to the team members and also the media in the room please raise your hand for to have a microphone brought your way to ask a question when you do please introduce yourself and your media affiliation and then finally please note that the recording of press conferences on cameras or on cell phones is prohibited during this press conference from your left to your right we are joined by head coach Matt painer Zack idy Lance Jones Fletcher lawyer and Braden Smith coach if you wouldn't mind starting u
s out with an opening statement we will then take questions for the student athletes just congratulations obviously um you know to Tennessee for a a fabulous season um very difficult to go against obviously we played him earlier in the season great coach um great defense very athletic Dalton connect is is very good and I think he showed that um today and made it very very difficult on us but um just want to give credit to our players and our and our staff we just sticking with it and uh competin
g and playing through and putting ourselves in a good position uh um obviously our fans were fabulous in being able to come to Detroit after being in Indianapolis and really support us on Easter and U to be able to get to a final four as a as a dream come true for me as a coach and for these guys as a players and uh I'm just grateful to be in this position thanks coach let's go to questions for the players we'll start on the right side in the first row here hey Zach uh Kyle with sports repart me
dia you walked off with the net and you saw coach Katie you gave him the net what did that mean to you and also with him to have him along for the ride yeah you always got to pay respects to the people that came first um he built this none of us like doesn't go over any of our heads like like he he helped set all this up so to be able to kind of pay him back just give him a little piece in that it's the least I can do okay moving on to the uh sorry the second row over here in the middle Josh or
fansided Lance there's kind of a narrative a little bit in basketball at least on the men's side that there aren't many big stars but the guy sitting next to you is a pretty big star talk about him going back and forth with dton and their impact on the game um yeah I mean Zach is I mean his game speaks for himself um one thing I really like about Zack he's humble um you know he doesn't brag about you know what he does and what he's capable of doing uh he just goes out there he works he puts his
head down um you know he's a great teammate to the first row here uh Jimmy ESI produ fast track newses for Lance um there have been a couple times like the Ohio State game this year where the team really wasn't shooting that well from three and you were kind of hit a big three tonight hit some threes in that game as well is there kind of anything that goes into that with Team confidence when the rest of the team really doesn't have threes Fallen um just staying confident just being ready to shoo
t coach paint always tells us to just be ready to you know shoot the ball when it comes your way and you're wide open um and I put a lot of work into my shot uh so I have a lot of confidence in that and and you know my teammates have a lot of confidence in me third row on the right Brandon Brandon Quinn with the athletic um congratulations to you all uh if if Braden and Lance could answer this um Braden from your perspective when when connect started getting going in the first half just what you
were seeing there and then for Lance did you anticipate being switched on to him like prior to the the game and then you know why were you effective on it I mean he's an unbelievable player and he showed it tonight and when somebody shoots the ball like that there's just not a whole lot you can do and we let him loose a couple times so he was able to make those plays and make shots and kind of punish us from the three-point line so I mean once Lance got on him um it's just what he does man like
it's just no it's an expectation for him to do that and he did a great job second row on the left on the end oh I'm sorry go ahead Lance yeah you know I wasn't I wasn't really effective offensively in the first half um I just wanted to make it my main priority uh to lock in defensively cuz I think uh you know when I lead defensively it you know kind of trickles down and helps everybody else defensively um you know he was cooking um so you know I just wanted to do anything I could to you know sh
ut his water off Zach Zach um just with the way you guys play All-American back to basket centers they haven't won championships much in the last 10 even 20 years so I mean you're of course not not you're rather you're used to to being different uh as a person but you know just as a team what do you think of of the way you guys play being different and being here uh I think it's it's just basketball um I think what wins basketball games in the regular season wins basketball games in the postseas
on it's just like the rules stay the same our team stays the same wrestling everything's the same um it's just basketball what we do wins games a lot um and you kind of saw on this stage front row on the left vion GTA Global Comedia coach painer first of all congratulations on going to the final four off the court for you so many coaches taught you things coach Katie you have a maximum of a little over a week with this group what's one thing that you learned from coach Katie that you want them t
