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

March 15, 2018

Eric Musselman

Nashville, Tennessee

THE MODERATOR: Head coach of the Wolf Pack is Eric Musselman. We're going to ask him about Nashville and then going to questions.

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Our guys are really excited to be here. Had some really good food last night. Walked in our locker room. Have an awesome NHL Predators jersey, which is really cool. Wolf Pack on the back. So hospitality's been great.

Hopefully, tomorrow afternoon, we can entertain everybody here and play the way that we have for most of the year.

Q. Coach, the guys just talked about one of the problems Texas can present is that size. Is the game plan to run?
ERIC MUSSELMAN: Yeah. I mean, that's kind of been the game plan all year. I mean, we're not going to turn into a team that walks the ball up the floor. We like to say we're cosmetically pleasing at times, getting the ball up the floor as fast as we can and spacing out.

We have incredible respect for Texas and Coach Smart. They're so well coached and they have great size and they have players that have bright futures, guys that are going to play at the next level.

Having said that, we've got to be better than them for one game, for 40 minutes. But yeah, they're long and we're not.

Q. Coach, last year, against Iowa, you guys were the unexperienced team. This year, coming into this game, you're the experienced team. How did that play in difference in prepping this team for this game?
ERIC MUSSELMAN: Well, I think in that locker room right now, because we just walked in it, that from an experience standpoint, for last year, it was Jordan Caroline, myself, Josh Hall, and Coach Ruta. And then it stops.

But we do have guys that have played. Obviously, Cody and Caleb Martin, Kendall Stephens and Hallice Cook. So we have some guys who have played under these bright lights, maybe not with our program but with other programs. Obviously, I think for Jordan and Josh, it's going to help a lot.

But I think once the ball's thrown up -- last year, Iowa State had a ton of experience, and I do think early in the game, it had a big impact. By the time we felt comfortable, they had a lead and they were too talented for us to come back, even though we scratch and clawed and got the thing within striking distance a couple times. They just had too many veterans for us to overcome.

But this year, Texas plays -- you know, like, when you go to Kansas and play in the environments they play in and they got incredible amount of experience, even though, I mean, I know the age of Bamba and Jericho Sims and stuff. But they played in big time environments. When you're able to do that night after night, there's no stage too big.

Q. Eric, when Caleb and Cody decided to leave NC State, there were so many teams interested in their services. Do you remember your reaction when they said, Okay, we're coming to Nevada.
Also, what flexibility do they give you, especially in guard match-ups, because they're so big?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I'll go the second question first. Caleb and Cody create -- they're totally different players. They look alike, obviously. It's not often that a program can have their starting power forward move to the starting point guard position with six or seven games to go.

Obviously, we're still a team evolving with Cody at the 1. But we've been a team that's done a remarkable job all season long at taking care of the basketball and not turning the ball over.

One of the best in the country all year at that, and it hasn't changed with the injury of Lindsey Drew.

Caleb is just a big-time shot maker, can make shots that are defended, can get his own shot whenever he wants. Those are qualities, when plays break down, you need players that have ability that X and Os don't get them shots. He doesn't need X and Os on the chalkboard to get him shots. He's got a special gift to rise over people.

And then on their recruiting visit, we really recruited Cody hard. We knew that all the other programs that were recruiting both Cody and Caleb, that they were going to go after Caleb harder because of his stats at NC State.

So when I got with our staff, we decided to go a different route and really go after Cody, because I knew that Caleb already had all the love from everybody. We recruited Cody harder than we recruited Caleb, and I think his mom really appreciated that.

Obviously, Cody did. Caleb already knew he was going to be comfortable wherever he went so we took a unique and kind of outside-the-box approach and it ended up helping us.

Q. What makes Nevada such a good place for transfers to kind of come and want to be there and flourish a bit?
ERIC MUSSELMAN: I think that just as Coach Hoiberg did at Iowa State, when you have -- first of all, we needed our first group to come and believe in the vision that we sold. And those guys all had really good years. Jordan Caroline was part of that first class. Marcus Marshall, a First Team All League MVP-type of player. He had a season last year that was really good.

