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NCAA MEN'S FIRST FOUR: DAYTONMarch 19, 2019LeVelle MotonRaasean DavisZacarry DouglasDayton, Ohio THE MODERATOR: Joined by student-athletes from NC central, Zacarry Douglas and Raasean Davis. We'll open the floor to questions. Q. What's different this year because you guys were here last year and had the experience? What feels different this time around? RAASEAN DAVIS: Last year was my first year coming, but honestly I don't feel like anything is different this year. Our goal each year is to try to make history, and that's the same goal this year. So it feels the same. We're happy to be back for the third time in a row. We just want to get this win tomorrow and hopefully try to advance and keep playing. ZACARRY DOUGLAS: For me, it's just a blessing, you know. Not many teams can say they've been here three years in a row. To be here with the same group of guys, you know, my brother right here, my brothers in the locker room. So it's just a blessing. Happy to be here. Q. Zacarry, NDSU scores a lot of 3s. How do you go about defending the 3 and putting a stop to that? ZACARRY DOUGLAS: Coach puts in a good game plan for us. As long as we go in and execute it, we'll be okay. Q. Is that particularly hard, a 3 and the confidence that these guys shoot the 3 with? I'm sure you've watched film now. These guys, they're taking a couple of steps back from the arc as well? ZACARRY DOUGLAS: Like I said, we follow the game plan. I understand they shoot them, but if we follow the game plan, we'll be okay. Q. Raasean, are you a superstitious guy? Will you do anything differently at the hotel or pregame just because of the way last year went? RAASEAN DAVIS: No, sir, I move by faith. I don't really believe in superstition. It's all about the higher power, to whoever, like, whoever serves who, but I just believe in God. I move by faith. I don't really get into the superstitious stuff and do all that. I just try to prepare the right way, go hard in practice and just try to be available for my teammates and do everything that my coaches ask me to do. Q. How do you guys describe the feeling for you guys of trying to get past this point? Is it frustration? Is it just a desire? How do you describe it? What's it feel like in your guys' locker room right now as you prepare for another game here in Dayton? RAASEAN DAVIS: Honestly, I would say this year, that's one thing that changed. Our locker room felt a lot different this year. I won't say last year we had some guys who didn't believe, but I really feel like this year we have some guys that really know and understand, like, the opportunity that we have in front of us. And I feel like we've got a locker room full of hungry people that's ready to go conquer and overcome everything that we've had before. Nobody sees, like, when we're running and up early, flipping tires and doing everything that we do. So I think everybody in that locker room understands, like, we haven't gotten to this point in three years in a row for nothing. I think everybody's in the locker room ready to turn that corner and make the next step. ZACARRY DOUGLAS: Like he said, we prepare for this every year, all year. And I think everyone is really, really hungry. You can see it on their faces, like, the way everyone prepares, the way we locked in for film, for practices and everything like that. I think everybody is really ready to turn that corner, like you said. Q. Raasean, last year you got off to hot start, you had a big first half against Texas Southern. After the game, Coach Moton said he thought you got tired after the game. It wasn't that you got tired, just that shots weren't falling. Did you take it as a challenge, like, the if I get back to this spot next year, I'm going to go full throttle and not let up at all? RAASEAN DAVIS: Of course I took it personal. I just think coming into this year, something for me to work on was, like, my body and to improve my conditioning. So when they said that, that would just add fuel to the fire because I was already thinking that next year. Previously, before that comment was even made I was already thinking that I needed to be in better shape and I needed to tone my body up a little more so that's what I tried to spend the summer doing. So we'll see how this time turns out. Q. Coach Moton is pretty much the face of the program. He gets a lot of attention. Nationally a lot of people know him. His tweets and videos go viral, and his comments are picked up by outlets all over the country. What's it like playing for him, when the cameras aren't on him? What's he like around you guys when it's just you guys in the gym? ZACARRY DOUGLAS: Coach Moton is a good guy. Love him. He goes hard for us every day. So everything that you see, he kind of takes the blame for it, everything that we go through or he takes the shine for it. So he's there for us, the good and the bad. Good guy. So I can't really say too much about him. I'm just happy that I'm able to play for him. RAASEAN DAVIS: As he said, he's a good guy. I really feel like deep down in my heart he has, like, our whole team's best interests at heart. He wants the best for us in every way. So, me being a player and him being my coach, I have to respect that because, like, I can't say it's the same way for every coach. I'm going to preach it to that manner that he loves us and he wants us to really succeed in life. And not even like just on the basketball floor. When basketball is done, he really wants us to prevail and just be something good in life. So I appreciate that. Q. Every year, especially the last three years his name has always brought up about openings in different positions and going to a bigger school sometimes. Has he ever addressed that with you guys in March or in the offseason or talked about that? RAASEAN DAVIS: No, he never does. And truth be told I try to stay out of the media. I don't really -- I don't have an Instagram, so, I mean, I don't really do the media like that. But whatever I hear, I just kind of shake it off. I feel like when he's ready for us to find out, when he wants to let us know that he'll do that. Until then, I don't spectate and do all that stuff. ZACARRY DOUGLAS: Like he said, don't really get into it too much of the social media thing. Like everyone has their own story about everything. So you just keep everything in-house. And when everything is ready to be talked about, it will be talked about. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Coach, an opening statement. COACH MOTON: Well, we're obviously happy to be back here. Wonderful city. Wonderful atmosphere. We're here to try to get a tournament victory. Questions? Q. Playing in Dayton, you guys will be the only tournament game going on at that time slot tomorrow. Do you see this as an opportunity to kind of elevate your university a little bit, get it into the national spotlight? COACH MOTON: Yes, I do, it's a wonderful opportunity, not only for our program but just our university. We have an incredible university. And oftentimes basketball is considered the front porch to allow others to come in and see the different programs and the type of education and the law degrees that we have to offer as well. So, we're doing it for the totality of the university, and we look forward to being on prime time television so people can understand and educate themselves more about North Carolina Central University. Q. You have had time to watch film on them. They shoot the 3 a lot. Do they remind you of anyone, maybe in the MEAC or someone you played nonconference, when you watch film on the way they play? COACH MOTON: They have different pieces that remind me of different individuals that we've played against. Collectively, they're almost like an anomaly. They have a stretch 5. Most people have a stretch 4. They have a stretch 5 that can really shoot the basketball. And a lot of times they put their 5 and their point guard in some ball screen situations and just let the other three freelance or have some kind of motion movement back there. We've never played against that. And that's what makes it an anomaly that they have a stretch five and an incredible point guard who's capable of taking the game over at the drop of a dime. So we watched it last night, a little bit the night before. And when we leave here today we'll try to go implement a game plan to put our kids in the best situation possible to be able to guard them. Q. After last year's game, Raasean had a big first half, he had, like, three in the second half. At the podium you said you felt like he got tired or worn down a little bit. He said he took that personally to change his body and play better this year. Did you see that right away, his commitment to change his body and his game getting back to this stage? COACH MOTON: When I said it, I don't think it was a knock to him not being in shape last year. I think what people have to understand -- and again we don't make excuses -- Friday night we left our semifinal game. We left the arena at 1:00 in the morning. We get back to the hotel. We have to find the kids something to eat. We eat at 1:45, watch personnel at 2.00 a.m. in the morning, then gotta wake up at 8:00 and eat breakfast because we've got a 1:00 p.m. championship game. Well, you win that game and you really are playing on fumes because it's not even a 24-hour turnaround. The adrenaline is here. You don't sleep that night. Sunday you've got to go back, get ready for the Selection Show. So you don't sleep there. Now we head out and we fly out. So your body gets caught up into that over a week's time. And I thought he wore out within that week. I thought that week wore him out because I'm worn and I haven't ran up and down the court yet. I can only imagine how they felt. So we just tried to manage their bodies and manage the situation a little better so they could get off their feet a little bit. So I hope he can play 40 minutes because that's what I plan on playing him. And I think he'll definitely be ready for it. Q. Coach, what have you and your staff maybe learned and think will benefit you guys this time around about a quick scout and a fresh opponent? COACH MOTON: I just told my wife, I said that the great thing is that we're here; we're in this tournament. It's something we asked to be in. The bad thing is there's no bad teams. You have to play your A game. Your C game is not going to get -- you don't get away with that. If you're a No. 1 seed you can probably play a game and advance. But for us we have to be clicking on all cylinders. It's really difficult to have a one-day scout because you've got to gather all the information and you've got to make sure that the video you're watching wasn't the best game of a certain individual. You've got to honestly know who they are. And then you've got to play it by the numbers. So I think at this time too much tape may not be good for you. I think it's got to be a healthy balance. And we've been around the game long enough to know the tendencies of certain individuals. And I'm sure they'll do some things differently. We will too. But I know they're a really good basketball team that shoot the basketball extremely well. And we've got to get out and defend the 3-point line. Q. Jumping off of that, they have shot a lot of 3s; they're incredibly confident in that. I tried to get your guys to talk a little bit about how you defend the 3 because it is so difficult. They kept diverting to you. What do you say to your team about defending the 3 in such a confident group as the Bison are there? COACH MOTON: The first thing you have to do is get back. A lot of teams that want to -- it's two 3-point shots in the game that will absolutely kill you. It's the transition 3 that where you don't find the guy. And then there's the offensive rebound that they get, where you're kind of scrambling and they kick it out to another guy. So to simplify things and put it in layman's terms, we have to play five-on-five basketball at all times if that make sense. It can't be four-on-three or four-on-three, three-on-two or two-on-one. We've got to be five-on-five. We have to be back in front of them. And if they're going to shoot, or make them shoot that basketball over a contested, and I think our chances will be great at defending the 