o take with them in their lives to take with them in their lives um just understanding that you're a former player for 40 to 50 to 60 years and just keep that in perspective it's really hard after you've had success as a player to to not think that way when your career is over a lot of time your career is over if you're a professional you know around 32 33 34 years old there's a few exceptions to that rule um but just you know keep that in place and uh I always say you got to have two dreams you
got to have one through basketball and you got to have one through education because you have this opportunity and um you know he really tried to to talk to us about not just having a great basketball career but taking opportunity like that and have a great life and and that's something I've always you know tried to pass on like have fun with what you're doing and um if you can do that and like you enjoy what you do then you know you're beating the system right side here in the first round all
right Dion cash SE Live 365 um fellas five minutes left in a game what do you say to each other and Zach um you know being such a big figure in the game you know people say it's a failure if you don't make it to the final four how does it feel right now knowing that you've been able to get your squad there that first FL you want to take that first one yeah with five minutes left and really the whole time it's uh it's corny but we're we're tell we're saying stick together we're saying keep commun
icating keep being solid keep doing what we've done in practice for too many months now it's uh what we've worked for it's what all these guys have done when shots starten falling what are you going to do you're going to go defend and uh credit to these two on my side they did a good job on connect he's just a great player and uh probably a few things we could clean up but ultimately in the end we're just talking to each other staying solid knocking out free toes Zach you want to add to that yea
h uh I mean we've been we've been through it all as a team um it kind of what happens when you come back um like we there's no scenario we can go in that we haven't been in before like we're never going to panic we're never going to um like anything like we're we're going to keep playing we're going to keep executing we're going to keep doing what we do and that was kind of the message thank you we'll go to the third row in the middle hakee glasby Indy star Lance just kind of following up on one
of the previous questions so how difficult is it to chase connect off all those multiple screens and obviously he's very Adept at scoring off screens and just how do you stay confident in the in the game plan when he especially when he starts hot like that and just kind of continuing to chase him around the court the way you did um just uh you know just sticking with it uh just trying to be physical um make his uh you know his catches you know limited uh push the ball out where he catches the b
all um you know just try to make a hard on defensively um I mean he can rise over me and you know shoot over you know smaller guards uh so yeah I just wanted to do whatever is necessary right side row two Terry Davis TR Defender Zach with 38 seconds left you blocked Dalton shot not only did you block it you kept it in play what walk was through that play uh I mean obviously I missed that free throw before I was just trying to um kind of get back and and try to make my presence felt on that defen
sive end kind of make up for for it um and he he drove in and I felt like that was a play I could make and I made it left side for throw with Pat p 40 Sports Illustrated for Zach 39 and a half minutes uh against an incredibly physical defense how much did you empty the tank today it's what we expected um I don't I don't want to come off the floor I don't care how like how how my legs are feeling how my body feeling I want to stay on that floor and I want to keep uh impacting the game um um like
that's what everybody on the team wants like nobody wants to come off I'm never going to complain about like playing a lot of minutes left side on the end fourth row Bob Kravitz with Indian Indianapolis monthly for Braden and for Zach what does it mean I mean you gave the the net to coach Katie what does it mean to get coach payter to the final four for me uh it's amazing like I get to I get to pay him back like there was there was so many coaches that that looked over me um like you could name
a program I could name a coach that looked over me um the Tennessee greck Barnes is a great coach but he he was in a bunch of our practice looked over me like it's kind of been the story of my life people have doubted me people look past me and can't do that anymore we're going to stay in this row second from the right thank you Frank Rano med1 Sports Canada congratulations men Zach this question is for you it's uh 2200 miles 30 3600 kilm from Toronto to Phoenix but you're there now when you thi
nk about where you were a year ago and where you are today and where you're heading next weekend how's that Journey been for you it's it's it's been a long journey um obviously I've been outside of my country for the last like five six year like starting in 11th grade and to kind of end up the where I am now it's amazing but we still have a lot of basketball left to play going to do on the right side standing up yeah Greg Braggs boilers in the stands um Matt what would you say is the biggest thi
