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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: LOS ANGELESMarch 21, 2018Silas MelsonJosh PerkinsJohnathan WilliamsLos Angeles, California THE MODERATOR: Questions for the Gonzaga student-athletes. Q. Josh, let me ask you, what do you think in your mind is the single biggest reason why you guys have advanced this far in the tournament this season? JOSH PERKINS: Just our team. Our team, when adversity hit, we stayed together as a team. We knew no matter what adversity was going to hit, but we stuck together through it all. I think that was huge for us. We value winning plays. I think our coaches do a good job of stressing that message to us. And us being so close as a team really showed in those tough moments, and we persevered through it and got the wins. Q. Johnathan, you guys are athletes, but you're also students. How do you balance those two responsibilities particularly in March during the tournament? JOHNATHAN WILLIAMS: I graduated, so I have no class right now. Q. The other two students? SILAS MELSON: I'm in one class right now. JOSH PERKINS: I'm only in two classes right now. But, no, Steph, we have a lady who does her job very well. She takes it very seriously, and she knows it's a lot for us. But I think we make friends in the class and they help us do a lot of things. We miss a lot of class. But at the end of the day we came to school for education as well. So we value that ask we value basketball as well. So coming with that mentality, and we've been doing it for three, four years now, so we've gotten pretty good at it. Q. Johnathan, they've got some size, some shot blockers in there, and you guys are pretty offensive minded. How do you size up the match-up inside? JOHNATHAN WILLIAMS: We've been watching film on them a little bit, and just getting into the lane, kicking off open threes, because you know their defense collapses a lot when we get in the paint. So just kicking off wide open threes. When we do get in the paint, just try our best to go strong, finish and get dunks and use our hook shots. For us guards, to shoot their floaters and just penetrate the gaps and kick out open threes. That's about it. Q. These guys like to play fast, and you guys like to play fast. What's the battle of the tempo going to be like? SILAS MELSON: Rather than just it being a battle of tempo, I think it's just playing smart because you're right, we both like to play fast, but I think with playing fast also comes playing smart. I'm sure neither teams are trying to play too fast and turn the ball over or anything like that. So especially for us, playing against a team that's aggressive on defense like them, we plan on playing smart basketball. JOSH PERKINS: I think they play fast because defensively they speed you up and they heat you up. They'll force you to take some tough shots, whether the guards penetrate and shoot and land seven footers or just shooting bad threes. So I think defensively they speed us up. But like you said, we like to play fast ball, but we get good shots on our end. So we've just got to do a good job taking care of the ball and not giving them what they do best, transition offense, and just get good shots and not having live ball turnovers and we just need to control the tempo of the game. Q. Rui is an interesting guy to have on your team with his background. I know his English has improved with the couple years he's been with the program. But what kind of challenges initially did it present having a guy that had to learn basketball's got a unique language, especially in English? What was it like integrating him into the mix, and what's it like now that he's obviously a lot more comfortable with what you guys are doing? JOHNATHAN WILLIAMS: I think like two years ago he was my first roommate. I was his first roommate, basically. I would just take him to my brother's house and make dinner for him. He didn't know a lot of words, so he would just say "mmm, good." That's pretty much all he knew at the time. But he's been growing. Like Josh said, we have Stephanie, our coordinator, that helps him out a lot every single day. I think he's come a long way, especially this year. Because he didn't know the plays that well last year. Now he's more comfortable. He knows the plays and he knows what to do on and off the court. He's a big part of our team. Yeah, he's a key part. JOSH PERKINS: I just tell Rui he's a match-up problem for whoever we play against. So him coming in and not understanding English as well, but we knew he was a basketball player and he knew his stuff on the court. So it made learning English and communicating with him pretty easy from the git-go. But him getting more and more confident every game. It's showing in his stats and with the smile on his face. So like J-3 said, it's an easy transition for us, and he's a good guy, and there's a good group of guys on this team. He fit right in, and looking forward to a big game for him tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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