Elliot Cadeau and Aday Mara react to win vs. Wake Forest

Like, that doesn't go in the box score, but just how much does Aday Mara's presence down there change things? Yeah, he definitely alters basically every shot at the rim, and it's been a struggle for me to get used to that in practice, but ultimately it's been helping me because I want to get to the next level. At the next level is going to be like that.

So, um, yeah, you've seen how high the kid have to throw the ball up in the air just not to get blocked, and that's a really hard shot to make. So at the end of the day, we're going to live with that shot. Y'all shot 16% from 3, not the greatest shooting night. Was it an intentional game plan to try to get the ball inside to Aday Mara, Morez Johnson, Yaxel Lendeborg?

Was that intentional by you guys because of the bad shooting night? We felt like we had a height advantage that game because their starting 5 man was like 6'7", 6'8". And, yeah, our game plan was to kind of get the ball to those guys. And we knew we were going to double team.

And he's a really good passer. So that's kind of something we wanted. You guys both talked about, I mean, 13-point lead in the second half goes away. How you still then kind of recovered from that?

Yeah, just staying level-headed. Like, we were up. If we're down, we're still gonna have the same mentality. So just staying level-headed and just keep getting stops.

We feel like we need to pride ourselves on defense, and we're going to do that regardless of the score. And then Aday Mara's effect on the game on both ends halfcourt, the blocks and the passing too, if you could both kind of speak on that. Yeah, um, he almost had a triple-double, and I told him before the game that he could easily get one.

And yeah, he's just having a lot of impact, especially on like layups the whole game. So if a team is going to beat us, they're most likely going to have to beat us on jumpers. It's the ultimate dream to play on the NBA court for college basketball players. How was the experience for you guys tonight?

It was great. We went to the game last night, the Pistons versus Wizards game. So just to see them on the court, and that's the level we all want to get to, just to play on the same court, it's like a dream for all of us. Which overtime game was better, that one or this one?

This one. This one. What was the message from Dusty May and the staff in the second half as that lead was slipping away and you guys were struggling to find a bucket? Just to stick to our principles and just play defense, like get stops.

And they were kind of killing us on the offensive boards down the stretch, so just to box out. Aday Mara, you saw a lot of double teams today. How are you able to work through those, especially like looking for teammates on the double?

Well, I don't like to say it, but I would say like all these 22s and 33s in practice, they're working. So, and yeah, I'm just happy that right now, like I would say like my conditioning is good. I just try to run Every time I was taking all this, all these short times that they were— we weren't playing to get the rest. And yeah, I'm just— I would say it's easier when you got like this game shape to play for long minutes. So I'm just happy that I was I was able to do it today and help the team. So—

Yeah. Elliot Cadeau, did you feel like you guys matched their intensity up until about the 7-minute mark? It seemed like they were really coming after you guys. Yeah, I think in the beginning of the game we did match their intensity and I think As the game started to go on, we did.

How much did the two exhibition games, being as competitive as they were, help tonight at all? Yeah, it definitely helped because we've been in this situation. We've been in overtime at Madison Square Garden, which is a bigger and harder place to play at. So, like, it was basically on the road too.

So that's kind of the craziest environment you could be at in college basketball. And we already did it, so we kind of felt more comfortable. What does it say about Roddy Gayle to hit the shot at the end after, you know, a cold shooting night? Um, it just shows like how mentally tough he is and that he could—