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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: CHARLOTTEMarch 15, 2018Casey AlexanderEli PepperMichael BucklandKenny CooperRob MarberryGarrison MathewsCharlotte, North Carolina THE MODERATOR: Questions, raise your hand. Q. Any of the guys, when you have the title game against Florida Gulf Coast, what sticks with you more, the hot shooting in the first half or trying to hold them off in the second half going into this tournament? MICHAEL BUCKLAND: Definitely the hot shooting from the first half. The first half was a dream. The second half felt more of a nightmare but then it finished with a dream. You're always going to remember the dream, not nightmare. KENNY COOPER: The way we played the game was with a lot of joy and passion. We played for each other in the first half, like we did in the second half. For the most part, the fact that we won that first half really, really sticks. ROB MARBERRY: The first half was a great first half for us. Second half showed our resiliency throughout the whole 20 minutes and showed we can get the job done even with a lot of pressure. GARRISON MATHEWS: I think the first half is what you remember for sure. You got to use the second half to learn from it. Obviously North Carolina is probably going to look at that film and see what they can do to speed us up and press us. We need to learn from that as well. ELI PEPPER: I wish the first half stuck with me more, but the second half does because it reminds me we're about this close not being able to sit right here and be in this tournament. Q. Garrison, you mentioned the fast pace. How do you guys play against the fast pace and how much of a challenge does that pose against a team like North Carolina who likes to speed up the tempo? GARRISON MATHEWS: It's going to be tough for sure. Obviously it's one of the better teams in the nation. Kenny has done a great job all year of breaking presses and stuff. It hurt us in the second half having him out. Buckland is not a true point guard, but he's done a great job stepping into that role when Kenny is out. It's hurt with us Nate. Those two guys are the key for us going against a defense like that for sure. Q. I'm wondering what it's been like since you guys made the tournament, reaction on campus, all of that, and then to get seeded against North Carolina, do the emotions and all, I'm wondering if you can take me through the whole week. ELI PEPPER: It's been incredible, the support of the campus, everybody is coming up and saying things. It's a fun time but when you get seeded with somebody like North Carolina, it's even better because we're here to win a game and play the best first. That's the best case we can get. THE MODERATOR: Garrison. GARRISON MATHEWS: It's been an amazing feeling being around campus with everybody and celebrating with them. It's not just about us, it's about the whole community. And obviously it's the first time, so it's been a great feeling. ROB MARBERRY: Talking about community, Belmont, Vanderbilt, MTSU, they're not in the tournament. TSU is not in the tournament. All eyes in Nashville are on us. That's a great feeling to have that we're kind of the center of attention right now. Obviously have Tennessee being a 3 seed, but locally in Nashville we've got all the attention. So it's nice to have that and obviously the fans of Lipscomb, too. THE MODERATOR: Kenny. KENNY COOPER: Like Rob said, we have a ton of local guys. The City of Nashville is behind us, and also Eli said we're going in here to win a game, we're not just happy to be here, we're not dissatisfied with this, but we want to make some noise. THE MODERATOR: Michael. MICHAEL BUCKLAND: Really put in perspective for me when we got back to campus and there was 500-plus students waiting up for us at 11:00 at night in the pouring rain. So, it really put in perspective how big of a deal it is, not just for us but for the school and the community of Nashville and ultimately we're representing our school. Q. We hear a lot about the 2-15 upsets, Gulf Coast beating Georgetown, a team you guys beat, Lehigh and Duke. Is it something you talk about in the locker room? ROB MARBERRY: It's something we always talk about. We're not here just to have fun and shoot around with the UNC team. We always have it in the back of our heads and always going to practice like we're going to win. That's what we're going to come out and do. KENNY COOPER: It's good to have that in the back of our minds. It's very doable. Like Rob said, again, we're not here to just for the experience or just to play. We're here to compete and win a game. Q. Along those lines, in 2010 Lipscomb took North Carolina to the second half, 59-56. You guys closed the gap by 3 points. Do you gain any confidence from that? Has that come up at all, anybody? THE MODERATOR: Michael. MICHAEL BUCKLAND: That was a long time ago. A completely different team put together right now. Two completely different teams. I don't think it has much to do with tomorrow's game, but we'll take the confidence that we were there then and we can be there now. THE MODERATOR: Eli. ELI PEPPER: I think we take all of our confidence from this past season and just winning the championships. That game that you just spoke of, it's not going to gain us one point in this game we play, so we're going to take our confidence from our past this season. Q. This can be for