The North Carolina head coach met with reporters Thursday at Boshamer Stadium, as the Tar Heels prepare for the approaching baseball season. UNC opens its 54-game regular season on Feb. 16 against Wagner.
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How’s everybody doing great um exciting time obviously um our official team practice starts tomorrow but you know we’ve been in small groups and when the NCA changed it we could have more than four out there at a time you can still have a lot of practice you
Just can’t practice as long so the exciting thing thing for us with team is we can get into our 20h hour weeks um utilize the time a little more and and get more done but this an group um a great mix a very talented freshman class as well with those with the transfers
And some guys that came back and everybody worked over the break they look great um so so far so good it’s been a great I guess we started classes January the 10th however many days that is um and we’ll start back at it we’re off today we’ll get back at it tomorrow
And scrimmage as much as we can and uh the good old NCA decides to give us three weeks of Team before we start uh so we got to try to cram in as much as we can uh but it’s an exciting group I’m excited for them um and you get to a point
Where you know you’re ready to play somebody else so I just have to keep these guys healthy and keep them plugging and keep them getting better we talk a lot about chemistry especially in basketball because there’s a small group but can you sort of talk about chemistry building with the new
Guys you mentioned transfer era sh so much how that process been since you guys got together I guess last yeah it is a it is a process um some quicker than others I feel like the maturity of the the incoming guys you know helped they’ve been in college they
Know how to manage themselves so really for me the chemistry was more with the Freshman Class you know getting them used to our culture and our standards the other guys pretty much know what it’s like to be in college but that word you know we actually talked about
Chemistry yesterday and I was just telling telling the guys that word you have to understand what that word really really means to have good chemistry um because everybody’s not always going to be best friends especially in any locker room so true chemistry is throughout the course of a
Season everybody keeps the same common goal and that is the team comes first and US winning comes first um and that can be a challenge obviously the more talent you have uh the harder it is to get on the field but so far it has been great we have great leadership first
Time we have named captains or I have named captains as a head coach um Jackson Vander break and Jake knap will have the C on their chest so and they deserve it the players voted as well but ultimately we made the decision as coaches um but we feel great about our
Leadership uh but you don’t truly find out how good your team chemistry is until you get rolling into that season and probably until you have a little bit of adversity why you doing wise as far as with the back and Alberto with the H yeah you’re berto’s great Vance is 100%
They’re both 100% ready to go um so far so good you know we’ve had some Nicks and some bruises uh you know but so far we’re healthy and hopefully it’ll stay that way why did you decide to you know I’ve been thinking about it since I’ve been a head coach I’ve always
Thought that might be something I want to do uh but we had not done it we had leaders obviously and you pretty much had captains but they weren’t really named captains uh and we do let our players you know have some input and it was one of the
First times since I’ve been a head coach or really a coach in general that it was this much of a landslide with those two guys um but again you know I also was a player and there’s a difference between being 18 you know to 23 than there is to
Be a little bit older but we also felt the same me coach Gaines coach where’s bicki coach Hal and now Brandon Riley who’s coaching with us as well as the rest of our staff we felt like they deserved it um and I met with those two guys and wanted to make sure they
Understood what that responsibility is and they have to understand that when you’re in that that role um you know you’re not always the most well-liked at times but you might be the most you should be the most respected you also have a lot of talented arms this year but a lot of
Them are quite young and inexperienced at the color level what is this time now like kind of try to get them up to speed to significants colle yeah I mean you know Talent is Talent um and when you know it you see it or when you see it
You know it um these guys are Ultra Ultra Talent the Freshman Class of arms and really it’s it’s a matter if they’re throwing you know well enough in the preseason and they earn it you just throw them in the fire because you don’t really know until they’re out there um
But they do remind me a lot of these you know the big horses that we’ve had here in the past again they haven’t done it in real games but I expect them to do it in real games uh so it’s it’s it’s an excitement for sure and our guys see it
