1/29/24 - The Sean Miller Radio Show

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
From lear Field, Live from theDilly Bistro in Marymont. Welcome to the
Sean Miller Radio Show, presented bybud Late, Easy to Drink, Easy
to Enjoy, and by Try Health. Try Health provides surprisingly human care that
drives the best health outcomes. Beseen, be heard, be healed.

(00:22):
Visit tryhealth dot com. Now Hereare Joe Sunderman and Byron Larkin. Welcome
to the Sean Miller Show live fromDilly Pistro and Merrimount. I'm Joe Sunderman
along with Fired Larkin and a headcoach of the Xavier Musketeers, Sean Miller.
Great crowd of the night, workcapacity once again here a dlly.
Thanks everybody for joining us on thisMonday night. Coach, it has to

(00:45):
feel good to be home after acouple games on the road, Xavier dropping
a ballgame to Creyton into Yukon onSunday. Tell us what the schedule was
like today to the players get aday off after that, or you bring
him into your practice. You'll probablywatch some film. I guess right,
yeah, I mean first, Oh, I appreciate everybody showing up here tonight.
I fully expected just kind of anempty building and I would have understood,

(01:07):
certainly if that was the case.But thank you, And yeah,
I wondered if the sun was gonnacome up, still kind of wondering.
I haven't seen it, but we'rehere and I did show up, and
we're on to the next day ingame, which certainly you have to do.
You know, first, let mejust address the Yukon game. I
think it's the first time that youknow, both last year and this year,

(01:30):
that we've been just overwhelmed with thefinal score. And certainly forty three
points is above and beyond overwhelmed,but meaning the game's over, it's a
blowout. And you know, we'veplayed some really good basketball, especially away
from home. You guys have beenthere for every one of them, some
heartbreaking losses. But sometimes you takefor granted. You know that you're you're

(01:52):
right there to have a chance towin the game, and that requires a
high level of play. And yesterday'sgame, you know, I would just
call it like it is, andthat is I think if we played Yukon
ten times at twelve noon, Ithink we would have lost all ten.
I really believe that, and youknow, they overwhelmed us at the onset.

(02:14):
I think with Klingon, and rememberhe didn't play against US last game
and he was hurt working his wayback. He had a week off,
they had a week to prepare,and now him fully back. You know,
it's if it's not the best teamthat I've ever faced, it's certainly
one of them. And you know, sometimes it's easy to look within and

(02:34):
say, God, we're this,or that we were terrible, but you
know, Yukon was really really good. I think they're the number one team
in the country, and we playedagainst them twice last year and I know
we beat him, but they alsowent on to win the national championship.
I just believe they're better. Thatdoesn't mean they're going to win the national
championship. You know, you needgood fortune. But it's a team that

(02:57):
with Clinging, I think there areone seed, but I can make the
argument without them, they might beclose to one seed. In other words,
they can be good with with himand without them. And Byron,
you mentioned it when we were talking. You know, they can really overwhelm
you with their defense, but theyalso can equally overwhelm you with their offense.
And I just don't know if there'stoo many teams you can say that

(03:19):
about, you know, the newnarrative. I hear it every year there's
no dominant team. You know,the hell there isn't. I beg the
different I look at them as acomplete team, and you know, I
think they are really really good.It will see. You know, they
have some games coming up, andcertainly someone may be good enough to beat
them, but I don't think anybody'sgoing to beat them at Yukon. And

(03:42):
I'll make a stretch and tell youthat they're going to enter this year's tournament
as an overall one seed and they'regoing to make another run at winning a
national championship. I just think ifif healthy, based on how that felt,
they're they're going to be a reallydifficult out. You know. The
one player that I can't believe howgood he is is Tristan Newton. You

(04:04):
know, it's unless you're there playingagainst him, you don't really understand how
big he is as a point guard, what he can do defensively. You
know, yesterday he was four forseven from three, and he has not
been shooting the ball as well.Twenty two points. If you look at
their statue, he leads their teamin defensive rebounding by a wide margin,

(04:25):
and he's their point guard. Iwhen you track him a year ago and
what really happened in March, hewas the guy who really rose to a
high level. But he's different versusa lot of other guards. You play
against his size and just what hecan do. And I thought like he
set the tone in yesterday's game,and look, that game is over a

