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NCAA MEN'S FIRST FOUR: DAYTON

March 14, 2017

Dayton, Ohio

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by student-athletes from UC Davis, Brynton Lemar, Darius Graham and Chima Moneke. Let's open the floor for questions.

Q. Guys, if you could, just individually talk about what a whirlwind it's been over the last few days, winning the championship Saturday, finding out the announcement on Sunday and getting ready to play here on Wednesday?
CHIMA MONEKE: After we won the game and found out we were going dancing, it was a crazy, crazy night. I didn't get any sleep that night. And we traveled back, and I probably got about a 30-minute nap in before the watch party.

It was just phenomenal. I'm still excited about it. It still hasn't sunk in what we're doing. And I'm just seeing who we're going to play with these guys is just phenomenal. And we're happy to be here for sure.

DARIUS GRAHAM: Pretty much the same thing. Once that final buzzer came off, it was pretty crazy to know that we were actually going dancing, actually making school history.

This is my roommate, so we were both up all night just enjoying the moment. I still haven't had a full, probably eight, nine hours of sleep yet. But I'll definitely get some tonight before the game.

And it's just been crazy to be ambassadors of the university and everything, and to really, you know, put the Sacramento region on the map for college basketball has been very, very fun.

BRYNTON LEMAR: Just like these two said, it's been crazy. Everything's moving really fast right now. And I feel like I haven't really had time to just compress and really think about it.

But like Darius said, I'm super excited to be in this position and represent our school and our community. This is the hard work we've been working for. So it feels amazing.

Q. Darius, you're from Sacramento. So you can understand what the local hype and what the buzz has been like. Just explain it, what you've experienced since this whole thing went down?
DARIUS GRAHAM: Man, it's been crazy, I think I need to get a new battery on my phone, because it's just been blowing up so much. Just a lot of family and friends have been hitting me up, just congratulating me on -- just the accomplishment.

It's a dream come true in a sense because, again, me being from Sacramento and you know going to different tournaments just around the area, driving past Davis all the time, being in Davis, it's been surreal to finally be here and put Davis on the map.

So you know definitely it's fun. And I want to ride this as long as I can.

Q. Granted you guys have work to do here, but if things work out well and you head into the main draw of the tournament, 16 seeds have a difficult history against 1s, putting it mildly. Could each of you respond to that and how you generate belief when there's no history to say that you should have belief?
BRYNTON LEMAR: Well, I believe in our team. We've been playing with each other since Costa Rica, since this summer. And I believe that we can upset hopefully the No. 1 seed.

I'm not going to try to say that we're going to lose or anything, but we've been playing defense all year. And we're confident in what we do. And I don't think any team's going to go and just try and just be happy to be here. They want to win. That's our whole goal, too. We want to win. We're excited to be in this position but at the end of the day we're still competitors.

DARIUS GRAHAM: To piggyback off of what Brynton said. First thing is, with the dynamics of our team, we have a chip on our shoulder, individually and collectively. We're a team full of underdogs by nature.

A lot of us have been looked over our whole lives and everything. So to be able to be in this position, first, to play North Carolina Central and then to hopefully to play No. 1 Kansas, it's very rewarding. We're excited for it.

And just to be able to do that -- I like math a little bit, so the law of averages says you're bound to possibly beat a No. 1 seed, especially since it hasn't happened yet.

So we're going out here, like Brynton said, since the beginning of the season we've harped on defense and letting our defense take care of everything else, having each other's back and playing as a team in a tournament like this on any given night the best team will win.

And we are a band of brothers. We're very close, very tight knit. We have each other's back on any type of indication. Chima falls down, I have his back to help him out. Somebody gets beat, then the next person's going to be there to help them out.

So in order to answer your question, you know, anything is possible. We weren't supposed to be here. And we're here. So why not us?

CHIMA MONEKE: Any team is beatable, for sure. We knew coming in that every team is a great team. At the same time we're here, too. So we deserve some respect for what we've done. And at the same time we respect NC Central first. Hopefully we'll take care of them. And if we get on to Kansas we'll respect them, but we don't fear anybody.

But we've played great defense all year, and we're playing even better defense right now. The past three games have been unbelievable. If we can keep that going, then I feel like we have a shot to beat anyone.

Q. Darius and Brynton, two years ago you guys were part of the team that won 25 games, won the Big West Conference and had the disappointment of not winning in the tournament in the Big West. Is it extra meaningful what you did this time, being able to win that conference tournament and thinking about what you guys accomplished five years ago and now finally getting here?
DARIUS GRAHAM: Well, first thing is that I've been telling the guys all year, I've been basing this season based on two years ago. You can ask anybody. I've always said two years ago we have done this. Two years ago we did this and that, and what worked and didn't work with that team. And it was a credit to those seniors on that team to establish a winning culture here at UC Davis. So to have them have the template of how to win, we stuck to that blueprint and then tweaked a couple of things here and there to get to this position.

And to be in this position, it took a lot of hard work. And it was just real great to finally have this happen or me and Brynton being seniors that were able to deal with success at that level and then also the heartbreak. We never forgot that.

And the years leading up to this, you know, every single day, you can ask him, I would be, like, Brynton, we have to have a good practice. We have to have a good game or something like that because every single step to this process was necessary. Every single step was what got us here.

