Old Dominion Basketball Head Coach Mike Jones joins The Monarchists Basketball Show to break down a pivotal Sun Belt road trip, highlight standout performances, and dive deep into what it will take for the Monarchs to stay in the thick of the conference race.

Coach Jones walks us through:

-The defensive tone-setting win at Coastal Carolina

-Robert Davis Jr.’s bounce-back performance and leadership

-The heartbreaking finish at James Madison and late-game execution

-What discipline really means in tight Sun Belt games

-How injuries impact the frontcourt and rebounding

-Preparing for major road tests at Georgia Southern and App State

-Why every single possession matters in this league

This episode is a must-listen for Monarch Nation as ODU battles through one of the toughest stretches of conference play.

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⏱️ Chapters 00:00 – Presented by The Pride of ODU

01:00 – Defensive mindset & fast start vs Coastal

02:10 – Why road trips shape Sun Belt standings

03:00 – Robert Davis Jr.’s impact beyond scoring

05:00 – Creating energy in tough road environments

06:40 – Quick turnarounds & second-time matchups

08:30 – Dominant first half vs JMU

10:00 – Life in the paint without key bigs

12:00 – Robert Davis Jr. injury update

13:00 – Film sessions, ball movement & rebounding

15:00 – Discipline becoming a team identity

17:20 – Coach Jones on Mark Cline’s influence

19:00 – Late-game execution & timeout strategy

23:00 – Breaking down Georgia Southern matchup

26:00 – What to expect at App State

28:00 – Coach Jones’ message to Monarch Nation

The following presentation is brought to you by the pride of

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ODU, the official NIL collective

of Old Dominion Athletics.

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Be a Monarchist.

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Join the Pride

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Monarch Nation.

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Welcome back to the

Monarchists Basketball Show.

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I am Mike and I am joined as

always by my co-host Aaron.

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And we have the special opportunity

to talk with Coach Mike Jones again.

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How are we doing today, coach?

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Doing okay guys.

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How you guys doing?

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Doing good.

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Well, well, so let's talk

about this road trip.

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You guys went down to Myrtle

Beach and you got you exacted.

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A little bit of revenge

on the Chanticleers.

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Coach Mike Jones: Uh, what do you

think was the biggest key to this game?

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Uh, the start.

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The start clearly was better than

it had been the last few games.

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And you know, we, we were really locked

in, especially on the defensive end.

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I don't think we were great in

the beginning offensively, but

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because we were getting stops on

the defensive end, it allowed us to.

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Start out.

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, They were stuck on three

points for a while there.

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Um, I think it was close to,

uh, the under 12 media and they

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were still just at three points.

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And, uh, and again, I think our defense

had a lot to do with that, but we came

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out with a little bit more of an edge,

uh, than we had been coming out with.

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So.

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Aaron: All right, Mike, so we talked

a little bit about this, this road

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trip was gonna be an important one.

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We're halfway kind of through that.

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Coach Mike Jones: Yep.

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Aaron: What does the coaching staff

emphasize most heading into a stretch

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like this where, you know, you've got

four in a row before you come back home.

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Is it like execution, toughness,

composure, kind of what,

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what are y'all thinking?

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Coach Mike Jones: Um, it's a

little bit of all of that because.

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Of the impact it can have on

our record within the league.

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And like, obviously, again, you guys

have heard me say it and I know you

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all say it like it's all about the

seating and each one of these games

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affects that the first one and the

18th, they all matter just the same.

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But in a stretch like this you can really

make some hay in terms of movement and as

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the league play really solidifies itself.

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Pockets of, you know, a group of teams

here, a group of teams here, a group

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of teams here, and you wanna make sure

you're, you're in the right position.

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So, you know, playing for on

the road not at home, you know,

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you're, you know, quote unquote as

a, at a disadvantage on the road.

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But you can, you can really make

some headway and make some hay there.

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Mike: Alright, so this last

week we saw Robert Davis Jr.

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Kind of get off the snide.

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He had been struggling

this season offensively.

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And he goes off against Coastal

Carolina dropping 29 points.

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I guess talk to us about Robert and

his, his progress throughout this year.

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Coach Mike Jones: Yeah, so again, I

think I've mentioned this before as well.

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Like, you know, Rob is not 100%

you know, his injury has lingered

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a little bit and, you know, he's,

he's been, he's been toughen it out.

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And again, I, I understand when.

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Anyone watches basketball and you see

someone that he is either making shots,

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oh, he's really good, he's missing shots.

