Transcript
With us on Coach's Corner here in KWBG, you get a chance to put a wrap on the really, really successful DMAQ men's basketball season. Blake Sandquist joining us and I know when we talked, it was like forever ago, but back in November about what this season could be.
Blake, you had high hopes. I do remember that. I actually went back and listened to the interview. You said, listen, we're going to make some mistakes just because we're young and experienced.
Boy, those mistakes though, they were few and far between when you guys got rolling along here this season. Yeah, for sure. I think the verbiage probably off there was young and dumb.
We don't have dumb kids in the classroom, but like we just early on didn't know how to play golf basketball. And you know, that happens when you have one returner.
And thank God we had Ryland Smith back this year because he helped so much and set the tone and established our, you know, our expectations and culture and love that kid to death going to miss him. And no, it came to fruition.
You know, if you would have told me back in the middle of November, I guess, that this before like that we would be where 33 wins and don't only eight, I would have said you're crazy. I thought we would have probably finished third, fourth place, consider how we were playing.
But yeah, man, kids grew up and special things happened in the way we wanted to, but try to keep it in perspective and really proud of what we accomplished. Blake, I know it's a long season.
I always hate to ask this question, but sometimes you coaches surprised me with remembering stuff, but was there a stretch during the season where you felt like, you know what, we might be able to roll and do something.
Yeah, I think it was win at Elbert on that was a big match up when they were ranked number one in the country. And we found a way to go there and win. And it was one of the better games I've coached in. And yeah, our kids really grew up in that moment.
And we had some guys make some big time plays. And, you know, after that one was kind of like, okay, yeah, maybe we are the Mac of old. And we can figure this out. But still like to go 20 and know in our conference, like that's just undone and unheard of.
And we have five teams ranked in top 25 all year. So that I'm not sure that'll ever be done again. If it is, it's gonna be a heck of a team. And I'm not really really proud of the guys.
You talk about undefeated in conference play, I know they always say records are made to be broken. And I know I heard a stat from, you know, the Iowa men's basketball team, they hadn't been in the, you know, the Elite eight since 1987. I'm gonna throw this one out there.
And I know, coach, it's probably too fresh. And you'll probably agree. But how can another team go undefeated in this conference with this league and these teams? I mean, it just feels like if that's a record that goes down, it's going to be a minute.
Yeah, I don't know how it ever happened again. You know, it would you it would be wild. Even for our own program for a conference, but again, would be insane.
And there's some really good coaches are leading but this isn't the ICTA, like, you know, Ellsworth used to not be very good for a while. You know, there were several other programs that would come and go. And now it's like, there's like, five, six programs.
And then the bottom of our league is no joke either. I mean, Western Iowa Tech and Northeast, like some of these teams, they knock off really good other teams. And it's just, I'm just amazed how we did it. It's something that we'll hold on to for a long time.
National tournament, you get the the overall number one seed. I know you said when you saw the bracket, you're excited, obviously, number one to get the number one seed. But you saw a potential pitfall that that could have been coming. Yeah, 100%.
And I honestly, I'm not going to be politically correct on this one, like I normally am. But I thought it was a slap in the face for us to play Ellsworth in the second round. It doesn't take a genius to look at our schedule and see we play them in overtime two weeks before that.
And then the previous game we played with them was a three point game grudge match at their place. So for you to give us the one seed, and then put them in the second round, I just I thought it was a joke to be honest with you.
And I said that at one of my post game meetings out there, Danville, I knew, I knew Ellsworth was probably prime to beat us. And they had a kid that hadn't played since December come back and play. We knew he was coming back, but even made them even better. So it was frustrating.
Now we didn't, you know, I'm not gonna tell my guys that we went to war and prepped them to try to win. And you know, we shot 29% from the floor.
And I don't know that we did that all season, we played defense good enough to win, we rebounded, we honestly had 1617 offensive rebounds, did that to win, we just couldn't throw in the ocean. And it was probably the most physical game I've ever coached in.
And you know, we just we didn't adjust. And that's on us and staff and, you know, just got to make plays. And we didn't do so that night. Well, you did get an opportunity though, to come back and those I know the comeback games are never, you know, easy one.
They're tough on the kids to they're tough on the coaches too. I mean, you went in with a goal to not be in the fifth place game. I mean, you went in with this tournament with a goal, you wanted a national championship coach, but you come out against Milwaukee area tech.
And man, that was a huge first half. I mean, it's 4330 at the break. And I'm thinking this might be one of those, you know, monumental type games. You did put up 90 that game, but the kids were ready to go. So was the coaching staff. It sounds like, yeah, it was, it was good.
It was good to see us bounce back in that way. And you know, I had a lot of people who texted us and said, Hey, that was, that looked like the regular season D Mac. And like, I, I can laugh about that. And it is what it is.
When you get to the national tournament, you're playing good teams, even, even the Lansing team, we'd be in the first round by five and we were up a lot. They went on to win the compilation bracket for the seventh place. Like our side of the bracket was brutal.
I mean, to put three ICCAC teams on the same side and Pima is really talented team, which we saw in the last game as well.
Um, it was just kind of, I just, I just thought it was a poor bracket and I think they need to make some changes and I don't know what that consists of, but hopefully they can learn from it and make some improvements in the future.
Well, I, like I said, I know not where you wanted to end this season, but boy, when I start saying 33 and three, does that still put a smile on your face, Blake? Do you still feel, I mean, when you hear 33 and three, nothing else, just 33 and three. What do you think about?
Uh, insane. Absolutely insane. Um, school record and wins, uh, with 31, we had tied that a couple years ago and then to break it by two games, it's just, it's just wild and flabbergasted to me. Um, testament to our kids and the toughness and real brilliance throughout the season.
Sure. It didn't in the way we wanted to. And it's not the Disney movie. Anything that we wanted. Um, but still, you know, there's one team happy to end the year, you know, and if you get 10, you're had on one international title every year, you're going to be very miserable.
It's just, it's not realistic to do that on a consistent basis. Now we want to compete for it every single year and hopefully someday we'll get over the hump and do that. Um, but I'm just so proud of the guys and what they did this year.
What's the off season look like for you, Blake? I'd love to say you stepped away from basketball, but I know when I called you, you were, you were running yourself. So I know you didn't do that, but what's the off season kind of look like for you? Yeah.
I mean, there's not a lot of time off. I took two days off of actually going to the office Monday, Tuesday, but that doesn't mean I wasn't on my phone and recruiting and hoping our guys get recruited for the next level.
And, um, it's a lot of making sure they get there in a good place. And then, you know, we, uh, we don't regroup or we don't rebuild. Uh, we try to reload. And, uh, so we are diving into, you know, we'll have a good group of freshmen coming back that are excited to make a push.
And then, uh, we'll kind of build around them and the pieces we need and hit the ground running. And you know, I'll be catching some, some youth baseball and some youth travel basketball. And, um, I'm sure my wife has a good at honeydew list for me at home every, every week.
So I'll be plenty busy. I know you will. Blake, thank you so much for just a fantastic season. Always appreciate the conversation. We'll look forward to doing again when November rolls around. Yep. I pre-tail support we had this year. It was awesome. Our crowds were awesome.
And, uh, yeah, look forward to doing it again next year. You bet that's D Mac men's basketball head coach Blake Sandquist joining us on coaches corner on KWBG.
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