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  • basketball director of operations.

  • The 2011 a.

  • C c.

  • Player of the year J take it away knowing you and I have talked so much throughout this time.

  • Um, you know, first off, how is what's been the messaging, like from Coach K and your staff?

  • As you guys, we're dealing with the players and, you know, talking about the uncertainty of all these, You know, this covitz situation that we're dealing with?

  • Yep.

  • Yep.

  • No, First of all, thank you all for having me on this morning.

  • I appreciate you all having me.

  • Um, yeah, it's been obviously crazy times, indeed.

  • And the main thing we've been telling our guys, first of all, let's just stay safe.

  • And our university is that an amazing job of keeping our players safe from Dr Kevin White Keeping are all student athletes safe and just reaffirming to our guys like way do we have to do we wear our mask?

  • We're doing all the proper things that we're gonna have a season.

  • And as we all know, a sports, sports fans and sports lovers.

  • It's been weird.

  • It's been weird and our guys know that.

  • But every single day they're doing what they have to do.

  • They're they're coming to work every single day and they're bringing their own energy.

  • And that's kind of what we're looking forward to with this season.

  • Keyshawn J.

  • Willens Zubin is presented by progressive Insurance.

  • Noah Smith is joining us on a shell pins.

  • Oh, performance line knowing what kind of plans were in place.

  • If there is an outbreak on campus, how would you guys handle it?

  • Yeah, I mean, campus campus has been very strict from beginning.

  • Um, obviously on our campus has been very positive 0.1% rate of cases and, you know, so they if anything was to happen, we were preparing for them to obviously do what's best for the student athlete and for the students.

  • Um, whatever that means, we're not sure yet.

  • We just hope that our cases stay low here and that we're able to have a season for our players.

  • Sometimes it's best to go last, and we've seen Major League Baseball, the NFL, You know, the NHL finished their season.

  • What have you guys learned from some of the knowledge that they gathered about contact, trace and being able tohave sterile environments and be able to have the, um the chips that players you know are able to walk around with so that if they come in contact with somebody with Kobe, you guys can isolate those guys, find them and be ableto move on.

  • Yep, yep.

  • The one thing that we feel like we're very confident about is our daily testing.

  • We're testing every single day.

  • So with that, were ableto able to have ah daily, you know, answer for what's going on.

  • So they they're saying for us, that should eliminate the contact tracing and who's out for a certain amount of days because of that.

  • So, you know, we're very proud of that, that we are able Thio daily test Our guys get a daily answer for them, and it helps with their their mind and knowing that they do not have it every single day.

  • Although the test the testing is is, uh, it could be annoying to the players.

  • I know, but they're they're doing they're coming.

  • Everything what?

  • They on time to get tested.

  • But that right there is something that we're we are proud of to say that you know, with barely testing, worked with some of the best people in the medicine world.

  • They're keeping our guys safe.

  • Now.

  • Me and Jay will got chest her older than most of the players that's gonna be playing, you know, in this division, meaning that they have a bunch of energy.

  • You know, how you guys gonna present the product to the fans so that we can try and replicate that energy we saw in the bubble that they had some innovative things where they had the video screens.

  • Is there any plans in place to try to make the product more aesthetically appealing to the viewers at home?

  • Absolutely.

  • We have some amazing people here working and working on some virtual digital boards that are gonna be put in the camera crazy section that to the viewers, it's gonna It should get some type of camera indoor feel.

  • Um, and we're excited.

  • Thio.

  • Well, that out here soon tow our players so they can start getting used to it and getting a feel for the new Covic Cameron Indoor Stadium, which it won't be like when Jay Will was cutting down the lane, dunking all people.

  • It won't be.

  • It won't be like that.

  • You touched on.

  • That's gonna be completely different.

  • But, you know, we have we have We have a terrific team here that's gonna make it as best as we can for our guys and for the opposing team's it's gonna be different.

  • No.

  • Come into camera and not have somebody standing on top of, you know, waving her hand at you.

  • It's gonna be a different experience for everybody.

  • Well, I was gonna say, Take me into that a little bit.

  • No, because we talked about here.

  • We talked about that here on the show.

  • You know, these guys not getting a chance to feel the fans on top of them Azaz.

  • Much as we try to replicate things virtually, it's not the same describe, you know, how much will that lessen the advantage that Duke typically has when we play home games?

  • Yeah.

  • No, I definitely think it's gonna lessen the advantage, you know.

  • So the main thing that we're stressing during this time is who are we gonna be when that ball goes up?

  • You know, and then today, people going to still come into Cameron Indoor Stadium and know that there, you know, amongst a lot of history, if I still see the banners.

  • They're still gonna They're still gonna be some generous but with no fans, that obviously takes away a huge part of of the home court advantage for us Away way.

  • Definitely understand that.

  • But the energy and the fight that our guys could bring, you know, that's going to start with locker room talk, the defense room, talk, the energy on the court, the music, the atmosphere that we can create for ourselves.

  • It's gonna be it's gonna be huge.

  • And our players know that they're prepared for that because they're prepared for season after the day.

  • When you get between them lines, you gotta bring it.

  • Nolan Coach K, 73 years old.

  • You have guys like Roy Williams, head coach, North Carolina, 70 years old Jim Boeheim.

  • You know, up there as well how judicious through these guys need to be.

  • We saw a case.

  • Tom Izzo has cove it the other day, and he's been trying to be as judicious is possible.

  • What are the safety precautions that you guys have taken for these coaches?

  • Coaches staying away as much as possible.

  • You know, he's done a great job since since day one ast.

  • First you start out being off the court and just watching from a distance, you know, minimal contact.

  • And he's still he's still there where, you know, very minimal contact.

  • But when he needs to talk to our guys and give them some points of offense defense, he comes out there and he does that.

  • But he knows more than anything that he has to take care of himself and be safe during this time.

  • We don't We don't want anything happening to him.

  • You know what?

  • We don't want any shit.

  • We don't want him getting Kobe by no means So you know, for all of us, a staff and everybody around here doing his best we can to keep him safe.

  • We're doing that and you know, he keeps his mask on.

  • He keeps his distance from from the guys, So that's we'll keep reiterating that to him, and you know he's following that.

  • Aziz, you know, J as you know, Jay, that's that's tough for him.

  • Yeah, I know, I know.

  • It only seems appropriate.

  • That's the case because you can't have Coach K court without Coach K.

  • So he's got to be out there when the season does begin for Duke here in about a couple weeks.

  • Thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content subscribed to ESPN plus right now.

basketball director of operations.

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