Speaker 1: You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Radio.
Speaker 2: For most of the season, Duke was dominating college basketball,
Speaker 2: and they had talent, they had depth, great coaching. They
Speaker 2: get into the Final Four against the battle tested Houston team,
Speaker 2: and you had raw talent meeting its match, and it
Speaker 2: certainly showed. Duke was up by fourteen in the second half,
Speaker 2: under nine minutes to go, seemingly in control. And as
Speaker 2: I've said many times on this show, freshmen can act
Speaker 2: like freshmen. I don't care how talented you are, and
Speaker 2: they acted like freshman late in that game. Now, Houston
Speaker 2: didn't flinch. That was the key. Calvin Sampson did a
Speaker 2: wonderful job of telling his team we're only down by.
Speaker 2: We're only down by, even though it's double digits to
Speaker 2: Duke and the best player in college basketball. So you
Speaker 2: have an experienced team, well coached, and when they had
Speaker 2: the moment when it called for composure, they delivered did not.
Speaker 2: But we've seen this before many times. You get that
Speaker 2: moment and this is where you step up and you
Speaker 2: make a big play. I thought Duke was nonchalant at times,
Speaker 2: even trying to get the ball in. Cooper Flag had
Speaker 2: a moment, and his moment passed. But Houston played great,
Speaker 2: and I think there's moments where you go, this could
Speaker 2: get out of hand, and it certainly looked like it
Speaker 2: was going to get out of hand. Kelvin Samson didn't
Speaker 2: allow his team to let it get out of hand,
Speaker 2: to get embarrassed. And then with Florida and Auburn, I
Speaker 2: thought Auburn was going to win the game. I thought
Speaker 2: Houston was going to keep close, and I thought that
Speaker 2: they would. I would take the points with Houston. They
Speaker 2: end up upsetting them. But Walter Clayton Junior the third
Speaker 2: has made himself some money. Imagine you're the guy, everybody
Speaker 2: knows you're the guy, and you still go steph curry
Speaker 2: on people. And that's what's remarkable. These are contested shots.
Speaker 2: These aren't just hey, somebody drive and dish. It's I
Speaker 2: got the ball, I'm going to I'm going to do
Speaker 2: the driving and I'm going to take the big shot.
Speaker 2: And that's what was impressive. This is this is quite
Speaker 2: a run, quite a run for one player. And look,
Speaker 2: I haven't been sold on Florida. They could win the
Speaker 2: national title, but I am sold on Walter Clayton. He
Speaker 2: is a whole lot of fun and he's probably making
Speaker 2: making himself into a lottery pick now. And I think, uh,
Speaker 2: when the tournament began, there was talk maybe at the
Speaker 2: end of the first round, but what I've seen so far,
Speaker 2: and I don't want to get caught up too much.
Speaker 2: And you've done this in a couple of games in
Speaker 2: the tournament, but I do want to get caught up
Speaker 2: in the fact that you're doing it in the tournament
Speaker 2: because you're doing it with high pressure. These are big games,
Speaker 2: big moments, and that's what's fun to see when you're
Speaker 2: watching somebody. He was at IONA. Nobody knew that he
Speaker 2: was at IONA except for the Florida coaching staff that said,
Speaker 2: you know what, that guy right there could be pretty good.
Speaker 2: So he was there, Rick Patino. And you're seeing a
Speaker 2: lot of these teams that have you know, juniors and seniors,
Speaker 2: you know transfer players. This is college basketball, and you've
Speaker 2: seen that Houston has experience, Florida has experience as well.
Speaker 2: All right, poll question for the first hour of the
Speaker 2: program seating is going to be what, well, why don't
Speaker 2: we start off with a positive who had the best week?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 2: Well, Alexandrovichkin he did pretty well. Decent, that's not bad.
Speaker 4: Yeah, all time, great weekend, Yeah, Calvin Sampson, Yep.
Speaker 2: That's pretty nice.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a hell of a dub to get. I
Speaker 2: think maybe we combined pagebackers in geno Oriama. They had
Speaker 2: a great weekend. Yes. Yeah. The fact they went nine
Speaker 2: years without winning a championship is like when Tom Brady
Speaker 2: went i think nine years without winning a Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: We just gotten to that point where you go, wow,
Speaker 2: it's been that long. When Holly Rowe interviewed gino Oriema
Speaker 2: after the game, she's like, you know, last time we
Speaker 2: were here, it's twenty sixteen, and they've had their moments.
Speaker 2: But I mean, give credit Paige Becker's you have a
Speaker 2: couple of serious injuries to come back, all the greatness,
Speaker 2: all the greatness you had at Yukon, they all win championships.
Speaker 2: And I'm glad that she was able to put that
Speaker 2: on her resume because she deserves that. She was Caitlin
Speaker 2: Clark before Caitlin Clark, and that's a really good team
Speaker 2: and Don Staley knew knew that early, and I think
Speaker 2: that's why she was trying to fire up her team.
Speaker 2: And then she realized, Hey, we got beat by a
Speaker 2: really really good team. And I always wonder about this
Speaker 2: when you win a national championship, your Gino Oriema, what
Speaker 2: is that? Twelve titles? Now are you going to stay?
Speaker 2: And he probably looks at the roster and he goes, yo,
Speaker 2: why would I leave? Hey, I got a starve freshman,
Speaker 2: my best shooter, Fudg's going to come back Like I'm okay,
Speaker 2: I'm seventy one. What else am I going to do?
