	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

STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 7, 2019

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

THE MODERATOR: Drake Bulldogs, the No. 2 seed. They do not know their opponent either. They will play the winner of the 7-10 game, Illinois State and Evansville. They play at 8:30 tonight. Drake will play at 6:05 on Friday. Darian DeVries is the head coach. Nick McGlynn is the student-athlete along with Brady Ellingson. We're going to have Darian open up with a statement.

DARIAN DeVRIES: Really excited to be down here. Excited for the start of Arch Madness and postseason play. I know we've got ten teams that are all ready to get going, and it certainly starts tonight. There's going to be some exciting basketball. So we're excited to be here and ready to go.

Q. Darian, I know you've waited a long time to be a head coach, and to be able to be the Coach of the Year your first year as a head coach, personally, what does that mean to you?
DARIAN DeVRIES: For me, the most gratifying part about it is these guys to my right and left and those guys in that locker room. What they've been able to do this year is really incredible. You have so many new guys, it all came together late in the process. For them to be able to bond as well as they have, to play as unselfishly and be as resilient as they have with all the injuries and things we've had through the course of the year, I think says volumes about the type of guys we have in our locker room.

Q. For Nick and Brady, just how did you guys do it this year with just, Nick, you and Noah coming back and all these new pieces? How did you go from being picked ninth to a tie for first place and a great year? How did it happen?
THE MODERATOR: Brady, you're first, please.

BRADY ELLINGSON: I think it's a testament to the character of the guys on the team. We're not a selfish group at all. We work really hard. The coaches push us every day. We have confidence in each other. I think that's the big thing.

NICK McGLYNN: I just want to reiterate what Coach said. Right when we got here in the summer and then when the season started, we all bonded together really well and really fast. So we were able to build that foundation of unselfishness and toughness real soon. So you've got to attribute it to that.

Q. Nick, can you discuss being -- I mean, you've got three All-Conference awards today, including the Defensive Player of the Year, so congratulations. But apparently, when you were informed that you got those awards, you were just like thinking over your college career as an unheralded guy coming out of Wisconsin. Just discuss your career arc at Drake University.
NICK McGLYNN: I think it just comes down to consistency. That's what I try to strive for every year. Every day this year and every day since I got to Drake. I just tried to work hard every day, tried to perform the best I can when my number is called, and going to do what I can to help the team to succeed. To have those individual awards is just a nice bonus to the type of success that we had as a team this year, I've got to say.

Q. Coach DeVries, after playing in this tournament as a player at UNI, did you ever think you were going to be here coaching a team at the Valley tournament, and just how's it going to feel on Friday when you go out there for the first time and coach in this arena?
DARIAN DeVRIES: As a player, I never stuck around that long. So that's -- I love this tournament. You get so excited for it. I don't know what it will feel like to be out there as a head coach, but I know I'm excited to have these guys out there with us, and that's the part that's going to be the most fun for me is to see these guys out there competing and leaving it all out on the line.

Every kid down here has that goal of playing in the NCAA Tournament, and I know our group does as well. So that part's going to be really exhilarating for all of us.

Q. Nick, talking about the awards before, where does the Scholar-Athlete nod rank among them?
NICK McGLYNN: It's important. I take pride in my academic part of being a student-athlete just as much as being an athlete. I think that's a big part. I mean, like I said before, I'm just trying to do what I -- I try to do what I can for the team. So those awards just kind of -- it's just a nice bonus and a nice affirmation of the work that I put in on and off the court.

Q. What does it mean to you personally and also for the success of your program to have a Scholar-Athlete like that, Coach?
DARIAN DeVRIES: Nick really embodies everything you want out of the guys you have in your program. It's more than stats. It's what else he is behind the scenes, off the floor, out in the community, with his teammates in the locker room and the type of leadership he provides, the type of tenacity on the floor, his passion to play and be a part of a team. Everything you hear from him and about him is true. I'm so excited for him.

I've only had the opportunity to coach him for a year, and the way he's embraced myself and our staff and all of his new teammates is just incredible. This is a guy that's had multiple head coaches during the course of his career. He had every reason to just finish it out with a "here we go again," and he didn't do that. I think that says volumes again about the type of guy he is.

Q. Darian, you know the Valley well. The previous coaches who have come in here this afternoon have talked about the depth of the league this year. How disappointing is the realization that the Valley is probably only going to get one team into the NCAA Tournament?
DARIAN DeVRIES: Yeah, that part's disappointing. The reality is we probably didn't do our jobs as a league in non-conference play. We didn't play well enough. So that's a lot of years we've had that, where we've had two, three, four teams that were deserving of it, and this is just one of those years we didn't. But the great part is we have a lot of really good teams still that can go represent the Valley in the NCAA Tournament, and whoever that team ends up being, I'm sure will do really well, will compete, and that will be fun to go watch whatever that might be. Obviously, we hope it's us. But that's -- there's a lot of good teams in this league for sure.

