SleepHawk Worldwide
SleepHawk Worldwide
Maui Invitational Preview: Can UNC Basketball Establish Itself As A True Contender?
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In this episode, we dive deep into the upcoming Maui Invitational basketball tournament that UNC will be participating in. We analyze the key matchups, including potential games against powerhouses like Auburn, Iowa State, and UConn. The guys discuss UNC's strengths and weaknesses heading into the tournament, and whether the Tar Heels have what it takes to come out on top. With a talented but young roster, can UNC use this tournament to prove they are a true contender this season? Tune in for an in-depth preview of one of college basketball's premier early-season events.
and now the sleepwalk worldwide podcast. Here are your hosts, brandon staton and tyler. What's up everybody. Welcome to the sleep, the SleepHawk Worldwide Podcast. This is SleepDog with a big hug.
Speaker 2What's up? Sleepdog? Excited to be back in the studio with you. We got a lot of action. Guys, it is basketball season. I know everyone's excited about it, but yeah, man, we got a great pod. I'm excited. Thanksgiving's around the corner. I can't wait for that to see the family. But yeah, I'm ready to break down some games and talk about whatever.
Speaker 1I can go on. Took down about seven bottles of wine with Marcus Skinyard last night. Tell you what wine will get you if you ain't used to it. Hey you're from me.
Speaker 2MG is a sommelier.
Speaker 1The guy knows his wine.
Speaker 2Great dude, he's a great guy to go and have a glass of wine, tell you all about where it's from, how long it's been aged.
Speaker 1Just love drinking some wine he told me that, by the way, yeah, woke up with purple teeth this morning. Um, that was easy, easy to get over, just really easy to shake the cobwebs off and get to work. Today, uh, maui invitational coming up. All right, this episode, that's what we're going to talk about. We'll talk about the Maui Invitational, we'll talk a little bit about American. I mean, you know, heels did what they should have done, which is go out and win that game by 1,000.
Speaker 1But now we go to Hawaii. There's a lot of interesting sort of things going on there. So I mean, first of all, I might not see a game of this I mean, it's like a holiday week kind of but the game against Hawaii kick it off. Quote unquote Saturday. Quote unquote Friday. It's 1230 am. Is the tip? Okay, wow, I mean wow, I haven't been up that late on purpose in years, years. Then UNC will play Dayton. Those are two definites. They play Dayton at 1130 on a Monday night I guess a holiday week, but come on. Then you wind up with either Auburn, iowa State on Tuesday and then on Wednesday they will play either Colorado, uconn, memphis or Michigan State. So before we get into, I guess, the invitational, let's start with just a quick recap of the American game. Heels win. What is it? 107, 55, four starters and double figures. Rj still looking, seems like, for his shot a little bit. Um, drake powell 11 rebounds. That's good, you know good takeaway team looking for rebounds. Um, I don't know.
Speaker 2what can you take from a game like that big hawk well, you know, and you know it's it's hard to really break down blowouts like this. But what I will say, this is important game because obviously you know rj, you know he hasn't been shooting the ball well yet and I'm a big believer in rj everyone knows that he's going to turn it around. Uh, I think this is good prep for the other guys because we're winning games when RJ isn't being a Superman. And what I like about this game is Jalen Washington got a ton of experience, had a great game. You know. If you look at the stat sheet, 18 points. Also, you know three rebounds. He needs to do a little better than that, especially against a team like American, but you know he's very efficient six for six from the field.
Speaker 2When I look at it overall, you know our field goal percentage is 59% from the floor and you know you're going to win games if you do that. And what that tells me is we're taking high-quality shots as well. And what I've talked about with this team is, you know, it's a concern Shooting was a concern preseason because, you know, rj is kind of our only proven shooter. Well, we're getting high, efficient shots, even though we're not making a ton of threes. I really feel like we're sharing the ball, we're playing well, we're shooting high-quality shots, which is great to see. But also, you know the confidence level that Elliot Cadeau is playing with right now and he's going to be a big factor.
Speaker 2We needed him to take that next step which he has and you know, last year, you know I really feel like he's motivated him to put the work in and you can see it. He's out there playing, sometimes with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder, which I absolutely love to see, and he's really becoming and developing into a good player and I think we need him to be a big piece of this team for us to really advance and be the team we want, and he's proving that he's playing well. He's taking on a much bigger role. You know he's obviously one of the best passers in college basketball.
Speaker 2He's shown that you know eight assists, 18 points. He's playing well, he's improved his shooting. But I've never really questioned, you know, really I felt like he had good hands. I just felt like you know, like his confidence was lacking a little bit because he had missed shots and he kind of weighed on them. Now he's not playing with that weight and he's playing freely and it's good to see.
Speaker 2But you also mentioned Drake Powell and he got a lot of experience. And why that's important is because when you have a freshman and you play him and you give him big minutes, you know, early on in the year, then you can have the confidence to throw him in and conference play big games and you know he has that experience and the coaching staff will have the confidence to play him when it matters. And he has the talent and he's showing up on a lot of draft boards, which I think you know. I think he is an NBA player athletically. He has size, he does, he does everything rebounds, passes, runs. I really feel like the more minutes he gets he's going to develop into a heck of a player.
