The Dan Patrick ShowDP reacts to Duke losing in the Final Four. Did the inexperience of the freshmen on the team cause their late-game collapse? Freshly crowned Women's Basketball National Champion, UCONN HC Geno Auriemma discusses questioning whether or not he still has what it takes to coach at the highest level, and shares how navigating today's college distractions has reshaped his approach to coaching. UCONN MBB HC Dan Hurley reflects on his emotional growth, and breaks down how the transfer portal continues to grow increasingly difficult to manage.
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For most of the season, Duke was dominating college basketball, and they had talent, they had depth, great coaching. They get into the Final Four against the battle tested Houston team, and you had raw talent meeting its match, and it certainly showed. Duke was up by fourteen in the second half, under nine minutes to go, seemingly in control. And as I've said many times on this show, freshmen can act like freshmen. I don't care how talented you are, and they acted like freshman late in that game. Now, Houston didn't flinch. That was the key. Calvin Sampson did a wonderful job of telling his team we're only down by. We're only down by, even though it's double digits to Duke and the best player in college basketball. So you have an experienced team, well coached, and when they had the moment when it called for composure, they delivered did not. But we've seen this before many times. You get that moment and this is where you step up and you make a big play. I thought Duke was nonchalant at times, even trying to get the ball in. Cooper Flag had a moment, and his moment passed. But Houston played great, and I think there's moments where you go, this could get out of hand, and it certainly looked like it was going to get out of hand. Kelvin Samson didn't allow his team to let it get out of hand, to get embarrassed. And then with Florida and Auburn, I thought Auburn was going to win the game. I thought Houston was going to keep close, and I thought that they would. I would take the points with Houston. They end up upsetting them. But Walter Clayton Junior the third has made himself some money. Imagine you're the guy, everybody knows you're the guy, and you still go steph curry on people. And that's what's remarkable. These are contested shots. These aren't just hey, somebody drive and dish. It's I got the ball, I'm going to I'm going to do the driving and I'm going to take the big shot. And that's what was impressive. This is this is quite a run, quite a run for one player. And look, I haven't been sold on Florida. They could win the national title, but I am sold on Walter Clayton. He is a whole lot of fun and he's probably making making himself into a lottery pick now. And I think, uh, when the tournament began, there was talk maybe at the end of the first round, but what I've seen so far, and I don't want to get caught up too much. And you've done this in a couple of games in the tournament, but I do want to get caught up in the fact that you're doing it in the tournament because you're doing it with high pressure. These are big games, big moments, and that's what's fun to see when you're watching somebody. He was at IONA. Nobody knew that he was at IONA except for the Florida coaching staff that said, you know what, that guy right there could be pretty good. So he was there, Rick Patino. And you're seeing a lot of these teams that have you know, juniors and seniors, you know transfer players. This is college basketball, and you've seen that Houston has experience, Florida has experience as well. All right, poll question for the first hour of the program seating is going to be what, well, why don't we start off with a positive who had the best week?
Okay?
Well, Alexandrovichkin he did pretty well. Decent, that's not bad.
Yeah, all time, great weekend, Yeah, Calvin Sampson, Yep.
