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NCAA MEN'S FIRST ROUND: DAYTONMarch 17, 2015Beau BeechChris DavenportMatthew DriscollDallas MooreDAYTON, OHIO THE MODERATOR: We're being joined by student-athletes Dallas Moore, Beau Beech and Chris Davenport. Q. Nobody on their team has ever played in an NCAA Tournament, none of the players. You guys have obviously never played in an NCAA Tournament. Are jitters or first-game nerves, are those a concern or is this just a wash? CHRIS DAVENPORT: I think it's human nature to have human jitters and stuff like that. But I think after the first couple of minutes of the game me and my teammates will just treat it as any other game throughout the year and try to be 1-0 at the end of the night. BEAU BEECH: Like Chris said, first couple of minutes probably a lot of nerves, but after that I mean we've played in so many games together, we know how each other are going to play. And so we're just going to be playing our game after those first couple of minutes. Q. There must have been a time when you guys were cursing your schedule with how many road games you have, now do you look at it and see this is an advantage that you have that you've played so many games away from home that so many teams have not? DALLAS MOORE: A little bit. I think we played 18 true road games. And it's tough playing on the road. But we've done a good job and we're going to treat it like any other game and try to be 1-0. Q. When it comes to Robert Morris, they've got a three-pronged scoring attack with Marcquise Reed, Lucky Jones and Rodney Pryor. Have you looked at that and how do you plan on defending them? DALLAS MOORE: We watched a little film this morning. We're just preparing like we always do, the same way we do for every team. And I think we'll be fine. BEAU BEECH: We watched film this morning, and we had some extra clips we'll watch later on tonight. We'll just take it like we do every other game. Watch film, get ready for the game like we normally do. Do nothing different. We're just trying to be 1-0 on Wednesday. CHRIS DAVENPORT: Really just echoing what these two guys have said. We won't change what we do throughout the year for these guys. So we'll scout, walk through and get ready for Wednesday. Q. What kind of an effect did Florida Gulf Coast's run a couple of years have on you? Did you guys watch them intently, and were you, I assume, cheering for them they kind of captured the nation's imagination, and whether you get anything from that, the fact that you guys can duplicate something like that? CHRIS DAVENPORT: What they did a couple of years ago was definitely amazing. And it was good for our conference name. But we're North Florida and we're here to make a name for ourselves and it starts on Wednesday. Q. You would only be human beings just to think the possibility, if you get by this game, that you play a team, a program as famous as what Duke is. Have you seen them play? Have you had any interest in them? Do you know any of the players, Okafor or anybody else, anything like that? CHRIS DAVENPORT: We really haven't been too much worried about Duke because we have to play Robert Morris first. And until we beat Robert Morris, then that's when we'll take care of Duke. So one game at a time. We'll be 1-0 on Wednesday night. BEAU BEECH: Just like Chris said, we're not worried about who is next. We're just worried about Wednesday night's game because that's the only game that matters right now. We can't play Duke unless we beat Robert Morris. It's all about Robert Morris with us. Q. Dallas, when it comes to you guys and Robert Morris, you're fairly similar teams. Both pretty young. Both good at the 3-point shooting. How do you kind of approach playing a team that has some of the same kind of strategies that you guys do? DALLAS MOORE: I think preparation and what we've always done for everybody. We're not going to change what we do. We're just going to be who we are. And try to be 1-0. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Coach, an opening statement. COACH DRISCOLL: I'm really thankful to be here, and I'm really impressed with what Dayton has done for our university and the way they welcomed us and the way they opened their arms up to us. I thought that was really cool. The fact that you guys brought in Canadian geese, which we have all over our campus which was cool for you guys to spend that kind of money. But this morning, jogging along that Miami River and it was about a 12- to 14-mile-an-hour breeze blowing it really felt like my morning jogs at the Atlantic Ocean. You guys have really made me feel like we're right here in Jacksonville. I appreciate you guys doing that and the hospitality. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. You guys played so many road games, obviously, to start your season. At the time you must have cursed that but is that kind of an advantage now? COACH DRISCOLL: Since we've taken the job six years ago we play somewhere between six and seven Power-5 teams every year because we bring in a large amount of money for our university, unfortunately. When I say unfortunately, meaning that we don't ever want to play those games but we need the money. And because of that, we've kind of set a precedence as far as what we do, and what we're able to do with this is we play 20 road games, 18 true. So there's not a hotel, a bus, a restaurant that we haven't been to and we tell it to the guys all the time. And it is what it is. The environment is what it is. And you gotta be able to adapt and overcome and do that. So it's been great. And the one thing we do and the reason why we're close and why our guys love each other so much, we have seven guys score 20 points or more already, and the reason why our guys are truly the way they are, is because we don't do cell phones at meals. That's been a great thing on the road. So they've really got to talk with each other, kick it with each other, as