(04:46):
few minutes, and really it reallywas. It was a helpless feeling coach.
So when that was going on andyou're trying to it's just trying to
put the fire out, and youknow, you call time out and you
know, they just kind of pouredon more. I mean, I've never
seen a more dominant like performance onboth ends of the floor. I mean

(05:08):
they made sixteen threes, sixteen seventeenthrees, some like twenty eight assist and
then their defense. I think theMusketeers didn't get double figures and scoring until
about four minutes to go in thefirst half. So that's really playing at
a high level on both ends ofthe floor. And you rarely see that

(05:30):
a team might play super well,super good on one end and maybe not
so good on the other. Butthe other day, it was happening at
the same time. And when that'sgoing on during your time outs, what
are you trying to convey to yourteam to try to get back on top
or to put out the fire,or to establish some momentum. What was

(05:51):
going on in the hut at thattime. Yeah, I mean my thing
is obviously play to the end anddo the best that we can, and
you know, try to win thenext four minutes segment and beat the very
very best all the way to thefinal buzzer. I put yesterday in a
different category. I've really never experiencedthat before. Hope I never do again.
But you know, at that point, it's almost like you just you

(06:12):
don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.Their feelings are already hurt. It's you
know that game is over. There'sreally nothing you can do other than just
try to keep their spirits up,try to keep their energy up. And
then the bigger concern, Byron,is you know where we go from here?
Because in a game like that,you could take a lot of your
good in a lot of the greatmoments and the nineteen games we've played before

(06:33):
that, and then it can bea distant memory and all you're hanging on
is the feeling you just had,which is you know, given to you
by an excellent team playing at theirvery best, like you had mentioned.
And you know, even back along, long time ago when I was
a player in the Big East,you know, the two places that always
stood out for me that were themost difficult places to play was Providence.

(06:58):
They didn't always have the best team, but their home court advantage always felt
the most for me. And thenthe second one would have been Yukon and
back then we only played in theExcel Center, So what experienced yesterday that
building was their home court, andit's just it's a difficult place to play,
especially when they're really, really good, and right now they certainly are.

(07:21):
But you know, Joe, toanswer your question further, part of
what we did with our team issimply this and we'll see how it goes.
You know, the twenty games thatwe've played, we've played ten at
home or we've won ten and we'velost ten, and we've played against America's
number one schedule. I saw itcame out today in the race, and

(07:42):
if you gave me a happy meal, I think that has more value than
the number one schedule. We've played. The meeting nobody cares it is.
It is irrelevant. As a matterof fact, the only relevance of being
the number one most difficult schedule iswho in the God's name is responsible for
that? You know, because theway I would describe it is it's like
swimming in the deep end. Youknow, you start to look for relief.

(08:05):
You know, I'm either got toget to the side of the pool
or the shallow there. There hasto be something. And I think the
other part of our team that weexperienced yesterday because we went from a quick
turnaround from at Creighton Hart fought toughgame loss to noon game against Yukon,
is it's just, you know,a hard schedule can can toughen you and

(08:26):
prepare you well, you know,but at some point, like everything's hard,
you know, everything's difficult. Thefirst four minutes of every game are
difficult. Halftime you're dealing with thesmall margin and you're playing each and every
one of these nineteen contests to thefinal buzzer, and a lot of times
in that last four minute segment it'sbeen it's undecided. You know, it's

(08:46):
just you and there's a toll andan energy. I think that it takes
with us moving forward. Not thatthere's anything easy, including Wednesday night against
Saint John's, but it's so muchmore for our team about where we go
from here. You know, wehave six at home and five on the
road. I believe this that ourseason will come down to who we are

(09:07):
in the next eleven games. We'vewon ten, we've lost ten against America's
tough schedule. We're four and fivein the Big East. If we win
on Wednesday, we're five and fivein the Big East, or we're four
and six. But those next elevengames, these next ten games, the
second half of the Big East,is what we've always pointed towards of giving
ourselves a chance to be the bestwe can be. And I think it's

