2/19/24 - The Sean Miller Radio Show

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Episode Transcript

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

(00:24):
be healed. Visit tryhealth dot com. Now Here are Joe Sunderman and
Byron Larkin. Welcome to the SeanMiller Show live from Dilley Pistro and Marymont,
and I'm Joe Sunderman along with ByronLarkin at the head coach of the
Xavier Musketeers Sean Miller. The XavierMusketeers are thirteen and twelve in the season

(00:45):
seven and seven and Big East playand on Wednesday they'll take on the Providence
Friars at Centas Center. And Coach, you had a rare break where you
had a game on Wednesday. Youdon't play until this coming Wednesday, and
I had to be welcome in thesense of how ferocious the schedule in a
sense has been. How did youutilize that time off? I know you

(01:07):
practiced hard, I'm sure, butat the same time, any days of
rest, Yeah, Joe, Ithink that our break came in a really
good time. And you know,if you follow the Big East, so
there's eleven teams in the Big East, and each of us get two what
you would call breaks, and theycome at different times. Our first break
came at Christmas, so in asense, like leading up to our Villanova

(01:33):
game, which would have been ourfirst Big East game after the New year,
that's when we had our five orsix day window of time without a
regular season game. And the problemwith that. The good with that is
it gives you a little bit ofa longer break around the holidays, transitioning
from a lot of the non conferenceseason to what's about ready to come with

(01:55):
conference play. The negative is youmay not be getting a break for a
while, and that's exactly what weexperienced. So if you think about the
beginning of January, that next windowof time where we actually had a week
to regroup without a game just cameright now here, not in the middle

(02:15):
of February, but more towards youknow, three quarters towards the end of
February or middle whatever whatever it endedup being. So we went through a
pretty tough stretch and somebody filled infor me, I think we played eleven
games in thirty five days, andin those eleven games and thirty five days,
you know, quite a few ofthem were tough. I think nine
of the eleven were A games orquad one quad two types of games.

(02:38):
So you think about that, youcan go through a lot of ups and
downs, and it's quite the taskbecause what you find yourself doing as a
coach and as a player is tryingto really go from one game to the
next, preparing, leaving what justhappened behind and moving forward. And with
that, you know, sometimes whatcan happen and is you end up getting

(03:00):
away from practices and maybe some extrarecovery that you would like to have,
so long winded, answered Joe.For us, we really took some time
off. I thought our guys werebeaten up, especially Des, especially Quincy
and daveon ull Street. Guys playreally fast, they play heavy minutes.

(03:22):
They've done that as far back asearly November, and just to give them
the opportunity to recover, so Thursdaywas off for those two guys. They
lifted and we watched film on Friday, but they were completely off. A
second day. We had a morningpractice on Saturday, they had the rest
of the day to themselves. Yesterday'sSunday was completely off and we really got

(03:43):
back at it here today and Isensed the rejuvenation. You know, sometimes
the freshness isn't just a physical part, but the mental part of it.
And you know, the game aftergame after game, the pressure of games,
listening to me, listening to thecoaches, having the pressure on you
all the time, already able toget away from each other. And I
think what it's done is it's reallyalmost like re centered us for the stretch

(04:08):
run, a true stretch run,where now we have three home games,
three away games, and that willlead into the Big East Tournament. And
so that's what we did, andI'm kind of excited to move forward because
today's practice was really good. Weworked very hard. We did the same
thing on Saturday, and I wouldbe surprised if we don't come out on

(04:29):
Wednesday with a lot of energy.And my hope is a lot of quality
play as well. Coach, youplayed twenty five games, and according to
Tom Iser's notes here, Xavier's playedthe fifth toughest schedule in the Ken Palm
Rainings in the country. And whatdoes that do to your team when you're

(04:54):
playing that toughest schedule for that longperiod of time. I'm sure different teams
react differently to that. How ishow do you feel your team as kind
of adapted to that? What itdoes, Byron, it beats you down,
That's what it does. There's notrophy coming any time soon to say,

(05:15):
hey, by the way, youplayed the fifth toughest schedule, it's
the dumbest thing that we've done.I really mean it. You know,
we started off our schedule. Likea lot of things, you can only
plan for the group that you have, and at one point we had both
Zach and Jerome. With Daz returning, that makes us a much more experienced,
deeper group that can withstand a nonconference schedule like we had put together.

