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

March 16, 2018

Nashville, Tennessee

Xavier - 102, Texas Southern - 83

THE MODERATOR: The Tigers from Texas Southern are with us. Head coach Mike Davis is accompanied by Donte Clark, Demontrae Jefferson and Trayvon Reed.

We'll have the head coach make a statement on the game and we'll go to questions for all four gentlemen from Texas Southern. Mike, please.

MIKE DAVIS: First of all, thank God for this opportunity to be the head coach of Texas Southern. This is where I'm supposed to be as a coach. I'm proud of my team. We made a great, great run, winning eight straight games this season.

Xavier's a really good team, a No. 1 seed, you've got to take your hat off to those guys. They made some shots. My team fought all the way through. The effort they gave tonight in that game against this team was one that I'm proud of.

It's something for us to build on. It's a lot of great things that are going to happen for Texas Southern in the next couple of years. We're going to put together a team that is going to beat whatever seed it is we have to play. That's our goal all summer long, starting from this point on.

We're going to play, we're going to work, we're going to focus with the effort that we gave tonight. That's what you build on right there. The effort that they gave tonight is what you build in the off-season every single day. So we look forward to being here next year and we look forward to doing something special at Texas Southern.

Q. For either player, talk about the ups and downs of the game, where you took a run early in the first half and what happened in the second half.
DONTE CLARK: I mean, the game, I feel like the game is about runs, so I feel like each team is definitely going to make a run between the game with 40 minutes of the game. So they just made a run. We made a run. We were just going back and forth. They just sustained the run a little bit longer than we did.

TRAYVON REED: Just to piggyback off what he said, like every game you're going to have your ups and downs. You know, we started off, you know, we was ready, you know, plenty of energy. Towards the end, you know, we kind of backed off a little bit on our energy.

But throughout the whole game, I feel like we fought.

Q. For Mike and all of players, what did they do to disrupt you guys tonight?
DEMONTRAE JEFFERSON: I think they tried to disrupt us and make us play from the outside, knowing we're an attacking team and an up-tempo team. I don't think they had any plans on trying to stop us. I think, like, we score 80 points. I think they just -- I don't think -- I think their intentions was to come in this game and play their game. I think they thought they was going to get the results they got, which was the win.

Like I said, I don't think that team doubted us coming into this game, not with as much fire as we came into this game, knowing that we got the big run against North Carolina Central.

TRAYVON REED: I would just say they came out hitting shots, some shots I didn't expect them to make. They was just hot, you know, throughout the whole game. I'd say they disrupted us probably on the defensive end probably by just scratching the boards, you know, getting after it a little better than us.

That's all I can say. But they was on fire tonight.

DONTE CLARK: I'd say the same thing. I just feel like they got off to a quick start and we probably just started off a little bit slower than we wanted to.

MIKE DAVIS: Well, they're the No. 1 seed and when you're the No. 1 seed, there's not a time -- we learned this throughout our non-conference.

Like I said last night, you can't have a two or three-minute spurt where you're not really playing at that level, because it only takes two or three minutes for them to make a run.

I think the score may have been tied up, we're up two, they're going to run on us. We come back, they go up again. So for a team that's a 1 seed, they don't give those away.

And for a team that's a 1 seed, you've got to have 40 minutes and we talked about it being at a nine or ten with your effort, with your concentration, with your chemistry. Because that team is going to play the same way throughout the game.

Q. Coach Davis, you got some big shots from Robert Lewis. How did you feel about his play coming off the bench tonight?
MIKE DAVIS: Robert got hurt before the BYU game, so his rhythm's been off. We just got him back, I think, for the last four games. He made some good shots. Like I said before, we're going to build on this. We're going to build on this.

I think tonight showed us, we played harder tonight than we played any of our non-conference games. Tonight. The only way you can sustain that and do something special -- I always say March is a month of miracles. But it also starts in the off-season.

If we can build on this with the same focus and same concentration, and we can train our mind to give the effort in the weight room, give the effort when we're running sprints, when the season is four, five months away, we can train our brain to work at that level and make sure we earn it every day, then we can do something special.

