Coat Check | Bidding for a Playoff Berth

seventy six podcast network. Game Schedule heating up, Playoff Picture Taking Shape. The Bluecoats eight and four heading into a Wednesday morning matchup that you will probably already know the result of against the Canton Charge, Cleveland's G League affiliate by the time you listen to this one. But again, that playoff Picture Taking Shape, a playoff Berth, would be

the first playoff Berth in Delaware franchise history. On this episode, we've got our Bubble correspondent Xavier Silas, one of the assistant coaches for the team, for his check in and his insights, talking about the recent win over MBA G League ignite, and a whole lot more really good conversation with Coach Silas that win over the Ignite team, which is a team partially comprised of some of the prospects eligible.

The top prospects eligible were. The twenty twenty one NBA Draft was on Monday, March first, and the Blue Coats on national television, controlled that one from start to finish, one twenty ninety two win for the Delaware Blue Coats. Before we get to Coach Silas, let's check in with some of the Bluecoats players after that big win. First up, Justin Robinson, who accomplished his double double with assists pretty early on, got some rest towards the end of the game.

The team's starting point guard thirteen points, twelve assists. Afterwards, he talked about the team putting together a full forty eight minute effort. I think overall, our goal was kind of putting the whole forty eight minutes together. We've always had stretches of two good quarters and whether it's the beginning of the game or the end of the game.

But I think our whole mindsetting goal today was to play a whole forty eight and I think us maintaining the lead as kind of positive step growing and learn

him as a team. There were plenty of great performances, but how about Braxton Key, the rookie who finished his college career at the University of Virginia a national champion for the Cavaliers against NBA G League ignite, Braxton Key put up nineteen points in twenty minutes, and his first half effort really allowed the Bluecoats to build up a

big lead. He talked afterwards about well, a lot of things, but staying ready, the workouts he's been putting in, and it was really cool to see it pay off for him. I felt great, got an opportunity who go out there and play. Just went there and play my game. Guys fell on me. I just took the right shots to open shots. Defensive vantage is trying to help do whatever I can do to help the team win. Guys will looking me up. So it was just a team effort

today and definitely grateful that we got the way. I mean, my team they tell me stay ready, they're gonna they say they're gonna need me eventually. Tonight was that night I gave guys a lift. I've been in a jenna past three four nights every night just working on my game. Getting shots up. Whether we have a game or not. I'm just working on working on my game. Just gotta stay ready so when it's time to be ready, it's

I'm ready for the opportunity. It's definitely tough being in that situation, but you gotta be professional at the end of the day and do what it takes. Please to be rejoined by our Blue Coats bubble correspondent, assistant coach, former NBA player, former Philadelphia seventy six er, amongst other teams, Xavier Silas, It's good to have you back, coach, and another week down here in the NBA G League bubble, and it certainly had its ups and downs for this

Delaware Blue Coats team. But as we record right now a couple days into the month of March, eight and four record for the Blue Coats eyes on the prize being a playoff birth first and foremost for those who don't know out there, a fifteen game regular season. To put in perspective how many we've played so far, as Coach Silas and I talk right now, but eight teams out of eighteen here at the single site in Disney World will make the playoffs. And when I say it

was up and down. Really, it kind of takes me back to our last episode. And I'm a little long winded here, but you said something about finding your identity on the last episode that I really wanted to follow up on but forgot. So what is the identity of this team, the Delaware Bluecoats in twenty twenty one and how have you seen it kind of develop? I think that our identity really has to do with the pain.

It's continue to have this theme about the paint, and so offensively we want to touch the pain, and that requires being aggressive, that requires sharing the ball, and that requires kind of being all on the same accord. Offensively, Defensively, we want to keep the other team out of the pain, and so like the theme I think is just protecting the paint and then attacking the pain on the other end. And I think that our guys have really put an emphasis on that and has helped us get through our

little skid. That touch the paint theme is shortened by you and others in games. To be ttp, where's at least one other that I know of. I want you to fill in some of the blanks here, PTE that has helped out this season. It's it's it's tough. It's condensed basketball games. You're playing pretty much every other day, so things are going to happen out there on the floor. And you've brought and your staff and your fellow coaches have brought to the players PTE. Yeah, I think you know.

PTE means play through everything, and so like I think that with our skid, what I saw was that, you know, and it's hard. It's hard to play through playing well, you know, being on a on a winning streak, it's really hard to continue to do the little things and to play well. So we need to play through those things. We need to play through bad calls, we need to play through bad shots, we need to play through you know,

literally everything bad and everything good. And so like you know, a lot of our people on the team, coaches, we're all yelling PTE when good things happen, when bad things happen, because if we just you know, lock in and focus in on every possession, we're pretty good. And we've shown that with our seven seven game winning street. That was of course at the start of the year. As we

said eight and four. And when you say players and coaches saying things, this is a fun group this is a fun Bluecodes team with a lot of characters, and you're saying these types of things from the bench as well.