(09:28):
super important that we don't let yesterdayget in the way of that. And
you know, it's about learning,it's about growing, and it's about being
the best team that we can be. We've done a really good job of
that throughout this stretch and I don'twant what happened yesterday to interfere with what's
way more important, and that ishow good will we be on Wednesday and
then on Saturday and then on Tuesday. Because a lot of things that you

(09:50):
think about are still in our grasp. We just have to kick in and
really be at our best during thesenext eleven games. So I guess it's
kind of like a balance that youhave to kind of play with your team,
like, Hey, we need tolearn from the mistakes of the you
of the last of the games thatwe have not won at that time.
You want to make sure that theyremember all the all the encouraging things that

(10:13):
to maintain their confidence. What kindof personality is this team to coach relative
to that you? What is ita little? Are they a more confident
group or those confidence? Yeah,I mean I would answer the question we're
about ready to find out, butI would tell you that we're a very

(10:35):
compliant group of guys. I thinkthat we don't have great experience, both
together and individually, and because ofthat, you know, I think our
guys are more in search of leadershipthan they are acting as if we have
all the answers or pointing fingers.I think it's more along the lines of
tell us what to do. Youknow, let's what is it we have
to do to get back? Becausethis team and our team this year has

(10:56):
played some really good basketball and hadsome good moments, and I think in
some ways we've been overwhelmed with thecompetition we faced and you know, not
having a couple key parts that wewere counting on. Having said all of
that, these next eleven games,based on who we're playing and where our
team is, we have some reallyI think, great moments in our future,

(11:18):
and it's we can't let yesterday reallyget in the way of that.
And I would just bring this up. If you followed the NFL yesterday and
you're the Baltimore Ravens, you know, not one person who's a Baltimore Ravens
fan cares that Lamar Jackson is theNFL's MVP or that they got to buy
and had home field advantage. Allthey are is just utterly, completely distraught

(11:41):
and in disbelief that they are notin the super Bowl, regardless of the
last six months, how hard itwas think about what a great season they
had, and if you stop theforty nine Ers fans at halftime yesterday when
they were down twenty four to sevenat home, the narrative and the feeling
wasn't about what a great year they'vehad. It was so much about,

(12:01):
like, I can't believe we didn'tget to the super Bowl. You know
Kansas City Chiefs. Boy, theystruggled and they had their time where you
wondered are they even gonna make theplayoffs? Well, the only thing that
matters is they're in the super Bowl. I think with college basketball for us,
you know, you just you can'tget too high, you can't get
too low. And it's easy toget low when you get blown out like

(12:22):
we did. But to play ourbest basketball in these next six weeks will
have great meaning. And that's wehave to really just keep our eyes on
that task as a group, andthat's really been my message. All Right,
This is a Sean Miller's Coaches Showfrom Billy B. Strill, Marinemont
on fifty five KRC and the VarsityNetwork. Welcome back to the Sean Miller

(12:43):
Show from Billy B. S Drilland Marymont Xavior Fans help Cincinnati Cancer Advisors
achieve victory over cancer at the nexthome game at the Centa Center. Just
grab a souvenir cup for a chanceto win great prizes like a a VIP
suite, court side seats or Xaviermerchandise. Coach. As you look forward,

(13:05):
I like to look back a littlebit, and I'm thinking of the
Providence game where Xavier wran Providence literallyout of their own building in the second
half. You beat Seaton Hall bytwenty at the Centi Center. In those
ball games, what did you seeabout your ball club you certainly like to
replicate for the rest of the BigA season. Yeah, you know,
I think the Seaton Hall game andProvidence game we're a little bit different from
each other. But you know,first the Providence game, Joe, you

(13:28):
know, look, when we canget firepower off of our bench, when
when guys who don't start the gamecan enter the game and impact winning.
It doesn't mean that they have toscore a lot of points, but they
contribute, they make plays, andwe've had I think the UC game.
You know, if you add that, one of the things about that game
is we got good effort and contributionfrom those that didn't start makes us deeper.