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Oh, he's no good.

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And I just, I, I hope

people can understand Rob's

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impact on us is far beyond.

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Just whether he made his last shot or not.

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Obviously his ability creates a lot of

gravity on the floor, but Rob's IQ is

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truly something that truly helps us when

he's on the court because he is able

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to communicate and able to move guys

around almost as if he was a point guard.

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So, but we did see Rob kind of

bouncing around a little bit more than

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he had been this season, and he is.

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As each week goes by, he is

feeling a little bit better.

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I mean, I think you know, I don't think

anybody could deny that watching either

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game the Coastal game or the JMU game

before he got elbowed in the face.

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So, you know, he, he's

definitely feeling better.

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He's closer to, you know, what a

hundred percent will be, but he's

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still not there and he's working his

rear end off every single day to,

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to, to get as close as he can to a

hundred percent so he can help us win.

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Aaron: So a couple hours before that

Coastal game, I was going to post

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something on Instagram for the account

and saw that, uh, Chris Kovensky, one of

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our former coaches was, was on a live.

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And I popped in there and,

uh, he saw us and he saw that

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y'all were gonna be at Coastal.

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And one of the comments that he

made was tough environment, because

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you've gotta make your own energy.

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There.

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How do you guys do that at, you know,

I, I wanna be polite, but the energy

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and the atmosphere and the facilities

at Coastal for basketball is not

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the same as what we have at home.

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How do you manufacture that?

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Coach Mike Jones: So, uh, I,

that's a great point, Aaron and

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ChrisKo that, that's a great

point for him to make as well.

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Um, I think.

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There's two points that you just made

without meaning to one of them is the

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point of, you know, the energy we need to

kind of create for ourselves to get going.

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But the other point being, we

talk about how other teams play

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when they play in Chartway.

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Well just think about that.

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If all of your home games are

kind of docile in terms of the

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environment, it's not really hype.

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But then you come in Chartway and

you see the support we get, I mean.

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That's an advantage for us.

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By no means, uh, am I not acknowledging

that, but that also gets the juices

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flowing in our opponents as well,

because they're not normally playing

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in that, and that is something that,

you know, gets them excited as well.

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But for us, and again, I'm gonna

contradict what I just said by saying

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this, like at this point we literally,

and I, I, I can't be more emphatic

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about it, like we're just trying to.

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Figure out a way to win a game.

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We tell ourselves we don't care if it's

five people in there rooting for us

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and a thousand people rooting a game.

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It, at this point, it does not matter.

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We need to just find

a way to win the game.

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So come together, play for one

another, do everything we can to be

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on the same page, and, and, and let's

go out there and fight together.

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And we did that, we did that

Thursday, we did that again.

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Uh, on Saturday.

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We just, we, we let one slip away.

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Mike: All right, so we

talked about the schedule.

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Last episode and how kind of funky it

is, but you get to play these teams very

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quickly after playing them the first time.

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How different is that second game after

you guys have already kind of, especially

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with them being this close to each other?

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Yeah.

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You already have a look at that

team and they have a look at you.

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Coach Mike Jones: Yeah.

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So a couple things happen there.

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One is going into the first time you

play them, you watch what other teams do.

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That work.

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What other teams do do that don't

work what they do that works,

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what they do, that doesn't work.

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So you have that component the second time

around, you get to see what you did and

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you know, so, you know, having footage

of our team playing against Coastal, and

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then a foot footage of nine other teams

playing Coastal, the most valuable footage

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is our team playing against Coastal.

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That goes both ways though.

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Like they now have footage against

us and what we do well, what we

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don't do well, what they were

able to do that was effective.

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And I think the second time around

you are afforded that, okay, so

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we did this action the first game

and they really struggled with it.

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We probably ran that action because

we saw other teams running a similar

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action that we saw them struggle with.

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We know that the coaching in this

league is really, really, really strong.

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There are gonna be some adjustments made.

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So can you accurately predict the

adjustments that are gonna be made?

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And then you plan off of that.

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And that's what we do.

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You know, as we prepare for this coming

week, you know, you play two teams that

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we just played, you know, a few days ago

as well, and you know, what do we do well?

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What didn't we do well?

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What did they do well?

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What did they not do well?

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And what expected adjustments?

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Can we, can we look forward to?

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Aaron: So the JMU game, obviously heading

to Harrisonburg, it's, that's always

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a big game, whether it's in Norfolk

or it's up there close to Buc-ees.

