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

March 21, 2019

Columbia, South Carolina

THE MODERATOR: We have our student-athletes from North Dakota State University. We'll introduce the athletes. Tyson Ward, Deng Geu, Jared Samuelson, and Vinnie Shahid.

Q. Is this now the dream or the nightmare scenario for you?
VINNIE SHAHID: It's another basketball game. For 40 minutes, we're going to compete and plan on winning.

JARED SAMUELSON: We're really excited for this opportunity, obviously, to go out and compete and play another game.

DENG GEU: Every opportunity to play March Madness is still part of the dream. Just come at it like another basketball game. Just come ready to compete.

TYSON WARD: What they said.

Q. Guys, you're 5-0 in March. What is it about this month where you seemingly figured it out and are playing such good basketball?
TYSON WARD: Every game is a big game, no matter who you're playing against. 40 minutes are up on the clock, and you know you don't want to go home. You put that in your mind and put it in the game plan, you don't want to go home. You just set your jaw and get ready for a good game.

DENG GEU: I think it's a win or go home factor. It brings out everyone's competitiveness and you play to the best of your ability.

JARED SAMUELSON: We're just playing our best basketball right now, which is obviously what you want in late March. So hopefully, we can keep that up.

VINNIE SHAHID: I think we're doing a good job of hammering the details and staying in the moment. March is a fun time of year, and you can see our guys are having fun playing the game in the month of March.

Q. Tyson, growing up in the southeast, did you watch Duke a lot growing up and one of those kids who always wanted to be a Blue Devil?
TYSON WARD: They're always on TV, always a good game to watch. Always have a great competition, great team. Wherever I could go, whoever gave me the opportunity to play was going to be the place where I'd be, and North Dakota State was the place to be.

Q. So how do you put that aside and just try to treat them like another team then?
TYSON WARD: Just exactly like you said, just treat them as another team. It's 40 minutes on the clock. It's 0-0, ball's tipped, and you just play basketball, do something that you've been doing for your whole life.

Q. Tyson, can you speak to Sam Griesel's growth this year? True freshman coming in and has improved seemingly throughout the season. Can you talk a little bit to that?
TYSON WARD: He's been big time. You can tell he's been in the gym a lot this year. A couple of the guys have taken him into the gym personally and just hammered some things with him. He's willing to listen and get better and do everything it takes to help this team out. It's a true testament to what he's been doing on and off the court. You can see that it's been reflecting into this late March, and he's been playing real well.

Q. Vinnie, can you just take us through your travel the last couple of days? Normal, or has it been a little bit hectic?
VINNIE SHAHID: It's travel. There were some late nights. Definitely not an excuse for tomorrow when the ball tips up. It's definitely a little different for us, but there's definitely no excuse there.

Q. Did you get here today or last night?
VINNIE SHAHID: Last night.

Q. Deng, how do you try to match up with Williamson, just the sheer size?
DENG GEU: I think just come out and compete. Don't know what's going to happen, but you just come out and play as hard as you can and at the end, see what happens.

Q. This question's for Vinnie. Vinnie, a lot has been made that not a lot was expected of this team going into this season. What was your guys' expectation as a team meeting in fall ball? Was it to be here in March Madness?
VINNIE SHAHID: Definitely. I think we saw this plan at the beginning of June. When we came together as a family, we saw this happening. Through the ups and downs, many people were like, they're too young, they can't do this. But I think our locker room stayed together, and we definitely kept our mind on the goal at stake, was to get here to March Madness, and not only to get here but to win some games.

Q. I know you guys have said it's just another game. Has there been any talk at all in the locker room or from the coaches? You're going to face Coach Krzyzewski tomorrow, you're going to face Duke. Bill Raftery and Jim Nantz are out there calling the game. Has there been any talk at all about the bright lights and the focus?
VINNIE SHAHID: We're aware. We're human. Anybody that doesn't think about it or tells you that they don't think about it, they're lying to you because we're human and we do think about it. At the end of the day, like Tyson said earlier, when the ball goes up and it tips, it's something we've all been doing our whole lives, 40 minutes goes on the clock, and it's the basketball game.

Q. Tyson, just take us through the experience so far of going through the Selection Sunday, traveling to Dayton, now here in Columbia. What's the experience been like for you here so far?
TYSON WARD: It's every college basketball player's dream. You know you put in a lot of work from when you're a young kid. You fill out your brackets, and you're like, man, I really want to be on a team to play in the NCAA Tournament and win some games. It's a dream come true. It's just been surreal. Sharing this moment with these guys and just being able to live in the moment, it's just been great and a great opportunity, and I've been blessed -- we've been blessed to share this journey.