(13:50):
And I think the longer that thisseason goes, you know, you
feel the importance of that, especiallyin our case because you know, we
don't necessarily have that iron five likewe did a year ago. That they're
all experienced and in their own rightdouble figure type of scores, so we
almost need some punch off the bench. When we haven't had it, we've

(14:13):
struggled more when we have, likeTrade Green's ability in the Providence games come
in and give us that much firepowertakes us to another level. And I
think the second part is, youknow, when we're able to really convert
and transition, when a game getsgoing fast and we're efficient playing our style
of offense, usually see high assists, a lot of different shots going in,

(14:35):
and we've been able to break certaingames open or have those runs in
games that really help us get tothe finish line. So you know,
I think the tempo and the pacecoupled with more contribution from our bench,
And as we point towards Saint John'son Wednesday, that's going to be really
important because they play a deep benchand they pressure and they press and change

(14:58):
their defenses. Just the starting groupfor us won't be enough. We're gonna
need good play from our six,seventh, eighth, and maybe even a
little bit from our ninth man.We generally play eight nine players every game,
and I think it's our bench.And then the second part is we're
gonna have to be able to convertand be really good in transition like we

(15:18):
were in both the Providence and SeatonHall games. As far as your starting
lineup, could that still be movedaround quite a bit? Or is it
in flux or is it set?We've really settled either between Dalen Swing or
Geatis. There's no really rhyme orreason for it. Sometimes we just try
to reward maybe who's playing the bestor who's had a good week leading up
to the game, you know,going for Saint John's, I think it

(15:41):
could be either guy. So I'vebeen we're working through that right now.
Coach your team to your point leadsthe Big East and sixth in the country
and fast break points at sixteen pointsa game, fourth in the Big East
and thirty third in the nation,and assists with sixteen the game. So
I would think that you would welcomea team that wants to play fast,

(16:03):
because I think that's when you're atyour best. Yeah, and Wednesday's game
will be fast. I mean theywould say the same thing. They welcome
that as well. You know,for us, especially if we're locked in
and I think on it playing ourbest and you know, hopefully we're able
to play in front of our greatcrowd. Having played at both Creighton and
Yukon back to back. I don'tthink it's a secret that you know,

(16:26):
there's some amazing home courts in thisin this league, and I would put
Omaha and Creighton, and you know, whether you play them in Stores or
Hartford, when you play at Yukonas maybe not only to the best in
the Big East, but maybe tooof the best in the nation. So
you know, you just you feelit. You feel it going against the
quality group, quality team, andyou feel that that crowd and I know

(16:48):
the home team feels it, andcertainly that's helped us for the last forty
years here and certainly on Wednesday.And look, we have six home games
left. All of them will beBig East marquee matchups, and you know,
how well we do in those sixwill determine a lot. Back to
my point of looking forward, wehave an eleven game season, you know,
ten and ten right now against thetwenty games we've played. Uh,

(17:12):
these next eleven in many ways willdefine who we are and the type of
season that we had. Coach,you were talking about getting more production from
your from your bench and and yourbigs when when they're struggling like a Yukon
where there was just no production offensiveproduction from that particular area of your team.

(17:36):
How do you what in what areado they they struggle usually? Uh,
you know, like not just froma point standpoint, but what aspect
of their offensive game. And Iknow it's different for each player. A
Booze different than you know, Lazardis different from Sasha. Uh. Is
there a common thread that that theyall share when they when they do struggling

(17:59):
again, Yeah, we struggled inparticular against the length of the last two
teams. You know, KLK Brennerin and around the rim and clinging and
and look when clinging's out, it'snot like Samson. Johnson's just the little
old six seven guy in there.You know. I think the gift of
both Yukon and Creighton is how theycan protect the basket. And and so

(18:21):
I think, first, you knowa lot of good, big guys will
struggle. Our guy has struggled toscore, there's no doubt about it.
But you know, first of bouthe one thing that you really appreciate about
him is he shows up, hecompetes, he's fearless, and a lot
of times, the way our offenseis wired right now is it's really on
the heels of our three guards,you know, and when Daveyon and Quincy

(18:42):
and and Dez are playing really well, that's when we've been at our best.
And Abou has no problem setting hardscreens and crashing the offensive glass right
now. He's one of the BigEast best offensive rebounders, and he's a
really dependable defensive player. What hedoesn't give you a lot of, Byron
is just he's not an a depthlow post score, you know, just