Speaker 2And you know, I really like him because I I really feel like he's a good kid and you know, I really like him because I really feel like he's a good kid, he's working hard and he's all about the team and I like to see that. So those would be my big takeaways, you know the improvement of Cadeau, the experience of Drake Powell and also Jalen Washington really kind of developing and taking another step forward. You know those are guys that we need and we're also seeing other people start to trickle in and do great things. Jalen Withers has been playing unbelievable. But I said it, I felt like he was going to prove a lot of people wrong or be a surprise to a lot of people, because he has a size Athletically, he is gifted and also at one point he was an NBA prospect. He went to Louisville, not a good situation, but I still feel like he's going to be a huge part of this team as well.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean, look, eight assists in a college basketball game is a lot. Eight minutes shorter game and put 18 on top of it, I mean he's really starting to emerge. He's a good player. I mean we talked about it at the beginning of the year, meaning Cadeau, obviously we talked about it at the beginning of the year If Tremble is going to score, has the potential to score in the 20s and 30s, and RJ does too. That's the thing I think is interesting.
Speaker 1My biggest takeaway so far about Carolina's season is RJ doesn't even feel like he's had a good game yet, an RJ game yet, you know, and the team looks, looks solid, and the thing I always look at in these games is do they do what they're supposed to do, you know, do they go out and and put the game away? And they definitely did that against American. But aside from that, let's be honest, not a lot you can glean from that body of work. So onward to Hawaiii. So a couple things here. Like I said before, hawaii uh, heels are four and oh, all time there. Last meeting is in 2016.
Speaker 1Uh, three of the four meetings have been in hawaii. Obviously, actually, one time back in the day, I think in the hell 90s or something like that hawaii actually came to chapel hill. Um, not sure what happened there, maybe like natural disaster or something like that. Hawaii actually came to chapel hill. Um, not sure what happened there, maybe like natural disaster or something out there, um, but so, so obviously, hawaii is, you know, on par, I would imagine, with american. Um, not a whole lot of nba prospects coming out of, uh, the fighting rainbows there, but, um, talk through, what is it like? I mean, you've done the Maui Invitational. It's got to be equal parts exciting, but, god dude, I mean you would literally fly across the world to see this basketball game.
Speaker 2Absolutely. And the other thing you've got to give this is something that Coach Williams did. He always scheduled a West Coast game before the Maui. And you look at it, I think I can't remember the teams we played, but we played a game and so obviously they're playing Hawaii right before the Maui Invitational. And the reason it's good because they can get acclimated to the time change.
Speaker 2They get to Hawaii, they get settled, guys can start to develop a little bit of their routine, they can get used to the the, the rims, and I'll tell you this too, a low key factor is there's a lot to do in Hawaii in the ocean and wanting to go and see that, be on the beach, being out in the sun. That zaps your energy and I think, the more you know, you kind of stay focused and you have that business approach and you're going there to win ballgames and I think that's a mindset that this team has to have. And you know, obviously, like you said, we're bigger, we have better players, we're athletic. We should beat Hawaii. Now what concerns me is we're playing at Hawaii against Hawaii and we're North Carolina. That doesn't happen a lot. Their fans are going to show up. It's going to be a great atmosphere. But you know, I think that this is going to be another good experience for these freshmen and a lot of these players taking on bigger roles. It's going to be good for them to be in those environments because conference play we're going to see that same thing and they're going to have that experience and they're not going to be in those environments because conference play, we're going to see that same thing and they're going to have that experience and they're not going to be rattled. So I think that's going to be good for them.
Speaker 2But what we have to do, and you know you have to take you know it's kind of corny, but you've got to take the show on the road and we've talked about it in the past, like you know, not being the best road team in years prior. Okay, now you're going on the road, you've got to take the show. You've got to continue to run, play your style and do what you do best. When you just outmatch an opponent, I think you've got to focus internally on what you do and really improve as a team, versus try to scout what Hawaii does and what they're going to give you problems, because I think if you do what you do best against most teams you're going to win. So obviously I would focus, I would have some good practice.
Speaker 2You get to Hawaii, you get acclimated to the time change, the tropical weather. You know all the. You know the kind of the BS associated with you know traveling. You know I think they're going associated with you know traveling. You know I think they're going from Raleigh direct to Hawaii. That's a 10, 11 hour flight. I can tell you that's a that's not easy on the body either. That's a whole nother ball game.
Speaker 2But you know, when you get to Hawaii you stay focused. Okay, you get into a routine and you know, you look at it and you have some practices. I, you know, I'm not opposed. I, you look at it and you have some practices. I'm not opposed, I'm old school. I think you have to have a hard practice right before the day before you play Hawaii, just because you're traveling and it kind of sets a tone for the Maui Invitational as well. So I would look, I would like to see the pace of play. Obviously we want to run. I would focus on that. As soon as you get to Hawaii, I would get guys shots and I would make sure that they're working out and they're adjusted. So that's the way I would approach this the Hawaii game and the Maui Invitational.
Speaker 1Guys, this is probably the one episode that I prepared for more than anything, and I just took it as a given that the first game of the Maui Invitational was against Hawaii. I wonder why. But it's not. And actually, now that you're saying that, I was looking at the schedule online and I was like, huh, I wonder why they have Maui Invitational right in between the first two games Just because it's not in between them. Dayton's the first game of the Maui Invitational. So my bad on that, but I'll stick to my guns on 1230. I mean, holy.
Speaker 2You know, what?
Speaker 1I guess, bro, sleep, I'll be with you.
Speaker 2I do not want you up at 1230 just because you know it's not a good situation for either one of us, oh yeah you know we'll catch the recap of that.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2You know, if it's a ball game I might want to be asleep anyways.
