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2017 NCAA Tournament: The best of the best from media day

03/16/2017, 1:00am EDT
By Matt Trabold

Matt Trabold (@TrabsMatt)
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The eight teams playing their NCAA Tournament first-round games in Buffalo all faced the media on Wednesday, a day ahead of the beginning of the madness. 

Here are some of the best quotes from press conferences and locker rooms throughout the day:

Notre Dame
Mike Brey, head coach
On his son that used to play football for the University of Buffalo: “I still have an open bar tab at the Marriott Amherst. I'm going to have to clear that from 2008. 2008 MAC champs, baby. My son had a fabulous experience at UB. They won the MAC. As much - as many big games and exciting games as I've been part of - and tomorrow will be one - there's nothing like watching your son play and watching him play a MAC championship in Ford Field back in 2008. He gave us the scouting report on the steakhouse last night, but a lot of great memories here at Buffalo and of UB.”

Matt Farrell, junior guard
On his breakthrough season: “Just the confidence, the working hard and especially the guys around me, they help me and the coaches, this whole culture, this whole program and just having fun with the guys around me. That has a lot to do with it, when you want to play with guys, you want to play together with guys, that makes a big difference, and that’s something that this team has.”

On his advice to the underclassmen: “To not worry about the stage, it’s just another game. It’s a fun tournament...play fearless, there’s no need to be nervous, you’re out here having fun with guys you’ve been playing with all year. It’s a fun time and we’re a confident group.”

Bonzie Colson, junior forward
On being a successful big man though he is undersized: “I think just my mindset being an undersized big. I try to play with that edge and that chip on your shoulder every game being smaller than the 6-10’s. I think I have to use that to my advantage out-hustling people and playing with that energy trying to pick up my players and getting them more involved. Once you have that juice and play with that energy, it is tough to be stopped.”

V.J. Beachem, senior forward
On being excited about the NCAA Tournament even though he’s a senior: “It never gets old. You walk into the hotel and see all the stickers there. They got cookies and snacks waiting for you as you walk in. You love it. That’s when you realize you’re at the NCAA Tournament.”

Princeton
Mitch Henderson, head coach
On the academic rigors of being a student athlete at Princeton: “This is normal for us. I think we have close to twenty midterms this week between the team. This morning, I got down - we have two rooms in the hotel and one room is for studying. Half the team was in there at 8:00 A.M. This is what we do. And when they get out here, we always talk to them about be where you are. So, when we walk out there, we're going to be flying around. And then when we go back to the hotel, we study.”

Myles Stephens, sophomore guard
On the snowstorm: “We won the Ivy League tournament on Sunday and flew up here Monday night just to beat the blizzard, got here and it was snowing Monday night, snowing all day Tuesday, woke up this morning and it was still snow. The weather’s been crazy, I don’t know how people are driving on these roads. It’s Buffalo. I guess it’s the snowiest city in America.”

On past NCAA Tournament upsets the program has pulled off: “Well, we know a lot about the upset when our head coach Mitch Henderson was playing. They upset UCLA. We hear a lot about that. Another one was the Georgetown upset. That’s a really big one. Hopefully, we can work some magic and get an upset.”

Devin Cannady, sophomore guard
On how his team used the extra time from coming to Buffalo early: “You know, using that time to study for our midterms that we have this week and also to just prepare for this game getting our bodies right and rehydrate and stuff like that. Just be prepared to play.”

Bucknell
Nathan Davis, head coach
On preparing for “Press Virginia”: “There's a lot of sleepless nights. No, I think that - again, we don't have the same saga, that we can simulate what they're doing. We can kind of show them and watch a lot of film and try to get them to understand our concepts, but some of it, there's just no way for us to simulate it. So it will be on the fly, when they get in those games.”

Nana Foulland, junior center
On preparing for “Press Virginia”: “We played two other teams this year that full-court pressed us. There were some teams that did it here and there a little bit - not as relentless as West Virginia. You just got to practice on it and work on it and find the outlets and stuff like that. The biggest part is breaking the press. Once you do that, it’s just halfcourt basketball.”

Kimbal McKenzie, sophomore guard
On preventing turnovers against West Virginia’s special style of defense: “Every game there’s going to be turnovers, period. Let alone playing a team like West Virginia. It’s going to happen, they’re going to do things that are going to force us to make turnovers. I think what we have to limit are our live-ball turnovers, where they can get runouts. 5-second violations, jump balls, those are turnovers that we’ll live with moreso than we’re passing it, throwing it up in the air, they’re able to come get it and go on a fast break.”