Speaker 2: You know, if I had a team like that, like Gino,
Speaker 2: then I would probably come back. It's just I just
Speaker 2: don't have, you know, a team that I can count
Speaker 2: on the way he can hypothetically. Yeah, yeah, I talk
Speaker 2: about specific people pathetically. Now, you know, there's nothing wrong
Speaker 2: with staying. You like it, you enjoy it. Can you
Speaker 2: get fired up again, and usually you get the energy
Speaker 2: from your new wave of players. And you know when
Speaker 2: he said we used to scrimmage in the beginning of
Speaker 2: the season, I didn't think we'd make the tournament. And
Speaker 2: then all of a sudden they had a run that
Speaker 2: was similar to the Yukon men's in how they blew
Speaker 2: people out in the tournament. That's a really, really good
Speaker 2: team and a deep team, and they had far more,
Speaker 2: you know, far more talent than South Carolina and Don Stale.
Speaker 2: He has done a wonderful job there. I just didn't
Speaker 2: think she had a great player. I think she had
Speaker 2: a really good team, she just didn't have a great player.
Speaker 2: So who had the best weekend?
Speaker 5: Seaton?
Speaker 2: Is that we're looking at Yukon with Page and Geno,
Speaker 2: and we're looking at Ovechkin.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 2: Who else do we want to put on? Certainly Calvin
Speaker 2: Sampson that's a great win. Yeah. Walter Clayton Junior the
Speaker 2: third had another great win? Yeah him, Yes, yes, he did.
Speaker 2: Anybody else was a little bit.
Speaker 4: Of like a did Duke collapse or did Houston take it?
Speaker 2: Houston collapsed? Yeah, I think there has to be something
Speaker 2: has to happen for something to happen, So there has
Speaker 2: to be action for reaction, they have to open the
Speaker 2: door for a collapse where they don't get rebounds, they
Speaker 2: don't make field goals, they can't get the ball in bounds,
Speaker 2: they commit a foul, they allow you know, a putback,
Speaker 2: that's all they allow. They did all those things. Now
Speaker 2: Houston played a role in that, but still you're Duke
Speaker 2: you're not getting rebounds in the final three minutes, you
Speaker 2: don't have field goals, not making free throws. I put
Speaker 2: that on Duke. That's a collapse. Absolutely, yes, Tom.
Speaker 5: I couldn't help.
Speaker 6: But wonder what was going through Coach K's mind as
Speaker 6: he's sitting there watching this unfold over the last minute
Speaker 6: and a half two minutes and you know, second guessing
Speaker 6: in his own mind. He wouldn't necessarily call out coach
Speaker 6: Shaire and have a discussion after the game.
Speaker 5: But gott to wonder what that foot bubble would be.
Speaker 2: Like, Yeah, yeah, probably pretty tough to sit there and
Speaker 2: you can do nothing. Yeah, you're just watching. But you know,
Speaker 2: we think Duke is going to go to the championship game.
Speaker 2: They should go to the championship game. But Houston hit
Speaker 2: big shots. Duke had to allow them the opportunity to
Speaker 2: make those moments big shots. What else do we have
Speaker 2: as far as the pole question today? And we'll get
Speaker 2: to Ovechkin passing Gretz game. How about vlad Guerrero Junior
Speaker 2: the third he gets five hundred million from Toronto. Sheeton
Speaker 2: brought up a great point about his dad by how
Speaker 2: did you fraight Guerrero Junior's dad, not my dad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right,
Speaker 2: How did you phrase it about Vlad Guerrero Senior.
Speaker 4: He was like, I just remember him as being one
Speaker 4: of the greatest sluggers of this generation to never happen.
Speaker 2: He had a he had a window there where you.
Speaker 4: Were like, dude, this dude is about to go off. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and that is any minute now, this dude is just
Speaker 4: about to take over.
Speaker 2: And man, what the heck happened? I thought he was
Speaker 2: the guy. Nine time All Star, one of the best
Speaker 2: bad ball hitters, always had the pine tar on the
Speaker 2: front of his batting helmet.
Speaker 4: This batting helmet looked like it had been in a
Speaker 4: fire something that's just completely torn up.
Speaker 2: But he's a Hall of Famer. It just it always
Speaker 2: felt like, God, he should have been even greater. Yeah,
Speaker 2: which isn't fair because he had one of the best
Speaker 2: arms in baseball bad ball hitter, But I don't know.
Speaker 2: Did he win a championship anywhere? I kind of played
Speaker 2: sort of in obscurity a little bit, But man, was
Speaker 2: he talented? Five hundred million How old is Vlad Guerrero Junior?
Speaker 2: Because they gave him a fourteen year, five hundred million
Speaker 2: dollar deal.
Speaker 7: He is, uh twenty six years old.
Speaker 2: Okay, Look, I'm sure that they have their accountants and
Speaker 2: they do the math, but I just like, for the
Speaker 2: life of me, could never give somebody a contract like that.
Speaker 2: Fourteen years? What could go wrong? Or if it's ten years,
Speaker 2: you're like, no, no, five years? Okay, yes, polman, would you.
Speaker 7: Like to play the Vlad Guerrero Senior Vlad Guerrero Junior
Speaker 7: career salary game?
Speaker 5: Sure?
Speaker 2: Why not? Had this ready for you? Okay, salbrate.
Speaker 8: Salary, salary, salary, salary salar Okay.
Speaker 7: Vlad Guerrero Senior played fifteen seasons. His best paycheck was
Speaker 7: nine with the La Angels of Anaheim redundant fifteen million dollars.
Speaker 7: His career salary was one hundred and twenty five million dollars.
Speaker 7: The old man did rial. Well, vlag Guerrero Junior, Well,
Speaker 7: I'll let you guys. Guys, he's made seventy five million
Speaker 7: so far. What will his career salary be?
Speaker 2: Probably five hundred and seventy five to make sure you
Speaker 2: could get that seventy five yeah, five hundred plus seventy
Speaker 2: five fires.
