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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: PROVIDENCEMarch 18, 2016Gregg MarshallMarkis McDuffieShaquille MorrisFred VanVleetProvidence, Rhode Island Q. Wichita State has got some guys who are breaking through in this NCAA Tournament. Do you remember what that was like for you in 2013 and how that changed the way you viewed yourself or what was possible? FRED VANVLEET: Yeah, definitely. It's fun, first and foremost. It's the most fun thing in the world. It's what you work hard for. It's what you put all the hours in the gym for. And to do it as a young guy, it's even more special because there's not as much expectations. Your freshman year is always hard, ups and downs, full of extreme confidence and lows and the valleys and stuff like that. I'm sure Markis has been through that this year in terms of high points and low points. And I think this is the time of the year where it can get consistent, and you're just focusing on basketball, and it all comes together in the right time, and it can kind of be the jump start of your career. Q. Fred, you guys are always described as a very tough team. How would you define this team's toughness? FRED VANVLEET: I think -- it's hard to put it into words. But I feel like anybody that watched that game last night won't have a hard time understanding what that means for us in terms of diving on the floor, just playing the game the right way, playing as hard as you possibly can, physically and mentally tough, and putting it all together at the right time. Obviously it wasn't a beautiful offensive performance, but when you can hold a team that averages 81 to 55, all you have to do is make a couple more shots than them, and things will usually go your way. We pride ourselves on being tough, and we struggled with that at some points during the year. But it's all coming together right now at the right time. I think for every guy that steps on the court, they're held up to that standard. Q. Markis, these guys have been through the battles before. They've talked to you about what it's like. Is it as you anticipated? Just describe the NCAA Tournament from your perspective. MARKIS MCDUFFIE: Yes. Most definitely, it's just as anticipated. In the beginning of the season, I asked them if we made the NCAA Tournament how it was going to be. And they just told me, by the time that time comes, all the hard work is going to pay off at the end of the season, and you're going to be used to it by now, and you're just going to be mentally focused for it. It's finally coming into play and I'm blessed to be in the position where we can show the world how tough we are, how great we are defensively, and how we can win games. Q. Markis and Shaq, it appears Miami uses a lot of ball screens, really good at that. What's that mean for you two defensively trying to help defend ball screens? SHAQUILLE MORRIS: Definitely, just at the point of attack of the screen, we've just got to be ready to stop the ball, stop them from penetrating into the paint, and execute our defensive principles. MARKIS MCDUFFIE: Same thing he said, point of attack. When we come off that screen, hopefully our big is there to hedge or do whatever he can do to possibly stop the ball, where we can come back to the ball and guard our guy and stay in front of him. That's what it is. If we get that done, I'm pretty sure we'll be in a good position to win. Q. Fred, most nights you and Ron, you matched up against an opposing backcourt and you're going to be older than them. Tomorrow you play against Miami, two fifth-year guys in Rodriguez and McClellan. What's it like to play against someone who has almost or equal experience? FRED VANVLEET: I mean, it's basketball at the end of the day. Those guys are a terrific backcourt. Obviously they've got tons of experience. It's just going to come down to who plays the best. There's no advantages, disadvantages. Once it's time to tip off, whoever plays better, whoever can try to make the most out of their match-ups and hopefully win their match-ups is probably going to be the key to the game. So we know that. We know they're a great backcourt. We give them a ton of respect, and we'll just be ready to play and ready for the challenge. Q. Fred, it seems you and Angel share a lot of similarities as far as pace of play, kind of being in control, all that kind of stuff. Do you see those similarities, and how would you kind of describe Angel? FRED VANVLEET: I mean, I do wonder -- if we didn't look so much alike or look similar to each other, would we get the same comparisons? I do wonder that. I was arguing with the team last night that we didn't look so much alike other than being a point guard with similar hair and the same skin tone. So I do wonder if I was super dark-skinned or super bright, if we would still get those similarities. But he's a heck of a point guard. He definitely runs the show. Change of pace, obviously he's a smaller guy, so he has to