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

March 23, 2019

Columbia, South Carolina

THE MODERATOR: Our student-athletes from the University of Central Florida, Aubrey Dawkins, Tacko Fall, and B.J. Taylor. We'll open the questions from the floor at this time.

Q. B.J., I wonder if there was any talk this morning about the game last night at all.
B.J. TAYLOR: Yeah, we went over some of the things we did good against VCU, some of the things we did bad, and we moved on to our next opponent. That's our main focus right now is getting ready for the game tomorrow.

Q. This is for B.J. or Tacko. If you didn't know that Aubrey was Coach Dawkins' son, like how would you describe kind of the relationship of father and son? Do you guys see it strictly as coach and player, or can you tell at points that it's father-son?
TACKO FALL: I mean, he's -- I see them not really as a father and son, but as a player and coach. Obviously, he coaches him really hard, like he do for the rest of us, and he treat him the same way that he treat all of us. I would say basically pretty much all of us are his sons, the way I see it.

B.J. TAYLOR: Yeah, what Tacko said pretty much. I mean, to add, Aubrey is such a good person and such a good teammate, that he makes it easy to just like be one of the guys and just fit in with us because of his personality and just how he is and how he approaches every day.

Q. Off that, Aubrey, what's your favorite thing about playing for your father, and how has that dynamic kind of evolved over time?
AUBREY DAWKINS: The best part is building our relationship. And now being a young man in this game and having the ability -- or having the chance to be around him at this stage in my life and my career in basketball has just been priceless. That's what I love most, just going every day next to him and learning from him and us getting closer as a father and son and also as a player and coach.

Q. Tacko, it seemed like last night you were maybe having some fun with the idea that Zion might try to dunk on you in the game tomorrow. In here earlier, he said, he kind of had fun with it too, and he said what are you supposed to say? Do you feel like he is going to try to go at you just to prove a point because you're the tallest player he's ever played against?
TACKO FALL: I mean, I don't know. I don't know what his mindset is, so I cannot speak for him, but I can speak for myself. I'm just going to go out there and try to win the ball game and do everything I can to help my team win the ball game. Basketball plays are going to happen. I'm going to be out there and be aggressive and be the protector that I am. Zion is obviously a very talented kid, great kid. I've seen nothing but positive things about him, and great high ceiling too. And he also has great teammates, great bunch of kids, but he's going to do his job, and I'm going to do my job, and whatever happens happens.

Q. Aubrey, you played at Michigan before you came here. Then you joined a team with a unique player like Tacko. Did you have to relearn or adjust to what he does to both the opposing team and how he changes your team as well?
AUBREY DAWKINS: He just makes the game easier, which is -- that's all I can really say. You have a guy back there that you can trust to block shots if you get beat on the drive or a guy that's going to score 75 percent field goal percentage at the basket. It's nice to have that, nice comfort back there.

Q. Aubrey, as much affection as you know your dad has for Duke and Coach K, do you think he'll do anything? How do you think this matchup is affecting him, if at all?
AUBREY DAWKINS: Not -- he's a game-by-game kind of guy. Same mentality whoever we play. The name on the jersey doesn't really matter to him. Just play our game and focus on the win. That's really it. Yeah.

Q. Aubrey, going off that, do you have any memories of -- I know you used to spend time with him when he was a coach at Duke and being around the team. Do you have any memories from any specific teams or any specific players that you grew up with?
AUBREY DAWKINS: Yeah, I spent a lot of time around the guys, especially growing up. Chris Duhon, Dahntay Jones, all kinds of players I can list off. And just seeing them as I worked out and worked out in the gym after practice was done or working out in the college gym. So, yeah, a lot of good memories. It was good for my foundation to see that.

Q. This is for all the players. You already made history. This was UCF's first NCAA win. Does that kind of -- do you get to play a little looser now, a little freer? What's the mentality going into this matchup?
B.J. TAYLOR: It's the same mentality we've had for every game this season, to just try to go 1-0. That's my focus for this game and the same focus we have for every game.

TACKO FALL: Same thing he was saying, we just try to go 1-0. Obviously, we made it that far sticking to our principle, so why change it? We're just going to keep the same mentality and move on.

AUBREY DAWKINS: Yeah, what they said, just try and get a win as best we can. Whatever we can do to get that win is the goal. Focus on our principles and what we stick to and let the rest take care of itself.

Q. For B.J., you're one game into your NCAA Tournament run now, and you're playing one of the most storied programs in basketball history, five National Championships, all the attention that Duke has gotten. How do you approach that? And is it a little staggering to think what you face tomorrow?
B.J. TAYLOR: I mean, for us, like I said, we're going to approach it the same way we've approached every game this season. Coach does a great job of making us treat every game like it's a championship game, making us treat every game, no matter who we're playing, like it's the biggest game of the season. So we're prepared for this, and now it's just about going out there and executing.