That's pretty nice.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's a hell of a dub to get. I think maybe we combined pagebackers in geno Oriama. They had a great weekend. Yes. Yeah. The fact they went nine years without winning a championship is like when Tom Brady went i think nine years without winning a Super Bowl. We just gotten to that point where you go, wow, it's been that long. When Holly Rowe interviewed gino Oriema after the game, she's like, you know, last time we were here, it's twenty sixteen, and they've had their moments. But I mean, give credit Paige Becker's you have a couple of serious injuries to come back, all the greatness, all the greatness you had at Yukon, they all win championships. And I'm glad that she was able to put that on her resume because she deserves that. She was Caitlin Clark before Caitlin Clark, and that's a really good team and Don Staley knew knew that early, and I think that's why she was trying to fire up her team. And then she realized, Hey, we got beat by a really really good team. And I always wonder about this when you win a national championship, your Gino Oriema, what is that? Twelve titles? Now are you going to stay? And he probably looks at the roster and he goes, yo, why would I leave? Hey, I got a starve freshman, my best shooter, Fudg's going to come back Like I'm okay, I'm seventy one. What else am I going to do? You know, if I had a team like that, like Gino, then I would probably come back. It's just I just don't have, you know, a team that I can count on the way he can hypothetically. Yeah, yeah, I talk about specific people pathetically. Now, you know, there's nothing wrong with staying. You like it, you enjoy it. Can you get fired up again, and usually you get the energy from your new wave of players. And you know when he said we used to scrimmage in the beginning of the season, I didn't think we'd make the tournament. And then all of a sudden they had a run that was similar to the Yukon men's in how they blew people out in the tournament. That's a really, really good team and a deep team, and they had far more, you know, far more talent than South Carolina and Don Stale. He has done a wonderful job there. I just didn't think she had a great player. I think she had a really good team, she just didn't have a great player. So who had the best weekend?
Seaton?
Is that we're looking at Yukon with Page and Geno, and we're looking at Ovechkin.
Yep.
Who else do we want to put on? Certainly Calvin Sampson that's a great win. Yeah. Walter Clayton Junior the third had another great win? Yeah him, Yes, yes, he did. Anybody else was a little bit.
Of like a did Duke collapse or did Houston take it?
Houston collapsed? Yeah, I think there has to be something has to happen for something to happen, So there has to be action for reaction, they have to open the door for a collapse where they don't get rebounds, they don't make field goals, they can't get the ball in bounds, they commit a foul, they allow you know, a putback, that's all they allow. They did all those things. Now Houston played a role in that, but still you're Duke you're not getting rebounds in the final three minutes, you don't have field goals, not making free throws. I put that on Duke. That's a collapse. Absolutely, yes, Tom.
I couldn't help.
But wonder what was going through Coach K's mind as he's sitting there watching this unfold over the last minute and a half two minutes and you know, second guessing in his own mind. He wouldn't necessarily call out coach Shaire and have a discussion after the game.
But gott to wonder what that foot bubble would be.
Like, Yeah, yeah, probably pretty tough to sit there and you can do nothing. Yeah, you're just watching. But you know, we think Duke is going to go to the championship game. They should go to the championship game. But Houston hit big shots. Duke had to allow them the opportunity to make those moments big shots. What else do we have as far as the pole question today? And we'll get to Ovechkin passing Gretz game. How about vlad Guerrero Junior the third he gets five hundred million from Toronto. Sheeton brought up a great point about his dad by how did you fraight Guerrero Junior's dad, not my dad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, How did you phrase it about Vlad Guerrero Senior.
He was like, I just remember him as being one of the greatest sluggers of this generation to never happen.
He had a he had a window there where you.
Were like, dude, this dude is about to go off. Yeah, and that is any minute now, this dude is just about to take over.
And man, what the heck happened? I thought he was the guy. Nine time All Star, one of the best bad ball hitters, always had the pine tar on the front of his batting helmet.
This batting helmet looked like it had been in a fire something that's just completely torn up.
But he's a Hall of Famer. It just it always felt like, God, he should have been even greater. Yeah, which isn't fair because he had one of the best arms in baseball bad ball hitter, But I don't know. Did he win a championship anywhere? I kind of played sort of in obscurity a little bit, But man, was he talented? Five hundred million How old is Vlad Guerrero Junior? Because they gave him a fourteen year, five hundred million dollar deal.
He is, uh twenty six years old.
Okay, Look, I'm sure that they have their accountants and they do the math, but I just like, for the life of me, could never give somebody a contract like that. Fourteen years? What could go wrong? Or if it's ten years, you're like, no, no, five years? Okay, yes, polman, would you.
Like to play the Vlad Guerrero Senior Vlad Guerrero Junior career salary game?
Sure?
Why not? Had this ready for you? Okay, salbrate.
