>> Three games since the last time we spoke with you here, coach, and some impressive wins.

We'll start with the Wagner win.

Would you like most about how your team played against Wagner?

COACH JACK: Defense.

Defense is my mantra for this year.

It's been my identity, all my career, but I let it slip away last year, and we were trying to get that back.

We're trying to really own that power.

>> Yeah, certainly, we're locked in holding Wagner to 29 points.

We also saw Jasmine Cooper start as a freshman.

What impressed you in practice and in some of the early games to give her that starting nod?

COACH JACK: She would do whatever it takes for us to have success and I know how unselfish she played, and how, four other players can play with her.

And we're still trying to search for that vibe that's starting five.

We're going to continue to change it and try to grow it and move it around.

But what's been constant for us is Jasmine Cooper and her commitment to just being an amoeba to the team and just blending in to where we were needed the most, whatever that might be.

>> Well, one of the four players that scored in the game was Olivia Schmidt.

She was out there for the first time, and she hit two big threes.

Great to see her healthy and playing like herself.

COACH JACK: Yeah, you know what?

Sometimes you just kind of look and see what's in front of you, and you just keep the people in front of you in front of you.

But now that she engages in herself back into practices, you kind of see what you've been missing.

I see the spark plug.

She's a feisty, fiery Staten Island young lady who really, throws her chest out and says, You know what?

I might be smoked, but you're going to have to come after me every single possession, because there's no backing down in her.

So the more she gets healthy in that leg, the better we're going to be for the team, I think.

>> So the transition now to the tournament that you played in, the women's Showcase tournament, great support in this road trip to Mohegan Sun Arena, and I know it means a lot to you when the fan base turns out for your team.

COACH JACK: Man, this is so incredible.

look in the stands and see Linda Lurch there and to see Cammy and Phil and their family is there, and a host of the parents and this warms my heart because the fan takes is growing just leaps and bounds on the road for us and it's been great at home.

I just can't thank the donors and the the fans and their alumni for support.

>> Your team won in the first game against Utah, and then went up against one of the best teams in the country in Michigan lost that one.

But starting with the Utah game, what did you take away from how your team played and really played great in the second half?

COACH JACK: They locked eyes.

They locked eyes with each other, they locked eyes with the opponent, and they never looked at the score and said, "We're out of this thing.

And so therefore we surrender."

They really are engaged to defense.

They flew around the floor, everyone we put in.

We didn't lose a beat, and I just feel they felt like we stayed cohesively together and I think that it made me believe that this is a team that's gearing out for something bigger than this moment, and they had some real ideas that, you know, post season it could be a part of our story too.

>> And I know you want your team's idealities to have the identity of defense and rebounding.

We really saw that against Utah, 24 offensive rebounds in that game.

COACH JACK: Absolutely.

It's about, you know, rebounding is nothing you coach up, really.

It's a heart moving.

I thought that against Utah, we just said we were not going to be denied.

You know, you box us out, we swim moved around.

You know, you box us off, we use our arm and pulled forward, and we just found every way to go out the board.

And, we also got fouls because it too, but we did to put another kid in, and then other kid did the same thing.

And so we just want them to go after what they believe belongs to them, and that's the rebound.

That's the thinkless spot right there.

That's what I did as a student athlete.

I went after the rebound, because to me, that's the microcosm of life right there.

That's nobody's going to give you anything, you gotta go get >> And the MVP of the Utah game, rightfully so, was Dominic Darius.

She gets her first career double double, 16. points, 10 rebounds.

She really played great in the second half of that game, especially.

COACH JACK: She's owning that power, like the first half of that game.

I think she might have had zero points, you know, something low.

>> I think it was two points, yeah.

COACH JACK: Two points, and then you look in the halftime, she's the one talking and saying, got to look at this.

You got to think about that defense.

Communicating with a team when I walked in in the locker room about what we have to do to be able to be better, and then because proud of her journey.

>> so big win over Utah, then you turn around, then get a ton of time to scout Michigan, who's one of the best teams in the country, and took the climb to the brink.

Would you take away from going up against one of the best teams in the country in Michigan?

COACH JACK: I just here with them that, you know, no one has ever a national championship in November we're going to win, and we're going to learn.

We're not going to lose.

We have to understand that.

It's not about Michigan.

It's not about, you know, their ranking, and it's not about Howard University.

It's not about, you know, Auburn it's about who are you when the walls are closing in on you?

Who are you when they trap you in that corner for the third time?

Why would you continue to make that same mistake in life?

You keep going back to that same guy.

You keep going back to that same chick, and you know that's a mistake, right?

And you keep going and that's the life lessons I'm trying to teach our young people.

Take another route, go to the middle of the floor, go to the middle of the floor, go to the other side of the floor, where they're not as strong with chose right hand, and then we can Become better equipped for not just in game, for the game of life.