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

March 23, 2019

Columbus, Ohio

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Washington student-athletes David Crisp and Noah Dickerson as well as head coach Mike Hopkins. Questions for the student-athletes?

Q. As the tournament goes on, post play is often overlooked but becomes more and more important. Can you talk about that, both as a guy in the post and as a point guard looking for baskets, easy baskets -- although they're actually tough -- but tough baskets, something that you can really kind of goes at attacking the opposition?
NOAH DICKERSON: Well, as a post player, we do get overlooked a little bit, especially in a long tournament. But the longer the tournament goes on, the more guys get tired. Some -- maybe jump shots are a little bit short and things like that.

But when you're a post player, being around the basket it's hard to be short. You're right there at the basket. And so just going and attacking the basket, shooting great field percentages. And then, look, I get double-teamed a lot, so it's a lot easier to make open jump shots when they're out there playing H-O-R-S-E, when they're stepping into jump shots rather than shooting contesting ones.

DAVID CRISP: For sure, to back up what he was saying, when you've got a great post player like Noah, teams like to double-team them a lot. And he's a great passer out of the post. Whenever teams set a double-team, he's great at finding the open man and finding cutters.

When they don't double, he puts guys in a tough position because he can score. He's got a lot of moves down there, can finish with either hand. He's definitely -- works to our advantage.

Q. Is it really playing H-O-R-S-E, like you said?
NOAH DICKERSON: You saw us shoot yesterday.

DAVID CRISP: Definitely.

Q. Noah, staying with that theme, I'm not sure how much you know about North Carolina yet, but they are a team that leads the country in rebounding. They get a lot of points in the paint. How do you go about trying to slow them down and kind of stuff it in there to prevent some of those close baskets?
NOAH DICKERSON: We play zone. And so we just play with our strength, do what we do. Our zone is meant to stop that. We don't give up layups. We don't give up 3s. So basically our game plan is the same thing we did every year, or I mean all year.

Q. David, this is obviously a unique time of the season. And you're seeing teams that you haven't necessarily prepared for and you don't necessarily know their style because you're not that familiar with them. Familiarity with the officiating is also something that changes very much. And obviously yesterday you had to make a big adjustment to that.
DAVID CRISP: Yes, for sure. They called a lot of fouls that could have been just overlooked in the season. That's just something you've got to adjust to and just be smarter, make better decisions and just adjust to the game, but still be aggressive, not play timid.

Q. Do you try as a team to make that adjustment early to find out how the game is going to be called and then go from there?
DAVID CRISP: We just come out and try to play as hard as we can, stick to our game plan, leave it all out there, give it extreme effort. And we feel -- get a feel for how the refs are calling it. And we adjust to that.

But we always go in with the same approach -- play aggressive and give a lot of effort.

Q. David and then Noah, I'm sure you guys have seen Carolina a lot on TV. But being on the opposite side of the country, what do you know about them outside of what may have already been done with the scouting report here in the last couple of hours?
DAVID CRISP: Obviously everybody knows a historically great program. Very well-coached, they've got a great coach over there. And they've got some guys over there with some experience, and guys who have been in this position before and got a lot of experience.

So we knew that coming in. And we know that for us to come out and have a great shot tomorrow, we're going to have to play really together, play really hard. A lot of effort, trust the game plan that our Coach has given us, and just go out there and leave everything out on the line.

Q. David or Noah, Noah talked about the zone defense which we've seen. We know where Coach Hop got that from. UNC sees Syracuse's zone twice a year. What makes your defense stand out a little bit more and makes it a little more dangerous?
NOAH DICKERSON: We tend to try to take away the 3 completely. We extend our zone out so we don't give up 3s and no layups. So the way basketball's going nowadays, people can shoot the ball from all over the place, all over the court, very deep. And so our zone really takes into account how people are shooting and try to take them out of the game.

DAVID CRISP: I completely agree with Noah. Try to take that 3 ball away for sure and try to limit the high post touches as best we can.

Q. We've seen North Carolina in this situation year after year. What does it mean to your program to get to this point and be in this spotlight? David?
DAVID CRISP: It means a lot to our program, especially how everything has been going down over the course of our four years here. Two years ago we were 9-22, won two games in conference, didn't make any postseason tournaments, anything.

NOAH DICKERSON: Terrible.

DAVID CRISP: Two years ago nobody would have expected us to be where we are now. Just making it as far as we have has been -- it's been great.

But we're still working. We still have more that we want to achieve. So we're still hungry.

NOAH DICKERSON: For sure.

Q. Noah, a little bit along those lines, you've been clearly the best team in your conference, but your conference has taken a decent amount of criticism this year. North Carolina is North Carolina from the ACC. Is there any element that you're playing more than just for your team but for your conference as well?
NOAH DICKERSON: Yeah, you know, Oregon beat us at the Pac-12 Tournament. We were shaking hands and all (indiscernible), now we've got to go win some games. It's for the conference.