Salary, salary, salary, salary salar Okay.
Vlad Guerrero Senior played fifteen seasons. His best paycheck was nine with the La Angels of Anaheim redundant fifteen million dollars. His career salary was one hundred and twenty five million dollars. The old man did rial. Well, vlag Guerrero Junior, Well, I'll let you guys. Guys, he's made seventy five million so far. What will his career salary be?
Probably five hundred and seventy five to make sure you could get that seventy five yeah, five hundred plus seventy five fires.
Yeah, he is on pace to make five and eighty million dollars. In his career five times? What is old Manning?
Yeah?
Yeah, all right, yeah, yes, Mark, pretty good, thank you, thank you. Not bad if you can get it.
Yeah. Uh.
And I thought that they were going to be all in on Otani. Remember when we had Steve Phillips, the former Mets GM and he came on and he was like, Hey, Toronto's in this for Otani. And then all of a sudden, Toronto wasn't in for you know, Otani. It's like Aaron Judge with the San Francisco Giants. It's like, hey, giants got a great shot at him, and then all of a sudden they didn't have a great shot at him. Yes, Todd, if.
You're concerned about Vlad Junior's age, he just turned twenty six, so he's a young twenty six six three weeks ago.
Oh okay, he's on the young end of that. Now I feel better about the next fourteen years.
O God.
Since steals became an official stat in nineteen eighty six, NCAA Tournament teams are three hundred and thirty five and one in games that they beat their opponents in field goal percentage, free throw attempts, assist turnovers, fewer than your opponent and steals the lone loss Duke on Saturday Night.
Stat of the.
Day, stat of the Day, That past stat of the day, stat of the day, here comes that.
What stat of the Day.
Brought to you by Panini America, the official Trading Cards of the DP show. If you don't like Duke, you had a great Saturday because that was one of those where and this isn't a team that you know that you dislike. I mean, they're a good team to watch, they're fun team to watch, but you were rooting against the brand. That brand is pretty powerful, and I think that's probably what stood out in your life. Oh god, Duke again. Wait, Houston's come, Wait, Houston's come. Holy Duke's gonna lose this game. That's as I'm watching it, You're watching almost as in slow motion, where I'm going, oh my god, oh my god. Wait, and then all of a sudden there'd be a three, and then all of a sudden, can't get the ball in. Then all of a sudden there's a foul on flag. And yes, I'm okay with the call, because let's say it was the other way and Duke got the call. What would we say. No, Yeah, they want Duke to win. So you can't say that the officials were calling and making the call and what they saw. Is it tough to make that call. Yes, but they did make a tough call and it went against Duke.
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Gino Orima is set to join us, the freshly minted head coach of the national champion Yukon Huskies. Did you forget about this feeling? Did you remember what it was like to win a national title?
Almost? You know, we have those moments our senior citizens. You know you ought to know so, but it didn't take long to remember.
Though.
Never ceases to amaze me, the the feeling that you have when when you watch those faces and it's just really, really unbelievable.
But take me back to pre season and you said that the girls they lost a scrimmage. Yeah we did, we did. And is that where you go home and you say to your wife, oh my god, I don't know what we have here. We may not even make the tournament. Well it's that's exactly what we say.
We said, I hope we make the NCAA tournament this year.
You know, is.
We didn't take it seriously.
You know, we kind of everybody thought, yeah, we're gonna be good because you know, we're healthy.
We got everybody back, but it was a it was.
A good reminder, but it was it was a struggle throughout I would say, November December, trying to find some consistency.
We would have it, lose it, have it, lose it.
And I think it wasn't until we got back from South Carolina the first time, when we played so well that we actually understood, all right, this is what the level is, this is.
Who we can be.
And that's when it all changed.
Is it a grind?
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
But is it a different kind of like let's say, fifteen years ago, similar kind of grind.
A little different, I think a little different it being that the players I'm coaching today are way more challenged, They're way more distracted, They've got way more voices in their head, They've got way too much information coming at them from all sources of people.
Things that it's hard to.
