1/8/24 - The Sean Miller Radio Show

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
On the Xavier Sports Network from learField, Live from the Dilly Bistro in
Marymont. Welcome to the Sean MillerRadio Show, presented by bud Late,
Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy, and by Try Health. Try Health
provides supprisingly human care that drives thebest health outcomes. Be seen, be

(00:24):
heard, be healed. Visit tryhealthdot com. Now Here are Joe Sunderman
and Byron Larkin live from Dilli Pistroand Marrimont. I'm Joe Sunderman along with
Byron Larkin and the head coach ofthe Zapor Musketeers, Sean Miller. Good
hustle getting in here, Sean,Yeah, thank nay. Ten seconds,

(00:45):
perfect time and you're right here.You can relax and take a deep breath
and thanks again for everyone. Joinus. Another great crowd here at Dyli
Pistro. It's awesome that you showup. We took a two or three
week break and we're right back atitself and shan along those lines and you
had the break that's over and nowas you know, and you know better
than anybody, this schedule now clicksoff like you can't believe, right through

(01:07):
March until when it all wraps upat whatever point that may be for the
Musketeers. So talk about how thebreak may be benefit of the Musketeers or
was it beneficial, and also howyou get ready for the race that you're
going to run right now. Yeah, you know, Joe. I think
the first point is, you know, we're in a twenty game regular season

(01:29):
schedule in the Big East. That'sonly been in place. I think last
year is the only time we accomplishedit because I think the year before I
came here to Xavier came back,I think we were slated to have a
twenty game season, but because ofCOVID and some things that have happened,
I don't know if every team playedtwenty games. So look at last year

(01:49):
as the brand new Big East,where we played ten games at home,
ten on the road. And whenyou do that, everybody has to play
a couple before Christmas, which ismuch much different than really the history of
college basketball. It's just a fewshort years ago that certain conferences started to
experiment with playing conference games prior toChristmas, you know, maybe a one

(02:14):
off game or playing a home andaway, and it was more TV driven
than they had to. But whenyou play a twenty game schedule in order
to get all of those games in. You know, the regular season in
our conference begins earlier now than everbefore, and you know clearly that's the
case with us when you follow it. What's different is as you go through

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it, each of us experiences likea bye week, and that bye week
could come as late as late Februaryearly March, and it could come as
soon as the first week after Christmas. And that's really what we've experienced.
We've experienced a Christmas break, playinga couple big East games right around the
holidays, which everybody in our leaguehas done, but then our bye came

(02:58):
right away. So if it feelsfunny to our fans about man, it
just seems like there's no rhythm rightnow that we've been off, that's because
we have. What we've tried todo is take advantage of it in really
three ways. Joe. First,all of our guys had a chance to
take a four day break over theholidays. In our world, that's a

(03:19):
lot. I think it was beneficialacross the board because we've really worked hard
since the beginning of the school yearwith so many new players. Everybody experienced
just life away from Xavier basketball,and then when we came back prior to
playing Villanova, I thought we hadsome great practices. I found our team
was ready to play. In thatgame, we improved and we really focused

(03:43):
hard on that one game. Andwhen that game ended, we've really done
the same thing now getting ready forYukon, because we didn't have a game
this past weekend. So it's likethese two breaks or three breaks. Break
everybody leaves break number one preparing forVillanova, and now this second break preparing
for Yukon. To your point,Joe, when this game ends against Yukon,

(04:05):
it's like we're playing two or threegames a week to infinity. We
know that. So we've we've puta lot of eggs in this period of
time's basket to improve, to tryto address our weaknesses, to experiment,
and at the same time be themost ready for these first couple of Big
East games at Villanova and Yukon athome in particular. So I think we've

(04:28):
taken advantage of it. With somuch inexperience, it always helps us to
have more practices early, not later. And look, we've taken advantage of
it. We'll see here on Wednesday. The type of team we are,
and maybe some strides we've been ableto make over these last couple of weeks.
Coach, I thought that Villanova game, even though the result is obviously

(04:51):
not what anybody wanted, but Ithought I saw some improvement in your team,
especially defensively. You were pretty muchtrailing in the entire game, and
when that happens a lot of times, it's easy to kind of get out
of yourself and try to get oneplayer, maybe take some ill advised shots
trying to get you back. Butwhat's missing often when that happens is like