Speaker 7: Yeah, he is on pace to make five and eighty
Speaker 7: million dollars. In his career five times? What is old Manning?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, yeah, yes, Mark, pretty good, thank you,
Speaker 2: thank you. Not bad if you can get it.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 2: And I thought that they were going to be all
Speaker 2: in on Otani. Remember when we had Steve Phillips, the
Speaker 2: former Mets GM and he came on and he was like, Hey,
Speaker 2: Toronto's in this for Otani. And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: Toronto wasn't in for you know, Otani. It's like Aaron
Speaker 2: Judge with the San Francisco Giants. It's like, hey, giants
Speaker 2: got a great shot at him, and then all of
Speaker 2: a sudden they didn't have a great shot at him. Yes, Todd, if.
Speaker 6: You're concerned about Vlad Junior's age, he just turned twenty six,
Speaker 6: so he's a young twenty six six three weeks ago.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, he's on the young end of that. Now
Speaker 2: I feel better about the next fourteen years.
Speaker 5: O God.
Speaker 2: Since steals became an official stat in nineteen eighty six,
Speaker 2: NCAA Tournament teams are three hundred and thirty five and
Speaker 2: one in games that they beat their opponents in field
Speaker 2: goal percentage, free throw attempts, assist turnovers, fewer than your
Speaker 2: opponent and steals the lone loss Duke on Saturday Night.
Speaker 5: Stat of the.
Speaker 9: Day, stat of the Day, That past stat of the day,
Speaker 9: stat of the day, here comes that.
Speaker 5: What stat of the Day.
Speaker 2: Brought to you by Panini America, the official Trading Cards
Speaker 2: of the DP show. If you don't like Duke, you
Speaker 2: had a great Saturday because that was one of those
Speaker 2: where and this isn't a team that you know that
Speaker 2: you dislike. I mean, they're a good team to watch,
Speaker 2: they're fun team to watch, but you were rooting against
Speaker 2: the brand. That brand is pretty powerful, and I think
Speaker 2: that's probably what stood out in your life. Oh god,
Speaker 2: Duke again. Wait, Houston's come, Wait, Houston's come. Holy Duke's
Speaker 2: gonna lose this game. That's as I'm watching it, You're
Speaker 2: watching almost as in slow motion, where I'm going, oh
Speaker 2: my god, oh my god. Wait, and then all of
Speaker 2: a sudden there'd be a three, and then all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, can't get the ball in. Then all of
Speaker 2: a sudden there's a foul on flag. And yes, I'm
Speaker 2: okay with the call, because let's say it was the
Speaker 2: other way and Duke got the call. What would we say. No, Yeah,
Speaker 2: they want Duke to win. So you can't say that
Speaker 2: the officials were calling and making the call and what
Speaker 2: they saw. Is it tough to make that call. Yes,
Speaker 2: but they did make a tough call and it went
Speaker 2: against Duke.
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Speaker 2: Gino Orima is set to join us, the freshly minted
Speaker 2: head coach of the national champion Yukon Huskies. Did you
Speaker 2: forget about this feeling? Did you remember what it was
Speaker 2: like to win a national title?
Speaker 3: Almost? You know, we have those moments our senior citizens.
Speaker 3: You know you ought to know so, but it didn't
Speaker 3: take long to remember.
Speaker 5: Though.
Speaker 10: Never ceases to amaze me, the the feeling that you
Speaker 10: have when when you watch those faces and it's just really,
Speaker 10: really unbelievable.
Speaker 2: But take me back to pre season and you said
Speaker 2: that the girls they lost a scrimmage. Yeah we did,
Speaker 2: we did. And is that where you go home and
Speaker 2: you say to your wife, oh my god, I don't
Speaker 2: know what we have here. We may not even make
Speaker 2: the tournament. Well it's that's exactly what we say.
Speaker 3: We said, I hope we make the NCAA tournament this year.
Speaker 5: You know, is.
Speaker 3: We didn't take it seriously.
Speaker 10: You know, we kind of everybody thought, yeah, we're gonna
Speaker 10: be good because you know, we're healthy.
Speaker 3: We got everybody back, but it was a it was.
Speaker 10: A good reminder, but it was it was a struggle
Speaker 10: throughout I would say, November December, trying to find some consistency.
Speaker 3: We would have it, lose it, have it, lose it.
Speaker 10: And I think it wasn't until we got back from
Speaker 10: South Carolina the first time, when we played so well
Speaker 10: that we actually understood, all right, this is what the
Speaker 10: level is, this is.
Speaker 5: Who we can be.
Speaker 3: And that's when it all changed.
Speaker 2: Is it a grind?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2: But is it a different kind of like let's say,
Speaker 2: fifteen years ago, similar kind of grind.
Speaker 10: A little different, I think a little different it being
Speaker 10: that the players I'm coaching today are way more challenged,
Speaker 10: They're way more distracted, They've got way more voices in
Speaker 10: their head, They've got way too much information coming at
Speaker 10: them from all sources of people.
Speaker 3: Things that it's hard to.
Speaker 10: Make your voice really be a you know, the voice
Speaker 10: like you know when you played like your coach said,
Speaker 10: you know, today's Wednesday.
Speaker 3: You go home and tell hey, mom, today's Wednesday.
Speaker 10: Man, No, it's not. It's Monday. Coach said, it's Wednesday today.
Speaker 10: What's your coach say today.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I wasn't listening. I mean, that's it's
Speaker 3: just a little bit harder right now. Man.
Speaker 2: But you're not dealing you know. We hear the men's
Speaker 2: coaches talking about transfer portal. Nil. Yeah, how prevalent is
Speaker 2: that for you on a daily, weekly, monthly basis?
Speaker 10: No, I don't deal with it on a daily, weekly,
Speaker 10: monthly basis. No, we don't have somebody on our staff
Speaker 10: that's calling AAU coaches and handlers and all that. You know,
Speaker 10: you know, is your kid interested, Hey, tell them we're interested,
Speaker 10: like a lot of schools do.