Make your voice really be a you know, the voice like you know when you played like your coach said, you know, today's Wednesday.
You go home and tell hey, mom, today's Wednesday.
Man, No, it's not. It's Monday. Coach said, it's Wednesday today. What's your coach say today.
I don't know. I wasn't listening. I mean, that's it's just a little bit harder right now. Man.
But you're not dealing you know. We hear the men's coaches talking about transfer portal. Nil. Yeah, how prevalent is that for you on a daily, weekly, monthly basis?
No, I don't deal with it on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. No, we don't have somebody on our staff that's calling AAU coaches and handlers and all that. You know, you know, is your kid interested, Hey, tell them we're interested, like a lot of schools do.
No, we don't deal with that. We just coach our team. We know at the end of every year, because we get pretty good players and.
If they don't all play as much as they want, those days I'll wait my turn, those are gone, you know. So we know that the end of every year, some kids already halfway out the door when they realize I'm not getting the time that I thought I was going to get and it's like, you know, we understand we might lose a couple every year, but there's a couple kids that want to come every year. What makes it hard is in the NBA, they have a free agency period of time. This is when you can talk to free agents, this is when you can sign them.
Blah blah blah. Our free agency is the whole year and every kid there's three hundred and sixty five Division one schools plus Division two. Every kid's a free agent every day the whole year.
It's just.
And then the portals open during the NCAA tournament. Can you imagine the NBA playoffs and free agencies going on during the playoff.
I mean, it's insanity.
So whoo, but luckily we don't have to deal with as much as obviously it's happening on the guys.
And the money.
Don't even get me started on the money. Some of the money that I hear programs have to spend. And now obviously it's football and men's basketball to drive this. But it's out of hand, man, it's out of hand. What was your pregame speech?
What's my pregame speech? Probably you know the same.
As it was the previous three games that we just want you know, this was our fourth game, you know, two and two. I like to talk about how many times this one was really good. I like this one because I said, you know, this is our twenty fourth final four, and our record in the final four before last night w eleven wins twelve losses.
In twenty three final fours.
I said, So, I'm the winningest coach in the history of college basketball, but I have a losing record in the final court. I said, but when I'm introduced at some events, you know, they go and ladies and gentlemen Gino Orima.
You know, he's lost twelve, I said. They don't do that.
They say, you know, you know where eman, he's won eleven national ms. So you know, nobody gives a damn about who loses. They just care about winning. So why worry about losing because nobody cares. So I think the thing that I always try to do is try to make them understand to not be afraid to lose, because that's what gets in the way of teams winning, and especially at this point in time in the season, when your whole, you know, career is riding on it. The fear of losing is just so powerful, and I think it's my job to try to diffuse that as much as I can.
At any point during that nine year maybe it's not fair to say drought, but for you it would be. But did you at any point doubt yourself of am I still able to motivate them? Am I losing it? Or you know, any kind of concerns about you and your coaching?
Yeah?
Yeah, of course, because well a couple of things. We went to fifteen straight final fours, but we didn't win. After number eleven, we didn't win the next four or five years. You know, six years out of those nine years that we didn't win, we went to the final four eight times, and we were never healthy. I shouldn't say six of those times we were never healthy. So I kept saying, you know, when we get healthy, we'll be fine. But I gotta tell you, Dan, I'm brutally honest. There was so many times when I would go home and I would say, I don't think I'm as good a coach as I used to be. I don't think I'm as able to do what these players need in today's world. I don't know that I can do that. Which is crazy because we're going to the final four of year, but it does creep into your mind when it's you're having all these things thrown at you. This injury, that injury, this key player's out, that one's out for the season.
You know.
Yeah, it really really really made me question am I still the right person to be doing this at this time in my career at a place like Yukon, where championships is the standard, and you.
Know how this works. We get to a certain age and people go, oh, how much long are you going to do it? You know, Oh, you know, be a great time to retire, you just when you walk off final. I mean, so, how do you deal with this? Just because I decided in three years I'm retiring. I just said I have to mark this is when I'm going to retire, or I don't think I would retire.
