QUESTIONABLE: UConn's NCAA Tournament Preview—Will Silas Demary Jr & Jaylin Stewart IMPACT Victory?

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You got men tip off their NCAA tournaments tonight.

I'll have a full preview, including why Dan Hurley likes the one and done setting.

This is Lockdown.

You con.

You are locked on you con.

Your daily podcast on the Yukon Huskies.

Part of the Lockdown podcast network.

Your team every day.

Happy Friday.

I'm Masha Vyski.

It is NCAA Tournament Day.

Yukon opens up tonight against Ferman.

We're going to close the show.

The freeing nature of the NCAA Tournament.

Dan Hurley talked that length about why he likes a one and done setting.

Especially for this Yukon men's basketball team.

We'll talk about that at the end in the middle segment.

Defense is absolutely paramount for the Yukon men to have success in the NCAA tournament.

We'll talk about that.

But first, we're going to open with an injury update.

Silas Demory, Malachi Smith, Jill and Stewart.

Who's going to be available as well as who is Ferman?

Who is this team that Yukon is facing as the 15 seed?

We'll get to that in the open.

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So Dan Hurley was at the podium on Wednesday.

Wednesday or Thursday.

And he was asked a question that said,

Hey, Silas Demory just told Joe Ruta of the heart for current.

And he's just putting on social media that Silas Demory is going to be good to go on Friday night.

Who is Dan Hurley's looking around?

He said, what?

I was just about to put him as questionable on the sheet ahead of the game.

Which leads me to believe I'm not sure exactly what's going to be transpiring here and who's going to be starting the game on Friday night.

I know Dan Hurley as a coach and listen, injuries.

And information around injuries.

I know coaches love to control that information.

And I know Sunday night.

Right when the NCAA tournament was being revealed and there were comments on social media.

I think even members of Silas Demory's family were putting out information on social media that.

Hey, MRI negative.

Things are going to be good.

Which for you kind of fans, that's great news, right?

You want to hear it.

You love to hear it for coaching staff.

That's probably not the best way to communicate and reveal information just.

Having been in and around coaches and how they like to operate for the last 12 years.

And even before that, when I was part of the football program.

As a work study I was doing as I was in grad school.

It was.

You don't want injury news getting out there.

At least that you how it used to be.

Social media is not what it was not then what it is today.

Social media was around, but it wasn't as prevalent.

Not everybody was on everything.

Not everyone was communicating on social media.

When I was within a program.

But.

When I transitioned into covering sports from a media standpoint.

I know because I've tried to get information on injuries.

Coaches keep everything close to the vest.

And then if you also have information on injuries and you know information on injuries.

Coaches also do not like you releasing it publicly.

I know that.

I've experienced a first hand.

Different types of coaches, different type of personalities.

Decay to go is a little different than today.

Some coaches don't care.

Some coaches do.

So every coach is different.

But didn't really reaction.

Oh, man.

Because later in his press conference leading into the Fermi game.

He was also asked about Joe Stewart.

And his response was, well, maybe I should go outside this memory.

I wanted to show you a good update on Joe and Stuart.

So clearly.

Dan Hurley did not want that information out there.

Now, his Silas demo, we're actually going to be good to go?

I don't know.

For the report that was out there.

He should be fine.

For Dan Hurley, he's going to be marked questionable heading in as his.

Joe Stuart questionable.

It sounds like based on what Dan Hurley was saying.

Jail and Stewart has a better chance of playing Sunday than he does tonight against Firm

But he said it's gonna be close. We'll see how things are at shoot around how he's moon around how things look how he's feeling, but he's close

We'll see we'll see how that goes

The Malachi Smith news. That's a little

New information that arose the other day at the press conference as well that hey

He's also dealing with all some thing and

We'll see what that means for the rotation because if if these guys can't go if these guys aren't really healthy if these guys can't play their full minutes

Who's gonna backfill because

Earlier on it was hey seen things seem to be okay. That Silas Demors on track

I know the report that was out there on social media that he's he's gonna be good to go

But back to Dan Hurley said he's gonna be questionable. Well, let's talk about hypotheticals because the Silas Demory Jr

Is not ready to go what happens. I think might me. I think no informed information here

I think you slide Jalen Jaden Ross into the starting lineup

Because you need to maintain your defensive intensity, which we're gonna talk about in a second

