Coach more will take questions about general manager things. Use your hand, raise you ten for questions as usual. All right, coach Floorsiers.
Yeah, I guess the welcome everybody, and thank you for being on the on the on the zoom today.
I really appreciate your time. What we wanted to do is talk about the.
Recruiting and where we're going right now from this point as we try to fill out the back end of our roster. Coach Hurley is is very excited about the ten guys that we have in the fold right now. Really loves the makeup of the ten guys, how everything is fallen to this point, both with the ink, the freshman incoming, the transfers incoming, and the guys that we have returning. He likes how the pieces fit and how
the roster has been put together. We're really trying to be strategic and creative with how we put together the.
Rest of the roster.
We are targeting probably fourteen fifteen roster spots, and you know, we'll be looking basically for depth at every position with these last four or five spots on the roster. Obviously a third string center is something will be will be targeting. We looking for another wing, another combo guard, possibly a combo forward.
But we're trying.
To be as strategic in this new age of potential revenue sharing with finding people who are maybe overlooked in the high school ranked foreign players and then maybe under recruited transfers that is still in the portal.
So with that said, they don't put it up to questions.
David and Joe.
Yeah, Tom, how tricky is it to bring in those type of players you just mentioned to kind of fill out the roster when you know, like you said, you guys are really happy with kind of the ten guys you got now, I know, the backup kind of center guy will sort of be number eleven, I would assume.
But to bring in guys who it would seem both parties would kind of probably understand there wouldn't be a whole lot of playing kind of at least first right off the bat, How do you kind of sell that to some of these guys, or I mean, is that an accurate statement to say what they probably You're probably looking for guys who are more or less not going to play too much this year.
You hate to really limit somebody like that, Dave, Like right out of the Chuot. You hope that you see something in them where that if things break correctly for the for that person, that they'd be able to find a role. Sometimes, unfortunately things like that happen with an injury, and you don't you don't ever want that, obviously.
But.
You know, we're looking at these guys as potential people to help us, initially to your point, in practice to make sure we have a high level practice on a day in and day out basis, but then also potentially helping us down the roads as upside guys, as somebody who could maybe hit for us in year two or
year three. That was one of the things that hurt us a little bit this year is we were a little thin in terms of the depth past our top nine or so, and especially in the five week period where Liam was out of games and practices it it didn't allow us to give a lot of practice reps off from our heavy minute guys. So has had a lot of minutes and Taris had a lot of reps and Alex in particular had a lot.
Of reps during that time.
And we're hopeful that if we can get this thing to fourteen or fifteen with really athletic and and some you know, bring some athleticism and some length and some you know energy into that. It can it could help alleviate some of the high minute guys too as well and eliminate some of the wear and tear that they accrue during the course of the season.
When you say the fourteen fifteen, I know the limit is most likely going to get up to fifteen this year. You're talking about scholarship guys, Well, you're not talking about walk on.
Yeah, it'll be I think it'll either be thirteen scholarships or you know, depending on what the settlement settles on roster size, it.
Could get up to fifteen.
But yeah, and even in the walk on spots, Dave, you're always trying to that's a huge challenge, but you're always trying to find someone who athletically and competitively can like not only add to your practices, but also be well liked and respected in the locker room too as well.
Mch Hey, Tom is my mic working this time?
Yep? I can hear you.
John.
When we talked to Dan right after the season ended, he seemed, you know, he seemed really unsure about how many players he was going to be able to bring back and retain. Do you feel like you guys did as you were expecting with retaining players and how that went, and then also just going into the portal now how I guess I'll just go with that one first.
Yeah, I'd say Joe ovally happy with who came back. I don't think we could have scripted it any better in terms of the return and guys that we would have wanted back. I mean, if you just said, you know which, right, which?
What do we have five coming back?
Solo Stewie, Alex, Jay Ross and Taris like that, that would have been exactly how we would have wanted it to unfold. So we're thrilled with those guys coming back. Not only are they terrific players, but they're terrific kids, and they've they've tasted winning all but uh, the Tariffs has a national championship here, so that that culture stays
tight and that that winning attitude stays tight. And so yeah, we're thrilled with thrilled that they saw enough in us, and they saw enough and and what was going on here too, uh and and how special place Yukon is that they wanted to come back.
And when you when you went into the portal. It seemed like you got kind of the main priorities out of the way pretty early. I guess I wonder about the NIL aspect of it with those guys. Was that really not much of a factor with them, And how difficult is it to navigate that with all the rules that could be changing or could not be changing, or whatever whatever's going on.
The n i L aspect to what guys Joe, which which guys are returning guys to?
