Dusty May press conference after win over Villanova

Those possessions, yes, absolutely. The things that we feel like are our DNA, that intensity and physicality and togetherness on that side of the ball, and then unselfishness and making servant type of plays where I cut to get you a shot. Or Morez got a dunk right after halftime because he's trying to set a flare in for Yaxel Lendeborg.

They played the flare, Aday Mara made a nice play. So those are the plays that when we're watching, obviously we're extremely talented, but when we're watching the game, it's like, wow, man, that's what these guys are doing is difficult. They're getting all of this newfound attention and love and whatever, and they're still serving their teammates and trying to play the right way.

Yes, those are the moments on the bench when we as a staff will bump each other and say, man, that's a heck of a player. Wow, that's really unselfish. Or, man, he's locking up, you know, things like this. Absolutely.

But as far as like, are we marveling at the performance tonight? No. Like, we've got to get a lot better. We have to get better. Steve.

It, it just shows how well we're defending, and the shots aren't determining our defensive energy now. I think a lot of times it's human nature If you watch games on television, you're making shots. When you're making shots, your defensive energy is better and everything is better. I feel like our defensive energy is almost that.

It's at a 99 percentile. That's our 100th if we're not making shots. And so that's a real sign of growth and maturity. And now that can all change tomorrow based on, you know, what— if we continue to value that stuff over whether the shot's going in.

Because, yeah, I thought we shot poorly tonight. I thought we had some great looks, paint touch, in-out. No turn threes and they hit the back of the rim. But also we were on the glass and we have the athleticism to go get some of those back and get second shots.

But absolutely, I mean, for us to win at this margin against a program like Villanova, and they have good players, is a testament to how our offense isn't dictating our defense.

Uh, does it help? I don't know if it helps or hurts. You don't know, because with it comes more of attention and more people that are just popping up. But I don't know, it's on us.

We have a very mature group and I don't feel like it's in there at all. But we just, we got to constantly be on the fight. But the number 1 ranking, these guys deserve it, man. These guys, what they're doing now to defend and block out all the complacency issues that can creep up on teams.

It's a testament to their work. And without a doubt, I don't know if we're off tomorrow. We've actually, I haven't talked to staff yet, but Next day we're on the court. These guys have been here for film.

They'll be in here working on their games. They'll be in the weight room working. So that's probably the thing that they're still— they still want more and they know that we have to get better if we're going to compete and beat the best night in, night out. All right. Thanks to everybody.