have all those tricks and be crafty to get the job done, and he does it. He does it really well. He's super good off the bounce, creating for his team in pick-and-roll situations, iso situations, and he makes big shots. Those are all similarities that I have as well. And, like I said earlier, it's just about who can play better for 40 minutes. Hopefully we'll have our team ready to go. Q. You guys were one of the last at-larges to be in the field. Prior to the announcement on Sunday, how worried were you whether or not Wichita State was going to be in the tournament? FRED VANVLEET: I mean, I think we were just anxious more than anything. I think our body of work and the type of team we are, we felt good about ourselves in terms of getting in. It's just a matter of who, what, where, when, why, that type of question. You know, as the names keep popping up and you're sitting in the room, you can just feel everybody getting anxious, and it's contagious. I think it built up a little bit. But as soon as we saw it pop up -- obviously the play-in game is not an ideal situation, but it is what it is, and we're here. We turned around and got to play in 36 hours, and we get the early game Saturday. That's more good luck for us, I guess. But we'll take it, and it's just fitting for our story, and we're up for the challenge. Q. Shaq and Markis, you expend a lot of energy, especially on defense. But the team goes deep, and you're getting long timeouts during the NCAA Tournament. Any fatigue feeling at all? SHAQUILLE MORRIS: The fatigue is really little, I feel, because we've got a very deep bench, like you said. But when we're in, we take pride on defense and try to go as hard as we can, and as soon as we feel a little tired, Fred will let us know, like, "Yo, you need to get out," or something like that. And we just give a fist because we want to make sure that we're effective the whole time we're on the court, no matter who it is. You can't be selfish. So no matter two minutes, three minutes, four minutes, as long as you can go hard the whole time and help the team out and give a fist, then that keeps you ready to go. MARKIS MCDUFFIE: Oh, man, I be tired. I just try to play as hard as I can, because I'm the youngest guy on the court probably. So I try to show that I can play the hardest I can on defense, show as much energy as I can, and when I'm tired, I just put a fist up. I don't want to hurt my team, so I just put my fist up to say when I'm out. But I'm definitely going to play as hard as I can. Or I could be so tired, and then just put my fist up, get out, catch a breather, and get back in the game. Q. Shaq and Markis, two teams that you played before, they remarked about Wichita State, always in a stance, always playing hard on defense. Do you feel like teams are a little unprepared for that, that you get out there, and they're just not ready to go against that kind of defense for as long as you guys play? SHAQUILLE MORRIS: I have to say, teams of course know that we play them next. They notice that we're a pretty good defensive team, but we're also I, guess, you could say smaller than most of the teams we go against, because they've got seven-footers. And once again at Miami, they've got seven-footers. So I don't think that they're like off the charts just like, all right, just ready. Because when you see us, you don't see, all right, these guys are intimidating or anything like that. But we just go out there and play as hard as we can and take pride on defense and rebounding because that's what Coach Marshall harps on. So that's what we are, and toughness. MARKIS MCDUFFIE: Just like he said, we're a smaller team, so I don't think teams really look at us like very scared, saying, oh, they probably don't respect us at all. But that's why Coach gets on us to be -- we've got to work really hard. We've got to be really tough because we know we're not the biggest team in the world. So we've just got to show these guys the defense they've never seen before and hopefully get the win. Q. Markis, even though you're a freshman on this stage for the first time, I know you played at a very high level in New Jersey and you played for Coach Hurley in high school. I wonder how that prepared you for what you're going through now, your first time in the NCAAs. MARKIS MCDUFFIE: I mean, in high school, we were one of -- if not the best defensive team in the country too, but that's high school. When you get to college, it's totally different. The game is much faster. Everybody wants to score. High school, they probably just got one or two dudes who do everything. But in this, everyone wants to cut, everybody wants to screen, everybody wants to find open spots on the court to score. So you've just got to find the right position to play defense and stuff, and just be smart, stay locked in. In high school you probably could doze off and still get a win or something. But in college, you've got to stay locked in the whole game. That's the difference, and