ng you've learned throughout this journey as the head coach of this program through all your ups and downs right um just be strong in your convictions um in terms of how you think the game should be played um you know we base what we do offensively off you know our individual players and just try to play to those strengths and then just be able to play off of those strengths and just being able to stay with it like obviously we lost last year and um you know we just had to be better at what we d
o and and do a better job of taking care of the basketball and and I I stress that all the time we work on it but every coach stresses that you know every coach talks about rebounding the ball and taking care of the basketball you know you want to win that possession battle and um yeah staying in the process but also looking at it and and seeing where you know we can make improvements seeing where we could be better but we had some guys that didn't shoot the ball as well the year before that I h
ad recruited I had watched I'd seen them in different environments really shoot the ball well and so I believed in their ability and their work ethic a lot of times you know I don't sit there and actually believe in a person as much as I believe in their work and I delegate a lot of things so I can watch so when we break down things we meet as a staff we talk about it I delegate it because I don't want to be a part of it to where I'm not seeing the other end of the court I'm not seeing people be
cause I'm passing or I'm doing stuff I'm involved with it I want to watch but I also watch how they carry themselves and you know it's like a lot of people don't like that cocky high school kid and it gets under their skin that kind cocky High School kid's a good college player deep down he believes in himself and you have to have that and we got a lot of guys sitting up here that that has those qualities and so when you struggle and things happen we won the Big 10 by three games we're a number
one seed so to take on that loss and be able to do that you still got to look back and say you know we we we did have some success there and we don't need to change everything but we do make some subtle changes and I thought you know miles koven cam Heidi obviously Lance Jones they really helped us but I also felt like we had to be more skilled and by doing that you know now not everybody gets to play as much or even play at all and that's difficult because they have they've meant a lot to our p
rogram they've done a lot of really good things and that's the part I hate about coaching because I wanted to work you know I want everybody on our team to have his role I want everybody to to be a starter you know I want everybody to play and do that so it's probably not a a great quality to have as a coach it's a good one to have as a person um because it eats at mean when like we got guys that don't get in the game it eats at me they don't play they probably don't feel that I I feel that way
um but I do and um but I I I just believed in the in the Personnel that we had and I felt we were going to make some improvements but I didn't feel like what we were doing was wrong fifth row on the right side hey coach Eddie pels with ap it's not always that you get you know an Ed and a connect out on the floor together and then they both play the way they played were you I know you're coaching but were you able to appreciate what was going on out there between them while you were while you wer
e coaching yeah sure like obviously we played against Dalton connect earlier in the season I don't think they realized you know quite what they had at that point um even though he was a really good player and played well in that game you know he's a consensus first team All-American he's probably going to be in the end of the lottery uh but yeah he's a good player you can't allow him to get to a sweet spots and you got to have discipline and you got to be able to stay attached to him and and at
times you got to kind of force him into some twos and just make it difficult um with him and that's what great players do U you know where you kind of cut your losses a little bit and you're not trying to take away 100% you're kind of taking trying to take away 80% you know of what he's trying to get accomplished but yeah we've uh we don't take Zach for granted you know and so like some of the like the kns he should have got 50 tonight um if he makes his free throws and that's what I was i' I've
told I I thought he'd get 50 I know The Season's not over but I thought he'd get 50 in a game this year um and so it's uh oh there we go I wonder what the hell it was um but no like you know the thing about it is and I play with Glenn Robinson so that's my reference point right in terms of greatness and a player he he's very unselfish so if you just get to your spots and you know what you're doing and you stay with what we're doing doing if they just come and get him like now we're playing hors
e um but if they don't then we want him to be aggressive and score so yeah but it it was a good battle between those two guys I reminder we're having questions for the student ATS first please we do have one her in the second row Ryan bonapart hammer and rails for Braden so this is one of the biggest wins in program history but you're not done yet right so can you kind of contextualize where you are and where you still have to go yeah I mean um we just won an elite game we're about to play in th