Um you know and they have a another really talented freshman catcher that’s going to be catching them so for me it’s going to be fun to watch them grow there’ll be some ups and downs but we do feel like we return some older arms that if we can get them in the right
Roles um they can all work together to hopefully help our team win is this the best group of newcomers you’ve brought in oh man we’ve had some good ones um it’s a it’s a it’s a talented group and obviously the transfers you’re not sure uh you you actually see probably
The high school kids more than you see the transfers uh and the transfers have been phenomenal every single one of them so they’ve got a chance to help us as well so if you combine them too now with the ER of the transfer portal since I’ve been the head coach it’s it’s definitely
Probably the deepest and most talented group but since I’ve been coaching at UNCC you know they’re going to have to go out there and do it uh one class I believe was ranked like 26 but then later they reranked that class that had Emanuel comar and some others and it was
Ranked one so I always tell the coaches like you know these rankings are great but the rankings are what’s most important when it comes to recruiting what are they going to do during their time at UNC Scott what is the what is the road back for for V look like and
Obviously thing at the end of last year like what sort of I don’t know energy or Spirit have you seen from him just running around out there yeah it’s funny you said that cuz corvas in town he’s he’s here training getting ready for pro ball and we just got talking the other
Day back toback now his was later but he has the appendic side us and he’s out against Arkansas and then Vance last year um you know we sweep iny State and I felt like we were gaining some momentum and you you can’t make excuses you know you still got our guys still
Battled you know they made a run the AC tournament Clemson was hot and beat us but our guys know you know that’s that that was a blow um and number one to get him back you know has been awesome for our guys he’s the best center fielder in the
Country he’s a game changer defensively obviously you guys know what he can do offensively um but it’s been a process because you have an injury like that you know my big thing the whole time with with Vance is why rush there’s no reason to rush um so we probably even took it a
Little bit slower but he played that last game 100% against Liberty I believe in the fall and he has felt great and you know it’s healed as a matter of fact it’s amazing to see because you know he he doesn’t do as much heavy lifting he
Does way more core stuff but he looks like he’s been lifting heavy you know because he’s he’s as strong as he’s ever been so we’ve learned a little something from that as well like hey let’s make sure we keep this baseball strength and try to stay healthy his was a little bit
Of a freak accident you know with that lower back but you know he’s been great and he’s healthy and Ian he’s type of kid too that I’m just going have to say hey man you’re not hitting today because he wants to live back there in the cages
I’m like hey you know let’s keep an eye on that thing and don’t let it you know you know be aggravated again but it shouldn’t be he’s healthy just to follow on that quick I mean was that sort of like an overuse injury I mean I’m assuming you don’t
Have surgery on something like that you know a really good high school quarterback he ran the ball a lot um he plays like he plays and you know the research we found is that injury has happened quite a bit with Dynamic fast center fielders um you know so we were
He was able to get some really good professional help too to get it better and make some comparisons and some comps I don’t know you know if it was one jump into the wall or one slide um you know we just noticed against NC State the last day that he
Was jogging I noticed he was jogging really tenderly out to center field and then we just said well let’s just get it checked out and we kind of held them out and then you know once we got the the scan the scan show what it showed what
It showed and you know I’m thankful that we got all that and he didn’t try to go because he wanted to play obviously and I don’t think I’ve taken him out but of maybe one game maybe two to um and I hope not take them out of any this year
Scott you mentioned the newcomers a lot of them between the transfer portal and the Freshman do you think that that is just a function of where we are now in college sports and that’s going to be a year a yearly thing or is it just unique
To this roster the season well you know you should have a plan and I think every team and program should have a plan on what they’re trying to do what needs they’re trying to address I still believe strongly in the bulk of your pitching needs to come from freshman if
You can get a transfer you’re going to try obviously you want to get an established guy most of the time that’s started um but there aren’t many you know Pines that go on the portal every single year um and then if and if they are you guys know what
The landscape is I don’t have to say it it’s just not easy to land those guys um but I do think with the landscape it’s going to happen more however the fifth years are about to go away you know so that’s that’s uh I always say