Our conference got a hit this year. People are talking bad about us. It is what it is. And so I do think we are playing for our conference, just to show some more respect for us. You know what I mean? I understand it's an East Coast by as. I'm from the East Coast. It's understandable, but we do have some hoopers over here.

Q. How does a kid from the East Coast end up in the Pacific Northwest?
NOAH DICKERSON: Man, I came out and visited during the summer. So it was really nice out. It was really nice out. I thought it was like that year-round. I didn't think the rain was how like they said it was. For sure. For sure.

Q. Noah, I was going to ask you about being from back East, being from the Atlanta area. Have you had any run-ins with any of the current Carolina players, maybe Brandon Robinson?
NOAH DICKERSON: Yeah, Brandon Robinson played for the Georgia Stars. He wasn't on my team. He was on one a couple years younger than me. Luke Maye, when I was a junior, when we were in our last year of AAU, I played his team, like, seven, eight times that whole summer, about seven or eight times.

Our parents talked a lot, got pretty close. Throughout the years, I've always been glad he's been doing his thing at North Carolina. It's been fun to watch.

Q. How did you do against Luke?
NOAH DICKERSON: I guess we'll have to see tomorrow. (Laughter).

Q. What's it like when you have, again, post players that are allowed to play in the post as hopefully you two guys are? You're not a lot of bunch of 3-point shooters, I think Luke may take a couple more than you. But basically you guys are 10 feet and in. What is it like to have 30, 40 minutes of that kind of basketball?
NOAH DICKERSON: It's always fun, especially another guy who plays kind of just like me. We've had these battles for three years now. It's tough; it's hard on your body. But it's how I love to play the game of basketball. It's how I grew up playing it. And that's how I'll always play it. It's fun to me. And I like to do the dirty work.

Q. What was it about Coach that made you believe that he was going to be the right guy for the job?
NOAH DICKERSON: Oh, he's crazy. (Laughter). He's crazy. And I've had success at the high school level. I won two national championships. And my coach in high school was crazy. So I realized -- (indiscernible) and he just -- he's just a man with a plan. And he was able to show that plan and this is where we sit now, two years later.

DAVID CRISP: Same thing Noah's saying, he's crazy. And the same with Noah. My coaches in the past, they've been crazy. First phone call I had with him, he just told me pretty much his life story, how he grew up. Told me when he was a kid always overlooked, always had a chip on his shoulder.

And that clicked with me because that was the same way I felt growing up. Once he told me that, we connected off of that. And he just told me his vision. And he wasn't just telling me anything I wanted to hear; he was telling me the truth, telling me everything he thought we could accomplish as long as the guys bought in.

So right from day one, I told him you've got me, and I believed in his plan. Like Noah said, we're sitting here today.

Q. How is he crazy? Can you explain and why he's crazy and why that is a good thing and not a bad thing?
NOAH DICKERSON: You all haven't seen my man drop down and give you 10 push-ups in a press conference? Who does that? I'm not. But his energy is contagious. He's contagious. And we feed off of it on the court.

And one second he could be going crazy and next second he's the calmest person in the room. With him you never know. You've got to be ready for anything. And that's one of our mottos for the team.

Q. Does he ever run the old game film of himself at Syracuse?
NOAH DICKERSON: No, I saw it on Twitter one time. He looked a lot different with hair, though. He looked a lot different with hair.

DAVID CRISP: Lot different.

I will give you two stories from the first-time experience with him. First time I seen him in person, I was just -- it was springtime -- I came in, he just got in town, about to do his press conference. They're going to introducing him as the head coach.

He sees me from the top of arena, he's in full suit. He said, is that DC? He sprints down the stairs, runs across the court and picks me up, gives me a big hug.

And then the second one, our first workouts we have, he breaks his nose because he's in there battling with us, like, body, trying to be scrappy with us. He breaks his nose. But he took it like a champ.

He got up, I think I broke my nose. And the next day you see him, he has purple all over his eyes. He's crazy, but definitely contagious, though.

Q. And it's a good crazy?
DAVID CRISP: Good crazy.

NOAH DICKERSON: Good crazy.

Q. I guess after hearing this, what do you guys, when you see around the country, like, all the brouhaha or whatever, outside looking in, with Coach Izzo and what you just said with Coach Hopkins, do you get the sense that people don't understand coach/player relationships?
NOAH DICKERSON: Oh, yeah. Are you talking about that tweet that came out on Twitter about Tom Izzo yelling at his player? Yeah, for a fact, because I've seen it -- you've seen it?