I'm so happy to be a part of Texas Southern. I'm proud to be the coach here, and I always say anything that can be done in college basketball can be done right here from Texas Southern.

Then we have to build on this, and we can't not remember how hard, how tough we played tonight when we're working out in the off-season.

Q. Coach, in the second half, it seemed like there was an exchange -- you had a technical foul and you had an exchange with someone at the scorer's table. Can you talk about that?
MIKE DAVIS: It's emotional. I like to say when it's emotional, I get emotional. The technical foul wasn't on me. It was on our bench. So, you know, the referees that we had tonight, all those are good guys. When you're calling in the tournament, you're a good official.

And they'll go back and they'll watch the film like we'll watch the film and, you know, one of my best friends always said that you have to give a referee four missed calls a game. And that's a great game he called. When you miss four, that's a great game that they called.

So I'm trying to get my guys fired up and push them, and it was nothing personal with the officials. I respect all those guys.

I think they'll move on to the next round, but it's very difficult when the emotion's going high. Then once everything settles down, you know, I apologized to him and he talked to me, and we're good. We're very good.

Q. For Mike and Demontrae, can you describe the growth of this team from the game against North Carolina in the tournament last year to this year's experience?
DEMONTRAE JEFFERSON: I think this team this year been through more, so we knew it was a fight. Our non-conference kind of gave us an edge to go into conference and then finish in sixth in conference gave us another edge to go into the conference tournament. Then winning the conference tournament gave us another edge to make history the other night. And making history gave us our confidence and our passion to come into this game and think we was capable of pulling off a win.

So I would say the difference between this team and last year's team was the mindset and the adversity we faced, knowing that we had the toughest schedule and going 0-13 and coming out on top in our conference. I could say my team, we built and we learned from all those lessons in non-conference.

Like Coach said, from this point on, we're going to build and we're going to get better, and with the new guys we got coming in, I'm going to do my best to get them locked in early and not late so we can get here next year and we can do the same thing, if not better.

Q. For the coach and the players, are there any administrators, people in city of Houston, fans, the band, anybody that you'd like to give a shout out to for supporting you this season specifically?
MIKE DAVIS: I'll answer that. We have great fans, and the expectations for us is to win the conference every year and win the conference tournament. That's the expectations for us.

I'm proud of our fans. They support our guys no matter what. If you're 0-13, you shouldn't have anybody at the games when you start your conference. They're there. They're cheering us on. There's never any negative.

You see our band. I think our band gets more spotlight than anyone on our campus. It's 9:00, 10:00 at night and they're out there practicing. You can hear them walking up and down the campus, playing all over the campus. They put on a great show for us.

My AD, Charles McClelland, I thank him for giving me an opportunity. There's a lot of ADs around the country, when they choose a coach, they choose a coach to lead their program and make their program proud.

For him to give me this opportunity to coach these guys, we have a special group. We have a special group. Once they realize how special they are, and how hard it is, and how hard they have to work, because right now, I think we're happy with getting to the tournament.

You know, we didn't celebrate winning the conference championship and tournament. We didn't celebrate the other night when we won against North Carolina Central.

And what I want to change is the off-season. I want us to just fight like we -- I mean, if you see this fight tonight that we had in us in certain moments of the game, and what they don't understand and I'll try to get them to understand this, if you can fight, if you can say this, if you can say that you are doing something that nobody else is doing, if you can say people have to know you for your unbelievable work ethic. And right now, we're not known for that.

Once they know us and recognize us for our unbelievable work ethic, then what you'll see tonight, you'll see a win. I'm proud of this effort. We were down on loose balls. We never quit.

So now, when it's four months, five months away from your first game, let's practice like that. Let's band together. Let's get each other up and 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, we should be in our gym. We should be working because that's what Gonzaga did. They've put together a program where basketball is first. 1:00 in the morning, they're in the gym, they're working. They're working. We need our guys to shoot two, three, four thousand shots a day.

Because I'm telling you, we can do something special. That's why I'm here. I'm here to do something special. I know why I'm here. So until we do it, I'm not going to be satisfied with the results, but I am satisfied and proud of the effort that our guys gave tonight.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. Best of luck.

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