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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 3, 2016

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

THE MODERATOR: As advertised, our final interview session is with the Evansville Purple Aces. They're the number 2 seed. They'll play the winner of the Drake/Missouri State game, who plays tonight. Marty Simmons is the head coach. D.J. Balentine is the First Team All MVC Selection, and Mislav Brzoja is the Sixth Man of the Year. We're going to ask Marty to open up with a statement about his team.

MARTY SIMMONS: We're excited, I'm sure, as all the other teams to be here. It's a great place to host the tournament. It's first class. We're excited about our team, and we're looking forward to the competition. Should be a great tournament.

Q. Coach, can you talk about the addition of Lennox Forrester to the staff and what he's brought to the team this year?
MARTY SIMMONS: I wish he'd be in here so he can hear the answer to that. Lennox is a unique guy. He's been a close friend since he was a player at the University of Evansville. He had the misfortune of not being able to play. He had an injury that caused him not to play. He's probably as good a human being as I've ever been around. Great role model, great mentor for all of our players. He's got tremendous knowledge of the game, and he's brought all that to our staff.

He takes a lot of pride, being a former player at Evansville and also a former coach, he understands what being there is all about, but his personality is why our players love him. They look up to him. He brings great energy. We're just thrilled to death to have him.

Q. Coach, just how are you feeling? Come in and meet expectations preseason, number 2 pick behind Wichita, you finished number 2. How do you guys feel going into the tournament?
MARTY SIMMONS: I think we're all excited, you know. It's that time of year. Really proud of how our guys finished the regular season. We stumbled there at home against Northern Iowa at the end, but overall, I think, they did a lot of neat things, and I think this week has been a good week of practice, and we're excited about playing.

Q. Coach, how helpful is it to have the nation's best rebounder on your team, and what's it like to watch him work on that?
MARTY SIMMONS: It's been great. I mean, any time you lead the nation in any category, it's pretty special. To lead it in a category like rebounding, which is more effort probably than anything, it makes it even more special. But he's a unique individual. He's gotten better each and every year. He deserves all the credit. He's the one that does it every night. He's been so, so consistent with that.

He's a guy that could have not came back this year and played, but he decided to come back and get a second degree and be with his teammates, which I think is pretty neat.

Q. D.J., how excited are you to get this going? I know everyone has their eyes on Wichita, but you guys finished second best team in the conference. You've got to feel pretty good. Are you guys excited to get things going?
D.J. BALENTINE: Yeah, just really excited. I've always been a fan of Arch Madness and St. Louis. If you ask any of the guys on the team, they can't wait to play. We're really antsy.

We had a practice today, and we're all just really excited for Friday. It should be a lot of fun.

Q. Coach, being the 2 seed and not yet knowing your opponent and who you will play, is there an advantage to that that you can kind of focus on yourself in preparation? Or might there also be some disadvantages to that not knowing your opponent?
MARTY SIMMONS: Probably a little bit of both. If you know who your opponent is, you get certainly all week to hone in and prepare, but we've tried to take the similarities of the two, and there are some, and try to focus on that and get prepared there. And also, like you said, worry about ourselves.

Earlier in the week, we didn't do a lot of contact, and as the week has progressed, we got into that. Again, I think it's been a good week for us.

Q. I know the conference tournament hasn't been very kind to you guys in the past, is that something that you guys are obviously trying to get over that hump? I think, when I looked back, you have two wins in the last two tournaments total. Is that something you guys are just trying to get over the hump as a team?
MISLAV BRZOJA: We're not thinking about that right now. It's a new year, new season for us. We did well in conference, and I think we're going to be ready for this tournament tomorrow.

D.J. BALENTINE: Yes, as Mislav said, the past is the past. It's a different team. I think we're a way better team than we were coming in here last year. We're all just really excited to start playing. We have a different feel about this year. We all feel very confident. We're all very mature right now, so it should be fun.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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