(05:42):
But we still aired in our judgment, there's no reason with twenty games
in the Big East, ten athome, ten on the road, Byron,
with the Big East Tournament looming rightafterwards, you don't need to just
beat yourself up day in day out. It makes no sense because you can
get off track, you can loseconfidence. There's plenty of quality games already
on a non conference schedule. Imean Saint Mary's in Washington, and you

(06:05):
see there's three right there off thetop of my head. And then the
second thing, which we're in nocontrol over. And you know, I
again, I could keep crying ifI want, but it does no good
the fact that the Big East gaveus Houston and Purdue, They really gave
us the top two teams in Americato play. So and again, if

(06:27):
you're gonna, if you're gonna dothat, like there's been some people that
have said to me, you know, it's amazing how difficult the Big East
is that right now is only threeranked teams and it doesn't seem like everybody's
a sure bet to make the tournament. Well, when you have a Big
twelve and a Big ten challenge andyour reason for scheduling the games is because
of who played who last year andwhat the TV dates are, and that's

(06:51):
your reason for scheduling the games,there's gonna be some scheduling that's gonna cost
your your conference a bid or twobids. It's going to happen. You
know, if you give Yukon oneof those two games right now, and
Yukon went two perdue and one,I mean, and you gave us another
team and certainly it's not to saywe would have won the game. But

(07:12):
I'll tell you this, I likeour chances better against just about every team
in the world other than Houston andHome and at Purdue. So we lived
that, we took that. Thoseare the two games the Big East gave
us. We had no say soin that. And again, when you
look at our schedule, buyer andpart of it is, you know,
the totality from the very beginning ofour year up until Seaton Hall, you

(07:33):
know, you can lose some confidenceand sometimes you could actually play really well.
I'll give you a great example.We've played Houston probably as well as
any team has played them. Imean at the four minute media timeout if
you remember the score, it waslike a single possession game. But they're
really good. We weren't able tofinish the game. They beat us.
But again, you're not going toget any pride other than pride, you're

(07:57):
not going to get anything out ofit from playing the So I think from
a scheduling perspective, the other partof scheduling is you know the New Big
East. Well, there's two versionsof the New Big East, or really
three, right, there was theoriginal New Big East and then there was
Yukon as part of the Big Eastwith twenty games, not eighteen. And

(08:18):
I think when you look at twentygames in our league with Yukon, especially
who they've become, I mean,we have America's best conference. Certainly us
in the Big Twelve can argue itout. But the competition in the scheduling
from this point forward, I don'tthink we have to worry about it.
We have to be balanced in ournon conference schedule and my hope, I

(08:39):
think these challenges are going away,but you have to have us say so.
And it can't be we're gonna playthis team because somebody just thinks it's
a good idea. There has tobe a rhyme and reason why we're going
to play the game we're gonna playin non conference because every time we schedule
a non conference game, it hasNCDM Boy Tournament ramifications, right, and

(09:03):
you want to play a game thatis smart for the team that you have.
So that's that's me going through it. There's nothing I said to you
buyern that I won't continue to smashall the way through the summer at every
Big East meeting and every everywhere wego. It makes no sense to say,
hey, we have America's number oneconference and we play twenty games,
and by the way, you're gonnago play Purdue because we said so.

(09:26):
I just I don't really understand it, and it makes no sense to me,
and I think it's hurt our conference. It certainly hasn't been good for
us. And that's it. I'mdone, coach. So last year playing
Houston and Purdue the Big Twelve,and that was part of the Big Twelve,

(09:48):
Big East, Biggest Challenge, andthen the Big Ten, Big East
Challenge. So are those schedules.Is that scheduled to continue or you said
you think they're going away. Ithink the Big the Big Ten is going
away. And that's simply because theBig Ten coaches looked at each other and
said, this is the stupidest thingthat we could do. I mean,
we're playing in essence each other,and we're gonna add U C, L,

(10:11):
a USC or Oregon in Washington,and you want us to play a
Big East Big Ten Challenge. Iget some point, it's different than what
it is today than it's ever beenand we have to realign and adjust.
And so that was their call.They didn't want to continue it, and
I think everybody in the Big Eastfrom a coach's perspective, would say,
I completely understand. But we haveone more year of the Big Twelve Challenge