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Uh, the first half,

obviously strong start.

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Up 17 at the half.

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Talk to us a little bit

about that first half.

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What was going well, what was working?

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Coach Mike Jones: So the

ball movement was beautiful.

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You know, we got out and transitioned

as much as we possibly could.

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, We obviously made some shots, but just

the, the, the, the, the connectedness

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of our team, the flow everything

seemed to work well because we

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did, we were all on the same page,

all on the same accord, and, uh.

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The energy was contagious.

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Like guys were just really just all

over the place in terms of rooting

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for one another you know, willing

to make the extra pass , having each

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other's back communicating again.

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, We talk about the defense at

the start of the Coastal game.

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Well, you know, we held JMU to

nine points for a very long time

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uh, in, in the first half there

because our defense was so strong.

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So, we, we were a connected bunch.

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Mike: Now you guys did really

well managing, uh, not turning

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the ball over in this game.

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Obviously I, I think this game

was won in the paint by JMU.

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They dominate us in the, on the

boards and scoring in the paint.

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Coach Mike Jones: Mm-hmm.

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Mike: Moving forward, uh, if Cael

is gonna be out, how can we, uh,

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have more success in the paint

without his size and presence?

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Coach Mike Jones: Um, that's,

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it's easier said than done.

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You know, obviously Ben and Donovan

both they, they have to step up for us.

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They have to, um, Jared and Drew and

Scottie they have to step up for us.

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This is, you know, times like

Saturday are days where I hope.

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One of two things happen, or both.

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Uh, one, you know, all of

us, our players as well.

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Really appreciate Cael and understand

the impact that he has on our team.

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I hope our fans appreciate that as well.

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You know, him not being out there truly,

uh, and especially in the second half,

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and especially everything at that rim you

know, his presence was greatly missed.

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Um, but then also not having Steph.

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This, this, this is a, that was a game

that was tailor made for Stephan Walker.

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Again, his toughness, his ability to

fight, you know, whether it be 33 or 21

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or 25 or zero for JMU, like any of those

guys, um, you know, step walker's going

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toe to toe, nose to nose with each and

every one of them and not backing down.

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So, uh, not having either of them, you

know, what do you do going forward?

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You just do everything you can to make

sure that Ben and and Donovan both

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are ready for the moment to step up.

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I mean, you know, Donovan gets told he

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know, we call it 30 seconds, 90 seconds,

whatever it was then has to come out

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and, you know, we don't know how the

game's gonna go, so it's like you really

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can't afford to really put him back in.

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So then you're either playing

Ben or you're playing smaller.

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Uh, with both of those big guys.

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So it was not necessarily a great

recipe that we were dealt there, but,

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you know, this is college basketball.

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You gotta find a way, and we did

for the majority of the game and,

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and, and, and let it slip away.

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Aaron: So, we talked a little

bit before, uh, I know kind of a,

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there were a number probably of

turning points in, in the game.

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Rob's play, he started where he

left off in the Coastal game.

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Mm-hmm.

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Rob was on fire.

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Like he, he just was doing

whatever he wanted to do and then

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he took that elbow in the face.

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I know we've got a number of

questions, you know, how's he doing?

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Is he okay?

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But clearly that affected

him in the rest of the game.

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He looks like he took a pretty good shot.

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Is he all right?

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Coach Mike Jones: He's okay.

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Uh, Rob is a tough kid.

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You know, he, I think, you know, in

the season and a half he's been here

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and Norfolk, like he's, he's proven

that he will play through anything

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that he's cleared to play through.

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So, you know, he, he, you know, played

through a whole lot last year and has

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been playing through a lot this year.

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So, you know, we, we truly can

appreciate the, the, the warrior

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mentality that he has to, to always.

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You know, want to be on the floor,

um, if he's physically capable.

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Mike: Last episode we talked about,

uh, ball watching and how it can

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lead to not crashing the boards.

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Coach Mike Jones: Mm-hmm.

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Mike: In the Coastal game, we saw better

ball movement and we saw guys hustling and

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crashing the boards and it's, I think it's

a big part of why we were able to hold

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off Coastal and their comeback efforts.

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Coach Mike Jones: Mm-hmm.

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Mike: Um.

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Talk to us about how the guys reacted

to seeing those benefits in inside

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of meetings in, in the last week.

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Coach Mike Jones: Yeah, so I think

the biggest thing that we've seen from

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our guys is literally the difference.

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Like you could show 'em two minute

clip package here of this is what it

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looks like when we stand and watch.

