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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: RALEIGHMarch 18, 2016Kellen DunhamAndrew ChrabasczRoosevelt JonesRaleigh, North Carolina THE MODERATOR: We're now ready to begin the Butler news conference for today. We will open up the floor for question for the student-athletes. Q. For any of you guys, does Coach Holtmann ever elaborate on what you call the tenets of the Butler way and the specifics, and what he expects of you guys? Because it seems like a lot of the foundational things that Butler does Virginia also does. KELLEN DUNHAM: Yeah, he definitely stressed it early on in the year with some of our young guys. Each week we kind of took a principle that we wanted to focus on. I think that he incorporates it in a lot of things that we do, talking about entitlement and getting over yourself and team first stuff. So it just encompasses a lot of principles that we talk about or values. ROOSEVELT JONES: Yeah, like Kellen said, he definitely instilled that in us. Definitely a couple years ago when we had that bad season, because we really lost that way, and Holtmann made sure to bring that tradition back like Brad Stevens had it. He made sure we knew it. We went over it in practice all the time. So yeah, he definitely instilled it back into us. Q. For each of you guys, when you look at Virginia, what is the first thing that jumps out at you? Obviously they're known for their defense, which includes their post trap and a lot of other things they do very well. ANDREW CHRABASCZ: Like you said, obviously very strong defensively. It's going to be a grind. That's going to be the big thing. It's going to be one possession at a time. There's going to be ups and downs but we have to stay even-keeled the entire time with our emotions. Hopefully it works out for us. ROOSEVELT JONES: What really jumps out to me is the pace of the game that they play. I think they're like the slowest team in the country in pace and tempo. That really jumps out to me. We have to play the whole 30 seconds on the defensive end. We have to make sure we get it off the glass. If not, we are going to have to guard them for another 30 seconds. That's going be a key thing for us when we play them. KELLEN DUNHAM: They're a very tough-minded team. Like Roosevelt said, they really crash the glass really hard and that's one thing that can hurt us throughout the year. So we're going to really focus on that and keeping our guys off. Q. For Roosevelt, I guess I was wondering about being a fifth-year senior. Virginia has a couple of those kind of kids, too. How much has that kind of helped you having that extra year? And did you notice that Virginia had a couple players in your similar situation, too? ROOSEVELT JONES: Yeah, I found out today when we went over the schedule they had a couple graduate seniors but yeah, it kind of helps me being here for the extra year, being in the NCAA Tournament, all of the battles in games I went through throughout my career. It helps me out in situations like this. Playing the No. 1 seed, I played IU when they were No. 1 a couple years ago. I know the type of feel and atmosphere it's going to be tomorrow. It really helped me out for being here the last five years. Q. Roosevelt, you mentioned Coach Stevens. Five years later do those two runs to the national championship games still hover over the program and have they created expectations for future teams including yours? ROOSEVELT JONES: I wouldn't say it created expectations but it kind of helps us out, because everybody knows who Butler is now after the back-to-back Final Four. Before that when Butler was in the Tournament, everybody was like, who's Butler? Even though they had great runs in the Sweet 16s and things like that. I felt like the back-to-back Final Four runs helped us. It didn't really hurt us really that much. Q. Kellen, obviously, both teams shot the ball well from three-point range yesterday. How big of a key is that in this game? KELLEN DUNHAM: I think just as always, it's going to come down to the little things. I think making shots is definitely going to help, and help each team probably separate, if you're able to come head to head. I think it will be a little bit of a difference-maker, but most importantly, I think just getting them off the glass, getting back on defense and making everything just hard, making them shoot over us is going to be the main key. Q. Roosevelt, just curious about your thoughts on ^ Malcolm Brogdon. He's a fifth-year senior like you are. What do you think about that potential matchup? Would you be guarding him? What have you seen of him on film? Does he remind you in some ways of yourself? ROOSEVELT JONES: No, he's probably a better player than me on the offensive game. But, yeah, we watched some film on him today. He moves a lot off the ball. He cuts really hard and tries to score in a variety of ways, so you try and make sure to take some of his strengths away when I play against him. So I will match up with him tomorrow, so I'll be ready for the challenge. Q. Kellen, getting you off the three-point line is a priority for your opponents, what have certain teams tried to do to get you off of that line, and what do you do to counter what they're doing when they try to cover you up out there? KELLEN DUNHAM: You're talking about what did I see throughout the year or -- Q. Yeah, what did they try to do different things to you, when you're shooting threes? And how do you work to find open space when people are throwing different things at you defensively? KELLEN DUNHAM: I think 22 years on this earth I've seen it all being a shooter, so face guard, box and one, triangle and two, being extremely physical, something like that, but, you know, the way to counter is not to force anything. I trust guys like Andrew and Rose, that they are going to do their job and make the defense pay for the way that they're guarding me. They always seem to find me when I'm open, too, so that makes the game a lot easier. I think just countering their physicality by being tough-minded and weathering the storm. Q. Also, for Kellen, it looks like you got to meet Reggie Miller the other day at open practice. What did you guys talk about and what did he tell you? Anything about shooting? KELLEN DUNHAM: Yeah. He said at the end of the game yesterday, you know, "You got to empty the chamber and don't leave any bullets left." Coming from him, that's quite a compliment. You know, just him giving me a little bit of his time is just legendary, growing up and watching him play. It's such a blessing to be able to talk to him and he's a funny guy, too. So it was a good time. Q. Andrew, you and Virginia have common opponents in Villanova and Miami. I was curious if you guys have seen any video of them playing those two teams just so you'd have that baseline of familiarity? ANDREW CHRABASCZ: Yes, for those games those were early out in the year. We've watched them, like just common stuff, but we've also watched a lot more recent games. Just try to figure out what they're doing more often, just their frequencies and stuff like that. But we're aware of the outcomes of those games and how they played them and how they attacked them. Like I said, we try to see more frequent stuff just so we can see frequencies during the game. THE MODERATOR: Okay. Any other questions? All right. Gentlemen. Thank you very much. Good luck tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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