Traveling to Hawaii for Basketball Tournament
Speaker 1Yeah, exactly, I mean I might just have to watch that one about 530 when I wake up on a Saturday morning. I guess, yeah, it'll be Saturday morning. So yeah, I mean I think you said it all it needs to be said against Hawaii. It's interesting, Got to get there. That's a long flight, dude, Do you think they'll go Thursday? When will they arrive?
Speaker 2Originally, I think they're scheduled to leave tomorrow, which is Wednesday. I was just at the Smith Center and it looked like they might be taking off today, which is Tuesday, but I think it's Wednesday. They're just preparing for tomorrow, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was today. I know they are going direct from Raleigh straight to Honolulu, which is a beast of a flight. I remember when we went sleep we went commercial, so that was a beast. We had a layover in Dallas and we also had a layover in LA, which I was surprised. I thought Hawaii would just be right off the coast of California.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's what it feels like to get there.
Speaker 2Yeah, and then they told me it's going to be like a five-hour flight from LA. I was like–.
Speaker 1It's like trying to go to Alaska, man. You're like, oh, I'm in Seattle, I'm almost there, Like nah man.
Speaker 2You might as well fly back home, and I was like no, you're wrong. And they're like no, it's fine. I was like man.
Speaker 1Blow your mind.
Speaker 2Mess up mid-Japan.
Speaker 1Yeah, how do you even find Hawaii? That's what I want to know. I mean could find, but golly, Somebody's like they talk about Christopher Columbus finding America, Like how about?
Speaker 2the guy that found hawaii.
Speaker 1What do we have here? I mean, how did you get here, like what were you doing when?
Speaker 2you just stumbled upon hawaii and sleep. My other question, um, you know it's, I had extreme fear of planes and I know you have a lot of anxieties. Um, and mine was unnecessary, but that flight from la to hawaii, my first time going there, was rough and I was like man. We're gonna land out in the middle ocean. No one's ever gonna find us. We're so far out off the coast.
Speaker 1I mean, it was rough, that's still true, brother if something goes wrong out on your way to hawaii, you better hope it's on your way home right because at least the last thing you remember is being in paradise instead of lax, you know. Oh man, that's funny. Uh yeah, I've never been to hawaii and that's part of the reason why I don't like doing long flights. Um, over water, I mean, there's nowhere. Like what do you? Where do you have an emergency landing, you know, on the ocean good luck luck.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, sleep I don't even like to think about that, because I fly so much now. Yeah, that's not. It's just not good to go there.
Speaker 1Speaking of flyers Dayton flyers that's game one of the Maui Invitational. That's maybe the best segue in the history of Sleephawk Worldwide. Monday a little earlier start at 11.30 pm on a Monday, mind you. Dayton Atlantic 10, beat the Heels in 2010,. Lost by 30 to Big Hawk. Was that your sophomore year? But they made the tournament last year. I don't know who they got still from that team. They made the tournament as a seven seed and lost to Arizona in the second round. Pretty respectable, dayton's a sneaky team. They determined as a seven seed and lost Arizona in the second round. Pretty respectable, dayton's a sneaky team. They, you know they're, they're perennially pretty good. So, you know, I'd say, not a team to overlook.
Speaker 2Listen, dayton has been one of the better basketball and most consistent basketball teams in college basketball lately. You can look at the COVID year. I can't remember the. I think they may have had the top three NBA draft pick. Really super athletic guy Went to New York. Now he's with the Pacers.
Speaker 2But their head coach, anthony Grant, came from Florida. He recruited me in high school. I think he was assistant with Donovan. He was assistant with Donovan at Florida and then I think he may have followed Donovan to Oklahoma when he was there in the NBA for a bit. But I can tell you Anthony Grant's a heck of a coach. His team is a very good rebounding and defensive team and they're going to get out and run.
Speaker 2So you cannot overlook dayton. And dayton is, I mean they've. You know they've been uh right there with some of the big dogs uh, recently, so you've got to bring it and you know it's. The thing about it is there's so many good teams in this malignitation. You like you look at the line mich, michigan State, tom Izzo you can never overlook him. Uconn Hurley what he's done, you can't overlook him. And even though Memphis has been not great recently, they're like a pretty good traditional basketball team. They have talent. So this field is pretty impressive. And Iowa State has been pretty good recently. They've made deep tournament runs. But when I look at all these teams, you cannot overlook Dayton, you know, because Auburn's in the tournament as well and a lot of people make the argument that Auburn's the best team in college basketball. They have one of the best wins this year they went to Houston. They have Janiah Broom, which is arguably one of the best bigs in college. So you know it's easy to overlook your first game, just going down seeing you can play.
Speaker 2You cannot overlook Dayton. You've got to bring it and I think we're going to have to have good minutes from RJ as well. I think RJ is going to have to have a big tournament for us to win it. And I think Seth and Ellie Cadeau have to continue having good games and playing well for us to really put ourselves in position to win this tournament. And we've got to have an X factor. And the reason I'm not considering Elliott or Seth X factors is because I've taken I consider them to have taken that next step to provide consistent, positive play every single night. I think they're at that level right now where we can rely on them not to be considered an X factor.
Speaker 2I think they've got to have good games, consistently, provide the team with good quality games, and I think, like maybe Jalen Washington, maybe Jay you know, jay Witt Withers, I think you know somebody like that and I would love for it to be Drake Powell or, in Jackson, one of our freshmen, because that would be huge on the road, providing us with a huge spark, being the X factor for the tournament, just because you know they're so talented and you know they're going to.