that's what I'm working on right now. Hopefully I continue to stay locked in and stay focused. Q. For any of you three, there's been a lot of talk about how Wichita State is No. 1 in the Ken Pomeroy defensive statistics. I'm curious if that's something players know about, watch, care about. FRED VANVLEET: I mean, we've got all social media so we'll see it eventually. Any time you are No. 1 in something in the country, you take pride in that. So I'll take it. I don't care what it is. If somebody made it up, we'll take it. But that also means we've got to go out there and prove it every game, too. So take it as a challenge. I think we show how good we can be defensively, and it's going to take that type of effort tomorrow in order to have a chance to win. GREGG MARSHALL: Quick turnaround again. We're just trying to pore over as much Miami information and video as we can in preparation for another great challenge. Our guys are real excited, obviously, this time of year to continue playing. We'll have to play as well or better than we did yesterday to keep advancing in this tournament. Q. You talked a lot last night about the job that your assistants have done in getting prepared. What's the extra challenge having to do the First Four and then travel and then play immediately and all of that? GREGG MARSHALL: Well, it's taxing physically, as you know. I mean, last night, we probably didn't get out of here until 12:30, 12:45 maybe, back to the hotel. A lot of sleep, but all day today has been Miami. And the assistant coaches were spending a lot of time on Miami yesterday, last night, and they're doing a great job of relaying that information to our team. Now we'll have to practice a little bit, do some walk-through, very light for the guys that played a lot of minutes yesterday in practice today. But there will be some guys that get up and down a little bit just to try to keep their conditioning because who knows when some guy who hadn't been playing much will be called on and need to execute for us. Coaches do a great job. Today it's Brown and Janz and yesterday it was Heiar and Janz, and they'll have our guys mentally prepared for the tip tomorrow at noon. Q. There's been a lot of talk about the comparison between Angel Rodriguez and VanVleet. Can you talk about the two of them, how they're similar and different. GREGG MARSHALL: Yeah, first of all, they're similar size, and both very confident, very talented. Definitely the alpha dog of their team. They get other people involved. They set the table for the other teammates and make them look good. They make great passes and play tenacious defense, come up with the ball, steal the ball, get loose balls. I've watched Rodriguez now for five years as a freshman at K. State right there down the road from us, and he obviously sat out, and now he's been at Miami a couple of years. I think Fred has heard that, that there have been comparisons of those guys for a while. And it'll be interesting to see how they go at one another for the first time in tomorrow's game. Q. To follow up on that question, two of the older back courts in the field squaring off here with your two guys and their two guys. How do you evaluate that match-up going in? GREGG MARSHALL: Well, they've got a year's experience on us. They're both fifth-year guys, and they've got 10 years' experience -- we've got nine -- in their starting backcourt, so that's rare. But it'll be a big key to the games. Maybe one team out-guards, out-performs the other. Maybe they neutralize each other, and it becomes a battle of who has the most productive front court tomorrow. It'll be an interesting battle. It'll be great to see. A lot of seniors on both sides. Coach Larranaga does a wonderful job. When he went to the Final Four in '06, he had to go through Wichita State in the Sweet 16. But that was a home game for him in Washington, D.C., when he was at George Mason. This is a homecoming for him being a former PC player. Hopefully we can return the favor. Q. How do you describe Miami's ball screen offense and the challenges of guarding that? GREGG MARSHALL: Well, you'd better be good at the point of attack. You'd better not allow them to play downhill. They've got a number of guys that can really attack you off those ball screens. Rodriguez likes to split them. The other guys are a little taller and just go right after you and force you to -- they get to the line. McClellan gets to the line quite a bit, so you've got to have good point-of-attack defense, whatever you're going to do on the ball screen. And then you'd better have some help, as well. Q. We have a whole country full of coaches trying to get young players to care about defense to the degree that yours clearly do, and I was wondering what it's like for you personally -- even apart from winning and losing -- to be on the sideline and see them play as they did defense as they did last night? GREGG MARSHALL: Well, they're going to do that for us, or they're not going to play. So