(05:15):
the defensive effort. And I thoughtyour defense got better as the game went
on. You held them to fewerpoints in the second half than you did
the first half. And I knowthat's been something that you've been talking about
all year for sure. Byron.I mean, and as the story oftentimes
is whether you win or lose,there's good things and bad things in both.
You know, it's so easy tooverlook the bad when you have a

(05:39):
hard fought victory, and it's Ithink equally easy and sometimes convenient overlook the
good when you have a heartbreaking losslike we did. But our defense has
been trending in the right direction we'veimproved. We're a better defensive team right
now than we were at any pointlast season. And that goes without saying
that really good team a year agoand accomplished some very special things. But

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when you look at Villanova for thegame on their home court, you know,
for us to hold them to thirtyeight percent thirty three percent from three
to ten of thirty and they onlygot to the free throw line eighteen times.
We also forced them into having twelveturnovers, and that number is not
big, but as you know,covering Villanova for the years, you've had,

(06:26):
yeah, so many times because oftheir tempo, they finished the game
with single digit turnovers. So wehad nine steals in that game. Back
to your point, if you couldhave nine steals in three blocks, you
know, you force twelve turnovers andyou force them into thirty eight percent and
only give them fourteen points from thefree throw line. Our defense was plenty
good enough to win. What we'vestarted to experience as our season has grown

(06:49):
is we've struggled to score at times. With with our team we really have,
there's some things we did well.For example, we were ten for
ten from the foul lie and weplayed the entire forty minutes with only eight
turnovers. That's been something we've talkeda lot about. Can we improve on

(07:09):
our turnovers? Can we play gamesin the single digits. And a big
reason we had three shots really togo up and win the game in the
last forty five seconds at Villanova wasbecause we played with single digit turnovers.
And to your point, we playedto the very final buzzer, and our
defense at times was outstanding. Ithink in the last ten minutes we might

(07:30):
have held them to just a fewfield goals, you know, for the
final eight to ten minutes of thatgame. So our defense is improving,
and to be able to go onthe road in the Big East, you
have to have sometimes those nights whereyour defense can carry you. I think
what we're after is consistent defense likethis and continue to be able to score

(07:51):
at maybe a more efficient rate aswe keep moving forward. I think God,
improving your defense, it usually justtakes more effort, go harder,
you know, fight through screens harder, be more aware of what's going on.
But improving your offense is a littledifferent. Yeah, I mean,
you can always run your offense harder, set better screens, you know,

(08:15):
be more crisp in your sets.But how do you improve on your offense
because you know guys are out theretrying to make their shots, So how
do you go about doing that?You know, I think it's just some
of it is execution, which wecan control Byron, and look, I'm
here to tell you there are somany little things that you can dial in
and do better. You know,setting harder screens when it's our ball under

(08:39):
our basket, to be more efficient, sharper, create easier shots for the
team that we have, and againstart to identify those areas where we have
been turning it over and cut downon those turnovers. You know, you
learn your personnel more as the yeargoes on. You know, I think
our three guards are our best bet. When Davion McKnight is a double figure

(09:01):
score, I think we've lost onegame and that's our last one by one
point. And you know, whendez Quincy and Davion seem to have the
ball in their hands, when theycan be playmakers, scores, draw fouls,
the other guys can play off ofthem, and that's when we've been
at our best. That's what happenedwhen we played Seaton Hall at home.
You know, really, all threeof those guys did a really good job,

(09:24):
and with our younger group, it'sa matter of the word patience is
not always easy for a fan,for a coach, and even for our
players themselves. But it's just goingto be baby steps with some of our
freshmen. This league isn't built forfreshmen to be successful. We're playing against
a freshman on Wednesday, Stefan Castle, who is a high school McDonald's All

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American, really had his pick ofthe litter, could have gone to any
major program in our country. Hechose Yukon, and he's a good player,
but there are times when teams areguarding him with their center. You
know, there are teams when guards, when teams are scheming against him just
to give more help on some ofYukon's other players. I think Castle will

