“I think the fuel started these guys’ freshman year in ’16 when we weren’t in the tournament,” Casey said. “I sat there and looked at those guys and I said: ‘There’s only one way to respond to that, man. We make a decision.’ Those guys were committed to that. We came back last year and had the greatest season ever. Came here, played a really good LSU club and didn’t get it done. That didn’t keep us from saying let’s do it again.”
The 2016 team went 35-19 and was one of the first teams left out of the NCAA Tournament.