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This is what it looks like when

we don't have any movement.

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This is what it looks like when we have

great movement and ball movement and

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body movement, and no one's standing

and watching and we're crashing.

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And this is the difference.

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And just to be able to show them.

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The increasing levels of success we

have with the second clip package

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and the diminishing, uh, uh, clips

we have of the first package.

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And if we can just keep that,

that needle moving towards the

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second one and not the first one.

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And again you know, our guys saw

a lot of that yesterday in film.

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And it definitely resonates.

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You know, if you watch us, if you

watched us practice yesterday, watch

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us practice, especially today, there's

plenty of plays where that ball was

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kind of whizzing around and we just,

we have to continue to encourage that.

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Aaron: In the last episode, one

of the words that came out as

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our discussion was discipline.

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Coach Mike Jones: Mm-hmm.

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Aaron: And guys needing to understand

whatever the task was, wherever

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they needed to be, being engaged.

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Attention to detail, discipline.

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After the Georgia Southern loss

at home in the post-game, presser.

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A couple questions came up.

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Coach Mike Jones: Mm-hmm.

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Aaron: And Rob and Casey

were the players there.

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Coach Mike Jones: Mm-hmm.

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Aaron: And the word discipline

came out of their mouths multiple

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times, and we asked them about that.

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It seems like.

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That may have translated a little bit.

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They, they both, and Rob in particular,

obviously he's a, Rob is very well spoken.

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He's a very intelligent individual

and he kind of took a leadership

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role there in talking about we as

players need to be accountable.

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We need to be more disciplined.

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The coaches are putting us in

the position of what to do.

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The game plans there.

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It seems like that did translate to three

quarters, three and a half quarters.

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Following that, that's

gotta be encouraging.

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Coach Mike Jones: It is in order to do

what we want to do this season though,

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it's gotta translate 100% of the time.

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And that is the frustrating part.

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So, it, it, it, it, it, it

is what it is at this point.

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Like we, we've gotta

have it 100% of the time.

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We've gotta have it for.

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All four halves that we just played.

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Um, we've gotta have for all four

halves that we're gonna play this week.

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We cannot have the laws, we cannot have

the, oh, we're gonna do it right eight

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straight times, and then the ninth and

the 10th time just kind of fluke it off.

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Like we, we can't do that.

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Like if you look at the Sun Belt

conference games we've had so far, like

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even though some of the margins have been

a little off, and obviously the couple

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of games where the bad starts, but.

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They've all been single digit games.

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If you go on and you look at the rest of

our Sun Belt schedule, there's not one

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game on there that is gonna be decided

by, uh, at least what they predict.

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That's gonna be decided by more

than three possessions, most of

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them one and two possessions.

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Um, and they are decently accurate

at their predictive measures.

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So that screams to me the

discipline that we're talking

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about that screams to me that.

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All of the teams in the Sun Belt, but

I'm worried about us that the monarchs,

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we have to play every single possession.

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Like it means something because every

single possession does mean something.

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And that is going to be like that.

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That's gonna be our season.

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That is gonna be our season.

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If we can do that, we can beat anybody.

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We can beat anybody if we don't do it.

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You, you, you're leaving

too much to chance.

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And like, I'm, I'm not trying to do that.

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Mike: All right, so this is gonna

be a little different, but a fan

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listener, a friend of the podcast

reached out and told me how they had

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seen Mark Cline at practice and at

games, and we know that he was an

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assistant coach when you were a player.

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He had a long career

coaching college basketball.

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Talk to us about what it's like to have

Mark's support and, uh, have his, uh.

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As someone you could lean on,

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Coach Mike Jones: I guess.

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Uh, so basically since I started coaching

you know, Coach Cline had always,

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you know, whether he was recruiting

one of my players at at DeMatha or.

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Even when I left high school and

went, came to the college side

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he's always somebody who, you know,

we'd see each other on the road.

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He'd reach out occasionally you

know, whether it be a holiday or

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just to check in and say hello.

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You know, he's, he was one

of my favorite coaches.

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We only worked together for a

year, or he only coached me for a

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year, but that, that year was so

impactful to me so I appreciate it.

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His wife still works at ODU.

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So, he is around, uh, I believe he's only

come to that weekend that he was here.

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He came to our practice on Friday and

then attended the game on Saturday, uh,

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uh, when we played Georgia Southern.

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And just like it, it does mean a

lot to me because it is somebody who

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helped me be the player that I was.