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be an NBA player for a longtime, But if you judge him right
now in his first year in theBig East Conference as a young freshman,
you know there are some other guyson Yukon's team that strike more fear in
you as you prepare for them thanhe does. Yet here he is one
of the top ten or fifteen highschool players in the country. In our

(10:30):
case. You know Dalan Swain,he won the gold jersey today. It
was he had a great week ofpractice. It was a week when we
really played a lot in practice.If you follow him closely, starting to
put more and more good plays together, I think he's an improving player for
us. And those are the thingsto answer your question, how do you
become better on offense? You know, it's just players like Dalen who come

(10:52):
in off the bench, you arejust more sure of themselves, who make
better plays, less negative plays,just are more comfortable. And guess what
that that bodes well for scoring morepoints, having less turnovers, and maybe
taking a few of those steps.Trey Green is another example. Trey,
can you come in the game andknock down a couple of threes but not
turn the ball over? Right,So take away that one negative play and

(11:16):
continue to be confident from the threepoint line. That's a big deal when
you can have a young freshman comein the game and take those baby steps.
So those are the things we're workingon, and I think we're on
the right track to your point aboutdefense, Buyer, and I'm proud of
where we are fourteen games in ondefense, I hope we can maintain it
and build it, and if wedo, we have a lot of good,

(11:39):
good games left in our future.Coach, and you mentioned Dalan Swain.
You know, every time I watchhim play, I want him.
I'm like, come on, justbe more aggressive. A lot of times
he's so close to the basket thatit seems like he's not thirsty enough to
score. Yep, and he'll pass, you know, he's he's a you
know, he's got a great handthough, and he's a great passer.

(12:01):
But sometimes I'm like, you're passingup shots that close to the basket.
You talked to him about that.We did, so we watched the Villanova
game together, really, him andI did, and we watched the entire
game that he was in, sohe played about twenty minutes. And pointing
those things out. Sometimes when ayoung players in a game, he actually
byron doesn't see the opportunity that youdo. I mean just he almost doesn't

(12:24):
realize, Wait, you're right,I'm twelve feet from the basket and if
I just kind of flip my hipsand try to go strong, I can
get fouled or score there. Sotrying to point those opportunities out to him
and him knowing that me as hishead coach, want him to be a
little bit more aggressive, and bythe way, that means running in like
a torpedo and trying to tip aball in and to rebound, and to

(12:48):
be more aggressive in that area too, because Dayalen, with his athleticism and
his quickness and his size, hecan help us in an area where I
think it's our weakest overall area,and that is our defensive rebounding. One
way Byron that we can score moreefficiently and be better is to get more
defensive rebounds, because if you thinkabout it, a defensive rebound leads to

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transition, and in transition, that'swhen our team is at its best.
You give up second shots, younot only give that up, but you're
taking away a really opportunity, ascoring opportunity sometimes for a guy like Quincy
to get maybe a wide open threefrom the right wing that never happens because
we didn't get the ball. Sobeing able to rebound better, those are

(13:31):
things that a young player like Dalencan really do better. And I think
he's on his way. He's he'sa better player today than he was at
any time last month. I'm goingto call in a talk with a Coach
five one three fifty five hundred.This is a Sean Miller Coach a show
from Billy Bistro and Marymount on fiftyfive KARC and the Varsity NETFWLIK. Hi,

(13:54):
Welcome back to the Sean Miller Showfrom Billy Bistro and Merrimount bud Light,
proud sponsor of Xavier's Easy to Drinkand Easy to Enjoy. Coach.
You were talking about more rebounds,more fast break opportunities. As it is,
Xavier leads the Big East and fastbreak point scored Lee at sixteen per
ball game. You're second and Assistanat seventeen. So your offense seems to

(14:15):
be close to breaking out. It'sis it just a matter of making shots,
shooting a better percentage? Yeah,you know, and some of it
too, Joe, is you knowjust the production of our of our group.
You know, we've struggled at thefour spot on offense and in particular
in the Big East. You know, it's just you know, being able
to get made field goals, production, offensive rebounds, fouls drawn, and