Eli, or if Michael wants to touch on it. It's Spring Break this week and how nice is that not to have to worry about school and kind of enjoy the moment and soak it all in? ELI PEPPER: This is the best spring break I could have ever asked for. THE MODERATOR: They're all enjoying their spring break. Q. You guys mentioned how Nashville is supporting you. Will the City of Nashville show up, is there any fear of you going into what's essentially a Carolina home game? KENNY COOPER: I think Lipscomb got a bunch of tickets, and they've all bought. We're sold out of tickets, fan tickets. That's a sign to know that we'll have a section cheering for us, rooting for us. We know like this will be essentially a Carolina home game being so close to their campus, but we're excited, we're really excited. THE MODERATOR: Michael. MICHAEL BUCKLAND: It puts the odds more against us knowing there's going to be a lot of Carolina Blue out there in the stands. At the same time, we're going to have our people and the people that care about us most in the stands, and that's what matters to me the most is that people that care about me and the rest of the guys in the locker room are going to be out there cheering for us. That's all we need. Q. You guys talked about upsetting North Carolina at the selection show. Address to this Garrison, I guess. What's the strength you guys have? What's something North Carolina is going to have to worry about against you guys? GARRISON MATHEWS: I would say our 3-point shot. I don't think they defend very well on the perimeter. That's going to be a huge key for us. Obviously pay a huge amount of mind to Rob. When you have a post like him, they bring help side and everything which opens up the outside. It's going to be tough to guard the inside out for sure. Q. Michael, you're from High Point, right? MICHAEL BUCKLAND: Yes, sir. Q. Tell me about your recruiting process, how you ended up at Lipscomb as opposed to any of the basketball schools in North Carolina? MICHAEL BUCKLAND: Throughout my whole recruiting process, I would have never told you I'd leave more than three hours from home. I'm a big homebody guy. Definitely grew up around here, wanting to go to school around here at one of the big schools but ultimately what made the decision for me was the faith-based community in Lipscomb. Not just with the school but with the basketball program in general, and that had a big influence on where I ended up. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Q. Rob, can you talk about the matchup in the paint with Maye and some of their bigs. ROB MARBERRY: Luke Maye, big player, really athletic. Going to be tough keeping him off the glass and the offensive rebounds. Try to isolate him as much as possible in that aspect and just try to stay consistent on offense and stay in my rhythm ad get some shots up. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? We have plenty of time. No one else. Q. I'd like to ask Garrison and Eli, just when you guys are playing at your best, what distinguishes you from other teams? ELI PEPPER: I think when we're playing with a lot of speed and rhythm, that's when we're at our best, got people firing on all cylinders. We struggle sometimes when there's a press. Lot of people like to blame our second half on Florida Gulf's press. Tell a lot of people that you don't beat a team that good without putting two halves together. You look at the Oklahoma State game with Florida Gulf Coast, they start press, Oklahoma state is up 15 and all of a sudden down 4 points. They're a good team. We figured out a way to get that done. We practiced on it all week and we're ready for it now, too. GARRISON MATHEWS: I think what starts us off on the defensive end, we've shown when we can get it down on defense, it fuels our offense and get out in transition and push the ball. That's when we're at our best for sure. Q. For the panel, can you compare -- you guys played a strong non-conference schedule but you also -- the conference had some good teams. Does North Carolina remind you of anybody you've already played? THE MODERATOR: Kenny. KENNY COOPER: It's hard to put them in the category of one team, but I believe they're going to beat Tennessee where they have a lot of good players, but if we come to play, we can compete and that's our whole mindset. THE MODERATOR: Michael. MICHAEL BUCKLAND: Going to be like all other high majors we played and they're going to be more athletic, more skilled, more highly touted players than we have but at the same time they have five guys on the court and we have five guys on the court. If we out-execute them and play our game better than they play their game, we'll have a shot to win at the end of the game. Q. Kenny, the video feature on you guys just came out. You guys are eating pizza and playing Fortnite. Is that kind fun to show what life is like off the court in the midst of all this craziness? KENNY COOPER: Puts perspective that we're still human, that we're still just average students on campus but we just play basketball. It's kind of cool for them to come video us just living our normal lives. Q. Are you relishing the role as kind of being underdoing against a team like North Carolina coming in here? Lot of people say they're a powerhouse program. You guys are kind of the underdog. Is that exciting to in that role? ROB MARBERRY: When we played Gulf Coast in the Championship game, we were