e final four and we got two to go so that's kind of our schedule coming up and I think we're all ready for it back to roow three with Brenan uh also for uh Fletcher and uh Braden we'll all talk about the 40 from Zach but your guys's ability to get to the basket um and really attack seemed to have such a major impact of the game I wonder how much of that was you know just trying to go against their pressure um but can you kind of take me take us into that ler want to start that one yeah kind of a
ll the baskets we've got and all the looks we got we knew they were going to come we knew how they were going to get kicked out to us or on the break going and getting them but with Zach getting so much attention so much pressure down low that it opens up lanes for us and often times the five sometime neglects us but everything we've seen it's credit to our coaches for showing us the film showing us where we're going to get our baskets and having us prepared and be ready for it Bren want to add
to that yeah just I mean Zach is just such a huge presence and those those bigs just like to stay connected with them so for us to get downhill or I mean reject the ball screen and get the point guards looking the opposite way for us to get downhill and make those next plays um I mean it just he just opens up the floor so much for us and they kind of just got to pick their poison there like do they want to stay with us when we drive and shoot a layup or do they want to stay with Z so I mean it's
just pick your poison there any other questions for the player specifically okay left side second row Josh or fansided Fletcher I talked to you yesterday yesterday about what was different between the team this year to last year and you talked a lot about you know developing your bodies getting tougher getting stronger there were a couple moments where you collided with zikai Ziggler out there and got knocked to the floor things like that talk about you know how that toughness paid off today an
d and being able to take that punch and and give a little bit back yeah that game was hard fought All Season uh all summer we we fought hard and uh this shows how mentally tough everybody is how mentally tough the staff is it's not easy to do what we just did and to play in a game of that caliber it's very impressive I'm proud of these guys um Tennessee played great and they played hard and we played a little bit harder and that's what we got to keep doing goe to the right side here if I can sne
ak in a two for one uh Danny cap AP broadcast uh Zack if you can just pull up big picture and just I mean plus 21 on the [Music] for us it I can't even put into words right now in uh 20 years I'll probably be able to but but right now it's it's what we've worked for it's a lot of hours we've put in and it it looking up in the stands and seeing people cry it means a lot uh fans that have no family um connection to us they're just fans of our University and our team and I think the work we put in
and how hard we go out there and play it's it's special so I'm so proud of these guys and I'm looking forward to playing two more games like one last question for the players here on first row on the left Von the global kid media this is for any of you I mean you watch the final four each and every year you watch that net it cut down is a full circle moment just how much exactly does that mean to be able to go up there on that ladder and cut down the net I mean it's it's amazing um obviously we
we've watched for the last three years teams kind of have this feeling and this experience and now be able to go through it ourselves um for me to be able to pay pay back back for Coach Coach pay um for really believing in me is um it's amazing thanks guys we appreciate it congratulations we'll continue here for a few more minutes with Coach painer right side front row uh Matt Kyle sports report media um you did the interview with Robbie after the game very emotional with Robbie there what does
this win mean to past players former players and including yourself being a player to to get to the final four yeah he was you know he was watering up when I got up there that was that was hard um you know more than anything like you know you you appreciate the guys that have played for you and you you appreciate that they had opportunities to go other places and they chose your school or they chose you however you want to look at it um but we weren't very good when that class chose us our facil
ities were just okay um that's being nice and we've really done a great job in you know the last 15 years of upgrading what we have um but when someone you know signs at your school and they have a lot of options like ichwan Moore Jaan Johnson and Robbie hmel and you got last place in the Big 10 and you're 35 36 years old and you really haven't you I hadn't done anything and so for our ability to get those guys and they believed in us and we obviously got close and you know got the sweet 16 and
but we didn't get further and you know in their career we won the league once and got second three times you know he had two major injuries and so his battle you know he should have played in the NBA for eight to 10 years but because of his injuries and everything he didn't and he was smart because now you know he's you know at the top of his game and what he does I think everybody in this room would agree with that and um but it just means a lot to a lot of people but for someone like that you