Q. Tyson, can you speak a little bit to the job that Coach Richman has done this year. Again, these guys have touched on the expectations maybe weren't high to start the season, but you're playing your best ball now. What has Coach Richman done to get you to this point?
TYSON WARD: Been doing the same thing, just getting us better in every practice. Making sure we're making our way with Coach Miller and just doing the little things because that's what really keeps us to think about the little things, the things that have gotten us here. Just constantly hammering on us like, hey, defense, defense, defense. Just little things. That's really all I can say is just hammering the little things.

Q. Jared, what's this team's mentality been like shooting from beyond the arc? Just the ability to hit three-pointers and being able to get to the rim and space the floor? How has that been an attribute the last couple games?
JARED SAMUELSON: Shot selection is big for us on offense. We're confident shooters out there. We've been working in the gym and stuff like that. We have confidence in ourselves, and that's how you become a good shooter. We've been doing a good job of sharing the ball, setting each other up, and just got to rise up and knock it down.

Q. Deng, your season, the international experience, can you sum it up a little bit in the last several months?
DENG GEU: This summer I got the opportunity to compete for the Uganda national team in the FIBA World Cup qualifiers. It was a great experience, just going out there, meeting new people, and getting a taste of professional basketball. I think it really helped me this season with confidence and just slowing down the game.

Q. Did you face anybody the caliber of what you might be seeing tomorrow in the tournament?
DENG GEU: Yeah, there was a couple of NBA guys on the Nigeria team, but obviously, Duke has some really good talent. So I think so.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen.

North Dakota State head coach, David Richman. Opening statement, and then we'll open the floor for questions.

DAVID RICHMAN: A few more people here than Dayton the other day. Obviously, we're extremely excited to be here, unbelievable opportunity and unbelievable challenge for us tomorrow night. We stressed to the guys along the way, going back to the Thursday before we left for the summer league tournament, that make sure you embrace this journey. We talked about that all year, but make sure you stay in the moment. Enjoy this along the way, but also come 7:10 tomorrow night, be ready to compete.

Obviously, against a team that I don't really need to explain. Duke is Duke. Coach K is Coach K, and the success that he's had, a lot of challenges, a lot of just great opportunities for us. We'll be excited and ready to compete tomorrow night.

Q. You're a guy that spent almost your entire life in North Dakota. I think you went to Northern Iowa for a little bit, and tomorrow night you're going to be coaching against Coach Krzyzewski on the biggest stage. Can you just put that in perspective, what that means for a North Dakota kid?
DAVID RICHMAN: It's obviously really, really cool. I think at the end of the day, you are who you are because of your roots. I was raised by two wonderful people. My mom and dad, John and Marsha, and my sister, great family that really is the core of who I am. Again, hopefully who I am is a guy of tremendous virtue.

But to be on this stage tomorrow night, CBS, to coach against obviously a Hall of Famer, a legend, I don't know if I could have dreamt this, Mike, a couple years ago.

Q. Are you ready for it?
DAVID RICHMAN: Absolutely. Ready or not, here it comes. With a great challenge comes a great opportunity, and certainly, I'm going to be ready for it, and I know our guys will, as well.

Q. Have you had a chance to talk to Coach Krzyzewski?
DAVID RICHMAN: I have not had a chance to talk to Coach.

Q. I'm just curious, when you go up in a matchup like this against a team with future NBA players, a guy like Zion, who's obviously taken over college basketball. Do you, as a coach, kind of view this as a stressful, challenging situation or something you're excited about? How do I scheme against these guys? How do I make this come together?
DAVID RICHMAN: Coach Miles, the guy who I started working with, said when he left college, he got into college coaching because of the environment and the experience of college. I get the narrative about stress and all this, but this is fun. You think about it. We get to play college basketball. We get to coach college basketball. So I think maybe, if there was any pressure, it was the other night, Wednesday night, in Dayton for some of our guys to just experience that, but that's gone away, and we're all excited for the opportunity.

Q. Dave, facing Duke, I think Vinnie sort of addressed this, saying we're human. Any fear of deer in the headlights with your guys, a team with no seniors?
DAVID RICHMAN: I was just thinking about that. They don't have any seniors either. Really, again, I think we just kind of addressed that in the last question a little bit. I think some of that deer in the headlights, I did see a little bit of that the other night against a really good North Carolina Central team, and I think some of that's gone. We expect a lot of pressure from Duke. We expect them to come out, teed up, ready to go, like the Number 1 seed would. We'll see. I think it's important, like we've stressed to them all along, the quicker you can figure out you're doing something you've done your entire life, the quicker your chances of success will be.

