	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 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: NASHVILLE

March 15, 2018

Nashville, Tennessee

THE MODERATOR: The 4:15 time slot features the Texas Southern Tigers. They're the No. 16 seed in the West Region. They are the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament champions. They will play No. 1 Xavier in Friday's third game at 6:20. The men's basketball contact is Demetrius House. And these gentlemen are already 1-0 in this tournament, coming in from Dayton last night.

Demontrae Jefferson, Donte Clark and Trayvon Reed represent the student body for Texas Southern. And we'll go right to questions.

Q. For Demontrae, I think a lot of people saw you maybe for the first time last night. Just your height, how often has that been used against you? How much of a chip on your shoulder has that been as you've gone through your career? How much has that been used as a knock against you?
DEMONTRAE JEFFERSON: Well, the knock on me has always been my height. Kind of just the knock a lot of guards because I have a scoring mentality. And being my height, a lot of coaches kind of feared that I should have a passing mentality, so I kind of put the height to the side and try to replace my height and my inches with my heart.

Q. This is for Trayvon Reed. Reed, you played some great minutes against North Carolina Central. At what point did you feel comfortable in that ball game?
TRAYVON REED: I mean, as soon as I stepped in, I felt comfortable. Towards, like, when we was making our run, I felt really comfortable. After that, you know, I was just in there trying to do my job, do what I do.

Q. For Demontrae, congratulations on last night.
DEMONTRAE JEFFERSON: Thank you.

Q. I was asking Trevon Bluiett about you. He said you guys knew each other. He said he'd known you since middle school. Had you linked up on the AAU circuit?
DEMONTRAE JEFFERSON: Which one is that?

Q. Trevon Bluiett. He's from Indy.
DEMONTRAE JEFFERSON: I played against him last night?

Q. No. He plays for Xavier.
DEMONTRAE JEFFERSON: I'd probably have to see his face. I don't really remember.

Q. Donte Clark, going into tomorrow's game, how do you feel about the pressure on the 16 seed playing against a 1 seed?
DONTE CLARK: I think all the pressure is on the 1 seed. I don't think there's any pressure on us. We've just got to come out and play our game the best we know how to play. I feel like all the pressure's on them and we just need to go out there and do what we know how to do.

Q. For all of y'all, what time did y'all arrive in Nashville? And the early season schedule you had with all the road games stacked up, one on the other, how can that kind of help prepare you for what I imagine is a hectic schedule this week?
TRAYVON REED: We got here last night around 2:00. We have just been up and running, just staying busy. I think that's been able to, you know -- it's been helping me just being able to stay busy.

DONTE CLARK: Like he said, we got in around 2:00. It was kind of late, but we still had -- I feel like we still had energy just because we just got off a win or whatever. So I don't think we're too tired.

But going off the non-conference games, I feel like we prepared ourselves for this game playing the teams that we played in non-conference.

DEMONTRAE JEFFERSON: We arrived around 2:00, and I could say my team was wide awoke. I don't think nobody slept on the plane. We probably all were still excited with our adrenaline running.

But this isn't nothing we haven't done before, like we had back-to-back games, flying state to state, all non-conference. So just back to the basics, really.

Q. The confidence level of this basketball team, you have all your pieces back together. You've got Trayvon Reed back. You've got Donte Clark. You've got Derrick Bruce helping you out. How confident within the team do you feel coming into tomorrow's game?
DEMONTRAE JEFFERSON: Like Donte said, I feel like it's no pressure on us. I guess the world got comfortable with the 16 seed falling out, but that's not on our mind. 16 seed not on our mind. We're going to come into this game and we're going to play Texas Southern basketball.

The non-conference showed us we can play at the level that these teams are playing at. It's just if we can sustain that for 40 minutes, which was the problem earlier on in this season. But now, I feel like we can sustain that close to 40 minutes now than we was during non-conference.

Q. For any player, speak on the history you made last night winning the first game in school history and what it would mean to win another game and continue playing in this tournament.
TRAYVON REED: Last night's win was huge. It was huge for the school. It was huge for us, the coaching staff. You know, going into the game tomorrow night, you know, it's going to be, you know, huge, being able to play against Xavier, them being a No. 1 seed. Just trying to go in there, compete, and then we can get that win. That would be really huge for the school and that's what we're focused on, trying to win.

DONTE CLARK: Yeah, piggybacking on what he said, I definitely think it was big for the school and just for the people in the community, as far as in Houston and stuff like that, for them to look up to somebody like us as basketball players, just show them that they can make a dream come true.

Q. Demontrae, the Xavier coach earlier said that a lot of -- he knows you and a lot of his guys know you based on your YouTube videos. How often do you get that from opposing teams and players?
DEMONTRAE JEFFERSON: Yeah, I get that a lot. A lot of people approach me, like are you really him? You really this little? I can't believe you're doing those things.

But, yeah, I mean, a lot of people are familiar. But when it's actually in front of you and you actually see how quick it is and it's a different blur than on those videos.

TRAYVON REED: For real.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you very much. Best of luck tomorrow.

DONTE CLARK: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297