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NCAA MEN'S FIRST FOUR: DAYTON

March 14, 2017

Jim Les

Dayton, Ohio

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by UC Davis coach Jim Les.

COACH LES: UC Davis is really excited to be here. I'm fortunate. I get to be around 15 really quality young men who are working really hard. And I'm enjoying just watching and observing them live out their childhood dream of playing in this tournament, hearing their university announced on Selection Sunday.

And the one thing about this group they're really connected together. So I think this is a group that well beyond this experience they're going to have a lifelong friendship to go with this lifelong memory. Excited to be here.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach.

Q. What was your first thought when you saw that UC Davis on the board, you saw you were in the play-in game knowing that it was such a quick turnaround, the excitement but at the same time trying to get focused for such a tough challenge?
COACH LES: I think we were kind of mentally preparing our guys even Saturday night in the locker room after the celebration of the Big West Tournament championship of, hey, this moves quickly.

And there's a chance we could be leaving even Sunday night or Monday morning to head off. So I want our guys to enjoy this. It's a special opportunity, special experience. And especially with social media now.

Just that takes it to a new stratosphere. But they've been great anytime we've had a film session, a meeting, a practice of kind of honing it in and stepping between the lines and being business-like and having the right approach.

So I thought they were great about it, and we were just happy. I really had no qualms or wishes on where we go and when we go it was that we went. And I think that's a big key. So it was just, again, to watch them and their energy and enthusiasm and exuberance, they're floating on cloud nine. We as a staff feel very special to share it with them.

Q. Coach, I asked the players about the 16-1 history. If you're in that position, if you get a win here and you do go to play Kansas, have you thought about what you would tell your team with history like that against you?
COACH LES: Haven't really thought about it, to be honest with you. North Carolina Central is posing enough problems for me here the last 48 hours, watching them on tape and watching what a good basketball team that is.

So I'll try and adhere to the rules that I give my players is we're sticking to the task at hand and worrying about what's in front of us and staying in the moment and right now that's a huge task of trying to move on and get to that game.

But I think this group is really excited about this opportunity. But I don't get a sense that the moment's too big for them. And we've talked about since last October, of we're not looking back. We're not looking forward, we're staying in the moment and we're going through the process. And the process is just our possession-by-possession approach and being the best we can be.

These guys, they don't play for themselves. They play for each other. They have a really tight bond. It's one of the closest teams I've ever been around, whether I was playing or coaching. And they truly feel disappointed if it's their responsibility to help their teammate and they're late or they don't get there. There's a genuine feeling of: I let my guy down, I let my brother down. And that's unique and hard to find these days.

And that's why we've been able to get them as a staff to buy into defense, the selfless part of basketball, and take it to heart and have five guys working together in concert to become a good defensive team, and that's what allowed us to win that championship to get this opportunity.

Q. Coach, it's got to be a real asset for you, a comfortable feeling, knowing that you do have a very experienced team coming into this?
COACH LES: It is. Our guys have logged a lot of minutes. They played in a lot of big games. I looked at -- J.T.'s been here six years, Darius five years, Brynton four years. And they were part of the group two years ago that established the foundation for us to build upwards and believe that this was truly a possibility.

So they had secondary roles on that team. But they had a great visual every day of the approach we needed to have, the integrity of our practices and the intensity that we need on a daily basis. And we've just talked all along that in pressure moments you become your habits.

And their habits have been really good. I can't think of more than -- it's less than a handful of practices where I walked out of the gym feeling disappointed in their effort, in their concentration.

So when you step into this moment, the experience really helps, and the fact that their habits have been really solid allows them to navigate through all and filter all the attention and distractions and being on this stage.

Q. I'll ask for you, too, you having the experience of now coming a second time into an NCAA Tournament, taking a team from Bradley, going to the Sweet 16. How valuable is that for you now?
COACH LES: Well, I think it helps me in the perspective of just getting them ready for what's coming. And even we talked about that Saturday. We talked about that Sunday. If I can give them a snapshot of what they're going to experience and so they can kind of mentally prepare so they're not surprised.

So I think that helps. Really, I think my greater value to them is having been a player and all the things I've experienced just helping them deal with their mindset. I tell them all the time there isn't anything I didn't experience from being a guy that came off the bench the last guy on the bench to being a starter to being the leading scorer to being the guy who scored the least.

