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00:00 [Ball bouncing]
00:16 We ready?
00:19 First of all, you know, when I started scouting this team,
00:24 I walked away and I saw the first half of the Kentucky game
00:27 and I said, "Oh my God, why did we schedule this team?"
00:31 I saw a team that fought. I saw a team that was together.
00:34 I saw a team that's not afraid, that plays with great energy.
00:38 And the more I watched them, even though they've lost some games,
00:43 I could tell they were a fighting group.
00:46 Then I started doing homework and finding out they got guys
00:50 that had been in college four, five, and six years.
00:55 I'm only saying that to say that's a good team we just played,
00:59 but we have to understand as a unit how fragile winning is.
01:05 I'm proud of the guys. I'm proud of the way they fought through.
01:09 I'm proud of the way they finished the game from the free throw line
01:12 after missing 13 free throws.
01:15 I'm proud of the fact that we won the game by attacking the lane.
01:22 I had multiple guys. One guy drew 13 fouls.
01:26 Another one drew nine. Another one drew eight.
01:28 Another one drew six.
01:30 That means we are attacking with multiple players.
01:33 Again, it's about those guys in the locker room.
01:37 They did a great job of fighting through, even though they weren't perfect.
01:40 I would have liked for us to be a lot better defensively.
01:43 The team shot 58% from the field.
01:46 You're not going to beat many teams, and we got sort of lucky today
01:50 to beat a big fellow, miss two free throws,
01:53 which allowed us hope to take it to overtime.
01:56 Questions?
02:00 Yeah, Kenny, you focused on the team finishing,
02:02 but I was just wondering after you had two really strong showings in New York,
02:08 just what happened there in the first half,
02:10 and how did the team come out flat again after a showing progress in New York?
02:15 Great question.
02:17 When we left New York, you know, the buzz around the country that I was getting
02:22 was that you guys have gotten better.
02:24 You guys are fighting. You guys are playing with energy.
02:27 And then we come out, and I told them, like, guys, you can't overlook anybody.
02:31 You have to fight. You've got to play with great energy.
02:33 You've got to play together.
02:35 You've got to understand that what you did in New York,
02:38 even though you didn't win, people knew that you were getting better.
02:44 I wish I can explain it.
02:46 I think a lot of it, I hate to say it, sort of starts with Brandon.
02:51 Brandon has to give us more,
02:55 and that's why I'm sort of hard on the way I coach him,
02:58 because I know how important he is to this team.
03:01 And the fact that, you know, at times he plays with a casualness
03:07 instead of a viciousness bothers me.
03:10 But he's a good player, and he wants to do the right things,
03:14 and we're not giving up on him.
03:16 We're going to keep pushing him to be better.
03:19 Kenny, when Trey came down and hit the three-pointer
03:22 that basically sent it into overtime, you had called the timeout.
03:26 What did you tell them then?
03:27 Is that kind of what you wanted?
03:30 Well, I thought they would have guarded Trey as well,
03:34 but what happened was when he brought the ball up,
03:36 when he caught the ball in the backcourt and brought it up,
03:39 the big guy, one of the big guys, I don't know who it was,
03:42 sort of went to the lane, which gave him a wide-open look.
03:47 Listen, in this game, players got to make plays, man.
03:51 So I can draw up something, but when a situation arises,
03:55 Trey White saw it, took advantage of it, focused,
03:59 shot a three-pointer after missing some, held his follow-through.
04:03 You know, I'm big on every shot that you shoot every day before you shoot it,
04:07 it's a game-winner.
04:09 Every practice, every time you touch a ball, it's a game-winner.
04:12 Well, he executed his jump shot, and it was a hell of a shot.
04:20 Kenny, can you talk about the difference your team is when Tyler is out there
04:24 and kind of doing what he was doing in the second half as far as getting into
04:27 the lane, but then also defensively, the energy he brings?
04:31 He's an energy bunny.
04:35 I love when he plays with discipline to match his energy
04:40 because he makes our team a lot better.
04:43 We're hard to guard when we have a Mike James or Trey White,
04:47 Tyler and Sky on the court at times together because all those guys can dry the
04:52 ball, can shoot the ball, and can get in the lane and pass the ball.
04:57 So he's a little bit of the X factor for us as a team.
05:03 He's getting better.
05:05 He still has moments where he looks at it like it's high school and gets
05:11 emotional, but for where he started to where he is and not being here in the
05:17 summer and all the stuff that he went through to get here, to get eligible,
05:21 he's made tremendous strides.
05:23 I'm proud of him, and the best is yet to come.
05:28 Kenny, you're down eight, I think, with a minute 18 to go.
05:33 What were you thinking at that time, and what did you tell your guys?
05:37 Keep fighting.
05:38 Keep fighting.
