	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NCAA MEN'S FIRST FOUR: DAYTON

March 15, 2017

Dayton, Ohio

UC Davis - 67, NC Central - 63

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by UC Davis student-athletes Brynton Lemar, Lawrence White and Chima Moneke as well as the head coach of UC Davis, Jim Les.

COACH LES: Thank you, thank you for being here. Before the game, we just talked about having a fight. This is a really good, connected team.

And I just -- we as a staff just asked them to fight, to keep it going. This has been an unbelievable ride. And we're not ready to go home.

And I can't tell you how proud I am of them for their resiliency. It was remarkable. So really, really proud.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. For any of you guys, your coach has talked about the fight not wanting to go home. You know what's coming next -- nobody's ever knocked off a No. 1 from your spot. What reason do you guys have to believe that maybe you could do something that hasn't happened before on Friday?
CHIMA MONEKE: It's going to happen eventually, that's how I look at it. And we all can play at this level. And you know, I don't fear anybody, but I respect everybody and I feel like the way we play defense we can make any game a game. And if we play the way we've been playing the past few weeks, then we definitely can do that.

Q. You don't see much zone in the Big West. We talked about this yesterday. What did you do -- a lot of turnovers early -- what did you do, how did you attack that better? How did you adjust to that in the second half and key moments?
BRYNTON LEMAR: Well, we just wanted to be patient on the opposite end. We knew that they were flying their guards at us, and if we got the ball to the corners we were able to skip the ball and make good plays off of that. So it was just being more patient and trying to get the balls to the corner.

Q. Chima, you seem to almost want the ball there in the last two or three minutes and stuff. At least the ball seemed to go through you a lot and stuff. What was going on there, was that the focus or did you feel like you were sort of the hub of things there when things got really tight?
CHIMA MONEKE: I feel like I'm a confident player and I got it going early. And I like the matchup that I had. And you know, my teammates were doing a great job of moving the ball, and I felt that if we continued to do that, I would put us in a successful position to score most of the time.

Q. Lawrence, key plays here throughout the game. Brynton and Chima and Darius got a little more attention, but you came up with key steals and made critical free throws. Just talk about how you were thinking defensively to come up with those plays and make those free throws?
LAWRENCE WHITE: We all have the roles on the team, and mine is defense, pick up the tempo on defense and use my athleticism and continue on the defensive end. When I do my job we're all top-notch players. When he does his job and he scores, top-notch players, same thing with B. Like I said before this, we said our defense has got to travel. And we did that tonight in key moments.

Q. Lawrence, what do you know about Kansas? This game's behind you now. What just stands out as you face this challenge?
LAWRENCE WHITE: I mean, they're the No. 1 seed for a reason, right? So that's enough said right there.

CHIMA MONEKE: They have good guards as well.

LAWRENCE WHITE: So do we (laughter).

BRYNTON LEMAR: You know, like Lawrence said, they're the No. 1 seed for a reason. But that doesn't mean anything. We're going to come out, play hard, play our game. And if we do that, we're definitely going to compete with them and give them a run.

We're all confident. We're not going to come to the game expecting to lose. So I don't think anybody should. So, yeah, we're going to be ready.

Q. Talk about when you first went out there, seemed like a little bit of case of nerves first time in the tournament. Can you talk about that a little bit, took a little while to settle down and start --
BRYNTON LEMAR: Yeah, a little bit. You know, just -- I mean, throughout this whole season we've kind of been on big stages also. So it was just more so of just calming ourselves down and feeling yourself into the game, take it possession by possession. And if you just focus on doing your job, everything else will come together.

So, I mean, it took a little bit of time, nerves and everything. But as everything, it's going to finally sink in and everything is going to go back to normal.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach.

Q. I don't want to move on too quickly from a historic win for your program, but the talk is going to be about Kansas and Friday. Have you thought about -- will your fight message change from Friday? How do you want your guys to approach something that hasn't happened before?
COACH LES: These guys have shown competitive greatness all year. It starts in practice. They have really good habits. They work hard. They work together. They hold each other accountable, which is special.

And I'll piggyback what Brynton said: I think our guys are great about, as we prepare for a team, respecting all of our opponents. And we'll do that.

But we also like our competitiveness, and feel like in a one-game situation, we're going to come, we're going to play hard, we're going to compete and let the chips fall where they may. So we're excited for this opportunity. And we'll concede nothing. But we'll be ready.

Q. Discuss what was going through your head, what your feeling in those excruciating final minutes there?
COACH LES: Say that again.

Q. Talk about your thoughts, your feelings as you were watching the game. You had the lead. Couldn't pull away. They were right there. Looked like it was going to go down to the wire, which of course it did.
COACH LES: It was interesting, because we talked at the start -- I thought the guys would have a little bit of nervous energy. And so we talked about making all the effort and energy plays without the ball.

But actually we started out, and I don't think we missed early on and got off to a really good start offensively. And I thought -- they took a timeout and then really came after us and became the aggressor for the rest of the half.

And that was a lot of what we talked about at halftime. I didn't think we responded well. We made a run to start the game, and they made a run, and we didn't respond really well to it.

But I did like how they approached coming out in the second half on both ends of the floor. We started the half with some stops. I thought we were much better -- we talked on the board about how we wanted to attack the 1-3-1. And I thought we were a little bit more in tune to how we wanted to attack that defense, and it helped us get us going a little bit and gave them a little bit of confidence.

But like I said, this is a resilient group. And there were quite a few times when they could have laid down. And they just refused.

And they find a way. And it's different guys making big plays. I thought J.T.'s blocks were huge. Chima being able to finish our defense with first rebounds was huge. And Brynton, he can get it going offensively. And just Lawrence's defensive presence.

He said it, and he doesn't understand sometimes I think early in the year how good he is defensively how he makes our team a better defensive basketball team.

When he's active and in the passing lane and using his length and athleticism, our guys derive a lot of confidence from that, and then it spreads throughout the team, and we get stingier with our defense.

Q. So far the only 16 seeds to get wins are the ones who come here to Dayton for the First Four. What does it mean to you to be a part of that group?
COACH LES: Well, it's special. It's special -- I've said this, our guys grew up as little hoopers dreaming about playing and having this opportunity. And so it's special to be here. And we're just going to continue to fight, to keep this story going.

And this team, with five seniors, when it does come to an end, this team is not going to be able to play together again. And that bond and that resiliency to keep that going and keep this group together is what really motivates them, I think.

So to me when that ball goes up on Friday, I'm not going to be thinking about what seeds -- we're going to be playing basketball, competing at basketball. And, like I said, the chips will fall where they may. But we're glad to be here, but we're not satisfied by any means.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297