Dan Hurley Media Availability | 1.30.24

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Healthwise everyone’s good uh you know good to go um I think there there’s no uh minutes restrictions for for Donovan or anybody now uh you know team’s pretty healthy does that now you’ve got your full compliment guys healthy how much does that give you options and you know

I just the whole Playbook yeah I think that the um just the time that that the time in between um you know gutting out the uh Villanova game and then you know all the way through to Xavier just gave us some time to practice and

Um yeah that was kind of the problem in the you know in the seat and Hall game was you know you lose Donovan in you know in mid game and um and then and you don’t have much time to now kind of change the way you do things and uh

Obviously then we had a little bit of time to you know to kind of change the tactics uh and and then um you know Donovan comes back and just getting that practice time I think has allowed us to uh figure out how we want to play um um

You have practice time how much is province different without Hopkins uh I mean they they they uh obviously you you lose uh you know you lose one of the most talented players in the league it’s uh you know it’s a big hit um it’s an emotional hit and um you

Know I’d say uh you know um it’s never good it’s never easy losing him for the season too it’s uh you when you know someone’s coming back uh emotionally it’s it’s easier to deal with uh so obviously they’ve they’ve done a great job of of recovering and and uh you know

Coming in here with the with the winning streak and feeling real good um positive side for them you know Carter is one of the best guards in the country uh you know he’s he’s an NBA player he’s a he’s a 2A player he’s a he’s a Bruce brown

Type of player um it’s he’s uh he’s fun to watch play um except when you’re about to play him uh and then they’re all and and then you know pretty you know they kind of you know merged with some of those Mason guys who are older players really really good

Players um so you know we uh you know we know it’s going to be a really it’s not going to resemble um you know the game we just played how do you approach your team after such a complete performance on Sunday and try to keep them in that

Same mindset yeah I mean we we don’t get um I mean we’re we’re we’re uh there’s a high level of relief when you win but we we you know we’ll enjoy it for that night but then the you know the next day um you know the preparation starts

And you know we’re maniacal about our preparation um I I look for any type of crack in human behavior of people getting complacent and uh you know probably was tougher on them after that game than I would be after a loss um cuz you are dealing with human nature and um

We’ve been on such a great run for a while here now now um don’t want to make yourself vulnerable by getting away from what we do if we don’t stick to our script defensively uh offensively on the backboard and playing as hard as we do

This thing will will um you know it will start to unravel like it did last year when we got away from our script me number one hasn’t really negatively hurt impacted you at all has it I mean no it just seems like you just it’s another

Day yeah we don’t really think about it we’re uh we’re just about the work and um you know we we were uh we turned the page very quickly you know we obviously we played played on Sunday and it feels like this year every game we play our

Opponent in the Big East is uh you know has more prep time than us you know they played Saturday um we played Sunday we play on Wednesday um it almost feels like every game this year uh we’ve been in that situation where the other team

Has had you know more time to prepare or maybe I’m just seeing things um so you just you turn you turn the page quickly and um you know we’re just intense people um and uh you know we obviously uh we were chasing some goals you know

Trying to go on the field at home trying to win the regular season trying to do things that haven’t been done here since the 06 the 056 pretty pretty remarkable month then you’ve won all seven of your games you’re looking to go run the table

Here with one more you got the big guy back you took the number one ranking in this month and it’s interesting to contrast it to last January you kind of touched on this in your post game the other day but uh what what do you think about all you guys have accomplished and

Found out about yourselves this January yeah um you just uh the residuals from winning it uh last year the confidence that you get from that uh that even with Donovan out that we’re going to still find a way the the belief in each other the belief in what we do uh just a

Powerful confidence Builder from last March and April and really February when we played real well and you know that’s not been lost on us we’ve talked about January you know we were mad at January um you know and now um you know we we said some derogatory things about

January um throughout the month like let’s get January back for what January did to us and let’s pay you know and and you know some not so nice words about January um you know but now we have a chance if we you know if we’re able to