Speaker 3: No, we don't deal with that. We just coach our team.
Speaker 3: We know at the end of every year, because we
Speaker 3: get pretty good players and.
Speaker 10: If they don't all play as much as they want,
Speaker 10: those days I'll wait my turn, those are gone, you know.
Speaker 10: So we know that the end of every year, some
Speaker 10: kids already halfway out the door when they realize I'm
Speaker 10: not getting the time that I thought I was going
Speaker 10: to get and it's like, you know, we understand we
Speaker 10: might lose a couple every year, but there's a couple
Speaker 10: kids that want to come every year. What makes it
Speaker 10: hard is in the NBA, they have a free agency
Speaker 10: period of time. This is when you can talk to
Speaker 10: free agents, this is when you can sign them.
Speaker 3: Blah blah blah. Our free agency is the whole year
Speaker 3: and every kid there's three hundred and sixty five Division
Speaker 3: one schools plus Division two. Every kid's a free agent
Speaker 3: every day the whole year.
Speaker 5: It's just.
Speaker 10: And then the portals open during the NCAA tournament. Can
Speaker 10: you imagine the NBA playoffs and free agencies going on
Speaker 10: during the playoff.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's insanity.
Speaker 10: So whoo, but luckily we don't have to deal with
Speaker 10: as much as obviously it's happening on the guys.
Speaker 3: And the money.
Speaker 10: Don't even get me started on the money. Some of
Speaker 10: the money that I hear programs have to spend. And
Speaker 10: now obviously it's football and men's basketball to drive this.
Speaker 10: But it's out of hand, man, it's out of hand.
Speaker 10: What was your pregame speech?
Speaker 3: What's my pregame speech? Probably you know the same.
Speaker 10: As it was the previous three games that we just
Speaker 10: want you know, this was our fourth game, you know,
Speaker 10: two and two. I like to talk about how many
Speaker 10: times this one was really good. I like this one
Speaker 10: because I said, you know, this is our twenty fourth
Speaker 10: final four, and our record in the final four before
Speaker 10: last night w eleven wins twelve losses.
Speaker 3: In twenty three final fours.
Speaker 10: I said, So, I'm the winningest coach in the history
Speaker 10: of college basketball, but I have a losing record in
Speaker 10: the final court. I said, but when I'm introduced at
Speaker 10: some events, you know, they go and ladies and gentlemen
Speaker 10: Gino Orima.
Speaker 3: You know, he's lost twelve, I said. They don't do that.
Speaker 10: They say, you know, you know where eman, he's won
Speaker 10: eleven national ms. So you know, nobody gives a damn
Speaker 10: about who loses. They just care about winning. So why
Speaker 10: worry about losing because nobody cares. So I think the
Speaker 10: thing that I always try to do is try to
Speaker 10: make them understand to not be afraid to lose, because
Speaker 10: that's what gets in the way of teams winning, and
Speaker 10: especially at this point in time in the season, when
Speaker 10: your whole, you know, career is riding on it. The
Speaker 10: fear of losing is just so powerful, and I think
Speaker 10: it's my job to try to diffuse that as much
Speaker 10: as I can.
Speaker 2: At any point during that nine year maybe it's not
Speaker 2: fair to say drought, but for you it would be.
Speaker 2: But did you at any point doubt yourself of am
Speaker 2: I still able to motivate them? Am I losing it?
Speaker 2: Or you know, any kind of concerns about you and
Speaker 2: your coaching?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 10: Yeah, of course, because well a couple of things. We
Speaker 10: went to fifteen straight final fours, but we didn't win.
Speaker 10: After number eleven, we didn't win the next four or
Speaker 10: five years. You know, six years out of those nine
Speaker 10: years that we didn't win, we went to the final
Speaker 10: four eight times, and we were never healthy. I shouldn't
Speaker 10: say six of those times we were never healthy. So
Speaker 10: I kept saying, you know, when we get healthy, we'll
Speaker 10: be fine. But I gotta tell you, Dan, I'm brutally honest.
Speaker 10: There was so many times when I would go home
Speaker 10: and I would say, I don't think I'm as good
Speaker 10: a coach as I used to be. I don't think
Speaker 10: I'm as able to do what these players need in
Speaker 10: today's world. I don't know that I can do that.
Speaker 10: Which is crazy because we're going to the final four
Speaker 10: of year, but it does creep into your mind when
Speaker 10: it's you're having all these things thrown at you. This injury,
Speaker 10: that injury, this key player's out, that one's out for
Speaker 10: the season.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it really really really made me question am I
Speaker 10: still the right person to be doing this at this
Speaker 10: time in my career at a place like Yukon, where
Speaker 10: championships is the standard, and you.
Speaker 2: Know how this works. We get to a certain age
Speaker 2: and people go, oh, how much long are you going
Speaker 2: to do it? You know, Oh, you know, be a
Speaker 2: great time to retire, you just when you walk off final.
Speaker 2: I mean, so, how do you deal with this? Just
Speaker 2: because I decided in three years I'm retiring. I just
Speaker 2: said I have to mark this is when I'm going
Speaker 2: to retire, or I don't think I would retire.
Speaker 3: Is that five years ago? You made that commitment?
Speaker 2: A year and a half ago, I said I would retire,
Speaker 2: and I gave the date I was going to retire.
Speaker 2: Good for you, okay, but I needed to do it
Speaker 2: because there's other things I needed to do, and to
Speaker 2: be fair with my family and my wife. Have you
Speaker 2: had those discussions of and I don't know if there's
Speaker 2: anything else that you want to do, because maybe you're
Speaker 2: like you know, coaches coach till they die. It's like,
Speaker 2: this is what I.
Speaker 5: Want to do.
Speaker 2: This is all I know. I don't know if I'm
Speaker 2: wired that way.
