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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: ST. LOUISMarch 19, 2016Perrin BufordJaqawn RaymondReggie Upshaw Jr.St. Louis, Missouri THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Middle Tennessee State student-athletes Perrin Buford, Jaqawn Raymond and Reggie Upshaw, Jr. Questions? Q. Can you put into words what making the Sweet 16 would mean to you to this team to this program? JAQAWN RAYMOND: It would mean a lot to me personally because it would be a great way to end my senior year to go to a Sweet 16. It's always been a dream of mine to go to the Sweet 16. As for the program, I think it will be the first Sweet 16 we went to. So it will be a big key to win the game for the program. REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: For myself it would be a huge accomplishment. Every kid, when you're growing up, kind of dreams going to the NCAA Tournament and making it to the round of 32, Sweet 16, the Final Four, championship. So just to say that I could possibly play in the Sweet 16, for myself, that's a huge accomplishment. For my team, like Jaqawn said, it's huge for our program being a smaller school. It just puts us out there on the national level. PERRIN BUFORD: And for me, I feel like to make the Sweet 16 it makes all the hard work worth it. I'm a gym rat and I feel like when you put the work in the results will come. And for this team I feel like we put in a lot of work, starting last year, even though we struggled and this year it all came together. And I just feel like it would be a real big deal. For the university it would be good, like they said, to put us on the national stage. Q. Jaqawn, are you happy that you packed for Sunday, first off? And second what's been the mood in the locker room over the past 24 hours, really, just your reaction first off? JAQAWN RAYMOND: Our mood in the locker room is the same as it was when we came into yesterday's game. Coming into this game business-like. We come into this game knowing we're going to win this game. There's no pressure on us. We have nothing to lose. We're going to go out there and give it our all. Q. Jaqawn and Perrin, I know this team has a lot of guys that made their way to Middle Tennessee State after being elsewhere. Can you talk about why you picked here and what your journey was to get here after being at different colleges? PERRIN BUFORD: Well, coming to Middle has been bittersweet because I went to two junior colleges, one at Motlow State in Lynchburg, Tennessee, then the other at Southwest Tennessee where I played under the same coach. I just followed him. He was a great mentor to me and just told me a lot and showed me a lot. So coming here was kind of based off a lot of different other factors. But I don't regret my decision at all. It's been a wonderful ride. And I just enjoy the journey. JAQAWN RAYMOND: As for me transferring from N.C. State was a big step. I didn't know what to expect. So with me, Coach Towe was the main reason I transferred, and then Coach Moxley, who at NC State now, we grew a big bond together, me and Coach Towe and Coach Mox. So that got me here and talking to Coach Davis. This experience has been one of the top moments of my life and I wouldn't change it for the world. Q. Reggie, what have you guys really seen that you guys are going to have a hard time with really going up against the 2-3 zone? REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: Just their length, their size. Both like on the perimeter of their 2-3 zone and then in the middle. They have great rebounders. I mean, anytime you play a team who has the length that they have at each position and then just how hectic they kind of play their 2-3 zone, it always presents a challenge for your team. But if we just continue to stay aggressive on the offensive end and crash the offensive boards, we'll have a great chance of winning this game. Q. Have you guys watched Syracuse through the course of the season. And at a glance is there somewhere you could excel in terms of the matchup? REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: I haven't really watched much of Syracuse play this season. But the season being so long we kind of get caught up in our own conference play. But I can say the only part, the main thing in the game that we could probably advance or excel in would be our offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding. Anytime you can limit a team to one shot, you always have a great chance to win the game. JAQAWN RAYMOND: And I think I've seen Syracuse play probably once or twice. And the key for us, like he said, will be rebounding, but also we have five shooters that can spread the floor. And we know what we have to do. We have to get the ball inside, but we also can penetrate and kick to our shooters. Q. What's it really been like for all of you guys seeing yourself on ESPN, Twitter, just everything? What's that been like to see your own highlights all over the place? PERRIN BUFORD: For me, it's a blessing. I just give all thanks to God, my savior. So for me just seeing it it's just a blessing because I know how much work I've put in in the offseason. And it's all coming to life and just seeing it it's like unreal. REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: Like what Perrin said, it's really an honor anytime you can see yourself on TV, see highlights of your teammates doing great things on the court, and then you hear other