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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DES MOINES

March 20, 2019

Des Moines, Iowa

THE MODERATOR: Welcome student-athletes from Nevada Wolf Pack, Caleb Martin, Cody Martin and Jazz Johnson. Questions for our student-athletes?

Q. For both the Martin twins, what's your first memory of Jalen, and how well do you know his game going into the contest?
CALEB MARTIN: We're really close with Jalen, our first memory is playing an AAU team loaded with him and I forget exactly we met, but I just know that our coach used to call him a primadonna all the time, because he has to get going. He is at his own pace. He's a relaxed, chill dude and it would take him a few minutes to get going in the first half, but once he did he was really smooth. He was dabbing lose balls and really gritty, so they didn't understand how Jalen worked at first. That's our guy. As soon as he saw the name pop up that we were playing us, he sent me emojis, me and Cody, and I've been talking to him throughout the year and that's my boy. I got a lot of love for him, but whenever we play we can't be friends.

CODY MARTIN: Same thing, remember him from AAU, feels like forever ago. He's a pro. He's got size. He's athletic. He can really play, can shoot the ball well. I don't know, I think it's going to be really, really fun and it's going to be really competitive and we haven't got to see him in a while. The last time we saw him was going through the process of the NBA workouts. It's been nice to keep in touch throughout the season and we got a little text and it's going to be good to see him and once we get on the court all that goes out the window. Somebody's gotta win.

Q. For Jazz and either Cody or Caleb, Jordan Caroline, how is he as a teammate, to hangout with, something about his personality?
JAZZ JOHNSON: I'm really close with Jordan. He's goofy, an incredible teammate. He's really all about the team trying to make sure everybody is good, morale is high. He's the jokester on the team, him and Trey. But he's overall a really fun guy to be around.

CALEB MARTIN: Really good dude to be around, really funny, see him on the court, get-after-it type of dude and really play-angry type of guy. But off court he's a good dude, man. He's one of the best teammates I could ask for and just really goofy, like Jazz said, brings a good vibe, a good energy. Really good dude to be around. Couldn't ask for anything better, honestly.

CODY MARTIN: When he's on the court, he looks mean and aggressive, but he's a lot more outgoing than people think. A lot of people don't get to see the other side of him, rather than being on the court, just what they see on TV. He's outgoing. He's funny. Love having him around. He's always a good time.

Q. Seniors, how have your past NCAA Tournament experiences, how will that help you this week and what's it like with your last chance going around this time?
CALEB MARTIN: Always being in a tournament like this, it's always good to experience this no matter how it goes from previous times being here. It just helps you with knowing that the main thing coming to this tournament is keeping your composure. You just don't know how the crowd will be or how the game will go or anything like that because everyone is playing their best at this time of year. You can expect guys that you might not expect to be playing well can come out and be a spark for other teams and same thing for your team. Guys who might have had a slow start to the year could be one of the biggest factors of advancing to the tournament.

It's one of those things you expect the unexpected, at least try your best to and keep a level head no matter how the game is going.

CODY MARTIN: I think the biggest thing learning from my past experience is don't make it bigger than it actually is and just realize that it's just another game and you've been playing basketball all season. I think sometimes when you build it up in your head and you try to play different you do things different and you approach it different, rather than the same thing you've been doing all season. Because at the end of the day we're all going out there with the same teammates. You're playing the same steps and the same way. I think it's having a consistent approach so you don't try to do too much.

I think a lot of our experience and how old are guys are is going to play a big part in how we do consistency-wise and having that experience on our side and understanding that consistency is the biggest thing for us and having that mindset and that approach will benefit us in the long run.

Q. For the twins, you are on a team with a lot of transfers. You transferred yourself, a lot of experience. What's it like being on a team with so much experience and so many players who came from other schools?
CALEB MARTIN: Like you said, experience in college basketball is everything. I learned that quickly my freshman year at NC State getting to play in the tournament, we got to go to the Sweet 16 that year, too. So I got to see how much experience played a role in advancing to this type of tournament and winning games in general. One thing I will say for our team even though we do have a lot of experience it's a lot of guys' first time in this tournament. So when it comes to this tournament we don't have that much experience and things are played a little bit differently and guys on other teams play a lot better. It's one of the things we're learning on the fly. It's a lot of guys' first times here, so it's one of those things we're going to have grow up and learn really quickly how things are going to go from the tip and you don't really have too much time to prepare.

So just trying to, you know, I think our staff does a great job of preparing us to the best of their ability and they do a really great job of letting us know the realm of things, what's going to go on, and I think we will be prepared really well for it.

CODY MARTIN: I think experience is going to be really, really good for us. We have a lot of older guys that's been in a lot of games, played in a lot of games.

I think, you know, playing obviously in a tournament like this is huge. But I think it ties back to just being consistent and having the same approach and just understand that it's basketball at the end of the day. Our team and our staff approaches every game like it's a championship. So us being in an environment like this, obviously there is a lot more eyes and people watching. But at the end of the day we're playing basketball. It's a lot different from having a freshman who has been in there and throwing them in a fire like this than older guys who have played basketball for a long time and have a lot of games under their belt and throwing them into an environment like this it's nothing new. It's basketball at the end of the day, and we just, you know, play like we've been playing all season and just try to figure out a way to get it done.

Q. Jazz, how is it for you coming into a new program and have you been able to fill the expectations that you had for yourself?
JAZZ JOHNSON: It's been a really fun experience, honestly. I had a lot of questions coming in, obviously and you know a lot of doubts but, you know, through working hard and staying in the gym and talking to my teammates, talking to Cody, Caleb, Jordan, guys who have obviously been through it. It's really just an eye opener. Especially, you know, being in a tournament like this, I ask a lot of questions not as of recent, but during my sit-out year and throughout the season I would ask Cody and Caleb and JC a lot of questions about the tournament, what it's like and like they were saying, we do have a lot of older guys. I think the biggest thing is just for, you know, for the guys like me who it's our first time it's important for us to learn as much as we can and try to get that experience through talking to them, instead of, you know, because we didn't have the be opportunity to be in the tournament ourselves. So a lot of it comes from being curious and asking those hard questions in order to figure out what it's really like.