I think you move

Brillen

Mullins and solo ball into more of a point guard ball handling roll

And you bring Jaden Ross in as a starter. I think that's what would transpire if things if Silas is not ready to go

But it's important that this team and I would like to see

Jalen Stewart if he's gonna be coming back get him on the floor tonight

Because when you look forward, I'd rather see Jalen Stewart

ease into playing time again against the likes of a firm and nothing against them

But should you con win

Their next matchup is against the power for whether that's UCLA

Whether that's UCF and I think UCF as a 10 I think they're a little underrated there

So that's gonna be a great game today between UCLA LA and UCF

I think it's a toss-up because UCF has been competitive

In the big 12 and I think they have an opportunity to potentially take out UCLA

Either matchups are gonna be a good one if Yukon advances

The brand matchup between Yukon and UCLA would be significant obviously on Sunday

But let's not look ahead because we've got an opponent in front of this team

Furman

Who has played NCAA tournament teams throughout the regular season

Including the high point team that knocked off Wisconsin yesterday

They opened the year against high point high point dominated they won by 26

They won by 26

Furman also lost to Troy and NCAA tournament team they lost to them by three

They lost to Northern Iowa and NCAA tournament team by 16

They beat Queens and NCAA tournament team by 11

So they played four teams that are in the tournament

They also beat Harvard who's historically been a program that can be competitive against power four teams

They did beat Harvard

By 10

So this is a team that especially as the season went along

That's three of the first four all against NCAA tournament teams and then from there

You they they racked off they rattled off a

Big stretch between November 19

All the way to January 14th where they only lost two games

Now 12 and 2 they're 14 game stretch

So they completely turned their season around after losing three or four

They have also 156 to close the season including the final three games of the regular of the postseason tournament to advance to the

NCAA tournament and get the auto bit

Beating East Tennessee State 76 to 61 in the final

this team

Is lead

Scoring wise by Alex Wilkins

A player that puts in 17 points per game

He's under 33% from three

But he does score

Close to 20 again

Cooper Bowser is their big low post presence. He's got 14 points a game six rebounds

And then you've got another bigger guy Charles Johnson

We haven't just close to a double double is basically 10 points 9.1 on rebounds

10 and 9 again

So Yukon's going to have to be competitive on the boards

Aza Thomas

They're thirdly in a score only other player in double figures averages 12.4

He's probably their best three point shooter from the perimeter

Seems to be right around 33 34 35%

So Yukon's got a team here that hey they've shown they can compete against

Teams that are in the tournament

They've shown that they could score

And is Aza Thomas kid

He's actually 39% this year last season he shot 50% from the outside

So this is definitely somebody that you're going to need to keep an eye on if you're Yukon on the perimeter

Later tonight

So those are probably the four names I'd keep an eye on Alex Wilkins your leaning score

Bowser's your the main big Aza Thomas

Your big three point shooter on the perimeter

Then Johnston he's a double double threat

That's who you need to look out for

Firm and if you remember

It's also no stranger to knocking off some higher profile teams in the NCI tournaments if you remember back in 2023

They did knock out Virginia with that crazy

Kind of a miracle finish they were up

Virginia was up what five with 10 seconds left

Ends up losing to Firm and 68 67 so

There no stranger to first round upsets this team

It's a challenge just like any game in the NCI tournament Yukon's got to come in with the right mindset the right mindset the right heart

That's the big thing

They also

Got to play good defense. We're going to talk about that

after break

The host of Lockdown women's basketball and this is Mazda's women's basketball snapshot celebrating the work no highlight reel

Can ever capture it's officially tournament time and the number one seeds are set Yukon is the number one overall seed at 34 and oh

And will headline Fort Worth regional one at Dickies arena joining the Fort Worth site as a top seed is Texas

Leading regional three out west UCLA enters at 31 and one and takes the top spot in Sacramento regional two

While South Carolina leads Sacramento regional four the first round of the tournament tips off this Friday

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Back in on lockdown you con this nca tournament edition as you con will be

Tipping off later tonight 10 p.m. against

Ferman

First off

We've changed our open to the show. I got to do a spot here as well

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What is key we talked about earlier this week one of the three keys in the main in the nca tournament for you kind of be successful