(19:04):
you hope he can catch and finishsometimes in and around the rim. And
I would say the same thing aboutthe other guys. They're certainly a lot
younger in Getas's case, and hewas one of a number of guys who
struggled in the game at Yukon.You know, Joe asked earlier about our
performance against Seaton Hall or Providence.Getas has the ability to take and make

(19:26):
open threes, and he has theability and he's shown it to get an
offensive rebound and score. He's clockedin at ten points or more many times
this year and in those games,you know, it just it gives you
some relief, right You're not completelydependent on just our guards to score,
so you know, I think movingforward, and again I hope it starts
with Saint John's you know, gettinggetas going and allow him to be a

(19:49):
part of taking open threes and beingable to get on the offensive glass and
scored a little bit. And justknow that like no matter who we play
against, we're not going to beable to depend on our low post scoring
this year. So in Gida's situation, are you does he need to look

(20:10):
for his shot more or is hejust not Sometimes he has to look for
a shot more. The way Yukonplays defense and it's really difficult to do.
It reminds me of playing against Dukewhen Coach k was there and they
were being at their top and whatthey would do is they just they defend
you at such a level off theball, of denying passes and just extending

(20:34):
with their quickness and their length andathleticism that many times your guy who has
the ball, it doesn't matter whohe is, point guard, five man,
whatever, he's really playing one onone with no help. And as
you know Byron being a great scorer, like when you see one on one
with no help a lot of times, man, it's an easy opportunity to
draw a foul or get your ownshot at the rim. Right. You

(20:57):
know, Yukon is one of thoseteams that's talented enough that as they put
each of their individual defenders on anisland, there's a reason like those other
guys, the other four were justkind of denied and there is no help,
and it's like you have to beable to manufacture and create your own
advantage your own shot in Saturday's game, Sunday's game, and yesterday, it

(21:18):
was hard for any of our guysto be able to do that, whether
they were a big man or apoint guard. And that's what that's the
feeling you had of just kind oflike being overwhelmed. It's not easy to
do that. There's very few teamsthat can and usually when they go that
direction, they tend to foul alot. So Yukon they do foul the
most in the Big East. Butbased on just kind of watching them with

(21:41):
clinging, it's a tall order toscore on them. Again, sometimes you
have to see it for what itis, and I would tell you they're
really good on both defense and offense. Certainly they were yesterday. You listened
to the Sean Miller Coaches Show fromDilly Bistro and Marimana fifty five karc in
the Varsity Network Only Bistro, andthe Seon Miller Show. When you're out

(22:03):
of town and want to keep upwith live college sports, be sure to
download the new Varsity Network app,available for both Apple and Android. Listen
to College Sports Live with the VarsityNetwork app. All right, we're gonna
talk about some of the players onthe Xavier ball club. I'm gonna start
with Davey on a Night if Ican, yep. And one thing this

(22:26):
team has done all year is they'veplayed every minute hard. In my opinion,
I look at OLIVERI and mcnight andI know you talk about leadership and
being vocal, but they do itjust by their motions on the court and
how they approach every minute of thegame. Yeah. You know, my
dad, I talk to him,you know a lot about our team.
And you know, he's obviously aformer coach and someone who knows me extremely

(22:51):
well, not because of his son, but just has watched teams over the
years, you know, just evenat Xavier and then obviously gone kind of
last year's team. And you know, one of the comments that he always
makes is that he really enjoys watchingDavon and Quincy play, you know,
because his point is that they playwith a great energy, you know,

(23:14):
the pace that they run at,the pace that they play at offensively,
and that they give you something defensively, and you know they're alive when you're
watching them. And they've been reallyconsistent, you know, if you track
us as far back as November,through the Christmas break and now all of
January, they really have been reallyconsistent. And you know when he says

(23:36):
that, obviously I make note ofit because he shoots me straight and I
think has a great eye for thedifferent things that we do. But Daveon
McKnight, I believe is the mostimproved player on our team if you think
about where he was in Game one, in those early games coming from Western
Kentucky. I mean, Byron,I remember, we've had several conversations about,