We’re all going to go back to having to recruit a little bit more when you have a fifth year guy it’s a one-year guy if you miss you miss and he’s one year well now with the NCA rules you know if you go out and get a transfer and he played
His freshman year and he comes to your place your sophomore year you know you don’t need to miss um but if you can find an established transfer that mixes well with your group and we just felt like with this group with what we were losing positionally um we needed some impact bats and
Athletes um but we felt really good about our incoming catcher uh we felt really good about the high school position players that we had but we didn’t have we didn’t commit many for a reason obviously we lost Walker Jenkins um but the arms you
And you had to have a little bit of love this year you look at all these classes we’ve had you we landed Bon Miller you know Alex white Matt Harvey Dustin akley Kyle Seager all those guys could have signed professionally out of high school and then are they going to make it here
Are they going to enroll we had a class one year and 14 that it was like Jack flarity and Mitch Keller and all these guys and they all signed and if you can hold on to a group you know you got a chance to to be really good especially
On the mound and we all know that to get to that 4550 win mark you got to pitch it I thought I thought I heard you say that there were freshman who turn down a good bit of money to come to college who specifically speak there a lot of them
Yeah I’m not going to you know they I I can tell you I lost some years those three days in the draft um they were all here in summer school and that’s a great thing about UNC and our school supporting us and bringing these guys for summer school because they fall in
Love with the place I mean who wouldn’t and that that makes it a little harder on them to sign even a guy like Walker was here in summer school going every single day and you know he wasn’t going to sign unless what happened happened and it just happened but the other guys
You know some clubs made some hard runs at them um and lucky luckily for us what they told told us was true and they said they’re not going to budge unless it’s a certain amount and uh you know that I’m thankful they didn’t get that amount because I think they’re going to get
That amount um when they leave here and they’re also you have to get the right kid that cares about being at UNC you know the degree uh leaving here after three years I’m going to be more prepared for life in general than I am if I sign out of high school we talked
About a couple of times now what do he bring behind the dis little what Tomas yeah I mean obviously we’re going to miss Tomas a fiery leader um you know on some on some really good teams for us Luke is a different player you know just a bigger more physical kid left-handed
Hitter um you know just naturally more powerful than than Tomas um and you know he’s played at the elite level just like Tomas did so he’s coming in here I felt like fret would be able to handle our pitchers pretty well because he traveled and played at a high
Level same thing Luke did um but you don’t see many kids at Luke’s age just that gifted naturally with his arm with his receiving ability um usually it’s like man this kid can really hit but he’s okay behind the plate or he’s lights out behind the plate like a Jacob
Stallings was but it’s going to take him a little while to hit um you know so and he runs the show which is impressive like when you go watch Luke Stevenson he’s going to talk if anything I’ll have to tell him to not talk but he I don’t
Want to tell him that CU you know that’s what you want from our catch you have energy he’s got a good arm uh so I’m excited to watch him he’s not going to be perfect but he reminds me like the inetta um you know the federovich is
Those those type of kids that can handle uh the ACC as a freshman doesn’t mean he’s going to be first team Hall ACC or or or the Freshman rookie of the year but he could as well because he’s that talented is it for Luke having Parker
Behind him as mentoring him 4 years that yeah the neatest thing now with the technology and the advance advancement of everything in baseball is is you can figure out if a catcher can really receive and hasin was one of the top in the country at stilling strikes so when
We’re looking at all these guys on the transfer portal you know we’re we’re if we know what we’re looking for we’re looking for a guy that you know hopefully LOE makes it but if Luke doesn’t make it to campus and signs professionally can this guy run our
Staff and we felt like that about Parker um he’s an unbelievable receiver doesn’t have the arm Luke does but he’s a smart player phenomenal teammate um another left-handed hitter four years of college experience um and he is the right type of guy to be with Luke and he he makes
Luke work because he’s good and Luke knows like yeah like I may be the starter but I’ve got to play well because this kid’s good too and if we need to give Luke a day we’re not going to miss a beat you know the arm
Strength’s not the same but man he is as good a receiver as we’ve had had here in a long time and he’s an awesome kid you guys have the NCA tournament last years all your years here what do you think is that like the floor of expectations what
