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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: TULSAMarch 23, 2019Chris HoltmannAndre WessonMusa JallowTulsa, Oklahoma THE MODERATOR: We'll go right to questions for the student-athletes. Q. This is for both of you guys. Musa, first, your role obviously has changed as the season progressed. Just talk about how important it is for you to contribute in the different areas that you provide for the team. And Andre, just your relationship with your brother out there and playing together? MUSA JALLOW: Like you said, it has evolved. My role is mainly guarding one of the best players on the team, trying to slow them down and pick my spots on the offensive end and work on the boards and stuff like that. So, I feel like the effort and the energy that I can bring to the team is extremely important for our team. ANDRE WESSON: Yeah. I mean, playing with my brother it's kind of a dream come true. Something we always talked about since we were little and for -- to make that dream a reality is really a blessing. Q. For both you guys, just talk about last night's situation and others now, when you're in tight games, the confidence being able to make the big plays when you need to. ANDRE WESSON: Yeah. I mean, our whole mantra is just next-play mentality. We knew they're going to make some big shots and they're a real a good team. So just moving on, that's what we were able to do with Keyshawn and Caleb, make big plays down the stretch that just kept us moving on. MUSA JALLOW: Yeah, just like what he said, you know, we knew it was going to be a tough game. Most of these games in the tournament comes down to the last seconds. Keeping the poise and moving on to the next play and trying to make the right play. THE MODERATOR: Anythings else for the Buckeyes? Okay. Gentlemen, thank you very much. Best of luck tomorrow. Head coach of the Buckeyes is here, Chris Holtmann. We'll have him make a statement on the day in between games here in Tulsa, then we'll go to questions. Chris, please. CHRIS HOLTMANN: All right. Tremendous amount of respect for this Houston team to be sitting at 32 - 3, it's incredible. They've had -- really had an incredible season. As I said last night, I think we're really one of the elite teams in the country, and so it's going to be a tremendous challenge for us to quickly prepare for, I think, one of the very best teams in the country. I think their body of work has clearly shown that. In this thing, in this tournament, you're going the play really good teams every night. So, we have a quick turnaround to that. The last thing I would add is it's interesting, I saw just for a minute today, kind of on a side note, Kelvin's comments, maybe it was yesterday or today, regarding parents and travel, and I couldn't agree with him more. I'm not sure if you've seen his comments. You'd love as a coach for parents and immediate family members to be provided some way to travel, have their expenses paid for, their accomodations paid for. I just think it would be a really good thing for the NCAA, as we move forward, just to consider. Because you feel sometimes for families who, you know, are traveling and spending lot of money to come and support their kids, and I think it would be certainly a great idea. I just commend him for that thought. I thought it was a great thought. Q. Speaking of correctly Kelvin Sampson, he was in here talking about Tom Izzo. He's been in the news here lately. Just wonder, Chris, about your thoughts in terms of what do you think about that situation? Is it okay to be intense, is this a societal issue? Not so much we've gotten soft, but you have to be yourself and Tom Izzo is being himself, I guess? CHRIS HOLTMANN: Yeah. Yeah. I think that, you know, I've -- obviously you had to be in a cave to not see what you're discussing there with Tom. Tom is a Hall of Fame coach that has a track record that is up there with, you know, the very best that really ever done it. I think your point, Rob, to coaching to your personality. I think I think there's a lot of different ways to coach and certainly different ways in which coaches determine how to hold kids accountable. I think Tom has clearly shown -- I said that to him last year in our first game against him. One of the things as a young coach that I had great appreciation for Tom was that he coached his best player just like he coached, you know, his -- the 9th man on his team. There was no changing in how he coached his kids. I think that speaks to his success. Now, you can argue optics and how that looks and, you know, I get that. We're in a different age now. There is a camera on us at all times and, you know, sometimes the arena that we're in, it's not very nice at times. And it's a highly competitive field, and I think the reality is, I've got incredible respect for him and what he's done, and it's clear that his kids do as well. Q. Moving off of him to you, how important is honesty in not being passive-aggressive with guys and being up-front and getting them to understand, let's say, roles? Because that really is kind of what it comes down to a kid understanding what he needs to do. CHRIS HOLTMANN: I think there is no other way to coach kids. I think up-front, brutal, candid conversations are -- they build trust. I think they're paramount to having growth happen individually and with your team. And I think, let's be honest, we're all in a relationships here and sometimes it's easier to not be honest. And I think that choice at the end of the day doesn't help either party. So, I think candidness, brutal honesty, it's paramount for a team's growth. Q. I asked correctly Coach Sampson and his players, 1 to 5, 1 being very mellow and 5 being very fiery, his players said, "What about 10?" Where are you on that line? And I know you've changed through the years, but I guess where is that with you in terms of effectiveness and intensity? CHRIS HOLTMANN: It's interesting, because I think sometimes how we perceive us ourselves is different. One of the things that I try to do a lot is ask our staff and our -- ask our players, "What do you hear me saying?" I'll ask our staff, "How did what I just communicate" -- and it could be a very brutal direct conversation with the player like, "How did that come off?" Because I think I'm always wondering that because what I think -- how I think it's come off may be completely different. So, I don't know what our players would say. I know people have come to practice at times and they've said, "Man, he's on edge today." And other times they said, "Man, he's laid back." So, maybe it depends on the practice, for one. I'm not sure what our players would say. I certainly think that they would say -- put it this way: I don't think they would put me at a 1. Q. They didn't (laughter). CHRIS HOLTMANN: Okay. All right. Nor would I want to be a 1 for that matter. Q. Chris, was last night's game, or even anything in an NCAA Tournament, the ultimate of what you talked about before with guys being able to affect a game in a different way, outside of being the leading scorer and things like that? CHRIS HOLTMANN: I thought we certainly had some guys have great individual performances. I thought Caleb and Keyshawn were tremendous in