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And then also somebody that,

since I've been coaching, has also

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impacted my, my coaching as well.

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Aaron: All right, take a step back.

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I'm not gonna put you in a position

to say anything about officials,

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but I'm gonna say the end of

game was kind of questionable.

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We'll leave it there, but end of game.

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You have multiple plays to get

the ball in a position to have

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a really good chance of scoring.

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Coach Mike Jones: Mm-hmm.

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Aaron: Can you talk a little bit

about the initial play to make the

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pass, to get across half court?

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Have the wherewithal to call a

time out and then to call the

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last play that put you in a good

position to actually win the game.

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Coach Mike Jones: So having

two timeouts really helped.

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Yeah, I, I have spent a lot of

my career like, you know, my,

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like, probably hoarding, timeouts.

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You know, I, I like to, especially

in close games, to be able to

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manipulate as much as I possibly can.

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Um, especially with, with such a new team.

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So having those two

timeouts really helped.

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Them deflecting the ball on the

first initial attempt to get it

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to have court probably helped us.

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'Cause it gave a much better

angle to throw the ball

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where we needed to throw it.

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And they didn't necessarily play

it the way I, they should have.

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Like, they should have taken that near

sideline, pass away and force us to throw

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it to the other sideline, but they didn't.

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So we were able to get it there.

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And again, our, our, our players

knew exactly what we wanted to do.

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They knew we wanted to

get it just over half.

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Like these are, I will credit our

guys like, we go through situations

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all the time and we've been in

that situation in practice before,

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so they knew what we wanted to.

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Drew is probably the best passer on our

team, especially in that circumstance.

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So we were able to manipulate

things to get him to be the inbound

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and to get somebody cutting to

just over half court so that we

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can get the ball where we got it.

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And then, uh, and then we knew

they were gonna be switching

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everything with the last play.

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So we had to run something.

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And we also knew that they

would try to take away Jordan

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and try, try to take away Rob.

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The biggest question we had going in into

the huddle was, and I, I guess it is.

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Okay, so the play that I think

everybody knows we want to run, well,

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we haven't run that yet this year.

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And the question going into the

huddle was, do you think them, James

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Madison is prepared to guard that

play, and can they get prepared

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to guard that play in this huddle?

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Immediately the thought was, well,

they're gonna be switching, so it's

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gonna be, it's gonna be tougher to

be successful running that play.

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So the counter to that

play is what we went with.

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And because they were switching and

because they were gonna deny Jordan

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and deny Rob, we decided to go with.

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The version of the play we did, and we

got the ball right where we wanted to.

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We got the shot we wanted drew

through a tremendous pass.

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Jordan made a great catch,

gathered himself and went up.

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And, you know, what happened happened?

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I, I, I, I can't get fined, I don't

think, but I'll, I'll leave it there.

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Aaron: That's, and we've talked

multiple times this year, and I know

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Mike and I have talked a lot is we've

seen Drew make so many nice passes.

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I mean, that first one on the sideline,

well really, I guess it's the second

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one, but I don't know, e even watching

on TV was impressive with the, you

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know, the accuracy, the pace, the

angle of what, how he threw it.

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Yep.

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Um, it's nice to have a guy

that can do that and do it.

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Like repeatedly.

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Coach Mike Jones: Yeah.

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He is a big strong dude.

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And you know, in those circumstances

he did exactly what we asked him to do.

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And at the end of the game in a

situation like that, you just want,

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you want five guys that are gonna do

exactly what you want 'em to do, and.

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You win and lose off of that.

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Like not off of something else.

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Not off of, well, coach, I did

this because I thought like,

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just do what we ask you to do.

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Do what we ask you to do so that

your four teammates know what you're

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doing and you know, I'll, I'll take

our chances with that every time.

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Should have never seen that situation.

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Uh, so, and I, I know everybody

thinks that already, but I'm,

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I'm, I'm, I'm right there.

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We should never have

been in that situation.

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Mike: All right, so we gotta

finish this road trip up.

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First is a trip to Georgia Southern.

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This was a high scoring game

last time we faced off with them.

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But I wonder with a team like Georgia

Southern can score the way they do.

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Knowing we can score the way we

can, do you maybe think about

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slowing the game down a little bit?

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Coach Mike Jones: Great question, Mike.

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So let's be clear they

didn't score 93 points.

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Because we couldn't guard them.

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They definitely jumped out on us,

was 20 to two or whatever it was.

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And then definitely scored a lot

of points at the end of the game.