know they deserve to you have guilt there's no doubt about that you have guilt because Jean Katy deserved a coach in a final four and he deserved a play in one and then you're getting ready to go to one right and so like I just I just appreciate what you know he did for us what Ewan Moore and Jaan Johnson we had two guys that were here that were all conference when you take a job if you got some people that are already there to get started it really helps you and that was David Teague and Carl L
andry and both of those guys were all conference players but we had to sign people behind them and that was the class that really got us going so just uh appreciative everything that Rob's done for our program third row here on the right side Bron yeah uh Bron Quinn with the athletic um Matt can you uh describe how difficult it is is to uh create teams that are as tactically sound as yours just limiting turnovers the offense you run the high level stuff you guys do but then also a group that is
diving on the floor taking elbows you know can match toughness with Tennessee just that combination how how hard is that to craft right yeah just you know I thought when we struggled about 10 years ago everybody talks about doing a better job recruiting and I thought we had to do a better job evaluating because I would watch Belmont and I would would watch Davidson and I'd watch guys at a mid- major level and the best players at those places can play anywhere and now you're starting to see it wi
th the portal right you know Mark Sears you know didn't start at Ohio as freshman year now he's was behind an NBA player in Jason Preston but still he didn't start his freshman year there and now look at him right so there's great players everywhere so I wan to I want to get Mark Sears out of high school right because he had mid- major offers and you know Steve Lutz who's the head coach at Western Kentucky um was the one that recruited Zack Edy you know Micah shwb is the one that recruited Fletc
her lawyer and so like I'm appreciative of those guys and what they did for our program and they helped us I could go on and on about you know our current assistants and the things they've done and Brandon Brantley and Paul Lusk and Terry Johnson and PJ Thompson's going to be an absolute star in this profession Sasha stefanovich you know and then I have two gas and Jared wolver and Tommy loose that are former players so we got a good group of guys we got younger guys that can relate to them um b
ut you know we're very systematic and and so you gota we're systematic and we we evolve with our system if that makes any sense we evolve towards the strengths of our best players so I always talk about it I probably talked about it other day but I I think it's uh a big fallacy in recruiting because everybody wants to play shortstop and lead off but you you know you got one short stop and if Cal ripken's there he's probably not going to get moved and so guys just don't grasp they want roles but
I want players that just want to win I want guys that can fit into those roles and understand that now you got to have your horses right you can't have eight guys that are eight role players you know you got to have Carson Edwards you gotta have Caleb swanigan you got to have Zack Edy you gotta have Braden Smith being a maestro out there now when you piece those other guys together you're systematic you know a lot of people don't don't give us credit we we really try to push the basketball now s
ome great teams stop us from doing that and it doesn't look that way at times but if you let us go or you turn it over you take bad shots we really try to push so it's that balance of it but you know we've been able to get Elite big guys and if you can get a good point guard and get someone who can run the the team like we have and you got Elite big guys you can put skill and competitive Spirit together that those two qualities together is is is Magic Man guys that are late it on the line guys d
ive on the floor like you know we we started recruiting Mason Gillis and you know he play It's hard uh sometimes when they play Center Mason gills played center in high school but I go and watch him warm up and just I'm like man he can shoot but yet his numbers don't show that he's taken a lot of Threes well you know he's just doing what's best for his high school team and so I'm like man he's going to be a good college player like when I saw Fletcher lawyer and how competitive he was you know h
e's got heavy feet but the ball goes in and he's competitive yeah coming from someone who's got heavier feet um but those guys win the day man you know they they they they care and that's what Lance has been able to do for us you know Lance has a good competitive Spirit he has a good way about him and uh and I want to have fun like I don't want to get stuck in a in an airport you know with guys I don't want to be around like I get to I get to choose it's not a school district I get to pick like
I I want to have fun and that's selfish but I could care Les and and so like you know I I just did a bad job and I think we all fall into the Trap of looking at talent instead of looking at talented people that are productive the production is what we go on right like you're like hey man this guy can jump over the moon and do a whirly bird 360 but he gets two rebounds like well who cares then how many breakaways you're going to get right you know you got to get guys that's what if you look like