(23:59):
you know, can he be moreaggressive? Is he going to be
able to score once we get intothe Big East season? You know,
is he is he can offensively,he brings something to the table. We
know he's tough, et cetera.And I think my answer was I just
I always felt like you can't judgethese guys on a transfer right away,
you know, somebody like sul Boom, maybe you could, but you almost

(24:21):
forget Sule didn't look the part untilmaybe late in December, mid December,
and then he got into January.You knew that he was a special player,
but if you judged him just inthe first couple of months, and
again, he's not a freshman,he's a transfer, he's a senior.
And I think the same has reallyheld true with Dave on looking at his
three point shooting, his scoring,being more aggressive. You know the stat

(24:44):
that he's had for some time nowas he leads the Big East and assist
the turnover ratio. He's one ofthe top five assist players in the Big
East. He now is averaging doublefigures for the first time for US.
Last four game excuse me, coach, last four games, he's averaging ninete
teen points a game team right,forget the other part Byron is he is
shooting his three point shooting. He'sshooting now on season mid to high thirties

(25:08):
from three. At first, hewas a reluctant three point shooter. He
didn't shoot a free throw for thefirst four games in the Big East.
Now he's getting to the free throwline, and he's an excellent free throw
shooter, so he gives us anotherdimension there and just who he is every
day. Like I've mentioned a coupleof times on this show, he's a
really fun guy for me to coachbecause you know what you're getting every single

(25:33):
day, and I think he iswatching him improve and just watching him grow.
It's really a key to the nexteleven games, if I'm going to
use that as where we go fromhere. Determines a lot for this year's
team. You know, him beinglocked in on who he is like you
just saw, and being available andready to be that player, and he's
next to eleven. You know,we're a much more difficult team to beat

(25:56):
when he's playing aggressive and doing iton both ends. And I couldn't be
more happier with his progress. LikeI said, I believe he's our team's
most improved player, and I thinkhe's certainly one of our team's best players
right now. The other coach thatplays against us, when they scout us
and they watch us, they'll alwaysrespect him as much as anybody else on

(26:17):
our team because he's giving us bothon offense and on defense every night.
Yeah, his his improvement. Asyou said, coach, like when first
couple of games, I'm looking likeyou often wonder with portal guys who transfer,
like are they going to be goodenough? Are they gonna be able
to step up and be as effectiveas they were at their previous school.

(26:41):
And he was at Western Kentucky andhad a terrific career. You know,
Conference USA is different than the BigEast. It's it's a step up in
challenging every night and being coached differently. You don't know how hard they're the
other coach coached them, and ishe going to be coachable and is he
going to be productive? And hehas just taken off. He's just been

(27:03):
a steady, a steady increase inproductivity and it's great to see. I
love his toughness on defense. Whatabout his leadership. I know you've talked
about him not being very vocal,but as a point guard, you know
a lot of time you lead byyour example doing in that area better and
better Byron. And we've had severaltalks over the last several months, and
you know, Davion has to leadthrough his personality. But he has no

(27:27):
problem talking to guys and in thehuddle, he talks more, and I
think during games he's more communicative ashe's seen the value of it. But
he's a voice that everybody on ourteam really respects. And look, it's
hard to find any silver lining otherthan at least the game is over by
two o'clock yesterday and we got home. But Quincy and Davion, you know,

(27:49):
two guys that one was playing atRice last year and one was playing
at Western Kentucky. In that gamethat we were completely overwhelmed in, they
were eleven for twenty four from thefloor, they were six for ten from
three, four for four from theline. They combined for thirty two points
and four assists and not as manyminutes as they normally play. And Quincy

(28:12):
played twenty five and Daveon played twentynine. So if you just think about
what I just said, you know, in essence, those two guys in
a loss that was completely lopsided,you know, they weren't as far off
as it might, you know,appear on paper. And for the most
part, I think when you lookback at that game, those are two

(28:33):
guys that I would say did agreat job. And then I was really
happy for and proud of caacciense,you know who got really his first good
opportunity. Ended up playing nine minutesof the final stretch, and he came
in and did it how you wantto do it. He played fearlessly,
played very hard. He had fourrebounds in nine minutes. He got to
the free throw line four times,didn't convert, you know, but had