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But that was because of the way we

were pressing and things like that.

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The middle third or the

middle 50%, whatever it was.

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Uh.

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We were much better.

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I think we got spooked a little

bit, uh, when we went to our zone.

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And they, something that we prepared

for, we didn't cover it right.

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And that kind of scared me.

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It's just like, well, if we, we can't

give up another three from over there.

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So we played a little bit less zone

than maybe we would've liked to do.

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Um, again, at this

point, man, we gotta win.

437

We have to win.

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And.

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You know, we're gonna pull out

all the stops, you know, whether

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that be us slowing it down,

like they're a really good team.

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I mean, they're first or second

in our league for a reason.

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They're a really good team.

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Uh, they don't do great in transition

defense if you go to the hold strong.

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So we don't necessarily want

to slow down offensively.

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Uh, you definitely wanna slow them down.

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When you're on defense.

447

But, uh, and then with the way they cover

ball screens and they blow up handoffs

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and just their, their physicality on

the defensive end, if you can just get

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them before they really get set you,

you've got a better chance of scoring

450

if you go off of the first game.

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We scored 1.2

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points per possession in transition.

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Um, we scored point.

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Eight something points against

a half court set defense.

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And that's before you know all the up

and down that we got into at the end.

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So, you know, analytics say coach, you

need to run more, you need to push it

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more, you need to throw it ahead more.

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If we can clean up and get to one

point per possession in our half court

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offense, we, we, we got a real chance to

do something to, to get a win here and,

460

and, and get some of this momentum back.

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Aaron: And then you can continue

on down to Boone, the app state.

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Couple big strong guys there.

463

We're talking about the challenges

that we just had in Harrisonburg.

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We got some of the same

considerations there.

465

Talk to the fans a little

bit about playing at App.

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Coach Mike Jones: Huh.

467

It, it, so I've only been there once.

468

Um, and last year, uh, when we went, I

think their students are back this week.

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So they, they will have a very

lively student section, I'm sure.

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But we went against that last year.

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And the, the, their student

section was unbelievable.

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It was, it was, it reminded me

of some of the rivalry games that

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I've been a part of in my career.

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And it was, it was, it was great to see

from their standpoint, and again, it was

475

that mentality that we went in there with.

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It's just us.

477

You know, maybe there's a dozen family

members behind our bench that are

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rooting for us, but this is all about us.

479

We gotta stick together.

480

And we went down there and if I remember

correctly, we went down like 12 points

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in the first half, but then we cut it

to like five or seven at halftime, and

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then we came outta the second half and

we were, we, we, we, we went after 'em.

483

Um.

484

We're gonna need that kind of effort.

485

Uh, this time, again, the last

time we played them, we got into

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a hole, had to fight out of it.

487

We showed that we were

capable of doing that.

488

We, we just gotta be able to get

to it right from the jump ball and

489

not put ourselves in that deficit.

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And, uh, again, apps are really good team.

491

They're not easy to beat.

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Uh, home or on the road.

493

We get an opportunity this week.

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Uh, you take care of business

on Thursday in, in Statesboro.

495

And then, uh, and then we, we look forward

to the opportunity we have on Saturday.

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Mike: Alright, coach.

497

Thank you so much as

always for joining us.

498

I'll leave it to you to give your

outgoing message to Monarch Nation.

499

Coach Mike Jones: I appreciate it, fellas.

500

Again, this, you know, we got off to this

road trip, you know, on a good start.

501

We, you know, we had it rolling

there, uh, against the Dukes and,

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and, and we let one slip away.

503

A lot to learn from that.

504

But I do think we're trending just

again, our guys knowing that, uh,

505

Monarch Nation has our back, which we do.

506

We're gonna keep fighting.

507

We're gonna keep fighting, and

this is another huge week for us.

508

You know, sitting at two and four

in the league you know, you're two

509

games out of second place and your

three games outta first place.

510

Like, we're very, very, very

much in the thick of things here.

511

We got 12 league games to go.

512

You know, we, we, we have an

opportunity here, so, uh, we're

513

gonna keep fighting, keep fighting,

and keep fighting and whatever.

514

Blows, were are thrown at us.

515

You know, somebody's missing,

somebody's hurt somebody, whatever.

516

We're gonna keep fighting this thing

all the way to the end so we can go

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down to Pensacola and do something.

518

Do something that we all

know we're capable of doing.

519

And go Monarchs.

520

Mike: Go Monarchs.

521

Aaron: Go Monarchs.