Speaker 10: No, no, no, I don't know why I still do it,
Speaker 10: be honest with you, Most people my age have enough
Speaker 10: sense not to do it. And I think one thing
Speaker 10: that helps me then, like when I get back to
Speaker 10: school and whatever recruiting has to be done or whatever
Speaker 10: I would say, by the time May comes around, I
Speaker 10: don't give basketball a thought until next September.
Speaker 5: I get it.
Speaker 3: I just walk away.
Speaker 10: I'm done, And luckily I have a staff and I
Speaker 10: got a program that can do that. But I don't
Speaker 10: live at twenty four to seven. I don't take it
Speaker 10: home with me like the way you know a lot
Speaker 10: of these guys do. That just wears on them day
Speaker 10: after day. Now we have the privilege of doing that
Speaker 10: because of our success.
Speaker 2: I get it.
Speaker 10: If you're grinding it out trying to make DNC Tournament
Speaker 10: every year, keep your job. But I'm not in that situation.
Speaker 10: If I was, I would have got out a long
Speaker 10: time ago. Uh, so you know, I'm able to put
Speaker 10: it away, and there's so many other things that I
Speaker 10: would love to do. You know, when you retire, let
Speaker 10: me know, because I'll sit there and ask great questions
Speaker 10: like you do and make fun of people like you do.
Speaker 3: I would love to do that. However, I got I got.
Speaker 10: An email today from a friend of mine, Tom Sherman,
Speaker 10: play for play for Penn State, and he played for
Speaker 10: Joe Paterno and he emailed me today and he goes, Hey,
Speaker 10: forty years at U Kony.
Speaker 3: Because it's unbelievable.
Speaker 10: He goes, you know what, Joe Paterno was at Penn
Speaker 10: State sixty four years, so you can still catch up.
Speaker 10: And I thought to myself, you got to be kidding.
Speaker 10: Sixty four years. Yeah, so no, it'll be some time
Speaker 10: before that, trust me.
Speaker 2: And I'll leave you with this that you get your
Speaker 2: women to stay, you know they're they're there for years.
Speaker 2: So you you develop a friendship, a relationship whereas you
Speaker 2: know men's college coaches, if you're good, you know it's
Speaker 2: a six month you know transaction here. Yeah, but you
Speaker 2: could see that where you with Paige Becker's you're watching
Speaker 2: her be this great player to being injured to never
Speaker 2: winning a title. Now he's your chance to win a title.
Speaker 2: Then just being overcome by emotion because it's real. It's
Speaker 2: like a daughter, I guess. I mean, you're hugging a
Speaker 2: daughter of sorts in that moment and you're kind of
Speaker 2: at a loss for words. Correct, it was awesome.
Speaker 3: Though, Yeah, it is.
Speaker 5: It is because.
Speaker 10: We do get them at an age where they're very impressionable,
Speaker 10: so to speak, and they're seventeen eighteen years old, and
Speaker 10: we know if things go well, we do get them
Speaker 10: for four years. We do get to see them at
Speaker 10: the beginning, and then we get to see them at
Speaker 10: the end, and we get to see them when they're struggling.
Speaker 10: When it is, it's like raising your kids and it's
Speaker 10: like all of a sudden, you send them off after
Speaker 10: a period of time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, if.
Speaker 10: This was like men's basketball, there's no way I would
Speaker 10: even have close to twelve national championships. Diana would have
Speaker 10: been one and done. Stewie would have been one and done.
Speaker 10: Mayan War would have been one and done. I can
Speaker 10: go on and on page Beckers would have been one
Speaker 10: and done. All these guys. So the fact that I
Speaker 10: think we can it goes back to the old days.
Speaker 10: It's like the way it used to be. You know,
Speaker 10: we we get them young, and then we you know,
Speaker 10: work with them, and then does create a bond that
Speaker 10: I think is missing in men's college basketball and football
Speaker 10: is a little bit better because those guys have to stay,
Speaker 10: you know, for about three years. But now the portals become, yeah, look,
Speaker 10: I'm here as long as I can get what I want.
Speaker 10: Otherwise I'm out. And so the coaches feel like, okay, well,
Speaker 10: if this guy's going to walk out on me any day, now,
Speaker 10: why should I invest all of myself and in or her.
Speaker 10: I'm just going to coach you get what I need
Speaker 10: to get out of you, and if you leave, you leave.
Speaker 10: If you stay, you stay, that's fine. So it's really
Speaker 10: kind of created like a professional environment where we're just
Speaker 10: doing this. You're and this nonsense about well they're not employees. Yeah,
Speaker 10: they are employees. We're paying them to play basketball for us,
Speaker 10: and when they don't like their job, they quit and
Speaker 10: go go work someplace else.
Speaker 3: So I'm lucky, I really am.
Speaker 10: I've got a great situation, and I know a lot
Speaker 10: of guys on the men's side envy it, and and
Speaker 10: I feel bad for those guys.
Speaker 2: Uh, congratch, hair still looks great, and uh, thanks for
Speaker 2: joining us. Yeah, and.
Speaker 10: You know, I can't believe you're still doing this. And
Speaker 10: I know I tell people all the time, you're one
Speaker 10: of the few guys in America that ask questions that
Speaker 10: are way shorter than the guys answer.
Speaker 3: And I really appreciate that.
Speaker 2: I want a shot clock, Gino. I like that brevity, brevity,
Speaker 2: get to the point that shit, Hey, congratch, thanks for
Speaker 2: joining us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks for having us.
Speaker 2: That's Gino Orima.
Speaker 1: Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Speaker 1: Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific
Speaker 1: on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2: He's the head coach for the men's team at Connecticut,
Speaker 2: two time defending national champs at least until tomorrow or
Speaker 2: late tonight. Dan Hurley joining us on the program. Good
Speaker 2: to talk to you again, coach. Did you watch the games?
