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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DETROIT

March 15, 2018

Detroit, Michigan

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with the students from Cal State Fullerton. We have Arkim Robertson, Jackson Rowe, Khalil Ahmad and Kyle Allman. Questions.

Q. Anyone who wants to talk about not a lot of NCAA Tournament experience on this team. This is obviously new for a lot of you. What's been the most interesting thing about this experience, and how do you guys try to use, I guess, that to your advantage?
KYLE ALLMAN JR.: It's pretty interesting. Like you said it's all of our first time. So just soaking it in right now and just back to business as of right now and into tomorrow. Just taking it in right now.

Q. Congratulations, I know this is a big deal for the program. Third time in school history that the Titans have made it to the NCAA Tournament. When you look back on that, does that make things even more special, or have you had the time to even let this sink in yet?
KHALIL AHMAD: It's definitely special. Making history like that, it's been 10 years or whatever it is for the school and ourselves. We're going to remember this for the rest of our lives pretty much, going to the tournament, and competing against really high competition that we're going to.

Q. Jackson, obviously you guys were so close last year, a shot away from making it back to the final, the Big West Tournament final against UC Davis. You beat them on the way to this tournament this year. Was last year any motivation in terms of the run you guys made this year?
JACKSON ROWE: Just knowing that it was UC Davis we were going up against. Since we lost them last year, this year we had to play them that much harder.

Q. Jackson, your initial thoughts on Purdue?
JACKSON ROWE: Purdue is a really good team. Obviously they're a 2 seed. If we're going to come out and play them we can't have a scared mindset. You have to play them like they're any other team, and just keep in mind it's not going to be easy. It's going to be a tough battle.

Q. Arkim, what have you seen from Kyle in his game this year, a breakout year for him? How have you seen him develop throughout the course of the season?
ARKIM ROBERTSON: He's being more aggressive. He's taking what the defense gives him. I think that's been a major part of his game and his success right now. Like over the last, what, six games, six or five games, he's been playing like his best basketball. So I think that will give us a spark to beat Purdue.

Q. Kyle, when you look at Purdue offensively, obviously they have the big guy in the middle, but shooters as well. What kind of challenges does that present for you defensively?
KYLE ALLMAN JR.: It's going to make us work harder. We've got to try to stop the big, but also get back out to the shooters. We have to help each other, we've got to all be on the same page. So just emphasis on having each other's back.

Q. Kyle and Khalil, what does it mean to be here after you've gone through the last couple of years?
KYLE ALLMAN JR.: It's a stepping stone. We started off pretty much nothing, but to be able to build the program up the last few years means a lot to the both of us, actually.

Q. Khalil, you haven't played ranked competition like this since early in the season against USC and Saint Mary's. How much do you think you guys have grown as a team to prepare you today and tomorrow?
KHALIL AHMAD: It's meant a lot, offensively, defensively. We've come together more because of all the challenges that we've gone through the course of the season. I feel this is the best time to play them because we're at our best right now. So we're going to give them our best shot.

Q. Khalil, you mentioned it, but for both of you, Kyle and Khalil, obviously three games, three wins in three days. Kind of a similar format to the NCAA Tournament. You lose and you go home. Obviously the Big West being a one-bid league, now is kind of all that pressure off you guys? Are you guys just feeling free and like you've got nothing to lose at this point? What's the mentality right now?
KHALIL AHMAD: We definitely kind of have the underdog mentality kind of because no one really expects us to win because we're a 15 seed, but I feel like that's just motivation for us because we're all really competitive. And we all feel like if we go out there handle our business we can beat Purdue.

KYLE ALLMAN JR.: If we keep the same mindset that we had in the Big West then we'll be successful.

Q. To build on that, you've seen, I'm sure, all four of you grew up watching the NCAA Tournament, and now you get a chance to play in it. You've seen 15 seeds take down a No. 2 seed before. Does anything kind of run through your mind saying, hey, we can be the next one?
KYLE ALLMAN JR.: We all know that upsets happen. We're just trying to be the next one, like you said, and just play as hard as we can and whatever happens, happens.