also the underdogs. We take it and run with it, honestly. We can play with any team, we can compete with any team. Having them as a powerhouse and having us as the underdog really doesn't matter to us. We're going to practice all week like we're going to beat them. We're going to play the 40 minutes like they play the 40 minutes. All that talk before the game doesn't matter. We're going to practice and win. KENNY COOPER: Kind of go into this game like we have nothing to lose but everything to gain, you know. We can go out here and play hard, compete and win a game, then that builds our culture at Lipscomb, builds a better basketball program within itself and become more known. I'm just going into this game trying to better the name of Lipscomb and get the name of Lipscomb out there. Q. You guys are on a pretty solid win streak here to end the season. Does that help give you guys any confidence going into the first tournament in school history? THE MODERATOR: Eli. ELI PEPPER: It helps a ton. If you want to peak at anytime during the season it's, right now. That helps us. THE MODERATOR: Garrison. GARRISON MATHEWS: It for sure does. North Carolina is not like any other team we played in our conference. Big time school. If we want to compete with them, we've got to bring our A game for sure. Q. Do you guys have any pregame rituals that you do before something of this magnitude? ROB MARBERRY: Play a little Fortnite in the hotel. That's about it. Get a win in Fortnite. Q. For any of the players, North Carolina doesn't start a big lineup but they do play a lot of bigs. What does that matchup do for you guys as far as their size? KENNY COOPER: All week we've been practicing on boxing out. They're one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country. So that will pose a little bit of a problem for us. We just have to be willing to go get boards more than usual. And I mean, they're a big team, but we're also a good rebounding team as well. We've got Eli, Rob, Gary, Buck, they're all good rebounders. I didn't include myself, but they're great rebounders. I have all the confidence in the world that we can out-rebound if we have the will to go get the ball. ROB MARBERRY: They've got a huge lineup, 1 through 5, we'll play defense as a unit. We'll be fine. We have Kenny and Buck on the backside, Gary on the backside. So I think we'll be fine. I front the post and we've got backside help from the paint. When Luke Maye gets it one-on-one, that will be my hardest job to do. But if we isolate him and keep them off the boards, I think we'll be fine throughout the 40 minutes. Q. Any of the players, did any of you watch the ACC final that Carolina played in? Familiar with them at all from watching on TV? THE MODERATOR: Garrison. GARRISON MATHEWS: I watched a little bit of it the overnight on ESPN. Coach had mentioned in practice the other day that somebody that scouted them said they're a lot faster in person than they are on film. That's obviously something that's going to be huge for us to try to stop them in transition, but I watched a little bit. Luke Maye is a great player and Barry. We need to key in on them. ELI PEPPER: I didn't watch much of that game. We watched a ton of film on them. They're a lot faster in person. But that coach also said they're a lot more relentless in person than you thing. The first minute and a half we'll have to try to shut it down in transition as much as we can. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? To our left. Q. Questions for Rob and Kenny. I think that people sort of from the outside, you know, people who watch on TV, they take a look at a 15-2 game, they don't see the two teams as being that close. How would you explain to them that the gap between a North Carolina and a Lipscomb really isn't that big. ROB MARBERRY: It's really not that big in the sense we've played Top 25 teams, we played Tennessee and Purdue. We've competed with the best. We've prepared all season for it, too. Even with preseason, we practiced like we're going to play against UNC at the end of the season. We're ready for it. The 15-2 gap you've seen throughout the years of Lehigh, Duke, obviously they're beatable. I don't think people should look away from a 15 -- 2 upset. KENNY COOPER: Just a mindset thing. We're going into this game to win and our playing styles are kind of similar we like to get out and run, they like to get out and run. It's going to be a guns-a-blazing game. Whole bunch of fun. THE MODERATOR: Thanks. Who has the first question? Q. Casey, what more have you learned about North Carolina since we last spoke, kind of validated what you already knew and then what else? COACH CASEY ALEXANDER: Well, I'll say our respect level continues to rise, not that it wasn't already high, but, you know, I don't know if we've learned anything new, but we've certainly fine-tuned some things, the intricacies sees of how they work and why and so forth. Really good team. We knew that to start with. Q. I look back at that 2010 game and Lipscomb cut it to 3 points late in the second half. I know that didn't have anything to do with this team and anything to do with you, you were across the boulevard at the time. Can some confidence be gleaned from that? That was not a great Lipscomb team, it was a great North Carolina team. I mean, this program is better now. COACH CASEY ALEXANDER: I didn't even remember we played in 2010 and so