Patricia, for the last week,
you guys doing? Run away games.
They're only kind of tough games, Yep.
I mean, they're a good team.
I mean, they're a team fighting
for their tournament life and
they got a bunch of. Boulder
senior type players summer. Five year guys
and they're getting down to
the end of their careers,
and they're going to, you know,
they we kind of I kind of
envisioned it going like that.
And, you know, we made every shot.
When we played him the first time,
and you know tonight we didn't so we had to.
They're kind of daring us
from the three line,
especially early and and.
No, we took a lot of them.
Not many of them went in early,
but we then we settled in and I
thought we had some nice runs,
especially in the first half.
Got up 18 and kind of took our.
Foot off the gas,
especially on the defensive end.
'cause we had a really
good defensive half going.
But then we had the, you know,
wherewithal to hang with it
and make plays there down the
stretch and and stretch it out
comfortably there at the end.
Seniors have big night.
Yeah, I mean, you know.
I mean this type of deal is for
everybody here like we always tell them.
I mean we hopefully have.
Heck, I don't know six or what you know.
But 2/2 and 610 more games left so.
But yeah, I I actually it's just
good for them to step up and make
plays in a tight game like that.
You know that's what you expect
of them there, and you know,
I mean Andrews carrying a heavy
load right now and and delivering
big time and and then you know,
Raw had some big shots too,
right when we needed him.
What made you decide you
wanted to start all this?
We've done that every year.
I've been here, so it's just
kind of a tradition, so yeah.
So I didn't really want to
mess with the tradition.
They shot the three pretty well tonight.
Was it just hot hand for them
or was it something they were
doing to create those open looks?
I mean they they only shot 11 of them,
so they were pretty selective.
Actually, you know pipes is really,
really really playing well.
I mean he goes 4 for 5:00
tonight and I think we.
You know we screwed up two of them,
but the other ones were. You know,
tough and he hit a lot of tough shots.
He's he's on a on a big time roll.
I thought we did a good job on justice.
He's a very scary shooter.
We did a good job on Williams
out there on the three line.
But that's a good offensive team.
They run some good stuff and come at you.
They got big guards and.
And we get a great job on Frankish,
'cause usually he's a handful for us.
Totally championship.
I mean, hey, it means a lot.
I mean it it it means probably even
more this year when I mean, you know,
on the one hand we're seeing it's the
best of leagues ever been and 32 years,
or at least since I've.
Been here and you know everybody
nationally and regionally and
within the league is saying that,
and in fact that we still are talking
about four teams making the tournament.
Almost at the end of February,
it's then we've never even been close
to that, so to be undefeated with,
you know, one more.
Round ago is quite an accomplishment,
like this group and clinch.
It early is a heck of an accomplishment.
It's not the biggest priority on
your list means, but seeing some
of the pros come back for a night
late tonight and talk to some of
your players and come back and spend
time with Kendall was a nice scene.
Like guys like Olynyk and so it's back out.
Oh yeah, yeah, first of all,
it's really high priority for me.
I mean, it means the world to me and and
that's what makes this place so special.
And, you know, I was able to see all of them.
And it's just.
It's it's great that they they wanna
come back they got a short break.
I mean Jalen flew all the way.
And from Florida to.
To get here, you know.
And so I actually was at the All Star game,
so they flew from Cleveland to get here so.
Yes, it's just great.
It's great to have tills here.
Great to have Kelly here and.
Which is what makes this place so special.
Yet another perfect home record.
You speak about the difficulties of just
doing that year and year and year out.
Yeah, yeah, it's not easy,
and there's a lot of pressure on.
It's fun as it is at home.
I don't know what our streaks
at now, but. Is that what it's
67? I mean that's unbelievable,
especially with, you know,
the the teams that have been came
in here and take shots at us.
So it's amazing.
I'm I'm, I'm happy for our fans.
They deserve it.
You know, to have a streak of
this length and and you know,
to hear will graves.
I mean I put it in perspective for me,
then played three years and never lost
a home game, so I don't know how many.
How many players have in college
basketball can run around and say that
probably not many, if any at all so.
That's pretty.
Pretty pretty special.
It was like.
Ah, it's been great.
It's been so great having AJ around.
Having both AJ and Joe
Round has been great to me.
It gives you at least two hours
a day when you usually don't
see your college kids right,
so he lives and dies with the Zags he
always has from the day he was born. And.
You know it was made for a good night.
That's the problem with senior night.
So I mean, they're emotional and.
And you know you have your your applying
a lot of mental energy to that.
And then you gotta flip around
and get jacked up and get your
guys ready for a hard physical.
Battle, and so I was happy that we were.
We were able to have that on the front end
and then now we can enjoy it after this.
First time around here. When your plate
is very tough yeah no,
these are really really good teams guys.
OK, these are borderline.
St. Mary's was in the top
25 so these are good teams.
They're physical teams, they're big.
They can match us inside.
And they're old. So I mean,
this is this is about as difficult
trip as you could ever imagine, and.
At least in one of the cases,
they're fighting like crazy
for their NCA tournament lives,
so this is going to be a huge,
huge challenge.