Q. Arkim, thoughts on that as well, just growing up watching the NCAA Tournament and now getting a chance to play in it?
ARKIM ROBERTSON: I think we stand a chance. Like the way we've been playing the last three games coming up to winning the championship, if we stick to what Coach Taylor gives us to do and we stick to the game plan, we're going to be okay.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you. We'll start with coach Dedrique Taylor and an opening statement.

COACH TAYLOR: Good morning. Hi. It's early for us. It shouldn't be early for you guys. Obviously really excited to be here. Just had to take a moment there and just step back as a coach, I guess, and as a mentor, a leader and be extremely proud of this moment, but more importantly be proud of these guys.

To be on this stage and handle things the way they've handled them and be as professional as they were and try and answer the questions as best they could, it tells me that we're heading in the right direction, and I think that's what we're most proud of. And obviously we're here to do a job and participate in a game tomorrow. But to be able to enjoy this moment and soak it up and appreciate what those guys have been through and watch their maturity has been nothing short of exciting and, again, lets us know we're heading in the right direction.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Obviously not a lot of NCAA Tournament experience among the players. This is a new experience for all of them. How do you sort of, I guess, prevent them from being a little bit in awe of the surroundings? And is that the type of thing that could work in your advantage once the game starts?
COACH TAYLOR: I don't know if it's preventible. I think more than anything we embrace it. We've worked hard for this. This group of guys, in particular, have bought into what it takes to get here. And so I think we embrace this moment, allow our butterflies to run their course, allow the anxiety to run its course.

One thing that we've talked about since the conference tournament is just trying to keep things simple, keep things as easy as possible and make easy happen. Attach something that we know we can do to your mind mentally. Focus on that and then just see what happens at that point. But I don't want these guys to not enjoy the moment, but I also obviously don't want them to get overwhelmed. I think the most important thing is to embrace it, accept it and enjoy it as much as we can.

Q. You've run a pretty strict practice regimen all season. Do you have any plans changing anything you do going into this game?
COACH TAYLOR: Not at all. I think that's the most important thing is to stay to our routine, the things that have gotten us here, we don't want to get away from them. We don't want to add anything. We just want to be as comfortable as we can doing what we know we are capable of doing. And their routine is something that I've asked them to make sure that they're cognizant of -- don't change it. Just continue to be themselves. And, quite frankly, if we can do that, we can expect good things to happen.

Q. Are there any 7-footers in your conference? And how do you plan to deal with the fact they've got a 7'2" guy and a 7'3" guy?
COACH TAYLOR: Yeah, you know that's interesting. We don't have any 7-footers. Actually we do; UC Irvine has one, they had a couple, three to five last year and the years previous. So we have a little bit of experience.

But I think our preseason schedule kind of prepared us for this. We played a very good Saint Mary's team. Played a very good USC team. Both of those teams had size. They had athleticism. So they did a good job of preparing for us.

And again, like Kyle mentioned, we still have to stick to our guns and our defensive concepts and our principles and see if they're good enough. Obviously Purdue is an extremely good ball club. Watching them on film and watching them statistically, I'm trying to figure out if they're not an NBA team the way they shoot the basketball.

And they have the best of both worlds in terms of their inside presence, and then they shoot the ball extremely well from the perimeter. We'll have our work cut out for us.

But, again, we can only control what we can control, and those are our defensive concepts and we're going to do that to the best of our ability and see what happens at the end of the game.

Q. Coach, first of all, congratulations on making it this far. Obviously as mentioned before the guys don't have a lot of NCAA Tournament experience. They do have that Big West experience, which is a similar format. You as a coach have been to the NCAA Tournament with Arizona State. Have you used any of those experiences and talked about those experiences with the guys?
COACH TAYLOR: I haven't really talked about them with the guys, just because these guys, they're different. They're different. I'll save that for another day. But for me personally, yes, I have in terms of just organizing our staff, trying to get ready for the trip. Trying to explain to these guys, our staff in particular, what's coming next once the field is announced, what needs to happen, and again just trying to stay organized and control what we can control and get ready to get out here.

Obviously it's an early start. It was a long travel day but nonetheless we're here. The guy outside asked me if it was a little cold. I said, yeah, but you know what? We're here. We're going to do what we can to stay here. So California, they'll be there when we get there. We're going to enjoy this moment and embrace the cold, because I'll tell you what, this is bone-chilling cold to me.

