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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: JACKSONVILLEMarch 22, 2019Mike YoungFletcher MageeCameron JacksonMatthew PegramJacksonville, Florida Q. Being that you guys are a small school like Wofford, what mentality are you guys adapting, taking on a powerhouse like Kentucky heading into this match-up? MATTHEW PEGRAM: I would say that our non-conference prepared us for that every year. We play a pretty hard non-conference. We play against a lot of big schools. Go into it like any other game: Get the game plan from the coaches, go out, play as hard as we can, see what happens. Q. Fletcher or Cameron, for people who don't know Wofford, where it is, what kind of school it is, I guess we can look on Wikipedia and see it's not exactly a huge enrollment, probably the smallest school in the tournament, to a national audience what would you say about Wofford, and is this kind of match-up intriguing to you guys? Obviously Kentucky is kind of on this whole different level as the elite of college basketball, and just getting a chance to go against them? CAMERON JACKSON: I mean, Wofford College is a special place. It's a small, tight-knit community where you know everybody. We have professors here that will greet us after the games in the hotel. That just shows the type of game that we go to school at. And as far as it being us playing a powerhouse school like Kentucky, we are excited about doing that. I mean, it doesn't get much better than playing teams like Kentucky. You dream of that as a kid, being on that team, being on a smaller school, playing against that team. So all of this is just a dream come true. Q. Following that up, before you were recruited by Wofford, how many of you did not know where Wofford was? And then also, when you tell people you play for Wofford, do you still have to tell them where it is? FLETCHER MAGEE: Yeah, I did not know exactly where Wofford was until I went up and visited it. But I can say that it actually is a great place. It's like one of the best kept secrets. You don't know what it is, and when you get there, it's awesome. CAMERON JACKSON: Yeah, I hadn't heard of it, either. I'm from Virginia, and didn't really know much about schools in South Carolina, especially not the smaller schools in South Carolina, but it's become home for me. MATTHEW PEGRAM: I'm the oddball out, I grew up in South Carolina and had a lot of connections to Wofford, so I knew all about it my whole career, so that was actually an offer I was really excited to get, and it all worked out. Q. Fletcher and all you guys, do you ever think you're playing against this Kentucky team with all these NBA prospects and stuff that if you play well or beat them that you could help yourself in the eyes of NBA scouts and stuff like that? FLETCHER MAGEE: Yeah, I think that that's something that you try to block out and ignore as much as you can. Getting the chance to go against great competition is always a great chance for you to prove yourself, but to think about -- you don't want to get out of character and try to do things that you can't do or do things that you're uncomfortable doing just to try to show that you can do something. We want to stay within ourselves, play our game, and we feel that if we do that, we can be right there and we can compete with them. Q. Fletcher, how much do you really pay attention to the economy of your shooting, meaning that taking -- even though some people might perceive some of the shots you take as low-percentage shots but you do work on them, how much do you pay attention to the fact that you're scoring well above one point for every shot and free throw above what you've attempted in your career? And as a follow-up, does it really bother you that much that your younger brother is taller than you? FLETCHER MAGEE: To the first part of the question, absolutely. He's only 14, and he's probably two inches taller than me, so I wish I had two those inches on me. But to the second part, it's something that I've gotten used to, just as far as like a lot of people thinking that it's a bad shot or an inefficient shot. But you know, like you said, when you look at the points per possession or percentages and getting to the numbers, analytics, you can see that I make them at an efficient enough rate for it to be good shot for our team. So I think when you look at it that way, it all works out and it's not a bad shot. Q. As a follow-up, you were probably 14, 13 years old when Jimmer Fredette of BYU was really lighting it up nationally. Did you pay much attention to his game, and is there any approach from you that even resembles anything of what he did? FLETCHER MAGEE: I actually didn't pay attention too much to him. I do remember when they played Florida in the NCAA Tournament, just growing up in Florida. I was watching that, and I remember he had a great game against them and pulled up from deep probably three or four times and made it on them. So I knew that he was a great player and a great shooter. Just him being out west and at BYU, I didn't really get the chance to watch a lot of his games and that kind of stuff, though. Q. How would you guys describe the style of offense you guys play, how much of a green light you have, how much dependence on three-point shooting? FLETCHER MAGEE: I think that we're actually a very balanced offense. Cam, Matt, Keve, a lot of our bigs are really good back-to-the-basket post scorers. A lot of people like to talk about all the threes that we shoot and stuff, but if it wasn't for them drawing in the defense, a lot of times we wouldn't be open for those threes. Playing inside out can definitely open it up. I think that we're pretty balanced because we can shoot the ball really well, but we can also pound it inside with our bigs and have them go to work. I feel like it's a good balance between that. Q. Fletcher, you broke the record