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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 Pittsburgh Panthers student-athletes James Robinson, Jamel Artis and Michael Young representing the student body.

Q. Could you talk about your opponent, Wisconsin, what do you know about them, what challenges do they bring to you and did you watch them last year, make their Final Four run?
MICHAEL YOUNG: We watched a little bit on them so far. And we know that they're a team that's very sound defensively and offensively. They like to grind it out, get a good shot. They can play inside. They can play outside. They've got some great post guys and guys that can shoot on the outside. But for the most part we know they're very disciplined offensively and defensively.

JAMES ARTIS: This is a team that plays solidly on both sides of the basketball. So we have to go out there and be the aggressor both on defense and offense and be smarter than them because they're going to take the shot clock down and make the shot at the right time. So we have to go out there and be ourselves and know our role.

JAMES ROBINSON: I think they're definitely going to play their pace of game. We can't have any mental lapses on defense, because they're going to pretty much just be looking for us to break down and capitalize off our mistakes. So mentally we have to be locked in for 40 minutes.

Q. How does playing in a tough conference like the ACC prepare you guys for the tournament?
JAMES ARTIS: I think playing in a tough conference like the ACC, you get to see different styles of play pretty much night in, night out. You have to be ready to play every game. There are no off nights in the ACC. And I think just having gone through that whole regular season it's going to prepare us for this tournament.

JAMES ARTIS: Like James said, the ACC is one of the top level leagues to play amongst so this prepares us to be great. This is a long season so right now we gotta go out there and push ourselves through the second season. We've been striving for this our whole year, so we've got to go out there bring it all for 40 minutes.

MICHAEL YOUNG: Like the guys said you can never take a night off. Anybody can lose to anybody. The best team in the conference can lose to the worst team in the conference if they don't come ready to play. And just like in this tournament, every game could be the last, so you've got to come ready to play. And you've got to come with that mindset that there isn't a second game, there aren't any second chancees. This is the only chance you've got, and you've got to make the best of it.

Q. You guys went through a tough three game skid but were able to turn it around with a big double-overtime win over Wake Forest. How big was that for the team?
JAMES ARTIS: That just showed the character of our team. When we're down, we came back and we fought hard through the ups and downs. Every game is not going to be pretty for us. If we're missing shots, we've got to play defense. If we aren't playing defense, well, we've got to make shots. If we can put two and two together, we'll be a great team, an awesome team. Like you said, we came back and showed character among our players and we toughed it out.

MICHAEL YOUNG: I would just say when we played against Wake Forest, they're a really great team, and in any other conference they'd probably be one of the top teams in the league. Playing that game and going into double overtime, it really showed us that no matter how good you're playing or how bad you're playing, if you had a good start, had a bad start, you've got to keep fighting and there will be chances for you to win the game whether you're down or up. But you just gotta keep playing and fighting and you can overcome anything and get the job done.

JAMES ROBINSON: I think in that Wake Forest game, guys made plays down the stretch that just showed we are capable of making stuff happen in the big moment. And I think this tournament, just looking at the history of it, it does take some big-time plays on offense and defense to reach the ultimate goal.

Q. For those of us that don't see you guys regularly, when you guys are at your best, what is your game like?
MICHAEL YOUNG: When we're at our best, we're playing great on both sides of the floor. Offensively we're a great team that can pass and shoot. We can play inside and outside. So I think when we're at our best offensively, we've got everything going, we're clicking on all cylinders, we're scoring in the post, we're making great passes, we're getting 20-plus assists and having under 10 turnovers. Defensively we're playing mentally tough, we're playing gritty, we're scrapping it out and getting rebounds and we're making it as tough as possible for the other team to score.

JAMES ARTIS: Like he said when we're at our best we're among one of the toughest teams to go against, so when we get up the floor very fast in transition and we're playing solid defense, we're a hard team to beat. So like I said we've got to go out there from the tip and be the aggressor, try to speed the basketball up, try to speed Wisconsin up because they like to play at a slow pace. So we really want to speed them up and hold them under 35 percent and we'll be in good shape.

JAMES ROBINSON: Like Mike said, we're at our best when we get 20-plus assists per game. For us, we think that translates to the ball really moving and finding an open guy. Then taking good shots and also rebounding, especially on the offensive end, rebounding our own misses. We take great pride in that, and defensive rebounding as well.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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