Speaker 2We're going to need for them to develop, to be the team we want, and they, they have the talent, just need the confidence and experience, and I would love to see that means we're definitely heading the right direction. So that's what I would say we need to do to win this tournament. Obviously, you have to play with a pace, you have to play fast, you have to run against Dayton because you don't want to get caught up in playing a half-court game where teams can really load up on RJ and really kind of sag off some of our non-shooters. I think that you're going to have to push the ball and continue to get high-quality shots against teams like Dayton and Michigan State, because they're going to try to slow it down and turn it into a slugfest and that's not what we need.
Strategic Matchup Analysis
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean, heels are one-on-one one all time against dayton. It's weird I was going through here. There's a lot of teams that carolina's got on this on their on their slate here all time doesn't mean I think it's always funny how, you know, people talk about their all-time record versus somebody. It's like dude, these dudes weren't even like, probably even born last time they played at dayton. I mean, some of them were pretty close. They were pretty young, like 2010, dude, which doesn't seem that long ago. But yeah, you bring up a really interesting point. It's easy to get enamored with these teams. You've got Auburn, iowa State, uconn, memphis, michigan State. Probably pretty easy to feel like Dayton's. You know the easy one. And yeah, I mean for all the reasons you mentioned about getting there, getting acclimated, getting that first game under your belt, right, and then that's the thing that I think is most interesting about what you said is you know some of these guys probably in Hawaii for the first time they've ever gone to Hawaii. I would imagine you know anybody that's you know on the team. A lot of these guys might be there for the first time and it'd be pretty hard not to want to go to the beach and hang out and do all this sort of stuff that a normal person would want to do in Hawaii and, like you know, you got to stay focused, especially because it's like there's some big, big games in front of you and you're going to come out of this sort of learning a lot about who you are. I think the X factor personally is it's hard to say it's RJ, but it's like I keep thinking to myself I'm like this could be his coming out party. Right, there's good games in front of you. You wind up playing Dayton or either Iowa State or Auburn and then wind up with UConn. You know, I mean hell, you're going to get a good chance to come out of this as a contender in the eyes of everybody else and if you're going to do that, I think RJ's got to be RJ. But all right.
Speaker 1So let's move on to Auburn. So Auburn is number four right now, iowa State's number five. We're going to play either one of those Tuesday Depends on, I guess, win or loss by each team. That one's either kind of hope we lose. So it comes on at 8.30. Just kidding, but that one would be 11 o'clock if we pull it out against Dayton. Let's talk a little bit about that one.
Speaker 1So, auburn, obviously they bumped us in 2019 in sweet 16. Uh, we're number one. That's the only time we've ever played auburn. Um, then you've got iowa state. We haven't met them. We lost them in portland in 19 and, uh, the only other time we had played them, it looks like, was the second round of the 2014 NCAA tournament. So, again, these are teams that we've played before and have not had great success with. I mean, yes, 4-0 against Hawaii, but 1-1 against Dayton, 0-1 against Auburn, 1-1 against Iowa State. So, for whatever that means for this year's team, I just think it's really interesting. And you mentioned, you know so, auburn has a big man and you know we're thin.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, we don't have the. We're not the biggest team in college basketball and when you look at Auburn, bruce Pearl has done a great job. You know you instantly think of football. But you know they've done. They've turned that basketball program around into a powerhouse and they you know I'm not the biggest Bruce Pearl fan and that sounds pretty bad Same, but his personality is not for everybody.
Speaker 2Yeah, he's a little overwhelming, but I will tell you he's done a very good job and you know he does have I'm just thinking about him and you sitting in a room together.
Speaker 1Sorry, Like that's where that's coming from. If you know Big Hawk, like he's the antithesis of Bruce Pearl, Not in a negative way. He's not an asshole about a butthole about Bruce Pearl. It's just like those are two different types of energies.
Speaker 2Yeah, 100%. You would never find me in the stands with my shirt off painted if I was a head coach, like you did at tennis.
Speaker 2But you know the guy. I mean he's trying to get, you know, people motivated about his programs. I respect that. But you know the one thing that they do do Auburn is defensively. They're very good but also they're very big. Janiyah Broome inside is an issue and he's one of the best players he's. You know a lot of people are saying you know he's having a better year so far than Hunter Dickinson. But you know those guys right now are probably the two best bigs in college.
Speaker 2Naya Broom and he is an issue down low. He gets out and runs, he competes, he controls the board, he's athletic and he's big and that is a player that could give us a little bit of issues just because defensively we don't have the biggest size Rebounding, even though we've rebounded out-rebounded, I think, every team this year, which a lot of people aren't even giving them credit. Everyone talked about us being a liability on the rebounding end. We've out-rebounded. I think every team this year Hasn't been an issue. But we don't want to forget about that and get fat and happy Rebounding. You've got to rebound.
