 You guys sweaty just put in some work Optional work or did you have to come in and work? And anytime it's optional is that the option you choose? Is the yes or no, right? Yeah, anytime you have an option to get better you make sure you take it and there's not going to be any shortage of opportunities for you to get better you know I First and foremost, I want to make sure you guys Realize how fortunate you are to be in the position that you're in You more than likely won't realize how fortunate you are until 10 15 years having been removed from here I have the humility to know there's a very good chance I'm not going to say a single thing to you guys today that you don't already know and you haven't already heard But I've been around the best players and coaches in the world for most of my life And I realized that there's always going to be a difference between what you know and What you do and if you guys want to be the best players that you're capable of and you want to be the best team that you're Capable of each of you has to work every single day to close that gap between what you know and what you do Think about it right now if you came in every single day Not when you want to not when you feel like it not when it's convenient you came in every single day and You made not take we don't need shot takers. There's plenty of those We need shot makers here and if you want to play at the next level you got to be a shot maker But if you came in every day and you made 500 shots, but not just random shots Game shots from game spots at game speed according to where you're supposed to shoot from because not every single one of you Supposed to shoot from the exact same places if you came in every single day made 500 shots from game spots at game speed What would be the result of that? Would you be a better shooter? Guaranteed would you be a better player? Would you be more valuable here at Yukon? Would you increase or decrease your chance of playing professionally after? So the positives completely outweigh I don't think there's a single negative that could be from doing that and every single one of you knows that I didn't see anybody's head explode you guys all know that if you choose to come in and put in extra work and Give your best effort if you do that consistently you know all of the positives that will happen Then the only question you have to ask is are you doing that and are you doing it every single day? See I don't know you guys we met a few years ago, but we don't even know each other that well I don't know you guys, but I can look at any team and pretty much guarantee There's a couple of you guys that aren't doing that There's a good portion of you guys that do that when you feel like it when it's convenient and when you want to Maybe there's one guy on the team that does that every single day But that's what I'm talking about closing that gap because it's not from lack of knowledge every one of you knows That you're supposed to do that every one of you knows you have an opportunity to do that every one of you knows What will happen if you do that? So then the question is why are you not doing that every single day and that's why I'm here today? I want to just give you guys some things to think about To do two things one for each of you to become the best version of yourself That needs to be the first commitment that you make You have to work to become the best version of yourself in everything that you do Because you've signed up to be a part of something that's much bigger than you Much bigger than you and you owe it to everybody in this room to become the best version of yourself And it can't be something that you you choose to compartmentalize It can't be why I'm gonna be the best today because I feel like it or I'm gonna be the best on the court But I'm not gonna really worry about the stuff off the court. You had that switch has to be on To be the best version of yourself, and then you guys need to collectively do that See the only way you can become the best team possible is if each and every one of you makes that decision And you make that decision every single day If half of you make that decision half of you won't you'll probably still be pretty good But you won't be anywhere close to what you're capable of and the other point that I will hammer home is That it's gonna be up to you guys to police each other See good organizations have what's called vertical accountability That means these guys sitting behind you with the polo shirts on they tell you what to do and you guys do it That's vertical accountability. That's mediocre at best if you all want to be championship contenders You have to have horizontal accountability Which means you get on him when he's not doing what he's supposed to do He gets on you when you're not doing what you're supposed to do that when there's an optional workout It's not really optional because you go bang on every single person's door and say hey, we've got a workout coming up Why are you not ready? Why are you not dressed? Why did you not come the optional workout yesterday, man? You're killing like we need you to be there for us to be good When that comes from you guys and doesn't have to come from the top down Then you'll have created something special and the last thing I'll say and then I'll get into some some more depth with this stuff One of the most valuable skill sets that you can have in any walk of life But absolutely in basketball is the ability to make other people better and ultimately that's a roundabout way of defining the word leadership Like if your mere presence if the moment you walk in this room everyone in this room gets better just by the fact that you're here That is like bottled gold There's not an organization in the world that won't pay you guys millions of dollars because you make everyone around you better and The only way you can do that is by being the best version of yourself and And you can program yourself to do these things every single day And when you've made the commitment to do them every day And you've got guys next to you that care enough about you and care enough about this program that they hold you to that standard And they don't let you slide now. You've got something special Because it's human nature. They're gonna be days where you don't feel like giving a hundred percent. That's just human nature That's not a knock on you. That's human nature The question is do the rest of you rally around next man up and encourage and push and empower him on the day He doesn't feel like it Because inevitably there's gonna be a day where you don't feel like it either and you need to count on these guys to be able to do the same thing for you and Notice all of the stuff we've just talked about doesn't have anything to do with your talent on the court None now. Thankfully you guys have talent you guys can play or you wouldn't be at UConn But the talent is almost irrelevant if you're not going to actualize all of the stuff that you have control over and It's in everything that you do. It's in your individual workouts. It's in your film sessions. It's in your weight room It's every single thing that you do Because how you do anything is how you do everything and it's anytime that you believe That you can compartmentalize excellence and you can compartmentalize greatness. That's when you're gonna get beat That's when it's gonna catch you Can you be a really good basketball player and give a poor effort in the classroom? Yeah, you can I've seen plenty of guys do it Can you be the best player that you're capable of and give a poor effort in the classroom? I don't think that you can because I think it has to be habitual I think either you give everything you do everything you have or you don't and I want to encourage you guys to Consistently make the choice to do that But on the days when you choose not to you've insulated yourself with the guys that care enough about you and care enough about this program That they won't let you slide So you have to realize is it is it hard playing for coach early? Does he get on you a little bit? He's tough right he comes from a tough background. He's a tough guy But you guys have to realize that when someone holds you accountable it means they care about you That's the one thing you have to flip because a lot of people get that twisted The reason people hold you accountable whether it's the coaching staff here or it's the guy sitting next to you It's because they care about you and they care about this program See if I know you're capable of more and I let you slide that means I don't care So you should be thankful to have someone or a group of someone's that watch your every move and are on you every second of every day That you give a hundred percent 99 times and on the hundredth time when you choose not to that's the day They bust your chops you should be thankful for that Because holding someone accountable. It's not something you do to them. It's something you do for them And that's why you have to be able to create that mindset You have to because if you're dogging it in practice one day coach Hurley should be the last person that has to say something to you because the four or five guys right around you Should say something to you before he even has to open his mouth and when you guys can get to that point Where you are a player led team not a coach led team, then you'll be something really special