(28:56):
a great drive and scored the ball. It was just good to see him
get his opportunity and take advantage ofit. We had a chance to talk
with him earlier today. A lotof times that young freshman, a moment
like that gives him a lot ofhope, you know, for the future,
Ninkachi's case, more for the offseason and for his future beyond this
year. All right, we're DyllyBistro. This is a Sean Miller Coaches

(29:17):
Show. We're on fifty five KRCand the Varsity Network. Welcome back to
the Sean Miller Coaches Show here atGillani Bistro and but Light Brown sponsors if
your athletics, Easy to drink,easy to enjoy. Like to say happy
birthday to Terry On's happy birthday andalso Shelby More whose birthdays actually tomorrow.
But thanks for joining us today onyour special occasion. Let's go to the

(29:40):
phone lines. Joe, you're onwith a coach. How you doing tonight,
Joe, I'm doing great. Howare you guys doing? We're good.
Thanks for calling in great you.I ask you when you're getting prepared
for a game against a team likeSaint John to like the press and all
that, and you brought this toseven eight decenders to make it tough to
rain Batifore. That's a great question. You know what we do is so

(30:06):
a version of it. What wetry to do is sometimes we use four
on offense against five on defense,you know, so that you know it's
tough when you have five on fiveand you add another player, now you
have eleven guys out there. It'salmost unrealistic. But we call it disadvantage.
So sometimes if you have three versesfour, especially if those four are

(30:29):
like on the scout team, thatit really forces the offense to just concentrate
more, get open more, andit sometimes represents what it's going to feel
like in the game. So,yes, that is something that we do
both with a zone defense and alsothe presses that Saint John's will will employ.
But you know the other part ofthat question is, you know,

(30:52):
the number one I think stat againstSaint John's is our turnovers. First time
we played them, we had eighteen. You know, we have to be
able to play it home with tenor fewer eleven turnovers. And when you
cut down your turnovers against them,you really increase your chances of winning because
of how they play defense. Allright, Joe, I appreciate your phone
call because you were talking about DavianMcKnight and thought popping into my head.

(31:15):
One of the reasons I think he'sa leader, even if he doesn't say
anything. If you're a big guyplaying with Davian and you get open,
you're gonna get the ball. Andeven though he's scoring his points and he's
looking for a three point shot andhis pull up jumper and driving to the
hoop, he's a great assist man. And you know how hard he's working
on defense, so you respect thattoo, and that's a great combination.

(31:36):
You're right, Joey. He doeslike to play the point guard position and
be a playmaker. The other partthat Daveon brings to the table is he's
playing at a very fast pace.You know, if when you talk about
our transition, game and creating thosestatistics that Byron read off earlier, and
is what, you know, whatare we good at? What can we

(31:56):
truly say? Because the one thingthat I'll tell you is on the statue,
if something's good, you know it'sgenuine. Because the twenty games we
played are against the great schedule,right, so if there's something we've done
well against that schedule, you canbank on it that that's something that our
team is good at. And intransition, the ability to score points.
Davon is a big factor there,Joe, because the faster the pace,

(32:21):
if it's under control, it createsopportunities, not just for our big guys,
and I know you always have asoft spot for them, but for
everybody. You know, everybody.He finds everybody. Why like Dalon Swayne
in that scenario, that's not onlyfine that the big guys, but dwain
is minutes are going up. Whathas he done well that's increased his minutes
and he earned a couple starts.I know he just wasn't feeling all that

(32:43):
well and that was part of thescenario. But at the same time,
Dalan Swayne has played well for you. Dalen is improving. He really is
you know, sometimes it's three stepsforward and maybe a small step backwards.
But the experience that he's getting itreminds me a lot of the experience that
des Claude had as a freshman,where you don't always see it during his
freshman year, but when you're aroundhim every day and you get towards the

(33:06):
end of the year, you reallyhave the feeling that, look with a
great next five or six months,he's going to take a big, major
step as a player, and Ithink Dalen is certainly a candidate to be
able to do that this offseason.Sean to take a step forward. For
Dalen Swain, what does he haveto do more? What would you like
to see more out of him?Yep, so two things. He has

