Discussing ASU Women's Basketball Media Day, Previewing Men's Day

TEMPE -- In today's episode of the Arizona State Sun Devils Insider Podcast, we take a look at the media days for both basketball programs.

To listen to today's podcast, view below.

Below is a partial transcript of Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham's post-game press conference on Saturday.

On Bounce Back Mentality

"I think, I mean, over the last year and a half, we've proven that that's not us. And if you get too caught up in no outside noise, you know, you can get convinced of something you're not, and you can't get convinced of something you're not. Now, do you have to self correct when you realize that maybe you're, you know, you've miscalculated and steered something the wrong direction?

Yeah, right. That's what you got to do. But that doesn't mean that you're going in the wrong direction. Just means you might be five degrees, seven degrees off right. And I think, you know, good programs, they don't turn left or right, they just turn a little bit. And all we did..."

On Sam Leavitt

"That's Sam. You know, I was just gliding into the basketball this week. You know, that's what people think a competitor like that does. It's disgusting. The dude's a battler. He's a competitor, he's a fighter. He wants to do everything he can to get on that field first team. He was ready to play this week. I felt he was ready to play this week. And he played and he fought and he competed, and that's what Sam Leavitt does..."

On Jordyn Tyson Battling Through Injuries

"Yeah. I mean, well, in the fourth quarter, when that happened? I mean, it was definitely unfortunate, but he battled back. I mean, he's a, he's a he's a fighter, he's a competitor. I think that's what our our team's built off of is people will fight, and you'll win a lot of games with people who will fight."

On Building Off of Texas Tech Win

"Yeah, good question. I think anytime you have a win like this, it rejuvenizes Your program, especially after the embarrassment of I still want to talk about it, because I'm still so embarrassed by it of two weeks ago. So anytime you can have a win like this, it can definitely put you in the right direction. But the key is, doesn't make you complacent.

Now, the reason we could win this game is because we lost the game prior. We don't win this game if we beat Utah, we don't win this game if we have you close first Utah, we only won this game because we were so embarrassed that our guys had a different level of intensity and focus, and we found it. And now the challenge is, through the praise, can we continue to have it? And so I would say it can. It's a positive, but it can also be a negative if we don't use it to continue to drive us."

On Parity in College Football

"Yeah, I think it's awesome. I think the parity and college football now, it's just, it's crazy. Anybody can beat anybody any week, the way it's set up. And everybody builds programs different ways. I mean, you've got it's just the way you build programs is so different nowadays. And there's some things that I believe in that we're going to continue to do here forever, until I get fired, and just kind of how it's going to work."

Read more on why the Arizona State men's basketball team will exceed expectations in the 2025-26 season here, and on three major takeaways from the win over Texas Tech here.

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