look at Yukon and look at those guys on their team man they are competitive and they're nasty and they can guard and what they're they're all about they're all about winning and he's done a great job instilling that but I bet if you went and talked to him they would talk about you know they were that way before he's just enhanced that stuff and be able to get it and that's what you get like you can learn from a lot of other people but you damn sure better learn from your own mistakes and I think
that's what we've been able to do take one last one on the right side here and then we'll all right Dion cash SE Live 365 coach congratulations uh two parts real quick Zach Edy seems like he's got a little bit of a streak now um he's matured a lot talk about that and five minutes left in the game what did you tell him Coach yeah yeah Zach's got um a competitive you know fight to him and um he doesn't back down and you know when you have that Elite Physical size and you have that competitive spi
rit with it with some skill you know it's pretty dangerous he's pretty hard to pretty hard to handle you know we had some guys on fumes I thought I thought both both teams had some guys on fumes and we just had to dig deep take care of the basketball and just told him hey it's right here for us you know this is what we've worked towards we've put it in position you know trust the process you know take your shots when they're there you know just but you know big fellow was going to get the ride o
f first refusal we made sure they understood that you know he didn't have to shoot it but he's got to touch it and you know put them in that bind make them handle all that you know he's he's going to pass if somebody's open but we have a rule you want to double him you want to mess with him he's going to pass the ball he's going to dig deeper but if he stays one-on-one his rule is to score the ball left side first row coach uh coach a big talking point in college basketball has been the 10 run o
r the kill shot that's something that your team has kind of struggled with the you know past couple of years but this year it seems like every game there's been one there was a 130 run uh this year or this game can you talk about how that's kind of changed or what's changed about the team that has led to that yeah we we've played more offensive guys we have more skill that is out there and so I thought a big big part of the game was when they went up 32-21 if I have the numbers right and then we
went on a run right then like you know they were we were very vulnerable at that point but we had 25 minutes to play we had a long game and for us to be up after being down 11 I thought was a was a great sign for us but a lot of people feed off of makes right so like you get guys that go five for six from three they'll defend better and rebound better cuz they're five for six but will they defend and rebound when they're 0 for six like that's always a Telltale Telltale for a championship team a
nd today you know we're three for 15 from three we shoot 64% a little under 64% from the free throw line and I didn't think it affected anything even though I thought we had some glaring mistakes with Dalton connect like when the ball got loose or rebounds happened like you got to go to him like you can't get separated from him at times now he made some tough ones when we did do what we're supposed to too but we gave him a handful of looks and we were fortunate you know at the end he had he had
a couple really good looks that didn't go down we were we were very fortunate but just now just staying with it and um uh runs are a big part of the game right you know obviously when they go against you um it can be the difference but if you can get you know those good runs or if you can get two quality runs and you have a good team and you have good talent you know you're normally going to win that game Ni coach we'll have two in the second row here on the left side yeah is shoan from uh the P
urdue exponent Matt you've talked about being grimy when you guys don't shoot well just I mean was this the essence of of a performance like that today yeah you know our ability to rebound ends up being the difference right you know we had 10 turnovers they had seven um but out rebounding by over by by 20 um in my opinion ends up being the difference um but yeah you have to grind I said it after the Gonzaga game I go we made shots um and we really separated oursel on that second half half but if
we don't make shots you know how does this game you know end up you know and that's you know obviously you don't want that to happen right you know you want to go 10 for 15 from three and shoot 80% from the line and um but some that's the game of basketball the ball doesn't always go in that's going to be a guarantee it's why people always say defense and rebounding travel you know because you can be constant in those areas and um you know I I thought that rebounding piece for us was was the di
fference fourth row on the left side oh I'm sorry yeah there was a second one Josh Geor fansided Matt doton connect you talked about him a little bit he took 31 shots was it part of your plan to make them onedimensional because that's certainly what happened taking away kind of the role players and he went off but it was still a great defensive performance yeah no I not really you know we wanted to get up um and jam the basketball to start and so that's why we had Lance on him then at dead balls