BRYNTON LEMAR: I definitely agree with that. Just having that blueprint of what those seniors did for us, you know, how to lead a team, that really helped us in this season.

And credit to them. Like Darius said, like everything that we had done in the past was for this moment, all the hard work and running and Hickey in the gym, stuff like that it pays off for moments like this.

And definitely our experience really of being in that same situation but not making it fully to this tournament really kind of fueled that engine inside of us -- okay, let's do it this time, let's make history. We've been in this position before and now we know what to do. So credit to all the past experiences and all that stuff.

Q. Since making the First Four have you had any reactions from people about the First Four and people saying -- I think you just made mention that it's not quite in the tournament, it always has that reputation. What have people said to you since you made it here to Dayton?
BRYNTON LEMAR: Well, everyone has just been so congratulating towards us because we haven't done this in our history of UC Davis, win the Big West Conference championship, and I don't really see it as just kind of like not the tournament, because we're here. And we're ready to compete.

Yeah, so everyone has been very open and just telling us congratulations and keep up the spirit and represent our school right and anything's possible.

DARIUS GRAHAM: Yeah, to answer that, I mean the only thing I see around here is March Madness, NCAA Tournament. I think we're definitely in the tournament -- First Four, Final Four, this is all part of the whole entire experience.

To be in this position is great to represent the school. And, yeah, I don't consider this to be not a part of the tournament. I know of a whole bunch of people that wish they could be in this position right now to be able to compete at this level. And I'm taking it all in, just trying to continue to push forward.

CHIMA MONEKE: First and foremost, I feel like we're conference champions, so we deserve to be here and this is the tournament and this is the first time we've done it in history.

But in terms of reception, my people back in Canberra, Australia, they've been very happy for me. A lot of people have been coming out of nowhere and congratulating me and sending me friend requests on Facebook and stuff like this. It's pretty interesting to get that, but I'm very grateful for it.

And Davis, it's really interesting because this hasn't happened before so a lot of people -- it was very unexpected but a lot of people are very congratulatory to us. And I'm definitely very excited to do this. This is my first year playing Division I basketball, and it's something I've always dreamed of. So I'm grateful to be here.

Q. In fact, is there maybe a little advantage in that for these two nights you guys are the only show in town? I mean, you're not sharing the spotlight with all the other regions and all that kind of stuff?
CHIMA MONEKE: Yeah, I feel like the past week or so we've been getting a lot of attention, and more attention than we've received all year. But I'm grateful for it and we deserve it. And hopefully we can continue to put on a show and continue to make the people in Davis, Sacramento, Northern California proud that this isn't -- UC Davis isn't just an academic school. It's a great basketball school and will be for a long time.

DARIUS GRAHAM: Definitely, just to be able to, again, be in this position, especially, like you said, to be kind of the only show in town right now or the biggest show in town right now. And to represent Davis, you know, like Chima said, this is the No. 6 public school in the nation.

And so for a long time it's been known for as an academic school, rightfully so. But then to put this school on a national spotlight in this type of realm for athletics, I should say, it's just great.

And then again because we're not, for instance, sharing a spotlight with bigger schools right now, it's real good because they get -- this school and us being the ambassadors of the school, we get to put it on a platform that it probably hasn't been in before. And we're very proud of that.

BRYNTON LEMAR: Just to piggyback off these two guys, it's a blessing that we're in this tournament and everything, and just being here in Dayton alone and having the whole world see us compete against NC Central and having that opportunity just alone is amazing.

And like these guys said, just being able to represent our school and our cities and everything like that, it's huge. It's not only just for Sacramento or Davis or Australia or wherever, it's for the whole world to see. It's just an amazing feeling, and it feels good to be kind of on that platform as these two teams trying to duke it out to keep their season alive.

Q. Chima, it's going to be an interesting viewing party time in Australia for this game. Talk about how big Davis, you've lived on five continents, you were playing community college ball in Nebraska. Talk about your path to UC Davis and what it means that Coach Les brought you here made you an Aggie?
CHIMA MONEKE: It's been very -- it's been a long journey to get here. I was a soccer boy my whole life. I didn't play basketball until I moved back to Australia in 2009.

And I didn't really take it seriously until two years after. So 2011. And I continued to get better and I continued to work.

And end of 2012, so my senior year of high school, I represented my school in, like, a national tournament, played with guys like Dante Exum and Darcy Malone, and we did really well, and I got noticed by the old assistant coach of the future junior college that I would go to, Trevor Barnett. And he told me that he liked what he saw, and he was surprised that a lot of people weren't helping me out to come to America. And he found out that it's something that I always wanted to do.

He was definitely very -- he was definitely very big-time in helping me get here. He gave me that offer and I took the offer because it was the only offer I had to Northeast Community College in Norfolk, Nebraska.

So, yeah, I spent two years there. After my freshman year I went to the Junior College Showcase in St. Louis and Coach Les saw me play.

He was very happy to see me play and he sent me a great message that I won't forget. And he told me if I liked good weather and nice looking girls that I should come to UC Davis. And I definitely, I guess I like those things (laughter). Yeah, and now I'm here and I redshirted last year. And it was a tough transition playing Division I basketball first because it's much faster, much stronger, faster pace and stronger people. It took me a while to adjust but I feel like I've adjusted quite well.

Q. Did Coach Les tell you the truth about everything?
CHIMA MONEKE: Yeah, he didn't lie once.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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