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NCAA MEN'S FIRST FOUR: DAYTON

March 15, 2016

Dayton, Ohio

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by our student-athletes from Tulsa, James Woodard and Shaquille Harrison.

Q. Still a little bit in kind of a shock that you're still coming to Dayton? I know Shaq you were on Twitter the night before, was talking about how you thought you're headed to NIT but still shocked that you're in the NCAAs and ready to take advantage with all the motivation that a lot of people have given you, just kind of a little disrespect towards Tulsa?
SHAQUILLE HARRISON: Yeah, we were 5-5 against teams in the tournament so we feel pretty confident we had a chance to get an at-large bid. It was up in the air. You never know with the committee. So it was kind of -- we just didn't know. Just at the time we were just hoping to get in the tournament, we finally got the chance so we are just trying to take advantage of it.

JAMES WOODARD: Like Shaquille said, we played a pretty decent schedule. When you look back at it, played some great teams. We have a great league. And we are just fortunate to be here. We're going to take advantage of this opportunity.

Q. Both of you, being seniors, how special is this? I know y'all made the tournament two years ago, but now that y'all are seniors and you know your careers are coming to a close, and how much are you able to kind of take all this in?
JAMES WOODARD: It's a very special moment for us, you know -- non-seniors -- very veteran-led team. This could be our last, in the stretch of our season and careers. And it's just a great opportunity for us. And we've got to use our veteran-led team as an advantage in this tournament, because we have been around a long time, we've seen every situation, and we're just glad to be here.

SHAQUILLE HARRISON: Just piggyback off what James said, we're very fortunate. We're very happy to be here. This is a tournament you look up to as a little kid that when you want to play Division I basketball you think of the NCAA Tournament. So it's just a real honor to be here.

Q. Considering you guys had a lot of bubble talk, maybe the focus was to not pay much attention to it. But now with all the talk, all those pundits, shall we say, giving you a lot of, shall we say, disrespect, do you want -- does it give you more motivation looking at more of those reports saying, more motivation to go out and win?
SHAQUILLE HARRISON: Yeah, at the time, like, the bubble talks on there, but honestly we talk as a team, that's a distraction honestly, so we just try to stay away from that, focus on us, and focus on working hard and getting better each and every day and just keep taking it one game at a time.

JAMES WOODARD: Like Shaquille said, it can be used as motivation, but we look at it as a distraction. We're going to focus on ourselves, focus on Tulsa basketball, and we're going to prepare for a good Michigan team here tomorrow and that's what we're going to do.

Q. Shaq, you've all gone up against a lot of good 3-point shooting teams. How do you think that prepared y'all for a team like Michigan?
SHAQUILLE HARRISON: Prepared us as a team pretty well. I mean, got teams like SMU and Temple that can shoot the ball pretty well. So it kind of compares up to Michigan. And they can shoot the ball really well. And they're a good team and they're in the Big Ten, so they've seen a lot as well. So this will be a big challenge.

Q. For both of you guys, did you guys watch the Selection Show, or were you kind of frustrated thinking, ah, probably not going to happen?
SHAQUILLE HARRISON: Yeah, couple of guys, we didn't watch it together. We were watching it separately. Everybody watching it. Like you said, we knew we had a chance but we just wasn't for sure. So when we saw our names it was the greatest day, so...

JAMES WOODARD: We were all kind of spread out. Couple of guys were together. And we just didn't know, being a bubble team, you just never know. Once we saw our name, it was the greatest feeling. We was relieved and excited to be here.

Q. Shaquille I think your tweet kind of went viral, you were saying, nah, there's no chance we're getting in. Why did you feel that way at the time?
SHAQUILLE HARRISON: Honestly, just going from past histories and what happened in tournament and everything, just kind of into the media, I felt like we had a great schedule. I felt like we deserved to be here and everything, but how things were looking, how people were talking, it was just kind of what my mind was at at the time.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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