Speaker 2You can't give a guy like Janiah Broom second chances because you're going to end up getting guys in foul trouble, and what little size we do have, they're going to be sitting on the bench because they're going to get fouls. You must guard him, you must lock him up and you also must put him in as many pick and rolls as you possibly can when we have the ball offensively. What I mean by that is you've got to have if Janiyah Broom is guarding Jalen Washington, you've got to have Jalen Washington do as many pick and rolls on an RJ Davis, seth Trimble, just because he has to help on RJ. You can't give RJ an open look. Most teams are going to scout him and say, hey, you've got to help in a pick and roll, especially ball, jalen Washington setting a screen for RJ at the top of key. Janiah Broom has to help. So you're going to put him in a vulnerable position to foul or make him work more because it's going to wear him down for the offensive end of the court. And you're really going to make everything difficult for him if you make him play defense and put him in a ton of pick and rolls, kind of like we did at some point or in the second half against Kansas, where we put Hunter Dickinson in a lot of pick and rolls.
Speaker 2Sometimes that can negate a big on the offensive end and we've got to get out and run. We can't let them get into a half-court game and just put Janiah Broom in scoring position every single time, because that's not going to be a winning formula. But the key to this game play our style, play with pace, put Janiah Broom in a ton of pick and rolls and make sure we're not giving them extra chance. So I mean control the boards. I'm going to continue to say that all year Rebounding is a formula for winning. When you rebound, you put yourself, you give yourself a good chance to win. So those would be my keys for this game.
Speaker 1So let me ask you this so you know a big part of Carolina is's like who carolina is is fast break, pushing the pace, you know possessions, so on and so forth.
Speaker 1The outside looking in like as a fan, you see carolina. Maybe maybe this is just any team, but you see a lot of times carolina playing games close in the first half and ultimately I mean even american like. I don't even remember what the halftime score was, but I dozed off long before the end of it and I was like wow, 107, 55, like wow, um, I think that's 50 points, 52 if we're counting. Um, that's a lot, right, right? So explain to me how that process of getting to like at what point? Because it seems to me that the strategy is look, if we're in better condition than they are, then we eat in the second half, right, and so kind of talk me through that about whether you're playing Auburn or whether you're playing. Obviously, these smaller teams are just like they might run out of gas and I'd imagine it's because you look at what American they were 1 of 17 from 3 in the second half. Their legs have got to just be gone.
Speaker 2You know what I mean these guys?
Speaker 1and I mean, is that, how much of that is the focal point? Or is that talked about? Or is it just sort of a byproduct of hey, listen, like this is who we are, we just run and and that just happens to happen, or is that something you guys discuss?
Speaker 2let me tell you, you know, for coach williams, if you did not run, he was on you and that was something that he was consistently coaching always running, play with pace, that was his style, like he would call you. I mean, when I look back at some of the practices, the most Coach Williams has yelled at me is when I didn't run and he would. Sometimes he would just hemorrhage run run, run.
Speaker 2And you know I was a pretty good runner. Usually I ran. But if you did not run you were going to know about it. And why I think that there's more emphasis on it this year is because it's not like we didn't run in the previous years. It wasn't as big of a focal point because we had Armando.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And we tried to figure out. I mean Armando it's not like he wasn't a great runner out.
Speaker 2I mean Armando, it's not like he wasn't a great runner, but we tried to put him in scoring position through half-court sets to put him right on the block and he was such a big part of the offense, I think it was probably better not to run as much, because you give Armando a better chance of getting the ball on the block and then you kind of work off of him. But since he's gone and this team is very guard-oriented and you have a lot of athletic and you don't have the size and you have a few non-shooters or guys that haven't proven themselves from the three-point line, I think that running just gives you more of a chance to get higher quality shots and layups, which we need and would be great for this team. But Sleep, I will say a lot of coaches and teams say that they want to run until they have to run, and what I mean by that is everybody wants to play a running style of basketball because it's fun. You get out, you push, guys are really moving the ball and you get easy looks and highlights.
Speaker 2Running is difficult and to do it consistently for a full game yes, some teams can do it for that first half. But I remember when teams used to say that, okay, how do we beat Carolina? When I played with them, you've got to run it right down the. That never worked against us.
Speaker 2You look at Louisville Rick Pitino, who's known for pressing and playing full court, I mean I really feel like in the second half I could feel teams lose their strength, lose their stamina, and I really felt like our guys and let's not even talk about Ty Lawson, arguably one of the fastest players ever in college basketball why we'd run so well is because, well, we had Ty and you know he's pretty good at that, and so to try to keep up with Ty is just a difficult task. And also, when we really embraced and we got that experience and Coach Williams really taught us what running was. I mean a lot of people think they run. They don't really run until it's honed into you every single day in practice and there's a huge emphasis on it every single day.
Speaker 2Sometimes it takes years, but you can feel teams kind of lose their endurance stamina in the second half. You look at when we played Clemson at the Smith Center and we never lost to Clemson that streak was still alive when I was playing and we took them into two overtimes and they had a big lead late in the game. Well, I think is I think the head coach was Oliver Purnell and he put a big emphasis on pressing full court and also trying to run. I really feel like that's a great example of a team that when we went into that second overtime we dominated and you could see, even though they had a big lead late, they started losing their energy because they weren't used to teams just running or our pace of play.
Defensive Strategy Against UConn Basketball
Speaker 2And you can feel teams kind of wear down. And to run like we really want to run it requires a lot of, you know, focus, practice but also conditioning and it's extremely tough. So not a lot of teams are used to that. So you're right, sleep Sometimes. You know the game will be close in the first and you can start to slowly, slowly see us kind of pull away in the second and a lot of that has to do with teams trying to keep up and also thinking that they can run with us when you can't. That's what the benefits of running truly are is one part of it.
