HC Dennis Hutter, G Mackenzie Hughes and C Walker Demers speak to the media following the 65-45 win over Wyoming
#UNDproud | #LGH
Just uh proud of our kids tonight. Really proud of the way they finished it out. We’ve been here been here before a couple times and hadn’t been able to find a way to make enough winning plays down the stretch in a couple of other games and you know something that we’ve talked a lot about with our team in regards to making winning plays down the stretch which is taking care of the ball, defending, rebounding, making shots you’re supposed to make. I thought tonight they did a great job of that. I thought the defensive effort for the full 40 minutes was really, really good. I thought they really dug in, really got after it. Made it tough for them to do a lot of the things that they were trying to do. and uh just really proud of the way that they’re able to find a way to finish this thing out and get a win. A win I feel like that that’s uh welldeserved for them. Yeah. And congratulations by the way that that first career win here. Um you know what in terms of just the the macro level of it? What do you feel like went into, you know, the first win as a head coach here? Well, I think everything goes into it. I mean it’s it’s you don’t just win on game day in my opinion. You know, you win and everything up leading up to game day. And so preparation obviously then we use trust the process a lot in our program and you know as soon as you start skipping steps in the process and you start what we would say not honoring the game and not honoring the process is when you kind of struggle. So just kind of trusting the process day in and day out and like I like I challenge the kids with like it’s not always going to go your way. So just getting them to to buy into the way that we want to do things, how we want to play, how we want to be, what kind of a team we want to be. You heard Walker use the word connection a couple times. That’s a big big word in our program. We want to be a connected team from player one to player 16. And whether we’re on the floor, off the floor, we want to be a connected team in the locker room and a connected team out of the locker room. And so all of those things on a macro level to me are what gets you to game day. And then obviously when you get to game day, then you got to find a way to put it all together. And then the physical skills of playing basketball kind of come into play. But to me, I don’t think you can be a championship team on the floor if you’re not a championship team in a locker room. And that’s something we really focus on. And then for you, anything, you know, from that first year as an associate here, um, you know, compared to Mayville State, you know, um, was there anything from that first year as an associate that sticks out, you know, when you look at these first five games thinking, oh, like I didn’t really, you know, take that into consideration as much or that stuck out to you to you, you know, just as much as it did, you know, the first five games? Well, I learned a lot last year. I really did. Obviously, going from maybe at the NI level to here, I I did. I learned a lot. Coach Mal taught me an awful lot um about what it takes to kind of compete at this level and what it takes to be successful at this level. And so that’s something that I’m very grateful for uh for that year that I had last year. One of the things I said in my press conference that I that I really truly mean is the game is the game though. I mean teaching the game and coaching the game is is coaching the game and teaching the game. And motivating players is motivating players. whether we’re at Mayville State or whether we’re at UND, um there’s still 18 to 22 year olds who have a desire to be a part of something bigger than themselves and want to be challenged every day by coaches that love them and care about them. And I feel like that’s how we did it at Mayville State. That’s how we’re going to do it here. And um I’m proud of the way that they kind of stayed together. And so last year, you know, we we worked through some things last year that kind of we had to navigate through just like we kind of did this year. What I’m most proud of this year is they stayed together. They really truly stayed together and you could see that for the full 40 minutes as we were playing tonight. And then, you know, today specifically, what did you like about the look you guys were given defensively? And, you know, obviously it worked out well. You guys were able to shut down. Thought we guarded with a tremendous amount of toughness. I mean, we take pride in that. I mean, we have guys that show up here every day and we kind of beat on them a little bit and they they walk away kind of limping around a little bit and have some soreness on their bodies because we guard. I mean, we want to guard hard. We want to guard physical. We want to rebound the ball. Um, we like to dictate kind of how we want things to go. Tonight it was like really really working hard at pressuring the ball and trying to take them out of stuff that they’re trying to do. Um, and we talk a lot about it. I mean, if championship teams defend. They do. They defend and they rebound. They truly do. Um, and it can’t just be, you know, a situation where you’re going to compete conveniently, you know, you need to compete consistently. And defensively, you can compete consistently for 40 minutes. I thought we did that today. We had a couple of breakdowns a little bit. I thought fatigue factored in. We let some kids run probably a little bit longer than we probably should have. Um but ultimately I thought overall I thought we defended with great toughness tonight. And then offensively too um you know they come away with with 14 steals. Um you know a couple of breakdowns there like you said where you know it’s just unforced errors. But in terms of determination in that sense battling through that to not let that get out of hand at least on the defensive side of things. You know what did you like about that? and and then in terms of battling through that on offense and and stick tuitiveness and just being able to fight through it. Taking care of the ball, I mean, is again, I hate to keep using championship teams, but good teams take care of the ball. They just don’t turn it over. I mean, we’re a good defensive team, but we don’t want to have to show that as much as we do, obviously, by by turning the ball over. So, we do have to value the ball. We talk a lot about that, and we got to find a way to we just call it tighten the screws a little bit offensively by