Are your expectations I mean honestly I think about the times we didn’t make it to Omaha to be honest with you you know it’s just kind of a I guess it’s a blessing in a curse because it’s great to betim make the postseason but I think
About like we should have went 19 and we should have went in 22 um two times we’re hosting Super Regional so those eat at you but yeah I mean a regional for us is something that we expect to be in um and honestly we we hope to be
Hosting a regional that’s something that that we feel like our program the level we’ve gotten to if you do your research the last 20 25 years we’ve hosted a lot of them we did win our first Super Regional get Omaha at Alabama so sometimes you have to do that Virginia
Won their National Championship in 2015 on the road in the regional and the Super Regional um but you know that is something like for us like we don’t really talk about making a regional that’s a given that obviously you got to make a regional to to win a National
Championship um but we just talk about our you know what our expectations are and they haven’t changed since I’ve been here with Coach Fox and this to be the first team at UNC to win the national championship so that’s our ultimate goal around this time last year you talked
About you had a talented unen pitching sta do you think that ring and do those especially to to prove themselves yeah I mean it is talented and I would agree somewhat unproven uh there are we do return a lot of guys we don’t lose the amount of innings that we lost the year
Before um you know we honestly thought Brandon Schaefer was going to be back here last year and he in the last minute he signed um and I understand that every kid wants to play professional baseball but we felt like he was going to come back and throw he threw 96 Innings I
Think I think we thought he might throw 120 because he’d be a year better a year more experienced and there’s a kid kid that took the ball for one day’s rest and won a regional Force um but until you go out there and do it on a
Consistent basis you know it is it is a little bit unproven but I also feel like we have some guys that have shown that they can pitch at this level and they got thrown in the fire and they got thrown in really tough situations because our starters didn’t go extremely
Deep so we return guys you know like nap and Peterson and Pence and Poston um pageant Maas peral and they’ve all improved um you know one reason that they’ve improved is because they’re they’re good kids and they work but when you get here in the fall and you see the
Talent level that just came in you realize you better improve or you’re not going to have any chance to pitch so you know I would I would say that’s an accurate description um but I’m looking forward to to seeing these guys you know you know when you’re a freshman you’re
Going to have some ups and downs but I don’t look at it that way you know I look at it that Dustin athlete we started when he was a freshman Kyle Seager we started as a freshman if they’re talented enough you throw them out there and let them learn on the goat
With Jake you kind of talked about him taking that work Friday guy how have you seen him evolve because he went from yeah he actually went to Wilmington um he says he wasn’t good enough at Wilmington I guess and went to went to a Joo and uh just a definition of of a
Worker that has made himself into a a really good pitcher um great leader uh and I still think he’s got more upside I think his best pitching is ahead of him um so you know really for our for our staff it’s just his presence and he’s
Done a phenomenal job with the with that group of really talented pitchers you know he was around them this Summer he made a point to be around him this Summer and just make them understand of how we do things here and what the expectations are um obviously he’s good
And he’s talented but there’s a lot more to Jake na than just that Scott could you go position by position I know C Field Center Field is obvious but who who you expect to start whose favor to start position yeah I mean sure I don’t
Mind doing that at all um you know Luke will be behind the plate with hin backing him up um I’m not sure right now who would play first base uh potentially Parks Harbor if he’s not playing Third Base um Casey cook has also made a transition to playing second base so he
Could be at second base and Vander break at third but Vander break could also be at second and then we have a freshman who’s really talented who’s in the mix and is fighting to get in that nine and Gavin Gallaher and if he’s in he would play second base bander bre would play
Third uh Madera would play short denofo right and Casey cook back and left Casey cook is playing second base Patrick Alvarez looks extremely good Patty’s Patty you know he’s a fifth year guy he’s strong as he’s ever been extremely hard to pitch to um Alberto sunna looks
Phenomenal um he looks as good if not better probably better than he did two years ago um he he he lost some weight in a good way he’s as strong as he’s ever been but he’s balanced him Coach we to spent a lot of time we can also play
