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NCAA MEN'S FIRST FOUR: DAYTON

March 15, 2016

Roman Banks

Dayton, Ohio

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by the head coach of the Southern Jaguars, Roman Banks. Coach, an opening statement.

ROMAN BANKS: Southern University is glad to be here. We really enjoy the hospitality since we've been here. This is a very exciting time for our basketball team. And we wish to go out and work very hard and perform to the best of our abilities. And once again I'd like to tell everyone that's involved with the opening of this tournament in Dayton that it's really been incredible and we appreciate your hospitality.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Coach, from what you've seen, what impresses you the most about Holy Cross and what will it take to beat them tomorrow night?
ROMAN BANKS: I think one thing about them is that their bigs are able to step away from the basket and make a lot of 3-point shots. Obviously, in their style of play, I'm sure they recruit for their style of play in the Princeton offense. But we are basically traditional bigs around the basket. So in a short period of time we've got to train our minds to go out and guard them beyond the 3-point arc. And also that the Princeton offense itself, usually you like three days or so to prepare for it, but we only have 24 to 48 hours to get ready for it. So we're going to do the best we can, as it relates to making adjustments, because we usually kind of play up-in-you type defense, but obviously against the Princeton there's some things that you have to change the style of play to be ready for.

Q. They played a lot of 1-3-1 zone in the Patriot League tournament which was really the key for them. Have you seen any of that this year and what's your plan to attack that?
ROMAN BANKS: I don't know if we've really seen the type of 1-3-1 defense that they've played, amoeba style. And obviously we just got a chance to start looking at them last night. And that's really been effective for them. I think that in studying them a little bit, they went on a huge run playing -- changing their style of defense that they play. They give you a lot of different looks in it and they're very active in it. So that will be something for us to go back and work on and study. We do have guys that I think that are able to get in the gaps of that 1-3-1. And I don't want to be a team that just sits out and shoot a lot of 3-point shots against it.

Q. Coach, talk about being one of the First Four teams to open up this NCAA Tournament, just kind of kicking things off in 2016?
ROMAN BANKS: Well, we consider it a pleasure to be here to open up the tournament. We're not choosy. We're just glad to be among the elite here playing in this tournament. And our guys are very excited to be here, and I think that the excitement will ultimately give us the energy that we need to help us hopefully play well and perform well.

Q. Obviously you guys are preparing for Holy Cross, but today's practice, are you focusing on yourselves? And at what point do you turn your attention to Holy Cross?
ROMAN BANKS: Well, you know, later on today we're talking about Southern basketball right now. And then after lunch today we'll start talking about Holy Cross. You know, we still have to give ourselves a chance as a staff to prepare ourselves a little bit more of what we want to do. But the guys in our mental session this morning, they're starting to understand. And I think that we have a few guys that's been in our system that know the type of adjustment that we make against this team. Fortunate enough for us that we have -- haven't played against Princeton, so to say, but we've played against some teams that have some of the styles in their offense. So we're going back to look at those teams that we played and put together clips so our guys can see how we handled that so they can have a visual. And I think right now it's not about -- you won't have a chance to learn a lot of things they do, you just want to have a couple of concepts going forward.

Q. I think you've said during the season that at times when y'all struggled offensively it's been because you've gone against teams' set defense more than you would like. It seems that's the way Holy Cross likes to play. What are going to be the keys to getting a faster pace most of the time and then also to being successful when you have to play at their pace?
ROMAN BANKS: I think that there's definitely two different styles of teams. And often I think that whoever can dictate the other team to play more to their style or to their tempo ultimately, probably put themselves in a better position. And so I think that we want to do some things to speed it up some, and I'm sure they want to do some things to control the tempo. But as quiet as it's kept, they will, on missed shots, get the ball out and attack you. And so I think they have a nice blend of what they do. They're well-coached. I think the thing for us is also to be able to attack and speed the tempo up and try not to face every time, walk the ball down and face their defense, but to get them rotating. But I think when we do face their defense is that our mindset is to also challenge them on the inside instead of coming out, just taking a lot of perimeter shots. And hopefully we can get our perimeter guys to penetrate the gaps a little bit, something that we're good at, and create some other easy opportunities into the 1-3-1.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

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