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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: ORLANDOMarch 17, 2017Kasey HillChris ChiozzaJustin LeonOrlando, Florida THE MODERATOR: We have a first question lined up on our center aisle. Q. For all three guys, the turnaround, the one-day turnaround, it's like a different world. Kasey, you've been through it. Just kind of have to throw out everything that happened in the first game and start all over with a different kind of team? KASEY HILL: Say that again. Q. It's a totally different animal the second round game. KASEY HILL: Yeah, it's different. Definitely a totally different animal. But we got to get ready for practice and get ready for this team. Q. Chris, how would you just describe your first game playing in the Tournament? Was it enjoyable, stressful? What was it like for you? CHRIS CHIOZZA: It was very enjoyable. It's a moment I've been waiting for for a long time. Getting that first game out of the way and being able to win it felt great, but we've got another game tomorrow. After we left last night, we just was focused on this game coming up tomorrow. Q. For Justin, from playing in junior college, starting for an NCAA-caliber team, round of 32. How exciting is it for you? JUSTIN LEON: It was pretty exciting, like you said, for me being in junior college and then having a chance to play on a very big stage like this, it's pretty heart warming, but like Chi said, you've just got to let all that go and focus on the next game because now all that stuff is over. Q. Kasey, so many people wanted to define your career wins and losses, how far you get in the Tournament. How do you define the four years you've been at Florida, where this journey's been? KASEY HILL: Honestly, I'm not even thinking about that. I'm just worried about what we've got going on right now and preparing for Virginia. Q. Question for Chris: Coach White talked about just the depth and the number of scoring options you guys have, how different it can be one game to the next. How much do you think that helps you when you're facing a team that has a defensive reputation like what you'll have tomorrow? CHRIS CHIOZZA: It gives us the ability to have all those options because they can't focus in on one person. We can have a night where a guy off the bench goes for 25 or one of the starters goes for 25 or something like that. That's hard for a defense to prepare for because they can't focus in on one guy when we have so many pieces that can contribute. Q. Kasey, if Virginia comes at you with four, possibly five guards due to injuries on their side, how do you counter? Are you going to concentrate on going inside to the bigs, or do you think Coach might make the adjustment of putting more guards on the floor to equal their quickness? KASEY HILL: I'm not sure, honestly. I'm sure Coach White has a plan, but whatever he has for us, we'll have to adjust and just go with that. Q. Kasey and Chris as well, Virginia will probably try to force you, obviously, into the half-court set. What do you guys do to combat that? CHRIS CHIOZZA: We try to get out in transition as much as we can, and that starts with our defense. They're a great defensive team, and they're good, an efficient team on offense as well. So we're going to force them into tough shots, get those rebounds, and get out in transition before they get their half-court defense set up. KASEY HILL: Pretty much same thing he said, the guards rebound down. That can get us out in transition a little bit easier. That's definitely something that we've been trying to do, and the coaches have stressed to us to go down and rebound, so we can start our break. Q. For Justin and Chris both, you guys had a Thursday, Saturday earlier where you had one day of rest. Did you talk about it at all, or did Coach bring it up at all about, hey, if we get in the Tournament, it's going to be like this? JUSTIN LEON: No, not necessarily because we've played this type of schedule before. So really, you can just say that we're kind of used to it. Like go back to the hotel room after the game and just prep our legs and get ready for practice and be prepared for the game tomorrow. CHRIS CHIOZZA: We had this twice this year, so we didn't really focus on it at that time about it being like this in a tournament because we wasn't trying to think too far ahead. We were just focused on getting to the next game, and that's how we're preparing for right now, just take it one game at a time. Q. To any of you guys, was the home-court advantage similar to what you guys thought it would be, or was it different or unexpected? JUSTIN LEON: Actually, I thought -- I guess with me not having a lot of tournament experience, I didn't think there was going to be many people out there, just the fact we're in Orlando, but it was a lot. It was different than what I expected it to be. I think it allowed us to build some momentum as well. KASEY HILL: The crowd was definitely helpful. I'm glad that we didn't get comfortable with it and expect for them to help us win the game. We went out there, and we got it done, but they definitely helped us. CHRIS CHIOZZA: Similar to what Justin said, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I mean, I knew we're close to home, so we're going to have fans there. But you never know how many are going to come out and what they can contribute. They had great energy last night and got us going and gave us a little energy boost in the second half. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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