05:39 You'll get a break if you keep fighting.
05:42 You hadn't played well all game.
05:45 Something's going to turn.
05:46 You just got to be ready for it to turn, and when it does, seize it, grab it,
05:50 and don't let it go.
05:52 I thought they did a good job of that.
05:53 Something turned.
05:54 Like I said, the guy missed the free throws, two free throws.
05:58 We come down, we make a three, which gave us overtime,
06:04 which we were pretty good in overtime.
06:07 Yeah, Kenny, going back to Tylor for a second here in the back.
06:11 Sorry.
06:13 Playing him and Sky together, do you like that moving forward?
06:17 And if you do, what needs to keep getting better for them to be on the floor
06:20 together?
06:21 I like it.
06:22 I just worry about if one of them gets in foul trouble.
06:27 What does that do to our dynamics of our team?
06:32 You know, they are very good together.
06:33 They have great chemistry.
06:35 You know, Sky is really good off the balls at times.
06:40 Tylor is as well.
06:43 If we move the ball, it comes back to their hands, and then they can attack.
06:48 When you have two guys that are fast and crafty like they are,
06:51 good ball handlers, it's hard to guard.
06:55 And as they get more familiar, look, we're six games in,
06:59 and we're only getting better.
07:03 I'm curious about the status of Keron Davis.
07:06 It's been a few while since we've seen him on the bench.
07:08 Is there a short-term, long-term plan on getting him back on the roster
07:10 or back on the bench?
07:11 The plan for Keron is me and Keron got to sit down and talk about what's best
07:15 for him and what's best for us.
07:16 It's my decision.
07:18 Really no real update.
07:22 That's it.
07:25 Kenny, this has been a couple of -- Mike hasn't scored much these last three
07:28 games, but today he finished at plus 15.
07:31 Just how does he add stuff to the team in ways when he's not scoring the ball?
07:36 So, plus 15, 0 for 7, 0 for 3, 5 for 8 from free throw line.
07:45 Eight rebounds.
07:50 I mean, the way he plays, the toughness that he plays with, it calms our team.
07:58 We're a better team when he's just on the floor.
08:01 So, he's invaluable to us.
08:03 And the numbers don't -- and this is where I debate with analytics.
08:09 The numbers can't put a value on a guy like Mike James.
08:17 You guys lost several games like this last year.
08:20 What can a game like this do for the confidence or, you know,
08:25 swagger for your team?
08:28 I think it's very important.
08:31 You know, I wish I could say that we played great, but we didn't.
08:36 We played actually poorly and we came out and got a win.
08:42 A year ago, I don't know, that could have easily been a loss or a 15-point loss,
08:48 to be honest with you.
08:50 I got good players that are only getting better and they're young.
08:55 I think sometimes that gets overlooked.
08:58 You look at a Sky Clark, you look at him and you say he's a sophomore.
09:01 He played 9, 10, 11 games last year at Illinois.
09:05 You look at Trey White, he was a freshman in USC in the Pac-12.
09:13 My guys are young and they're learning about each other
09:16 and they're learning winning basketball.
09:19 The thing that I walk away with the most, more than anything else,
09:25 is that they're high-character kids that are trying.
09:28 They're really trying and they want to win and they want to do well.
09:31 They want this community to know that they care about winning
09:35 and they're not just doing it for themselves, they're doing it for Louisville.
09:41 Kenny, Dennis started this game, only played three minutes.
09:45 Just what was your reasoning behind that?
09:47 And where does he have to grow to see the floor more?
09:49 I just think Dennis has to get stronger.
09:53 You know, he makes some mistakes out there to start the game.
09:57 Listen, Dennis is learning.
10:00 You look at the guy that played five for them, big, strong,
10:03 how many years did he play in college?
10:05 Six, five?
10:08 Five years in college.
10:10 Dennis is a baby.
10:12 That guy is 250, 60 pounds.
10:16 Dennis may be 210 pounds, I don't know.
10:21 He's got to continue to learn the pace of the game, the physicality of the game,
10:26 the movements of the game.
10:28 And in no shape, form or fashion have we gotten down on Dennis.
10:34 Dennis is going to help us.
10:36 In order for us to be the team that we need to be,
10:38 Dennis Evans needs to be bringing it.
10:40 He needs to be on the court more,
10:42 but he also needs to digest what he's seeing on the court
10:46 and digest how do I help this team, which I'm more than happy to see him grow.
10:55 I just got to get out of games with wins, if that makes sense.
11:10 I noticed Hersey Miller wasn't on the bench as well.
11:12 What can you say about him?
11:14 Hersey had a medical thing that he did that he's getting consulted on.
11:21 Hopefully he'll be back with us soon.
11:24 But he had to take care of that.
11:27 All right, guys.