Yeah, the returning guys, and then just getting those two guards off the portal, Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, Well n i L is a huge part of it of every decision right now, the incoming freshmen, the transfers, and the returning players. This was really the first off season where it because of revenue sharing, everybody will be contracted next year if the rev sharing settlement goes through like everyone expects it too, it'll be contracted
by the athletic department. So this was a fascinating recruiting spring, I'd say because because of that and the discussion just you know, having the n i L be not at the forefront of every discussion, but but a part of
every discussion. With with kids, it adds another layer obviously to our decision, you know, on on on how we want the roster to look, but also every every recruits decision too, Every recruit and his family have to make a make a value judgment on on how much is is n I L opportunity going to impact how I you know, which way I want to go.
So it's it's.
Certainly tricky, and it's like I said, it's just another element that you have to navigate. And you know, Joe, you have to navigate it well too, right, You have to do your research, you have to have a lot of communication you have as a staff, and then you have to also have a lot of communication with your athletic department.
Now and I can't.
Say enough of how supportive Dave Benedict and Jason Beattiekofer have been when it comes to that. We're we're we're discussing cruits with them on a daily, if not hourly basis at times, and they've been tremendously supportive as well. We're gonna go Mike then Mark, Hey, Tom, Mike, how are you good?
How you doing good? What's that hat you get on? We used? Oh?
Okay, Pinehurst, I went and spread the ball all over that place last last year.
I was going to say, I didn't expect you to take that down that track down, So no, no.
I'm not ready for that. I'm not ready to do that.
That's fine.
I just wanted to pick your brain on like the wild nature of working in college athletics and you know you have this unique position within a with an elite program. Could you go into a little bit more about just the scope of your job year round? Obviously a lot of today's discussion is very specific to roster building, but you know the rev share angle. You you're kind of at the intersection of basketball and business, it seems in
a lot of ways. Just wondering how in this role you you hope to distinguish yourself and if you could just explain all that's packed into it.
Some of it.
Yeah, good question, multi layered question.
I've been I've been spending probably half of my time in an assistant coaching role, in probably half my time in a quasi GM position over the last three years. Dan and I really saw we like to say, I think we saw the need to it.
It sort of smacked us all.
In the face at the spring in the spring of twenty twenty two when Tyreese Martin and RJ. Cole had another year left of eligibility, but the r NIL wasn't really a thing in the twenty one to twenty two season, so they really didn't make any money off NIL, any any sizeable amount of money, and they both turned down and opportunity to come back because they had to just start earning money as as as basketball players, because they only have a finite amount of years all of these
kids in order to you know, earn money. So it was then when I think Dan and me and Kamani and Luke at the time were just like, we have to start doing something with this. So my job in the last couple of years has really been about donor outreach and donor education to try to get our collective to help in any way that I could get the collective up and running and operational and flourishing. And it's
been mostly a fundraising job for me. In the GM aspects of it, there are a lot of different ways people are using the position, and some of you guys on the call have have probably seen some colleges are going with an NBA general manager or assistant general manager. I know Cincinnati has done that. LSU has done that. Recently, North Carolina hired an agent as you know, Saint Bonaventure
hired Woje. There's other places. NC State recently hired a recruiting uh guy from the NBA who was a scout in the NBA but used to be a sort of a high school grassroots recruiting expert. You can, you can use the position in a lot of different ways. And I think uh Dan is so smart and and so calculated and so ahead of the curve that he's got a lot of things on his mind with how he thinks this thing can look as we go forward. He and I have talked quite a bit about how it will be best served here.
At Yukon and and what the role will look like.
And we're trying to make sure we figure out that am I is this something that that fits me the best?
Too? And am I am I the best person for it? You know, to be honest with you, So right.
Now, the thing here entails a lot of fundraising, donor outreach, a lot of scheduling, game scheduling, both high major games in the by games, some roster you know, roster sort of construction, a lot of talk between the athletic you know, a sort of a goal between between our staff and the athletic department. It's sort of a catch all, and I think Dan and I are thinking about the position as we sort of go through it and what we think is essential and what we think isn't.
One of the fascinating parts of it is.
Trying to figure out, you know, is the generalman like in some places, what they're doing with this thing is the general managers are starting to run it or trying to run it like a pro sports organization where their office is also responsible for bringing in the talent and basically the coaching staff is tasked with coaching the talent that's brought in. Now that that is not the way
it's gonna look here. You know, obviously with Dan Hurley, who's I think one of the best evaluators of talent and one of the best constructor you know, roster construction head coaches I've ever seen, and then with two recruiting assistants like Kamani Young and Luke Murray, I mean that that thing is is on lock, so we don't have
to really worry about that. So you know, we're looking at it from a different angle and a different lens right now where we sort of see the position as a it's more of a like I said, a donor education, a donor outreach, game scheduling, uh, dealings with the Big East Conference on day to day issues there, and then some oversight in our own basketball support staff, working with our strength coach and trainer and medical team and academics
and sports information. And although Bobby's tough, I mean I I can't really I can't really control Bobby. He's he's tough for me to handle. He's tough because of the Mets. He brings up the Mets all the time now that they are on a roll. So uh, it's it's hard to hard to get.
