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00:00 And from Louisville next.
00:03 Leafy is on here.
00:04 Alright, good morning.
00:09 Morning, good morning.
00:12 Do you have a question for Kenny?
00:13 Go ahead, use the raise hand tool
00:14 if you need access to record
00:16 and just let me know that as well.
00:18 Kenny, your first question
00:19 will come from Tom Noy.
00:21 Go ahead, Tom.
00:22 Kenny, I know you lost two in a row,
00:24 but before that you won
00:25 two straight at home.
00:26 What was the difference?
00:27 What did you see different
00:28 from your team when you played
00:29 those two home games
00:30 and won those two home games?
00:32 Well, I wouldn't say it was home or away.
00:34 I would just say,
00:35 you know, the style in which we played.
00:38 First of all, when we turned the ball over,
00:40 we're giving our opponent a chance to beat us
00:44 and we're sort of beating ourselves.
00:46 Two, I think we had games
00:49 where we were dominant on the glass
00:51 and multiple guys were scoring.
00:54 So for me, it was more about that then.
00:57 And but on the flip side of that,
00:58 now playing at home,
01:00 I thought our fans gave us an extra
01:04 extra boost.
01:06 The arena was electric
01:08 and they cheered these guys on
01:10 and they fought hard for the fans as well.
01:13 How do you keep these guys believing?
01:16 They don't have a choice.
01:17 I mean, we have to fight.
01:19 We we we have to come in every day.
01:22 And one of the things that I talk about
01:25 is win the day.
01:27 And what that means is today
01:29 we have to win today.
01:31 So that means we come in, we fight,
01:33 we practice hard, try to get better.
01:37 Tomorrow we'll try to win that day.
01:39 And then game time, game day,
01:41 we're going to win that day.
01:43 And having that mentality,
01:47 what you find is that every day
01:49 is a progression to doing the things
01:52 it takes to win.
01:53 And then the game becomes the by-product of that.
01:57 Thanks, Kenny.
01:59 Russ Brown, go ahead.
02:01 Hi, Kenny.
02:02 I know you like to or do stay in the present,
02:06 but do you or will you talk to your team
02:09 about what a great opportunity they have
02:11 with four of their last five games at home?
02:13 Oh, no question.
02:16 And you're right,
02:17 I do like to stay in the present, Russ.
02:19 I think it's important that we take one game at a time
02:23 because we're not the type of team
02:25 with the injuries, with all the unfortunate things
02:28 that have happened, we can't look ahead.
02:31 So we don't know what tomorrow will bring.
02:33 But we have a golden opportunity
02:36 to finish this season strong,
02:38 finish these last games strong,
02:40 and head into the conference tournament
02:44 and maybe surprise some people.
02:47 And I believe, I mean,
02:49 I just need them to come in every day
02:51 and be a momentum so that we can do that.
02:55 Do you think they will?
02:57 I've always, I'm always thinking positive.
03:02 For me, I believe we win in every game,
03:04 no matter what the circumstances are.
03:08 And I have to believe that.
03:10 I'm always gonna be the person that believes that.
03:14 I believe in my team, I believe in my players,
03:17 I believe in the work that we do.
03:20 And so I'm expecting them to go out and perform that way.
03:23 - Brooks Holt, go ahead.
03:28 - Hey Kenny, good morning.
03:31 - What's up, Brooks?
03:32 - Hey, so as we look into the final month of the season,
03:36 I'm just wondering, I'm just wondering
03:38 on how things are going just in terms of,
03:41 just in terms of,
03:42 in terms of your, of recruiting
03:49 and just how the portal may impact that.
03:52 You know, you talked about, you know,
03:53 I'm not trying to look ahead,
03:54 but you know, just trying to get a glimpse of,
03:56 you know, how things are going there.
03:57 - Well, I think things are headed pretty good.
04:00 You know, obviously the portal becomes a major piece
04:05 to this, what we're doing.
04:07 And so I think we have good young players,
04:12 but at the end of the day,
04:13 when you look at all these teams, Brooks,
04:15 you see that they're, they're doing this through the portal
04:19 and we'll be no different.
04:20 We have to target guys that bring experience,
04:23 that bring toughness, that have seen college basketball
04:26 and that are winning basketball players.
04:28 So the portal will be vital, but also bringing in,
04:33 whether it's a high school kid or whatever,
04:35 the type of kid that,
04:37 that can help us move forward in the future.
04:44 - Rick Bosich, go ahead.
04:47 - Yeah, Kenny, I'm sure you look at the numbers
04:49 and the Pitt game, Pitt only turned it over three times,
04:53 none in the second half.
04:54 As a, how concerning is that to you as a coach
04:58 and what can you do to change that?
05:01 - Very concerning, Rick.
05:05 I think that, you know, I'm constantly in practicing
05:10 and talking about making every dribble hard,
05:14 occupying the eyes of the offensive player,
05:17 making every pass, trying to get a deflection,
05:19 make everything that the offense does hard,
05:23 try to create turnovers.
05:26 And when you see a game like Pittsburgh game,
05:30 where particularly Henson,
05:33 who is a very, very good basketball player,
05:37 exceptional score and get going easy,
05:40 you want him to earn everything he gets.
05:44 You don't want him to play at a pace that's his pace
05:49 and get in a flow playing at that pace.
05:52 And that's what happened in the game.
05:54 And he had a monster night because of it.
05:57 I want him to, players like him, I want them to,
06:03 maybe they're gonna get on the spell,
06:04 they're gonna make shots.
06:06 He's too good of a player not to make shots.
06:09 But over the course of the game,
06:11 I'm expecting him to be tired down the stretch,
06:15 to be frustrated down the stretch,
06:17 to know that every shot that I got was highly contested.
06:21 It wasn't easy.
06:22 I didn't do it by posting, by layups and the threes.
06:27 And he happened to do it by all three.
06:29 - And real quick, what's the latest on Sky and Tyler?
06:33 - We didn't practice yesterday.
06:37 So today will be our first day practicing.
06:40 Looking forward to seeing where they are.
06:42 I hadn't got the medical report today yet,
06:45 but we'll go around 2.30, three o'clock.
06:48 And I'll know more then.
06:50 - Jody Demling, go ahead.
06:54 - I know this day to day.
06:55 - Jody Demling, go ahead.
06:58 - Kenny, can you just talk about what you see
07:00 with Notre Dame and kind of maybe a little bit
07:02 of a scouting report with what they've been doing?
07:05 - Well, Notre Dame is a team sort of like all of us
07:09 that, you know, the bottom half of this conference,
07:12 they're a capable team of beating you.
07:15 They play really hard.
07:17 They're energetic.
07:18 They can make shots.
07:20 We have to play our best,
07:22 but Jody, at the end of the day,
07:24 it's not about Notre Dame,
07:27 even though they're capable of beating us.
07:29 It's about us.
07:30 It's about our determination to do the things it takes
07:33 to play winning basketball,
07:34 not turning the ball over,
07:36 rebounding the basketball,
07:38 defending the basketball,
07:40 and then sharing the ball on the other end
07:42 and not taking bad shots.
07:46 We do those things.
07:47 We got a good chance of winning the game.
07:49 - Thank you.
07:51 - Anything else for Kenny before we let him go?
07:56 Kenny, thank you.
08:01 Appreciate the time. - Thank you.