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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: RALEIGH

March 16, 2016

Edward Joyner, Jr.

Raleigh, North Carolina

THE MODERATOR: We are now ready to begin the coach's part of the Hampton University press conference and at this time we'd like to ask Coach Joyner to please make an opening statement.

EDWARD JOYNER, JR.: First of all, I mean, we're happy to be back. I think we have a tough team. We understand that we got a tough task ahead of us against a Virginia team that was -- that we understand is strong defensively and actually scoring the ball well also, but, you know, at the end of the day, if you want to make history you've got to put yourself in position to do so and we've earned our way to do that. So tomorrow we're going come out and fight as hard as we can, and let the chips fall where they may from there.

Q. When you talk about making history, how much have you talked to your team about the opportunity to be the first 16 seed to be beat a No. 1?
EDWARD JOYNER, JR.: Once you get to this point, you could either embrace it or you can make it the elephant in the room. We've embraced it. We've talked about it. We talked about the feeling that we could have if we're able to do it. We also talked about it's easier said than done. You have to go out there and you have to be able to perform because Virginia's going to perform.

So we've talked about it and we're going to go out and see what we could do to make things happen.

Q. You mentioned it's nice to be back. How satisfying is it to you and the program to have built upon last season to go through the MEAC, to win the regular season, follow it up with the tournament championship and to be back on this stage?
EDWARD JOYNER, JR.: That's a great question. People are asking, why were we so excited when we won the game or when we felt like we had won the game. And, you know, I probably was more excited than anybody. You know, but I don't think a lot of people really put thought into that we're one-bid league. You know, and schools in bigger conferences, they play their regular season to kind of assure themselves a bid, and then they can relax and go, let's -- if we don't know that we're a 1 seed or 2 seed, let improve on that bid in our conference tournament. We're in a situation where we can go 16-0 and one slip-up, we don't get to go the ultimate goal that we put out there and that was make the NCAA Tournament.

So, to be able to go, lead our conference from wire to wire basically. Get the first goal that we went after, which was a regular season, which assured us an NIT bid, but at the end of the day, we didn't want to play for three letters, we wanted to play for four. And then to go out and finish the job and get to the NCAA Tournament, it was special for all of us. And the Hampton alum and community and 757 who root for us and so on -- that's a great question. It's a heck of a feeling. And if you haven't been a part of it, you probably wouldn't understand it.

Q. And then you guys took such a relaxed approach, you especially last year, when you went to play undefeated Kentucky. Are you taking a similar approach this season?
EDWARD JOYNER, JR.: Yeah. We are. I mean, that's the way we are. And I can use you as an example, you've been in our practices and things before. We're about as loose as you can get and we tee to that line of what people would think is whether we're focusing or not but really that's how we focus. I want them to go in, clear our mind and clear our body but understand the task that's at hand and then go out and fight to get it.

So, yeah, we are taking a similar approach. But we understand that Virginia is a different team. They're a different type of animal especially with their defense and the way they pay attention to detail of things, and, you know, again, we going to go out and fight for it.

Q. A lot of us saw your celebration on replays on ESPN and the like. How much have you watched it? And is it the wildest you've ever been after a game?
EDWARD JOYNER, JR.: Yeah. I think it is the wildest I've ever been after a game. Like I say, I am an energetic guy, I think, an emotional guy, but a lot of times I'm very subdued especially when I'm on the sidelines. I think I hit a moment where it hit me that, you are going back to back, and it's something special. Something that you all talked about all year and again I was happy for my staff, for the players. Again, the pressure that you're up under to not to play the regular season, you know, we really play -- again, we play our regular season for seeding. You want to play three games instead of four, five. The pressure to have to go in and know you have to win the conference tournament to make things happen, again was something special.

Q. One of the notable things about Virginia's defense is their post trap. What's important when handling that? and what have you seen when you look at that on film?
EDWARD JOYNER, JR.: The first thing we need to be able to do is be able to handle it without turning the ball over and understand where the trap is coming from. Who's trapping and how we want to rotate so that we can get in eyesight so the guy can make a good pass. Our posts are not as big as probably the posts that they were -- I know they're not as big as the posts they play throughout the year so the trap could tend to be more effective. We want to make sure that more than just dealing with the trap, make sure we got guys in areas that we have releases so that we can use that to our advantage, you know, where we can move the ball around and hopefully get a wide-open shot on the back end of the defense.