It's crazy to me because coaches yell at you, you know what I mean? Like he said in his press conference, if you weren't doing your job you would be criticized about it, too. It is what it is. And people get yelled at. You're men. You're 18, 19, 20. Like, get over it. It is what it is.

DAVID CRISP: And on top of that, a lot of people, you don't see a lot of things that goes on behind closed doors. You don't see the team meetings at Coach's house. You don't see the long conversations you have in the coach's offices. You don't see how much Coach is there for you. They don't see that love that's always there.

And when somebody loves you, you're willing to let them push you to your limits. And that's what brings the greatness out of people.

So people don't understand that a lot of times with these coaches, it's more than just, oh, that's my coach; it's real love -- it's family.

NOAH DICKERSON: Yeah, families fight. I fight with my twin brother all the time, to this day.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. We're joined by coach Mike Hopkins. Coach, we have to start out by saying we had two particular witnesses previously who referred to you as crazy.

COACH HOPKINS: That's not true, (laughter) not true, not true at all.

THE MODERATOR: We did surmise it was a good crazy. Any questions?

Q. Along those lines, it's not often players call their coach crazy -- affectionately. (Laughter) is it true that you did hug David Crisp the first time at your introductory press conference and you broke your nose in the first practice?
COACH HOPKINS: That is true. I'm just pretty passionate. And I just love life and love being around my kids. And when David Crisp told me he was going to stay I probably could have suffocated him I squeezed him so hard.

I like to interact. I like to be involved. I don't like to be the guy sitting on the ceiling saying, run faster. I like to be involved. It's my assistant coach in me that I love. That's why I love it. I love the interaction with the kids and being out there sweating with them.

Q. Is that something that's easily overlooked, is when you come into a new situation as you did at Washington, and you have to say, I've got to get this guy, this guy and this guy to stay? Is it more than we in the public realize?
COACH HOPKINS: You know, it is. Because you're going to have one hour to meet with these kids, for them to make a decision for the rest of their life. And I said it was a form of speed dating. You had to be on. You had to be sitting there, and you're going from table -- guys were coming in, you're meeting with the families and sharing your vision.

And it was an incredible time, and a lot of those guys stayed with us, which was really, really special. And here we are. And we've grinded together. We've worked hard together. We've sweated together -- staff, players, administrative staff. It's been a heck of a run.

Q. I asked the players, so I'll ask you regarding the game, the importance of post players. This tournament continues to go on and on and on. It seems like that becomes imperative. And come to find out, Noah said he and Luke have a history together. Can you, one, as far as post play going forward; and, two, that matchup in particular?
COACH HOPKINS: We have a program, we go inside/out. We play inside/out. And believe in offensive balance, having a great post player is like having a great penetrator. And then you have a guy who can score in a man-to-man situation but he can pass out of double teams. And he can make foul shots. It's a heck of a weapon.

And this year, Noah sacrificed a lot. Last year he was All-Pac-12. And this year they double-teamed him and triple-teamed him and game planned around him. And it's opened up opportunities for guys to step up and make plays. That's where we've become better. We've become better with our balance.

I know this is kind of the corny coaching clichÃ©, but we honestly have nine guys that could start for us. Naz Carter came up big, Dom Green's been like that the whole year. Jamal Bey is coming on, came in and in gave us a great eight minutes. Sam Timmins has had great minutes. And they've stayed together, positive. And it can be a different guy any night. And it's a luxury for a coach to have that.

Q. And Luke (indiscernible)?
COACH HOPKINS: I don't know what their past is or what their history is. But you're talking about two incredible post players. Luke is a guy I saw when I was at Syracuse, and he just kept getting better and better, and he's turned into one of the best big guys in the country.

He shoots it. He's great in the mid post. He can pass. He's an aggressive rebounder. I mean, you talk about Carolina, you talk about their big guys. They've had great guards, but their big guys -- they're inside/out. They try to crush you on the glass. That's what they do. And he's been a great player for them.

Q. It wasn't that long ago that this Washington program was well below .500, but the past two years, back-to-back tournaments. You get a win yesterday. How have you gotten these guys to kind of buy in? And has this all kind of come together quicker than you might have thought?
COACH HOPKINS: That's a great question. All we were trying to do was put in our offensive system, put in our defensive system, put in our culture system and work hard every day. People say you never know. Some people, the learnability, I've worked with kids. You show them a move, move, move, and it takes them a year to even get it.

Some guys just get it faster. And our guys kept believing. They've worked hard every day and we have a saying, DMGB -- doesn't matter, get better. So you lose by 30? Doesn't matter, get better. Win by one? Doesn't matter, get better.

That's what these guys have done. They've believed in what we're selling with our defense and they've gotten better at it. It's been fun to watch them grow. And if I told you I knew the timeline or when we would get it, I would be lying to you. You just never know.