On Bucknell’s legacy of upsets: “We know that it’s a school that is capable of upsetting teams just because we think we’re just as good as those other teams. We’re going to go into the game confident, going go to in, play hard and see what happens.”

On preparing for “Press Virginia”: “Coach has been taking us through some drills where we have two guys on us where we’re forced to make a decision...our scout team’s been trying to simulate their press somewhat, which is obviously difficult to do, but we’ve been watching film just like any other game. We’ve prepared just like any other game.”

West Virginia
Bob Huggins, head coach
On his gameday attire: “Yeah, I used to wear a tie. I did the whole deal. I mean, I had tie, vest, I mean the whole deal. Probably if you look at pictures of me and Jay early, I was probably better looking back then. Probably dressed better back then. I had been doing it longer, had more money. I just kind of - do you want to hear the whole story? The whole story is this. I had a suit and tie on, and we're playing somebody, and I'm at Cincinnati, and I go in, and I'm like I got to put something different on, because I had sweat all of the way through my suit and my vest. They were heavy. So, they brought me in a pullover, and I put it on and coached the second half in a pullover, and I was walking in, my A.D. said, ‘I just want to tell you look really good in that pullover. That's what really coaches should wear.’ So, I started wearing one. Which was good until I got the new president, and the A.D. denied saying I looked good in a pullover. So, be careful who you trust, is the moral of that story.”

Lamont West, freshman forward
On playing in his first NCAA Tournament after redshirting last season: “I was on the team last year. It was kind of a similar experience. I’m just ready to play. I don’t care who we play. I just want to play.”

Esa Ahmad, sophomore forward
On how the team is conditioned to run “Press Virginia”: “A lot of running. A lot of running in the summer. A lot of running during the season. We kind of are always in conditioning.”

Nathan Adrian, senior forward
On how he improved his rebounding this season: “Just being more aggressive. We lost a lot of rebounders from last year, so I knew I had to step up. I had to go get them.”

Villanova
Jay Wright, head coach
On the national title hangover: ‘We discussed it. We came back - we all went to the ESPYS in July, which is kind of the end of the victory tour. It's the last event you go to after the White House, and state capitol. We discussed it as a team. Because we're going on a trip to Spain. Hey, this trip to Spain starts the next year. That's over. We went to Spain. It was great. Because no one knew who we were, they didn't know we were national champions. It gave us a fresh start. But when we got to the baggage claim in Philadelphia and everyone saw we were there, and they started coming up and taking pictures, it hit all of us, oh, we're back in it. We're going to have to deal with this. We did get a fresh start that trip to Spain. It was really helpful to us.”

Kris Jenkins, senior forward
On if he is feeling sentimental at this NCAA Tournament: “Nah, I’ll get sentimental about it when I retire from playing basketball. Until then, I’m focused on our guys and seeing where that gets us.”

Darryl Reynolds, senior forward
On how the team used the extra time from coming to Buffalo early: “Monday night, we got in and watched a movie as a team for our own reasons. We were able to watch some film, eat and get rested. We did some recovery work. We talked a lot as a team with our time together. We enjoyed each other’s company. We’ve been in the hotel with this storm going on. We haven’t been out a lot, but we got a good practice in yesterday. We’ll get another good one in today, so that’s all you can ask for.”

Wisconsin
Greg Gard, head coach
On when he was in Buffalo as an assistant coach for the Wisconsin-Platteville men’s basketball team: “Well, there wasn't this much snow here. I know that. And I remember the gym being orange. He confirmed that back stage that it's orange and black. We played Steve Alford's Manchester team. At that point in time, it was the first time two undefeated teams had met for a national championship. They came in 31-0. We came in 30-0. So, we took the team to an Italian restaurant which I find out now is out of business because I chatted with Coach Ryan or traded messages over the week when it was announced we're coming here. He said, ‘Hey, take the team to…I think it's Carmine's.” That's what we decided the name was now, but we found out it's out of business. It was obviously great memories because my second year coaching, we win a national championship. I mean, we got spoiled pretty quickly. It was a good time. It seems like a hundred years ago, but it was fun.”

D’Mitrik Trice, freshman guard
On what his older brother in recent Michigan State and current Westchester Knicks guard Travis Trice II has told him about the NCAA Tournament experience: “Yeah, he definitely says that this is his favorite time of the year. He has all his memories mainly from the NCAA Tournament with him making a Final Four run and things like that for his senior year. We keep in touch all the time. He’s actually here in New York, so he might be able to make the game. I’m not sure. We’re definitely on the same page.”

