 Hello, and welcome into the Gary Stewart Show. I'm Joe Wamba, joined now with Gary Stewart, head coach of the men's basketball team. And coach, you guys round out the rest of the season. You guys host Al Verney on senior night. Honor Michael Byrd. And then he turns around on the next game at Lycoming and almost finishes with a triple double. Just talk a little bit of what he is meant to the team in this season. Well, Joe, I think any discussion about Michael Byrd you have to start with his citizenship, his ability as a student. He's just been a terrific all around student athlete for us. He is a person that you can trust. He's a committed team first guy and talented. He's a person that can play above the rim. He can wreck some havoc from the defensive end. He's been significant in our program. We're going to dearly miss him. Yeah, absolutely. And he's been our lone senior, which that would mean a lot of youth on the team. Moving forward, Cameron Hayes, it was almost like, who's it going to be? Cameron Hayes or Michael Byrd? And sometimes it was both of them. Moving forward, how much excitement does the team hold for themselves and then the fans hold for the team? Well, I think you have to be excited. Going back to Lycoming on Saturday, we started Five Freshmen. And Cameron Hayes is a young man that just is getting better and better. You're always concerned about Freshmen hitting that wall. And he didn't hit the wall. He forged through it in a big way. He finished the season. The last half of conference, averaging 20 points a game, shot upwards of 82% from the free throw line and 44% from three and played really, really good sound basketball. And he improved. He's one of those guys that you can give him something. He goes back and works on it. And then you see it in the game and you come to fruition. And that's exciting. He had an obvious leader on the court as far as stats go, but also a charismatic leader on the bench and in the locker room when the guys needed to lean on him. He is. And again, much like Michael, his citizenship is beyond reproach. He's an excellent student. He's our best student and not to touch with FERPA laws. But he is with an eyelash of being a 4.0 student. So we're really excited about him. As the season wound down, what was the message to the players or a message that you want for the fans moving forward? Well, first, we really were thankful Michael Bird's contribution. He, as I said, has been instrumental in what we've tried to do here. And moving forward, we've got so many young people returning. And our mattress, we've got to improve. We've got to improve our roster. We've got to improve with the people that are coming back. And I think they will. There's room for growth. We certainly haven't hit our ceiling individually or collectively. So it's going to be important spring and summer for us. And we certainly will continue to reiterate that as we move forward. And as we look back at the goals and expectations that we set in the season preview at the very beginning of the season, maybe not got to touch on all of them, but it was a season of progressions. And the team came together collectively and learned each other a lot. Yeah, in this sport, outcomes are the last stage of development. And we recognize that and understand that. And obviously, we've got to play better, Joe. And the standard and expectation of our program is to compete at the top and be an upper echelon program in the region and want to take our rightful place nationally. And so we're a ways away from that right now. And we understand that. And we understand that there's work to be done. Well, Coach, I want to appreciate you for all the time that you've given us in post games and then weekly interviews coming up and talking to me every week. Really appreciate it. And enjoy our conversations. Thank you, Joe. Really appreciated your willingness to make this production the best it possibly could be. And I look forward to talking to you as we move forward. And we look forward to seeing some success continuing for the program. Thank you, Joe. Thank you, Coach. He's Gary Stewart. I'm Joe Wamba. This has been the Gary Stewart Show.