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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: ST. LOUISMarch 18, 2016Kermit DavisPerrin BufordDarnell HarrisReggie Upshaw Jr.St. Louis, Missouri Middle Tennessee State - 90, Michigan State - 81 THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by Middle Tennessee coach Kermit Davis and student-athletes Darnell Harris, Perrin Buford and Reggie Upshaw, Jr. Coach an opening statement. KERMIT DAVIS: Thank you, it was a spectacular day for Middle Tennessee State University and the fans and our players. Our players did such a tremendous job with our coaches. I have so much respect for Tom, and I've been following Michigan State basketball from afar for a lot of years. His culture nationally is what we're all trying to aspire to get to. So you beat a team that's so well-coached and their runs were terrific. And our guys just answered every run. The way we distributed the ball and these guys right here were fantastic. So just tell you all, it was a great day. But our guys had a belief that we could win. I know it sounds maybe cliche as a coach but they did they had a great belief all week in the preparation. THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. Coach, it's the simplest question I could ask you what does a win like this do for the Middle Tennessee program? KERMIT DAVIS: It's so much national attention. And on CBS, on a Friday afternoon, and when you beat a team like that. When we started scouting, there's no question they are one of the teams that have a chance to win a national championship. And to do it on that kind of stage, it's a great day for our whole university. Q. Reggie, how big was it to jump out to the 15-2 lead like you did today? REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: Just to jump out like that, it was huge for our team. Anytime that you can kind of jump out on a team that's known for their defense like we did, it just gives the whole team a boost of momentum. I mean, it started on the defensive end. We put the scouting plan straight into the game. We guarded them really well and rebounded the ball. PERRIN BUFORD: For me, coming off what Reggie said, coming out like that with a lot of energy and a lot of passion, and we just put the scout right into the game. And all my teammates, including myself, we weren't scared of the moment, and Coach has been preaching it all week, just do what got us here. And that's what we did. Q. Darnell, you averaged seven points in the month of March, but came up big tonight, especially from three-point land. What was it Coach said before this game? I know he stressed all week you have to have a big game in order for this to happen. What did he tell you before the game, and really what was the turning point tonight? DARNELL HARRIS: He just told me to keep playing, my teammates believe in me, my coaches believe in me. And he told me I have to play big for us to get this win tonight. I just came out confident, guarding and rebounding, and I made shots that came with it. Q. Reggie, I saw you after the game you were hugging your friends and family in the crowd. What was it like to get a win like this in front of your family like that? REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: It's probably one of the best moments I've been able to share with like my dad and my brother going through my athletic career. For them to drive all the way up here, seven hours, it really meant a lot just to see them in the crowd. And I could tell once we started playing, once we jumped out, and after we actually won, I could just tell that they were all proud of what I've accomplished and what my teammates have accomplished. Q. Coach, what did you guys do defensively to hold Forbes and Valentine to 9-of-23 shooting tonight? KERMIT DAVIS: You know, our identity is about changing defenses. We really thought after watching film, they run so much good offensive action against man-to-man that we were going to do a lot of switching. So we started the game one through five switching. And then we played a 1-3-1 trapping zone defense, we would do that on made baskets. In the second half you saw how downhill they played. What it does is just contains, it did it early with the switching, and got them a little bit out of rhythm and our 13 guys slowed them down in the first half. The second half they pitched it ahead so well. I think it was just a changing of defenses. And the biggest key was that we were close rebounding. Only got beat by two. We were up one rebounding at the half. And that was really kind of the key stat. Q. Perrin, was there any sort of a point that you kind of just knew you guys had it wrapped up? PERRIN BUFORD: I mean, we came into the game thinking we were going to win. We put in a lot of hard work. The coaches did a good job doing the scouting, and we put it right into the game. So I think it was with three minutes left in the game, it was a huge possession. We were up three and we came up with a huge rebound. We went down and ran some good offense, and I was like, okay, we really got this. And I was like, guys, all the pressure's on them. We're just here trying to have fun and let's get it done. Q. Kermit, in the second half, even when they made a couple of runs at you, you guys seemed to stay aggressive; you were trying to push it off makes, things like that. How hard is that to do in this position when you're the big underdog and yet you're leading them? And also as a coach, you come into a game like this with a