Q. Obviously I know it's never about you. But for you, have you had a chance to reflect on how far you as a coach, as a person have come to lead this program from really, quite frankly, nothing into what it is now?
COACH TAYLOR: Not really. Not really. I try to stay focused on our players, our staff, their families, and just try to make sure that everybody else enjoys this moment. At some point I will probably step back and realize what's been accomplished.

But I think the most important thing about the whole scenario with Cal State Fullerton is it's not about me, it's about us. And the more we can preach that, the more we can understand that it's about a selfless nature, not selfish. I've said that from the first day that I took this job, is if we can be a selfless group, then we can expect good things to happen.

Again it's validating to be able to sit here and realize that the last three games that we played we had more assists than turnovers. And to me that's the epitome of selfless. To me, that's the epitome of playing for a teammate. And quite frankly that's what life is about in my opinion. If you look out for the other guys eventually you'll get taken care of.

And for me, I've had a couple of moments where I've been in awe, like, wow, this really happened. This is what we thought we could do. But it hasn't really hit me yet. It hasn't really set in yet. And hopefully that doesn't happen until who knows when. I just want to enjoy this moment with our guys and make sure that they appreciate it and understand it and most significantly enjoy it.

Q. Just the matchup with Kyle and Dakota Mathias, the All-Big Ten defensive player. How do you see that shake out and what have you liked offensively from Kyle this year?
COACH TAYLOR: The thing I've liked from Kyle is just his control, his pace. I think what he's done is he's really, really sharpened his skill set. But most importantly not only has he sharpened his skill set, but his mind and understanding of the pace.

Slow to fast for him has been extremely important and he's really, really bought into that. He's aggressive. When he's aggressive he's productive for not only himself but for the rest of our team. So we've been able to rely on him and create space for him to play and create for his self and again his teammates.

And that's been the most fascinating thing in my opinion with Kyle Allman Jr., is just to watch him grow physically, but more significantly mentally to be able to engage and understand how to play the game with his pace and his rhythm.

Q. After watching video, what sorts of challenges does Carsen Edwards pose for your team?
COACH TAYLOR: I think the term Goliath comes to mind in terms of us being able to deal with that size. And again with a guy like Carsen, his speed, his size -- I mean, he's small in stature, but he's as physical of a guard as we've probably faced all year. And so we've got to be ready for that.

But again there's only so much that we can do. And if we can just rely on what we've done up to this point, I think we'll give ourselves a good chance to at least contain him -- not stop him, but contain him. He definitely presents a challenge for us and is going to put a lot of pressure on our defense. But we're going to rely on what we've done up to this point and see what happens.

Q. Kyle was 3,000 miles away from Fullerton. Talk a little bit about that recruiting process. How did you find him? How did you recruit him? What was your sales pitch, all of that?
COACH TAYLOR: Actually, a relatively unique recruiting experience. There's a gentleman out of New York by the name of Tippy who is friends with myself and John Smith, our associate head coach, and our staff. And he's been responsible for a lot of players out of the New York area coming west.

And he sent us a YouTube of Kyle. And John and I were sitting in the gym, I don't remember where we were, I think San Diego, we were sitting in the gym watching another kid play, and John shows me the YouTube video. And I'm, like, really? Is he messing around with us? Is he serious? I said let's go outside let's call him.

We go outside and we call Tippy and he starts to tell us and gives a little bit of a run down of who Kyle Allman is. And we get on the phone with him and fortunately his dad and mom, they brought him out on an unofficial visit, unofficial visit. We got the MVP of the Big West Conference tournament off of an unofficial visit. Just think about that. All the recruiting that goes on and all the money that's spent. We got one of our better players off of an unofficial visit.

But nonetheless he came out with his parents and immediately his energy and his personality jumped off the page to you. And within 24 hours of meeting him and sitting down and talking to him and understanding that the type of character that that young man had and how important it was to our culture, how important it was to what we thought could produce a winning culture, we offered him a scholarship and within 48 hours he decided to commit.

And that was literally how that whole scenario went down. I mean, we spent countless hours chasing guys all over the world, and not gotten them. And we get this young man on an unofficial visit based off a YouTube video. So that just goes to prove that recruiting, it's an anomaly, it's never the same. It's always something different.