(14:37):
being able to do it from notjust one of them, but just a
couple. You know, where youknow, a guy like Giatis and Lazarre
plus Dayalen when we go smaller combinedto get twelve points fourteen points, we
need more production out of that group. And then, you know, I
also think, and I've talked aboutthis, that you know, Dez Claude
has made a huge jump from hisfreshman year. He's done a lot of

(15:01):
great things, and sometimes I feellike we're asking him to virtually do everything
that you can do on a basketballcourt, you know, and he has
a big scoring night, it's deswe needs you to rebound more. And
when he's really good on offense,yeah, but you got to defend better.
And you know where the bar isso high because we're asking him to
do a lion's share of the work. But he has not settled in from

(15:24):
the three point line. And Ibelieve that overall he's a better three point
shooter than has shown up in games. And you know that's also a factor
just being able to take and makethe open threes and the good threes that
we create. You know, whenwe beat Seaton Hall in our last win,
we had ten threes you almost forget, you know, and Quincy had

(15:45):
a big night, but Daveon hita couple, Trey Green came in and
made a few, and you knowDez had one or two, and you
add that up, it's like ittakes a lot of pressure off of what
you did. You know, goback to a year ago, you almost
get how efficient our team was shootingthe three. We didn't shoot a ton
of threes, but the percentage wewere able to shoot, because it came

(16:07):
from a lot of different guys,was really instrumental in our offense developing.
And I think when you look atus even being able to make a three
point shot from Gietas or Lazarre,you know, making one or two.
You know, at the end,you look, they shot five threes,
they went two for five from three. You know, all of that I
think takes a lot of pressure offof some of the other things we're trying

(16:30):
to improve on offense. Coach,the last four minutes of the game against
Villanova, Xavier walks out of atime out onto the floor. I think
you had three freshmen on the floorand they played well during that period.
But if you and I'm not sureabout my factory, but I understand Villanova's
not played a freshman one minute allyear long. Is that true. Yeah,
I mean their villanova and it's totheir credit. They've designed their roster

(16:52):
and team. They're they're probably theoldest most experienced team in the Big East.
But your freshmen, they are gettingexperience. They are playing as you
watch them practice through out the season, and of course over the holiday break
where you had your younger players,like, can you start seeing someone that
just simply fall away from them andbecoming I think everyone knows what's expected,
and you know, I think thefirst part of improvement for these younger guys,
Joe is you know they don't knowwhat they don't know and think about

(17:17):
it. You can talk about,hey, the Big East is a physical,
hard playing league, and it's notthat they doubt me. Then you're
right, I bet it is,Coach. But until you feel it,
until you're out there and you experienceit, I don't think you can clearly
make the improvement and be at yourbest. And I pointed Daylan Swain out
because out of our freshman, Ithink he's improving the most at the moment,

(17:41):
and you know it's happening through trialand error and games. It's happening,
you know, at times with himbeing in at the end of the
game when he's probably better suited tohave somebody like Jerome Hunter in the game
where he can sit watch and learn. But he's in there, and in
a way he has to learn intomistakes, and he's made a few,
and he's made some good plays aswell, and he's learning through that.

(18:04):
But so I think where we're atthrough twenty eight, you know, we're
fourteen games in. You start tothink about in and around the halfway point
of our season, We've played againstsome really good teams, and I think
the first part now is behind us, and that is you really don't have
to talk about how fast the gameis, how physical the game can be

(18:26):
played. They've experienced it, andnow I think it's a matter of us
being able to continue to play themand get some more benefits. You know,
we've heard this adage forever. Ithink al maguire during you know,
back in the day, let's sayit all the time. We all come
to a point in a freshman's yearwhere you say he's no longer a freshman

(18:48):
simply because his now game experience andhow long he's been with you. He's
now a seasoned player, even thoughhe's still young and we're entering that period
of time and hopeful we can getsome better play in more improvement from the
rest of our freshmen. All right, this is a Sewan Miller's Coaches Show
from Dili Bistro and Marymount on fiftyfive KRC in the Varsity Network. Back

(19:12):
on the Shawn Miller Coaches Show fromDilbey Bistro and Marymount. Xavier fans help
Cincinnati Cancer Advisors achieve victory over cancerat the next home game at the Centa
Center. Just grab a Supernir Cupfor a chance to win great prizes like
a private VIP suite, courtside seats, or Xavier merchandise. Coach, we