we haven't talked about that. I think our experience this year will help us, you know, play four teams in the tournament, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Purdue, all of which present different problems, all of which are really talented teams. We'll use those experiences to help us here. We have talked about the teams in our league that have had success, the Dunk City story that everybody is well aware of. Mercer the following year was in our league when they beat Duke in the first round. They were a 15 seed. We talked about those things. Again we've drawn upon the experiences of this year more than anything. We played Purdue, that was the last of those four games and it was a post-Christmas game, maybe December 30th or something like that. I really felt like we played well. The final margin was 30 or something, but I felt like we played well for the first 25 or 30 minutes. And so we left the locker room that day, my message to them was that is the team you're going to see in the NCAA Tournament, not Purdue specifically, but a team like that in the NCAA Tournament. And you need to know right now that when you walk on the floor, you can compete and you can expect to win even though we know it will be very difficult. Q. Coach, what matchup with Carolina concerns you the most individually or area? COACH CASEY ALEXANDER: Well, we're concerned about all of them without a doubt. The one that concerns the most probably is Maye inside, honestly. Barry makes them go. There's no doubt about that, his experience and toughness, his willingness to help them win. But Maye is a tough cover because of his ability to play out on the floor and to use screens and to shoot it quickly and that's a situation that even though our guys are undersized in the post, we're not used to guarding in the post. So that would be the most specific thing that I could give you as far as personnel goes. What I'm worried the most about is just their relentlessness on that end of the floor. They totally know that they're Carolina and totally know that Carolina plays a certain way and they embrace that and really good at it. Q. Coach, what's all the extra media attention been like and how do you balance that trying to get Lipscomb's name out there but obviously stay on focused at the task in hand? COACH CASEY ALEXANDER: Nothing is more important than making sure our team is ready. They know that. I'm kind of a no frills kind of guy anyway. Our players, we've prepared for this game like every other game. We've even had more time to do it. The media attention has been great for Lipscomb. That's one of the benefits both short-term and long-term that playing in the NCAA Tournament does for a school like ours, especially for the first time. You know, we've been places that we've never been before as far as attention goes, national exposure, CBS tomorrow, blue blood program like North Carolina. That's an unbelievable experience for everything that is Lipscomb. The long-term, the residuals may even be more important, how we can take this and use it in recruiting, how we can continue to build our program, how we can make this a somewhat frequent event for our program, as a coach is what I'm most concerned about. Q. How daunting is the task just like taking on Carolina and what's going to essentially be a home game? COACH CASEY ALEXANDER: It's daunting because they're really good, you know. They always are, and this is just to show up and play another game for them, where it's not for us. This is a first time for us. We don't have a single player in the locker room. Got a couple of coaches that coached in the NCAA Tournament but no players. And so that's what's daunting. But out message to them will be we get to the first media timeout, I promise you it will feel like every other game you've ever played. Just recognize that, be ready to kind of withstand those first few minutes, and then go with it. Q. Sort of to follow up on what your point was about once you're in a game it feels like a game, is the first tournament as much about dealing with all the stuff that comes before the game like the attention, the added interview sessions, all those things that you have to manage moreso than the idea of playing a game, these guys have done that a bunch of times. COACH CASEY ALEXANDER: For sure. That's the biggest difference. We don't have anything like this anytime during the year, you know. So that's what's so different and that's what we're having to kind learn on the go. But again, we recognize how important this is. We recognize what this exposure means to the Lipscomb community and so we embrace that, we celebrate it, have some fun with it but at the same time the game what is we're here for and that's kind much -- it's been important to keep that in perspective throughout the last couple of weeks that everything has occurred because we've got a game to play tomorrow afternoon against a really good team. Q. Coach, after the title game, do you talk more with the team about the first half when you couldn't miss or the second half? COACH CASEY ALEXANDER: I don't even remember the second half. I tried to forget that entirely. We played pretty flawless in the first half and pretty terrible in the second half. We've got to learn from the mistakes we made and so forth. What mattered the most on that day was that we win the game, whatever form and fashion it came in, we needed to