Speaker 2: The semi final games?
Speaker 11: I did, unlike uh, you know, unlike after the twenty
Speaker 11: two season where you know where we had that first
Speaker 11: round exit and I ignored the rest of the tournament.
Speaker 11: Uh I. I've watched as many of the games as
Speaker 11: as I possibly could since we've been eliminated.
Speaker 2: You lose to Florida second round, But do you take
Speaker 2: any solace with the fact that Florida is here playing
Speaker 2: for a national championship.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I do.
Speaker 11: I think it's a uh, it's more honorable that, you know,
Speaker 11: kind of at the run we've been on, uh, you
Speaker 11: know where where we kind of fell at the hands
Speaker 11: of uh, you know, of a championship level team that's,
Speaker 11: you know, one game away from experiencing the champmpionship glory.
Speaker 11: So yeah, I mean if we would have lost to
Speaker 11: like a lower seeded team or a team that, you know,
Speaker 11: it was not of the championship caliber, I guess it
Speaker 11: feels more honorable, you know, have a one thirteen in
Speaker 11: a row in that tournament in the fashion we did,
Speaker 11: you know, to have it all, you know, to have
Speaker 11: it all end at the hands of of the Gators.
Speaker 11: There's there's probably some honor in that.
Speaker 2: How do you explain what happened with Duke and Houston
Speaker 2: at the end of that game.
Speaker 11: I mean, I mean, I can't you know, imagine you know,
Speaker 11: just kind of well, no, I can't imagine you know
Speaker 11: what what John and his staff and.
Speaker 5: Those players are feeling.
Speaker 11: I mean it felt like, you know that they were
Speaker 11: the best team, you know, the best team in the
Speaker 11: country this year. I think their roster, the way they
Speaker 11: put it together was, uh, it was meticulous. I think
Speaker 11: the the quality at both ends of the court, you know,
Speaker 11: was they were playing basketball at an incredibly high level,
Speaker 11: you know, with high level NBA players. But just the
Speaker 11: fact that they were not in enough close games, I think,
Speaker 11: you know, I think the fact that they dominated so
Speaker 11: much throughout conference play, I think, you know, the separation
Speaker 11: between them and the other teams and their conference really
Speaker 11: hurt them when they got to those end of game
Speaker 11: situations where they haven't had to shoot a lot of
Speaker 11: pressure want to pressure free throws, one on ones, they
Speaker 11: had to indown the ball versus full denial. With a
Speaker 11: three point lead or a one point lead, they were
Speaker 11: you know, they were in a type of game that
Speaker 11: that Houston had been in a bunch, uh, you know,
Speaker 11: because of you know, playing in the Big twelve afforded
Speaker 11: them more opportunities, and I think that came back.
Speaker 3: To haunt them.
Speaker 2: I brought this up a long time ago. I brought
Speaker 2: it up subsequently. You go back to U N l
Speaker 2: V when you and l V blew out Duke, your
Speaker 2: brother team, and then that following year and we thought
Speaker 2: they were invincible. And I remember talking about you want
Speaker 2: to see a team play a close game. You just
Speaker 2: want to have that feeling you know what you're doing.
Speaker 2: And this isn't all on the freshman at Duke, but
Speaker 2: still you got young players, and you got a veteran
Speaker 2: Houston team, and sometimes freshmen act like freshmen, no matter
Speaker 2: how great they are. But as a coach, what role
Speaker 2: would you play in a situation like that?
Speaker 11: Yeah, I think you know some of the I would
Speaker 11: say the situational things that you experience in a you know,
Speaker 11: with that true game pressure, you know, and you know,
Speaker 11: Duke goes in as the favorite, just kind of like
Speaker 11: we were last year, where you know, we're playing at
Speaker 11: such a high level. They had, you know, dominated the
Speaker 11: first you know, four rounds of the tournament. Obviously, the
Speaker 11: Arizona game ended up being an eight point game or
Speaker 11: an eight point win, but at times in that game
Speaker 11: they look dominant. But I just think that they You
Speaker 11: could practice situational basketball all you want, but you cannot
Speaker 11: simulate the game pressure that you feel, you know, when
Speaker 11: your inbounder has got to run the baseline and throw
Speaker 11: a pass through a narrow window to a player being
Speaker 11: face guarded by a wolf. I mean, Houston's got some
Speaker 11: wolves out there, you know, making it really tough on you.
Speaker 11: And you know, for us last year, we weren't very
Speaker 11: good in close games, you know, the games during the
Speaker 11: course of the year. I don't think we were great
Speaker 11: in one possession games the last two years. But there
Speaker 11: was a window I think for duking that game to
Speaker 11: keep that game double figures, keep that game twelve fourteen,
Speaker 11: back down to ten, get it back up to fifteen.
Speaker 5: You know, but they just they stop scoring.
Speaker 2: The difference in coaching a freshman and coaching a junior,
Speaker 2: what's the biggest difference.
Speaker 11: I just think, uh, you know, repetitions, game experiences, you know,
Speaker 11: just having been in those positions you know before, you know,
Speaker 11: more practices under their belt, more you know, more life experiences.
Speaker 5: You know, just you know a little bit more. You know,
Speaker 5: maturity a little more, uh, you know, worldliness a.
Speaker 11: Little you know, just a little bit more, you know,
Speaker 11: prepared to have experienced more failures, have experienced uh, you know, different.
Speaker 5: Types of successes, just a little little uh, a little.
Speaker 2: More grizzled talking to Dan Hurley, You're still the reigning
Speaker 2: national champs at least for twelve more hours.
Speaker 5: That's why I got I'm wearing it today, Dan, I'm
Speaker 5: wearing it. Uh.
Speaker 2: There's a trophy behind you. There's a pair of shoes
Speaker 2: on top of that trophy. Whose shoes are those? A? R.