Is that five years ago? You made that commitment?
A year and a half ago, I said I would retire, and I gave the date I was going to retire. Good for you, okay, but I needed to do it because there's other things I needed to do, and to be fair with my family and my wife. Have you had those discussions of and I don't know if there's anything else that you want to do, because maybe you're like you know, coaches coach till they die. It's like, this is what I.
Want to do.
This is all I know. I don't know if I'm wired that way.
No, no, no, I don't know why I still do it, be honest with you, Most people my age have enough sense not to do it. And I think one thing that helps me then, like when I get back to school and whatever recruiting has to be done or whatever I would say, by the time May comes around, I don't give basketball a thought until next September.
I get it.
I just walk away.
I'm done, And luckily I have a staff and I got a program that can do that. But I don't live at twenty four to seven. I don't take it home with me like the way you know a lot of these guys do. That just wears on them day after day. Now we have the privilege of doing that because of our success.
I get it.
If you're grinding it out trying to make DNC Tournament every year, keep your job. But I'm not in that situation. If I was, I would have got out a long time ago. Uh, so you know, I'm able to put it away, and there's so many other things that I would love to do. You know, when you retire, let me know, because I'll sit there and ask great questions like you do and make fun of people like you do.
I would love to do that. However, I got I got.
An email today from a friend of mine, Tom Sherman, play for play for Penn State, and he played for Joe Paterno and he emailed me today and he goes, Hey, forty years at U Kony.
Because it's unbelievable.
He goes, you know what, Joe Paterno was at Penn State sixty four years, so you can still catch up. And I thought to myself, you got to be kidding. Sixty four years. Yeah, so no, it'll be some time before that, trust me.
And I'll leave you with this that you get your women to stay, you know they're they're there for years. So you you develop a friendship, a relationship whereas you know men's college coaches, if you're good, you know it's a six month you know transaction here. Yeah, but you could see that where you with Paige Becker's you're watching her be this great player to being injured to never winning a title. Now he's your chance to win a title. Then just being overcome by emotion because it's real. It's like a daughter, I guess. I mean, you're hugging a daughter of sorts in that moment and you're kind of at a loss for words. Correct, it was awesome.
Though, Yeah, it is.
It is because.
We do get them at an age where they're very impressionable, so to speak, and they're seventeen eighteen years old, and we know if things go well, we do get them for four years. We do get to see them at the beginning, and then we get to see them at the end, and we get to see them when they're struggling. When it is, it's like raising your kids and it's like all of a sudden, you send them off after a period of time.
Yeah, if.
This was like men's basketball, there's no way I would even have close to twelve national championships. Diana would have been one and done. Stewie would have been one and done. Mayan War would have been one and done. I can go on and on page Beckers would have been one and done. All these guys. So the fact that I think we can it goes back to the old days. It's like the way it used to be. You know, we we get them young, and then we you know, work with them, and then does create a bond that I think is missing in men's college basketball and football is a little bit better because those guys have to stay, you know, for about three years. But now the portals become, yeah, look, I'm here as long as I can get what I want. Otherwise I'm out. And so the coaches feel like, okay, well, if this guy's going to walk out on me any day, now, why should I invest all of myself and in or her. I'm just going to coach you get what I need to get out of you, and if you leave, you leave. If you stay, you stay, that's fine. So it's really kind of created like a professional environment where we're just doing this. You're and this nonsense about well they're not employees. Yeah, they are employees. We're paying them to play basketball for us, and when they don't like their job, they quit and go go work someplace else.
So I'm lucky, I really am.
I've got a great situation, and I know a lot of guys on the men's side envy it, and and I feel bad for those guys.
Uh, congratch, hair still looks great, and uh, thanks for joining us. Yeah, and.
You know, I can't believe you're still doing this. And I know I tell people all the time, you're one of the few guys in America that ask questions that are way shorter than the guys answer.
And I really appreciate that.
