	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

NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: COLUMBIA

March 21, 2019

Columbia, South Carolina

THE MODERATOR: We have the student-athletes from Ole Miss. We'll introduce the players -- Terence Davis, Devontae Shuler, and Breein Tyree.

Q. Devontae, when you saw the draw and you saw Columbia pop up next to your team's name, just what was your first thought?
DEVONTAE SHULER: It was just an opportunity for me to come back home and play in front of my family and friends and also for me to have a better chance to play better in my home state.

Q. Devontae, what's it been like to talk to your sister earlier this week, ticket requests and everything. How many people do you expect to have here, and just, last time you guys were here last month, didn't go so well. What needs to happen to have a better performance?
DEVONTAE SHULER: I have plenty of family and friends coming, of course. This is like right in the middle of where I'm from. For the most part, for me just to come back and stay focused and just for me to come back and get the win, that's the main part of me coming back home and playing in this. That's really it.

Q. I'll continue the line of questions for Devontae. I believe you were teammates in high school with Braxton Key from Virginia. What do you remember about him, and have you guys maintained a friendship?
DEVONTAE SHULER: Definitely. I won a National Championship with him, so we always stay in contact. Braxton is not just a friend of mine on the court. Off the court, he's a great person. We always say in contact. He's always in contact with my sister, so it's a long relationship.

Q. Breein and Terence and Devontae, if you'd like, you can chip in on this, too. Experience is always considered a big thing in the NCAA Tournament. Are you guys concerned that you don't have any? Breein, why don't you start?
BREEIN TYREE: I do feel like experience is a big thing in anything you do. We're experienced guards, and we played a lot of college basketball, but this is our first time in the tournament. This will be a new experience for us, but on the other side of it, we'll be just as excited as any other person would be for this major opportunity.

DEVONTAE SHULER: Definitely for me, too. We definitely got to have a great experience. Of course, I've never been here, but us going against a D-I college basketball team, we're going to treat it as if it's an SEC regular season game.

TERENCE DAVIS: And just to go along with them, we three guys who have been playing with each other for quite some time. We have no experience in the NCAA Tournament, but we do have experience together with this team. So we'll be okay along the road.

Q. T.D., this is what you came back for to play in this. Now that you're here, what's the feeling for you?
TERENCE DAVIS: It's unbelievable. To get to share this moment with some of the guys you've been around forever, and just to be here, man, is just special. But we're not satisfied.

Q. Terence, the last couple of games, you've had a hard time scoring, getting buckets. Have you kind of flushed that, or do you feel like you need to see a couple go in to get some confidence going tomorrow?
TERENCE DAVIS: Once it's the game, that's flushed. The great thing about it, we have another opportunity to play tomorrow, and that's the good thing about it.

Q. Breein, from your scout of Oklahoma so far, what stands out about what they do well and what kind of challenges might there be in this game?
BREEIN TYREE: They shoot the ball really well. They also exploit mismatches very well. All their players from one to five can bring down the ball and dribble the ball. They do a lot of isolation. We just need to guard the ball, stay in front of our men, stay second in the air, be physical with them and rebound the ball, and I think we should be fine.

Q. Breein, a big reason why you all were able to do the turnaround was because Devontae got moved to point guard and you got to be moved off the ball. What kind of growth have you seen in Devontae, what he's been able to do at that position specifically?
BREEIN TYREE: Tremendous growth. Even from his freshman year, when I was playing point and he was playing the two guard, he grew tremendously in that year. But just from freshman year into his sophomore year, just leadership qualities has grown tremendously, to handling the ball, making better decisions, getting the team in the right sets. I don't want to say taking a backseat to me and T.D., but not taking as many shots and maybe not even getting the spotlight at all times, but he just keeps it going, and he's a major part of our team. Without him, this train doesn't go. His growth has been tremendous, and he's still not done yet. We've got a long way to go as a team.

Q. Breein, along those lines, what specifically has that freed you up to do on the wing as opposed to you having to play point last year?
BREEIN TYREE: It's freed me up to just be a lot more aggressive offensively. That's what Coach wants me to do, assert myself on the offensive end and take better shots than I did last year, and Devontae's helped me do that a lot this year. Just getting me open because he's such an aggressive guard. A lot of help will come and kick outs to me and T.D. on the wings, and then it's time for us to make a play and try and get the ball in the basket.