Q. Coach, what have been your impressions on video, both offensive and defensively of Malcolm Brogdon?
EDWARD JOYNER, JR.: He's good. He's a very good ballplayer. Again, at his size, sometimes we may see power forwards and centers at his size, but he's a very heady ballplayer. He makes the jump shot, he's a heck of a defender. He can put the ball on the floor and score in different ways. You know, he's a guy that we're not going to be able to relax on, and again, it's going be tough to try to defend him individually, because there's some things that he can do that we may need more people. So, when you need more people to defend him, it could open up something else, but we're going to try to do a few things and say a few prayers that maybe he's just off tonight. You know and if that's the case, that's another reason that you could have a chance.

Q. A lot of schools have benefited from D-1 transfers. Could you talk about what your philosophy has been? Have you been any more aware of that possibility from year to year?
EDWARD JOYNER, JR.: Yeah. I mean, you have to. In today's culture of college basketball, because we don't get to -- at our level, we don't get the same freshman. You know, so you basically don't want to go where you're playing boys against men, and sometimes that happens.

I do believe in developing young talent, and I think that I would like the majority of my team to be high school freshmen, but you do have to add the right pieces at certain positions and I think you need transfers today to make your team stronger from a maturity standpoint and just the understanding of what to do on the court in certain situations.

For Quinton Chievous, being at Tennessee and being in this atmosphere before, I think it showed last year, and it helped calm a lot of our guys last year in that Manhattan game and then to be able to go fight against Kentucky, and the same with Reggie Johnson and a few other guys we have. Again, I believe in developing young talent but you have to have transfers in this day and age to help make your team strong mentally and physically.

Q. Has Q been all you had expected him to be when he arrived from Tennessee?
EDWARD JOYNER, JR.: He's actually been more than that. To be one of the 10, 11 guys, maybe 12 in the country to come in and average a double-double. That's tough to do. From a maturity standpoint, you know, he's a very emotional guy. He plays with a lot of fire and emotion. And, in my opinion, in today's society, that's one of the things wrong with the basketball. We got more young people that are willing to play cool than they are willing to go out and let it all hang out and do anything and fight for a win. He's done that, and he showed our young guys in our program that it's okay to go out and play all out. It's okay to go out and show your emotion. It's cool to be emotional. It's cool to go do the things that you need to do to fight for a win.

So, yeah, he's been everything that we wanted and even more.

Q. You've got a roster that's got five or six seniors, I guess, are some of your top players, and they've all, for the most part, won a game in this tournament. Does that provide a little extra confidence going into a game where you're obviously an enormous underdog?
EDWARD JOYNER, JR.: I mean, it does. And the reason I'm saying, is because if you've never experienced an NCAA Tournament, from my experience in the three times that I've been here, it can suck you up. And before you really get into preparing yourself for a game, you're preparing yourself for this atmosphere and everything that's around it. That's from the phone calls, ticket requests to all of that.

In my first two times I felt like the Manhattan game was great for us, because we got through the hoopla, and then we were able to settle down a little bit and go prepare for Kentucky and fight as hard as we possibly could. This year we were able to really prepare for Virginia. You know, they were able to tell the young guys, this is what's going to happen. This is where we're going to be. When you come into the locker room. There's going to be a bunch of media there, blah, blah, blah, blah. Watch what you say. And everything you have to coach them through this year, we didn't have to coach them through and now we can just go out and prepare for Virginia, and hopefully that helps them play ten times better than we did last year and give them an opportunity to come close to winning the ball game.

Q. Was it an advantage then when you saw your name come up with Virginia that it was a recognizable team for your players, and someone you were pretty familiar with, just from the geography?
EDWARD JOYNER, JR.: Can I tell you the truth? No, wasn't -- no, I was hoping we get somebody nobody heard of that we could (laughing). But, honestly, when it came to the point of see our name come up last year, it happened so fast, I mean, our selection show was probably 20 minutes. We got in there, ate, looked at the tv come on. If you blink it was already there.

This year, for them not putting us in there, and I think it was deservedly so, but it shows the progress that we made over the year. And hopefully in the future, we can continue to do good things and go on to better seeds, but, you know, at the end of the day, when you got to this point, you going to play who you going to play and you really have no say-so in that or we don't have any say-so in that. Whoever it was, we would have been excited to play. Being that it's Virginia, it has its good parts and its bad parts. You got to deal with a great team but you also, in a situation where -- how big is this for the state? There's a lot of people in the 757 that are Virginia people and they love the University of Virginia, but they've also embraced us for the things we've been able to do for the last year and a half or the last couple of years, and for them to be able to see the two teams that they root for in one night is great. More for them than us, but it's great.

THE MODERATOR: All right, Coach. Thank you very much and good luck tomorrow.

EDWARD JOYNER, JR.: Thank you, all.

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