Speaker 1Right, the endurance is part of it. And then there's the staying sharp. Right, it's not only are you, are you, are you enduring, are you enduring the? You know the sprint, but you're staying structured and you've got the. You know that. You got the right, the right breaks in place to to capitalize right on um, and it's probably just a moral, like a or not a moral, um. I mean, you probably just get to it at a certain point and you're just like man, I'm running, I'm running, I'm running, I'm running. These guys just aren't slowing down, right, yeah, and it's a world of attrition. I guess is more of what I was looking about.
Speaker 2Well, another thing Sleep is. Coach Williams had coached that style for so long. His practices were designed. You would have a three-on-two, two-on-one, a three-on-two two-on-one where I mean like three players going down on offense to kind of mimic a fast break. So you put yourself, you have your team work on.
Speaker 2You know, when you have an advantage, you have two defenders versus three offensive players going down on one court and then whoever shot the ball on offense, you had to sprint back on defense and the two defenders that were guarding the three players on the other end, they would now be on offense against a. You know it'd be a two-on-one. So a lot of practices were designed to put you or mimic a pace of play, and so that's why Coach Williams and UNC, you know historically, were so like. That's why they were so good at playing with pace and knowing what to do when they had an advantage. Because if you practice on it and you mimic those situations, you're going to know what to do during the game and you're going to know how to get that high quality shot and work the ball when you do have an advantage like that.
Speaker 1Yeah, they certainly. You practice, like you play. Guess what about iowa state? Like what happens if, if, if. Uh, you know, if carolina doesn't play auburn, they play iowa state iowa state.
Speaker 2Uh, they like to get up and down too. Uh, last year, their veteran team, they have veteran guards uh, very good defensively. But this will be an up and down game if we get caught up with them. Uh, they have a lot of good shooters. So you, you have to put a lot of emphasis on guarding the three-point line, because Iowa State can shoot, they have very good guards and they like to get up and down. If this matchup happens, this will be a very fun game to watch. Iowa State was at the top of the Big 12 last year. They were a contender, currently number five. Yeah, yeah, I mean, they're a good team and this is going to be a track meet if we see Iowa State.
Speaker 1And then coming out of that, I mean it's hard to look that far ahead, but you got to think that if you win right, you're playing UConn, UConn's number two right now. Colorado, memphis we've already seen memphis, michigan state, you know, we've always seemed to have their number six and three all the time against michigan state and seems like we've always won the important ones. Uh, never had any problems. Colorado you know, like I said, we already saw memphis. So let's just talk really quickly about uconn. Where they're at as a program. I, going for three in a row is pretty impressive. And then you know, how do you, how do you? I think this is a question of like, how do you stop them? Right? And most of the time the question is the other way around, right, how do you stop us? But I mean, what are your thoughts on them so far?
Speaker 2And if we end up in that spot, Well, you know, I think UConn, obviously there's an emphasis. They play a physical style of basketball Very good defensively. Bobby Hurley has done a great job. They don't have the talent that they had last year. You know, three-peat, if they did that man you would have to, you know, automatically.
Speaker 1just put bobby hurley in springfield, right now, right now active, first active coach in the hall of fame yeah, uh, you know he's.
Speaker 2You know not to look too far ahead, but if you play uconn, whoever you're gonna play in this championship game, you gotta bring it u UConn.
Speaker 2If I'm coaching, I look back at what they did to us in the Garden last year. They didn't back down. There was a lot of smack talk. I think RJ went at somebody, armando went at somebody and UConn has that. They take on their personality of their coach and I hate it when analysts say that they just took on the personality of their coach. I hate saying that, but what he's done, he's built a winning culture and you can see that his players fight and play with a certain chip or edge. They're very edgy. It's a very edgy team. I would love to play UConn and I would love to beat them just off of what they did to us in Madison Square Garden last year on the biggest stage. There's a lot of smack talk. I would like for this to be a rivalry and I would love for us to play them almost yearly in the garden just because of the atmosphere and what it brought last year. But they have big guards. They're going to try to beat us up.
Speaker 2The real test about UConn is guarding their sophisticated offense. They run a lot of different pick and rolls, a lot of different action off the ball ball screens. Their guards are moving. So the key to beating UConn is help side in your defense it has to be on a string. You have to have guys that are going to help the helper. What I mean by that is, when there's a breakdown on the ball defense, you're going to have to have a guy slide over to help and you're going to have to have another guy, another defender, that's going to help the helper. And your defensive rotations are going to have to be on point and you can't have a lapse defensively for a period of time, because uconn's very good at taking advantage of that. You've got to play a very disciplined defensive style game to beat uconn.
Speaker 1So let's say we say help the helper, let's say the ball enters the post from the elbow or from the, you know, from the, the three-point line. Is it essentially right to say that you just help away? Or you basically help away from the passer right? So the helper's got to come over and help on the big man that just caught the ball on the block but he's got to leave his guy, so the guy's got to drop down from the wing, for example, to cover that guy and the guy that was on the ball, the entry pass. Now he's got to move sort of down and over to cover the cut right. Is that essentially the flow of it? Because I mean, I sort of get it from the standpoint of like the help and then the closeout. You see that a lot right, and the recovery is the part that you know once you sort of the ball. That's why I think ball movement is so important, right, because you know the more you move the ball, the harder it is to sort of account for everybody on time every time.
Defensive Principles and Strategy Discussion
Speaker 2Yeah, and so sleep. You just asked a very sophisticated question that could get a thousand different answers. So OK it's. I always say you rely on your defensive principles principles.
