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MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT


March 5, 2015


Devaughn Akoon-Purcell

Daishon Knight

Dan Muller


ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

THE MODERATOR:  2:30 session features the Illinois State Redbirds, No. 4 seed.  They will play Evansville, the No.5 seed.  We have Coach Dan Muller with us.  Daishon Knight and DeVaughn Akoon‑Purcell will represent the student body.
COACH MULLER:  It's great to be here.  Fond memories from many years ago.  Excited about the group we have.  I think we learned some things last year, and we played pretty good basketball lately.  Excited to be with these guys.

Q.  Daishon, what have you told DeVaughn and a couple of these guys now that they've been in the arena and seen it?  What do you tell the guys about the atmosphere, what they can expect? 
DAISHON KNIGHT:  I tell them it's a cold atmosphere.  We're going to get out there, get a great warmup in, get warm real fast.  Most important, I tell all of them, just stay relaxed.

Q.  Dan, how much confidence has your team built up over these last four games?  Heading into this tournament, it seems like it would be a real boost.
COACH MULLER:  I hope a lot.  I think we've played pretty good basketball at different times throughout the year.  We've had some losses, even good basketball.  To win our last game the way we did, to win four in a row, and then we've had very good practices.
I think we're coming into this weekend with confidence, but also understanding you've got to compete at a high level to win games in this thing.
Evansville was a close game, anybody we face after that, if we're lucky enough to win, it will be a tough game.

Q.  Obviously, you were part of two team on back to back titles here.  Is one of those years more of a memory for you than the other one?
DEVAUGHN AKOON‑PURCELL:  Yeah, but for me, my senior year is easily my greatest basketball memory in general, our weekend my senior year.
The way that we played, the way that we basically dominated the tournament with a group of guys that have been through a lot.  So I'll never forget that weekend.

Q.  If you guys could just reflect on playing Evansville so quickly after having just played them, does that mean anything?  Does it change how you prepare at all?
DEVAUGHN AKOON‑PURCELL:  I would just say we prepare the same.  We've just got to expect they're going to come out even harder and more motivated because we beat them twice in the regular season.  We've just got to prepare how we prepared in the past, and I think we should be fine.
DAISHON KNIGHT:  I think we look at it as a whole new slate.  It's a new game.  We put the games and beat them past us.  We prepare and get ready to go out there and play another game.

Q.  Three of the last four games, Wichita State and Northern Iowa, were closer than you've played them all year.  Does that give you some confidence?  I know they talk about you as the dark horse to win this tournament?  Do you think about that at all?  Does it help with your confidence?
 DAISHON KNIGHT:  Those were good games, good teams we played.  We would like to win those games.  We lost.  We watched film about it, and we just put those games past us.  We move on to the next game and try to come up with the win.

Q.  Dan, on that subject of playing a team just six days later, back‑to‑back games, does that present any special challenges in terms of preparation?  Especially when you've won the game, to get your guys refocused on that.
COACH MULLER:  I don't think it's challenging in preparation.  It made the preparation easier, but it's an even playing field for both obviously.  We're so familiar with each other.  You play every team twice.  So you're going to be familiar with whoever you play.  Because it's so soon, covering the same things, but really learning from what hurt us six days ago is probably the biggest thing.
I forget the second part of your question.  Oh, I'm sorry.  Because we won both.  That's what you said.
I don't think our team is foolish enough to think that the two wins we had during the regular season mean anything tomorrow.  We've talked about it.  It's behind us.  Not only that, but we had to make a shot at the buzzer to extend into overtime.  It's not like we blew them out twice.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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