that's kind of ingrained from day one. We're going to defend, and we're going to -- it's going to be real important, that end of the floor. What we tell our guys is you come in with these -- obviously, you have skills or you wouldn't be a recruited student-athlete in our program. But in order to show those skills, you've got to prove that you're invested in the other end. It's real simple. You have to say that, but you have to mean it, and you have to show that you mean it from time to time. Guys that don't give effort on the defensive end aren't in there very long. It's not real difficult. It's just what you demand and what you preach and what you deem important, and you work on it every day. Games are easier than our practices. That's what we strive to do. We strive to make games easier than the practices because we don't practice very long. But when we're out there, we're competing and we're going really hard. And I'm not a very good official, so the practices are pretty physical. Q. What day is it? GREGG MARSHALL: Friday? Q. I thought you'd have to think about that. GREGG MARSHALL: Yeah, well, I'm not very smart, but it has been a whirlwind. Q. That's what I was going to say. Since Sunday, multiple cities, how would you describe the last five days? GREGG MARSHALL: Well, we've been sleeping during the day and then doing things at night, traveling, red eyes. It's been odd. It really has. It's been odd. But at this point, you're running on adrenaline. We're hoping we can get one more victory tomorrow afternoon. They say they're sending a plane for us, win or lose, to take us back to Wichita tomorrow. So God willing, we'll be back in Wichita tomorrow evening, and hopefully preparing to go to another site. I think it's Louisville. I think you told me it was Louisville. But we've got a lot of work to do between now and then, and we've got a great opponent tomorrow. But it has been just a very grueling, very taxing several days, but it's been fun all the same. Q. When you look at last night's box score, is there anything that sticks out to you? GREGG MARSHALL: That they scored 20 baskets and had 19 turnovers. That's hard to do to any basketball team, to have them almost one shy of as many turnovers as made baskets, made field goals, but especially a team the quality of Arizona, the quality of athletes, the quality of coaching. But we've been able to do that this year, and we've been able to force a lot of teams into more turnovers than baskets. I don't know how many. Our beat writer probably knows. Our sports information director in the back knows. But that's been a trademark of our team this year, and it's very difficult to do, but it goes back to that tenacious defense that we demand. Q. In view of this crazy taxing schedule, would you have preferred more consideration for the game time on Saturday? How much of a problem is that for you? GREGG MARSHALL: Well, we've got to play the game. Miami got a little bit more rest than we did because they played right before us, but I would obviously prefer the game to be a little later. We've played 9:10, 9:20, and now we bump it up to the first game of the day, noon tomorrow. But again, they didn't ask me. They didn't really care for my opinion. Q. You mentioned George Mason in 2006 and the way that they broke through and got to the Final Four. I wonder if you could speak to sort of the blurring of the lines between, quote-unquote, mid-major programs and, quote-unquote, major programs, and then with respect to your program, Gonzaga, and other places like VCU and Dayton. GREGG MARSHALL: You know, those of you who have to do that, you can label teams however you want. But if you look at this tournament, it's really -- well, it's in its fourth day because we started it on Tuesday, okay? The tournament is boiling down to, like, 1 seeds and double-digit seeds. You look at Arkansas, Little Rock, and Chris Beard, the great job, and Yale and James Jones. And Gonzaga, they're a 1 seed. They're just two 1 seeds. They're an 11 like us. We're a 1 seed, but we've got two 1s. Then you've got, obviously, North Carolina and Kansas and Virginia. I forget who the other No. 1 seed is. Oregon. I don't even know. But a lot of double-digit seeds. Look at Hawaii just won against Cal. You've got Middle Tennessee beating Michigan State. Whatever you want to label it, it doesn't really matter because the numbers beside the team don't matter once that ball is tossed. It's just an opportunity for maybe those guys that have always been told, well, you're not quite as good. You're good but you're not quite as good as that guy that plays at that Power Five league and that Power Five team. It's an opportunity for all of those young men to show that maybe they do. Maybe they are as good. They just didn't get the opportunity. It makes for great theater. Makes for great games. Makes for great drama. It's a lot of fun. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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