Him at first he’s worked hard to to give us that option um but if we played today it would either you know I really believe we would probably go Vander break at third Madera at Short cook at second Harbor First luk Catch to Noir and Honeycut in Center Patrick Alvarez
In left and DH Osuna but we got three weeks to go and Patrick Alvarez you know obviously he’s in there now but Gavin Hunter stokeley’s back Johnny caz’s back Kobe wilkerson’s back and they played well and they’re going to make a huge impact um you know so you’re you’re
Going to see some different lineups but I feel pretty strong that those eight guys in ouna Osuna Stevenson Harbor cook Madera Vander break honey cut and Denio they’re going to be in there as of right now and so that that spot for that n hole is is a real battle Scott I know
You said the preseason rankings are pretty much meaningless in the end but when you look at the the preseason polls there’s a lot of teams from North and South Carolina the entire Big Board in the ACC plus ECU then Clemson South Carolina and Coastal I mean does it seem
Like the talent in this region as good as it’s ever been yeah you know I don’t I don’t look into it quite as much as I used to um but I do look at different lineups and just kind of say okay because I have an idea of what each team
Has because I’ve seen these kids play or I know where they’re transfer Ferring in from um the portal makes a difference too um you know who who gets lucky and and hits it with that but the talent is I think college baseball is harder than ever now
To go you’re not GNA see many teams go to Omaha four or five years in a row um because you’re going to run into somebody in a regional that’s a four seed uh that’s really good or a three seed that’s really good and if you have
An off day you’re going to lose you know back then I think you can just out Talent people it’s a little harder to do that because teams are getting guys from the transfer portal the draft is shortened uh more guys are going back for their senior years um you know I was
Looking at nor Eastern’s lineup the other day for I’m like that’s a good team and and that’s like a top 25 team in my opinion and a lot of them are older you know go around you go around the diamond if you’re putting a lot of 21s to 22s
23s you know those guys are going to be pretty physical and pretty experienced um but man the the area is phenomenal I think it’s awesome uh but again they’re preseason so we’ll see where everybody is you know as we move along throughout the season Cale cost is he going to go
To Spring football or is he going to help you or both you know Caleb first and foremost is awesome kid like he is Allin he’s working his tail off um he had a little setback uh I think I’m allowed to say this he got mono I don’t
Know if I can say it or not but I just said it um you say whatever you want yes but he’s he’s he’s been clear to get back down here with us today um he was with us every day and uh we’re working with football I don’t think he’s going
To have to miss much baseball um you know he’ll have some obligations with football because he’s a heck of a player but he’s Ultra talented here too um and that stunt that he got mono because he had you know he had been able to face the live pitching like everybody else
But the end of the day he stole 80 plus bases uh so the next couple days before he can as as much as I can the main thing is going to be getting him ready to pitch run for us um you know to play Left Field uh and then hopefully that
Bats can catch up it’s just a matter of him getting them Scott how does that look sharing him with back like what how does his schedule when does he yeah I mean you gotta you got to talk to I don’t I mean Carter does it for me thank
Goodness um but you got to talk to compliance you got to make sure we’re right on the hours you got to make sure you’re right on the off days uh but they’ve been phenomenal and that was part of the you know again you have to have a plan it was important to Caleb
That he wanted to play both so Coach Brown and I sat down together and when we recruited him we told him that’s what we would allow him to do they’ve been great I mean they’ve he’s even doing his lifting with us so they trust coach gats
In our lifting program uh he’s got some film sessions he has to go to I think it’s cool because you know we get an Insight of what the football side is like and we can ask him all the questions about football and who’s good who’s not good and all that good
Stuff because we’re all tar heill you know we want to be good in every sport earlier you discussed technology can you talk about what a pitching lab entails and what a competitive ADV is for teams that have well first of all we didn’t name it a
Pitching lab so I you have to guess what we’ve named it it’s temporary but we think we might stick with it um it’s abbreviated TCS right NP TCS y’all have to figure that out um but to answer your question here’s a great example I walk
In the offic today coach Hal who is in charge and now coach how only works with the pitchers um coach how was a phenomenal pitcher here for us I coached him way back in the coastal plane League was a pitching coach at Wilmington pitching coach at Georgia
And we just felt like with everything in the advancement of technology and analytics we really needed two people with our pitching staff so they can balance each other and and one person can really be in charge of that side of it and that’s what Jason did the summer
