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

March 16, 2018

Kelvin Sampson

Wichita, Kansas

MODERATOR: Coach, at this time get your thoughts on preparing game prep for Michigan.

COACH SAMPSON: Michigan is a difficult prep because of how their five man plays, Wagner. There's always somebody you're trying to compare somebody with, who does he remind you of that you've played against. We haven't played against anybody like him. Like most foreign players, they like to slip out of screens, and that's what makes it difficult. I tell our kids, there's real screens, there's fake screens. He sets a lot of fake screens, and he forces your big to run to the three-point line, and he's got such a good dribble game. He's a difficult matchup.

Jon's always been really good offensively. You know, they space the floor so well, and they recruit to their spacing. Livers in the one corner, really good shooter. Duncan Robinson in the other corner, really good shooter.

And then he has the guys that are penetrators, Simpson, Rahkman. Rahkman can do both. He's outstanding player. Matthews, Simmons. So they've just got it all covered. If you beat Michigan State three times, you're pretty good.

I watched -- I was excited when I got back to the hotel last night. Then I messed up and watched one of their games in the Big Ten tournament, and I went from being excited to, oh, no.

Q. You talked about the offense, but so much has been made of their defense this year. I just wonder what you've seen so far that really jumps out to you that's different than in the past?
COACH SAMPSON: A lot of times when you play multiple defenses, that means you gotta trick 'em. I remember playing Jon's team when he was at West Virginia. I think he was a one-three-one team. All the time outs, he'd go man to man. He'd mix defenses up. But I think that's when he had that big Pittsnogle kid. So he had to hide some guys, I'm sure.

But with this team, they're -- Simpson kid is a big part of it because he can really contain penetration. Their length on the wings is athletic. I think that's the difference in this Michigan team than some of the teams I remember from the past is usually he had guys that were shooters (indicating). Now he's got athletes that can shoot. Rahkman is a great example.

When you look at them down the line, where is their weakness. You know. The guys that can't shoot can drive. There are guys that can drive and can't shoot. But they all understand. They jump to the ball. They load to the ball. As much as they try to space you, it's hard to space them because of their length.

They're good. They're really good at both ends.

Q. To go off your opening comment, what game were you watching from the Big Ten tournament that had you saying oh, no, and what in particular has you saying that?
COACH SAMPSON: I've watched parts of three. One was Iowa. One was Purdue. One was Michigan State. They've played four games in four days; right? So Iowa, Purdue, Michigan State. And who was the fourth one. Nebraska. Yeah, I watched -- the game flow was Michigan State because I'm more familiar with them. That was one.

I just wanted to see how they were guarding their ball screens up top. They make it difficult. You just don't know what Wagner is going to do. You don't know if he's going to stop and set a screen or if he's going to slip out of it, and when they do, there's five people behind the three-point line when he does that. And then when they swing it, here comes the drive. And if you're late with your help, the ball is in the opposite corner, and you've got Livers or Poole or Duncan Robinson, one of those guys, shooting threes. I mean they're really, really well put together.

You can tell their kids have a high basketball IQ, too. That's the key. You can be a shooter, if you don't know how to play, you gotta have somebody get you a shoot, but when you're a shooter that you can get somebody else a shot, that's pretty special.

Q. Coach, what's made you successful and what will be key for your success tomorrow night?
COACH WILLARD: I think the thing that our kids have is, you know, we talk about two things you can control just about every day. And I hear -- you can tell when the kids buy in, because when you hear them repeat you. When they go into press conferences or just talking amongst each other. We talk about our attitude and our effort. That's where it starts for us. We're pretty good on offense. We're pretty good on defense, too. We're not quite as pretty as some teams, obviously. I get that. But one thing that this team learned as the season went along -- and I think every team has this path they have to take. They go from hoping they can win to thinking they can win to knowing they can win. And it took this team a while to get there.

We lost a game early in the season that I could care less about. While those around you are losing their heads, inside you better have a calmness about you and know the direction you want to go. And that's what we did from inside.

But I could tell this team was going to be pretty good. We took some hits early. But once we got past Christmas, you know what your team is. And by the time we hit Christmas, those kids thought that they knew they could win. We were hoping we could win in October and November, just hoping. Once we hit December, we beat Providence. We beat Arkansas. They said I think we can win these games. Then we got where we knew we could win. And I think that's -- I'd rather have that trait than just about any other one.

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