Speaker 5: Smith? Uh? You know JR. Swish.
Speaker 11: That was my first great player that played for me
Speaker 11: at s. Benedix and Uh the first play went to
Speaker 11: the NBA out of high school, so was Uh. That
Speaker 11: was his rookie year shoe with the hornets.
Speaker 2: Okay, any other memorabilia that might surprise es?
Speaker 5: Uh, I got, Well, I.
Speaker 11: Think a lot of people like the underwear over Those
Speaker 11: are my underwear. Not many men have their underwear on
Speaker 11: a plaque in their office.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 11: Obviously the Gladiator health that explains a lot about me
Speaker 11: right there, the lion head behind it.
Speaker 2: You haven't gotten in trouble in a while, have you?
Speaker 5: No, I've I've got a lot of self aware. Well,
Speaker 5: I don't have a lot of self I have enough.
Speaker 11: I have enough self awareness and situational awareness that I
Speaker 11: skipped San Antonio and Uh I decided not to parade
Speaker 11: myself around the final four and to uh, you know,
Speaker 11: to take a break, to let people have a little
Speaker 11: bit of a break for me, and then uh, you know,
Speaker 11: just to you know, reflect on the year, the run
Speaker 11: we've been on, and uh, obviously, uh it was the
Speaker 11: first real chance Dan I've had really since we were
Speaker 11: eliminated from the tournament twenty two, you know, through to
Speaker 11: that Florida loss in the tournament. You know, your my
Speaker 11: life's been a whirlwind, uh of some incredible moments and
Speaker 11: and some moments that uh, you know are arn Is
Speaker 11: uh Arnest.
Speaker 5: Arn is great.
Speaker 2: But I remember when you turned down the Lakers and
Speaker 2: we talked and you said you weren't mature enough yet
Speaker 2: for a job like that. Your words, Yeah, all right,
Speaker 2: how do you mature?
Speaker 3: Like what do you?
Speaker 5: What do you?
Speaker 9: What?
Speaker 2: Are are you doing anything to mature?
Speaker 5: You know that that's a tough one. I think Number one,
Speaker 5: I'll say this a lot of.
Speaker 11: I feel like the biggest mistake I made this year
Speaker 11: was not being able to you know, put together, uh
Speaker 11: and develop a championship team. You know, I when I
Speaker 11: look at this year for me, you know that that's
Speaker 11: the thing that I regret the most is that I
Speaker 11: wasn't able to, uh, you know, to put together another
Speaker 11: team that was could experience championship glory. You know, some
Speaker 11: of the things I think that uh, you know, whether
Speaker 11: it's you know, my relationship with officials, or you know,
Speaker 11: some of the fan interactions or the different things that
Speaker 11: come with me. Part of what makes me successful is,
Speaker 11: uh is my passion, It's my intensity, It's it's this
Speaker 11: you know, when when you're winning it, when you're winning championships,
Speaker 11: these these same things have gone on when you're winning championships.
Speaker 11: It's called relentlessness.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 11: I've been called relentless the past two years, even though
Speaker 11: I've been experience in the same types of interactions with
Speaker 11: fans and officials. You know, this year it's been called, uh,
Speaker 11: you know, immature. It's been called a lot of things
Speaker 11: because you know, my team isn't on top. I haven't
Speaker 11: changed a whole.
Speaker 5: Lot that way.
Speaker 2: If you had a little earpiece and your wife was
Speaker 2: allowed to talk to you on the sideline during a game,
Speaker 2: how do you think that would go.
Speaker 5: I think that I'd be here stop shut up.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I mean I would say that from a I
Speaker 11: think that my relationships with officials. Now you know the
Speaker 11: Florida you know the Florida post game. I regret that
Speaker 11: one greatly.
Speaker 5: You know that that was I.
Speaker 11: There was literally one play call. Uh, there was one
Speaker 11: drive to the rim that I felt, if we clearly
Speaker 11: got that would have kept that game in a two
Speaker 11: possession game. That was just it was ringing in my mind.
Speaker 11: And it wasn't like multiple calls I felt were miss dan.
Speaker 11: It was just this one play, uh, that I could
Speaker 11: not get out of my mind as I was heading
Speaker 11: through that tunnel and as I saw the Baylor players,
Speaker 11: I deeply regret that. I mean we we we missed
Speaker 11: a lot of open shots and credit Florida and Clayton.
Speaker 11: I mean this, uh, you know there there championship level,
Speaker 11: but you know that.
Speaker 5: One I regret deeply. I didn't believe that. And then
Speaker 5: that was embarrassing.
Speaker 11: When I look at other ones that were, you know,
Speaker 11: embarrassing that I'm the best coach in the country.
Speaker 5: That was embarrassing. I wish somebody could have stopped me
Speaker 5: from having that moment.
Speaker 11: A lot of some of the fan interactions, I've got
Speaker 11: to get somebody, I think that maybe could just walk
Speaker 11: me on and off the court. Maybe like college football
Speaker 11: has those guys that walked the coach to the other
Speaker 11: coach and then just get them off the court.
Speaker 5: I need to get.
Speaker 11: Somebody that could just when the game ends, just get
Speaker 11: me on and off the court, because I don't think
Speaker 11: that my in game coaching. I want to change a
Speaker 11: lot because we've been really successful.
Speaker 2: But what is it about officials?
Speaker 5: Though I don't think it's as bad as it's made
Speaker 5: out to be.
Speaker 11: I've watched these other officials, and listen, I've earned you,
Speaker 11: earn your reputation.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 11: I'm definitely a tough coach to officiate because I'm very demanding.
