Gophers coach calls Cade Tyson's eligibility ruling 'embarrassing' for NCAA

Yeah, it's funny. You'd appreciate kids. My seven-year-old had this kind of nasty cough and cold, I don't know, a few weeks back. She's getting a lot better. She was feeling way better. And then I started to come down with it. And so I tell her, I'm like, Taylor, I'm like, man, dad's catching your cough and cold. And she looks at me and she says, well, that's okay, dad. It's a lot better now. And it took me about 10 seconds to realize she thought I was catching Watching what she had then. Those of you who have kids would appreciate that. She had no idea of that. No, sweetheart, I'm catching what you had. So, anyway, we're all good. Yep. You're good to trick-or-treat on that. Oh, are you kidding me? Like, yeah, flu, whatever, rain or shine, we're ready to roll. Is that it? Yeah, that's good. What's your costume? What's that? What's your costume? Gosh, I'm not a big costume guy. We'll have to figure it out. Like, it's always this time of year and whatever. I just like to really... My kids are into it, so we like to have fun, but we'll see what happens. What do you steal from their bags? This other thing you'd say, and don't hold this against me, I'm not a candy guy. I'm not a big sweets guy or whatever. I mean, I like some dessert sometimes, but, like, I'm not Skittles, Starburst. And I don't have a lot. If I opened up a pack of Starbursts, I'd, like, eat the whole thing, and then I'd take you two days to get over it. So not my deal. Looking down. Yeah, no, I think it's great, and it's made practice, you know, a lot more competitive. Like, you know, like today, we'll have a few guys out of practice, not because it's anything long-term, but just sort of holding them out, and you can still actually practice. And so it's been making things a lot more competitive. You're able to do a lot more. I think it helps our scout team too so hopefully as we start preparing for games we got more bodies there too to help us prepare so um all in all it's been great and there's a real competition you know going on for playing time. Uh that's the plan yeah that's the plan yeah yeah that as of today everyone will be available to play on uh on Monday I mean uh minus one who's ineligible. How does that impact the way that you guys are preparing? Well, I mean, we're just preparing like he's not here, you know, so we haven't done anything at all. In fact, for most of the time, Cade's the scout team, you know, on the scout team. I mean, so we're preparing like he's not available because he's not available. So we haven't really crossed that bridge. I mean, he's practicing and all of our all of our stuff, but we've just gone into it that he's not playing. And then if something were to change, you know, that way, we'll we'll figure it out. And the good news is Because he played last year, because he was here this summer, because he's been with us, I think he'll be able to pick up pretty quickly. Just ask him how he's doing. It's really hard. It's kind of unprecedented. Again, he's handled it. As a young man, I don't really know how you could handle it any better than he has. It's really been admirable to see how he's handled it. He kept a great attitude. He's always around and willing to do whatever we need him to do to try to help the team. It's really tough to know the unknown. I think it's going to be really hard for him, quite honestly, if I have this right. Right, I mean two of our first three opponents are going to have Major players who are going to be playing, I think St. Thomas has one, Cincinnati has several, that are under the exact same purview as him, and he's got to sit and watch those guys play against us. That's going to be hard. It should be hard for everybody in college basketball, honestly. You don't have any. No, I mean, I think you're kind of looking at everything, but no, we don't really know. I mean, hopefully here, at some point, we will. Certainly doesn't sound like the, I mean, the NCAA just keeps seeing like they keep digging in, but every time you turn around, somebody else is eligible and somebody, so I don't know what's going to happen. It actually is a kind of little elephant. No, I could be wrong. Maybe he's not, but I thought, again, I could be wrong. I thought that he was eligible. In fact, I think he is. I think he played whatever in their scrimmage. He's just in a different court case. I mean, that's what it is. Maybe. Or start his own. Maybe. Do you know what I mean? Like, but I think he's in one right now. I mean, listen, I, again, like, it's funny. I mean, and it should be top of mind because it's top of mind now, guys, just wait till we start playing games and you got people playing against each other, like you said, and now it's going to become a bigger story. I mean, imagine you get into conference play, like look at the Big 12 and you've got guys who have major players on both sides and one team has their guys playing and the other ones don't. It's embarrassing. And so... It's going to become a bigger story here, and I can tell already what the first whatever six questions are about that. I think that's what we've had. So, yeah, it is, but I think the team is, and honestly, we are. I love them. We're trying to help them any way we can, but we've got to control what we can control, and we don't have them. And so we can't worry about that. If we're spending our energy on that, that's not helpful, and so we haven't done that at all. We're just diving in, and we're getting ready to get better and play Monday without them. Didn't quite work out. Well, I mean, to be honest, like, from a, if you take the name off the jersey or that they were local, there's no upside to us playing them. When I was in that shoot, I tell people that all the time, when I was at Furman and we got really good in the SoCon, which is similar, it's hard to schedule. Because of the quadrants and the metrics to make in the NCAA tournament, there's really no upside for Minnesota, but a ton of downside, right? You lose the game, oh my gosh, if you win the game, it really doesn't do much for you. So taking emotion out of it, it doesn't always make a lot of