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Post by kiyoat on Oct 10, 2023 15:40:39 GMT -6
Looks like this year they brought in two separate indy media groups/ bloggers to do the men's/ women's coach and player interviews.
For the men's side, it was "The Field of 68"
Here's the full video (4 1/2 hours!) on Youtube:
And here's the same video, but fast-forwarded (time-stamped) to the USD part:
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Post by kiyoat on Oct 10, 2023 16:17:31 GMT -6
Coach Pete: "It'll be a new look. If you lined up last year's team and this year's team next to each other, it's completely different."
Why?
CP: "Number one is size. Last year our average height was 6-3. We were bottom-8 in the country in size. This year we're 6-7. I'd guess that's top-50 in the country? When we were at Utah State, we made 3 straight NCAA tournaments - those teams were #2, #2 and #1 in the country in average size. When you've got bigger guys, you can make more mistakes defensively, and it's covered up. And the floor looks a lot smaller."
"over the last 10 years the #1 or #2 defensive team in our conference has made the NCAA tournament. So if you're not good defensively.... the Summit traditionally is one of the best 3-point shooting leagues in the country..."
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Post by captaincoyote on Oct 10, 2023 16:42:38 GMT -6
None of our guys picked for the all conference team. I doubt that will be the case post-season. My best guess would be Paul Bruns or Felix Brostrom breaking out.
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Post by kiyoat on Oct 10, 2023 16:48:28 GMT -6
Q: How good are you going to be? (with all the new players) Do you have a feel for your team yet?
CP: "... There's a difference between building a program and building a team. When you're building a team, you can be good for a year, but then maybe you're down for two years. If you build a program you at least have a chance every single year... last year we were super inconsistent...I think this year we will be way more consistent... we're deeper, more competitive... how good are we going to be? I can't answer that right now. But what I know is that based on how we are practicing, we're going to make ourselves better every day. And I don't think you could say that about last year."
Q: I understand the athlete you brought, Max, was a walk on?
CP: "And he's from Sioux Falls, too. I keep telling people, when you have a South Dakota kid... it's different. This Coyote's paw is different for those kids.... When he first came in to practice, we saw him deferring to other guys to play... I walked up to him and asked 'Are you on our team? then you need to get into the drill' 'You need to compete every day if you want a chance to play'... and he said 'I have a chance to play?'... and I said, "Yeah, Max! I mean, I don't know yet"... and he just took that and ran with it. He was the first one in the drill every day... Max is the perfect GATA guy. He's setting an example for all our new guys every day.... He might not be our leading scorer, but he's the MVP on our team.... When you're bringing in 9 new guys, you need that... Max won't let us have a bad practice.
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Post by usdcoyote on Oct 12, 2023 11:32:19 GMT -6
Q: I understand the athlete you brought, Max, was a walk on?CP: "And he's from Sioux Falls, too. I keep telling people, when you have a South Dakota kid... it's different. This Coyote's paw is different for those kids.... When he first came in to practice, we saw him deferring to other guys to play... I walked up to him and asked 'Are you on our team? then you need to get into the drill' 'You need to compete every day if you want a chance to play'... and he said 'I have a chance to play?'... and I said, "Yeah, Max! I mean, I don't know yet"... and he just took that and ran with it. He was the first one in the drill every day... Max is the perfect GATA guy. He's setting an example for all our new guys every day.... He might not be our leading scorer, but he's the MVP on our team.... When you're bringing in 9 new guys, you need that... Max won't let us have a bad practice. I love Max. I really wish we could have found a scholarship for him. Hopefully he's got an academic scholarship or something. I hate to think our team MVP is just having to pay for school himself.