I want a shot clock, Gino. I like that brevity, brevity, get to the point that shit, Hey, congratch, thanks for joining us.
Yeah, thanks for having us.
That's Gino Orima.
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
He's the head coach for the men's team at Connecticut, two time defending national champs at least until tomorrow or late tonight. Dan Hurley joining us on the program. Good to talk to you again, coach. Did you watch the games? The semi final games?
I did, unlike uh, you know, unlike after the twenty two season where you know where we had that first round exit and I ignored the rest of the tournament. Uh I. I've watched as many of the games as as I possibly could since we've been eliminated.
You lose to Florida second round, But do you take any solace with the fact that Florida is here playing for a national championship.
Yeah, I do.
I think it's a uh, it's more honorable that, you know, kind of at the run we've been on, uh, you know where where we kind of fell at the hands of uh, you know, of a championship level team that's, you know, one game away from experiencing the champmpionship glory. So yeah, I mean if we would have lost to like a lower seeded team or a team that, you know, it was not of the championship caliber, I guess it feels more honorable, you know, have a one thirteen in a row in that tournament in the fashion we did, you know, to have it all, you know, to have it all end at the hands of of the Gators. There's there's probably some honor in that.
How do you explain what happened with Duke and Houston at the end of that game.
I mean, I mean, I can't you know, imagine you know, just kind of well, no, I can't imagine you know what what John and his staff and.
Those players are feeling.
I mean it felt like, you know that they were the best team, you know, the best team in the country this year. I think their roster, the way they put it together was, uh, it was meticulous. I think the the quality at both ends of the court, you know, was they were playing basketball at an incredibly high level, you know, with high level NBA players. But just the fact that they were not in enough close games, I think, you know, I think the fact that they dominated so much throughout conference play, I think, you know, the separation between them and the other teams and their conference really hurt them when they got to those end of game situations where they haven't had to shoot a lot of pressure want to pressure free throws, one on ones, they had to indown the ball versus full denial. With a three point lead or a one point lead, they were you know, they were in a type of game that that Houston had been in a bunch, uh, you know, because of you know, playing in the Big twelve afforded them more opportunities, and I think that came back.
To haunt them.
I brought this up a long time ago. I brought it up subsequently. You go back to U N l V when you and l V blew out Duke, your brother team, and then that following year and we thought they were invincible. And I remember talking about you want to see a team play a close game. You just want to have that feeling you know what you're doing. And this isn't all on the freshman at Duke, but still you got young players, and you got a veteran Houston team, and sometimes freshmen act like freshmen, no matter how great they are. But as a coach, what role would you play in a situation like that?
Yeah, I think you know some of the I would say the situational things that you experience in a you know, with that true game pressure, you know, and you know, Duke goes in as the favorite, just kind of like we were last year, where you know, we're playing at such a high level. They had, you know, dominated the first you know, four rounds of the tournament. Obviously, the Arizona game ended up being an eight point game or an eight point win, but at times in that game they look dominant. But I just think that they You could practice situational basketball all you want, but you cannot simulate the game pressure that you feel, you know, when your inbounder has got to run the baseline and throw a pass through a narrow window to a player being face guarded by a wolf. I mean, Houston's got some wolves out there, you know, making it really tough on you. And you know, for us last year, we weren't very good in close games, you know, the games during the course of the year. I don't think we were great in one possession games the last two years. But there was a window I think for duking that game to keep that game double figures, keep that game twelve fourteen, back down to ten, get it back up to fifteen.
You know, but they just they stop scoring.
The difference in coaching a freshman and coaching a junior, what's the biggest difference.
I just think, uh, you know, repetitions, game experiences, you know, just having been in those positions you know before, you know, more practices under their belt, more you know, more life experiences.
You know, just you know a little bit more. You know, maturity a little more, uh, you know, worldliness a.
Little you know, just a little bit more, you know, prepared to have experienced more failures, have experienced uh, you know, different.
Types of successes, just a little little uh, a little.