Speaker 11: Uh And I value every single possession in the game
Speaker 11: because I know how important they are, you know. And
Speaker 11: and but I've also modeled myself after maybe an older,
Speaker 11: you know generation of coaches. You know, I'm just an
Speaker 11: intense coach. And I think I'm intense in a very
Speaker 11: similar way to Coach Sampson tonight. I think if you
Speaker 11: watch Coach Samson closely tonight, he's a very intense coach
Speaker 11: and he's going to be very demanding of the officials.
Speaker 2: Well, you're like your dad, though you.
Speaker 5: Would hate my father. I mean everyone and my dad.
Speaker 2: I know, I like being around your dad socially. When
Speaker 2: he puts his teeth in and he you know, you know,
Speaker 2: we we have a conversation. I enjoyed being around and
Speaker 2: we were I don't know what we were watching, like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, some sitcom or not even a sitcom,
Speaker 2: is some cop show. When I went to his apartment
Speaker 2: in Jersey City, and I'm going, it seems really nice.
Speaker 2: He's just a nice guy. And then you hear these
Speaker 2: horror stories about how demanding your dad was.
Speaker 11: Yeah, well, I mean, Dan, you know, it's like you've
Speaker 11: got to be able to separate the competitor, you know,
Speaker 11: the combatants.
Speaker 2: But could you coach like this like you are right now, No,
Speaker 2: you couldn't.
Speaker 11: Just be like, it doesn't line up with our play style.
Speaker 11: It doesn't lie, okay, with the intensity that we play with.
Speaker 5: It doesn't. It doesn't line up with.
Speaker 11: How we attacked the offensive glass or you know how
Speaker 11: hard we played defensively. And it's not just me, it's
Speaker 11: our whole bench. I mean we lead the country in
Speaker 11: warnings from officials to have everyone sit down. I mean
Speaker 11: everyone on my bench is like out of pocket, Like
Speaker 11: it's it's just we're an emotional program.
Speaker 5: We're a passionate program. And I don't think I'm going
Speaker 5: to change a whole lot of that.
Speaker 11: I would, but I do you know, upon reflection, I
Speaker 11: think that the interaction with you know, people not on
Speaker 11: my team or you know, I would like to probably
Speaker 11: have less of that.
Speaker 2: When do you walk down the hall to congratulate Gino?
Speaker 11: I guess I'm gonna wait for him, maybe to sober up.
Speaker 11: I mean, I wouldn't remember.
Speaker 2: I talked to him last hour.
Speaker 5: How did he look?
Speaker 2: He looked like a million bucks, hair was calmed. I
Speaker 2: mean he looked like Gino.
Speaker 5: I mean, he he he.
Speaker 11: I mean we we text, we talk, you know, we
Speaker 11: were texting before, you know, all of his games and
Speaker 11: and I mean he he saved my season from completely
Speaker 11: unraveling in November. So I owe a lot to Gino.
Speaker 5: And uh what did he do?
Speaker 11: I mean, right when we got back from Maui as
Speaker 11: as I as I had erupted like a volcano in
Speaker 11: Maui and and come back to try to pick the
Speaker 11: pieces up. I was in a bad, bad place. I
Speaker 11: was coaching, angry, I was coaching frustrated. I you know,
Speaker 11: I I knew I didn't have deep down I knew,
Speaker 11: you know, I didn't have a team that could compete
Speaker 11: for a championship.
Speaker 5: And I was trying to come to grips.
Speaker 11: With that, and and he helped kind of talk me through,
Speaker 11: you know, like if all you're in this for is
Speaker 11: to win championships and and like if that's the only
Speaker 11: joy that you get from coaching, you've become basically a monster.
Speaker 2: How's the transfer portal by the way, Oh my.
Speaker 11: God, yeah, I mean, like no one is I mean
Speaker 11: when I that Monday, when when you come to the
Speaker 11: realization that like literally no one is on your team,
Speaker 11: you know, like that Monday, Because even if you're not
Speaker 11: in the portal, because it's now a lot of it
Speaker 11: is being conducted by agents, you know, So even if
Speaker 11: you're not in the portal, you're you're you're in the
Speaker 11: portal because schools now, you know, they they reach out
Speaker 11: for the agent, and you know, the these agents are
Speaker 11: representing the players. So even if a player hasn't kind
Speaker 11: of formally gotten in the portal, schools will now reach
Speaker 11: out for agents and make offers to players, you know,
Speaker 11: that way indirectly, and and a lot of deals I
Speaker 11: guess are agreed upon before players even go in u
Speaker 11: which is not the way that that we do business.
Speaker 5: We you know, it's it's a mess how.
Speaker 2: Many players are officially on your roster.
Speaker 11: I think right now I could sit here and say
Speaker 11: that we definitely have eight players on our team, you know,
Speaker 11: and we could have as many as ten. I think,
Speaker 11: you know, maybe two potentially or are are undecided whether
Speaker 11: that's you know, going to the NBA. Obviously, Alice Caraban's
Speaker 11: got to make a decision what he wants.
Speaker 5: To do with this last year, you know.
Speaker 11: I'd imagine he'll be deciding at some point soon here,
Speaker 11: maybe this week, and then you know, and then we
Speaker 11: have another player who's you know, deciding. So yeah, I
Speaker 11: mean right now and listen, it's better than it was.
Speaker 5: You know, last week. I think there was a point
Speaker 5: where I think I felt like I had like one guy.
Speaker 11: Plus the high school guys, and we got three McDonald's,
Speaker 11: all merricks, and a Tasmanian dude who think is gonna
Speaker 11: be really good.
Speaker 5: So we're excited about that. All right.
Speaker 2: If you need help in filling out the roster, like practicing,
Speaker 2: just let me know. Wait, don't laugh like that.
Speaker 5: We're used to deep when you get used to deep runs. Dan,
Speaker 5: I feel like I gotta do better. You do.
Speaker 2: Good to talk to you, Thank you, coach. That's Dan
Speaker 2: Hurley