win the game so that we could be here today, and we did that. Q. Coach, obviously you guys are very high scoring team, 108 points in your last game. In fact, almost 200 points total in that game. Are you taking that as momentum into this game and are you planning on just going wide open with hopes of scoring at the normal pace that you have been scoring? COACH CASEY ALEXANDER: Yes and yes and yes. You know, I anticipate that Carolina is going to score plenty, so we better score enough to keep up with them right, is the way I'm looking at it. That's really how we play. I'm not good enough coach to change that now and try to do something different. If we're going to have a chance to win the game, we have to be the best version of ourselves that we can be. We can't show up here and be somebody that we haven't been all season long and expect to play with North Carolina and give ourselves a chance to win. That's what we'll do. It will be a fun know game to watch from that perspective, I anticipate. But even then, you never know. We may have trouble scoring, they may have trouble scoring. It may be a turnover game. Coaches prepare to do it one way, but then that's what we get paid for, you got to make adjustments as you go. Q. Coach, you seem to have a good perspective on a lot of things because you played several teams that are in the tournament already. So I wonder if you could talk about how much, if any, talent disparity there is between your average 15 and 2 seeds, the type of players you recruit versus a North Carolina and yet we see these upsets come fairly regularly. COACH CASEY ALEXANDER: Well, there's undoubtedly talent disparity player by player. We don't have a single player on our team that was even considered to be a player for North Carolina and we didn't recruit a single player on their team because we didn't think we would go very far. It's understandable that there's a big difference. Sometimes you can look at this moment and you could draw upon our experience or having a bunch of four-year guys or something like that, but that's not the case here, either. They bring as much experience into this game as anybody in the country, you know, starting two, three seniors and two, three juniors and a lot of guys that have won national championships and played a ton of post-season games. The key is what I tell our team, we're not here to -- for Lipscomb to be better than North Carolina. I mean, we understand the differences. We're not going to walk out of here with people putting our programs in the same breath. We are where we are for a reason. We understand that. The key -- we have to be better than them for 40 minutes one time, that's it. One time for 40 minutes. That's how we'll approach it. Q. Coach, similarly to the previous question I asked your players about the 2-15 upsets, Gulf Coast over Georgetown, Lehigh over Duke, and he spoke very confidently about them not just coming here to practice against North Carolina or them just coming here to shoot around with North Carolina. Do you talk about those upsets, and what do you guys think -- what do you think your players get that confidence from as younger guys? COACH CASEY ALEXANDER: I don't know if it's so much confidence. It's probably them just regurgitating to you what I've told them more than anything, thankfully. We make no mistake, it's going to be really tough. We're going to have to play great for it to happen. But you have to draw upon the experiences of others and understand that the game can be won, and we didn't come here just to show up, you know. We want to play our best game tomorrow. Win or lose, we want to play our best game tomorrow. We want to make sure we play with incredible effort, togetherness tomorrow. We have one chance to play this game. That's really been the message all along and I do believe with great performance, great execution, a couple of bounces that go our way, that we can be in the game. I'm not going to sit up here and tell you we're going to win the game. That's the reason we came over here was to win the game, and we've seen that it's happened other places. I sat on a bench at a 15-1 game myself a few years ago, Belmont, Duke, we were one possession away from winning that game. I personally withdraw upon that experience. Q. You mentioned how just being in the tournament, like what the has done for your team. What do you want people to know about Lipscomb going into the game about your team, about your players? COACH CASEY ALEXANDER: I think people will see real quickly how much our team loves each other, plays well together, embraces each other, plays for each other. Those are the things that every coach wants to say, and it's the best way to win. There are a lot of ways to win. Different styles, different kinds of players, different philosophies. Ours is to go get a bunch of like-minded guys who love playing at Lipscomb, would have considered going to school at Lipscomb anyway even if they weren't playing basketball, bunch of guys that would have gone to college anyway, would have graduated from college anyway, that come from great families, great programs, put all that together and you got the mix of a pretty good team. That's what I want people to see and I think that they will. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Okay. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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