Speaker 2Now, a lot of teams wouldn't help off the passer just because a single side.
Speaker 2Whenever you have a guy that you know, if there's two offensive players on one side and one of the guards makes an entry pass into the post with the post player on the block, then maybe that passer can provide they would call it a dig spot where they kind of like fake, like they're going to help, and then kind of get back to their man to think, to make the post player think that they're going to get doubled and they pass it real quick.
Speaker 2The fake, you know, kind of the little dig spot where you kind of like give a little fake and then get back to your man. It kind of throws the offensive player off and then get back to your man. It kind of throws the offensive player off. But the reason why you would help off a double-side guard scenario is because if that passer's defender went down to the post to trap and we're playing a really good post player, then that other defender since there's two offensive guards on that wing, that other defender can take the first pass out, and so then the double-team guy who was guarding the initial guard that was guarding the ball, they can rotate to the other player to that other guy that left his defender to take the first pass.
Speaker 2But a lot of teams don't really help off the passer just because they like a lot of ball pressure to make the entry pass into the post difficult and that has a huge effect.
Speaker 2A lot of times you'll see teams double the post or have help off the baseline opposite guy, just because usually there's a double side scenario on the other side of the court where there's a situation where there's two guards and the other guard, the other defensive player, can take that first pass and then the guard that went to double the post can get out and initially take that first pass and then the guard that went to double the post can get out and initially take that second pass.
Speaker 2But the other thing it provides is a lot of times it provides a scenario where that guard can come in and kind of steal that ball, and a lot of times let's just say you have a heavy right-handed player which Hunter Dickinson or a lot of guys, especially in college, use their strong hand, and so you'll have the double team come from, let's just say the right shoulder, because if it's a right-handed player, the initial defender that's not coming over to double, they will take away that strong or the tendency of that post player which is going to be the right hand hook so he would play heavy on that left shoulder where the other defender comes over and kind of takes that right shoulder just to throw them off guard.
Speaker 2And also, if you come from the opposite baseline guy, sometimes you can get that quick and easy steal. A lot of post defenders won't see it and it's a long pass from the post the opposite block all the way to the other side, which allows the defense to get back into their rotations and allows them more time, versus coming from the same side where they made that entry pass.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think that's probably the interesting part, right, everybody talks a lot about double teams and defense and pace and this, that and the other, and even when you're talking about the zone in Syracuse and Virginia but I think the average fan, including me, you sort of understand it until you get to the second or third ball movement and then you know how everything is. I mean, brother, coach Davis used to teach it to us in high school but it started breaking down about the time the ball came across half court. But you know, it's just fascinating how it all ties together and the philosophy of it. And then, of course, your personnel right, like who you got? That can, um, that can do certain things.
NBA Defense and Tyson-Paul Fight
Speaker 1And this is, you know, and it's funny to me how a lot of people you know talk about they don't like watching the nba because there's no defense, and I, I just completely disagree with that. It's just it's a totally different type of defense and it's you know, these guys are insanely. I mean, like a skip pass in the nba is like absolutely necessary because it's the only way you're gonna beat dude six, nine, closing on a three-point line.
Speaker 2It's crazy the one thing the nba does that I really like is, uh, the defense of three seconds. And what I mean by that is, in the nba you cannot be a defender inside the lane for three seconds or it's a technical foul. Now you can be guarding somebody in the lane and touching an offensive player, which you know totally negates it, but you cannot just load up in the paint, and that allows for highlight plays. It also allows for more of a, you know, iso scenario into the post. It doesn't allow for teams just to kind of sag off, and you know load up on players.
Speaker 1It's crazy because, dude, the thing about watching an NBA game and you see it some in college, but the thing if you go watch an NBA game and you sit even relatively close to the floor, you're just like how do these guys even move? Like the floor seems so small because everybody on the floor six, eight or taller and they're huge and there's 10 dudes in a half court offense with, like they're like combined, 60 feet tall all right like I mean like I don't know, yeah, they take up all the square space there.
Speaker 2This is crazy they just make it look so easy too, because you know you have these guys you watch an nba game and a 12-year vet who's obviously very good. They just know how to move and make them uh, you know, very efficient movement on the court.
Speaker 1It's just like it can make it look kind of lazy or easy, which there was a lot of college fans off yeah, all right, let's get out of here on this one man man. I know this isn't college basketball related, but everybody watched it. Dude, what did you think of the Tyson-Paul fight?
Speaker 2Man. You know I thought it was a fugazi and you know everybody wanted to see Tyson go out there and, just for round one, lay him out and clearly you can tell the contract was structured. Tyson gets more money if it went to decision or something like that. That's what I heard. But I felt bad for Tyson man. He looked kind of old initial thought and I have an internal battle of man. I think this is really cool. Jake Paul, using the platform like this guy is like it's pretty crazy what he's doing like he's.
Speaker 2you know, more people tuned into that boxing match than any heavyweight fight yeah, saving boxing yeah, and he's trying to entice conor mcgregor to box, which I think would get a huge draw. And if that ever happened, this is my second thought sleep is Netflix got to figure it out. I mean dude their CEO putting out a statement. I thought we did a good job. No, you didn't, buddy Wow.
Speaker 2I was actually an out coming back in. And then finally I was like I'm going to sleep, I'm not going to bear through this, Figure that out. Netflix is good enough just to keep you around, but their quality and all this stuff it needs to improve. You got to figure that out.