Q. Devontae, as a younger -- as a young person, how many times did you come to this gym as a fan, and did you play here?
DEVONTAE SHULER: I didn't really come to many games, but my sister was a big fan of the basketball team and my brother. So they'd always tell me, like, come into USC and get a good feel for how Coach Frank Martin is, just me being around and the environment of me getting a feel for a college basketball stadium has been great.

Q. T.D., Devontae is a guy that you took under your wing really, really early in his career. It was important in getting him here actually. What have you seen from him, and how far he's come as a player and just all around in terms of his game?
TERENCE DAVIS: Like Breein touched on, Devontae, just a tremendous player. To be a freshman and play key roles last year and then to play a whole 'nother role, point guard, never played the position ever, it just tells you how good of a player you are. Just to play a whole different position and be good at it, get his team to March Madness just tells you everything.

THE MODERATOR: Any more questions for the student-athletes? Thank you, gentlemen.

We'll go ahead and get started with Ole Miss head coach Kermit Davis and SID Adam Kuffner.

KERMIT DAVIS: First of all, probably been one of the most rewarding years of my 37 years of coaching to come to Ole Miss, which is back home for me and my state and to be involved and connect with the Ole Miss spirit. You take a team that finished last, picked last, and for the improvement that they've made, I have so much respect for our players.

And then to see the connection with our fan base that we probably grew nearly 25 percent increase in attendance in SEC games, which was the most of any league team. So that part has been great.

Then to play a really good Oklahoma team in the NCAA Tournament, known Lon for a long time. He's had so much success in this tournament. He's got another really, really good team, and I think it will be another really, really good 8-9 matchups.

Q. Kermit, Devontae Shuler's move to point guard was so big as far as the turnaround was concerned. How far has he come at that position specifically, and what have you seen as far as what he's been able to do, ball handling and all that stuff?
KERMIT DAVIS: He's probably been the key to our team. He got nicked up for five or six games after the Mississippi State game, and he's now back healthy. He didn't even play point guard at Oak Hill for Steve Smith. He kind of played off the ball all the time and played off the ball as a freshman. We really met in the spring, and I really think he understood.

The biggest thing he's done, he's valued the ball. He's a tough, competitive guard on the ball defending. He really has -- Breein and T.D. have had these great All-SEC years, but Devontae Shuler has been maybe our most valuable player on the floor.

Q. You mentioned this team finished last, picked last. What point did you realize they had the potential to be an NCAA Tournament team and exceed all these expectations?
KERMIT DAVIS: We took a trip to Canada that really helped us. As I said before, we left a lot of bad basketball in Canada. It gave us time to really get extra practices. An NCAA Tournament team, probably when we beat Auburn at home and they were ranked. Then three days later, we go to Mississippi State and beat another ranked team. Probably at that particular time that we got ranked ourselves that we started kind of thinking that maybe you have a chance. Didn't talk about it to our team -- but to play in the NCAA Tournament and be a postseason team.

Q. Kermit, you and Lon Kruger are two of the most experienced coaches in the field. Do you have any familiarity with him or crossed paths with him at any stops?
KERMIT DAVIS: You know, I've just known Lon forever. This is the first time I've ever coached against Lon's team in any game, but I guess I've just always admired Lon and followed him when he was at Florida and Illinois and obviously at Oklahoma. We both had the same assistant, a guy named Greg Grensing that I hired when Lon was at Vegas fixing to go to Oklahoma and Greg was a great assistant of mine at Middle Tennessee. Just as a coach and one of his peers, I've admired him for what he's done. The main thing is how he's gone about his business for so long in his career.

Q. Kermit, it seems like Bruce has really put it together in the last month. How much of what you've gotten from him has kind of changed the dynamic of y'all's team?
KERMIT DAVIS: He's a critical matchup tomorrow, he and Don both. Obviously, number one, Doolittle is an undersized -- he's really a four man, but he plays the five and so he gets good matchups. Can you guard Doolittle, and Bruce and Don, especially Bruce? Can you guard him at 17-feet isolations that Lon puts him in? So that's a big critical key. Then can we throw the ball to Bruce, pick up fouls, and make guys guard him around the goal? We know he can pick-and-pop and shoot goals. If us going forward, if we're going to have some success in this tournament, he's going to have to be a big part of it.