taking care of the ball, having a little bit more shurnness with the ball. Um, you could see when we do, I think we get good looks. Walker had great looks on the block tonight and eventually we went down there enough in the third quarter that you could see things on the perimeter started to open up a little bit more. We were able to knock down some shots. We’ve been struggling to shoot a little bit. I think we’re four for nine behind the arc in the second half and that obviously does make a big difference because it does make teams come out a little bit more which opens up the block just a little bit more. So, but we do have to value the ball. I mean, we’re we’re scoring points and we’re turning it over. And if we can limit those turnovers, I think we can score more. And I really think that this team can guard. I really do. We just have to be able to value the ball offensively so we can make shots and obviously, you know, take care of the ball. If you’re ahead, it keeps you ahead. Obviously, if you’re behind, it allows you to come back. And then lastly here, you know, you you’ve been a a head coach in basketball for a long time, but you know, how interesting is it maybe now to go through and and have a first again and and be able to kind of start that process over? And, you know, what sticks out from your first win at Mayville State compared to your first win here? Goodness gracious, I can hardly remember what I did last week, let alone what I did that long ago. You’re going to make me think back. Listen, this is all about the kids. I’m not going to lie to you. It what I learned through this stretch with us right here is that when you stay connected and you stay together as a team, okay, you’ll eventually work your way through it. You know, that’s what I try to challenge them with. There are days that I come in and I’m hard on them because I believe they’re fracturing and then there’s days that they’re together and you’re putting your arm around them telling them that’s the way to go. Um, to me, what I’m proud of with this group is that they stayed together and that, you know, a lot of teams might have fractured. We all have a great phrase in our program. We say, “If you want to go see a team, go see a team that’s lost four games in a row. You’ll find out if they’re really a team.” Okay? And I felt like while we were working through this stretch, we were staying together. That’s a testament to our leadership. It truly is a testament to Kenzie, uh, to Walker, to Michaela, to Skyler, the kids that we asked to lead this group. That is a testament to them, um, keeping this team connected as we work through it and obviously getting to this point today. You know, it’s been a great experience so far. I’ve had him for obviously the last three years um going on my fourth. So, we’ve developed a great relationship since my freshman year. You probably would not believe that I’m the same person or that he’s the same person since that age. Um but it really is special that I get to do it with him. We both came from Mabel State um and NAI school. So, just moving to this division and getting to um have that first win together is super special. And then, you know, for this team and and for you, especially tonight, too, um, you know, really disciplined at the line and, you know, being able to come up with those those key points there, what have you guys worked on as a team to kind of just make sure that that stays consistent and, you know, from the free throw line, you know, it’s been really consistent for you this year? Um, one of our one of our goals for every game is to win the free throw game. So, we do shoot um a lot of free throws at practice. Um, but yeah, that’s like a big spot for us. Um, we play hard. We played, we attack downhill, so that’s obviously part of our game. Um, trying to get to the line. So, we feel pretty confident and that’s just why we keep going down and going up strong. And then, you know, obviously pretty unique atmosphere today. Um, did you like it? Did you not like it? Did you feel like it? You know, I I can’t say I’ve ever been in a gym that loud, honestly. Um, they were loud when there was only like three schools there and they were all chanting UND. So, I was just very interested to see what it was going to sound like when all the schools were there. But when we came out for starting lineups, it was awesome. It was an awesome atmosphere. I hope that they had a great time at the game cuz I know that we all really enjoyed it. Yeah. Um I think we talk about all the time, winning is hard. It’s not something that you can take lightly. And I think um I’m just really proud of the team I’m with and the fact that we keep we kept persevering through challenges. We never stopped working. Um we were doing extra shooting workouts in the gym and we really stuck together. So, I think that that’s what brought the win today. And then today specifically, you know, you got, you know, obviously you get seven points pretty quickly there and then it it kind of shut down a little bit in terms of both sides. It was pretty defensively based there, but um you know, what were they just giving you lookswise that, you know, maybe stifled you guys a little bit? They had, you know, like 14 something steals, something like that, but um you guys were able to push through it. Where did you just feel like you guys were able to to push through offensively there? Yeah, I just think about, you know, practice and the way practices are laid out. Um, we’ve really been focusing on finishing a game and putting four quarters together and I think we were able to do that today. So, that’s what helped us. And then, yeah, specifically with that, the fourth quarter it was, you know, finally you guys were able to just finish some of those plays and it, you know, increase the score there. Um, you know, what in terms of as a team, you know, what did you like from from the rest of your teammates in terms of, you know, being able to to be there for you, especially seemed like you had a pretty couple good assists there in the third quarter. And then, um, you know, just being able to, like you said, finish out a game. What What did you feel like everybody else brought to the to the table? Yeah, I feel like it was pure determination. And I mean, obviously, we’ve talked about this for a while and um we definitely came out there with a different look defensively and we wanted to get stops and offense came along with it. And I think it always starts on defense and the connection that we had on defense led us to having a connection on offense, too. And um super proud of those