last night; how big was that moment for you and for your career and for everything that you've done? And the second question is you take a high degree of difficulty of shots; how is your practice regimen with those? FLETCHER MAGEE: To the first question, I think I've said this before. I think when I look back on it when I'm older, I'll definitely think about that game and how special and everything it was. But in the moment, just trying to -- just do whatever to win, to think about winning an NCAA Tournament game, that was just the main goal, and that was what was on my mind. But to the second part, I think that the practice regimen, I think that you try to practice shots that you know you're going to shoot in games, so if I know that I'm going to shoot an off-balance shot going this way or off-balance shot going that way, I'm going to practice those type of shots so I can get a feel for it, and I feel like that's kind of what's enabled me to shoot those kind of shots. Q. Fletcher already talked about the play on the bigs, so I want to ask Cameron and Matthew. Kentucky feels pretty good about their size advantage. How do you kind of prove that they're wrong to think that way tomorrow? CAMERON JACKSON: I think we just take care of what we can take care of. It's not really about proving them wrong. It's about doing what we're comfortable doing and making the impact on the game that we can, the way that we impact the game on a daily basis, getting the ball to the shooters, rebounding. But it's not really about proving them wrong, it's about taking care of what we can take care of. MATTHEW PEGRAM: I think he said it best right there. Q. Cameron, can you talk about what athletic trainer Alyss Hart does on a daily basis to get you ready to go, what she means to you, and is she right when she says you're kind of high maintenance? CAMERON JACKSON: Me personally or the team? Okay, I don't think that I'm necessarily high maintenance. I think that might be a little bit of a stretch. But no, Alyss is the best. She's taken care of me throughout my five years. I've had a few injuries where I've needed her to just really take care of me and tell me what I need to do, and she's always very upfront with me about what's wrong. She tells me if I'm being soft. She tells me -- like she keeps it really straight with me, so I'm able to know what I can and can't do. She doesn't sugarcoat anything, and she just tries to just get me ready. She's meant the world to me over the past five years. I've grown close to her through the experience. Q. Cameron, just curious, Fletcher has taken a certain amount of grief from his family about his haircut. I'm just wondering if you guys have needled him about not having sort of a defined hair style, like it's a little bit short of crew cut but not really a crew cut, and then a little bit longer but not -- doesn't seem to be defined. I'm just wondering if you guys needle him about that at all? CAMERON JACKSON: No, not really. We just let him do his thing. His hair doesn't really matter when the ball goes in, so I don't carry care how he cuts it. He could be bald tomorrow and I'll still be happy for him, as long as he's hitting shots. Q. Mike, I know your conference is good, but you've also been able to schedule some Power Five non-conference games over the past few years especially. You've had some success. How much does that help you for a moment like tomorrow, and then on the second part of that, with some conferences moving to 20 and 22-game regular seasons, do you fear that scheduling those games is going to become more difficult for a school like yours? MIKE YOUNG: Yeah, I do. I'm not sure that that bigger schedule with the Power Fives is going to last. They did it for RPI, NET for those ramifications, for that pop in those numbers, and I don't think those numbers are improving. I don't. Maybe I'm wrong. Time will tell after a couple of years. But so much emphasis put now on strength of schedule, I'm not having any trouble yet in getting those games. May not be the games I want, I'm going to go to Duke next year, but I do like those games, and I do like challenging our team in November and December, and I think that pays huge dividends once you get into league play. We may get our ears pinned back tomorrow, but it will not be because my team is intimidated. We went to Phog Allen Fieldhouse. We had North Carolina at home, Oklahoma, very, very good. You know, there is a method to the madness. I do -- our non-league schedule is always really hard. We had the opportunity to -- we had nine non-league games at home, which can be hard for teams at our level in our league, but yeah, we do that for a number of reasons. Q. From the time you've been there, how much sort of less obscure is the identity of Wofford now than it was when you first got there? And then as a follow-up, when you're recruiting a kid, assuming it's not in the immediate Spartanburg area, how often when you say, "I'm the coach at Wofford", do you basically have to say where Wofford is? MIKE YOUNG: I came there in '89, and I can remember vividly a good friend of mine, also an assistant, I can't tell you how many times -- this is before answering machines and cell phones, that we'd have to spell our name. I remember calling a school in Charlotte, like for God's sake, you're an hour away, you've never heard of Wofford, really? Of course I say that, in '88 I came down and interviewed for the job, and I had never heard of Wofford. The NCAA Tournament and this platform has helped our identity, what our program has accomplished over the last 10 years. We've gotten a lot better, and especially in the areas that we've recruited really, really hard - the great state of Minnesota, Chicago, Illinois, Madison, Wisconsin. Our name recognition has gotten better and better and better, and certainly this experience will help even more. I'm still trying -- I had to correct a