Q. Kermit, you've had so many close games just go down right to the wire. Is that something you think you've talked to your team a lot about, you know, finishing at the end of it? But do you think that's kind of fueling them as you head into a game with such pomp and circumstance?
KERMIT DAVIS: We have. We played a hard late year schedule. We were up one, and Grant Williams makes a shot with four seconds to go to beat us at home, one-possession game with Kentucky. We go to Arkansas and have the ball at one, they hit a last second shot to beat us. Obviously, Alabama, we were up 16 and get beat at the end. So it's a concern.

But I think some of those games we've been really, really competitive and played good in parts of those games, and that's something to draw on. But you're right, we've got to do a better job of closing games out and just making basketball plays at the end of those clocks.

Q. Kermit, coming off that Alabama game, how has been the focus and the recovery in practice after a loss like that?
KERMIT DAVIS: We got after them pretty good just after we got back. The next day, on Friday, we watched the tape before we left from Nashville to go back to Oxford, and then on Saturday and Sunday we had two really physical practices, not very long, an hour and 20 minutes, but got back to trying to rebound and defend. And then as the week -- you know, we got selected to come to the regional, we've kind of backed off. It's been really good. I wanted to get that out of our system and back playing. We needed to go up and down some.

So I think our attitude and energy level has been really good this week.

Q. Kermit, this seems to be like a pretty good guard-oriented matchup, especially with your group. But what do you see on the other side, specifically with Jamal Bieniemy, the freshman point guard?
KERMIT DAVIS: I just told Lon, I saw him in the hall. I said, God, Lon, I watched him probably ten games ago and watched him until now, and he's got to be one of the most improved players in the Big 12. You can tell he's just kind of grown up as a freshman, great size, great pace. The biggest thing, he just takes care of the ball. And obviously, James is a real physical kind of a celebrated guy that's played in the Final Four. I like them. And the other guys are real physical, driving guards. So you're right, our three guards are going to have to play really well tomorrow.

Q. Kermit, a lot is made of experience in this tournament. You have some, but your players don't. How do you think that factors in?
KERMIT DAVIS: I think because you've got Oklahoma, you've got some guys that have played in the Final Four. You've got a team that played in it last year in the tournament. I just think that, when you play in leagues like ours, when you've played in those kinds of games every night. I told our team yesterday, I said, guys, you've been tested in every way possible a college team can get tested by what you went through in an 18-game schedule in this league. So they've been in these big environments and big arenas. Do you have a little nerves, probably a little jitters first when the ball's tipped and you get it going? Sure.

But the biggest thing is just stay true to yourself, do what you do, don't try to go out of character, and just be who we are, the best version of our team, and hopefully they'll do that tomorrow.

Q. Transition defense has been something that your guys normally do very well. How important is transition "D" just going to be in a team against Oklahoma?
KERMIT DAVIS: Any time you play Oklahoma or Lon's team, transition defense is always big because Doolittle can get the ball off the defensive boards and bring it up as a center, a so-called center. So it makes your adjusting, getting back defensively some different matchups. And obviously, the way that they shoot the ball on the perimeter, the stretch four is so good. He's as good a stretch four shooter as there is in college basketball.

So you're right, that's something that's been kind of a staple of ours for many, many years, wherever we've coached, and we're just going to have to be true to form tomorrow.

Q. Kermit, how helpful has it been to have the -- I guess as of tomorrow, the eight days off? Did your team kind of need that rest after pretty much of a grind?
KERMIT DAVIS: You know, I think mentally, nobody wants to get beat in their conference tournament by any means. Obviously, we were disappointed, but probably in the end, I think mentally, it's been really good for our team, a team that, like I said, went to Canada, had extra days of practice. So we have really stuck to about an hour, hour and ten minutes this week at most. So I do think -- I saw it with Breein and even T.D. the last couple days, a little fresher legs and fresh minds. Hope it does help.

Q. Kermit, Lon said he had an awareness of you. Have you guys coached against one another?
KERMIT DAVIS: No, we haven't. We've just known each other for a long time. Just through recruiting and different basketball, as you cross paths, and like I said, it's just been a great respect on my part for Lon.

Q. What would you say is kind of a staple, I guess, of his teams and how you have seen them through the years, I guess?
KERMIT DAVIS: They've guarded at a high level, and just the way the ball moves offensively, I think he's just always had great spacing. He was one of really the first guys. I mean, I know the dribble drive, the spacing and driving balls, and I just think their best players shoot it. He puts them in spots to catch and score, and he's done that his whole career.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Coach? Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297