just their individual offensive performances. We had a lot of other guys that made necessary, important plays. If we're going to have a chance to beat Houston, we're going to need a collection of guys. They're clearly going to do their very best to take away some of the strengths of our team. So, we have to find other ways to impact the game. And I think we saw that, you know, last night. CJ didn't shoot it hopefully as well as he will moving forward, but he made important defensive plays, got his hands on a lot of balls and rebounded it and still was attacking. I liked his aggressiveness. Andre kind of did what Andre does. Without making shots, he just -- he impacts winning. The kid really impacts winning in a positive way. You saw that with a number of guys. Q. Kind of an outside the box question. You have one kid on your team, Jaedon LeDee from Houston. Given -- I know you're here to win a game. The situation permits because he's going -- his family watching back home in Houston, would you try to find a way to get him in the game maybe moreso than you hadn't in previous games? CHRIS HOLTMANN: We'll coach to win the game, whatever that looks like. So, you know, Jaedon is a tremendous kid. We'll coach to win every possession, and whatever that looks like, it looks like. Q. Players are saying over last couple weeks they've become more aligned to the system, understanding their roles, buying in. What does buying in mean to you? How do you get to that place? I would think that's one of the harder things in coaching. And is it better now than what it was early in the season? CHRIS HOLTMANN: I do think that takes time and I think -- I also think sometimes it needs to be validated by -- sometimes in kids' minds, it needs to be validated by them seeing the success of that. Not always, but in some cases it does, both success for maybe their individual growth but certainly the team. I do think it's pretty good, and I think we've seen that here in the last couple weeks when our backs have been up against the wall and we've had to perform in pressure situations. I don't know that I've questioned our buy-in or commitment to how we want to play a whole lot this year or really the two years. I think last year it was -- the buy-in was driven so much by those older guys, and it happened right after we had lost three out of five, and they just said this is -- we're going to commit to kind of doing it this particular way. And then from then on it was really good. Q. Along those lines, this word "brotherhood" gets thrown around. It seems like that's happening, too. Guys are happy for other guys. CJ is really happy for Musa, what happened. How important is that to where you want to be as sort of this whole structural kind of we're all together into this thing? CHRIS HOLTMANN: I think it begins with great kids who come from great families who -- you know, I say this a lot, but who want to play for Ohio State and who maybe they don't quite understand it when they arrive what playing for Ohio State looks like. But as they grow in the program, they have a greater appreciation for what being a part of a team, the value being a part of a team. You know, we were in the locker room last night talking as coaches, and you hear some of our staff and coaches talking about their memories of playing in the NCAA Tournament. The music that they used to come back after wins and dance to, the song still played in their head. Like those are really special memories. And I think as you get older, you appreciate how important times like this are and the beauty of being a part of a team. So, I do think there is a connection that happens when you have good kids who understand that they're a part of something great, trying to be a part of something great. I think we have that. I think we have tremendous young people. I think that appreciation and understanding what that looks like can take a little bit of time. But I really do like our guys -- my college coach used to call it "teamness." But I do like that right now. Q. Back to rules for just a second. How hard getting freshman coming in who are the stars -- every kid that plays is the star of his team typically -- to get into that role? I understand maybe at some point during the season, you actually had up on a screen or something, "This is your role." Do you meet one-on-one with guys to say "This is your role" or how does that manifest? So the two questions there: One, how difficult for a freshman to come in to not be the superstar and have to sort of deny himself, I guess? And then, do you have those conversations about "This is what I need you to do'? CHRIS HOLTMANN: Yeah. I think for freshmen it's the most -- maybe the most challenging adjustment to college is that adjustment that takes place from being high volume in whatever -- usually most freshmen are high volume. They're the guys that played the most minutes and took the most shots on their team, typically. Not always, but a lot of them. So that adjustment to now understanding what it looks like to blend in and to bring your current skills and ability and benefit the team is very difficult, because for whatever reason, it gets lost of on them that they were a freshman in high school one time. They forget. They just think their senior year in high school -- the, freshman year in college is going to look like the senior year in high school. You were a freshman once and how much did you play on the varsity team? You have to remind me. I didn't. Yeah, that's my point. It's an adjustment. There is an adjustment. And if you do -- all over the country I think the other thing do you in situations, Rob -- you don't want to get into too many comparisons, but you do give them a reality check about this is happening all over the country. Just look at some of your buddies that you played against, played with even, and how you handle it will determine how successful you're going to be as a freshman. In terms of role identification, it's a constant and ongoing process. I don't believe in -- I think you have to be careful that you're not limiting what you believe players can be from one month to the next. I think yet, at the same time, I think playing to your strengths is what good players get and what average players don't ever figure out. I think you're constantly trying to communicate that, you know, to your guys. Q. Especially important right now at this point in the season they know what they're supposed to do. CHRIS HOLTMANN: I think they should have already at this point figured that out. I do think that takes -- that first month, month and a half, two months of the season, that is some figuring out. But I think at this point -- and it does evolve because maybe there's an injury happens and the role changes, we need more, and that's happened with our team where we've had some injuries and some things where guys' roles have had to change a little bit. But if they don't have a pretty good understanding of that right now, then we haven't done a great job as coaches. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for the head coach of Ohio State? CHRIS HOLTMANN: Thank you. THE MODERATOR: Best of luck. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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