Another piece that we didn't touch on in that day

defense

What's the single thing from last year to this season in terms of the metrics that you cons improve themselves and have been more competitive and played championship level

defense

The old ad is defense wins championships

Talked about that over and over and over and over again regardless of any sport defense wins championships

And Yukon has played championship level defense this season

Top five didn't really even reiterate it the other day at the podium top five at times this season Yukon has been

Defensively a huge change from last season when that was a not a strong suit for that

The

Improvement the market improvement that they made because of players like Silas, Demory, Jr

The head of the Yukon snake the head of the snake defensively for Yukon

Terce region is also a massive impact on the defense event the big time post presence that they need

He's got a show through we've talked about that earlier this week. That was one of the keys his rim protection is part of this defense

But the head of the snake defensively Silas, Demory, Jr. If he can't go

What does that do for Yukon? What does that do for this Yukon defense? That's that's why in a hypothetical situation Silas, Demory, Jr. is not ready

Jaden Ross needs to step into the starting rotation

Because you need a player that will step in and provide the energy on the defense aside that aggressiveness on the defense aside

To make an impact

Try to speed up teams make them uncomfortable and Jaden Ross is that type of player

I think he slides into the starting role of Silas is not able to go by all accounts he should

By all accounts will be there

But you're probably even if he is on the court you're probably going to see an uptake of Jaden Ross's minutes

Because maybe they'll be slowly working Silas back into a full

Full rotation

And then if Malachi Smith can't play did it really all that also was asked about about Melinda

And what he's done this season and why he's been a special impact player for this team off the court in the locker room

He's a type of guy that always players are talking up and up and up despite not having an impact on the court this year

He did play more early on this season when there were injuries when Braille and Mullins and Terrace Reed were out

He was more a part of the rotation

But as this team got healthy

Melinda slid back and has been a bench bench guy

More motivational guy off the bench

Not really seeing time unless it's a blowout either way

The only time he's really seen on the back half of the season time on the court

If Demory if Malachi Smith are not able to go

Dana really said you're going to see Melinda

His last comment at that press conference was that

Be prepared you might see Alec Melinda a lot more than you saw him during the regular season given the current situation

So that's also a possibility of what you could see maybe he's the maybe he's the point off the bench

Maybe this guy that comes in off the bench

And Hurley made it a point to also say that hey

He came here. He thought he was competing for time. This is a player that could

compete for a starting role in the eight ten

He's got that level full of play to him

So it was not a guy that doesn't have ability doesn't have skill. He's here for a reason

At the very least he'd be six made off the bench is what Dan Hurley said in the eight ten that caliper player

very least

likely starting role

So if Demory is not able to go

So

That's what transpires, but the defensive success is greatly important for this team to make a run

They got to play solid defense

Which is why if Demory is not available I see Jaden Ross sliding in

Because you got to have that on ball defender

To wreck havoc and create havoc defensively

I think that's what you're going to see

In our final segment

We're going to talk about a one and done setting and why Daniel Hurley believes it's a freeing nature

The NCAA tournament why he likes it

We'll talk about that after the break

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Back in on this final segment of locked on Yukon the NCA tournament preview show is for women and Yukon battle 10 p.m. tonight as Yukon

Kicks off their path to potentially a third national championship in four seasons. I believe I believe it's realistic

This team has everything that it takes and why does Yukon play so well in the NCA term everybody knows the stats everybody knows how they've covered after it

Was it 13 straight games? They've covered in the NCA tournament is one of the stats. I've seen out there

Why do they take care of business in the NCA tournament? Why are they more competitive in the NCA tournament? Why do they play their best in the NCA tournament? Dan Hurley talked about it

He says the freeing nature of the NCA tournament where listen when you win a championship and when you're going through the grind of a regular season

And maybe you drop a game that you shouldn't and then you look ahead and you have the two tough as next games on your schedule and you're like ah

You could have a three game losing streak here

That all wipes away in the NCA tournament. You're not looking ahead in the schedule. You're not looking ahead in the calendar

What you're doing is you're in the moment. You're present

There's no all we've got oh St. John's is circled on that calendar

Right there's no let down game because you're looking ahead to the next opponent

In the NCA tournament

It's either you show up and you play

Or your season or your potentially if you're senior and you don't have a path forward

Your career would be over

It's why

Especially when you have coaches like Dan Hurley

Leaders like Dan Hurley

It's why

They get their teams to focus

Because they are able to communicate the importance of these situations to their teams