Q. Coach, whether it's at a shootaround or even having the guys on stage before you came up, there's a certain chemistry and camaraderie among the guys. Was that something that was present from the start of the season? Did it develop throughout the season? What was Vinnie's role in all of that?
DAVID RICHMAN: I was thinking about that. It really has, and it really went back to about May, early June, when our guys went on an FCS like week long deal in the twin cities and really formed a great bond. There was a great bunch of eight guys that stuck around in the spring and had a tremendous spring. And then they welcomed and embraced those six new guys with open arms. For a guy like Vinnie to come in and to be named captain five, six weeks, maybe a couple months into it is pretty darn neat.

But you can see his personality. You can see his smile. You can see his sense for the moment that his guys embrace him, and he embraces them real quick.

Q. What changes have you seen in Sam Griesel throughout the year, from the start of the year, true freshman up until last night, I guess?
DAVID RICHMAN: One of the biggest things with Sam is Vinnie. It makes more sense to me when you're there at 6:00 a.m. in the morning for lifting sessions and just different things, where Vinnie just breeds confidence in everybody, myself included. When we were able to get Sam in late May, we knew we had something really special. That's a young man that looks the part, just attacks his job with great resolve every day. He's been more invested in the weight room and the diet and those things than I anticipated.

But I think you could see from the moment we started him, that he was going to be pretty good. Then he had that injury, and I think it was really telling, when he came back in that Omaha game, that he didn't play great, but he didn't play with fear. If you think about it, sitting there with five, six weeks with a knee injury like that, he could have been hesitant. He's grown. He's come out of his shell a little bit socially, been more comfortable, getting outward. I think a big part of that is Vinnie and his teammates just breathing confidence into him all the time.

Q. You played Gonzaga as a Number 1 team, in Spokane in late November. Do you use that game as a template at all coming into this game at least from a mindset point of view?
DAVID RICHMAN: Maybe the first ten minutes. That's it. We had a lot of other extenuating circumstances at the time, some tough travel. Sam was out. It's a game where Cameron got hurt. But also, I think it showed us that for the first ten minutes, when we were locked in and fresh, so to speak, we can compete. We know that we're a different team. Duke's obviously got more experience now than they did at that time of the year, like Gonzaga would this time of year. But there's certainly some things I hope we can lean on.

Q. Dave, how much did Dayton, the first four game, just kind of help get the taste in the mouth of your team in understanding what an NCAA Tournament atmosphere is like?
DAVID RICHMAN: I'm hoping it helped a lot. I saw some things that, again, I've said it all along about this group. This is an experience group. What I mean by that is you can talk to them about the experience, you can show them experience, and they don't quite get it until they actually live the experience. Wednesday night was them living the experience. Hopefully, that will help us relax, get that deer in the headlights out of us, so to speak, early in the game.

Q. Who's the toughest guy on your team to say let's just play basketball, let's just go out there and play a game?
DAVID RICHMAN: Jared Samuelson; no hesitation. If you go into our video room, there's a big sign that talks about being tough and together. Jared Samuelson is tough, and he's together. His teammates love him. You've really got something in the huddle. Jared doesn't say much at all, but when you get into some of those moments, you go back to Santa Barbara at home, you go back to the other night, last night, when he's teed up and he's locked in, it's pretty cool because his teammates really embrace that, and it starts with his toughness.

Q. Follow up on that Dave, we like to talk about Jared's three-point ability, but how about his ability to take charges? Smallest guy out there, and he's diving on the floor getting burns. Just talk about his tenacity defensively?
DAVID RICHMAN: I think that's the beauty of March. If you flipped open a dictionary and looked for a Division I basketball player, Jared Samuelson is probably not the first guy that shows up. What you can't measure is somebody's heart. What you can't measure is someone's basketball IQ. From the time you saw Jared at a camp three or four summers ago until today, in a sense, it's really not surprising. He's a guy that we talk about setting our jaw and just competing. Jared sets his jaw every day. Not just in games, but in practice and film sessions. He's at the edge of his seat.

And in a kid that we couldn't hide more his first or second year trying to guard the ball, now he's guarding the opponents' best perimeter guy. It's a pretty neat deal.

Q. Coach, maybe the biggest game in the history of North Dakota as far as a sporting event. With so many eyeballs back home watching on CBS tomorrow night, what would be your message to the people back home who are tuning in and maybe seeing the Bison for the first time this year?
DAVID RICHMAN: Hopefully, we represent the people back home. North Dakota is a great state, and I like to say this, it's a state that for three, four months out of the year gets really cold, but that keeps the riff-raff out, and it adds some toughness. I think what you'll see tomorrow and I think what you've seen the last back end of the year, when we've got some experience on these guys, is a blue collar mentality. In Fargo, North Dakota, West Fargo, the Red River Valley, Moorhead, the State of North Dakota, there's some tremendous people with great resolve and toughness, and hopefully that's what this Bison men's basketball team looks like, as well.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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