3-point line. Q. The second game tomorrow night features a point guard coach who also played in Durham, Bobby Hurley. I know he was a little bit ahead of you but during your college days did you guys ever cross paths or meet up on practice courts, scrimmages? COACH MOTON: All the time. We played pickup all the time together. We always went over there. They always came to us. I think I was -- I want to say I was a freshman when Bob was there. And he was hanging around. Me and Grant Hill was really close so I was always with Grant a lot. It was just known pickup games throughout the summer. I have tons of respect for Bob because he's always been feisty. He's always had a chip on his shoulder. And just like his brother, Dan, and his father, if you ever met the family, if you know the family you know how it goes. And he's done a tremendous job at Arizona State. Q. Seems like pretty much every year the MEAC winner or SWAC winner, sometimes both end up playing in Dayton. Wonder what you make of the winners of the HBCU conferences coming here for the play-in rounds more often than not? COACH MOTON: I think I would like for the committee -- I know they resumed and made a couple of addendums and changes and modified how they view certain teams in terms of the selection -- I would like for them to review that as well because a lot of times to fund some of our programs we have to take on guaranteed games. So a lot of times our record is no indication of actually how good we are. We're just being placed in some challenging situations. In terms of us, I can only speak for us now, it's so difficult for us to schedule. Like this is a gift and a curse. When we leave this tournament and we call schools and say, can we play a home-and-home next year the answer is no. The answer is no. Thank you but no thank you. So now we've got to go out and play more guaranteed games just because we can't get anyone to play us and schedule us. So there's a possibility you're playing eight and nine games that on paper you have no chance of winning and that's difficult. So now you've got to fight and claw your way back and now they look at the record at the end of the year, 18-15 or whatever it's going to be, and they send you here. And there's been times when we won 22 games and they sent us here. I have no problem with that. I just want it to be parity across the board because we've got a great product that the world needs to see as well as others. I saw this year, I noticed during the Selection Show that they always have these teams -- they started maybe the last two, three weeks of the regular season, saying, the last four in, the last four in, this guy's out, this team may be in whatever. Those last four teams that got in, let them come here because they get an opportunity to buy games and they get an opportunity to have a little more utopia, a little more privilege in what they're doing. And maybe that should be for them and allow us to go experience the Big Dance on another scale. But I got mixed emotions. I'm here. I'm not really complaining. But I just want them to educate themselves and do a little more research and I think it would be a little fairer. Q. Regardless of how things go tomorrow and especially if they go well for you guys and you guys win, you pretty much know the drill. The last few offseasons, especially when you guys get into the tournament, your name is always tossed around for openings and jobs. How do you block that out this time of year, how do you address it at all with the team or with anybody on campus? COACH MOTON: I'm kind of used to it in terms of social media is just a different beast. It can be great or it can be bad, depending on how you utilize it. What I've found is a lot of times when your name is floating around on social media for a job, that school or you are not interested in that job. The jobs that I've really been offered, no one on Twitter ever knew about. So I know there's always the private, in-the-back conversations, and I've informed my athletic director -- our school, they understand; they understand now with winning comes this. It's not only in our sport. It's in Major League Baseball. You see it in contracts in football. It's just what it is. It's a billion-dollar industry. And it's a business at the end of the day and everyone wants to put themselves and their families in the best situation possible. But I think the way to control it is just be truthful. I've always been truthful with my administration and told them, look, this school is calling, that school is calling. And I let them and my agent have some back room conversations. And when you're truthful that's what builds the trust and understanding. They understand people are going to call. But they don't want you to interview behind their back or any Fugazi-type activities. I've always been truthful and told my team that it comes with the territory. Q. You may not get this question but of course the media train, we're always getting asked what's he waiting for, how come no one has scooped him up or a bigger school. If someone asked you that directly, how would you answer those questions? COACH MOTON: I'm extremely blessed. I love North Carolina Central University. And you know my background. You know where I'm from. So I get paid to coach basketball. I never in a million years thought I would do that. There's been other job opportunities that I have turned down. And the reason I've turned those jobs down, it had nothing to do with the school. As a grown man with a family now, my decision is really not about me. I'm going to be in a basketball gym or on the road recruiting wherever I go. If I go to Tokyo, Japan, I'm going to be in a gym recruiting or watching. It's not about me. It's about my family's quality of life. I have younger kids. So at the end of the year we go back and assess the situation. And anything to put my kids and my wife in the best situation possible, that's what I've always done. But I'm always grateful that I do have a job because it didn't have to end up this way as well neither. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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