Take care of business tomorrow night to to to begin to love January again you know and we hated January what’s the impact of playing at home I mean especially on campus at GLE like is there an impact to that yeah I think so and I thought the XL um you know the uh

On Sunday was great too I thought that was maybe the the best it’s been and and it certainly helps when you when you make as many shots as we did and play uh you know played as well as we did at both ends of the court and on the glass

But um yeah you know the the the gamle um you know tomorrow we know that there’s definitely going to be an an advantage there for us in terms of uh um you know the crowd noise um the electricity in there it’s going to be obviously heavy heavy students our

Students are awesome at the game so there’s going to be you know a ton of students that’ll set the tone there for us and um just it’s it it’s it’s a tough place to win you know we we have to you know we we’ve got to play you know

Um you know yeah you think of Kim English and what he’s been able to do so far yeah I thought I thought uh just from a what was able to put together um you know it’s not often that you come into uh you know into a job and take

Over for coach and you you you inherit two guys like uh like Hopkins and um uh and Carter I mean two of the maybe make case that the two the two best players in the league or two of the best players in the league um and they’re playing

Great and looked like one of the top teams um obviously merging those those guys and Corey and Jaden um um you know with the the guys he brought with him from Mason like older really good college players um I thought just put together a tremendous team and um he’s

Done a great job I mean a lot of lesser coaches season would have caved um you know after the Hopkins injury so I think it speaks to uh speaks to his abilities his quality that uh what he’s been able to do recently in particular um you know

The St C Hall win having a chance to win at the buzzer at St John uh you know he’s definitely shown his quality what you think about Tristan being on the Koozie list one one of 10 left yeah he’s earned it I think you earn these Awards um again I think uh

These awards are and and it should be that way with the Big East Awards too the these are um you know the things that you do affect the Big East in the beginning of the non-conference Season too you know um so you know the totality of your performance uh from when the

Season starts in November through to the end of the regular season in the Big East uh uh Big East regular season is is is how I I believe coaches should vote and media should vote on these type of awards um you know Tristan uh is been

One of the best guards in the country um on the number one team in the country that’s also defending national champions so he he obviously deserves to be up for any award that you know same for Alex uh same for cam uh same for Steph as a freshman same for Donovan even though

He’s missed time but you see the impact when he’s in the game it’s that hard you’re GNA have three you know you have pretty balance so when it comes for say Big East Player of the Year whatever is it kind of hard to pick from your guys

Yeah I mean I listen I I don’t um you know I don’t no I not even thinking about that right I just you got me thinking about that gav and I just went to a place where I was that I didn’t want to talk about have some like Devin Carter who’s

Having a great year and he’s a candidate but his team might be yeah wherever six or whatever I’ll say this like that it’s not listen it’s not going to affect any of these guys professionally I mean you can’t fool people with numbers anymore um and uh hey I’m going to be a

Second round draft pick because I was Big E player of the year right I mean um you know it’s based on quality and you can’t really fool anybody anymore and the you know the thing about our League this year is the players are phenomenal I mean there’s been years where uh it’s

Been hard to pick um you know a second team because maybe you don’t feel like maybe there’s a deserving guy that you’re giving it to but this year I this is the most players I think we’ll have drafted in a draft in a long time um

This is the most players that are most good players that won’t get even second team so um you know that’s why you got to go for um the team trophies you know cuz uh you know those you have control over you don’t have control over popularity contests how sustainable is

Your your level of player right now and how do you sustain it yeah um you know listen this year this team’s been so impressive to me this year and I’m not trying to take pressure off them at all um you know cuz generally when you lose

What we lost and and it was significant um and you only bring in the one older guy um you know there’s going to be a drop off but to be um you know to be where we are right now record-wise compared to where we were last year um I

I do think step’s got another level that he can get to I think Donovan has got a chance to continue to to get better um obviously C A and and uh and Tristan have settled in and and um and are in a great place I think it’s going to come

Down to depth um toughness in these Big East games for us uh you know because I I do think that we’re going to have a lot of confidence going into into the NCAA tournament because we know with the freedom of movement and the less physicality that were Taylor Made for