(10:37):
and we play a Big Twelve team, we play at UC that's the challenge,
you know, But that doesn't workbecause of all the story for another
day. So we're gonna be onthe road in the Big Twelve and we're
gonna play We're gonna play probably oneof three or four teams who knows,
probably at Houston after they get donelistening to me. What about the holiday

(11:01):
tournaments and Thanksgiving tournaments where they're goingfrom three games to two? Are those
going to be phased out also?Or where do you see the future of
that same thing, Joe. Youknow, let's say Maui Invitational, the
world's greatest college basketball tournament. It'shistoric. You're gonna find that a lot
of programs aren't going to be aseager to play in that because of what
I just got done talking about.You know, you just there's only so

(11:22):
many times that you want to godown that path. And every one of
our teams is different. Some aremore experienced. You know, if we
had a group here, you know, a couple of years from now,
and you know what, we're playingone of the top three seeds last year's
team, for example, we're oneof the top three seeds in the NCAA
tournament and we're playing for seating orin competition for the Big East regular season

(11:43):
championship. You know, going toPortland and playing Florida Duke and Gonzaga,
you can make a case what's goodfor our team, But things really can
change. So I think what you'llfind is a lot of those tournaments will
go from a three game format totwo, or there'll be less teams willing
to play in the three game format. We've already seen that. Next year,

(12:07):
we're in Florida, FO. We'reat four miles is a great tournament.
We will play I think one homegame here, but when we go
to Florida, we're gonna play two. And I know two teams that are
in it are Michigan in South Carolina, US and at this point I can't
I can't name the fourth team,maybe Virginia Tech. But don't hold me

(12:30):
to think you're right. Yeah,yeah, it should be a great tournament.
It's right around Thanksgiving. The travelis gonna be better for our fans.
We have quite a few fans inFlorida, and obviously the competition will
be really good. But again,Byron, we're gonna play at Cincinnati,
right, we all know what thatis. We're gonna play in that tournament
I just mentioned, you play twogames. We're gonna play on the road

(12:50):
in a Big twelve Challenge. Wehave the opportunity to play Wake Forest at
home. You know, at somepoint you have to be realistic as saying,
by the way, you still haveto play twenty Big East regular season
games. So when I was herethe first time, the non conference was
everything because we were in the Atlanticten and we had to give ourselves quite
a few opportunities before we got intoconference play. Now, you want to

(13:13):
be balanced, confident, and Ithink you want to give yourself the best
chance to be successful. There's someteams in our league right now that have
a total of wins, and ifyou dig deeper, there's like three or
four games on their win total thatdon't count. You know, they just
they didn't play a team that they'regonna get any credit for. All Right,

(13:33):
This is a Sean Miller Coaches Showfrom Dilly Bistro and Marriymut on fifty
five KARC and the Varsity Net towork, Actor Dilly Bistro and Marymont And
this is the Sean Miller Coaches Show. By the way, thanks for being
here again and fill the Dailly Bistrowonce again. It's been a great year
here so far. Exavier fans helpCincinnati Cancer Advisors achieve victory over cancer at

(13:56):
the next home game at the CentaCenter. Just grab a super a souvenir
cup for a chance to win greatprizes like a private VIP suite, courtseyed
seat or Xavier merchandise. I thinkeverybody here knows Jim Botti that manages the
Dulibistro makes this such a great environmentfor our coaches show. His dad is
here today, Yeah, exactly,his dad is here today. Jim Bottai

(14:18):
Senior, Happy birthday. How aboutthat? Thanks for joining us on your
birthday. That's We're honored to haveyou here in the building again. Thanks
for being here. Any any gota seat right up front? How good
was that that was Jim to takecare of his dad on his birthday?
Exactly coaching and looking back at theseat in the hall game it was a
table two halfs in a sense.The first half, that's one everybody'd like

(14:41):
to forget, in the sense I'msure you take it, you look out
of, you learn from it.But the second half. What was the
difference in the way Xavier played inthe second half versus the first half of
that ball game? Yeah, Imean Byron already got me going down the
negative path, So I feel bad. I'm trying to turn it around,
but just being realistic here, No, of all the games we played this
year, maybe the most disappointing gamethat we played with Seaton Hall. And