More grizzled talking to Dan Hurley, You're still the reigning national champs at least for twelve more hours.
That's why I got I'm wearing it today, Dan, I'm wearing it. Uh.
There's a trophy behind you. There's a pair of shoes on top of that trophy. Whose shoes are those? A? R.
Smith? Uh? You know JR. Swish.
That was my first great player that played for me at s. Benedix and Uh the first play went to the NBA out of high school, so was Uh. That was his rookie year shoe with the hornets.
Okay, any other memorabilia that might surprise es?
Uh, I got, Well, I.
Think a lot of people like the underwear over Those are my underwear. Not many men have their underwear on a plaque in their office.
Uh.
Obviously the Gladiator health that explains a lot about me right there, the lion head behind it.
You haven't gotten in trouble in a while, have you?
No, I've I've got a lot of self aware. Well, I don't have a lot of self I have enough.
I have enough self awareness and situational awareness that I skipped San Antonio and Uh I decided not to parade myself around the final four and to uh, you know, to take a break, to let people have a little bit of a break for me, and then uh, you know, just to you know, reflect on the year, the run we've been on, and uh, obviously, uh it was the first real chance Dan I've had really since we were eliminated from the tournament twenty two, you know, through to that Florida loss in the tournament. You know, your my life's been a whirlwind, uh of some incredible moments and and some moments that uh, you know are arn Is uh Arnest.
Arn is great.
But I remember when you turned down the Lakers and we talked and you said you weren't mature enough yet for a job like that. Your words, Yeah, all right, how do you mature?
Like what do you?
What do you?
What?
Are are you doing anything to mature?
You know that that's a tough one. I think Number one, I'll say this a lot of.
I feel like the biggest mistake I made this year was not being able to you know, put together, uh and develop a championship team. You know, I when I look at this year for me, you know that that's the thing that I regret the most is that I wasn't able to, uh, you know, to put together another team that was could experience championship glory. You know, some of the things I think that uh, you know, whether it's you know, my relationship with officials, or you know, some of the fan interactions or the different things that come with me. Part of what makes me successful is, uh is my passion, It's my intensity, It's it's this you know, when when you're winning it, when you're winning championships, these these same things have gone on when you're winning championships. It's called relentlessness.
You know.
I've been called relentless the past two years, even though I've been experience in the same types of interactions with fans and officials. You know, this year it's been called, uh, you know, immature. It's been called a lot of things because you know, my team isn't on top. I haven't changed a whole.
Lot that way.
If you had a little earpiece and your wife was allowed to talk to you on the sideline during a game, how do you think that would go.
I think that I'd be here stop shut up.
Yeah, I mean I would say that from a I think that my relationships with officials. Now you know the Florida you know the Florida post game. I regret that one greatly.
You know that that was I.
There was literally one play call. Uh, there was one drive to the rim that I felt, if we clearly got that would have kept that game in a two possession game. That was just it was ringing in my mind. And it wasn't like multiple calls I felt were miss dan. It was just this one play, uh, that I could not get out of my mind as I was heading through that tunnel and as I saw the Baylor players, I deeply regret that. I mean we we we missed a lot of open shots and credit Florida and Clayton. I mean this, uh, you know there there championship level, but you know that.
One I regret deeply. I didn't believe that. And then that was embarrassing.
When I look at other ones that were, you know, embarrassing that I'm the best coach in the country.
That was embarrassing. I wish somebody could have stopped me from having that moment.
A lot of some of the fan interactions, I've got to get somebody, I think that maybe could just walk me on and off the court. Maybe like college football has those guys that walked the coach to the other coach and then just get them off the court.
I need to get.
Somebody that could just when the game ends, just get me on and off the court, because I don't think that my in game coaching. I want to change a lot because we've been really successful.
But what is it about officials?
Though I don't think it's as bad as it's made out to be.
I've watched these other officials, and listen, I've earned you, earn your reputation.
You know.
