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00:00 First of all, you know, we played a team that's, they got ranked 9th, but they're a lot better
00:07 than 9th.
00:08 And the reason they're a lot better than 9th is they share the ball, they defend, they
00:17 have players that can really shoot the ball, really pass the ball.
00:22 Probably the best passing team that we've played.
00:25 And they're a machine.
00:27 They keep coming at you and at you and at you.
00:30 I thought for the first 10 minutes we did a really good job and we affected them some,
00:37 but as it wore out, we didn't quite keep it going.
00:43 We stopped defending the way and then we didn't share the ball like we should have.
00:48 That led to them making runs.
00:50 Great in transition, great rebounding, and a really good team.
00:56 Questions?
00:57 Kenny, you've been coaching, you know, a bit of speculation about the future.
01:04 How have you handled that?
01:05 How do you take a new job?
01:07 You know, for me it's more about how do I get this team better.
01:12 I feel like we are getting better.
01:14 Keeping them close together, that's been the focus.
01:20 Just living on that.
01:22 [Ball being hit]
01:29 Kenny, you're now 5-7 on the season.
01:32 Is there anything that you could have done better to have this team more competitive up to this point?
01:39 I would say, obviously, there are things I could have done better.
01:43 You know, there are some games that we lost that we could have won, should have won.
01:49 On paper it says we're the better team.
01:53 I'm not sitting here and saying that I'm not at fault.
01:57 I'm not happy with where we are.
02:01 But I also know that we still can get better and there's a lot of room for growth.
02:08 But it's not all on the kids.
02:10 I have to do a better job of getting these guys prepared to play really good teams.
02:17 Kenny, do you take any satisfaction from the fact that you stuck with it in the second half,
02:23 actually outscored them by one, didn't let the lead get to 35 or 40 or whatever?
02:29 I talked to the guys about the first ten minutes of the game, what it felt like,
02:33 how you had them on their heels a little bit.
02:36 And then I talked about the next ten minutes of the game
02:39 and how we stopped sharing the ball, we didn't have assists,
02:43 we didn't get back in transition,
02:46 we weren't locked in defensively, and a guy goes off for 22 points.
02:52 Second half, I think we won the second half by one.
02:58 So in a 10, 11-minute spurt, 20-point game.
03:04 Kenny, you kind of alluded to it, but I'm over here.
03:08 With a team who has so many offensive weapons and so many ways they can hurt you,
03:13 what did you want to take away, what was kind of the game plan coming in?
03:18 The game plan was knowing that this is an excellent transition team
03:23 and that we had to spread back and match up, and at times that's hard
03:27 because it's not just one guy or two guys, it's five guys that all have the ability to drive it, pass it, and shoot it.
03:34 The other part of the game plan was making sure that we ran good offense
03:39 and that we took the shots and played sort of like we played against Pepperdine.
03:44 We have the--they're going to collapse on drives, we can't go in and try to shoot layups on 6-11, 7-1, shot blockers, athletes.
03:54 So we get them to suck in and we spray the ball out,
03:57 or we come to jump stop, shot fake, and go to the free throw line.
04:02 I thought we did that a little bit the beginning of the first half,
04:05 and as the half went on we tried to make the play, make the shot, they blocked the shot.
04:12 Kenny, you kind of just touched upon it back here, there.
04:15 In that beginning of the first half when you guys do come out strong and things kind of started to fizzle out,
04:20 what I guess was kind of the big reason why that momentum kind of went away and was never able to kind of build back?
04:26 Well, I just thought we may have to do a better job of explaining to them,
04:32 "Listen, it's flipping away, you've got to get back to what we--how we got the lead, how we got even with them, how did we do that?"
04:40 And have them talk to Coach, we got even with them by moving the ball, driving, taking the ball downhill,
04:46 don't play with the ball, go north-south, get downhill, make them collapse, spray the ball, and get good shots.
04:52 Brandon did a good job initially of putting pressure on them, but as a gang we sort of went away from Brandon.
04:59 We still have to find Brandon.
05:01 Coach, right here.
05:02 Just with Tyler, it seemed like he got frustrated at times during this game.
05:06 What are some of the things that you were able to talk to him about to try to keep him back in his game and move forward?
05:12 You know, when you're an emotional young man and you're young, right?
05:18 So he's a freshman, really good basketball player, and he's playing against really good basketball players, right?
05:25 So in the heat of the battle, you can't give your spirit to anything other than a task at hand.
05:31 If you give your spirit to a bad call and that knocks you out of whack, you're affecting our team.
05:38 You're affecting your play.
05:40 If you give your spirit to someone talking trash to you and you want to talk trash back and you play out of character,
05:46 then you're giving your spirit to something negative that's going to affect us.
05:51 You're a good basketball player. Trust and be secure in who you are.