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Post by kiyoat on Nov 2, 2023 7:55:03 GMT -6
The guys over at Reaching the Summit podcast have a new episode out where they interview Coach Pete and have a discussion about the Yotes' roster and potential on the season. Really nice to get those unbiased outside perspectives on the team! I'll post a link to the podcast. The final 1/3 (30 minutes) of the podcast is about USD (0:44 - 1:13) link
Long story short: USD had tons of turnover, and now appear to have the physical tools and height needed. The main question marks are if there is enough skill to go with that size, and can they play shutdown defense like Coach Pete wants them to? Coach Pete is very high on a couple of the transfers, having had past experience with them.
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Post by kiyoat on Nov 2, 2023 12:22:35 GMT -6
Here are some quotes from that podcast about the Yotes: (after the interview with Coach Pete):
Greg Stemen: Nobody questioned the talent (on last year's USD team), especially the offensive talent, and the perimeter talent... but then you're forced into that (way of playing)... and then to compound it, by (coach Pete) sitting out a month... he missed a month of the season in his first year as a head coach.... making things significantly more difficult... I think this is really a fresh start for him. They've increased the length and the physicality of their roster, and brought back a few guys that understand what Coach Pete wants to accomplish. I'm excited to watch it all play out for USD. There's a ton of unknowns with this roster.
Zach Dosch:When you hear the backstory on some of these players, it sure makes a lot more sense than when you see it on paper. I thought that was one of the most enlightening interviews we've had, because there was the most to understand about their program. Hearing about Lahat, and hearing about Buom...
That Bostyn Holt guy. That really caught my attention. A 6'-7" guy playing point guard?... You got my attention with whatever the heck THAT is. That is something that obviously does NOT exist in the Summit League, usually because there is not that skill set in the Summit League. But if there IS... that's a really intriguing thing.
I think you can see why they wanted to hire this coach so bad. Not only is he a great guy, he's a good recruiter, he's connected, he challenges his players, they develop, ... and I'm excited to see this roster of all these new players.
Greg: I'm looking forward to watching Max Burchill play without some kind of medical support on his body... he's not going to be an all-league guy, but I think he can be huge for Coach Pete and this team, as far as selling to the locker-room what the expectations are when you step on the floor for USD...
Zach: I think sometimes the term "glue guy" is used as a back-handed compliment, but glue is more important when you have a lot of new pieces to put together.... I think people have to respect his career arc.
I think they have a little better non-conference schedule, that's conducive to the type of roster they have now.... that should not be overlooked... a difficult non-conference schedule looks fun on paper, looks fun for fans, but it does (a young) team no good.
Just about all of these transfers are transferring down (to USD). What you get on that Power-5 level (athlete), the physical profile is non-negotiable. What we don't know about is the skill level. That's what I'm looking at, because the skill level in this conference is high. The physical profile isn't always perfect. So these guys (at USD) are going to be a little different than what we see from a number of these teams (in the Summit).
I'm curious to see how it plays out. They are gonna have their "angle". They're gonna have the theory on why the roster was put in place. That's gonna play into that defensive profile...what's the easiest way to do that? Get a bunch of players that are pre-disposed to playing great defense because of their physical profile, and that's what South Dakota did. It's a great place to start. We'll see how it all comes together.
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Post by kiyoat on Nov 2, 2023 12:52:54 GMT -6
Zack: We also haven't talked about Felix Brostrum. There's a lot of people really high on him, and rightfully so. There's a lot of really intriguing clips of him out there on twitter playing basketball, and being a pretty interesting 3 playing at 6'-8".
Todd: (Shey) Eberwein at one point was a highly-touted recruit. His recruiting fell off a little bit, ... I don't know why. But he was, at one point, a four-star type guy.
Zack: And also Jeremiah Coleman. He was basically the third guy off the bench last year. Really quick kid. My guess is, he's gonna factor in too.
Todd: You guys have seen Isaac Bruns play, is he similar to Paul?
Zack: Very... (he's a) nice player. Plays hard, well-rounded, ...a lot like Paul.
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Post by captaincoyote on Nov 2, 2023 14:09:10 GMT -6
We have a very interesting roster for sure. Lot’s of length and versatility. They’re probably a year out from being in the conference title conversation, but it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch them gel this season.
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