Lance would go on him um there I I just didn't think our attention to detail um was great but you know I think it's smart on their part you know someone got a hot hand and go to him you know why not you know if you had to pick someone off their team that you want to get shots for he'd be the one and then when you look back on things you're like well this guy took the most shots this guy took the most shots they needed a little bit more balance but at the end of the day if what you're doing is w
orking why not stay with it so I I thought it made a lot of sense just to stay with him and and keep going but I I do understand your point because we get to that we get that way with Zach you know we want that balance um but we we also know if he's got the advantage you know we had a couple drives in the game where it's just like you know you were going nowhere there's nothing wrong when people fly at you and stop your three to now put the ball on the you know the deck and because we were able
to drive and get some layups but then at times when it doesn't work for you you know you you wonder why Zach didn't get the ball so they have to feel the same way about him four throw on the left Bob krabit Indy monthly when you got to the top of the ladder what did you see and what did you feel when you were up there they didn't leave a lot of net for you I noticed that it was just like a s I don't normally do it I don't normally cut the net down when we've won championships and stuff it's just
kind of not my deal but they said I had to do it so um nothing just um you know you get a lot of from people on the other side um whether it's rivals or like you know other people in your league or whatever and that's their job right you know that that is their job you know they're your Rivals you go against them and that's part of it but you know the one thing I appreciated especially after last year was the people that supported us from Purdue and and and that was to me like you know those ar
e the people that are in your corner no matter what and uh you know I I just appreciate the Purdue faithful that that stayed confident that we could get the job done while I was still the head coach we'll move it over to the right side here in the second row then we got one in the run in the front after that Ryan bonapart hammer and rails Matt seemingly every night Zach is breaking a record or getting on a short list with Legends but now you start seeing Braden do that so how nice is it to have
him for the next uh game or two as well as the next two seasons potentially yeah no question about it like you know he him involving as one of the best point guards in the country if not the best point guard in the country um you know just as ability to pass and see things you know he's he didn't get to it a lot tonight in terms of shoo his pullup but you guys that follow us have seen him in in games and especially people that play Drop coverage like he can really get to that pullup whether that
's a three um or whether getting to like that 15 footer so I think that's the most important thing for him is to stay consistent and and keep looking for a shot keep being aggressive because when they take his shot away from him now he can instinctually make passes whether that's a post up or a skip or you know what have you but no he's um uh very knowledgeable very instinctive uh makes good decisions but you know somebody that you know you want the ball in his hands you know and that's what we'
ve really found out that keeping the ball in his hands helps everybody especially Zach you know and now they got to deal with him and stop him and then they got to deal with Zach coming into the post and if they overdo anything then we go back and go in or we reverse it and go in and then you know just we just try to keep playing but um he's been fabulous last question right right side in the front row Larry L from AP talked to Jean Katy just a little bit ago and he said you're like a son uh is
he like a dad and what does it mean to you to have him on this day in person yeah it's great you know he obviously deserves to have this moment right you know he he works so hard and um seeing him go into the Hall of Fame you know is is one of the coolest things that you know I've seen in competitive sports for us here you know at Purdue but like um you know we he always comes at the end of the year then travels with us and he's around and um you know and kind of what he you know recalls you kno
w from his coaching career and all the things and all the experiences that you had and U they won three big 10 championships after I graduated and so like it's always um you know something that you know you wanted to be a part of that and um he's always included me and I've always included him um but if it wasn't for him I wouldn't be here so when you're 18 years old and you get recruited by somebody you don't think 15 years later you're going to be the head coach and take his place right so to
me it was really surreal when I coached one year in college and they were interested in me but I know he had a big part of it I know he had a huge part of it and I'm you know very grateful for that very grateful for all he's done for me and our players thanks coach we appreciate your time all right thank you [Music] everyone e e
Comments