opposed to being locked into what's going on on Twitter or Instagram or Snapchat. I would say My Space, but I know that's old time. But that's been great. The other thing we changed roommates. So they're always with a different roommates, learning different personalities. So I think that's been great as well. Q. You're from a part of the country that's pretty much known as a football area. But I'm looking at the NCAA Tournament, both men and women, and there's five coaches from Western Pennsylvania. What do you think it is about the upbringing as a young athlete playing basketball that might lead to being a successful coach in this sport? COACH DRISCOLL: I think one thing, when you grow up in our city, the one thing it's two-fold. Number one, it's a friendly place. I think you really learn how to be a people person and you learn the importance of people and how much they can mean in your life and then the other side of it is my daddy drove a bread truck for 36 years. And most people worked in the mills, obviously, until that calmed down and became something different. But the blue-collar mentality, when you were born back then and you lived in Pittsburgh, it was always neighborhoods. It was always kickball and whiffle ball and football and all those things were important to grow you as a person and learn how to communicate with people. When you got in a fistfight back then, after a while, two hours later you're on the same dodge ball team. I think because of that upbringing, that ability to be in a place like that, that really truly understood family -- because family is so big in Pittsburgh. And I think all those things combined, it just makes you a little bit tougher, a little bit thicker skinned, and it gives you that ability to really understand. And as a coach, and why the coaching part, is John Calipari obviously is from Pittsburgh. And the one thing about Coach, and he'll tell you the same thing, if you don't have dudes, you're not a very good coach. If you can't relate to them and you can't have a relationship with them, but in the same breath, discipline and coach them, then you're not going to do the things you want to do. So Coach Calipari is a good X's and O's guy as people think he is, which he is. But my point it's not Xs and Os, it's Jimmys and Joes and make sure those things are all entwined. And I think you learn that growing up in Pittsburgh. I think that's the kind of stuff that's kind of inbred in us. Q. You guys haven't been here before, but do you glean anything from the fact that the Atlantic Sun has had a really good run two years ago, you win a game last year, and secondly also just I mean the whole Dunk City thing, the fact that you represent the whole state of Florida too? COACH DRISCOLL: Yeah, that's pretty cool. It's probably the first time that one school was ever represented the state. Forget about all the other schools. So that's a cool thing and a great responsibility. But going back to the Florida Gulf Coast and the Mercer thing, going back-to-back years. The Florida Gulf Coast almost got me fired. You know what I mean? You've got your team and your rivalry and your state, and they're winning and they want you to do the same thing. This is a profession, this is a business and you gotta do well, and you gotta do the things you're supposed to do. So what they did is obviously great for the league. And it's very impressive, the run they made, when they beat Georgetown and San Diego State and eventually lost to Florida. I think it was in Dallas, in Jerry's world. And the one thing about that is the guys see that so to speak. And then Mercer last year beat Duke and of course we beat Mercer both times last year. I think the guys see that and have a natural understanding about who they are and about what's going on. With all that said, it really don't mean a hill of beans tomorrow, because tomorrow it's Robert Morris and what's important about tomorrow is being 1-0 at the end of the night. These guys know, dudes understand, like players -- what people don't understand, like, players, they're confident. They understand why they're here, what got us here. They're not afraid of the elephant that's in the room. Our job as coaches is to get them organized and get them to understand. But when the day is done we're a player coached team they're the dudes that gotta get it done between the black lines. I know I didn't answer your question, but... I could see you shaking your head, like, man, this guy is whacked out. I'm telling you right now, we're going to see how good their person is. We believe in many hands make light work. We believe in teaching young men to be servants. And the one thing that I never liked as a coach is when we had players carry all the stuff. I always thought that wasn't a good way to teach how be a servant, so we like to serve just like we like them to serve. Does that answer your question? Q. Actually, Coach, you mentioned yesterday on the phone you had looked at Marcquise Reed, Lucky Jones, Rodney Pryor for Robert Morris, and had been impressed with their play. When you have on the opponents team those kind of three-pronged scoring attack, what do you like about them and what do you kind of do to limit them? COACH DRISCOLL: The one thing that's great about them is about those three particular guys is they can score at all three levels, meaning they can make 3s. They can put it on the floor and get mid-range and they can get to the rim because of their athletic ability. Because they can score at all three levels, any coach would love to have guys like that that can do that or not just one dimensional, so to speak. I like one-dimensional guys that can make 3s. If you can make a 3 and you're one dimensional that's the kind of one dimension you want to be. The other thing about them that's impressive they play a little bit differently defensively than a lot of teams but they lead their league in steals. So when you play zone