Now Caleb and Cody, one's MVP, one's Defensive Player of the Year. Jordan Caroline is First Team All League. And so when you start building that and guys have success, I think it becomes more desirable.

And certainly, when transfers are on the market now, we have a lot more name recognition nationally than maybe we did three years ago. And it's kind of been a destination spot for some guys, and it really hasn't had anything to do from a geographical standpoint with us.

Probably the neatest thing is when guys come on our campus and see how beautiful our campus is and how much the community rallies around the team and people are really surprised at our arena and how we have a practice facility. And so all those things have helped us tremendously attract players from all across the country.

Q. Coach, you've coached at both the mid-major and so-called power five conference level now. There's been a lot of talk about how the composition of this year's tournament is pretty heavily tilted toward the power five. What are your thoughts on maybe the respect the mid-majors are getting from the Selection Committee and just the composition of the tournament the last couple years?
ERIC MUSSELMAN: I think for us, we feel like the Selection Committee showed great respect for us. We read everything we possibly could about the schedule and trying to schedule road games and trying to schedule TCU on a neutral site and try to pay Texas Tech in Lubbock.

So we did what we had read was going to hold a lot of weight, spent a lot of time on our non-conference schedule. Obviously, we didn't win our last game against San Diego State, but we still had garnered enough respect through our body of work in non-conference and regular season conference play.

So I can only speak for ourselves from a mid-major. I think that they did us right. They did what we deserved. I didn't see or feel any disrespect whatsoever at all. Actually, I think that the committee really respected what we had done and how we had done it.

Q. Coach, you said on Sunday that you hadn't had much of a chance to delve into Texas yet in terms of through the year. Anything change your mind from Sunday to now in terms of their personnel? Anybody surprise you maybe you didn't know much about?
ERIC MUSSELMAN: If you want to do a quiz on each guy, I know everything about every guy on their team right now. Obviously, the first thing you see is their size with Bamba and Jericho Sims and Roach's athleticism. He's improved his 3-point shooting. Coleman does a great job of jumping in passing lanes. Defensively, he's a tough cover in transition, gets in the lane, has floaters.

Obviously, Dylan at the 4 spot can shoot the ball. Early in the year, baseline, out of bounds, he did a good job faking handoffs and dribble driving. He's taken a high volume of 3s. He can pass the ball. He works the elbow areas really good.

And then, obviously, Young has come off the bench of late and really provided them a great offensive boost and can shoot the 3.

So we know a little bit about them.

Q. Do you feel like your team has taken a different mindset and confidence in this year's tournament than last year's?
ERIC MUSSELMAN: I think last year, we were really happy to be here. There were celebrations, so to speak, the whole time, from the moment that he had made the tournament. It had been a while since the Wolf Pack were part of the tournament.

I think that, you know, all over our community, that it was a time of semi-celebration. I mean, we're here to try to win a basketball game, and that's it. We are happy and everything, but I don't see guys tweeting stuff out like we did last year. I don't see the cameras going all over the place, taking pictures of everything.

I think that we have a business-like approach, respecting Texas incredibly. But coming here, with the mindset of, you know, we're trying to win a basketball game tomorrow.

Q. On Jericho Sims, I know you recruited him very hard and I know your dad is very familiar with his family, I guess. What did you like so much about him? What has he given Texas and how badly did it hurt when you weren't able to get him?
ERIC MUSSELMAN: I mean, we tried really hard, but we couldn't -- didn't really help. Obviously, his father, Charles, played for my dad at Minnesota; and Charles' brother, Lee, played for my dad at Ashland. Great family.

He's got great length. He's got an unbelievable amount of up side. Can block shots, can really finish at the rim, great mobility laterally, great ability vertically to get off the ground quickly. And just, you know, his wing span is incredible. When you put him and Bamba together, it presents problems.

Obviously, those two guys have played minutes together. When Bamba had his injury, Jericho got a little bit more minutes and you could see his confidence growing as well.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Coach, best of luck.

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Thank you.

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