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NCAA MEN'S FIRST FOUR: DAYTON

March 15, 2016

Frank Haith

Dayton, Ohio

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by the head coach of the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, Frank Haith. Coach, an opening statement.

FRANK HAITH: Obviously we're really excited about being here in Dayton. You know, our team -- this year, I thought, we were coming off the NIT appearance last year. The goal was to get to the tournament. And I felt good about where we were at going into the conference tournament, in terms of what our numbers said we were at. But not knowing what the game in the first round of the tournament did to us, and we were just ecstatic to have an opportunity to continue to play in the NCAA Tournament.

Q. Sometimes in these tournaments the opposing coaches say it's hard to prepare for a John Beilein team on shorter notice. Is that something you feel, or do you have some head start on that or something?
FRANK HAITH: You know, Coach Beilein, I think, is a great coach. And I have a lot of respect for him. They do a lot of neat things offensively. When you're prepared to play against them -- first of all, they've got five guys that can shoot the ball, which make them extremely difficult to defend. They have great screening actions, and our defense has to be on point to defend them. I think that they're as good as offensive team as there is in the country. I think their numbers say that. And that's going to be a key for us. And for us to have success tomorrow night, we've got to do a tremendous job of guarding them. They're difficult to prepare for. And you're coming up on two or three days. But we've got an older group, and I think we'll do our best and try and do a good job of -- the first thing we must do is get back and set our defense. They shoot sit-down 3s, early offense, and we're going to have to do -- we know they're going to make some shots. The biggest thing with our guys is make sure all their shots are contested.

Q. You've had other teams. You've taken other teams to the tournament. What is just the difference in the feeling in the locker room, like, right now when you have all these seniors, just such a unique deal?
FRANK HAITH: It is. First of all, we're really blessed. And I'm really happy for those guys. I think it's a feeling of just all the hard work these guys have put in for four years have had -- some of them have had three coaches. But I think this team, they have a great bond of togetherness. And you feel a sense of just love for one another and excitement about the opportunity. And as a coach, you love being a part of that. And I'm very grateful.

Q. I guess when you look back at what happened in the conference tournament, was it a matter of them being tight, worried about it being the last game, and why would it play out differently tomorrow?
FRANK HAITH: I think, here's the thing that I think happened. And we as a coach, and I'm like every coach, you want your guys not to listen to whatever, you want them to mute the TV. And every time they turn it on, there are bubble teams. And then there were conversations about what needed to be done for them to get in the tournament. I think our guys start to feel the pressures from that. I think going into the games, the Memphis game, I thought we got off to a pretty good start. And then once they were playing very well, we started to panic a little bit on both ends of the court. I thought we took quick shots. We didn't execute. I thought defensively we took ourselves out of plays and we weren't disciplined. And with that said, I thought we felt the pressure a little bit of feeling like we had to win one game or two games or whatever it was that they thought, what they were hearing, to get into the NCAA Tournament. And it showed on the court. I think there's no question going back watching that game, that's exactly what I felt about our team.

Q. You mentioned you are an experienced team. You have a lot of seniors. Some of them have been here before. Michigan doesn't have a senior. How big is it to have experience this time of year given that you do and Michigan doesn't?
FRANK HAITH: Well, I don't know that I'm looking at comparing us to Michigan and what they don't have. I think I can only speak on what we do have. And I think that's a positive, we have an older group that's been through it a little bit in four years. And they've been in postseason for three of the four years. We went to NIT last year, and I just -- two years, excuse me. I think all I can speak on in terms of what it does for us. And I think it's a positive that we have an older group. We'll just see how it plays out tomorrow night.

Q. What's been your message to the team about kind of some of the noise they face? I know every year bubble teams are kind of nit-picked, but this year it's been over the top for your team?
FRANK HAITH: Is it really over the top, worst than last year's? You just can't listen to it. You've just got to worry about the controllables. And I think we've talked to our team about that all year. Things we can control: Our preparation; our continuing to stay focused on what we need to do to have success. And all that stuff will take care of itself. There's going to be a team every year that everybody says, they shouldn't have gotten in, and we're that team this year. So that's okay. That's behind us. We're here now. Let's go play the game.

Q. John was talking the other night about all the switching defenses you guys do. When you see what they do on film, is there anything that sticks out to you that you think is a particularly good matchup for you, one or many of your defenses?
FRANK HAITH: Well, I think the reason we switched defenses, we try to keep people off balance. We're not overly big in size and we don't have a lot of depth -- although we have all those seniors, we don't have a lot of depth in the post. So we do things to try to keep guys out of foul trouble. And I don't know that that scouting report info, whatever I think we have to do to take advantage, we feel we have an advantage, I'm not going to talk about it in here. But their team is so good offensively, you know, we're going to have to be -- whatever we do, we've got to be attached to shooters, whether it be zone, man, three-quarter press or whatever we do, we've got to know where the shooters are at.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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