(15:05):
I don't want to take anything awayfrom Seaton Hall because as if you follow
them closely, they're a hard andtough minded, older veteran group. I
think Shaheen Holloway has done as wellcoaching his team this year as any coach
in the Big East. You know, we caught them on an awkward period
of time and that you're catching themon their home court in February. They're

(15:26):
playing for the NCAA tournament. Theyhad just come off of an away game
where they lost by thirty two pointsat Villanova. So three days earlier at
Villanova, Seaton Hall lost by thirtyand they were ready to go. To
their credit, we were not readyto go. I think to me,
even though the Yukon game got awayfrom us, I put that in a

(15:48):
different category. The Seaton Hall gamewas the most disappointing effort of the season
for US so and I would alsotell you, Joe, your observation is
on point. I thought the firsttwenty minutes were in a real different category
than the last twenty minutes. Wewere more of ourselves in the second half.

(16:08):
I thought kochi Ense came into gameand did a great job right there
at the end of the first half, and we gave him a big opportunity
in the second half. We aregoing to play him from this point forward.
He's in the rotation. I wishwe would have got to him a
little bit earlier, but as oftentimesis the case, what happens in practice
ends up winning out. And ifyou've followed us, and you guys have

(16:30):
and you watched Takachi as far backas August or September, you see his
potential and his talent, but ithas just taken more reps and more time.
He doesn't have a lot of experience, but he's never given in.
And although he's not played in alot of our games. He's continued to
work extremely hard in practice in theweight room. We've stayed with him and

(16:51):
he has really stayed with us,and he was ready for his opportunity.
And one of the things that Iloved that Kochi gives us is he gives
us some half cicism around the basket, where he can catch a lob,
where he can block a shot,he can get an offensive rebound, and
I think he's more ready for thatopportunity now than maybe he was a month
ago. The seat in the Hallgame really allowed us to see that.

(17:14):
And you know, sometimes, youknow, you're always trying to look for
the good in these types of games. That is the number one thing that
came out of the seat and Hallgame for us moving forward. For a
player of his size, he canrun very very well, great speed,
and the play they got I'm excitedabout. He ran the floor, got
to the rim in one of theguards, founding for a catch and a
dunk. And that, to me, is that repeatable? Is that something's

(17:37):
going to happen every once in awhile, or are you guys looking for
that all the time. But withhis great speed, that's that's something other
centers don't have. Typically, hecan do that. And if you watched
this last year, like you guyshave, we got a lot of those
throughout the games that we played lastyear. We have a different skill set
and personnel this year, but Kachican do it. I love his attitude,
his demeanor. He's only been playingbasketball really just you know, three

(18:00):
or four short years of his life, so just think about how far he's
come. He's nineteen years old.He's one of our team's hardest workers.
He's a great teammate. And towatch him here at the very end of
his freshman year with some really meaningfulgames left on the schedule. When called
upon, be ready and it's whatyou preach, and it's nice to be

(18:21):
able to back up. We toldyou guys that if you stick with it,
and today I think was practice numbereighty six. Kotchi's worked hard in
all eighty six practices, even whenhe hasn't played in games. And Byron,
you remember back so many of yourteammates or even you yourself as a
freshman, sometimes when things don't gowell for you early on, it's easy
to sulk or pout kind of thinkabout well, maybe my time will come

(18:45):
next year. He never did that, and because of that, he's continued
to improve behind the scenes, andI'm anxious to give him an opportunity and
I believe he can help us.It says a lot about his character,
as you were just talking about,which is it's like this is the first
time he's probably never played right.You know, even though he has been
playing organized basketball a long time.He certainly has the raw, raw ability,

(19:11):
physical tools. It's just a matterof putting that together with the game
plan and the speed of the gameand all of that. But for him
to continue to work when he's notgetting a result, I mean, he
had not He's only played in eight, maybe eight or nine games on the
year, So that's a lot ofpractice, you say, eighty six eighty
seven practices that he's got to workhard, stay in the rotation, not

(19:33):
sulk, not make excuses, notjust say hey, you know, I'll
wait till next year. This year'sover with. For him to just continue
to keep working to put himself ina position where you would give him an
opportunity, that says a lot abouthis character. And in the face of
adversity that happens to a lot offreshmen that it's very easy, like,