Brevin Pritzl, freshman guard
On how the Big Ten was better this season than most say: “I mean, it’s definitely tough. There’s no easy games. You’ve seen us play Rutgers this year. Rutgers, I think they’re last this year, but that’s a talented team. They bring a true battle to the game. You have to bring a whole new mentality, so it’s coming in day in and day out and knowing you’re going to have a battle ahead of you. You’re going to see that now in tournament time. There’s no easy game. As much as people want to say it was a down year, I think that they were prepping us mentally to be in a battle. You have to play up to that level in each game.”

Nigel Hayes, senior forward
On how the Big Ten readied the Badgers for this NCAA Tournament: “We know that, to win a championship, you have to play defense. That’s what we have. It’s one of the last leagues holding on to defense. You look at some of the scores of our games and you see forties, fifties and low sixties. If you look at some other conferences, they’re in the eighties, nineties and sometimes a hundred. Our entire season has been predicated on defense. In the tournament, that’s going to be at a premium. We have had a little experience with it, so hopefully that gives us a little help.”

On if he is going to joke with the press conference stenographer this time around at the NCAA Tournament: “Someone just needs to make a Batman beacon saying that anything that happens is spontaneous. Asking me what I’m going to do, chances are nothing is going to happen. It just happens on its own. Hopefully, the story headline can be winning. That’s really what we’re going to try to do.”

On being a part of a fun locker room: “It’s good. It’s lighthearted. It keeps things interesting. We’ve got a lot of characters on the team, especially Ugly to my right over there [points at Charles Thomas IV]. Of course, they’re recording. They can see your ugly mug. We try to keep things loose. We also know that we have a job to do while we’re here.”

On the pressure in this NCAA Tournament compared to last time around: “To quote LaVar Ball: ‘There’s no such thing as pressure. There’s just entertainment.’ I mean that sincerely. I really do. If you had to pick a parent to support you the way he supports his kids, that would be the way to go. It’s very admirable. You don’t want to get caught under pressure. Then, you’ll start thinking about if pressure can do something. Nothing good comes from that in life. The only good thing that comes from pressure is diamonds, so we try to be a diamond.”

Ethan Happ, sophomore forward
On how he became so good on the defensive end: “Obviously, you don’t want them to score points because that means you’re going to lose. It doesn’t matter the situation. Any guy in any given moment is going to give 110%, so we can get a stop and go on offense to hopefully score. Consecutive stops is how we like to go on the big runs.”

Mount St. Mary’s
Jamion Christian, head coach
On watching Josh Hart and Kris Jenkins play in high school: “Josh Hart and Kris Jenkins, I had a chance to watch these guys play for a long, long time just being in the D.C. area. Josh I know a little better than Kris. Josh, I had a chance to watch him really grow up from a person getting adjusted at Sidwell Friends School to the person he is now as one of the best players in the country. One thing that's really exciting for me is that I've always known him to be one of the best people I've ever had a chance to recruit and get to know. One of the best things to me being a guy from a distance is getting a chance to watch the country get to know him and what an amazing person he is. He's a guy that's really created his own destiny on this thing. He not only worked on his game, but he's worked on himself personally. He's really turned himself into an unbelievable person. I'm looking forward to continue to root for him after this, but tomorrow we're obviously going to be on different sides of the coin.”

Junior Robinson, junior guard
On playing much taller than his 5-5 frame: “Everyone thinking I’m too short is a chip I’ve always had on my shoulder. Now, it’s kind of being shown that I can do things that no one thought I could do.”

Elijah Long, sophomore guard
On the hectic schedule between beating New Orleans Tuesday night and getting to Buffalo by Wednesday: As soon as we won, we went straight to the hotel room and got our bags to go to the airport and do all that security stuff. We hopped on a plane and flew to Buffalo. It was like one in the morning. I didn’t go to bed until like three because I was still juiced up and fell asleep on the plane. We woke up to have breakfast, walkthrough and a stretch. Now, we’re here. Now, we can reflect on it. It’s okay.”

On the confidence the team has from that already having a 2017 NCAA Tournament win under its belt: I mean, it’s surreal. Coach said that we’re making history. We’re not going to notice it now, but - when we get older and we look back - it’s like we did something bigger than ourselves. That’s why I was kind of juiced up. I wasn’t playing the best yesterday, but others stepped up. It shows me a lot about this team. Everyone steps up when the challenge is up. That’s the other thing that got me juiced up about what happened yesterday. 


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