He traveled around um and we just tried to figure out okay what’s the best route for us to help our guys improve the most you don’t want it just to have it you want it so it’ll help you win games to help these guys get better and we feel
Like we we’ve got one of the best if not the best new indoor facilities in the country now we had a lot of help from donors that helped us do it as well but we redid the whole indoor um if you guys walk through on the back side if you
Want to video a little bit Carter could show you it’s got a divider where it’s pitching specific there’s still a couple things we got to add in there um but I walked in this morning and Coach how was like Conor Bo and I’m like he’s like
There you go Force plates and I’m like I mean I was a pitching coach for 10 years I just gave him the ball and we threw it I mean you know it’s changed quite a bit we had some bands I don’t even know if they were called Jagger bands
Um but now that being said if you get a bunch of Andrew Millers and bards and whites you know but it still can help because it it it your goal is how can you take the pitcher that you have help him be the best he can be and maybe if
There are some flaws especially in a kid’s career early that can prevent him from an injury injuries sometimes they happen there’s nothing you can do about them but because of something they saw with with Conor Bo throwing on in our indoor um they were able to make a
Change they were able to show Connor exactly what it was here’s what we need to do to make that change and he had been having trouble getting his velocity back up and yesterday he just out there pumping 91 93 um and he was able to apply it so the
Kid has to be a to apply it but you know it’s it’s it’s really phenomenal to me to go to be to walk in there we’re throwing a bullpen you have three TVs you see the name who’s throwing the bullpen you see the the speed you see
The location you see the rotation you see the induced vertical Brak so I’ve you know I’ve learned more about it because I need to know about it um and then you see the slow motion cameras the one right over top you see the release point if a guy’s getting beside the ball
Can he get more behind it so really it’s it’s it’s something that was extreme you know we needed it and our plans were maybe to wait and build a Developmental Center and left but we couldn’t wait you I recognize like we got to do something immediately and rarely do you have a
Vision that it actually turns out exactly like you want it to but so far um you know we’re waiting on the rest of our hitting technology to come in but once that gets here we’ll be rocking and rolling 100% and we also redid an outdoor Bullpen um covered in technology
Track man video the only difference in the indoors we have the force plate Mound which kind of measures your force and are you directing are your Force where it needs to be directed how do I do with that that great thanks coach how much do you personally like ring on the numbers
Because you have analytics for everything but when you’re in s kind of emergency situation how much do you look at the numbers how much of it is just I think you definitely need to pay attention to the numbers um but you also need to pay attention to your instinct
And you need to understand trust the advice I got was you know trust your gut and be yourself when I sat down with someone like coach Williams and I have been coaching long enough to know that Robert Wood is not going to look good back there on those numbers but Robert
Wood is going to win and when you cross the white line you know what what if your what is your competitiveness like you know what is your heartbeat like in the bigger situations can you control it when the batter’s in there like you do back there without a batter
So I still think the the human element is above the analytics and you know I have a lot of friends in professional baseball and they feel like the teams that are keeping that first have been still have been the most successful from the standpoint of letting the manager
Ultimately make the decision you know like you look at Atlanta Braves they’ve got all the technology but they don’t hand him a lineup but some coaches get handed a lineup um but I also think some coaches are close-minded and they’re like oh you know I don’t if you can have
Something that can help you be better help our guys be better I think you should pay attention to it learn how to use it which we try to do here um but I’m not going to make a pitching change because a guy has more induced vertical
Break than the other guy I’m going to most of the time go to the guy that can throw the ball where he wants to and has an all speed pitch that he can locate and and and he’s tough that’s a great question because we were trying to figure out today who we would
Lead off if we played today um and really right now we feel like the three that we would consider would be Madera um denoro or honey cup all three different type guys um so we’re going to have to look at that uh there’s a part of me that’s extremely intrigued to have