Q. Tacko, you guys, this is your first time in the NCAA Tournament as a group. So is there a difference in the attention paid? Does it change anything about going through and preparing for the game and going through the game?
TACKO FALL: We've been preparing for this moment all season. So nothing has changed. We've been taking the championship approach to everything that we've been doing so that, when times like this come, we will be ready. So nothing has changed from how we approach things. We've been following the same process, just following the coach's plan, and just taking care of business.

Q. Tacko, what are the keys to using your height advantage to make sure that you don't end up on any Zion Williamson highlight reel?
TACKO FALL: I mean, obviously, I'm a great defensive player, but I just don't want that game to be about me and Zion. Obviously, it's very exciting. You got a guy who's 7'6". You got a guy who's a freak athlete, very talented. But at the end of the day, it's a ball game. It's basketball. We can't make it bigger than what it really is. I don't want it to be like a freak show between Zion and I. It's bigger than that. It's UCF versus Duke. They have great players, talented guys. We have also great players, very experienced, talented guys, and we're going to go out there and do whatever we can to win the ball game.

Q. B.J., so what would it mean to this program, to the team, to you if you guys do win tomorrow?
B.J. TAYLOR: It would mean a lot. That's our focus. That's what we're here to do. Everybody is here to win. So like I said, before we get to that, we're just getting ready for practice today and just trying to prepare to make that happen.

THE MODERATOR: Head coach Johnny Dawkins with the University of Central Florida. Questions for coach.

Q. During the season, how often do you and Mike Krzyzewski on average talk? And when was your last conversation prior to the tournament?
JOHNNY DAWKINS: Well, we're always going to be in touch. That's just going to happen. I can't say the frequency, but we're always in touch. Probably the last time, formal conversation, I want to say probably two weeks ago maybe or less. So we had a good conversation somewhere around then, just talking about one of our wins. He called and just kind of caught up with him, he caught up with what we were doing.

Of course, we follow each other's progress and see how each other's team is playing and stuff. So I would say quite frequently.

Q. How do you process the many ties that your team has to the Duke program? You played there. Vince played there. Your son grew up around the program. What kind of impact will it have on this game, and what kind of impact will it have on how you prepare for this game?
JOHNNY DAWKINS: For us, having been a part of the Duke family, of course, it was special. We all realized that. We all felt fortunate to be a part of it. We all felt fortunate to play for Coach and work for Coach in my case. For my son, growing up in Durham, that was special. He was always around the team, always in the gym working out afterwards, so I'm sure it's a unique feeling for him as well.

It's one of those things where, for all of us, it's -- like I said, it's awkward, too, because you don't feel -- it's someone that you've worked for, you're very close with. Like I said before, no one looks forward to that type of situation. It's something that happens because we're in the tournament and it means we've done well because we're all moving forward, but it's not something you look forward to.

Q. There may be elements of what Jeff asked you to this question too. Obviously, there's been a ton of water under the bridge, and you're colleagues and friends now, but is there still a part of you that is like Johnny Dawkins the freshman who showed up to Duke and he was your coach?
JOHNNY DAWKINS: That's always there. He'd probably put me on the line now, and I'll probably start running suicides. That's just part -- once someone's coached you, they're your coach for the rest of your life. That's how it is. I have, of course, the utmost respect for Coach and his program. Like I said, I was a part of it and loved it, and I love Coach. So that's easy.

Q. You went through this at Stanford a few years ago when you guys played Duke up in Brooklyn. Does that take away some of the awkwardness that you've been through this before? Do you draw on that experience as far as being able to set all that stuff aside and approach the game?
JOHNNY DAWKINS: No, I think it does help some that we've done this once before where we were in this environment. It's still the same. You still don't relish it, but it's still something you've already experienced. You understand everything that's kind of -- that will be around this. That's a good thing for me, and I'm sure the same thing for Coach. He's done it with several former players before. I had never done it with Coach until that time. So it was good to kind of understand what that was all about.

Q. Johnny, you said the other day you hadn't had a lot of chance to watch the Duke guys play. I assume that you've watched a bunch more film now in preparation. What do you think of Zion and R.J. and Cam and the rest?
JOHNNY DAWKINS: Very impressive. They don't play like freshmen. Really, really talented young men. And I've seen a lot of freshmen over the course of my career, of course, that have been talented. They have a certain will about them. They have a certain togetherness about them that oftentimes only happens with maturity and playing a lot of games together. I watch them. They seem to have fun playing together, making each other better on the floor. A lot of times with young players, finding that chemistry is difficult. They seem to have found that. I think that's why they're having so much success.