(33:28):
to become more physical. Some ofit Byron is he's eighteen years old.
He turns nineteen in July, andhe's he's gained weight to be strong.
But Dyalen is six foot seven,maybe getting closer to six foot eight,
two hundred and five pounds. Youknow, he's rallied to go from one
eighty to two oh five. Ithink you know, you see him at

(33:50):
two fifteen to twenty nineteen years old, another year. I think physically it'll
allow him to be to be morephysical. And then the second is he
has to become a better shooter.And one thing that you look at Dalen,
Dalen is a very good free throwshooter. He's not a very good
three point shooter. And you knowmy experience is if you shoot well from

(34:13):
the free throw line, it usuallyjust a matter of time before those other
areas even out or certainly going towork really hard. He works hard at
it every day right now, butit just he needs more time. One
of the things that with him,I think he has to have a better
awareness where he is on the floorbecause he's one of the best things he
can do is handle the basketball athis size and a lot of times I

(34:35):
see him drive to the basket,and we talked about this close to the
basket and he turns around to passit back out. Well he need to
do is just turn to jump.And what I would say there is and
watching him is that's what I meanabout being more physical. I think sometimes
he knows exactly where he is.He's just not confident that if he slows
down and turns that he's going tobe able to absorb the contact or give

(34:58):
the contact and play over the top, which he clearly and surely can do.
He had a great drive against Creightonin which he did that exact same
thing. The only difference was theguy that he did it against was the
guy Miller, who again in hisown right, isn't a big, strong,
physical player. But Dalen certainly athis size, needs to be able
to handle the ball, drive it, get close to the basket and go

(35:21):
over to the top, score andget fouled. But I think some of
that reluctance is just his his physicalness. He's just lack of physicality. He
had a great drive against Yukon.He went right, went in and almost
crumbled at the backboard. Just itdidn't there was no physicality when he jumped.
It all went the wrong direction andit ended up looking like a bad
shot, when in reality it wasa pretty strong drive. He just couldn't

(35:45):
finish through the contact that was there. Look in the Big East, other
than a car accident, I mean, there's not going to be a foul
like you could complain about it.You have to go through the guy's body,
land on your back and still makethe shot. And I think that
soon we realize that we don't begfor fouls. Just do that the better.
All right, This is a SeanMiller Coaches Show from Billy Bistro and

(36:06):
Marymont I fifty five KRS and theVarsity Network. Welcome back to the Shan
Miller Coaches Show from Billy Bistrow andMarymont and Coach. You've got the Port
eleven games coming up, and it'slike the start of another season for you.
You know, That's how we're lookingat it, Joe. And it's
not just because of what happened yesterdayat Yukon, and that speaks for itself,
no excuses, they killed us.But the eleven games we have based

(36:31):
on everything that we've done, goodand bad, and just kind of where
we're at. So much of thisyear will be remembered based on how we
finish, and you know, wehave to play our best. You know,
I think from our fans perspective,we need them to be with us
and all the way to the end. I know they will be. And
I think that combination is something thatnot a lot of people in the Big

(36:52):
East look forward to seeing when theyvisit the Santas Center. You know,
we have these six you think aboutit, six home games left, and
there sat John's, in no particularorder, Saint John's, Creighton, Marquette,
DePaul, Villanova, Providence, andlook, we have to try to
win every one of them. Notthat we have it to this point,
but playing our best basketball down thestretch I think would be a tremendous accomplishment.

(37:16):
I think it had set us upfor a lot of great things moving
forward, including this year. Andyou know, at the highest level of
sports till I was talking to acoaching friend of mine earlier today and I
thought, he put it to mereally well, he's an NBA coach and
his record has happens to be elevenand thirty four. So it's like,

(37:36):
you know, you think about whatthat feels like, and he just said,
you know, at the highest level, so much of it is about
being able to handle the frustration inthe adversity. And I think that for
us, the way we have togo about it is to really look forward
and be at our best. Allright, thanks for joining us for the
Seawn Miller Coaches Show a Dylan Bistroat Marimuant on fifty five KARC and the

(37:58):
Varsity Network live from the Dilly Bistroin Merrimont. This has been the Sean

(38:20):
Miller Radio show, presented by budLight. Easy to drink, easy to
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