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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: SALT LAKE CITYMarch 20, 2019Bruce PearlJared HarperBryce BrownSalt Lake City, Utah THE MODERATOR: Questions for Auburn student-athletes, please. Q. Guys, first off, what do you think of New Mexico State, the depth, what you have seen in your scouting, in your preparation? Bryce? BRYCE BROWN: They're a talented team, a very deep team like you said, they have pretty good guards, good bigs, and they have depth in all of those areas. So I think guarding their guards, keeping their guards in front of us, you know, helping our bigs out a little bit because it won't be a one-man team for them. Just helping out as much as we can because we're going to see these quick guards, fast guards, they are kind of undersized in their big, so their bigs aren't slow, undersized big as well. Q. Jared? JARED HARPER: They shoot the three-ball well, they are a similar team to us. They like to run, they like to press and force turnovers. So see how similar they are to us and know the things we have to do. Q. I'd ask both of you, how did you end up in Auburn, what were your other choices, what was the thing that put you over the top to go to Auburn? JARED HARPER: I thought Auburn was a good situation for me. It was closer to home. To play as a freshman, that was another big thing in this and I wanted to be part of making history. It's a perfect situation for me and Bryce and for my teammates to come in and make history. BRYCE BROWN: My situation is similar to Jared. It was very close to home. With Coach Pearl, we have, I felt very confident playing this system and just seeing myself fitting very well in the system as well as it was very close to home and I know he likes to play fast and shoot a lot of three balls. And that was just part of the things I looked at that was part of my interest. Q. A lot of media people making picks have said New Mexico State might be an upset with a 12-5, it is a regular thing. Do you pay attention to that? What are your thoughts on that? Bryce? BRYCE BROWN: We don't try to pay too much attention to it. It is one of the biggest parts of the year, March Madness. I don't know how long, like, before high school, middle school, high school, so it isn't new to me. I have been the type of person that wanted beat the odds and I have been able to do that. So it is nothing new to us, we are used to be being the underdogs and like I said, nothing new. Q. Jared? JARED HARPER: We don't pay too much attention to it. It is another motivation this year. We are playing our best basketball this time of the year, so we are not thinking too much of what other people are saying. It is what goes on in our locker room, that is our main focus and doing what we need to do to fulfil our goals. Q. Bryce, you talked about New Mexico State, preparing for their depth, how many guys they have. What challenge is that for you guys in preparing for a line-up where there are so many different looks, different type of players that you have to prepare for? BRYCE BROWN: We probably haven't seen that all year, and when you get around this time of the season, coaches, strength in rotations and we don't do that, so that makes them similar to us. They don't shrink their rotation so they have 13 or 14 guys that play, all of them are capable of going off at any moment in the game. That's why we have to pay close attention to our scouting report because they shoot the ball well and, like I said, not a single person we have to focus in on. They have a pretty good point guard that directs most of the traffic. He makes most of the play calls and makes most of the plays. Other guys are able to make plays well and knock down shots, you know. They do a good job spreading the floor and things like that, similar to us, you know. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Pearl, please. Q. Hey, Coach. Just kick it off with what you spent a couple of years out of basketball, we all know about that. How tough was that for you and did you have doubt that you would ever not only just get back to coaching, but get back to here? BRUCE PEARL: Yeah, I started coaching in 1982. And what year is it now? 2019. And like I was only out of coaching for three years. So I basically have been coaching my whole life. And so you're going to ask me a question about the three years I wasn't coaching? I'm 58 years old, two days ago. I want to talk about coaching. I love Auburn, I love the SEC. I'm so proud of the SEC, 15 teams have made the NCAA tournament last two years out of the SEC. That's a lot of progress, you know, for our league. I did it six times at Tennessee. And now we've been able to do it a couple of times here at Auburn. So obviously it's what I've always done my whole life. And so, it's great to have the opportunity to make a difference in young people's lives because it's a ministry. And to be able to teach and to coach -- if you played, you remember the way you looked at your coach. And the impact that your coaches had on your life, not just on the field and on the court but off as well. It's great to be in this place. It's where God wants me. It's where I feel very blessed to be. Q. Bruce, what's different about the game plan for a team that can go 13 deep? BRUCE PEARL: 13 deep. You have to know all the personnel. Harris and Brown will be key match-ups. When you get guys that didn't play against Kansas and later leads them in scoring. You have to know them all. Just been very impressed with this New Mexico State team. They have only lost four games this year. Coach Jans is 57-10, his losses this year: St. Mary's, they're in tournament; Kansas, he about had them beat; lost to Drake who won the Missouri Valley contest. He and I, like, are second cousins in that I spent some time as assistant at Iowa. My former assistant, who is now the head coach at East Tennessee State, they were on the staff together. Chris Jans and Steve Thorpe, you are talking about great coaches. Chris Jans worked for Porter Moser. They were good. They run great stuff. His kids play hard. They'll be a tough out. Q. I'm curious about the dynamic of having an assistant coach who used to be a head coach on your staff. What is good about that? Maybe what's annoying about that? Have you ever thought, I'm going to kick this guy to the curb and get a 25-year-old in here who will agree with everything I say? BRUCE PEARL: That's a great question. This is not overused: Surround yourself with people better than you. You can do that now. A lot of head coaches out there -- I'm one of them -- that's lived that, I'm telling you. So, you talk about Wes Flanigan, a former head coach, who was an assistant at one time to Chris Beard. Listen, I've got a guy named Chad Prewett, a high school coach in Auburn, he's the director of basketball operations, I'd stand him up against anybody. I've got an assistant director of basketball operations, Mike Burgomaster, that was a manager for Jim Larranaga at Miami, pretty good coach. My son is my assistant coach, nobody better to go to to find out what to do and not to do to piss me off. Having all different -- and