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

March 17, 2016

Bob Huggins

Brooklyn, New York

Q. Some of the players were up here talking about buying into the defensive system. From your perspective, what was that like getting the buy-in like pretty early in the season?
BOB HUGGINS: It really wasn't that hard. I kind of asked them if they all wanted to play, and they all said they did, and I said, well, we can play all of you, but we're going to have to play this way. You know, it's going to take a great amount of effort on every one of your parts, but you're all going to get to play. I really think it's helped our team chemistry. I think it's helped our esprit de corps, so to speak.

I think it's been really good. I think they enjoy it.

Q. Brad Underwood coached under you at Kansas State. I was wondering what it's like to meet him at this stage. Also, is there any sort of advantage to being that familiar with his coaching style?
BOB HUGGINS: Probably more of an advantage for Brad than it is for me because we were, obviously, running my stuff, and Brad runs -- does a great job with the pinch post stuff, which I've never really ran. I've known Brad for a long, long time. I knew Brad when he was at Dodge City Community College and we were recruiting some of his guys. That was a long time ago. That was in the early '90s. And then recruited one of his guys at Daytona Beach, so we go way back.

Q. Coach, you've been at this a long time. How has the tournament changed over the years? And how has your preparation for the tournament changed?
BOB HUGGINS: Probably not as uptight. I was just walking down here, and I thought about the first time that I sat in that meeting, and I was at the University of Akron, and I'm looking around at all these guys, and I'm like, wow, you know, and you think -- we must have been the last seed in the tournament because we played Michigan, who was the number 1 ranked team in the country the whole year. We played really well. I think we lose by six or something like that, but we played really well. I'm thinking, how do you ever win six games in this deal? Haven't figured that out yet.

But we've won four a few times. I don't know. I don't know if it's gotten -- I don't know how much it has changed really. We were playing in domes back then, and that was -- what would that have been, early '90s, I guess. No. Probably late '80s. Late '80s, we were playing in domes. We're playing in domes now. I don't know that it's -- the meetings are still long, boring. So I don't know what all's changed. More commercials maybe. I'm not sure.

Q. Coach, distractions are part of the NCAA Tournament. You have kids from this area who have to worry about tickets. You guys had travel delays yesterday. How do you guys handle distractions?
BOB HUGGINS: The travel part, we're pretty good at now. We've had a lot of practice. I think they look forward to the games, I think. So we've had one request to go to his local barber and get a haircut. But other than that, they've kind of stayed pretty close to the group.

Q. Have you played a defense that's going to press up on you as much as Stephen F. Austin will be during the course of this season? If so, who would it be similar to?
BOB HUGGINS: Well, I think, when they play their zone, when they play the 1-2-2, Baylor did that for a while, where they really had a lot of ball pressure. And Brad really spreads that 1-2-2 out, and they get a lot of ball pressure and try to play passing lanes. I would say -- Baylor's a 1-1-3, but I would say from a ball pressure standpoint, I think that's probably the closest that we've played.

Q. Coach, you talked before about the need to recruit this area. Playing here, how much has that helped recognition exposure?
BOB HUGGINS: It's not like it used to be. It used to, you could tell them we were going to come back and play three or four games in the Metropolitan area. We were going to play the conference tournament in the Metropolitan area, and we were a part of very much an Eastern league. We've tried to get back in here because there are kids who want to go away as well, and we certainly want to try to be involved with them as much as we possibly can.

I think it helps, but it's never going to be what it was. I know you're well aware of this, but our alumni base is very, very strong up and down the East Coast from below D.C. up to -- pretty much up to Boston. I think having our alumni, that strong alumni base in there, we had a lot of people at games, and there's a lot of support. I think kids could see the support that West Virginia had up and down the East Coast.

We're not playing in here but maybe a game or two a year. It's not like playing all the games we used to play in here.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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