and you lead your league in steals it says a lot about who you are and about your players and the fact that they are a lot more aggressive. They do understand passing lanes, and they understand that it's not just a zone, it's actually more of an ability for them or a chance for them to be a little bit more aggressive, but in a tighter area. So those would be the two things about them that I've learned the most from watching them on film. And Andy, obviously, New Jersey guy, coaching in Pittsburgh and a place where I spent a lot of time up on campus for a lot of different reasons, and he's a good man. And I really enjoy him. And I know that he's done a great job for Craig and for Greg, their president, their athletic director. So it is what it is. Q. What's the Saint Patrick's Day story? COACH DRISCOLL: I don't know whether you guys know this, but 1974 is when the McDonald's Shamrock Shake first came out. And there was a defensive line man for the Philadelphia Eagles by the name of Fred Hill. His daughter unfortunately had cancer. So he would go to the hospital and he would spend time there at the hospital when his daughter was going through all her stuff. It was uncomfortable. You can imagine, for a big football player. But looking around seeing all the people that had cancer, he noticed how uncomfortable it was for all the families. So he started thinking, man, I wonder if there's something we could do differently to make this better. So he went back to the locker room and he said to all them dudes who were making -- whatever you make in '74, I don't know but it's not anything compared to what they make now. But he tried to start thinking and brainstorming some ideas. And the shake was just coming out, the Shamrock Shake, which is obviously a huge seller for McDonald's. So he went to the local McDonald's, because he is who he is and he paired up with the local McDonald's and said, hey, is there any way we can use this as a fundraiser even though it's a huge -- and maybe bring that money together and that's how the first Ronald McDonald House started, because of the Shamrock Shake. I told you it was a good story. You can Google that and double-check that if you want to. Q. Congratulations. I'm talking to your son, Chase, in the locker room. You've got your wife involved with the cheerleading and care packages, which aren't so healthy, your son tells me. Your youngest son, Paxton, also part of the team. Tell me about this family affair here, to be part of UNF basketball and starting a new tradition? COACH DRISCOLL: In order to be successful at this level, you gotta have a family that understands. And I was a bad, bad father. I was a bad father, because I wasn't there the way I should have been. I thought the profession was more important than my children. I've neglected my wife. And they stuck by me. They hung with me. And they understood and then I, praise God, by the grace of God because God's in my heart, as I got older and wiser and listened to more wiser people, I learned and I understood that it's way, way, way bigger than me. And it's much, much more important to me to know that family is the most critical thing there is. If you can't control your family and take care of your own house, how are you going to take care of a team of 18- to 22-year-old kids? So as I got older, more mature and got smarter, I did a much, much better job with my children and especially with my wife. And she's been a cheerleading coach at LaRoche when I had my LaRoche job back in the early '90s in Pittsburgh. We got to Wyoming, the staff that got let go, the assistant's wife was the cheerleading coach. So Coach Moon, our AD, said to me, we need a cheerleading coach. He didn't know about Carrie being a cheerleading coach -- we need a cheerleading coach. I said, oh, Coach, I can help you out. My wife's a cheerleading coach she'll do it for you. I called [indiscernible], by the way, you're the cheerleading coach at Wyoming. And it's been one of those things where they've kind of really embraced it and they know to be around dad and to be a part of dad's life they really need to embrace it as well. And you can go that two-way street. My wife has done a remarkable job with Romelo Banks who lost his mother as a ninth-grader to cancer. His father is not in his picture. How would you like to be 18 years old going to college and have that set of circumstances? My wife has just been unbelievable as far as just trying to be a mother. And with my son. My son can get jealous of that. What about me? But he understands because he's been around it so long. If you were at the show on Sunday, did you see the, what's that called, the drone flying around? That was Paxton. That was Paxton flying his drone because he wants to be like you. He wants to be one of you people. And he's up there. So it's great. It's great. And there's been some very tough times with some hard things that we've gone through. But because they are who they are -- and our guys like love my son. It's never been anything. My staff talked me into letting him be on the team because I wasn't going to do it. Billy Donovan gave me personal advice. He let him talk to his son before doing it because of the things you worry about, the locker room, yada yada yada. When Paxton comes on the trips, they treat him like he's one of them. They were tweeting him. He was, what do you call that, trending last year because we went on a winning streak on the road but he had to go back and take spring term final exams for his school. And they didn't want him to go. And they were trending on the -- Paxton stay, Paxton must stay. And so I gave him a half court shot he didn't make it. You make the half court shot I'll take care of your class work. But he missed it, so I sent him home. The guys really, really love him and really embrace who they are. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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