plan of, you know, how you think you might be able to beat them. At what point did you sort of see it unfolding the way you might have hoped? KERMIT DAVIS: Well, I thought in the first five minutes that we saw that the switching slowed them down. And then Izzo is such a great coach, and we knew he would finally get rhythm against switching and they took advantage of some low post scoring with Costello in the second half. But I've been around these guys all year, we've gone through injuries and different things, and they've been a consistent team and they're poised. And a team like us, you see the size of these guys and they're so interchangeable. In college basketball all these guys can make a 3, drive the ball, they're skilled off the dribble. That's a hard matchup for a lot of people in college basketball. So we felt comfortable. We felt confident. It was going to be tough. It was about three and a half minutes, we looked at each other, let's enjoy this, let's have fun right here. Somebody told us they made a run, that we're up three, only three and a half, four minutes to go, we'd take that every day. And I think they just played relaxed and real confident. Q. Obviously today culminates but it's a body of work. At what point, and maybe for Perrin since you're a senior, at what point during the season or course of preseason did you guys realize that this would be the year or could be the year? PERRIN BUFORD: I mean, I think it all started in the summer, going back to the Bahamas trip we had. I feel like me and my teammates we became so close and just really, took it to a new level, and we saw just all the hard work we put in just unfold. And then I think it was against Western Kentucky, we had lost, over like that, and the loss really touched the team, and we just told each other, hey, we've got each other's back and let's do this now, and that's what we've been doing. Q. Did anybody up there fill out a bracket. It's not illegal or anything. If so, how far did you have Middle Tennessee going? PERRIN BUFORD: I didn't. KERMIT DAVIS: I didn't. PERRIN BUFORD: I filled out a bracket I didn't finish it, but I called the upset. I called the upset and I called the Arkansas-Little Rock upset. KERMIT DAVIS: I got an email, and Chris Massaro, our AD, we got a second-grader, I guess everybody in their class probably got a team picked. And she emailed us and said that we've got Middle Tennessee. I'm sure they took it home to their mom and dad and they laughed. So we got one second-grader in the email, I gotta go check the e-mail, that had Middle Tennessee in the first round. Q. Coach, after such a huge win, upset, will you guys embrace the title Cinderella so many have called you that following this one? KERMIT DAVIS: We talked about it this week. There's such great college stories this time of year every year. We looked at it and said, guys, why not Middle Tennessee? It's going to be something after this weekend, everybody is going to have a great, great moment, a great weekend. These guys believed it. And you can't just say it. You've got to practice it. And we had a great, great week of preparation. So we gave ourselves a best chance. Q. Kermit, you've been at MTSU a long time. And you didn't have that sort of breakthrough NCAA Tournament win until now. How did you sort of survive that part of the coaching profession where people may get impatient and say, why aren't you doing this, they see all the teams that win these kinds of games. Sort of go back through that journey if you would and how you survived that? KERMIT DAVIS: That's a great question. I grew up in a coaching family. My dad was a coach at Mississippi State for many years. So this is all I've ever done. And I've worked for some great coaches. You know, the president who hired me, Sidney McPhee, is still my president. And we're really good friends. I've had two outstanding athletic directors, Coach Donnelly, who hired me, and Chris Massaro, who is here. It's the administration that's appreciated. We've had a 100-percent graduate rate, we've graduated 40 guys in a row. These guys have represented our team and the community for long, long periods of time. It's almost staying power, if you will, all the little things. And our community and our administration appreciates that. And now it's almost -- like I used the example of Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech. Took him a while. He said he had the support of the administration. And now our players have gotten really good over the last five, six, seven years. We've won a ton of games. Just got to be thankful for a great administration, supportive community. Q. For any of the players, when you really see people picking Michigan State, crowning them champions before they even step on the court, what mindset does that give you guys and what's your message to the people that really picked Michigan State to win the whole thing and they're not even playing a game yet? DARNELL HARRIS: We really didn't pay too much attention to that. We just came and practiced every day, prepared to get a win this week. We knew Michigan State was a great team. Everybody had them winning, but we knew if we came out and played our game we had a great chance. REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: Like what Darnell said: Whenever you see a team like Michigan State, you hear a lot about them throughout the course of the year, you can't let that psych you out. I thought we had a couple of the greatest practices we've had all year, even though