it was coach. All right. How are you today coach? I'm well, how are you doing? Great. Alright, so Duke will open play in this week's tournament at 3:30 p.m. On Wednesday against 15 seeded pitt coach. If you want to start with some overall thoughts on the upcoming tournament this week. And then we'll take questions from the media. Sure. Our group is excited to play. Obviously we're we missed last year's tournament and so short trek down the road for us to go to Greensboro and looking forward to getting over there tomorrow. Perfect. Thank you again. If you have a question for coach, please use the raise hand function and we'll get to as many questions as we can during the time that we have for coach. Also, if you need permission to record, feel free to shoot me a message in the chat and we'll get that taken care of for you. Who wants to start us off with the first question. Alright. Andrew along the floor. Is yours awesome. Thank you. Um, Hey coach, so I guess just start. Yeah, 40 th, mm hmm. And what are you expecting from them in Wednesday's game I'm hearing and you broke up quite a bit. I couldn't hear your question at all. Um, yeah, so what do you see Pittsburgh? Yes, Yeah. Andrew, we're having some audio issues with you. If you want to just maybe send your question to me in the chat, then we can we can get you taken care of, let's go next to a Brett Freelander break. Go ahead. Thank you very much. How you doing today coach. Um So obviously you're going into this thing looking to win it. But do you have a feel for what you might need to do to you know to get into the N. C. A. A. Tournament or is that something that because of the nature of this one and done tournament you really can't think a lot about? I haven't really thought about it. Um We're just trying to to win the first game and then we were fortunate enough to do so then we'll try and win the next one. Here's your next question will come from Trayvon, Miles Trayvon, go ahead with your question. Thank you coach. Um Thanks for taking my question. Um We are coming up on the 50th anniversary of Title nine. You obviously have a very interesting perspective going from a player to coach and being in the W. N. B. A. And and going on to the N. B. A. What can you tell me about how, how what kind of progress you've seen as far as the women's game goes and uh what do you think there are things what kind of things you think needs to happen for it to continue to progress? Well, I've seen a lot of progress in the women's game over my time being associated with it. Uh The most or the easiest uh comparable is college basketball because I'm in college basketball now as a coach and and obviously a while back I was in college basketball as a player. And so, um, there's been a number of enhancements, I think to the game. I think the quality of the game continues to improve each year. I think players are, are getting better. Um, I think the exposure is getting better. Um, and I think that, um, you know, the, the people that are paying attention to it, it's growing, it's larger. So I would say all those things are really good. I mean, where would I hope it go in the future? I think you just like more of those things, you know, more, more, more resources. Um, you know, more exposure, more people paying attention to what our sport has to offer because it has a lot to, to offer and the game is, is in a, is in a good place on the court. Thanks coach. But your next question's gonna come from JB rigs JB. Go ahead with your question. Hey, coach, appreciate you taking out the time. Um, I just wanted to ask you as far as the post, you mentioned that you guys didn't get to play in this tournament last year and you didn't have the finish to the regular season that you wanted for obvious reasons. But what, what, what type of rejuvenated energy that you can, you get out of your team knowing that you're getting this opportunity and uh, you know, leave behind whatever happened in the regular season and, and start a new here. Yeah, I think it's a new opportunity for everybody. I mean, all 15 teams in the tournament um have a have a chance to to do that and um you know, we were one of them and and we've got a chance to to try and get a win and that's just the way we're looking at it. I mean it's a little little bit of a quicker turnaround for us um and for all the teams that play the first day because normally you get conditioned at least the last seven or eight weeks to that sunday thursday. Um And now now you go sunday Wednesday. So um that I will say it's a little bit different for us in terms of our prep. But um with that said um I think our group is is ready to go and is looking forward to uh to the opportunity to play in Greensboro, appreciate you. Coach Melvin. You can go ahead with your question. Alright, thanks Justin uh coach, thanks for your time. Um I want to ask you about your all the transfers you've had coming in, you've had a lot of impact transfers come in this year. Could you talk a little bit about the challenges you had to integrate them into your program and to get them playing like a team. I think anytime you have new players regardless of whether they're incoming freshmen or transfers uh there there is a challenge um to be able to get everyone on the same page, not because they don't want to be on the same page, but because they're just coming from all different places and, and certainly with nine new players for us, um, there there's been a lot of, of teaching and a lot of um, trying to get them to understand, um, you know, how we want to play and they've done a great job as far as, um, trying to, to do what we're teaching them and, and, and really trying to understand the schemes and um, you know, where, where as a coaching staff, we're thankful for that. And I think, um, you know, ultimately, um, you know, hopefully continuity is something that we can get to, I think we'll have, you know, a little more of it next year certainly than than we did last year, but that's important. I think when you look around the league and, and you see the teams um, that have have a really successful seasons, continuity is a big threat in that. Um, players that have the experience together and players that have had the time together and experience in the league. So, um, you know, for us, as we continue to grow and continue to try and win games, I think every game we play, we get more familiar with one another and we get more familiar with the system. And so I think that, um, every game that's what I watched I saw us, you know, keep getting more familiar with with each other and and uh that's that's what you want and hopefully on Wednesday we'll be able to come out with a victory which I have. Andrew loans question here in the chat. He wants to ask, what do you see in Pittsburgh and what are you expecting from them in Wednesday's game? Ah Well I think Pittsburgh is a team that that um has a lot of athleticism and we'll be really challenged to try and and defend them at a high level. I thought the first time we played them um you know, we had some some we were able to string some possessions together where we defended them pretty well. Um But you know, there there they can get loose in transition and um they really hurt us on the offensive glass as well. Um So those are two areas that will have to be a lot better. Um And when we play them on Wednesday um the expectation is um that we come out and we play with great effort and you know, that's the expectation I have for my players on Wednesday. And he had a quick follow up to that question, It was what's different from an a. C tournament game versus a regular season game. And do you approach it any differently? I guess I'll tell you after I coach one, Andrew I don't know, I haven't answered that one yet. Um I'm assuming it's going to be more intense and everything and all that, but I don't know. I haven't done it yet, so wait and see.