Him get them back.
Sorry did you say my name?
But anyway, So yeah, that's that's the thing, Mike.
It's it's sort of evolving and it's it's it's something that again Dan and I are sort of discussing, feels like, on a weekly basis on how we want the thing to look.
Yeah, excellent, thanks for sharing all.
That, No problem, Hey, Tom Marcseno Biggie s Energy. Considering Yukon's multifaceted recruiting strategy, are you guys exploring the possibility of targeting players currently in the NBA draft process who may withdraw and return to college, and how does that potential avenue fit into what you discussed today for finalizing the roster.
H good question, Mark, No, I don't I don't see that anymore.
We we've.
Uh, those young men that are in still in the draft process and make them back to college will probably command an extremely high nil value and we're not We're not in that in that market anymore for the rest of this you know, twenty five, twenty six rosters.
So these these.
Guys, I think our fans need to understand, uh, these next four or five people that we bring in uh. And I've been thinking a lot about this this weekend in advance to this call. They're going to look drastically different than maybe any other recruits that have come through Yukon in the terms of who they're being recruited by
and what their profile is it. You know, you can make a case that pretty much every kid who's come in on scholarship in the last thirty forty years has been probably recruited by a lot of high major schools, and it's been an intense recruiting battle for us to try to win. Even for the guys who ended up falling into eleven, twelve or thirteenth man role and only lasting a year or two and then transfer on the way in, it was a fight.
Now, what we're seeing is a lot of the.
High major schools who pretty much have their roster set in terms of the finances after eight, nine or ten, guys have to really get creative with how they want.
The bottom of the roster to look.
So the profile coming in of these next three or four guys may be really different than the profile of.
Guys we've had over the years.
So I don't expect, you know, for us to bring in somebody who's put his name in the draft process right now. That would be a huge splash. And that's not where where we're looking right now.
Thanks, thank you, Tom.
No problem, Mark, We'll go uh a few more quick ones.
See Anthony Jaden.
Eric wrap it up, Hey, coach, tell you Tom. Question for you talking a lot about roster construction, but in terms of roster management, what happened with Darius Adams. Are we going to see more players? Are we gonna see fewer freshmen that actually get a lot of playing time unless they're want and done.
That's a that's a great question to Anthony it boy.
I mean when I speak on this, I'm speaking for Ukon, so I don't really want to speak for high.
Made all speak for coaches in general.
But the way we see it, it does feel like, well, we we may get away from bringing in huge freshman classes. I think the uh Dan and Luther mclinny fee like they're gonna targeting probably a few more elite high school prospects that have the potential to be one and done and maybe less guys that will, you know, fill out a class so we can sort of reevaluate at the end of a year and maybe take one extra transfer.
So to your point, yeah, I mean I think you may see us go all in on a one and done or a few one and dons guys that we see immediate impact guys, because let's face it, anyone who's an immediate impact guy at at at a Yukon as a freshman is probably going to be considered a one and done type of player, like Steph and like Liam and what Donovan could have done.
You know, a couple of years ago.
So yeah, I see us taking swing is that a few more of those guys and trying to land one and maybe not extending the classes deep year in and year out as we have in the last couple classes. So just because it seems like the portal and having roster flexibility in the spring is more important than being overloaded with numbers in an incoming freshman class.
And just to just a quick follow up, how do you manage expectations of these players? Because all of them are very talented players, how do you manage those expectations? I know that goes over to Coach Hurley's job, but how do you manage them because you're helping bring them in the front door, so to speak.
Yeah, coach does a great job of being honest.
I've never been around to you know, anyone who's gets the heart of a matter with a recruit as well as he does, and as tactfully as he does, and as honestly as he does. He has very specific ideas in mind as to how he wants the rush to look and how he wants to use each of these roster spots. So when he's sitting in front of a kid and his parents, he's telling them exactly how he
sees the young man fitting. What can be tricky is is you know, you're trying to secure a commitment from a high school kid in June, July, August, September of their senior year, and you have to project what the roster is going to look like in the spring after a season, and that can be tricky because when we're sitting there talking to them in August to September and we're trying to secure the commitment, we have an idea in mind as to how all of our returning players
are going to play, and it's always generally positive that it's going to be an upward trajectory for all of them. This year, what happened in a couple of spots is guys didn't progress like we thought and maybe weren't what we thought, and they ended up transferring. And now we have two open spots that we have to three open spots that we have to now go get in the portal that we didn't anticipate having to get when we were talking to these kids last July and August.