(19:56):
well, you know, I'm notgoing to keep working because I'm not getting
a I'm not getting an opportunity.It says a lot about him to put
himself in that path. He remindsme Byron, not necessarily in style,
although they're both big guys of oneof my favorite players that I've coached,
and that's Jason Love. And youknow, when Jason left here he was

(20:17):
either the all time winning his playerin Xavier history, but I know he's
certainly one of them. And ifyou thought about who he would have been
in the summer before his freshman year, you judged him only on how he
looked and how he played as afreshman, it would have been very easy
to say, I'm not sure he'sgood enough, or well, it'll be
interesting to see if one day hecould become better. But it's exactly what

(20:41):
he did and his work ethic andhis demeanor, Katchi's very similar to that,
and that you know Jason Love's storywhen we recruited him as one of
my favorite stories as well, andthat he would wake up somewhere around five
am or five thirty in the cityof Philadelphia, to go to a private

(21:02):
school that was no less than aboutan hour and twenty to an hour and
thirty minutes from his home, andhis route in getting there was he had
a long, long walk I'm goingto say more than a mile to get
on a bus, and when thebus would finally pull up to wherever it
dropped him off at, he thenhad to go by car or a friend

(21:23):
or figure out whatever it was togo on that last leg from waking up
in the city of Philly to gettingon the bus to getting off the bus
and finally going to school. Andthen, by the way, he had
to practice, and we would practicein the morning, and then he had
practice in the evening, so thatsame track he had to take in the
evening as well. So if youlook at his days as a tenth,

(21:45):
eleventh, and twelfth grader, hein essence was working like at around the
three hour window of getting up inthe morning and getting to school and then
leaving practice whenever it would end,or a game and getting home. And
he did it for three years.So somebody like that. And by the
way, he was a great student, very good player on his team.

(22:07):
If you talk to his high schoolcoaches before he ever came to Xavier and
they would almost shake their head andsay, there aren't many kids like him.
Well, then that same kid showedup here, and when he faced
the adversity of not playing and beingaway from home, having to go both
to class and practice and all thework that we did, it was it
was actually easy for him. Wehad one of those step mills, so

(22:30):
you know, there was the stareMaster, but the step mill. You
can't shorten your steps the StairMaster.If you want to take two inch steps
and go quicker, you can't.The stair mill. It's six inches every
time, right, and there's nowherefor you to hide unless you lean on
it. So we had one ofthose in the Centas Center when he got

(22:51):
here. I think Jason probably weighedabout two hundred and seventy pounds when he
first got here and six foot ninetwo seventy I think I'm right about that.
And in three months he actually brokethe step mill. He had perspired
and sweated so much that his perspirationruined the mechanics and then the liary of
the machine, and they actually hadto go out and get a brand new

(23:15):
step mail. That's that is atrue story. Because the first thing you
noticed about him is how he lookedwhen he got here, and then almost
in six months, he looked likea completely different person. And by the
way, he never gained the weightback. And for those of you who
don't know right now, he isa player development coach for the Philadelphia seventy

(23:36):
six ers and he's really Joel Embiid'spersonal coach. So when these guys work
Joelle out, you know, aguy like him doesn't want five different types
of workouts or five different personalities.Jason Love and him have a great relationship.
Coach player, Jason travels with theSixers, he works them out almost
every day, even in the offseason. He's and he's a fixture with the

(24:00):
Philadelphia seventy six ers. So youknow, it goes without saying that.
You know he's going to do wellin whatever he does. But Katchi reminds
me so much of Jason Love.All right, This is a Sean Miller
Coaches show from Dilly Bistroll and Marymoton fifty five KARC and the Varsity Network.
Come back to Dilly Bistro. Thisis a Sean Miller show. When

(24:23):
you're out of town and want tokeep up with live college sports, be
sure to download the new Varsity Networkapp, available for both Apple and Android.
Listen to college sports live with theVarsity Network app. Okay, Joe,
you're on with the coach. Howyou doing, Joe? I'm doing
good. How are you guys doing? We're good? Thank you, Joe?
All right? As a coach,a couple of guys and they're shooting

