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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: SAN JOSE

March 21, 2019

San Jose, California

MODERATOR: Okay. We welcome Oregon student-athletes to the dais. We have Payton Pritchard, Ehab Amin, and Paul White.

Q. Payton, can you talk about what reaction you had when Coach came to you guys and said I'm going to start Payton and four six-foot-nine guys now, and also just talk about how that change affected you guys and how it helped trigger that eight-game winning streak you had?
PAYTON PRITCHARD: We knew we were going big. We added Francis in the lineup, and it allowed us to be really long and really get active on rebounding. But it kind of just changed because Francis had great energy coming off the bench, and he was so positive, like Coach, after a two-game losing streak, after losing to USC, Coach rewarded him with starting, and after that we just started building energy.

So I credit a lot of it to Francis for coming in and boosting us. It just allows us to play bigger, really get after it on the boards and be long on defensive.

Q. For each of you guys, now that you've had a chance to watch some film and scout Wisconsin, what do you see from Ethan Happ and what do you have to do? I know you may not be individually matched up with him, but because he also leads them in assists, what do you have to do to contain that aspect of his game when you are guarding out there?
PAYTON PRITCHARD: I mean, he's a very talented player. A lot of the offense runs through him. But I mean, it's just like any other talented player on each team. We gotta hold him, gotta make his touches hard. We gotta force him into tough positions, and then we can't allow him to have easy assists, low kickouts. He gets the ball out fast out of the post.

EHAB AMIN: Yeah, I think we just can't give him easy ones early. He averaged 17, 18 a game, so obviously he's going to get his, but we just gotta make him work for everything.

PAUL WHITE: Yeah, I think he's a very talented player, someone that is very aware of wherever his teammates are, and I think that's something that we need to kind of challenge him with. He's very good with kickout, very good of spotting double teams. So I think if anything, we just need to kind of, like they all said, make his touches hard, don't allow him to kind of get where he wants to on the floor easy and just communicate, make sure that we don't have any mistakes in terms of sagging off too much and he finds an open three shooter.

Q. Payton, a lot of guys like to get out and run. You guys play maybe a more deliberate pace. Is that something that's hard to embrace as a player or do you like that?
PAYTON PRITCHARD: I mean, I would almost disagree with that. We mix up the flows, I would say. I mean, I like to get out and run, so I'm going to push it. But during the game, the style changes. I mean, it just depends on how things are going. If we're flowing, then we're going to push it. You know, if we've missed a couple of shots, turned the ball over a couple of times, then we need a good possession.

But we don't really look at it like we play a slow pace, because I really don't think we do. We try to get out and run, but it's just whatever the defense is giving us at the time.

Q. I just wondered what the loss of Bol Bol had, the impact it had on the team and what the mood is like, the most important steps of getting past that and here for that matter?
EHAB AMIN: I mean, it was a huge loss for us. I mean, he got hurt like six, seven games into the season, but we didn't want that to stop our season. We kept going. He stayed positive with it. He stayed with us. You know, coaching staff stayed positive. Even we had a lot of ups and downs during the season, and we knew we were playing for a purpose down the road, and once we found the identity, we can be dangerous. And I think down the stretch we did, and that's why we're here.

PAUL WHITE: Yeah, Bol Bol is a very talented player. That was known going into this year that he was going to be a big game changer for us. Unfortunately that injury ended up taking away that aspect for this year, but, you know, I think one thing that we did start to learn about this team is that we're resilient and that, you know, there were a lot of curve balls that were being thrown at us.

Kenny Wooten was out with a broken jaw. We had Abu, one of our players, transfer mid year. So it was just a lot of things that were just kind of not going accordingly. But like I said, I think in the midst of that we started to learn different ways of how we can win, whether it's through our press, whether it's through pushing the ball, whether it's through, you know, changing defenses, change lineups, just finding a mismatch.

I mean, Bol Bol is a great player, and he's going to have a great career. But I think with this team now, the one thing that we have started to learn is how to persevere in some of those situations that just don't look so well for us.

Q. Payton, two years ago you were in this position. How different is it for you this time? You were a freshman then. Here you are again. Any experience that you can take into this, and have you shared any of that with the guys who haven't been here before?
PAYTON PRITCHARD: I mean, you just want to have fun with it. You know, like we've been saying, we've kind of already been in March -- in the conference tournament. It was win or go home for us already.

So I would say we are all kind of experienced already of the intensity of things and how we need to come prepared. But really, just you gotta have fun with this and take in the experience and just enjoy this ride and just keep on plugging.

Q. Paul, I read a comment from your coach about how one of the big changes over the last few weeks has been improved communication on defense. You got a couple of freshmen out there. Can you talk about how that's happened and what impact that's had on how well you've played defensively as a group?
PAUL WHITE: Yeah, I think the communication aspect has come from us kind of understanding the schemes that we want to implement on the defensive end. I think it's something that all year that has kind of been a little mixup because of the change of lineups, the change of positions that people have to play in. You know, we played man, but we also play a very complicated zone. And you know, it takes some time with getting adjusted to.

So I think now at this time of the year people are starting to really understand what areas they need to be in, understanding the scouting report a lot more. And, you know, like you said, we do have freshmen out there that were coming from an environment that probably doesn't have so much importance on communication and understanding your opponent. But now I think we've really pulled it together, and everybody is kind of on the same page.

MODERATOR: Additional questions? We're good? Okay. Thanks, fellas.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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