There's obviously coaching instruction going on, but there's some trash talk, there's some support for teammates and to bring people inside the bubble a little bit more on game days, I think the Bluecoats are one of the loudest benches and some of that is in a very good way as well, and I think as a coach you probably consider it a good thing to a certain extent as well, because especially on the defensive end, there's a lot of communication on the floor and there's a lot of communication for

the whole game from the bench from players who aren't in the game. Just in general, we're definitely engaged. We're I think that we're the most engaged group here. Our guys talk and we know, you know the cliche sayings. You know, communication is key. You know, in any relationship, being able to communicate is going to be the end all, be all and if that relationship is going to work. And so what we do is we encourage that talk. You know, every every day we're encouraging them to talk,

and sometimes they talk too much. But we rather overtalk than not talk enough. And that's for sure more on the way. But first, Christianic Care as doctors, nurses and caregivers and as an and friends. Christiannacare is a partner in everyone's journey to greater health and well being. Why do they do it for the love of health? Visit Christianacare dot org. There is some outside of internal communication

about plays and positioning and things like that. There's definitely some trash talk too, but I think that's made this team fun. Maybe a little bit of a target on their back in some respects too. Yeah, I think that they play with an edge, and anytime you play a team that plays with an edge, you're going to get

up for that game. And so a lot of the games that we are in are very competitive and the energy is really high because you know, we welcome that type of environment and atmosphere for sure, and the most recent environment as we move along if the theme of part of the theme of this episode is beating the G League Ignite team, which is new this year to the g League, made up of both some NBA veterans but also some of the top prospects who were eligible

for the twenty twenty one NBA Draft, like Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga. It was a big win for the Bluecoats to get back on track. It was on national television and from start to finish, the Blue Coach just controlled that thing and a lot of what we just talked about went into that performance against NBAG League Ignite. Yeah, I think TTP was in full effect. I think that we were touching the paint at a very high rate.

I think we were keeping them out of the paint on the other end, forcing them to take some contested shots, and we did a really good job of playing through everything the entire game. You know, there's been some games where we put it together for three quarters, but one quarter we slack, you know, And this was the first time that I saw that we really put four quarters together. I mean, we dominated and ended up winning about thirty, but it wasn't close, you know, the entire game, and

we were able to keep that consistency. And so, you know, after that four game skid, we came together, we came up with the PTE deal and the Ignite game was the first time we were able to put it on, put it in action, and it worked out. Pretty well, and so I think the guys are responding and being in the bubble, you know, you have to have certain little themes to keep you through and engaged in the whole deal. A quick message from our friends at Nemour's.

Nomour's Sports Medicine believes that highly personalized one on one physical therapy for young athletes is paramount to a speedy and complete recovery. Learn more at nemours dot org slash pt. Along the lines of that, I want to talk about team chemistry in the bubble. I've mentioned it a few times, about a little bit here and there about your playing career, and you're just out of the game as a player,

including at this level in the G League. I mean, you play in the NBA, but you recently played in the G League as well, but you did not experience a bubble situation with the G League. You did, however, play in the TBT tournament, which I know was a

bubble variation to a certain extent. But thinking about this setting, thinking about this Bluecoats team, their rooms are all near each other, They from what we've heard, sometimes bring their desk chairs and sit socially distant apart outside just to talk to each other. What did you think the chemistry, the development of team chemistry was going to be like, and how have you seen it develop with this group. Yeah.

I always thought that the team that developed the best chemistry in this little short stint was gonna win, you know, and win at a high rate. And I think that we've been one of those teams. Like you said, the guys pull their chairs out and kind of like this old school sitting on the porch, yelling across the way to each other and hanging out. But they also, like I said, they also have some tough conversations with each other and tough conversations with us as a coaching staff.

And they are a good group because they've been able to respond to that. You know, every good team, every team in general, but especially every good team goes through something and they come out better. And I think that that could be the case for us. It definitely has

the right fixings for it to look like that. I think it also shows as we wrap up here in just one second, a little bit longer today, but we'll have more players shortly on the show this season, and one of those guys I'm going to talk about here in a second but I think it also shows how badly that the players on the Delaware this year want

to win. There's that dynamic of a lot of guys have been called up already, trying to get that NBA call up, because that's the dream, trying to do things on the court that help you get that NBA call up. But it seems like the Bluecoats have a lot of winners on this team that have a winning mindset, and that goes into how they came together to get back

in the win column. But when I say we're gonna have more players on Jared Brownridge as a friend of the show, he's been on a few times, very dynamic personality, fan favorite. You and him are both knocked down shooters. We talked on the last episode, you and I about how many threes you made in your career, how many threes he's made in his career. So when we talked to Jared, let's get your side of the story first to set that up, because you guys have a little

competition going on in practice here. Yeah, you know, we sometimes it's only been twice, but we've we've we've shot against each other, and the first time I was beating him pretty bad. I think that he'll tell the truth about that, but I kind of let go of the rope and I got a little tired at the end of it, and he came back and barely won. And so we might have been a few days ago. Actually

it was a day before the night game. You know, we got back in there and I'll beat him pretty good, and so he's been trying to get me to play again. But you know, me and Jared brown Ridge being tied at this juncture, I think that I'm just gonna call it a day and not play him again because it feels more like a win for me and a loss

for him. So I'm gonna keep it there. One other thing that I just thought of before we get out of here is that same day there was some half court shooting at practice with the players, and you often see that with college and pro basketball teams as like a lighter thing to do. What are some of the things you remember from your playing career that coaches would have you do in practice to lighten the mood, or if it was those half court shooting competitions, how did

you do in them? What was what was your what are your memories of those types of things. It's always you're right. You know, a lot of college and pro you do that at the end of practice. You know, you shoot half court shots and compete against each other. And I just was never like I was never good at it. Like I was really good shooter, but I don't even remember my whole career like making one and winning that that deal and I did it a lot. So you know, I stayed away from half course shots

I may want in high school. In the playoff game once but we were down for and we lost. I lost by one. I lost by one and him a half course shot and I jumped into the guy and he fouled me. Still to this day, I'll say he fouled me, and I made this shot and they didn't call the foul to give me the chance to tie it to go to overturn. Wow. Well, I didn't mean to bring that up at the end, But good story a lot, Thanks a lot, Thanks again. We'll check in

again soon. That's Blue Coats assistant coach and our Bubble correspondent joining me and helping me tell the stories from the twenty twenty one Nbag League Bubble, Xavier Silas. Thanks again to Exavier Silas. As always Matt Murphy and until next time, take it or leave it at the coach check