(24:47):
there, see, I'm piling withhe's some shootings and also leg and we'll
come over with live shootings. Threepoint shots of Reburban. Are you comfortable
watching Swain or having Swain and Djokovicshoot three point shots? Coach? You
know, first, Dalen, heclearly has to improve. We know that

(25:11):
he's working hard every day. Butbeing able to allow him to shoot a
wide open, uncontested shot from thethree point line, it actually has some
value to it. It's not thathe's going to take three or four.
I think that's a different conversation.But I think being able to have his
feet, set time, score situationand take a wide open, uncontested three

(25:36):
it makes sense because it just youknow, the one thing about the analytics
of basketball. You know, yougo one for one for two from the
field. Right, you have twopoints in two shots. You go one
for three from the three point line, right, you have three points in

(25:57):
three shots. It becomes the same. So it's just the value of being
able to make one. I wishhe has made a couple more, but
it's the same thing really with dezDez at this point doesn't need to shoot
five or six in a game.But I think it's important that he takes
the wide open ones that are uncontested. It makes us more difficult to guard,

(26:18):
and you go one for three,it ends up being a really good
shot. You know, you gotwo for six. It makes sense more
sense than maybe twenty years ago oreven a decade ago, as people looked
at do I shoot a three ordo I don't shoot a three? You
know, I think the czar movingforward, the answers probably know. I
think it's better that he's inside theline and that you know, we have

(26:40):
to get him better before he startsshooting those in games. But Davion McKnight,
if you track him at the verybeginning of the season, he wasn't
shooting any threes. Then he shotan occasional three, and you know,
as he's put his work in andhe's practiced, and we've been on him,
Davion, it's so important that youtake the open three. He's now
a consistent three point shooter, andhe takes a couple every game. He

(27:04):
takes very good ones, but itmakes us a much more difficult offense.
And when he makes threes, we'rea better team. He's up to thirty
nine percent. That's right, fortyfour percent in the Big East in a
conference play, he's shooting forty fourpercent. That's second highest on your team.
And can think back to where hewas in November Byron, you know
his hate. Does he shoot threes? Do we want him to take threes?

(27:26):
It's kind of like the question thatJoe asked about Dalen. But in
Dalen's future, he'll be a moreconsistent three point shooter. I think that's
probably number one on the agenda reallyfor both him and our team when you
talk about the development of his future. And he's worked very hard, but
sometimes you see him in practice andyou see him in drills have more success

(27:48):
before it shows up in the game, but one day it will. Coach
how do you do you coach himthrough that? Like you're not telling him
hey or do you say, hey, don't shoot a three. I you
always want to players to take goodthrees. When you review game film with
him, are you like, hey, do you realize a lot of his

(28:08):
shots? I think is it's anawareness maybe a confidence because it seems like
he passes up a lot of shots, especially on his drives because he's at
his size. That's one of hisbest attributes. I think his ability to
put it on the floor and alot of times I find myself and shoot
the ball. He'll go right tothe basket and then they'll kick it back

(28:30):
out someone from behind him. Andit's good that he's unselfish. But you
know, when you pass up shots, that actually hurts your offense. Right,
So when you think about des ayear ago, Byron, remember he
would miss layups and miss finishes,and you know it very inconsistent. He'd
make a strong drive and you're like, wow, it looked good. It
just the ball didn't go in.You know, a year later, Dalen

(28:52):
reminds me a lot of some ofthose things that happened with Dez, And
it's number one, getting more strength, getting more confidence, because you're right,
you know, we could talk aboutthe three point shot, but I
think that continue will continue to developand become more a part of his future
than it is right now. Butbeing able to drive the ball at six
foot seven daylan six foot eight andshoot over smaller defenders and be able to

(29:17):
finish both in the lane area andaround the basket by the way, that
draws more fouls. It makes himsuch a better player. Those are that
is also part of something that Ithink we're working with him on. I
think he's better at it today thanhe once was. But you know,
therein lies what it feels like toplay freshmen, you know, because they're
working through so many things in theirtransition. If you would have watched Dylan

(29:41):
play in Columbus, you know,last year for his high school program,
A he never needed to shoot athree point shot, and B he could
get to the basket anytime that hewanted. So some of these things in
college that he's seeing, it's reallythe first time that he's felt that way.
I have to take a break.This is a Sean Miller Coaches Show
from Dilley Bistro Marimana fifty five KARCin the Varsity Network. Welcome back to

(30:07):
the Dilley Bistro and the Sean MillerShow. But like perhaps sponsor is Xavier
Athletics. Easy to drink, iteasy to enjoy. So you're on with
the coach, Go ahead, thankyou. I really liked get Us at
the beginning of the season. Ithought he was really starting off well.
A recent game he picked up threefowls, Like, boom, boom boom.