Q. Cody, obviously this team doesn't have one big-time scorer, but six guys that score 8 points per game. You're the defensive anchor for this team. Who is the guy that you have to stop when you look at the head of the snake to defend them? 1CODY MARTIN: Like you said, there is not one person you can key on because at the all score the ball really well and they share the ball. They do a great job of actually everyone getting a touch, everyone being able to have that green light. So that's what kinda makes them dangerous, so there is not one person we can key on. It's going to be a team effort on our part. It's not going to be one person that we can single out and try to double team or whatever the case is. We're going to have to play and a lot of them are really great scorers and they can go one-on-one ball a lot of times.
So it's going to be our job as a group and a whole to be able to help each other out at the same time. Just realistically just have the same principles we have had all season when it comes to playing defense and they do a great job of rebounding. They're a really great team, so we're going to have to be prepared when it comes to their offensive game and we're going to have to have to play all thirty seconds and make sure we end it with a rebound.

Q. Jazz, a very good defense team in Florida, top 15 in the nation. What do they do so well on that side of the ball that has given SEC opponents troubles?
JAZZ JOHNSON: You have to credit Hayes, one of the top shot blockers in history, and he's down there and they do a great job of packing the paint and to hold teams to 63 points a game. For them to be in the SEC that's a major accomplishment. It's just really important that, you know, we key in on what we can do and we figure out what we can do to score because that's what makes them who they are. They play defense and they make sure they crash the boards and rebound and they defend at a high level.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. We're pleased to welcome head coach Eric Musselman of the Nevada Wolf Pack. Coach, welcome to Des Moines.

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Thank you, appreciated it. Well, we're excited to play a 40-minute game tomorrow against a really well-coached Florida team that has a lot of weapons and I think our guys are in a good physical spot right now and we look forward to the challenge.

Q. You're undefeated in the nonconference, beat some good teams then you go to New Mexico and get thumped. How did you turn that around and what was the mindset there?
ERIC MUSSELMAN: Well, we did get thumped, and it happens in college basketball. It happens in the NBA. It happens in the NFL. It happens in college football. That's the one game that we felt like, you know, we weren't in the game so to speak. Our other losses we felt like a couple missed shots, block out here, we could have won. But that was the one game we played really bad.

I think for our guys they did a phenomenal job. There was a lot of preseason hype and our guys it did an incredible job in nonconference. We got to conference play, played in a lot of sold-out buildings. It's been a learning experience all year for all of us because court stormings has been the thing the last year and a half when we have lost. It happened last year at Wyoming and you know some of our guys, the coaching staff, it's been new to have that. But I think our guys to be 29-4. Look everybody in college basketball has a goal. How do you get to the NCAA Tournament? Doesn't matter if you're coaching in the Big Ten or playing in the ACC it's how do you get to this tournament. We're here and we're looking forward to playing a really, really good basketball team tomorrow.

Q. Jordan Caroline was telling us he feels like a 10 out of 10, very fresh. How crucial were those six days off for the injury he was dealing with?
ERIC MUSSELMAN: I think Jordan is in a great spot from a physical standpoint. He was held out, like I said, off the Mountain West for precautionary reasons because of the fact that he did feel like he had a lingering injury. So we felt that was the best decision at the time because we certainly would not have wanted to come into this situation minus a player of his caliber.

Not always easy decisions, but I think as a coach, as a program, you've got to make the best decision for a student-athlete and then you always think long-term and short-term goals and you gotta think about what's in the best interest of everybody, so that was in the best interest.

Q. Continuing on Jordan, what has he meant to your program through his career and the players were talking about how he's kind of goofy, maybe keeps people loose. How important has that been?
ERIC MUSSELMAN: Jordan is one of the first players I recruited the first year at Nevada. He sat out and it was a player development year. Some of the things we talked about on his recruiting visit were, how do we improve his perimeter skills? How do we improve him as a three-point shooter? He came to us as an undersized five man at his prior university and this year he's been a small forward for us. There's not many players in the country. Last year, 24 hours from now he was guarding Mo Bamba and fronting him at his size and battling for rebounds, and now he's a small forward for us. So he's made a dramatic shift in his game from a versatility standpoint as is Cody Martin. A year ago, Cody Martin was our starting power forward and now he's our are starting point guard. I'm really proud of the development that a lot of our guys have had in a very short time frame.

Q. Your team has had a lot of transfers. Why have you made that a cornerstone in Nevada?
ERIC MUSSELMAN: I think, number one, it's the nature of our society. My son played on about fifteen different AAU teams. Guys are unhappy with their roles. They go to a new AAU team. Guys are playing at three, four different high schools now. When many of us in this room were growing up, nobody transferred from any college, not a student, and not student-athletes. Right now there's already 320-some guys in the portal as of this morning and we're still playing basketball. I don't think it's just Nevada. I think you look at some great, historical programs that now have grad transfers or transfers. But we had to find a niche. We wanted to be as good as we could as quick as could but yet have sustainability. So we took kind of an NBA format. We looked at high school guys kind of as draft pick and transfers as like an NBA free agent as we tried to put the pieces together. Sometimes it gets lost, the freshmen that we brought in because Lindsey Drew and Cameron Oliver were part of our first class and they were freshmen and we rolled with them and played them a ton of minutes but certainly our roster is full of transfers.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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