No doubt

And Dan Hurley can relax

It's more he's more at ease because it's a one and done setting that hey

This is it

No going back

He also did talk about hey your success your prior success in NCA tournament runs

That does create more and more and more pressure. So as he's had success

You would think hey once you get an amount top

That relief is off your shoulders

For Dan Hurley it's more

That's your new expectation

That's the new requirements. That's your new you know what you can accomplish. So if you don't go out and do it again

That adds on more pressure and more angst

Especially as you go through a regular season

Especially when you go through a regular season you're not playing despite winning games like you did this year 29-5

Despite not playing your best

You saw Dan Hurley extra frustrated especially after wins this season

I think that's trying to be perfect. We talked about this. You don't need to be perfect every single moment

As long as you're we talked a lot about this right?

So I'm here improving as long as you're getting better better and better and better each and every single day

So you're just driving towards that ultimate goal and getting better and getting closer and closer to it

And that's your job as a coach right

To continuously get more and more out of your team and not but but to a certain extent not ask them to do things you know they can't do

Because you you crafted this roster you crafted this team you crafted this program a certain way in the vision that you have for execution on game day

And now

You know it's not you con in the biggest where you have limited freedom of motion and

Much more physical

When you get into NC at tournament time just like what we saw in out of conference play

It's not teams that know you ever in that played you multiple times each and every season

Dan Hurley's talked about this a bunch and I know I've talked about this on a national scale with some of the other locked on

team members and I know I've gotten reactions like what what do you mean

But when you play two to three times St. John's we've already played them three times

And when you go up against a coach like Rick Patino

You know what you're getting

Patino knows what's coming from Yukon

And these coaches are good enough that they're gonna adjust and they're gonna play differently. They're gonna be able to shut certain things down

It leads to certain situations like happened

And the biggest title game now the same is true the other way around you saw what happened in the first gaming at St. John's

Want when you got when Dan Hurley got St. John's and Hartford

He made the adjustments right

So the truth between seeing you kind of St. John is somewhere in the middle

But the thing is these teams know each other so well and conference play

That is tougher. It's tougher games despite

The perceived lack of competition and lack of talent that's in the biggest

Despite that you go up against somebody over and over and over again. You're gonna know how they play

You're gonna know tendencies. You're gonna know coaches tendencies. You're gonna know rotations

You're gonna know everything about these players inside and out

When you get to the NCAA tournament

It's teams you really haven't played

When's the last time you come play do you see a potential second round matchup or you see if they haven't played since the American

His coaches don't know each other

The Hurley's in the Dawkins obviously. Yeah, if they match up. Yeah, of course. They know each other, but

They haven't played each other

McCrone it does know Dan Hurley

But as UCLA team doesn't

Mick has not played Yukon since he was in the American

That's your next matchup

And that would be all the way to the sweet 16 you play in teams. I don't know you

And to me that allows Dan Hurley to do more things get more creative

Because these teams haven't seen Yukon day in the day, and I think that speaks to why Dan Hurley is more

Feels more free in the NCAA tournament. Yeah, it's one and done setting. Yeah, there's an endpoint there

But you're also going against teams that

You're gonna be able to do things that they haven't seen before especially when you're here at Yukon

Doing what Dan Hurley is with his coaching staff and how they execute their offense run their offense

So I think that's also why Dan Hurley thinks the NCAA tournament is much more free for him

More maybe less pressure for him and his team

So that's the final thing I want to touch on heading into the game

Yukon Furman

10 p.m

The start of potentially a third a run to a third national championship in four seasons

We'll see how it goes. We'll be back related today

We'll be back post game as well

hockey

We've got hockey semis

Against Boston College 7 p.m. At the Garden in Boston

We'll have a preview of that later this afternoon as well

But for now, thanks for tuning in today's episode of locked on Yukon

We already talked about what else you're gonna be seeing later today and tonight

Make sure you subscribe and follow locked on Yukon all across social media

So you get all the latest episodes if you're never missing episode the every day or club is built for you

Get locked on Yukon add free plus members only discord access and more

At the locked on Yukon does supercast dot com to join the club again locked on Yukon dot supercast dot com to join the club

Since NCAA tournament time Yukon Furman 10 p.m. tonight. We'll be back later today until then see y'all

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