But in the same token, if you are in search of high-character young men and good people, the relationships that we've built over the years, they produced that opportunity for us both. I mean, it's unique for Kyle to come, but it's also unique for him to be a part of what we're trying to do.

And obviously Southern California is what it is. It's one of the best places in the world. And I can say that because I live, I grew up 35 minutes from where I work. And so for me it's, I'll say it again, it's one of the best places in the world. It's hard to beat, especially from a recruiting standpoint. When you say Los Angeles, immediately you have everyone's attention. And so we use that to our advantage.

And Kyle wanted to get out of the snow and experience Newport Beach and some of the other areas that we have access to within 25 minutes. So it's a phenomenal story. It's a unique story, but, quite, frankly I think that's what college athletics is all about -- giving a student-athlete an opportunity outside of their immediate world, to come experience something different, something unique across the country.

And we have young men on our team from all over the world, quite frankly. So it's a phenomenal experience to be a part of their success.

Q. You go back and look at way back in December or excuse me November, the Wooden Legacy Tournament to the conference tournament, not only the teams you were able to beat in those two tournaments, only one loss in those two tournaments combined. But the format of those tournaments, do they kind of prepare you to what you're going to be doing in this bigger tournament?
COACH TAYLOR: Sure. They do. Everything we try to do in the preseason is in an effort to bring us to this point, in particular, the Big West Tournament. The preseason, playing in the Wooden Legacy, that was a phenomenal experience for our guys because they got a little bit of this feel. The only difference was we were in Southern California. It wasn't 27 degrees when we got off the bus or off the plane.

But just to be able to understand the process of how you have to prepare and once you play the game you immediately have to turn the page and get rid of the emotions and get ready to prepare for the next team. Because they're coming. And so the same thing is true for the Big West Tournament and the same thing is true for this opportunity that we have here.

Everything that we've done up to this point, you hope it prepares you for this moment. And I think this group, they understand most significantly how important it is to be locked in, how important it is to keep our routine as far as preparation is concerned. And so I think they've done a good job up to this point, but we'll see the real test is tomorrow at 12:40.

Q. From Kyle going from an under-recruited kid out of high school to where he is now, what have you seen from his journey kind of evolving into the player he is now?
COACH TAYLOR: I've seen -- everybody talks about hard work. But I think he's the epitome of hard work. Not only is he the epitome, it goes back to the selfless mindset that we've talked about earlier today, is just not only was Kyle in the gym but his work and his activity promoted other guys on our team to join him in the gym, to join him getting shots up at night and join him in getting shots up in the morning and just working on his game and working on his craft.

And so now in our gym, you can walk through there and at any point in the day you'll see one or two guys or three guys in there working on their craft. And I think that's all a direct result of what Kyle has gone through and his impact on our program. Khalil Ahmad is the same way. Jackson Rowe is the same way. He has his own time and regimen. The dude is in there 7.00 a.m. every single morning.

I've asked him, I've begged him, pleaded, Jackson, please don't shoot this week because I can see it wearing on his legs. But that's his routine. And so it's hard to discourage a guy from working. I think it's a huge part of our program now is just the pillar of guys working on their craft individually, but not only working on it, but seeing the result of it and the impact of their activity at the end of the year.

Q. Throughout conference play you guys talked about having a target on your back after that 4-0 start, that teams were going to come get you. Now that you're the underdog do you feel it changes the mindset and preparation going into it knowing that you aren't the favorite?
COACH TAYLOR: I don't think so. It's weird. I'm a little bit funny that way in terms of always feel like -- we're Cal State Fullerton. And we're always the underdog. Even when we're picked, I still feel like we're the underdog because not really am people expect us to do anything.

And so to be on this stage, I just want to encourage our group of guys to just continue doing what you've done. And the underdog, overdog, whatever that analogy is, I don't really buy into it. I don't really care. I just want our group of guys to go out and play as hard as they can and compete and do it together. That's what's important.

And at the end of that, whether you win or lose, you can be proud of the fact that you gave everything you had. If it's enough, then you'll win. If it's not, then you gave everything you had and you probably got beat by a better team. And quite frankly, once again, that's life and that's what we're trying to do is teach life lessons through the sport of basketball.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, congrats on a great season so far. And good luck tomorrow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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