Mike Tyson Punch-Out Childhood Memory
Speaker 1Brother, anybody that bet on Mike Tyson to win. You're just betting from the heart because you put a 60-year-old man in a boxing ring at midnight and trying to beat up a 26. Dude I told this in the group chat. How does fight eight o'clock in the morning? Different story, okay, like I mean that was just messed up trying to put the dude out there. In a way, mike tyson stays up past eight o'clock, you know? Um, but yeah, I thought the best part was you know what to talk about. Netflix is the cameraman. You know, before the fight, obviously everybody sees tyson turns around. You got no pants on and it's like dude, I mean the cameraman's just got, you got to be ready for that dude. Like you got to hit that, you got to flip that switch. The guy in the truck has got to know like look, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta switch cameras quick here sleep.
Speaker 1I think he had something covering the front well, he did, but like his cheeks were out he didn't have any shorts on my mind went to a thousand, like what is?
Speaker 2like, is he boxing? Is that how he just throws some shorts on over that?
Speaker 1I was like yes, I was like wasn't that I was yeah I laughed about it because I thought it was hilarious. But I mean it had.
Speaker 1My mind had a thousand questions yeah, it was bummer man because, like I was a real little kid when mike tyson in his heyday Mike Tyson Punch-Out was a primo part of my childhood. I've told this story before maybe. My dad pulled me out of school when I was in the first grade and we looked everywhere, dude, for Mike Tyson Punch-Out. When it came out, my dad bought me a Nintendo when I was. My dad was 25 years old or something, 26, 27. Bought me a Nintendo before I even could play it. Why 26, 27. Bought me a Nintendo before I even could play it. Why? Because he wanted it, dude. We went all over town looking for that game. Couldn't find it anywhere. By the way, one of the very few sealed copies of that game left just sold for $65,000.
Speaker 1My dad pulled me out of school one day I was in first grade. Man, it was one of those things when you're little and you have a doctor's appointment or something, you know the. And he was like, you know, it's like one of those things when you're little and you kind of like, have a doctor's appointment or something, you know the deal, but like, every now and then you get this. Your parents just got something to do and they come get you. And you're just like dude, this is awesome, right, call in the room. I got Brandon in there Like yeah, his dad's here to pick him up me up. I don't ask any questions, right? I mean like dude, I don't care, we'll go wherever you know, run through a brick wall if you tell me to. Just don't send me back to this prison cell, you know. And so we're sitting in line at the bank. It was like a Friday and I'm back. You cash your check. Dad's in line cashing. He's like. I was like Dad, why did you pick me up? He said look man, I'm going to tell you something you can't tell your mom. I was like deal man, right in blood he goes.
Speaker 1I beat Mike Tyson and I was like no way, you've got to be kidding me. It's like, yeah, dude, and I mean my dad was literally like the greatest fighter alive. So he drives in that moment, right, so he drives in that moment, right. You know I'm thinking he ever fought anybody. But you drive, he drives me home. And the trick was you gotta dodge mike tyson until he gets tired and then you gotta hit him with uppercut. You gotta think you had to hit him with three uppercuts, maybe just one, but you had to dodge him. You couldn't try to fight because he hit you one time. He knocked you out and and this is back. Dude, you didn't look this up on the internet like Think about how many hours my dad had played that game before he figured that out.
Speaker 1That's how it. Looking back, I'm like I mean, it's literally one of my favorite stories in my entire life as dad. Now I hope I can give my kids some kind of experience like that. My dad listens to every one of these podcasts. I think he knows this already. But, dude, that was like the coolest stuff. And but, dude, that was like the coolest stuff. And I went back to school and I was like you know, you're first grade, you're like dude, my dad beat Mike Tyson. One kid's like no, I'm like yes, he did, and he sure did, dude, he learned how to do it, did it the hard way. I mean I bet he played that game 40 hours a week until he beat Mike Tyson.
Speaker 2I just you know, I can't imagine playing a video game, you know, or you like, I love you, like that, I love. This story cracks me up but I'm just picturing your dad playing hours of that video hours.
Mike Tyson's Impact on Childhood
Speaker 1I mean they bought that thing and I mean I just said it was the best part was because I go play Mario or something, just run right off the cliff. I'm six years old and I can sit there and watch my dad and he gets to all the stuff that you can't see because, like, he's an adult, right, uh. But yeah, man, that was, uh, it was such a unique man because that was a real, that game was a real big deal in our like childhood. I mean, dude mike tyson was a bad man. I like him because he just has.
Speaker 1He seems to have taken a lot of things that came his way and sort of grown from him. So I think he's a very interesting dude. Love him or hate him or whatever, but you know everybody's rooting for him and I thought it was cool that he was just like, look, I've done all this. This was me, was for me, it was just proven to myself, right, I don't care what any of these other people think, and you kind of believe him. So then he was saying he wanted to fight a dude's brother. I'm like all right, mike, go get your damn NyQuil man, it's late.
Speaker 2You know Sleep. I don't think anybody at 60 is going to turn down the paycheck that. Tyson got.
Speaker 1That's a great way to end it. For that much, I would have fought him too. I would have lost, but that's all right. I haven't been in a fight since fifth grade and I lost that one pretty bad. Look, man, next week's Thanksgiving. So we're going to chop this one up and we're taking it off. You guys. You got anything else? Big Hawk, stay safe, Stay safe, bye.