“He’s a DIFFERENT human being” Dan Hurley Interview | Gary Parrish Show

“He’s a DIFFERENT human being” Dan Hurley Interview | Gary Parrish Show

um just let’s start here what are the Grizzlies getting and the young man who helped you win a second straight national championship earlier this year yeah GP we were you know thinking it it might ended up being two uh uh but um yeah I mean cam is uh Cam’s just he’s he’s he’s different uh he’s just he he’s built different uh just the the the the mental makeup the the you know the the competitiveness this like the the the the commitment to uh to ball uh you know the the the commitment that that he makes to uh being a great player and and to becoming an NBA player that’s gonna it’s going to help the the Memphis Grizzlies I mean the sick part about cam is that if you and he’ll tell you the truth because when you talk to him but um like he’s part of him is thrilled uh that he was picked by Memphis uh and that he’s going to have an opportunity with a great organization but part of him is probably also pissed that he didn’t get picked with their first pick in the second round or ninth pick he’s just a different human being when did you realize that about him obviously when you’re recruiting him out of the transfer portal the shooting stuff is you can just look at anything on Synergy look at the numbers that’s all there when did you know you were getting somebody that had a a mentality you can appreciate so he I think um you know GP when I first talked to him when he went in the portal literally that night or the next day you know I called him for that kind of you know that that routine introductory recruit to coach call that generally takes 12 minutes you know and I looked down at the phone and I think it first time I looked at it it might have said 42 minutes and then I think the call might have wrapped up after after you know an hour plus conversation um where just uh two PS and a pod man like just uh just felt that that connection where to share the passion for the game this you know this just incredible competitiveness and just thirst and obsession with basketball you know I mentioned at the top a lot of people leading into the draft um had projected the Grizzlies to end up with a Yukon husky it just uh was Donovan kingan instead of Cam Spencer obviously um Donovan wasn’t available at number nine he go off the board earlier to Portland can you separate fact from fiction how interested were the Grizzlies uh in Donovan kingan from your perspective yeah they were definitely interested and um when it got to picks you know five and six I think uh obviously with uh you know with Donovan’s representation at the table there was a lot of chatter and a lot of text messages and a lot of you know hey I I uh you know somebody’s trying to trade whether that was you know Memphis or or or Chicago or even Portland to try to trade up to make sure they didn’t uh you know lose Donovan so I think once it got to uh once it got past the first pick uh then once it got to five and six there was a lot of chatter uh and then once it obviously got the seven you knew that Portland wasn’t going to trade it um you know I mentioned you had four players selected over the past couple of days um and I I think three of them selected much higher than anybody would have ever expected before you got a hold of them and they developed within your program obviously Stefan Castle he’s always been projected to be this kind of guy uh kingan was not a you know top 20 recruit coming out of high school or anything like that Tristen Newton wasn’t expected to be an NBA player I don’t think cam Spencer was in mock drafts a year ago how much does that help you moving forward because I know coaches like to sell uh Team success and uh individual success and nobody is better positioned right now than you in the entire sport to sell both of those things yeah no no doubt GP and I think for us we’ve uh you know we’ve sh an ability to do you know re really to do great work with with uh you know with with with players that you know are not your McDonald’s five stars but they are players on an upward trajectory they’re they’re people that want to be coached they’ve got you know kind of the old school values in terms of like the work ethic wanting to be coached accountability um they got good great people around them uh that’ll let us do our job um you know it it it it helps too when when you show that you could do the job with the five-star guy too and and even you know help a five-star guy really even increase his stock a little bit um but maybe it also speaks to the fact that you know the the folks that are uh you know that are ranking these players in high school maybe sometimes they’re getting it wrong uh you know maybe sometimes they’re getting influenced a little too much by the sneaker companies or you know or the agents or the or the Grassroots coaches are blowing these guys phones up to move their player from 24 to 12 uh so so maybe the the rankings are in are inaccurate and then you know sometimes when you’re ranked six at 15 years old you get this false