Yaxel Lendeborg and Roddy Gayle media availability

I think it's a great opportunity for us to be able to get some good film against a team that really exposed their weaknesses. I feel like we got to do a better job of taking care of the ball, especially with Cincinnati. They got a lot of smaller guards, we were able to like call into our bigger guards. So I feel like that's just an opportunity.

We were down a few guys, you know, some of our bigs, so we had to play smaller. And it was just kind of a great opportunity to get good film, especially when you play small ball, just finding different unique ways to be able to come up with a victory. I feel like we fought, fought back in the second half a lot better and that was It was just kind of some adjustment things that we made at halftime.

And to follow off of that, we were being really lazy, you know, with our dribble handoffs and setting up our plays. So that was great to, you know, see how we practice it, you know, goes back into the game and it made us look pretty bad. We had like 20 turnovers, if I'm not mistaken. So it was pretty bad in my point.

Sam. Yaxel Lendeborg, you said they need you to do more. Was that something you identified? Was that an explicit conversation Dusty had with you?

How did that manifest itself? That's something Ate, my trainer from last year, AJ's here. I went up to him at halftime, you know, just asking for advice like I did last year. You know, he just, you know, he just said it to me straight, you know, I'm playing soft, you know, and I should be dominating these guys.

You know, it's just when he, when he says, you know, it just puts it in a different perspective for me. And I tried it one time, it worked. And, you know, looked at him, said thank you, and then just kept going.

It was just two cramps in my calves, low calves. First it was hamstring, then it moved on down. But you know, that's okay. But playing in Dusty's system, man, it was fun.

I'm so used to being so systematic, you know, this is just like pro basketball, you know, that's what it felt like. Everybody's moving around, everybody's touching the ball and it was fast-paced, you know, there was a lot of times this game I was out of breath. So I think that's where the cramps came from. But it's going to be really fun this year to play under his system.

It's just foul call, foul call, foul call. I mean, I don't think I've seen a game that had that many foul calls in it.

So, man, I don't know if anybody else felt the same way I did, but those foul calls kind of helped me out a little bit. I was, I was gassed, you know, so I mean, I was the one pretty much shooting a bunch of free throws today, so it kind of helped me out, build a little bit more rhythm and see the ball go in. But on the other end, it was a little frustrating because I felt like they were a little ticky-tacky, in my opinion. But it was still fun.