It just happens to be one of those odd years where we didn't have somebody that had done enough in non-league play to put themselves in position.

Q. Darian, losing D.J. Wilkins, what does that mean for the team? Is it maybe you guys have been through this before, obviously, with Nick Norton. Does that ease the mind game of it, I guess?
DARIAN DeVRIES: Well, it eliminates all the mistakes I can make in subbing. That's the biggest thing. Like I said, these guys are going to have to play a lot. Hopefully, they get to play for three straight days. But our depth is certainly going to be challenged this weekend, and losing a guy like D.J. right before the conference tournament, it's tough. Our guys know that. He led us in minutes and assists, and he averaged 11 points a game.

There's no doubt that these guys have quit believing that they can get it done. Our mindset is the same. Our goal is to come down here and win a championship. We'll do it with the guys we have on the floor and the guys that are going to be in street clothes will be cheering them on. That's what a great team is all about.

Q. For Brady Ellingson, after transferring from Iowa, there's a lot of transferring taking place in Division I basketball. Just talk about that move and how good a move it turned out to be for you with the year you've had in your one year with Drake.
BRADY ELLINGSON: Yeah, for my last year of eligibility, I just felt that Drake was the perfect landing spot for me. I had a great visit with the coaches and just felt really good and comfortable there. Nick Norton was at my visit with me, so we bonded well. The coaches believed in me, and I couldn't have made a better decision, I feel like, for my last year.

Q. For Brady and Nick, just tell everybody in the room about what Coach DeVries has done from day one to really lead you guys, help get you to this point.
BRADY ELLINGSON: I think Coach, he's been a great leader for us. Every day at practice, he's pushing us hard. He's telling us the right things, what to do. He's really good at helping us build good habits in practice, and I think he has a great basketball mind. That's a big part of why we've had a successful year to this point.

NICK McGLYNN: Absolutely. I think Coach's leadership and just almost unwilling to be satisfied with the results that we've had thus far. Not getting too high, not getting too low, making sure we stay the course after every game, trying to improve every day. That's part of Coach's philosophy. We bought into that, and it yielded some pretty good results thus far. We're going to keep going.

Q. Coach DeVries, looking back on past Drake seasons in 2007-2008 Keno Davis won the conference and took them to the NCAA Tournament in what was his first year. What do you think about the parallels your first year here against that?
DARIAN DeVRIES: I remember that team well. They beat us several times that year actually, when I was an assistant at Creighton. I think they too had a great mix, a great chemistry during that year, where all the pieces fit well together. You could tell they really enjoyed playing together with one another and played with some passion and joy. I see a lot of those similarities in this team -- extremely unselfish, extremely resilient, love playing together. You can see the joy they play with and their genuine love and care for one another. That's important because it's a long grind during the season, and you have a lot of ups and downs.

But as long as you have those things that are all consistent on a daily basis, you have a chance to do some things and be successful, and that's what I feel like this group has done that really simulates what they were able to do in that season.

Q. This could be for all three, maybe Coach DeVries first: 2 seed is awesome, but then when you look at you might face the 7 seed Illinois State Redbirds or Evansville, but if the seeds play out, it would be Illinois State. Just your thoughts on being the 2 seed, and then having to face what most likely would be Illinois State, a team that, I think you guys maybe lost to both times. Just thinking how you catch them possibly in your first game.
THE MODERATOR: We're going to start with Nick, then Brady, then finish with the Coach.

NICK McGLYNN: Yeah, obviously, Illinois -- we were talking about that at the luncheon that we just went to. They lost two games off of half-court shots to win the game. If those shots didn't fall, they're the third seed. So it's just a testament to how evenly matched these teams are in the conference. No matter who we got tomorrow, we know it's going to be a dogfight. It's going to be a tough game. And we've got to come in focused, and we've got to be ready to execute on both ends of the floor.

BRADY ELLINGSON: Yeah, like Nick said, it's a testament to the depth of the Valley this year. Evansville and Illinois State, they both beat us this year, so whoever we play, they're going to play us really hard, and it will be a good game.

DARIAN DeVRIES: Yeah, I'd say it's what we've heard really all week leading up to this is that this league is so balanced and tough. Your margin for error is razor thin. Whether it's Illinois State or Evansville -- Illinois State beat us twice, Evansville beat us once. We need to play well. As coaches, you sit, and you talk about matchups and things. We didn't really want to sign up for anybody that first round because there's nobody that you feel like isn't going to come and have a shot at winning the whole thing.

So whoever it ends up being, we've just got to go be us and play hard and compete, and you hope at the end of those 40 minutes it's good enough and you can survive in advance. That's what we're all here to do.

THE MODERATOR: Drake will play at 6:05 Friday. Opponent to be determined. Thank you everyone.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297