That type of basketball but you know we still um you have to prove ourselves in this this brutal League I mean these games are super physical that don’t necessarily play to our strengths you know um that’s not who we are we don’t like Maul people physically we’re a

Movement team we we we fly around the court play really hard but we don’t grab and hold and shove in the back um and sometimes that that gets rewarded in this league so um you know we we’ve got to show that we can win those type of

Games too with your Ben I know you want to go nine deep so in future game The Game’s coming up is there still kind of a feel how deep you go and yeah I mean some of it’s on the starters too I mean these guys got to get us off to a good

Start so that I don’t get get tight with the rotation um and then the onus is on the is on solo and and St that they’re fully prepared and that they don’t immediately go in the game and make a defensive mistake or or turn the ball

Over or or not know what we’re doing offensively um they uh for us to get to our goals we need them to play important minutes and to be an important part of our rotation um the onus is on on me to play him but them also to you know keep

Themselves on the court by like limiting mistakes would you say you run your operation basically the same way day-to-day when the team is soaring like it is now versus like a time last January when it’s trying to find itself a little bit or do you approach things differently given different

Circumstances I mean I think every day um yeah every day is is absolutely the same um in terms of the preparation the how detailed we are with the scouting and uh and the opponent that’s coming up and we really truly stay focused on that opponent um as a coach you you’re you’re

A you’re you know part motivator part psychologist you know if you feel like your team is like feeling too good then you’re going to be on their ass if you feel like your team’s a little beat up and has lost their confidence idence you you’re going to try and build it up um

You know we’re still at the point right now where we we need to get better um this team hasn’t been whole for a long enough period of time where we just kind of where everything’s automatic like it was for us last year um so our practices are still driving and pushing to improve

As opposed to maintenance type of practices um you know and then show me any super successful organization uh you know where the leaders of it are um obsessing uh over every little detail uh and all the behaviors and the mindsets of everybody involved Jaden Jaden obviously coming out of preseason looked

Like a little higher than rotation obviously hasn’t played much do you think he’s bought into the idea of you know maybe this year isn’t necessarily his year but the future is still pretty bright for him yeah I just think we um you know I’ll say it publicly um

Obviously privately we we try to stay in the in the uh you know in the ears of uh and in the minds of all of our young players players and you know you you’re playing in you know currently you’re in a program that’s uh you know for the

Last season and a half has done college basketball better than anybody else has done it um we’ve uh and then we’ve also uh in terms of winning but then we’ve also you know from a Player Development standpoint this is a pretty good program

To be in um but you got to pay your dues you um you know Andre did it early in his career Jordan Hawkins did it early on in their career um you know and you got to just trust us and I don’t think there’s a better place that you could be

And uh you know than this place is for Jaylen and Jaden and solo um you know and Yousef places where you know they’re probably all not playing as much as they’d like to but um you’re in one of the Premier places you could play with with a coaching staff

That is truly committed to these guys it’s like I said before the season you know we need you guys to kind of help us this year um you know and then and then we could build around you as you become a sophomore or a junior um you know we

Make we will make that that commitment to guys that will return and commit to us you know when we won’t go portal crazy um you know we’ll do it the way we did it this year if if they believe in US does does getting towards or into February bring a heightened sense of

Urgency or do you does it still feel like there’s a lot of season left or because February leads to March does it feel like we we’re really coming down the stretch now we got to refine things as quick as possible I just think we we

Take it now it’s just uh just that next game mentality and and it’s like uh know um I’m on to Cincinnati you know but it really is at this point you know you’re really not you know talking too much about the standings you’re not you know like as as an extra

Motivational piece yeah I mean we we talked about the regular season and and and and not going to not having been undefeated at home in quite some time like you use those extra motivational things at times but like we are just um because we haven’t been whole we we

Really are just kind of just focused on trying to get this team um from a tactic standpoint from a cohesion standpoint um to start just to play the exact way that this group needs to play to get maximum success and uh you know I think as you get more to February you

Start to uh you know you maybe start to to shift a little bit of the messaging thanks thank you