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

March 17, 2016

Jamie Dixon

St. Louis, Missouri

THE MODERATOR: And the head coach of the Panthers is here, Jamie Dixon. Coach, an opening statement.

JAMIE DIXON: Real excited about St. Louis, being here for our guys. First time to be at this site for us. And looking forward to the opportunity. Obviously Wisconsin, a very good team. We've got to watch a lot of film. Go through them and prepare, and with being on the last one, one of the last games on Friday, we've had a few extra hours to prepare. And so looking forward to it. Guys are healthy and ready to go. We had a good practice today. We'll have this little shootaround here on the floor, be our first time being on this floor. And then a little walk-through tomorrow. So a good day of preparation before we go.

Q. When you have a late game like that or one of the later games, how do you keep the guys from bouncing off the walls?
JAMIE DIXON: It will be a little interesting. I haven't looked back on it. We've been to the tournament 11 times in recent years, and we've always seemed to be on the Thursday on a morning game at the same time. So it's been a little bit interesting as far as preparation, travel, getting ready to go. But as far as 6:00 is about normal time game for us. And we will do a shootaround in the morning, walk-through at Fontbonne -- we shot over there today, practiced over there. We'll do something in the morning to prepare but we won't use our time here on the floor because we thought that was too early, the 20 minutes they give you. Pregame meal, scouting reports, those types of things. It takes up the day pretty good.

Q. Nigel Hayes, what kind of challenge does he present? That kind of player. You've got I think a couple of guys similar to that. How do you prepare for a guy like that?
JAMIE DIXON: I would say we're familiar with Nigel. We recruited him out of high school. Obviously from Ohio. And it's interesting to see how he's progressed. He came out the same year as Mike and Jamel, so similar type players that we're looking at. He's progressed as far as the ability to play on the perimeter, drive the basketball, shoot the 3 as well. But it's still that physical, hard-playing, aggressive, looking for contact both offense and defense. So he's a hard matchup. He can play -- some teams play the 3 against him. Some teams play the 4 against him. Oftentimes he's playing at the 5 too. You'll have a lot of different guys guarding him. And that's our plan going into the game.

They're a team that's interior dominating as far as getting their scoring from those two guys, from Hayes and Happ. And it's somebody that we've got to contain. We want to try to keep him off the foul line. He really tries to look for contacts on his drives, his post-ups. And if you can do a good job staying between him and the basket and keeping him off the line, that's probably the best way of having success.

Q. Statistically Mike and Jamel are your two leading scorers, but can you talk about how important, when you guys have had good games this year, how important they've been to that?
JAMIE DIXON: Those guys have been good for us. Obviously they've been the most consistent guys in scoring, Mike and Jamel. They score in different ways. We really think that our passing, our spacing are the two most important things and allows them to score. And if we have other guys making shots, I think that's when we're best offensively. So obviously they're the guys that lead us in numbers. But we do need some perimeter scoring from our guards knocking down shots. And when we do that, that's when we're at our best. But we usually do play through them, they're guys that can pass and go off the dribble, they can score. But they can get other guys shots, too, and I think that's what makes them and us our best.

Q. How have they been able to use their tempo or lack thereof to their advantage?
JAMIE DIXON: Well, I mean, that's how they play. Their tempo is kind of a cause because their defense is so solid, so good. They're not going to give up easy baskets. Transition defense is a priority for them so they don't want to give up anything in transition. They preach it for years. They've done it for years. And so we do want to get transition baskets. We want to take advantage if we can. We've seen times they do give them up, watch a number of films, games of them and it can happen. So you've got to play good defense on one end and then come up with the rebound, the loose ball, the deflection, whatever it may be. So that's when we're at our best. And that's what we've got to do. But on the offensive end they're going to be patient. They're going to try to get the ball inside. They're going to rely on their guards to make one-on-one plays at the end, too.

So we don't want to, again, talked about fouls earlier but we want to limit our fouls and we certainly don't want to be fouling at the end of the clock when they're trying to go one-on-one to create shots. So again they will be patient. We know that, and that's how they play.

Q. They're a lot like you guys consistently in the NCAA Tournament over the last 15 years. They seem to always have a couple of seniors in this. Do you see your program built similarly to them and do you see some similarities in that?
JAMIE DIXON: Yeah, I mean, we obviously played them in the NCAA Tournament a while back. Then we had that home-and-home we played with them as well. Back then you talked about the similarities of the players. They had a lot of local guys, Wisconsin guys. We had guys from different areas. But they seemed to have a little bit more size than we've had I think over the years consistently. But, again, I think defense and rebounding is what they base their program on, and ours as well. And I think over time the games have changed a little bit. They've changed. We've changed. And we're finding ourselves in a position there where we've both red-shirted guys. They've had fifth-year guys that have great success as well. So there's a lot of similarities like you mentioned.

