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NCAA MEN'S FIRST FOUR: DAYTON

March 14, 2016

Kevin Stallings

Dayton, Ohio

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by coach Kevin Stallings. Coach, an opening statement.

KEVIN STALLINGS: We're really excited to be in Dayton, excited to be a part of our sport's national championship. And we look forward to taking the floor tomorrow night and putting forth our best effort. And we certainly understand the privilege that it is to play in the NCAA Tournament and couldn't be more grateful and humble and appreciative of the opportunity.

We obviously drew a team that has extensive NCAA Tournament experience and successful experience. So we know that we have our work cut out for us. But, again, we're ecstatic about the opportunity to play and hopeful that we can play as we played for the majority of the last half or two-thirds of our conference season this season.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach?

Q. Kevin, how much does that experience -- where could that make a difference -- five straight tournaments and the first for these guys?
KEVIN STALLINGS: I think it makes a huge difference, because the guys on their team that are non-freshmen have experienced this before. And, you know, what they say about experience, you can't teach it. And so I think that's certainly an advantage for them. And, again, it's successful experience. It's not just they've played four or five years in a row and got beat; they've won a bunch of games in those times that they've played. But our team is just going to have to settle into the game and stick to our plan and do what we do. And if we can stay focused on us and stay focused on what we do and what we do well and execute it, then that's all I can ask from my team.

Q. You've got the seven-footers. They've got the 6'6" to 6'8" bigs. Some coaches -- some teams have issues with those tweener-type guys, those athletic 6'8" guys. Why is that an issue? It seems simple -- seven-footer, 6'6", why is it a problem for a lot of teams?
KEVIN STALLINGS: Because, first of all, this is not the NBA. We don't have rules that legislate how you can bring help to a post player or what quadrant of the court that you have to be in according to where your man is and so on and so forth. And sometimes those 6'8" guys are a lot more mobile or they might be wider and stronger and more physical. And so there's not much that's more overrated than height in a basketball game. You would much rather have strength and physicality and quickness and speed and skill. So, yeah, the height thing can be very, very overrated. Now, at times, defensively, our length at the goal certainly is an asset. And it's been an asset all season long, and hopefully it will be tomorrow night. But at the same time the team with the best players will win the game. The teams with -- the players that play the best, I should say, will win the game. And it doesn't matter if they're six foot or 6'9". The team that plays the best will win.

Q. Is playing this extra game kind of a bonus for you guys, get your feet under you and kind of get in the tournament mindset before a lot of other teams get to?
KEVIN STALLINGS: If we win. If we can be successful in the game, then, yeah, I would look at it as a bonus because you kind of get whatever nerves you have or whatever newness and inexperience that you have coming into a situation like this, you get that kind of chipped off, if you will, and have an opportunity then to sort of settle in. But, again, we're just grateful for the opportunity to play. We don't care if we have to play an extra game. We're excited about this game and excited about this opportunity and embrace it fully. Yes, we're very hopeful of being in Providence on Thursday, but we're very excited to be in Dayton.

Q. You talk about the inexperience. But Josh has been the only play with the NCAA experience. Are you going to have to lean on him at all or have him be a factor?
KEVIN STALLINGS: You know, I think that the guys that are going to be leaned on are the guys that have played for us the most, you know. We're going to lean on -- we're going to lean on anybody that plays, really. And Josh didn't play that much when we were in the tournament the last time anyway. And so we had this guy named Ezeli that sort of was a pretty good player for us that didn't allow for other guys to get to play too much. But we're -- I hope Josh has an impact on the game. And I hope Josh has an impact on his teammates in the locker room by what he says about his experiences of playing in the NCAA Tournament.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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