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NCAA MEN'S FIRST FOUR: DAYTONMarch 18, 2019Fran DunphyShizz Alston, Jr.Ernest AflakpuiDayton, Ohio THE MODERATOR: Joined by two student-athletes from Temple Shizz Alston and Ernest Aflakpui. Questions? Q. With how little time between finding out about Belmont and the game, do you guys almost feel like you are back in college and you're cramming for an exam and don't have enough time to study? SHIZZ ALSTON JR.: I think it's good and bad because Belmont had just as much time to prepare for us as well. We did a lot of film study as soon as Selection Sunday was over. We had film about 8:00 at night, so that was good. ERNEST AFLAKPUI: I agree. We have film at 8:00 p.m. After we found out we had like 30-minute film. And then we practiced early today so it's the same thing. I think they also had the same amount of time when they found out. So I think it's who wants it more. It's fair game. Q. What do you know about them in this little bit of time, Shizz? SHIZZ ALSTON JR.: They have a very good offense. They like to shoot the 3-pointer very well. They get out in transition. They have a kid that was averaging about 21 and 10, who is going to be a big problem for us. We have to contain him and contain the shooters. Q. How about the fact they're averaging 87 points per game? What do you have to do to slow them down? ERNEST AFLAKPUI: Play defense. Stick to the game plan. Stay focused the whole game and just worry about us. We can't control, like, worry about them. We have to just execute our game plan. Q. How do you like Dayton so far? And talk about your experience, if you've been welcomed, and the energy. ERNEST AFLAKPUI: It's been great so far. They gave us a very warm welcome. It was great. Put the red carpet right in front of the buses. I thought that was neat. We got cookies while we entered, like, the hotel. It was pretty neat. So I like it so far. This is my first time here. I liked it. SHIZZ ALSTON JR.: Same. It was very welcoming here. Very friendly people. Very home feeling. Q. Ernest, you're coming off, arguably, your best game. How much can you kind of build off of that kind of effort on both ends of the court? ERNEST AFLAKPUI: Just keep playing hard. Just do my job to the best of my ability and just play free -- play hard, play free. THE MODERATOR: We're joined by the head coach of the Temple Owls, Fran Dunphy. COACH DUNPHY: Excited to be in the NCAA Tournament. Happy to be here in Dayton. Played here a couple of years back, 2013, actually. Two great games here -- actually spent a lot of time, obviously, in the Atlantic 10 we came to Dayton often to play games. Appreciate the facility, the crowd and the enthusiasm, the aura that is here at Dayton. So, again, thrilled to be here. Q. How does your familiarity with Dayton transfer over to your student-athletes? COACH DUNPHY: I don't know that it necessarily does. I can tell them the story of how we did in 2013 and it was a terrific couple of games for us. But I think they're going to figure it out on their own. We have some veteran leadership, and I'm sure they'll talk a lot about the atmosphere here. But I don't know that my experience is going to help our guys, other than just me saying how great a place this is, and it's a wonderful environment to play in the NCAA Tournament here. Q. As the season kind of reaches its climax, do you find yourself getting more nostalgic or treasuring moments more knowing this is kind of the last go-around? COACH DUNPHY: I don't really, to be honest with you. I think the nostalgia will hit me sometime in mid-April when I was going to go on a recruiting mission and I don't, things like that. But I think at this point you're so busy and so caught up in what is happening in the moment and you are really worried about each and every one of the guys you're coaching. So you don't have much time or desire to think about yourself in this situation. But thank you for asking. Q. What has the last 24 hours been like? Even though you're kind of used to preparing, do you feel there's almost not enough hours in the day to prepare for a team you haven't seen? COACH DUNPHY: Our staff has done a terrific job. I've watched a lot of film and tried to expose myself to as much Belmont info as I possibly can. But they're in the same boat. They're trying to do what we're doing. We're in a cram session. I was never a good student so I didn't do a lot of cramming back in the day. That's what we're doing now. You don't sleep too much and you're fired up, you're excited about the opportunity. But you're going to learn as much as you can over the next 24 hours. Q. What do you see from Belmont? COACH DUNPHY: I think you look at their statistics and they're sort of extraordinary, shooting 50 percent. That's really hard to do with the amount of 3s that they take. Windler is a guy that, obviously, a lot of people are talking about, and you watch him on film and you say that I'm looking for a weakness and you don't see it. And he does everything so well. And he's just part of the group that they have. And I've watched Rick Byrd a lot of years now, and I think his teams have always been so well-prepared that we're expecting that to happen obviously tomorrow. Terrific coach. Terrific program. And obviously very, very successful. So it's a great challenge for us and we knew that was going to happen if we were going to be lucky enough to be in the NCAA Tournament. We are. And we're going to get a great challenge tomorrow. Q. You spent a good amount of time coaching in a traditional one-bid league. Wondering your thoughts on Belmont getting after the season they had and just how hard that is to do as an at-large? COACH DUNPHY: I think their body of work -- and it's not only this year; they have a great reputation. So my guess is as you are on that committee, and you're saying this is really a good basketball program and they deserve this opportunity because of not only this year but the way they've handled every one of their seasons for so long with Rick as their coach. So it's a terrific program. They deserve everything they get. Q. Belmont averages 87.4 points per game, second in the nation. What do you do need to do tomorrow to slow them down defensively? COACH DUNPHY: Obviously we need to have the pace be at our liking, not that we're not a slow-down team. We're a middle-of-the road, probably, I guess we're a little above average in terms of possessions per game. But it's going to be a high-possession game, but we have to do a great job of communicating on the defensive end, limiting them getting foul shots, limiting them getting extra possessions, which has been our comeuppance, to be honest, with you. We need to do a better job keeping people off the glass so that they don't get extra possessions. And then we have to be really efficient on the offensive end ourselves. And we have to run good offense so we can be in good position, floor balance wise, so we're not giving up easy baskets in transition. Q. Wondering if you could compare Belmont versus Davidson? Some numbers are similar. COACH DUNPHY: Somebody asked me -- who would you compare Belmont's approach to the game to. And they said would it be a team like Davidson. And that seemed to be a real good example to me. And we played Davidson earlier in the year, and we got a win, but it was very hard fought. And I thought they shot the ball extremely well. I don't think our defense was as good as it needed to be. We somehow escaped and survived. It was a terrific win for us. So we're going to probably face much of the same tomorrow, just the way they run their offense, the speed and the quickness that they run it with. So we're expecting us to have as good a challenge as we can on that defensive end. And then they're going to -- when we get open shots we've got to be as efficient as they are. Q. The game of college basketball, as you're wrapping it up at this level, where is the game in terms of the -- there's a lot of controversial things that are surrounding it right now. COACH DUNPHY: I don't think we're perfect. I think we need to continue to get better each and every year and making good decisions. I think the profession of coaching is a good one. The business sometimes gets in the way. And I think we have to really pay attention to that. But I think we can do our jobs better. I think we can pay attention to the student-athlete even more than we do. But guide them in the right way, that we're going to get everything done with hard work and enthusiasm and energy and doing things -- I'm a big Spike Lee guy, let's do the right thing all the time. But we can do better. But I don't think it's broken. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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