(30:32):
What's going on? Why are therefs catching all those fowels? What's
he doing? What are you doingto help him? Blah blah blah blah
blah. Yeah, you know,I think Gidas is in that period of
time that I talked about at thebeginning of the show where I played eleven
games in thirty five days against greatcompetition. You know, some of them

(30:52):
were at home, some of themwere on the road. There are games
we played well in one. There'ssome games that we certainly played well and
lost and throw him in there.There are games where he's been good,
sometimes nonexistent. Right, So he'sreally been all over the map, and
I think this break has come ina good time for him. I don't
want to say he's lost some confidence, but I think just physically it was

(31:15):
between the games and that you addedup that seven or eight weeks of intensity
probably showed him something that he hasnever seen before in terms of the pace
of play, the style of play, the pressure of the games, everything
that goes into practice building up tothe game. My hope is that with

(31:37):
this break he gets his legs backunder him, has an opportunity to take
a deep breath and really maybe playhis best basketball at the end. He's
been inconsistent, but we need him. We're better when he plays well.
There are a couple of games Quietlyand actually Providence, when we won at
Providence by the score that we did, he was a big reason why we

(31:59):
played so well. He had elevenpoints, he made two three point shots,
He gave us great minutes. Andwhen he does that, he takes
a lot of pressure off of Dezand Daveon and Quincy. So my hope
is that we can get him backto being more like that and less like
what you described the fouls and justyou don't even know he's out there,
but he knows that. I thinkhe's pressing a little bit as well.

(32:21):
He wants to do better. Hewants to be a guy that we can
really depend on. In my hope, because he played so well against Providence
the last time. You know,maybe from this perspective he can he can
do it again here on Wednesday night. Thank you so appreciate it. The
other thing about getis is he seemedto I think his season high was twenty
points against Washington out in Vegas,and he was better, more effective early

(32:47):
in the year. But I thinkas this Big Eiet season started to as
he started to play in the BigEast season, and the competition just started
to ramp up so much, Ithink that's when we saw his productivity kind
of go down. And I thinkit's just that it's just the competition and

(33:07):
the Big East athleticism never seen before. The athleticism at that position in particular,
it gives you some real challenges.You know, some at that four
position in the Big East. There'ssome of the best athletes in our conference
play that position. You know,they're more like wings. And if they're
not more like wings, they're physicalathletics, strong guys like Davis from Seaton

(33:30):
Hall. I mean, Davis isa tough matchup for anybody in college basketball.
But guys like that have given Geetassome problems. Back to Providence,
though, and that's our next gamegetis did play really well against their team,
and you look at the matchups andhow it is. You know,
my hope is that he can giveus some really good minutes again on Wednesday,

(33:51):
Colt, you talk about the Providencegame as a game where Trey Green
produced over twenty points. You hadGatis scoring for you, your team was
making shots, yep. Coach,how do you solve that? I mean,
you've had some games where your twopoint to shooting just wasn't very good
and you're watching him get decent shots. You're thinking on their way up and
there's taking it. That's a goodsituation until it doesn't go in. How

(34:13):
do you deal with that as acoach? You know, we just have
to keep going up. I thinkthe biggest point is just to evaluate what
you said, Joe, and thatis is it a good shot or not?
And you know the emotion of Ican't believe he missed it. Yeah,
there's some of that. But Ithink for a guy like Trey Green,
we know he's an elite three pointshooter, and whether he makes him

(34:34):
or not, we want him tobe confident. We want him coming in
the game, we want him firing, playing with a lot of confidence and
playing free when it comes to shooting, and it's a little bit like,
you know the question you asked aboutDaylan, What is it with Daylan Dalen?
We want you to drive the ball, want you to be very aggressive,
take care of it. From athree point shooting perspective, Look you
only need to take wide open,uncontested shots from three, and look,