05:55 We need you sorely badly.
05:57 We need him to play the right way.
05:59 Most of the assists we get, he's probably going to be the main guy getting those assists.
06:04 You can't let it get to where I got to score, I got to score, I got to score.
06:08 Or you got to see the game and not give it to the referees who may feel like they didn't give you a call.
06:14 That doesn't matter.
06:16 Keep playing. Keep playing.
06:18 That's the message.
06:20 -Hey, Kenny, back here.
06:22 There was a moment in the first half you kind of talked about things were going so great with that group on the court that started.
06:27 Did you think about keeping them in the game longer?
06:30 And then also there was a moment late in the second half where it kind of seemed like you were maybe thinking about calling a timeout
06:36 when you went on a big run but didn't.
06:39 Just wondering what your thought process there was with trying to, you know, just, you know,
06:43 after a couple big runs, just trying to throw them off their game.
06:46 -Well, if you look at their team, how many guys played, you know, 12 minutes or more?
06:54 So they got a bunch of guys, right?
06:57 And so when you play this game and you play a top five team and they got a bunch of players,
07:04 our guys are going to get tired and they need a blow.
07:07 So we are hoping that we can give guys blows and then come back to them and they be fresh.
07:14 That's the first thing. And the second half, look, the game is teetering.
07:19 We need to keep this game competitive. You guys got to keep fighting through.
07:23 You got to keep fighting through. We want to win four-minute segments.
07:27 And that's what we talked about doing.
07:30 -Kenny says you can see, you know, that you're getting better.
07:33 Like where are you seeing this team getting better even amid the struggles?
07:37 -So the first thing is when we're playing well, you see we're getting assists.
07:42 Again, 14 assists tonight. They should have been 20.
07:47 When we play that way, we played that way for the first 10 minutes.
07:51 When we play that way, we're pretty good.
07:53 When we don't play that way, we look like individuals, not a team.
07:59 -Kenny, Kyle just said he felt like you're basically a year away from having this program where you would want it.
08:07 How close do you feel like you are if you were using Kentucky in their roster right now as kind of a measuring stick?
08:15 -If I'm using Kentucky as a measuring stick?
08:19 I mean, did you see all those All-Americans out there?
08:22 The first thing I'll say is I don't know what the game was last year.
08:28 To me, I see segments where the gap is closing. The gap is closing.
08:33 And I don't know if fans see it, you guys see it as media people, but the gap is closing.
08:39 And I feel like we're headed in the right direction.
08:44 Now, we still got a lot of work to do. I got a lot of work to do. I got to be better.
08:49 I'm not saying I have all the answers.
08:51 But when I look at my team, how many really good high school players can walk in here and demand starting time?
09:03 Not many.
09:05 I will probably now have to go to the transfer floor and get a guy that's been in college three or four years to add to this.
09:13 That's where we are.
09:15 I think that's a big chunk from where we started.
09:19 Where high school kids can't walk in here and outplay a Tyler who has a year in this, or a Sky who has two years now, or Trey.
09:29 You see what I'm saying? We have good players that are very young, and they're only going to get better.
09:37 So the next step is bringing in transfer guys that can take this over the line.
09:43 Kenny, you get almost two weeks until conference play begins.
09:49 I'm curious, what do those next two weeks or so look like for you?
09:53 Also, do you like the fact that you have some time between the next game, or do you wish that there was another one?
09:58 I love the fact that we got time, because we got to get better. We got to get more consistent.
10:03 I have to look at these first 10 or 12 games and assess what we can do better.
10:09 We got time to work on things that we want to do to get this team better.
10:15 We're getting into conference play now.
10:19 In conference play, the teams are good, but I think that we have shown that we are capable of being competitive.
10:26 If you fall asleep on us, we may burn some people.
10:30 Last one.
10:32 Going back to your comments about needing the transfer portal,
10:39 we talked over the summer, at least at ACC TIP, you said you didn't want to value age.
10:44 We were looking for the transfer portal you wanted to find fit.
10:48 Any thoughts about looking back on that time, trying to get some more veteran guys,
10:54 because they can come in and they can add so much, just some off the jump?
10:58 I think when you talk about what we did, we won four games last year.
11:08 When you go to talk to kids that are high-level kids, they want to know,
11:13 "Coach, are you going to win more than four games? How can I come to Louisville and lose in four games?"
11:20 There's apprehension there.
11:23 On top of that, all the top schools are going after the top transfer guys.
11:29 I have to battle that.
11:33 I have to make sure that probably nobody finds out exactly who the transfer guys are that we're going after,
11:40 or the top schools are going to get them.
11:43 It's just the nature of the beast.
11:45 I think we're headed in the direction where we're about to make the next jump.
11:50 I'm happy with that, but also knowing we've got a lot of work to do to get these guys better.
11:57 Thank you all.