sense. I'm doing it right now because I think it's great for basketball in the Twin Cities. That's why I'm doing it. You know, I think there'll be a lot of interest in the game. They've done a really good job with their program. Obviously, they've been winning. We're building ours. So I think it's going to generate a lot of enthusiasm about basketball in November. So that's my only motivation. It's not that there's some sort of... You know, real benefit to it other than that, but that's a benefit, right? There'll be people talking about it, people coming to the games to watch and talk. And so I think that that's great. But right now, you know, again, my job is to do what I think is the best thing for the University of Minnesota. And I lived it at Colorado State when you're trying to be an at-large team. There's so many numbers and strategies and everything that goes into giving yourself the best opportunity to be an at-large team. And you look at it. I mean, you don't look around the country. I mean, you don't see, well, just because whatever, you know, this team is down the road from them that they automatically just play them every year in a series. But I'm glad we're doing it, okay? So I'm glad we're doing the game. I think it's going to be great. And let's just enjoy that one. Who knows what the future holds, right? Who knows? Big fan at regulation. I mean, I think that we're all clamoring for rules, right? We all want rules. We want guidelines, whatever they are. At least we have something to follow. We really don't have that right now. I think the Protect College Sports Act, it's not perfect. But when you look at everything, it's a... Pretty good deal for all sides, to be honest. Far from perfect. You know, the players don't have the representation. But, man, there's so many intricacies behind collective bargaining and all that stuff. My biggest thing with it, okay, and I would tell Mark Coyle this. I would tell Tony Battitti this. I would tell anybody here. That's all fine and dandy. But we sat there for two years and did this house settlement, okay, that everybody thought was going to solve this, and nobody followed the rules. And then when nobody followed the rules, there was no punishment for anybody not following the rules. And you look out the history of college sports, does anyone ever get punished? We're supposed to know we can't tamper. Has anything happened to Ole Miss for tampering with the Clemson guy yet? I haven't seen it. I could go on and on. So, I mean, until that's fine, the parameters are fine, but until there's actual punishment for somebody going over the cap, it doesn't matter. We're spending all this time, and people are trying to follow the rules and do all this stuff. I welcome it. But until somebody has. Yes. The adjective I want to say would get me in trouble, so I won't. The stone, or whatever you want to say, to freaking, do you know what I mean? To say, okay, there's actual punishment. Are they going to punish a major institution for violating the parameters of the rules? They're not. I don't think anything's going to happen in this CSC thing that's supposed to monitor over-the-cap spending. These people are more than double what the House settlement is. There's no way these kids are getting that in legitimate third-party NIL. Zero. But nothing's going to happen. Just watch. It never does. So, again, there's my rant. But, like, that's where I get frustrated. Everyone wants to come in and talk about all the rules and stuff. But rules don't matter until you can enforce them, just like this 50-year rule. I'm all for rules, but we've got to be able to enforce them. And right now we can't. Chances in addition to the rafters. I'm not in charge, but if I was in charge, I would love to do that. Thank you for that. I do think there's a real opportunity, you know, I would say, and it's not time to say, but it's, you know, this year is the 30th anniversary of the 1997 team. And I think that's something we should celebrate. I don't. I don't know where it is. It's not my office. I think I've peaked down in the barn to see if it's there. It's not there. I think that's still Coach Haskins' desk down there. Credenza or whatever that I use. And the little phone. There's still a landline phone on the desk. It still works too. You can dial the number. It's pretty funny anyways. But I don't know where the 97 banner is. How important was it to bring in that kind of style? Yeah, I mean, we needed to get bigger. We needed to get more physical. It's very physical. I think it's been great. I'm really excited about him. You know, he's a developing young player. He's going to have his ups and his downs. And, you know, he's going to learn how to play. He's going to learn when people scout, you know, him and what he does well. But it was great, you know, and I think he's worked really, really hard. It's going to be hard. I think he's going to have an impact for us this season. Generally, the carriers like how this is all. I think it's been good. We got really good people just like we had last year. I love the guys. I love their approach. I love their willingness to work. I think they play hard. I mean, I told them after we lost in that double overtime game to Creighton the other night, you know, kind of same thing. We're down. Kyan Evans gets a hit pointer. Grayson's in foul trouble. So right away you're up against it, you know, against a Big East team on the road. I thought the resolve was terrific. So I mean, I thought we learned something about ourselves. And I think I see that out here in practice, you know, the character of these guys to keep fighting and, and that and I think that's going to serve them well as they go into the grind of the season. Man, that's a great question. We were kind of talking about that last year, actually yesterday as a staff. I don't know yet that I can say we're better. I'd like to think we're maybe a better rebounding team. You know, I hope. I don't know that we have a big enough sample size, but I thought we did a decent job at Creighton in the glass, especially as the game went on. And hopefully maybe we're a little bit better on the offensive glass than we were