gentleman out here in the hallway. If I hear one of you say "Woe-ford", I'm going to come after you. It's Wofford. Wofford, all right? It's spelled W-o-f-f-o-r-d. It's pronounced W-a-f-f-o-r-d, isn't it, Todd? We're making great progress, but still, work to be done. Q. Some of the players spoke also about non-conference kind of molding them for the match-up tomorrow. Talk about everyone's mentality and the attitude of the players as a whole right now. MIKE YOUNG: It's a different deal tomorrow. We're playing the Wildcats of Kentucky, and I can't wait. I have such great admiration for Coach Calipari and what he's done at UMass and Memphis and now here at Kentucky. It'll be a wonderful day for our team and our players. I can't imagine a team more confident, and that's earned. We haven't lost since December 19th, and of the four losses, they're all playing in the NCAA Tournament this weekend, and I know North Carolina, Oklahoma -- Oklahoma was up big. I think they all four won their first-round game. And those were all good games. We were tied or trailed by a couple at the eight-minute mark at Kansas, and the wheels came off. The wheels can come off and have come off for a lot of people in that building. You know, so again, they may whip our tail, but it will not be because my kids are scared. They'll come out ready to fight. Q. You mentioned your respect for Coach Calipari. Obviously they have a bunch of NBA prospects -- MIKE YOUNG: Yeah. Q. I think they have three guys projected in the current draft, per ESPN. How much of an opportunity is that for your fellas, if they play well to impress some NBA scouts, get on the radar, help themselves long-term? MIKE YOUNG: They understand. We haven't said anything about it. You think Fletcher Magee understands that, embraces that? You're darned right. Cameron Jackson is on a lot of people's radar. Size is not ideal. I do think that he'll make a lot of money in Europe, if he chooses to do that, and I think he will. You know, again, I've said before, this is the NCAA Tournament. This is the greatest tournament on earth, and to perform and play against PJ Washington - I hope - Reid Travis, play well and play a good ball game certainly would help those guys immensely. Q. You talked about playing some of these other big programs. How much of the mystique does it kind of take out of tomorrow's game having to face a blue blood like Kentucky? MIKE YOUNG: You know what, I don't know the answer to that. I don't know the answer to that. I know this, it doesn't take any mystique away from my feelings going into it. Way back, I remember sitting and listening to that AM radio station through the Carolinas and Virginia and Kentucky, West Virginia and listening to Cawood Ledford and that '78 team, and those were great, great -- are great, great memories. To strap it on tomorrow and walk out there and face UK, I mean, that's a highlight. That will be a highlight for my team. That'll be something they'll never forget. Q. For the people who haven't seen your team play or seen them play a little bit and think you're just a bunch of little guys who fire up three-point shots, what can you say about your team in terms of why they're here today? MIKE YOUNG: I've said it a thousand times, and I believe it with every fiber of my body, we've got a really, really good team. We do have a lot of guys that can crank it. We also have a young man in the post in Cameron Jackson that can score on a lot of people, and he's done it repeatedly throughout his career. We had a kid that's kind of come into his own this year. He's not going to score a lot, but he's going to block a shot, he's going to rebound the ball in Keve Aluma, came off the bench with a couple of kids that have helped us win a number of games. You know, I hate to get into all this, but we are ranked nationally for a purpose. That NET, that evaluation tool, whatever, that we were 13th or 12th in the country, you know, so that's not you guys just throwing numbers out there. I mean, that's where it is. Our analytics and metrics and all that stuff are really, really good. Q. I get the feeling that you don't really embrace the small school versus big school -- MIKE YOUNG: I hate it. Q. That enrollment has nothing to do with the roster. What are your thoughts on that? MIKE YOUNG: What's UK have, 35,000 undergraduate students? We've got 1,600. So? We've got really good players. Kentucky has got really good players. Let's go play. I tire of the mid-major and the little guy and all this stuff. Come on, man. You know, we have good players that are serious and love competing. They're all going to graduate, and they're all going to be productive citizens. That wears on me a little bit. Could you tell? Q. One of the coaches that came through Rupp Arena this year, I believe it may have been North Dakota, said he went to Lowe's and bought snow shovels to replicate the length of Kentucky. How unique is that compared to other challenges you're going to face? MIKE YOUNG: I was just in awe when I saw them yesterday. I made the mistake before our game, I went out and watched them play Abilene Christian a little bit. I wished I hadn't have done that. Goodness gracious, they're just enormous. They're not going to do anything different. We played North Carolina the last two years, and, you know, it's who you're competing against. We can't do anything differently offensively. We are who we are. We're not going to do anything offensively or defensively. We're pretty locked into what we hope to do. It's certainly more challenging with their size and 3's size on the perimeter is impressive and Herro is a 2 guard at 6'5", Hagans is a nice looking young man who's a lead guard. I was concerned about Powell and Cale. Those guys last night looked like boxers. But they'll figure it out. Let it rip. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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