(19:33):
talked a lot about the freshmen andin the in the world of the transfer
portal, it seems like that's abigger part of like every team moving forward.
I mean, that's the way youcan improve your team immediately. And
you know you have four guys comein, one left. But I think
your three transfers are doing great.You know Quincy Olivari obviously, you know

(20:00):
eighteen points game, second leading scorerin the Big East. I would say
that's a home run. Dave BeyondMcKnight leads the Big east and his assist
to turnover and he's really coming on. You see that in a Boo Oo's
mind. You know, he's oneof the top three offensive rebounders in our
league right now. I mean,it's the one thing Aboo did really well

(20:22):
before he came here, and he'scontinued that on Byron, So you're right,
I mean, but Quincy's scoring threepoint shooting, Davon, assist to
turnover ratio, assist in general ina Boo his ability to get second shots.
Those are the things that you know, we were hoping they would be
able to bring to the table.And all three guys really have done a
very good job. And I'll pointout Daveon because he played a different style

(20:48):
in a different system that Western Kentucky. He was asked to score more shot
a lot of two's played a differentway, and you know, he really
changed his body this summer and fall. He's leaner, I think he's faster
and maybe in the best shape thathe's ever been in. And I credit
you know, Andy Ketler, ourstrength and conditioning coach, with all of
our players, but in particular Ithink with Daveon, he is incredible shape.

(21:12):
If you watch him run in agame and a pace that he plays
with. He's really become the engineto what we do. But he's leading
the league and assist the turnover ratio, and look, there's a lot of
stats that are telling that I thinkany coach would want one of their own
players to have. But to haveyour point guard leading a league like the

(21:33):
Big East and assist to turnover ratio, that's a powerful stat. In particular,
asking him to play at the speedthat we ask him to play at.
What we've tried to do over thelast month is start to point out
maybe some opportunities where he can shootthe three, and he's been working on
it and be a little bit scoringminded, because look, we need a

(21:55):
boost scoring the ball, and Ithink we're a better team when he scores
in double figures. I think hecan become a double figure scorer for our
team. So recently he started toshoot the ball more in games. I've
seen it in practice today. Heshot the ball really well, and you
watch his percentage as it's starting toclimb. I mean, the one thing
that's different, and if you're intoanalytics and basketball, making one out of

(22:18):
three three point shots is a goodthing. A great example is Villanova.
You know, I could say weheld him to thirty three percent from three.
Well they made ten of them,you know, so they're ten for
thirty. That's not as good asit might appear when you look at that.
You know, when you look atthe shots they take, those are
efficient shots, and I think wewant to move more towards that, and

(22:41):
I think somebody like Davion it helpsmake that happen. So we're on him
to shoot more, to be alittle bit more scoring minded, continue to
be who he is in terms oftaking care of the ball. And then
the last part is him learning ourstyle on defense. I mean, you
talk about us improving as a defensiveteam, you can really count on Davion
right now, not just steals,but to be more solid. And he's

(23:03):
got a bunch of really big challengesin a row here. It's gonna start
with Tristan Newton and who's point guardfor Yukon. It's going to be a
huge challenge, and then it's gonnabe a forever. It's almost you go
to infinity in the Big East.Every guard you defend has a chance to
be a pro. And I thinkDaveon has really started to embody the qualities

(23:25):
that we want with his defense,pushing the ball, taking care of the
ball, and now slowly starting tosettle into being more of a double figure
scorer. And I don't mean fifteena game, I mean ten, ten
or twelve. And I think ifhe can get to ten or twelve points
a game and be more efficient shootingthe ball from three, taking them every
single game, and I think wehave ourselves, you know, a really

(23:48):
good point guard, not only thisyear, but returning to us next year.
And Byron, I wanted to kindof answer the question about the roster
because you're right, and so ourthoughts on building our roster in the year
twenty twenty four, because it's abrand new ballgame in college sports, especially
in college basketball. If your memberis to have that blend to blend being

(24:12):
to recruit the right high school playersknowing that they're going to have to develop
and maybe can contribute in year onebut not in a huge role. To
get the right impact transfers, sometimesthey can come to us for more than
a year. That's really what welove to have. So for example,
a Boo and Daveon they can return. Quincy is only going to be with