last year. Not that we're going to be, you know, Houston 2.0 or whatever, but hopefully with just a few more bodies and willingness to do that, we're going to be able to move the margins a little bit on that end. I hope as time goes by we're a better three-point shooting team, but we'll see. He has been, I don't want to say without question, but maybe without question, the biggest improvement here in the offseason. First of all, he's a phenomenal young man. He works his butt off. Just like him and Grayson, I thought what happened last year to those guys and Dakai was so beneficial to his development, and he just ran with it. I mean, he's worked so hard on his body getting stronger. He's worked hard in every part of his game. He's playing with so much confidence. I mean, I think people can start to see he's got good length, good athleticism. He had 11 rebounds, you know, the other night. So I'm really excited about his development. He's really shown that he can be a main guy here in our rotation. I hope so. I mean, I think we need him to be more aggressive, and I always use the word play with more force. That doesn't mean reckless, but, you know, Isaac, he's a talented kid. He's also a really nice guy, and I love that about him. Isaac Asima is, I mean, he is, if you have a chance to meet him, there is not a better human being, like, to be around. Sometimes I wish you were a little meaner on the court. You know what I mean? And so he's got to translate that to, you know, when you go between these lines, man, you've got to try to rip somebody, you know, apart. But, man, he was terrific. I mean, he did not have a great first half, nor did anyone on our team for that matter. But, boy, he came out in the second half, and he played really good. So I've seen that in practice here in the summer. So hopefully that's going to carry over when they start for real. Well. It all depends on maybe for Isaac playing angry. That wouldn't be angry for Jaden McDaniels or whatever, right? But maybe for an Isaac Osima angry, right? We're just moving the margins. So, yeah, I mean, some of it too, though. It's like... Now we have an extra game, and there's only so many dates you can play. Like with finals and Christmas and all that, you're trying to squeeze in all these games around your tournaments. We had those five Power Five opponents we're playing, and so some of it's like, hey, we're trying to find a home opener. Who's even available to play, right? So there's all those things that go into it, and so they had a good year last year too. I mean, Paul, I've known Paul, the coach there, for years, just like I've known John for years. Both of them do a tremendous job. I mean, trust me, man, they have my full attention. I've known those guys forever. They can coach their tails off. They're going to have their teams prepared. And, you know, that's the biggest game for them on their schedule to come in here and play. But you know what? Hey, man, that's what it's like to be at this level and to be here. And so you've got to embrace it and go get it. Um... I'm just kind of starting to watch now a little bit, but they had a good year last year. They're going to run really good motion offense. They're unique in that they trap a lot defensively, and so how we handle that is going to be a big deal. Thank you. Thank you. But, yeah, I mean, I think they'll build. Last year they finished, what, third in the league, and didn't they beat St. Thomas, I think, in the conference tournament? And they were right there in the championship game last year. Even though they lost some guys, they have a lot to build on. And so both these two teams we play. Then after that it's Cincinnati, and then it's, I mean, that's funny. Somebody asked me, well, who do you play after that? I didn't even know. Because I just, I don't really care. I just know we play Monday against North Dakota. And I wouldn't even be thinking too much about St. Thomas, except everybody brings it up every five minutes. So I have to talk about it. So anyways, yeah, yeah. Um, I think that's who I am. And as soon as I became a head coach, I just believed in, you know, inviting people to see what you're doing. And I think there's always been this sometimes a secrecy between media or donors or other people. And I think when you give that across, it's like we've got something to hide. I think that we're not perfect. We make mistakes. We don't do, but I think we do a lot of good things. I think the more people are around our guys and our culture and see what we're doing, I think that's great. You guys are more likely to cover something that you feel like you have access to. We want people to cover us and to follow us. We've always done that. I think today you'll see we're going to have a huge contingent of people. We might even have a former pro athlete here with his kids. So I enjoy doing that. I invite people to practice. I want high school coaches here and whatever to come and hang out and I want to get to know people and I want people to feel like they're a part of the program. And we're building that. We're starting that. But if you want people to follow you, you do that through connection. And that's where that comes from. And I don't plan on changing. It's a huge part of the job and I do think again it directly and indirectly translates to more people supporting your program and I think hopefully if you start to have more success and along the way you've been building that kind of culture in your program with people it just starts to become this flywheel right. It's happened that way at the other jobs that I've been at and people invest in something they're connected in. And if you want people to invest, you have to develop connection and it's no different than our team. You want guys to invest in what we ask them to do every day, they better feel connected and cared about. And you do that in small ways with everybody else. If you want your donors or stakeholders to invest, to buy tickets, to maybe give money or whatever, they're going to do that if they feel like there's a connection to your program. And so I think we try to do a good job of that if we can. Thank you guys. Thanks. Yep.