I've had injuries. I had moments where I thought I was never going to miss. I had moments where I thought I was never going to make one again. To me that's my value to them because they all go through those journeys along the way during a college career.

And when things are going great, they don't necessarily need our staff as much. But it's when things aren't going as well that they turn to you and look for answers, and we want to make sure we are able to provide them and navigate them through those tough times.

But I'll also add that I've got some really smart kids. So I'm not sure back in the day I would have got into UC Davis, so they're a lot smarter than their coach. So I've got to navigate that. And I have a lot of coaching friends around the country.

Last night, for example, we walk into our coaches' meeting room and we're trying to work on our game plan and there's three of our players working on a paper. We went to do bed check last night guys are studying and preparing for finals next week.

I'm not sure too many places and too many coaches are dealing with that. I know a lot of things that they're dealing with, and fortunately I don't have to worry about those things. If anything I'm saying, hey, you guys, are you done with this paper so you can get some rest so we can get some sleep for the game?

So it makes it truly unique, and those guys embrace not only the competition out on the floor but they embrace the competition in the classroom.

Q. Coach, fortunately your son was smart enough to get into UC Davis and play basketball with you?
COACH LES: He takes after his mother. (Laughter).

Q. Just talk about for you personally, and I know you focus on your players, but just for you, you played for the Sacramento Kings. You're very familiar with the area. You coached for the Sacramento Monarchs in the WNBA. To have your son play and get to coach him at UC Davis, and now to have UC Davis in the NCAA Tournament, what's that mean for you?
COACH LES: It's really special. My wife and I fell in love with the Sacramento region a long time ago and developed some really strong ties with the community, established some really good friends that we consider family.

And to have the opportunity to come back and be back and live and work in that area was special. And then -- it's funny, I have an easy sell when I sit in a living room of a recruit, because we were living in Illinois at the time. Tyler is being recruited by a number of schools.

And lo and behold UC Davis walks into the picture. Jodi and I knew about it, but we didn't really know about UC Davis. So we as parents -- he's our oldest, he's our firstborn. We're starting to do our research we're thinking, wow, this is an unbelievable university?

And here we are 1700 miles away and we send Tyler, our oldest, off to school into California. And so it's easy to sit in front of parents and say, you know what, I'm not asking you to do anything that I didn't do.

I'm not here at UC Davis selling UC Davis because now it's my job; I did the research. I sat on your side of the table and looked at UC Davis from a parent's perspective, where my son was going to be, the environment he was going to grow up into some huge formative years, and the people he was going to be around and UC Davis is truly special in all those areas.

And it was -- we gave him his blessing and he never looked back. And lo and behold there was a greater plan, and I was blessed a year later to come and coach him and have that opportunity.

And it's funny now that he's out in the working world, having experienced the schoolwork and having experienced the Division I competition and what it takes to be a Division I athlete. And now he's such a confident young man and looking at, hey, you know what, when I walk into these meetings, these corporate meetings and I take a back seat to no one in terms of my preparation to succeed in my job.

I take a back seat to no one. And he's working with some elite people from Ivy League and some elite institutions. And I think that's what we're selling to parents and to young student-athletes is to be elite.

And it creates a lot of opportunities well beyond basketball. But this is a great pit stop in between. And it's amazing -- I don't think a lot of people thought we could, at an elite university, still win championships. And I think we've proven a lot of people wrong, that we can do both. And we're not sacrificing our academic standards to do that.

Q. What can you tell us about your opponent, North Carolina Central, and what are your first thoughts as you've gone through their game tape and game planning?
COACH LES: Really good basketball team. I think you win 25 games -- I'm searching for a weakness, I haven't necessarily found one. I'm hoping in the next 24 hours I can come up with something. But just solid defensively. They don't give up easy baskets. Every shot seems contested. And they have a really good defensive rating. And then offensively it starts with Cole.

He reminds me, for the Davis fans, he reminds me of Corey Hawkins. He finds a way to score the ball. The ball's in his hands, they run their offense through him quite a bit, and he scores it in a variety of ways.

And I know what a chore it was for teams to try and stop Corey. So that's our challenge is to, we're not going to stop him, but we've just got to make them work awfully hard.

So really impressed. Coach Moton does a great job. I've watched him from afar for many years.

I think this is three out of four for them playing in this tournament. So that tells you he's not only successful, but he's got consistency with his level of excellence that he's working with every day.

So a lot of respect for how they're coached and how they play.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

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