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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: ST. LOUIS

March 17, 2016

St. Louis, Missouri

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Middle Tennessee student-athletes Perrin Buford and Reggie Upshaw. Questions.

Q. Obviously there's excitement when you win and get in the tournament, but then there's the realization that you're going to play a Michigan State, their 19th straight tournament, seven Final Fours. I'm curious, will you talk about -- because you are a champion, you deserve to be here -- but would you talk about that going from the excitement of being in to realizing that you're playing Michigan State?
REGGIE UPSHAW: As far as just the excitement and realizing who we're playing, I think our coaches have done a great job leading up to us coming up here, just telling us, I mean, it's just another team. Yeah, they have a lot of history. But I mean we've played against great competition all year. We had a really tough non-conference schedule. So I feel like we're prepared to play just about anybody.

PERRIN BUFORD: Kind of just based off what he said. We did have a really good non-conference schedule that I feel like prepared us for this moment. And I know me and my teammates have put in a lot of hard work all season long. The coaches have done a great job during the scout, just to get us prepared for this moment. So, yes, we're here and we're ready to go.

Q. When you see Michigan State's defense, what type of challenges does their defense present to your offense? And do you feel that they are better in the paint at defending or on the perimeter?
REGGIE UPSHAW: As far as the challenges their defense presents us, they're really physical. A lot of the Big Ten teams are. They're really big around the paint. They've got a lot of length at each position. But I feel like we have a lot of mismatches. I know for like myself and Darnell, who really stretches the floor at the 5 position, and then Perrin as well.

PERRIN BUFORD: Yes, kind of just based off what he's saying. Yes, they're big. They're 6'10". They're true post players. But I feel like our posts are more like stretch 4s that can really drive the basketball. So I feel like rebounding and things like that, they might have a little bit more advantage. But I feel our bigs can really drive their bigs.

Q. Reggie, one thing is that Middle Tennessee might know more about Michigan State than Michigan State knows about Middle Tennessee. How do you use that as an advantage?
REGGIE UPSHAW: Just use it as motivation. We're not really one of the bigger teams when it comes to college basketball, but we know we're just as talented as everyone else in the tournament. So we just have to use this game to kind of make a statement to the rest of the country.

Q. Denzel Valentine, national Player of the Year, does a lot of things differently, what stands out to each of you about him when you watch him on film?
PERRIN BUFORD: Like you said Denzel is a great player. He's a great talent. What stands out to me is how unselfish he is. He just moves the ball, always has his head up and things like that. So that's what really stuck out to me watching film on him.

REGGIE UPSHAW: What stuck out the most for me is just how he makes his teammates better. A lot of the times he'll penetrate and get in the paint and he'll finish over a lot of guys. But at the same time he does a great job of hitting open shots. We saw that in edit film today.

Q. You guys, conference championship game, very, very tightly contested. Winning the way that you did and with that momentum, how does that propel you forward, even though it was a week ago now?
PERRIN BUFORD: That was a big booster because all year we've been winning close games. I feel like this team that we're a part of, we really know how to close out a tough game and know how to grind out games down the stretch. So I feel like they give us kind of an edge and momentum. But like my coach said, you've got to recreate momentum every day and that's just going hard in practice, during shootaround, just taking it serious and taking no opponent lightly.

REGGIE UPSHAW: Like Perrin said, we're really resilient coming down the stretch in games. A lot of that showed in the championship game against Old Dominion. But I think we're 10-1 in games decided by five points or fewer. So just to kind of have that on our side, it shows a lot about who we are as a team and how we have great leadership.

Q. You won a semifinal game in the 90s, you won the championship game in the 50s. Where do you want this game to be in terms of pace tomorrow?
REGGIE UPSHAW: I know Coach Davis said we have to really limit them on fast break points. Transition will be a huge part in the game. He wants us to be able to set our defense after each bucket. So as far as scoring 90, I'm pretty sure that won't be one of those kind of games, but it will definitely probably be over 50 or 60 points, I'd say.

PERRIN BUFORD: I feel as if this team, we can play a lot of different ways. We can get out in transition, but then again, we can also play in half court and get our defense set. But with a team like that, who thrives in transition, I don't really think we want it to be a track meet, honestly, but I feel we'll throw a lot of different looks at them that they probably haven't seen or not used to.

Q. One of the things your team does extremely well is help defense. On a team like Michigan State that goes 11-12 deep, that has a lot of weapons, how much is it discipline maybe not to help as much and leave guys open?
PERRIN BUFORD: It will be very important. But basketball is a team game. So help defense is just a part of it. We're really going to need that tonight when we play them tomorrow. So I just feel like everybody has to be locked in on the defensive end and it's going to be a unit effort. And I feel like if we really buy in to what coach is saying in the game plan we'll have a great chance of winning the game.

REGGIE UPSHAW: Going off what Perrin said, I know Coach Davis has a great game plan as far as keeping us in help defense. A lot of the things that they run is based off of whether or not you help or not. If you don't help, then they'll hit the role guy. If you do help they'll skip it for a three. As far as the defenses and things like that, Coach Davis has a great game plan for that, and we just have to execute his game plan.

Q. As a senior, how are you balancing sort of the sense of urgency and what are you saying to your guys since you guys are moving to this game?
PERRIN BUFORD: Being a senior, it really hasn't hit me yet until today. It just hit me today it's like, okay, this could be my last game tomorrow. What I've really been telling these guys is just do what we've been doing all year. Don't try to go out and do anything different. Do what got us here, and that's just playing as a team, just being collective and just staying together through adversity and whatever else may come.

Q. A lot of people watching the game tomorrow will be watching Middle Tennessee play perhaps for the first time. What's one thing that they should know about your team or need to know about your team?
REGGIE UPSHAW: One thing that I'd say a lot of people need to know about our team is that we're really unselfish. I know myself and Perrin, we do a great job of getting in the paint, making others better. We kick it out to Giddy. He's a great three-point shooter. And then we also have Darnell who can knock down an open three as well as cause mismatches for a lot of post players inside the paint and Jaqawn as well. So as far as for someone who hasn't seen us play, I would just say take notice in how unselfish we are.

PERRIN BUFORD: For me, I feel like we have a lot of guys that play similar positions or like size, like Coach likes to say. So we can really switch which bothers a lot of teams, because they're used to people just switching 1 through 3, but we can switch 1 through 5 at times, and just depending on the personnel, and we really don't have a set defense. We go from zone to man to half-court press and just throw different looks at the opponents.

Q. Guys, the 15-2 upset is more common in the past few years than it has been ever before. So do you kind of look back at the teams, like the Florida Gulf Coasts of recent history, and kind of look at them saying, we can kind of do this as well and we can shock the world and shake up the tournament?
PERRIN BUFORD: Oh, yes, most definitely. It's something Coach has been talking about it. He was saying how teams all over upset the conference and win a tournament and upset a big team. So we've just been really focused in practice, just trying to execute his game plan, just really put it into play. So we know that's possible. And we're just going to go out and play our hearts out and just leave it all on the line and whatever happens happens.

REGGIE UPSHAW: As far as the 15-2 upsets we know that they always happen. It seems like just about every year there's a 15-2 upset, and the 15 seed always makes a deep run into the tournament. As far as having that kind of history your side, it's always great to have that. But at the end of the day we know we have to go out and execute, kind of like what Perrin was saying.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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