(34:59):
you make great. If you don't, maybe we stop at one or two.
You know, that's who he isright now. But Quincy, Daveon
Dez, those three have been ourconstances and right now, I think moving
forward we need to get more supportand help from the rest of the guys,
and doesn't have to come in theform of one of them scoring twenty
points and getting ten rebounds. Butwe've been better when Abuz had six or

(35:23):
eight points in a game, fiverebounds, played long stretches without fouling.
Trey Green comes in the game andreally does what he does so well,
shoots the ball and score. Andwe talked about geetas, so I think
we're trying to develop that part ofit. That's certainly the weakness in the
Achilles heel of our team. Thisis a Sean Miller Coaches Show from Dilly

(35:43):
Bistro and Marymount on fifty five KRCand the Varsityaton Network. Welcome back to
the Sean Miller Show from Dylle Bistroand Mary Mountain. Coach, you're down
to six games. You have threeat home, three on the road.
How do you approach the next sixgame to be most successful? Yeah,
I mean, Joe, I thinkit's a great way of looking at things.

(36:05):
And you know, I think forus, let's talk about offense first.
We have been at our very verybest when we take great care of
the ball. It's a boring statyou know, it's one that seems like
every coach talks about, but themagic number for us is in and around
ten turnovers. We play with teneleven nine. You have a single digit
night where at the end of thegame you look how many turnovers that we

(36:28):
have eight, The chances of uswinning are very very high, regardless of
who we play against. It saysa couple of things. Number one,
it's not easy to do, andI think number two is when you play
at the speed we play at andyou're able to take care of the ball,
a lot of good things can follow. Wednesday Night, Providence steals the
ball, they can turn you over, and when they do that, they're

(36:50):
a more difficult team to beat.So I think number one on the list
for us is that. I thinknumber two is we have gotten away from
being the defensive team that we werea month ago, two months ago,
three months ago. You know,for as many new faces as we've had,
we've been a very consistent defensive team. There are times and even recently
Villanova at home, it was ourdefense that won that game. We're not

(37:13):
going to win all these games movingforward because we're hot, or we outscore
the other team, or we havea big night from the three point line.
You have to be able to winsome of these games with just hard
play in defense. And so Ijust think like defensive rebounding, being able
to get back in transition, notgetting hung up on screens, taking their
leading scores. You know on Wednesdayit's Carter and Odora, and not allowing

(37:37):
them to score fifty points between them, you know, who are their leading
scorers. You should be able tovisibly see it that. Look, we're
really locked in on defense tonight.I think if we could get our defense
back to where it was, andI have no doubt we can do that,
and a lot of it is thatdefensive rebounding number and do a great
job of taking care of the ball. I think we're going to have a

(37:59):
chance to win a lot of gamesdown the stretch or certainly be the best
team we could be down the stretch, regardless of who we play in these
three home games in order there Wednesdayagainst Providence, I believe, it's next
Wednesday against DePaul, and then thelast game of the year, which is
a noon tip off against Marquette.You know, those are our three home

(38:20):
games. The three road games inorder at Marquette, at Georgetown, and
at Butler. And you know,for us being seven and seven, I
mean there's a difference between the fourthplace team and the ninth place team in
this game. In this league,it's about five plays, coach, as
far as your defense and playing betterdefense, What are the couple just a

(38:42):
couple of items you're looking for?Is a help defense from the other players
or is it you know, ourguards and this happens sometimes if guards sometimes
can get beaten down or are gettingsmashed on screens. We're having a hard
time getting that quick toughness on theball, ball pressure which we need,
and when they're harder to screen,they're more difficult to screen. When they

(39:05):
fight over screens and they defend ata tougher level, we're a better overall
team. We worked on that today. We talked a lot about that today.
In our league, if you runright into the screen and die on
it, they're just too many goodplayers and that's a big, big key
for us. All right, Thankseverybody for joining us here at Deli Bistrom.
Thanks for joining us for the SeanMiller Coaches Show. I'm fifty five

(39:28):
KR Senior of the Varsity Network,live from the Dilly Bistro in Marymont.
This has been the Sean Miller RadioShow, presented by bud Light, Easy
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(39:53):
Field presentation on the Xavier Sports Network.