive player more now later in his career than he
ever would have as a younger player, which is typical
as guys developed. But the one thing about Zach is,
you know, I watch him every day and we have
a number of guys who love the game on our team.
I've talked about this as far back as the fall.
Like you know, when guys love to be in the
(35:49):
gym and work. Duante Maddox is like that, Ryan Conwell
is like that. You know, Zach Fremantle is like that.
I mean, he loves to be in the gym and
he's constantly working on his shot in his game. And
you know, before practice, after practice sometimes we actually have
to calm him down and say, no, you know, you're
not gonna work out before practice today. We're gonna we're
(36:10):
gonna you know, wait, we need, We need you to
be fresh. But he's due for a big night from
three he is.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
We want him to shoot threes.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
He's missed a couple open ones, and it can't become
a source of frustration for him because taking open threes
for him makes our team better. And he's due. He
is due for a big night and it's gonna come.
Let's hope it comes on Wednesday. But I want him
to shoot him. He's taking good open threes and it's
a matter of time before I believe his percentage is
(36:38):
gonna even out. And so that's the one thing that
I think if you talk to him, he would say,
I was just knocking down my three, like I believe
I'm capable of, I would really be playing well. You
look at that he had fifteen points. He could add
twenty one points on two shots, and I thought he
had three or four great looks that didn't go down.
But we're gonna stick with him in that one area
(37:00):
because I think, again, if we're playing to win and
be the best team we can be, we're gonna need
him to take and make some open threes, and he's
more than capable of doing it.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
You listen to the Seawan Miller Coaches Show from Dentley B.
Streeler Marrymunt on fifty five KARC and the Varsity Network.
I'm back to Dentley B. Strowl, Merriymount and the Sean
Miller Coaches Show.
Speaker 5 (37:22):
Coach another tough game on the road at Creighton on
Wednesday night. What do you expect out of them?
Speaker 3 (37:29):
You know, it always starts with Kulkbrenner, the big center,
who does such an amazing job of anchoring their defense.
And you know they foul the least amount of any
team in the league. You know, he just block shots,
He just camps in the lane and just makes the
game different than virtually any other game you play. On offense,
they take more three point shots than every team in
(37:53):
America except nine. So they're the tenth most three point
attempts per game in college basketball. They're number one in
our league. So when you think about how many threes
Villanova and Marquette and even Yukon take, Creighton takes more.
Almost fifty percent of their field goal attempts are from
three four of their players. If just look at their
(38:17):
shot profile, they basically eighty percent of their shot attempts
come from the three point line.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
So being able to.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Defend the three point shot, how many they make, what
percentage they make? You talk about our defense buyer, and
we're also number one in the Big East right now
in our three point defense. It's a great stat to
have on your side.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
We have to keep that.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
But our ability to defend the three and then on offense,
really just attacking with intelligence, their defensive scheme with Karl Brenner.
Those are the two things I will tell you. To
win the game, we have to have a single digit
night in turnovers. They don't force turnovers. We're gonna need
to really take great care of the ball.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Thank you for joining us for the Sean Miller Show
from Billy Bus Drollingberry about fifty five K and the
Varsity Network.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Live from the Dilly Bistro in Merrimont. This has been
the Sean Miller Radio show on the Xavier Sports Network
from Learfield. Presented by Try Health. Try Health provides surprisingly
human care that drives the best health outcomes. Be seen,
be heard, be healed. Visit tryhealth dot com, bud Light,
(39:29):
easy to drink, easy to enjoy and buy. Dilly Bistro
presenting sponsor of the Sean Miller radio show. The preceding
has been a Learfield presentation on the Xavier Sports Network.
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