listening to every voice, respect all the voices out there. And the one thing you don't want to do is you don't want to be so strong that they are intimidated to tell you what they think. I want to know what they think. I want them to challenge my thinking. Once we leave a meeting and a decision is made, I make my decision work. I'm going to make the decision to the best of my ability. It may not be the right one. Let's go make it work. Q. Bruce, the three years that you spent not coaching this entire long career, how are you a different coach now than you were before? BRUCE PEARL: That's a good question. I think a little older, a little wiser, maybe a bit more patient. Maybe a little bit more grateful. Humble. But I'll tell you something, when I was out of coaching for a few years, I had a lot of bills to pay, still. So, my daughter Leah told me something that I will never forget. I worked for a company for three years in addition to my time with XM Radio and ESPN, the HT Hackney Company, we put stuff in convenience stores, that was my new family. And Leah told me that she had never been prouder of her father because I treated that job like it was my last. My job as a coach may be more visible, but I had to take care of my family. I jumped into that job as a vice president and I worked 7 days a week, I grinded, just like I had to do in coaching. You have to do what you got to do to take care of your family. If I gained my little girl's respect because I was no longer coaching but I was putting candy in a convenience store, that'll be okay. Q. How have you adjusted to the altitude and will it change the way you coach the game tomorrow? BRUCE PEARL: We got the dizziness out of the kids, let them feel -- it's a first for them. It won't be a second or third, but the first time you get winded, wow, this is different. After that, you are adjusted to it. There are some things you can snack on, some drinks you can have that can help alleviate that. There will be oxygen on the bench, most likely for me not the players. I'll have oxygen there. Allen Greene wanted to make sure I had oxygen on the bench. He's seen me get elevated a time or two. Q. Anything you got out of the convenience store wholesaling job that you are able to bring into coaching or coaching into the other job? BRUCE PEARL: I'll make this transition for you. When I was working for ESPN, I'd get done with the game, or with the studio show and I -- two things, I had no idea whether I had a good day or bad day. You know what I'm saying? Okay. The second thing is I didn't necessarily think I made anybody any better. And I was for the first time in my life getting paid for what I could do. What I realized is that I can't do anything. My abilities is to help other people, empower other people for them to do great things. So as a coach, it's my job to help my student-athletes do great things; graduate, you know, serve the community, play good basketball or staff. So what I did, I missed the coaching because I missed that, so what did they do? I took my thousand employees that I had working in the industry I was in, I tried to make them better, I tried to help make them better and we were better as a company, I hope. Q. Bruce, the narrative around this, one of the narratives around this team is all you do is shoot threes, too many threes, but it works. When you hear that, what do you think? BRUCE PEARL: It's like when you listen to color guys and they say press a pressing team. I hear that, you don't know what you are talking about. Please press me, I love to be pressed. We press. You win by the three and you die by the three. That's a good one. That makes a lot of sense. How about this one: Scratch where it itches. Do what you do. If I have five guys that can't shoot a three ball, you think I'm going to have them shoot a three ball? Not very long. We will put four or five guys on the floor that can shoot it. It is most important I give them the confidence to shoot it. When they take a bad shot, I blame the other four guys for not getting offensive rebounds and bailing them out. As long as the thing is going to be worth more than the two, it's an open shot, most three balls you don't get much contact. Every other shot in the court, you are getting hit. If you can't make an open shot, it is hard to play the game. So yeah, occasionally we shoot it early or take a bad shot or -- next play. Get to the next play. The best play in basketball, the best play in basketball is the three-point shot, the inside three-point shot. The second-best play in basketball is outside that three-point line. Q. Can you just describe what seemed to come together after the Kentucky game? BRUCE PEARL: We went into the Kentucky game feeling pretty good about our team, we had won some games. We felt like we may have been one of the few teams that could go there and compete with them. That is how we felt going in. We hit them hard, Kentucky played great and you could see a difference lining up against them. Our guys saw a difference. And so what do you do about it? It is what it is. I think a couple of things. One: We had to make some offense out of our defense. If you sat there and let Kentucky do what they wanted to do, not very good. Second thing: The guys understood that at this point with four games to go, we have to win or we won't be in this tournament, we have to win or this season will be a disappointment. Everybody got locked in, everybody got bought in, they started trusting each other, relying on each other more, then as a result we pulled off eight straight. Q. Bruce, one more career question. Do you have any memories of being involved in Utah State's coaching search 20 years ago? BRUCE PEARL: I do. I do. I was actually on vacation down in Florida and, man, I was excited about that possibility. I think I was a Division II coach at the time at Southern Indiana. I did not get very far in the process because they hired a guy named Stew Morrill and it was one of the best hires in college basketball. Steve went there and did a better job, he is way better than I will be. I do remember being excited about that possibility. Q. Back to New Mexico State, how do you prepare for a team that like somebody mentioned, at any time one of 13 guys can go off on you and have a big night and impact a game? BRUCE PEARL: They don't have any weaknesses. They can score inside and out. They can rebound the ball. They can defend. If you get past one guy, which is difficult because they move their feet well, they take charges. They're good. So, yeah, personnel is important. And they've got some tendencies and we are on those tendencies, but we have been the New Mexico State of the SEC. We play with ten guys and we fly around and we turn you over and we shoot a lot of threes. We are not as good a rebounding team as they are. But maybe it has to do we are in the SEC. But we haven't played against a team like New Mexico State unless we have won against ourselves. So I would say it's a tough match-up for us because there's nobody in the league that plays like them. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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