Two guys one two that are both capable of hitting 20 home runs um or do you put mad up up there to be more potentially like a A zerat or a Chaz Frank um to try to set the table for the other guys behind him I I say
All that and next thing you know Casey cook will be leading off for us like Reed frunk did in 2007 so you really don’t know me hega 2019 we started leading off Michael Bush and hit sabado behind them um so that could change throughout the season but I do feel like
This is it’s going to be a tough decision from the standpoint of you know that’s where we might look more at these numbers and be like okay you know who’s going to give us the best chance to score the most runs I’m good coach if you want a couple more can
I I’m good yeah we’re off today obvious do I look that bad how does the schedule layout to be able to work on all these lineup you shifting lineups figuring out’s leading off working all this out start I guess what February 16th yeah I mean like you
Said you just just the life of what we do you know you spend a lot of time working on it and try not to overanalyze it but you have a preseason for a reason but you also understand that things are going to change throughout the season um
You know 2011 I was convinced as the pitching coach at Michael Moren was going to be a week starter and he was going to be an All-American and moving him to the bullpen made us take off um so really is trying to to look at us instead of the
Opponents you know I’ve really gotten to where we do still do a lot of scouting but at the end of the day if we don’t play well that scouting doesn’t matter you know it’s all about us and how we play and how we practice and how prepared we are and I’ve really been
Hitting that with our guys like you know if we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing obviously we know that when you play Wagner their Jersey is going to be different than when you play ECU and there GNA be more people in the fans in the stands probably against
ECU but we should play the same like you know we can’t be a team a championship team that doesn’t play at a high level every single time so just focus on our guys getting them ready and go with it you know understand that you’re going to
Have some es and flows and have a short memory coach question just how many quality teams are all around here just whether they’re on the weekends or whether in ACC or not ACC just how much of those games mean person I love it you know the better
That the better it is the better competition is the better you know you the more you find out what you have and I think we’re the lowest ranked team so they must all be better than us so we just have to see if we can hang with them coach mentality and attitude
Is really important going into the season this AO this year I mean I have to go what I always go with it’s just staying with the process and these guys are going to say that I’m a Nick Sabin disciple um and that’s okay but I
Just believe in it you know our motto is more than ever this year is also like we want to prepare the same um every single day and as an extremely high level and then we leave here we want to do things the right way represent our program the
Right way and Trust if we do that over and over and over and over we’ll get the results that we want Scott what has been your offse personal training program was that shirt a little tight on you I wouldn’t say that man um I would say uh coach Savage said it
Best when I saw him in 2021 he said uh man you look like like you you look like you’ve lost some weight he said you found out you don’t have to work out when your head coach because you had more stress so my personal one is I don’t
Even know if I have one to be honest with you get up early stay late and get after it every day basically because you got a handful of guys that come from3 what inang those guys have when they have from to I mean Joo is a Brotherhood we talk about it all the
Time I was a Jo I was a double whammy I was a Jo and a D3 um no but seriously those guys the appreciation you see from the even from the smaller mid Majors because North Carolina you know you’re talking the gear you know stuff that shouldn’t get you too excited but until
You’re here you know if you’ve been in a junior college or you’ve been in division three I mean you probably wrote a check for your spikes for a sweatshirt for a hoodie or you’re doing fundraisers um so these guys I mean our Jo kids and our
Transfers all a sudden they walk in that locker room the first day and they’re like holy Moses look at all this stuff and they probably get more spoiled the longer they’re here but you could ask you know a guy like Jake nap today what what it’s what it’s like to be at a
Smaller school like Wilmington then go to a junior college Like Walter State and then come to UNC but one thing I love about them is they they all play with that chip you know they’re always trying to prove something I’ve noticed that with Theo kid that goes to a division three he
Tries to play at Stony Brook they won’t give him opportunity um and then he goes ends up at Quinn Pak he finds his own summer league to go to plays in that summer league ends up at Quinn Pak becomes an All-American now he’s at UNC so that kid
Like he’s not going to take a day off and every day he feels like he’s got to prove himself small shirt home purpose strategic than