I'm definitely a tough coach to officiate because I'm very demanding. Uh And I value every single possession in the game because I know how important they are, you know. And and but I've also modeled myself after maybe an older, you know generation of coaches. You know, I'm just an intense coach. And I think I'm intense in a very similar way to Coach Sampson tonight. I think if you watch Coach Samson closely tonight, he's a very intense coach and he's going to be very demanding of the officials.
Well, you're like your dad, though you.
Would hate my father. I mean everyone and my dad.
I know, I like being around your dad socially. When he puts his teeth in and he you know, you know, we we have a conversation. I enjoyed being around and we were I don't know what we were watching, like, I don't know, some sitcom or not even a sitcom, is some cop show. When I went to his apartment in Jersey City, and I'm going, it seems really nice. He's just a nice guy. And then you hear these horror stories about how demanding your dad was.
Yeah, well, I mean, Dan, you know, it's like you've got to be able to separate the competitor, you know, the combatants.
But could you coach like this like you are right now, No, you couldn't.
Just be like, it doesn't line up with our play style. It doesn't lie, okay, with the intensity that we play with.
It doesn't. It doesn't line up with.
How we attacked the offensive glass or you know how hard we played defensively. And it's not just me, it's our whole bench. I mean we lead the country in warnings from officials to have everyone sit down. I mean everyone on my bench is like out of pocket, Like it's it's just we're an emotional program.
We're a passionate program. And I don't think I'm going to change a whole lot of that.
I would, but I do you know, upon reflection, I think that the interaction with you know, people not on my team or you know, I would like to probably have less of that.
When do you walk down the hall to congratulate Gino?
I guess I'm gonna wait for him, maybe to sober up. I mean, I wouldn't remember.
I talked to him last hour.
How did he look?
He looked like a million bucks, hair was calmed. I mean he looked like Gino.
I mean, he he he.
I mean we we text, we talk, you know, we were texting before, you know, all of his games and and I mean he he saved my season from completely unraveling in November. So I owe a lot to Gino.
And uh what did he do?
I mean, right when we got back from Maui as as I as I had erupted like a volcano in Maui and and come back to try to pick the pieces up. I was in a bad, bad place. I was coaching, angry, I was coaching frustrated. I you know, I I knew I didn't have deep down I knew, you know, I didn't have a team that could compete for a championship.
And I was trying to come to grips.
With that, and and he helped kind of talk me through, you know, like if all you're in this for is to win championships and and like if that's the only joy that you get from coaching, you've become basically a monster.
How's the transfer portal by the way, Oh my.
God, yeah, I mean, like no one is I mean when I that Monday, when when you come to the realization that like literally no one is on your team, you know, like that Monday, Because even if you're not in the portal, because it's now a lot of it is being conducted by agents, you know, So even if you're not in the portal, you're you're you're in the portal because schools now, you know, they they reach out for the agent, and you know, the these agents are representing the players. So even if a player hasn't kind of formally gotten in the portal, schools will now reach out for agents and make offers to players, you know, that way indirectly, and and a lot of deals I guess are agreed upon before players even go in u which is not the way that that we do business.
We you know, it's it's a mess how.
Many players are officially on your roster.
I think right now I could sit here and say that we definitely have eight players on our team, you know, and we could have as many as ten. I think, you know, maybe two potentially or are are undecided whether that's you know, going to the NBA. Obviously, Alice Caraban's got to make a decision what he wants.
To do with this last year, you know.
I'd imagine he'll be deciding at some point soon here, maybe this week, and then you know, and then we have another player who's you know, deciding. So yeah, I mean right now and listen, it's better than it was.
You know, last week. I think there was a point where I think I felt like I had like one guy.
Plus the high school guys, and we got three McDonald's, all merricks, and a Tasmanian dude who think is gonna be really good.
So we're excited about that. All right.
If you need help in filling out the roster, like practicing, just let me know. Wait, don't laugh like that.
We're used to deep when you get used to deep runs. Dan, I feel like I gotta do better. You do.
Good to talk to you, Thank you, coach. That's Dan Hurley
