manage, Mark, that retention piece of those conversations? Obviously, with Malachi Moreno as an example, I mean, where there's certain guys maybe you want back, certain guys maybe you can't afford to have back, while also thinking, okay, what are we going to have left in that pool when the portal and the NBA draft comes at us?

Well, Malachi was, you know, we've talked about this publicly.

Malachi was priority number one.

You know, not only is his growth potential elite, not only is, you know, right now you're seeing the biggest payoff is we kind of do all of our deep dives analytically and roster construction wise, which Keegan Brown's done a tremendous job, like digging into the data.

it's these bookends, man.

It's these lead guards and the bigs.

They're the most expensive players.

What were you thinking in sort of adding these significant names to your coaching roster?

How about that?

No, no.

I hear you loud and clear.

And that's what we work on.

We work on helping good, strong Republican candidates.

And in fact, we're going to we're looking at some measures coming up in the new year.

Not not to be to be a little more selective in giving an endorsement to a candidate because we want the best results.

How do people find out more about this event? Is there a website or something they can do? Call

Mm-hmm.

And learning to play our way.

Um, you know, Alex was more of a pop rule guy, which is a quick decision ball movement guy, although the ball was in his hands a lot.

Zoom, the way he played last year was much more of like a pound the ball until I work my way to an assist player.

And so both those guys are not just adjusting to play with each other, but they're adjusting to play my style, style of play, our style of play.

And what's been fun is it's opening up a new vision for the game for both these guys that they're really enjoying.

We take two step forward and one step back.

Yeah

How do you deal with it?

Well, I mean, we're dealing with uncertainty all around.

And so everybody's guessing, doing the best they can, being as competitive as they possibly can, trying to find every legal means to make their roster and their team as competitive as possible.

What's been so encouraging to me, I'm telling you, so encouraging to me over the last two weeks And we actually haven't been the beneficiaries of it.

It's hurt us a little bit.

But for the first time, we've seen the president stand up and empower Greg to be bold and actually get us to a place where there's clarity.

I'm super proud of Greg.

Well, we're doing media madness,

Was there anything you saw that maybe didn't work last year with the team that when you put this roster together, you said, I want to make sure I get that?

Well, yes.

I mean, this whole – and we've talked about it a lot publicly over the last couple of months.

But this whole vibe of having more creators on the floor is really important to us.

And we could get deep, deep into the weeds on that.

Yeah.

where we have more guys that are capable of actually creating shots for themselves and creating shots for teammates that are causing power plays on the floor.

Do you look back and say, I was overestimating the team or it just really didn't have a chance after Lowe got hurt? Like, how do you look at when you evaluate yourself last year's thing?

What, um, what's your biggest concern with this group? Is it, is it defense?

Well, probably for me right now, you know, everybody in college basketball has gotten so big and physical.

You know, courtesy of Michigan and Arizona, everybody now is ch- and, and Duke a little bit, everybody is chasing that like crazy.

Everybody's got so big and so physical, and that's not us right now.

We are long and fast and skilled, which is the teams that I love to coach.

Uh, you know, we have one of those teams, I, I've, you know, I've been blessed, you know, especially on the offensive side of this ball where you just get 15 minutes into the game and, and you have coaches on the other end throwing clipboards in the air because you chase dudes around for, you know, 17 seconds and, and, and still didn't get it done.

You know, we have that type of team.

Off.

You want Ryan and I to play?

No, no. Ryan, listen, I know you, I know you've been dealing with a lot of stuff.

This is five and a half weeks headway for some level of participation.

I'm pushing the whole crew.

Like, you think about this team, you think about roster construction right now.

We'll see how everybody's schedule works, but I, f- since you called, and since you take the time to reach out, I will play.

You guys are awesome.

And this is what I'm looking for, 'cause this is actually so fun for us, too.

... last year's thing?

Um, no.

I feel the same way about the roster as I did before the season.

We just didn't get to see it, you know? It's just a hard ...

That's ...

Listen, I wish there was a better answer than that, but we just didn't get to see it.

You know, we, we, you know, you, you, you don't get, you don't get Jaylen.

Yeah.

Can you reveal a little bit of what's on the schedule, what you all plan on doing there?

Yeah.

Uh, so, uh, we're, we're gonna have early morning practices.

We're gonna get after it really, really hard, uh, at a great facility.

It's gonna be a great venue.

Um, we're gonna connect with all of our guys.

One of the great things about Summer League is not just all of our guys playing in Summer League, but all the NBA vets come back.

... is there any re-

... last year's thing?

Um, no.

I feel the same way about the roster as I did before the season.

We just didn't get to see it, you know? It's just a hard ...

That's ...

Listen, I wish there was a better answer than that, but we just didn't get to see it.

You know, we, we ...

Yeah.

What type of a jump do you think he could make next season?

I think he has the potential to make a massive jump.

I, I really do.

You know, he, he was, he, he was so solid for us last year.

You know, every, uh, freshman player, especially freshman bigs that are carrying the load that he was carrying last year, where we didn't, you know, we didn't do a lot for him.

There were not a lot of ways where we made the game much easier for him, and still, he kind of came every single night and, and, and, and put together a good performance.

There was a little bit of fatigue towards the end of the season, which is incredibly understandable.

Why is he going to be such, such a perfect fit in your system?

All right.

It, it, it's going to be, it's gonna be epic.

And, and the, the whole thinking behind it is, is the, the only bad thing about Kentucky basketball is that Rupp only holds around 20,000 people.

And so those, those tickets were gone in 29 minutes.

It just doesn't seem fair.

And so until we, until we expand out Rupp to 100,000, we're gonna take all the opportunities we can to, um, to, to, to see fans interact with BBN.

Like, this is our family, man, so this should be a family day.

Of course.

How do you find great players or very good players who are great people, and that many of them?

Well, I'll tell you what, the, the portal is, it gives you a huge advantage over recruiting high school, because you have data from college.

You have film running, like elite-level sets against elite-level defense, doing it over and over and over again.

You're recruiting guys that aren't just trying to learn the college game, they're trying to fine-tune the college game.

So, so finding the right talent, especially for us, because we play a unique style.

We're very, very slanted towards a pro-style with a ton of movement away from the ball.

And so because our style of play, um, it's almost easiest for, to go pick out those guys that actually have the skill set that translate to what we do.

But, but (laughs) is there any data or intel to explain the BBN? How do you explain the BBN to any of the guys coming in?