Q. Specifically on Zion, how do you prepare to guard a guy like him? When you watch the tape, I assume you've seen four or five of his games. He's playing extremely well those games you watched. How do you prepare for a guy like him with his size? You obviously know what you have at the rim with Tacko, but outside of the painted area, how do you prep for that?
JOHNNY DAWKINS: We have to understand that he's a great player on any level. His skill set with his size and his explosiveness makes him unique. You're not going to stop Zion. We don't go in, we're going to stop Zion. No, we want to try to contain a player like that, and that's a success for you if you can try to just contain him because he's going to find ways to score the basket. He's going to find ways to make spectacular plays. He's done it all his life.

We have to understand that we can't let that be a distraction to what we do.

Q. Johnny, what are the challenges and the rewards of getting a chance to coach your son? I'm not talking about in Pee Wee ball or AAU, but high Division I basketball.
JOHNNY DAWKINS: It's been really special. I didn't know what to expect. I've said this often. I really had no desire to coach him early on because I'd worked with him every single day. We'd be in the gym after I finished work at Duke. I'd bring him to the gym, and we trained, and when I was at Stanford, the same thing. So we've done that pretty much all his life. So like I said, the last thing I wanted to do, if we're doing this every single day, and now I'm going to grab you and coach you. So I kind of avoided it. Just the timing worked out where we could get together.

The time was right, and I think he was ready as far as where his maturity level was. I was ready where my career was. And it's been terrific. Other coaches had told me, Steve Alford being one of the main ones, Ray McCallum, another coach. They all said, you get a chance to coach your son, you should do that. That always kind of stuck with me as I was coaching in my college career when he was of age. When the opportunity presented itself, we did it, and they were absolutely right. I've enjoyed every moment of it. It's really been special.

Q. Coach, I know it was 37, 38 years ago, but can you recall why you chose Duke when Duke was struggling at the time when you could have gone anywhere?
JOHNNY DAWKINS: Well, absolutely. A few reasons. One, of course, Coach K. He hadn't accomplished what he's accomplished now. He's arguably the greatest college coach to coach our game, but back then I still had a belief in who I thought he could become. He painted a really good vision for us as a team, what he thought we could do. He painted a great vision for me, what he thought my career could be like. So that trust in him, that person was important.

And they did a great job recruiting. They spent a large amount of time recruiting me, you know, years of developing relationships. It wasn't something just happened that first year on a whim; they started recruiting me, and all of a sudden, I'm going to go to Duke. It was years of recruiting. That was a great commitment.

So with his commitment, with Duke University being the institution that it was, they made me feel real comfortable. They made me feel it was the right decision.

Q. Coach, do you get a sense of how your team, not only facing in a tournament game, but facing the tournament's Number 1 overall seed, the Number 1 team in the country. Do you get a sense of how your team is sort of attracted to that kind of challenge?
JOHNNY DAWKINS: I think my team will come out with a sense of maturity. I think they'll come out with a focus. And that's where they've been all year. They've come out, and they've competed against everyone we've played against, and that's, I think, largely because of the leadership. Our senior leaders, guys that have been around. They've demanded that from all of our players. I think they'll continue to lead the same way they have all season.

Q. Yesterday Collin Smith played eight minutes. I wonder what you said to him after the game and what you really need from him in this game tomorrow.
JOHNNY DAWKINS: Well, Collin -- every game is different. We found something that worked well for us during the game versus VCU, and when something's working well for you like that -- and we've done this during other games during the season. I'm sure you know that, where minutes may be divvied out differently, but based on our opponent and what's working well for us. So it was a night where things were working better for us, so we stuck with those.

Collin is always a player that we believe in, and we know he can make huge contributions for us. So just based on personnel basically, and that decision was made.

Q. Coach, it seems like the last few games Frank Bertz has really contributed coming off the bench late. Last night had a couple of threes and a couple of big offensive rebounds. Talk about what he brings to tomorrow night's matchup and coming off the bench for you guys late like that.
JOHNNY DAWKINS: As much as he contributes making threes, I just love his energy and his effort. He makes a lot of winning basketball plays, a lot of plays that can kind of go unnoticed. He'll make threes, and everyone sees him knocking down and getting points.

I just love his overall game. He plays with great energy. He plays the right way. He plays to win.

Q. Johnny, having grown up in Mike's system, is there any advantage to you tomorrow knowing the way they like to run their sets or the way they do things?
JOHNNY DAWKINS: It's different from when I was there coaching and when I was there playing for him. As you know, Coach is -- he's the master of adapting to change and times. I was there over a decade ago. This game has changed so much since then. Coach has adapted to that. How they play now and the schemes they use aren't the same schemes they used when I was coaching there and definitely not the same schemes when I played for him.

He's changed a lot. I've been watching a lot of tape, of course, all last night and this morning. It's a different team. They're different players he's coaching, and there's a different style he's utilizing to bring the most out of those guys.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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