sense of security where you think you’ve made it and you’re so far for making it uh you know until you’ve gotten that second third contract in the NBA you really haven’t made anything so the Grizzlies did not end up with Donovan kingan but they did take a center at number nine it’s the guy you’re familiar with Zack Edy you coached against him in the national championship game um it was either before or during sometime around the NCAA tournament I I saw a great clip of you talking about him not just as a college player but sort of projecting what he could be in the NBA and you said something along the lines of um you know this guy is such a unique and special talent that you know you you should be able to figure out a way to to use him in the NBA from a Grizzly’s perspective now that he’s in this franchise I’m certain that’s what they’re going to be doing now every minute of every day how would you use Zack EDI to maximize his strengths at the NBA level yeah well I mean start off from an offensive standpoint um you know all the analytics tell you is is the the three things that you’re trying to do is is is get threes get Rim twos and get to the free throw line so like two of the three things he’s like a dominant player with you know uh you know like his ability offensively to put pressure on the rim uh get you the rim twos you you have to foul him around the rim because he’s such an incredible finisher uh and then he creates uh he puts so much pressure on the paint that he’s also going to create great threes for your team off defensively um there’s going to be some challenges at the defensive end of the Court uh you know for him in terms of you know uh you know that that drop you know playing in that drop coverage he’s obviously going to have to you know get up higher in ball screen defense and become a little bit more uh Adept at playing in space that way but um you know from a tactic standpoint at the offensive end of the Court he’s a he’s a coach’s dream because um you know he’s going to be great in in the lob game because he’s way more athletic than people think and he’s a dominant paint finisher um so um I mean you know these NBA guys are you know they’re supposed to be the best coaches in the world so you you they should be able to figure out how to use the most kind of dominant inside player in college basketball since like Shaq wrapping up here with yuk kind coach Dan Hurley I think uh most people know you’ve made some big career choices over uh the past a month uh you’re back at Yukon after at least exploring other big opportunities you have an opportunity to do something that is very rare in college basketball and that’s whenn a third straight um National Championship I know you’ve been in the gym with your team you got Alex caran back uh a lot of new faces around them um based on what you’ve seen so far do you think you got a legitimate shot to to go try to threee yeah it feels like it um I remember last summer and the summer before being pretty insecure about the team I think uh you know wondering if we were going to be in the playin game in Dayton or just where where you you always see your team’s vulnerabilities uh as a coach you never quite think you’re good enough but um this is talented team I think we’re going to have the two centers again uh Samson Johnson is going to take another big step and and uh and then I think tce Reed is is uh is going to give us that that onew punch at Center we’ve got a plethora of like 66 to 68 you know multi-positional guys with cariban and McNeely and Jaylen Stewart uh and Jaden Ross and uh um and Isaiah Abraham I mean it’s an impressive group that way and then you know I I think the year will come down to guard play whether we can be the best team in the country again it’s going to come down to like diara and solo ball and and and and Aiden uh and and can these guys give us close to what we’ve been getting at the guard spots um because three through five is is probably going to be just as good or or better than what we’ve had at those like at those positions uh but it looks pretty good to me it looks pretty good to me too that is Dan Hurley the two-time national championship winning coach at Yukon the man who helped develop and get Cam Spencer in position to be picked 53rd by the Memphis Grizzlies uh yes to afternoon Dan I know how busy you’ve been I appreciate your time congrats on all your success send my best to to Andrea and the family let’s go GP you’re the man and love Memphis they didn’t always love me though I had some uh you know I had some strange moments there in the AAC uh well we look forward to having you back as a not a AAC coach boy that sounds even weird to say out loud these days not as a AAC coach but as a as the former coach of a Memphis Grizzly can spinon when you come down make sure to let me know got you brother the Gary Paris show live weekdays at 10:00 a.m.

Gary is joined by UConn head coach Dan Hurley to talk about the NBA Draft, Cam Spencer, and whether or not he thinks UConn can win ANOTHER National Championship.

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