(24:33):
us for one year, so toget the right impact transfers and then to
bring in the right mix in agiven year from the international space might mean
one player, might mean two,might mean zero in a given year.
But I think it's that blend thatwill allow you to accomplish. I think
this really important thing, and thatis that from year to year, you

(24:56):
don't have nine new faces. Becausesometimes you can hit it right, you
can get away with it. Butif you keep eight, six, ten
different faces from year to year toyear to year, it's no different than
a company. You know, whenyou start to replace that much of your
workforce, you lose so many differentthings that continuity brings. So we're aware

(25:18):
of that this year. If you'dsay, well, coach, okay,
great, why are you playing allthese freshmen? Because Jerome and Zach went
down in the summer. And ifthey wouldn't have gone down, and let's
say you plugged both of those guysin, Dylan Swain would be on our
team. Maybe not all of thefreshmen that we have would be here,
but the ones that would be herewould have i would say, probably a

(25:41):
lesser role. We wouldn't count onthem as much. We would be working
with them, and again their developmentwould be in place, but you would
be depending on an older, moreexperienced player. And a great example is
what Villanova did. They got thisguy, Hakeem Hart number thirteen, a
Keem Heart was a starter at Maryland. He has one year left, he's

(26:03):
twenty three years old, and againstus, he had fourteen points, five
for nine from the floor, threeassists, in one turnover and he didn't
start, but he was their roleplayer off the bench who really broke our
back in that game. If youthink about where he's at in his career,
here's a guy who played in aBig ten for four years and you're
catching him at the very end inyear five. So I'm aware of that

(26:26):
some of the circumstances maybe didn't allowus to be right where we would want
to be this year, even thoughwe did have so much change. But
going from this year through the yearinto next year, I would hope that
we would never experience the turnover thatwe did, just inheriting the program and
kind of going from year one toyear two. And I think that continuity
it starts to help things like teamdefense on day one. If you think

(26:51):
back to like our Oakland game,you know, one of the things that
really did us in is just playingagainst a big, strong four man who
could score, and God, weweren't able to stop him. And God,
coach, why didn't you chop orplay his own? Well? Next
year, with the continuity that wehave as a program and a lot of
returning players, we almost can pickright up where we leave off from right.

(27:11):
And it's something you don't have tobring and introduce. You already have
that as part of your system,and all of a sudden you're able to
do something like that in that pivotalearly November game. I know that's kind
of like the I don't know whatI just said, but that's how I
think. That's that's what I thinkwhen I drive home every night, and
I think that when you talk aboutcoaching a team, it's not just coaching

(27:32):
the team you have, but it'sbuilding a program. It going from one
year to two to four to fiveand having that continuity where you really can
be consistent. All right, Thisis a Sean Miller Coaches Show from Billy
Bistro and Merrimount on fifty five KRCand the Marsity Network. Come back to
Dltley Bestroll Marriymount. This is theSean Miller Show, and go ahead.

(27:57):
You got. When you're out oftown and want to keep up with live
college sports, be sure to downloadthe new Varsity Network app, available for
both Apple and Android. Listen tocollege sports live with the Varsity Network app.
I'm gonna take a phone call,Joe. How are you tonight?
How are you guys doing? We'regood? Thanks for calling in, Joe.

(28:18):
Ask you about drum Hunter? Yeah, and that m Antle. Are
you counting on them playing next year? And now are they doing night?
Now? Yes? I'll go oneat a time. Uh. Jerome Hunter
two days ago was cleared for contact, so he practices with us, and
actually, uh, I don't knowif this will make you feel good or

(28:41):
bad. I'm not sure how itmakes me feel good. But I'd say
he's one of our best players inpractice. So that's the good and bad
news. You can take it howeveryou want. Uh, but knock on
wood here. Jerome's come a longlong way with his health and wellness and
had a major scare this and youknow, we've we've been lucky enough and

(29:03):
fortunate enough to have some great doctorsand a team of doctors working together with
us and Jerome. Jerome's done everythingthat we've asked of him. He also
graduated in at Christmas, so he'sgot his degree. So he'll he will
come back, be a part ofour team, take some undergraduate maybe even
some graduate classes next year and addto to his h to his education as

