You took a lot of players you brought in for top-30 visits. Is it just a coincidence that you ended up drafting them, or do those visits play a significant role in your selection process?
“Well, I think it’s certainly helpful to gain information about them. Sometimes it’s just the way that it falls. Duke (Tobin) has done a great job of putting the order (together). Obviously, there are other guys that didn’t come on visits that are in that order. I think that just the way it came to us this year was it happened that we took a lot of the guys (we met with).
“We also felt very comfortable with them. Some guys you bring in and you (check) off the list. Those are all guys that we check-marked that were on the list as well. So I think that’s a really good pre-draft process that Duke and the scouts have put in for us, and it paid off today.”
You seem to really enjoy calling the players you’ve drafted on the phone. Is that something that you look forward to every year?
“I do. There’s an art to it. I (try to) pace out their celebration with my words. There’s also the element of not trying to repeat myself for every call, because I’m being filmed for all of them, and I’m aware of that. But it is cool. You get a chance to have that first moment … sometimes it may be perceived as lack of emotion on their part. You can tell when they’re getting all choked up, and you can tell that there’s people around them so you can feel (it). I’ve done enough the calls now where I can feel the significance for each person. It’s pretty fun.
“Somebody was screaming right behind me (on) one of them. I can’t remember who it was — Daijahn Anthony, I think. That was pretty cool.”
Was there any conversation about potentially moving up and trading some of those picks?
“No … You field a lot of phone calls to move back, or move up. Duke handles that well, and we just make our best judgment. Sometimes just staying pat…
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