people speaking so highly of you, it's really a blessing and honor. Q. Coach Davis talked yesterday about 100 percent graduation rate, I think 40 straight players graduating who have exhausted their eligibility. How demanding is he from that perspective and how much pride is taken on the academic side of your program? JAQAWN RAYMOND: He's very big on academics, especially when we go out of town. He makes sure our academic advisor has everything lined up for us, what we need to do over the course of us missing school. So that's his biggest issue is academics. He don't play about that, and he takes that very serious. REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: Coach Davis is really strict about academics. We have this thing called the point system. Anytime you're late for a class or you may miss a class or anything, you get a point. And then if you get to like two points you have to run in the morning and then if you get to four points the whole team has to run. You don't want to be that guy. So everybody makes sure they're on time to class and make it to class. Q. You guys are in the national conversation now. Folks are saying how good this team is. Questions have come up about the seeding. But I'm sure you all knew this, but now that all these things are swirling, does that change anything for you in terms of added pressure, added focus, or is it still just one step at a time? PERRIN BUFORD: Our look is still the same. This team is hungry, and we're just ready to come out and win and just play like we've been playing all year long. We feel like we're a good team, and I'm glad that people are starting to recognize it. But it doesn't put any pressure on us at all. We still have the same mindset and just want to continue to ride the streak. REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: There's no pressure on us. I know myself and my teammates, Coach Davis, when we were watching the Selection Show and we saw we got a 15 seed we were kind of, I wouldn't say we felt disrespected, but we definitely knew that we were better than a 15 seed. We were thinking like a 13 seed maybe. But as far as there being pressure, there's no pressure on us. We just have to go out and play how we know we can play. And as you saw yesterday, we can really compete with anyone in the nation. JAQAWN RAYMOND: Coach Davis is very strict on tradition, and with us we play to who we are. We don't play outside of who we're not. We're going to guard them and we're going to be tough. That's what we do. And if we do those two things we will come out successful in tomorrow's game. Q. Can you share some of the tweets and texts that you got after the last game? JAQAWN RAYMOND: Of course you know our phones were buzzing nonstop from the time we got out of the game to this morning probably. There were some mad tweets, of course, and some good tweets. We just took it all in and we left that yesterday and we're moving forward to tomorrow. REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: When I got to my phone after yesterday's game, I probably had, like, at least 500 notifications from all the different medias. So as far as like Twitter, I saw a couple of things where they were talking about I looked like Kid 'n Play. But mostly it was just kind of like what Jaqawn said. A lot of people were mad that we upset and messed everybody's brackets up, and there were a lot of people as far as like in Murfreesboro, everybody was congratulating us and things like that. PERRIN BUFORD: Friends and family hit me up, friends and family who watched the game, who had been watching me, just congratulating me and things like that. And a couple people retweeted something I said, like a couple days before the tournament. I put on there just wait and watch and be a witness. And so they retweeted that and a lot of people is like, okay, we're a witness and things like that. So that was pretty cool. Q. I gotta ask you, Giddy Potts, your teammate. He doesn't look like a basketball player. He looks like he should be playing fullback for somebody. Do you guys ever kid him about that? REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: When Giddy first came to MTSU on his visit, he has a younger brother that's taller than him, kind of looks like me, well, my body type. And so when the coaches kind of brought us in the weight room to meet him, they were like, man, Giddy, he's a great shooter all that kind of stuff. And so I walked up to his younger brother thinking he was Giddy. I was like, man, we can't wait to get you here. He was, like, no, you're talking about my brother. I looked at Giddy and at this time he was easily 240 pounds. So just seeing somebody like that out there doing the things he does on the court with his body type and his size and how quick he can move it's really amazing. Q. One of the tweets I saw last night was from Benny Cunningham, NFL the player from Middle Tennessee State. Do you guys know him at all. Is he ever around the basketball program? JAQAWN RAYMOND: Well, I know him from when I was a senior in high school. I've been at MT for four years. Me and him, we've grown close over the years. We're not as close as we used to be when he was at MT. But I know him and every time he comes back, we're always talking about what this team can accomplish. And he's the only one that really believes in us outside of ourselves. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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