(29:29):
well. But yeah, so he'spracticing with us. He's not in the
world's greatest shape, but it's niceto see him out there. And he
actually helps us teach our younger bigguys, because as you know, Jerome
really knows what to do and howto do it. But he's practiced two
times and and it's great to havehim out there. Zach Fremantle has been
cleared for non contact. His footis healthy. We have all indications that

(29:55):
this surgery has worked and worked significantlybetter than this second one he had.
We anticipate him to be healthy forthe foreseeable long term future. And uh,
you know, Zach will he hasalready graduated as well, and I
think him and Jerome have a pactthat he will be ready to play really

(30:15):
this spring, summer, fall andrejoin us next year as one of these
coveted experienced older players. So yeah, our two best recruits I think for
next year would be Jerome and Zach. They'll rejoin us with Camcraft. Campcraft
is red shirting this year, andyou know, I think that his season

(30:37):
ending knee injury and all that youhave to go through rehab wise wasn't far
enough along to really allow him tojust go out there, and he's going
to continue to take this entire yearto academically move forward and continue to be
one hundred percent. He's been practicingon and off with us, So if

(30:57):
you see him in street clad oryou know, you see him in practice
but not in the games, that'sthat's what's happening with cam Uh. And
then you know, we have oneplayer that we signed to the national letter
of intent, high school senior atCenterville High School in Ohio, Jonathan Powell,
and he's off to a really goodstart as a senior player, six

(31:19):
foot five guard who we really like. So I think the three players that
will join us next year Jerome Hunter, Zach Fremantle, and Jonathan Powell,
and I would anticipate, you know, maybe one or two more guys this
spring to round out what I wouldthink would be an experience seasoned, really

(31:40):
strong nucleus for the future, butobviously we're not there right now. Come
on, a good shooter, Ashooter, Joe. We're losing you there,
so we're gonna we're gonna move onthere. I can't hear you,
so sorry about that, but weappreciate you calling in. Thanks, Joe,
and he Joe asked about well,you talked about Jerome Hunter, and

(32:04):
you know, I saw him whenwe were on the last road trip at
Villanova and he stepped off the elevatorin the hotel and he looked at me.
He had the biggest smile on hisface that and it just warmed my
heart because I know what he's beenthrough and for him to to be able

(32:24):
to run up and down the courtjust giving you know, the scare that
he had, I was just Igrabbed him and I said, man,
I'm just so happy for you,and he just smiled and he just he
had to look on his face like, uh, he couldn't be happier.
And you know, it just makesyou you realize how blessed and lucky you
are to be able to play thisgame and you can call in your body

(32:47):
to do whatever you wanted to do. And you know when he got that
kind of news at that age justgot to be devastating for sure. Yeah,
because you know the total end wasinsight for him. Byron, This
isn't like coming off of a toughknee injury. And you know, with
the knee injury, no matter howsevere it is, you have almost like

(33:07):
a protocol. They're gonna get surgery, You're gonna look at who's gonna do
the surgery. You're gonna have arecuperation period, and then you're gonna start
to become active again. And thenthey're gonna say, hey, you got
three months this way, three moremonths that way. If things go well,
and those six months, here's yournext step. And you say,
yeah, and then I'm gonna beable to play and hopefully I can return

(33:28):
as good or better than ever before. Especially in basketball, there's very few
things that don't allow you to playthe game again. But in Jerome's case,
when you get the news when it'scardiovascular heart, you know that's that's
something that has nothing to do withsports. That's that's more severe. And
I think when you're twenty two,twenty three years old and that's the news

(33:50):
you get, it's really that's whenyou learn as a coach how important this
sport is, how important basketball isto what these guys do. It's it's
completely taken away from him. That'sa real turn of events. So yeah,
I think we've all followed Jerome's progress. We've cheered for him, we've
hoped, and then we've worked withhim, and now to have him back

(34:13):
with us, it inspires everybody,including his teammates. The other thing I
saw was on the road trip wasI shoot around. I saw Zach freemantle.
He was out of the boot.Yeah, and you know, I
said something to him. He's like, I'm just happy that I can put
wear shoes right. And then againand then he was kind of doing some
little mobility dribble dribble in the balland he was looking good and he was

