	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

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

March 17, 2016

St. Louis, Missouri

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Xavier student-athletes James Farr, Remy Abell and Myles Davis. Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Myles, having a chance to study up on Weber State, what are your impressions of them and do they remind you of anyone you played this year?
MYLES DAVIS: Weber State's really good. A comparison I'd think about is Providence, they do a lot of scoring and they have a really good supporting cast for those two guys. The big man, Bolomboy, I think that's his name, I'm not too sure. He's athletic and really strong and Senglin, he can really shoot the ball, so we just got to be ready and have to make it a tough day for those two guys and not make it a good day for any of the other guys.

Q. James, you had a record-setting regular season, and obviously you're back here in the tournament as is tradition in the program. As you move forward and look at tomorrow's game what do you think are some of the keys for you guys as you get ready to face Weber State?
JAMES FARR: To be the Xavier team we've been all year, just the tougher team, the team that rebounds, gets the 50/50 balls and just pride ourselves on defense. We've had some slipups on defense this year, and I think we're finally making our way back to who we used to be during the year. And tomorrow should be exciting.

Q. What do you think the defensive slipups were and how did you fix them?
JAMES FARR: Just caught ourselves playing to the level of our offense. If we didn't have a good shooting night, it would kind of affect how we would play on defense. And we have some mature guys on our team. And we saw the problem, we fixed it during the couple of days we had off after the Big East Tournament and I feel like we're ready to go now.

Q. Obviously the Big Sky is not nearly as competitive as the Big East. How do you guys make sure you don't overlook Weber State to give them an upset in one of the Cinderellas of March Madness?
REMY ABELL: Like I said, like James and Myles said, we've got to continue to play like we've been playing all year. Obviously just doing it on the defensive end. Starts on defense. Sharing the ball, playing together, and just coming out ready to play, not looking at the conference or the name and just playing like we've been playing all year, and not taking anybody for granted.

MYLES DAVIS: I think we'd be crazy to overlook Weber State. They definitely won their conference championship. And they're a very, very good team. So we're going to treat Weber State just like we treat every team and that's exactly what we've been doing all year and trying to stick to what we do and play our basketball and hopefully we'll be all right.

Q. Remy, as someone who has played in the tournament multiple times, do you impart any wisdom to the younger guys, like, say, an Edmond, to prepare them for what the environment might be like or what the tournament might be like?
REMY ABELL: I mean, nobody's really asked me, really, but I mean when I'm out there or before the game, if anybody had any questions I'll answer them. But just to say to the team that from here on out is win or go home, so let's leave it all out on the court and not look back and think about what we could have done or what we should have done at the end of the game.

Q. Myles, Coach Mack today won another coach of the year award and he's in line to potentially get a third. Based on the accolades he's received, what do you think does it mean for you as a player to have your coach win that award and why do you think he's worthy of it?
MYLES DAVIS: I think Coach Mack is fully deserving of every award he's won. Credit to him, and as you can see, nothing is possible without Coach Mack leading us in the way that he has been leading us all year. So I mean he's worked just as hard as any one of us has worked. And it's all paying off for him. So we're excited for him. We're happy for him and we're glad to see Coach Mack actually getting an award for something that he's done and something that he's accomplished, or trying to accomplish.

Q. Xavier has a lot of experience in the NCAA Tournament. Is this a better team than you had last year, for instance?
REMY ABELL: I feel like last year we had a good team but, yeah, I feel like this year's team is a lot better. We're a lot deeper, we're more experienced. We had a lot of freshmen last year, they're now sophomores that played in the tournament. So I feel like this team has a lot of experience, a lot of depth. I feel we can do big things this year and make a deep run.

MYLES DAVIS: Like Remy said, we all have experience now. The good thing was we got to experience making a run to the Sweet 16 and brought in the the same core of guys, added a couple of people, but I think we've learned from every lesson that we've had this season, whether it was a loss or win. We learned from last season how bad it felt to lose in a tournament and actually what it took to get to the point where we wanted to get. So I think this team is more than capable of accomplishing anything that we want to accomplish. But you can only say so much. It's about doing it and that's what we're trying to look forward to do.

JAMES FARR: Yeah, to piggyback off what those two said. You know, last year was a good season for us, we went to the Sweet 16. But to answer your question, I think we really won't find out until it's all said and done after this tournament. We've done some great things this year, but we haven't accomplished any of our goals yet. That's to win the national championship. You can't really do any of that until we win tomorrow. We just focus on the game ahead of us and nothing past that.

Q. I wonder for all three of you, just your experiences going around the country, as college basketball players, do you still get a level of, I'm going to use the word ignorance, I don't mean it in a negative way, but from people about the Xavier program: Where is the school? What league do you play in? Despite all the accomplishments your program has had in recent years?
JAMES FARR: You know, yeah, you have your people that ask where Xavier is. But I never get the sense of they're trying to be disrespectful. They just don't know. And I answer their questions politely, have a conversation with them, try and educate them about Xavier's history, the school and the athletic program there and then you know that's pretty much it. Just go about your day.

MYLES DAVIS: I think at first people didn't recognize who we were because we were a small school. But I think as time has came along, Xavier has done a great job in providing and showing that we're just as good as any other school. It doesn't matter the type of numbers. We were successful whether we're graduating people, whether we're making tournament runs in whatever sport we're doing. So I think Xavier has made a way for ourselves and has gotten a lot of recognition. And hopefully people can pay attention to us. But it really doesn't matter to us. We're just going to keep doing what we're doing and keep just paving the way for time to come.

REMY ABELL: To piggyback off what they said, obviously Xavier is a small school so a lot of people might not know about the school compared to like maybe North Carolina, Arizona, schools like that. But Xavier has done a great job. Student-athletes and even normal students are just paving the way, graduating students, athletics, everything is falling into place and hopefully it keeps going.

Q. James, Coach has said many times that this has been a very enjoyable and fun team to coachh. Has this been the most fun Xavier team to play for in your career and if so why?
JAMES FARR: I would say so. Just off the fact that we're winning. I've been on the losing teams here at Xavier. It wasn't fun. The season was very long. But just to put it all together my senior year and how much winning we've done, not to lose two games in a row this whole season, the way that we've bounced back after every loss that we've had this year has been amazing. And just seeing how our fans support us, it's everything you ever wished for. But we're on a bigger stage now and I'm not looking forward to ending it just yet.

Q. I guess I meant more chemistry-wise, guys getting along, just that aspect of it, is that different than other years?
JAMES FARR: Most definitely. We didn't really lose a lot of players last year. We lost two vital players from last season, but we didn't lose our whole team. We had some really good role players and players who emerged themselves as stars for our team. And everybody just took on their role and accepted it, accepted criticism and just made sure winning was our main priority.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297