All you can do is work hard every day. That's kind of the culture that we have at University of Washington, and we just try to get better every day.

Q. Is the zone that you run pretty much the same thing you and Jimmy did in Syracuse, or are there a few wrinkles you've thrown in now that it's your system? And then as familiar as Roy is with what you do, you're pretty much as familiar with what he does. How much does that kind of play into the preparations for this?
COACH HOPKINS: Like anything, when you're playing against the zone, you can't really mimic it in practice. When you're playing against Carolina, you can't mimic how fast they push the ball up because that's what they do better than anybody in the country.

And we run a very similar zone. We have different types of personnel, so we have to utilize it a little bit differently based on our personnel. But it's all -- the foundation is definitely what we did at Syracuse.

And very familiar with North Carolina. I was very familiar with Coach Williams at Kansas. We had played them multiple times. One of the great coaches to ever do it and one of the great program, college basketball programs of all times.

It's an honor to even have the opportunity to play them. For a coach and for a program that's trying to build it's like a dream come true. You get a chance to play against the best of the best. What's better than that in March Madness time?

Q. The guys talked about relishing that look on an opponent's face when you guys have frustrated them defensively and said they saw it last night. How do you build that and instill that in guys, maybe even more so than getting excited by offense?
COACH HOPKINS: It goes back to what your culture is and our culture is defense travels. You can bring it anywhere. It's what you can control. You can't control make them miss shots, but you can control how hard you play and how smart you play and how together you play.

And for us on the defensive end, it's something that we hang our hat on. And it is like a Rubik's Cube. We can make adjustments and it can frustrate teams. But that goes back to when we are locked in and focused on our game plan and moving around and flying around. We've also proven in certain times when we haven't been locked in and haven't been focused where teams can hurt it. So hopefully we'll be that locked in and focused for tomorrow.

Q. Some people in the Northwest are starting to compare you to Pete Carroll because of your high energy, your positive approach on the floor. Is this something you've always had as a coach or was there another coach that passed that philosophy to you?
COACH HOPKINS: The one lesson that I learned is be who you are. And I'm 49 going on 14 sometimes. I like to have fun. I like to interact. I've been fortunate in my career to learn from some of the greatest coaches and be around some of the greatest coaches in the game.

And my high school coach, Gary McKnight -- Bob Johnson was my sixth-grade Little League baseball coach, the super quarterback coach, high school coach at Michigan High School, played for Jim Boeheim. I was with the Olympic team with Coach K.

I've been really lucky. And whenever you're around great coaches that have changed your life, you learn a little bit from everybody. So the one thing that they all have in common is they're all real simple, they're all great people, they all care about kids and developing kids. And most importantly they are who they are.

And if I have to roll up my sleeves and take off your coat and people are, why are you taking off your coat? I don't know, that's just what I do. I'm nervous. I don't know what happens. I feel like I'm on a sand trap on the golf course. I've just got to roll it up -- it's going to be difficult -- and I start rolling it up and that's what it is. Just been very fortunate and learned from a lot of people.

Q. Noah mentioned that his visit to the campus happened in the summer and he recommended for your recruiting going forward that that was probably a good idea. Is that a plan?
COACH HOPKINS: That's the plan. That's the plan.

Q. History and tradition don't mean anything once the ball goes up and the game goes on. But you've come from a program that's had a lot of history and tradition itself. Where does that pay off in terms of prestige and that sort of thing?
COACH HOPKINS: I think we're trying to -- like the Carolinas and the Dukes and the Syracuses and the great programs, that's what you strive to be. That's what your goal is. You want to play against the best. Gonzaga. That's what you strive to be. And you try to do it your way. And standard of excellence. What they represent, playing for something bigger than yourself. The Carolina way. The Husky way. That's what you're trying to be.

And so to be able to have the opportunity to play against the best of the best is -- you see what it's like. You see what it feels like. You see what it smells like. You see what it looks like. That's how you learn, through experience, and it would be an unbelievable opportunity for us to learn, to play. Hopefully we can play well. And it's going to be a great, like I said, a great opportunity.

Q. Is there a point where you know you need to shut it off personally before a game? You could prepare and not sleep for 24 hours if you -- someone with your energy, I know.
COACH HOPKINS: This is the best -- the best fatigue is after winning. I don't care, we'll be up all night. The staff was up all night. They look like they haven't slept in five days and all excited in practice. So, listen, we're in March Madness playing against North Carolina. I mean, is there anything better? And I told these guys, like, March Madness is an opportunity for Cinderella and have a chance to play for a national championship. We didn't come here just to get here. That's not our standard. That's not what we're trying to do. We have got to have a game plan, go out play against the best and see where we stand and hopefully we can execute a game plan and come out with a win.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

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