there wasn't a lot of contact in the practices or anything like that. A lot of the guys were still focused mentally. So whenever you see people picking Michigan State before we even started to play the game, I think it adds a little motivation, a little determination. I know it did for myself and these guys right here. So anytime you see that, it just adds motivation. Q. Darnell, great game today. What does it mean to have transferred twice, once from a smaller school in Wisconsin like Whitewater, to come out here today, perform so well on such a big stage and get a win over a team that many people did have at least making it far, if not winning it all, today? DARNELL HARRIS: It's great. It made the journey worth it. I had a lot of stops to get here. And I loved every stop. I appreciate what all the coaches did for me and I feel like without them I wouldn't be here right now. So I just take great appreciation into my journey. Q. Coach, with such a quick turnaround, how do you guys prepare for that 2-3 zone of Syracuse? KERMIT DAVIS: You know, it will be obviously a totally different game. Big zone. We've all watched it. And we scouted it today. And we'll go back and get started in the scout. The biggest thing, you've got to guard them, too. They've got some excellent perimeter players. We'll get right into it. Jim has done a great job in it for so many years. What happens, it's like Dayton gets a good feel and their team will adapt to what you run. So you've got to have some flexibility in zone offense. But I think I think we'll use this versatility right here against the zone to try to play in and out. Q. Coach, what went through your mind when that final buzzer sounded? KERMIT DAVIS: You know, I thought about my dad because he couldn't be here. He's got a little touch of pneumonia. He's 80. My mother couldn't come. I looked straight across and my wife and Betty and Claire and Ally and my brother and sister were here and some good pals. Just a lot of things that go through it, families and the coaches' wives. And I felt I guess tremendous joy for Murfreesboro and Middle Tennessee State University knowing the national recognition. We've got a great, great place to live. And I think it will just add to that. But I'll tell you what, I think our guys are not done. I know I don't say that -- our guys have to prepare to win on Sunday. Q. I know you just mentioned your daughter Ally. She's always wanted to share a moment like this. Tell me what kind of moment you shared after the game. KERMIT DAVIS: She's something. My oldest daughter Ally, 28, has Down Syndrome. She was born when I was an assistant coach at University of Idaho working for Tim Floyd. So Ally puts everything, trust me, into perspective. She keeps us right on our toes all the time. It was so funny. We're fixing to play a game and Ally has to eat at every game. They're sitting right across, walking down the steps. And about 30 seconds before tip-off, I saw her walking down the steps with her pizza. She was more worried about getting something to eat at lunch. But it kind of puts a calmness to you. And she'll look forward to a really big hug, that's for sure. Q. Guys, obviously this was one of the biggest upsets in NCAA Tournament history. Yet here you are looking very composed up on the podium. What's the general vibe in the locker room right now? Is it excited, nervous, what are you looking forward to coming up? REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: I'd say the mood in the locker room is definitely excited. Anytime you play a team who's picked to make a deep run, and even win the national championship, and upset them like we did, you can't help but be excited. But we know we have another big game Sunday against a very good Syracuse team. So as of right now all of our attention has kind of shifted towards Syracuse. PERRIN BUFORD: Like Reggie said, the locker room was definitely excited. Beating a No. 2 seed being the 15 seed was just overwhelming. But at the same time we're here to win and that's what we came to do. That's what we prepared to do, and I feel like me and my teammates are still hungry and we have work to do. So we're going to prepare like we did for Michigan State to go out and win the game. DARNELL HARRIS: Like he said, it's a great moment. We believed we could do it. We're going to celebrate, but we're also going to prepare starting tomorrow for Syracuse. Just going to enjoy the moment. KERMIT DAVIS: It starts with leadership. Our three seniors, Perrin and Darnell and Jaqawn, who is not up here, have just been fabulous. Reggie has been a three-year starter here as a junior. We're an experienced group. But it wasn't over-jubilation, which I liked. I thought those guys handled themselves. We're very excited, but looking forward to Sunday. Q. Reggie, when you won Conference USA you said it was the greatest day of your life. Then at the Selection Show you said that surpassed that. But how does today amount to the first two? REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: It's easily like ten times better. We've heard a lot about the 2012-13 team and how they made it to the play-in game against Saint Mary's. So in the back of our heads we're always thinking about trying to be a little bit better than that team and to just being able to share this moment and celebrate such a big win, it definitely takes the number one spot as far as achievements. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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