So it does become tricky.
You need people who are who are in it for like I said, not L I L, not nil centric, not just bottom line dollar highest dollar amount centric and people who are understanding that the roster may look one way in July and August, and then it's going to look different depending on how kids do during the year in March and April.
Thank you, no problem, Tony, Tom.
How are you my friends good?
What's up? Jaden?
Nothing much? Not the much question for you now going into this role full time after coming off the road and being an assistant and doing double duty for the last couple of years. How's the transition process been for you the past couple of weeks month or so since the season ended and Mike Narty came up on board, And also to follow up, how much of a role of you played with integrating Mic into the.
It's been It's it's been interesting, still trying to figure it out, and I'm still trying to get comfortable with it. It's I'm trying to find that the challenges and and and then get excited about the challenges and uh, it's much more right now. Uh, Jayden, I'm heavily invested in working out the buy games on the non conference schedule and finalizing some of the other games in the in
the non conference schedule. We're finishing up all the nil commitments to the guys on the twenty four to twenty five roster and working through with agents and compact guys in the twenty five twenty six roster. Trying again to get better at everything, trying to grow, trying to expand, and it's been uh it's not as much uh time with with Dan Camani.
Luke and and Mike around.
The conference table as it is, you know, being in my office and and doing other work, you know, more as an individual. So I'm I'm getting used to that. I see them in the morning, I see them throughout the day, I see them at night. We talk constantly. I'm through there all the time. But it's it's a different perspective for sure. I haven't had a chance yet with Mike. He's been here like a week. I haven't had a chance yet with Mike to like really sit down and go over a lot of stuff. But I
plan to and will very soon. But I'm excited about his addition to the staff. I think he's been someone who everyone in our organization has always held in really really high esteem since he was running around for Kevin Boyle at Saint Patrick's as a player and throughout his college playing career, and then every interaction we've had with him as on the road and when we've played Villanova as an assistant coach has been nothing but first class
and professionals. So we think he's going to bring a lot to the table.
Sounds good.
Thanks, So I'm always pleasure.
Same, Jaden, Tom, Eric Dobrats.
How are you, Bud?
What's up?
Eric?
Hey?
Quick question for you? How hard was it to give up the whistle? We all know you for being on the sidelines, you know, on the bench. You've been a coach your whole life. I mean, I'm sure your family was involved. Like, just take me through the process if you could have of walking away from being a coach something you've known your whole life.
Yeah, it's interesting, Eric, It's it's sort of.
You know, the last couple of years.
As I've been doing both, Dan and I have talked a lot about like should I just commit totally to one? And the one I was leaning to that seemed to sort of demand or demand more of my attention was the GM duties. So it hasn't been a drastic cut off, you know, emotionally for me, where it's just like all of a sudden it's over. It's been something that I've been gradually weaned off in the last couple of years.
So I think with Dan being such a strong head coach in all aspects of the head coach seat and what a great job he does on a day in and day out basis, and then having Kamani and Luke also there, I mean, you have is the best three person combination you could have in those three spots in the country. So it allowed me to feel pretty good about committing more of my time and energies towards the GM thing. So I was as you as you said. I was at every practice, I was on the bench
every game. You know, I was still you know, I felt okay with putting my focus and my energies on the GM duties. So it's been okay. Yeah, it's been all right. It's been something that I think is uh is bad in a way, but it's also the same time and it's I'm blessed to be a part to be back here at Yukon, you know, and have it come full circle because the place means so much to me, so.
Thank you.
I think Mike had one last one and then We'll let Tom go back to time. The Rangers play already an action coach.
We scored more than one run today, Bobby, so the gram was on the hill too, so.
That's more run support than he's used to. Yes, were Rangers over the marriage right now?
Okay, yeah, it was.
It was six to one when I when I jumped on here. So we haven't scored six runs in about three weeks total, so we'll take it.
Actually, Tom, the question I had remaining was just pretty much asked by Eric, So I don't I don't need to bug you too much.
I am curious.
Where will you be during games now?
I'm not sure yet.
I'm not sure, and I have there's a couple more things we probably will discuss over the course of the summer because we're both sort of exchanging ideas and and and to see where what he wants it to look like, you know exactly what he wants it to look like. There's there's a lot of ways that you know, there's there's a lot.
Of ways we can go with the thing.
So well, there's still some questions out there that that remain to be like sort of work through, but we'll get there.