Hopefully there will be a replay which works. This live feed is useless.
edit: I've given up on the live feed.
Worked fine for me.
A few thoughts:
Mora is a
really really good public speaker. He speaks off the top of his head, yet every answer seems as if it has been thoroughly prepared. That’s very hard to do well and he made it seem easy.
Mora said that as soon as the UConn job became available, he wanted it. He spoke about the UConn brand being a national brand, the amazing quality of facilities, the tradition of excellence, both on the field and academically, and the depth of fan support. He came across as being very sincere, I believe him, but he is a skilled speaker and difficult to read.
His answer as to why he reached out to high school coaches was excellent, and I suspect there will be video of it available soon. In essence he said that he believes there is wisdom at every level of coaching, so he wants to have a dialogue with the high school coaches. He also talked about how he’s invited them to practices and staff meetings so that they are knowledgeable about the school and the program sufficiently that when they have a college level player they will be comfortable sending them to UConn. It was a very smart answer.
My favorite part of the press conference was when he talked about how he “likes going uphill.“ He said that “hard things are hard“ and that makes them worthwhile. He recognizes that the Connecticut job will be hard, but that in and of itself is part of the attraction.
As the old saying goes the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and the proof of Jim Mora will be winning seasons, but he is an extraordinarily good hire in my opinion. Everything he has done so far, and it’s been a lot, has been thoughtful and intelligent. He’s hit the ground running before his first official day. He doesn’t seem like a guy to whom “good enough will be good enough.“ Time will tell, but I think Benedict hit the ball out of the park with this hire.