(34:36):
Laeta, Hey, how you feel. He's like, I'm great, and
he seems to have a good attitude. Yeah, this surgery with Zach was
done a different way, and there'sthere's a couple of different thoughts and putting
having surgery with the injury and onthe foot of Zach, a young player
that wants to play basketball for thenext ten years of his life, fifteen

(35:00):
years of his life you know thesize of a screw. You know,
that's really what you do. Youinsert it. I'm not the doctor,
but let's just say there's gonna bea screw inserted. It's gonna heal,
and you know it's gonna be almostimpossible to break again. You know.
I think Zach is big, andhe's explosive. He's as you know Byron.
He jumps, he lands, hedoes a lot of different things.

(35:22):
And I think this time around wewent about it a different way, and
it seems like this this way isgoing to put him in the best position
to be successful health wise for theforeseeable future. And then look, Zach
has a lot to do with itas well. He has to be patient,
and he loves the game so much. Sometimes he's eager to get back

(35:42):
out there and shoot and run andjump, and he's gone down a couple
of times. I don't think wehave to tell him to be patient anymore.
He knows that in this time frame, you know, he still has
if you think about it, threefour, six, eight months ahead of
him of really doing things the correctway. So he's in a great position
to be healthy from start to finish. But you know, looking at both

(36:02):
Jerome and Zach. You forget abouttheir size, making that you know,
Jerome Zach being out on the court, just physically who they are physically at
twenty three, twenty four years old. It's not just how tall you are,
but how strong both guys are.I think that's something that we certainly
miss and look forward to welcoming themback. All right, this is a

(36:23):
Sean Miller Coaches Show where Jilley Bistroand Marymont and we're on fifty five KAR
Senior the Varsity Network in fact,with the Sean Miller Coaches Show where at
Jilly Bistro and Marrimount and Sean.When you look at the stats for the
Big East and just Big East gamesonly Xavier leads the Big East in offensive

(36:43):
rebounds per game at seventeen offensive reboundsgame. That's a great stat. On
the other side, though, andyou talked about at the end of the
Villanova game for quite a bit Xavierneeds a rebound the opponents missed as much
better. Yeah, it is.It is the stat that I'm I think
we're all most concerned about, simplybecause it's fourteen games in and I can

(37:04):
go back to some really early seasongames. You know, use Washington as
the example in Las Vegas, andWashington's a really talented older group and we
were up seven and to half,and they outplayed us in the second half,
and I thought they had three orfour really key second shots late in
the game throughout the second half thatbroke our back. And that's as far

(37:25):
back as November, early November.And you know, Joe, at some
point, the younger guys have todo better. We have to coach it
better, we have to just beon it. And I'll tell you that
we're really on it right now.You talk about Wednesday's game against Yukon.
You know, there's two things thatI think they do as a team that
are just extraordinary. One in transition, they share the ball and they create

(37:51):
amazing opportunities three point shots, dunks, layups, fouls off of your misses,
and turnovers. They're as good asany team that's in college basketball.
They're going from defense to offense andboom striking. And when you think about
that part, you know, youhave to take care of the ball and
run good offense, and then youhave to be great at getting back.

(38:15):
We've been good at it. Wehave to be great at that. On
Wednesday, and then the second partthey crashed the offensive glass. They create
a ton of second shots. It'snot just their big guys, it's their
guards and wings and those second shots. The other night against Butler, Yukon
at Butler could have been anybody's game. Yukon got two or three huge second

(38:36):
shots late in the game that brokeButler's back and ended up, you know,
a hard fought game that went towardsYukon. In our game on Wednesday,
we have to be able to answerthe bell and block out and rebound
and our big has got to doa great job, all right. Thanks
for joining us with the Sean MillersShow from Billy bistroling Barry M fifty five
KRC in the Varsity Network Live fromthe Dilly Bistro in Merriymont. This has

(39:23):
been the Sean Miller Radio Show presentedby bud Light. Easy to drink,
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Visit tryhealth dot com. The precedinghas been a Learfield presentation on the

(39:46):
Xavier Sports net Worth