Q. Couple of your players mentioned that 20-plus assists is something that you're looking for. How important is ball movement to what you do?
JAMIE DIXON: I mean, we've had some games when we've been very good offensively, some games where we've struggled, like everybody. And that seems to be the number that stands out. Our assist numbers are down and maybe our turnovers were up. But we just found with ourselves we've gotten a little bit stationary. Ball movement is what they mentioned. But player movement as well. So we want to be a little bit more active with movement. But also with the movement of the basketball. It was something we've emphasized the last five days. And I think we've got a better feeling of it. And it was great to have these five days to prepare with the one day where we really just did some shooting on their own.

And I think it was something, obviously you want to prepare for Wisconsin, but we had some time to really look at ourselves and what we could do better. And I think they had a good feeling the last couple of days offensively. Seemed like we're back to where we've had good stretches. Every team has some good games and good stretches offensively. And we've had those. But we've also run into some issues in games and again it seemed those games seem to be low assists, low shooting percentage.

Q. Five days you have time to do some self-evaluation?
JAMIE DIXON: Yeah, especially Sunday when we didn't know who we were playing, we had those days. And Monday we focused a little bit more on us than Wisconsin. But, yeah, it was an opportunity. Like I said, the extra day and actually an extra day and the late start on Friday, for us, seemed to be a significant change.

Q. You've been at so many of these opening games, what have you learned over the years about what you want to do and the hours leading up to it and what you don't want to do with the team?
JAMIE DIXON: You know, it's always different because like I said the timing of it, travel. We've had some situations where those things come into play. But you want to be able to relax. You want them rested. I think that's something we really were able to do, even though we had this long stretch. We were able to get some good practice in. But we didn't go long today. Very short. We don't want to get off here quick today. We wanted to get some shooting in. But I think they're rested and confident. I'd love to get some guys making some shots here today, first time in the gym in this arena. So those are things that we're looking at. And just having some fun, enjoying the opportunity. I think with this group it's different because we have a lot of new guys. Six really new players, if you count Cameron as a freshman, and then the three graduate transfers. That's the thing I really emphasized at the end there as far as getting into the tournament. Because those guys transferred to our place and never played in the NCAA Tournament. And we really want to get that. So making it special, obviously as a team that's been here a lot, but making it special for those guys.

I think Alonzo really practiced well this week, and Rafael was really good. And we need those guys. So I think that was -- trying to make it for this one, for us, making it about those guys, those seniors who have been playing in their first time. We've had seniors that played in this a number of times. But now we have seniors who are playing in this for their first time.

Q. How important is a strong bench and do you believe yours could be a difference maker in a tournament game like this?
JAMIE DIXON: Yeah, I do. I think it's obviously important, different things occur -- injuries, foul trouble, minutes. But I think inside I feel really good about our guys, the five guys we played. We don't have that big guy that stands out. But I think with the numbers, the five guys we can rotate in. And we'll need it against this team because their interior scoring is their strength. That's what they're trying to do. They want to go inside. So we need those guys. So that's going to be critical.

And our guard play is going to be critical. I'd love to get some good minutes out of Damon Wilson. Sterling Smith as well who played so well for us early. We haven't quite got him going since. So it would be a great thing for us and something that is well needed, much needed, as with everybody. They want to get some guys. But Sterling's here as a shooter and Cameron has obviously played more down the stretch and had big games for us. But we've got to make some perimeter shots.

Q. Does your entire staff become more important this time of year as opposed to during the regular season? Are you actually needing guys to do different things than they've done in terms of your assistants and things like that?
JAMIE DIXON: It's really focus on opponents. We break it down with the pod and the three, four teams, and the other three we need to know. So we're really focused on the scouting, talking about our guys. And really just trying to get some guys. I mentioned some guys that haven't played as well down the stretch and maybe getting some extra work with them, extra shots. Again just talking about, trying to get the confidence and getting them going. It's a long year and not everybody's going to be playing great at the end of the year. So we really were trying to get those guys to feel good and feel confident going into the game. So that's something we've really emphasized with our guys.

Q. Can there be a benefit to being a 10 seed from your perspective as a point of motivation or a rallying point for this team flying under the radar?
JAMIE DIXON: I mean, I think with this year and the different things, the differences between 7, 10s, looking at it, there's not much. You look at the teams that have the No. 1 seeds, they have six losses, the most in history. Again, I think the theme has been parity and it's wide open and anybody can win this thing. So, I don't know.

Our guys are excited about being here. I think the biggest thing motivation wise is you want to be playing your best and excited. Like I said for three guys that have never been here before and are seniors came here for specifically that reason, I think that's the motivation. I think that's the thing for us that's great. And if you need to be an underdog or a favorite, whatever it may be, I mean, some favorites will win and some underdogs will win and we see that every year. So we just want to be the best team. We want to be the team standing.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

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