NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST FOUR

March 18, 2021

Darian DeVries

Drake Bulldogs

Mackey Arena

Postgame Media Conference

Drake - 53, Wichita State - 52

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Coach DeVries. Coach, an opening statement.

COACH DEVRIES: Really excited for our guys and our program. It wasn't the prettiest game in the world, but I thought our guys really had to show some resiliency and hang with it in both halves. We got down double digits and didn't have anything going offensively, but they continued to stay with it and believe in one another and were able to pull out a very hard-fought game.

Q. On the broadcast it said it was 50 years ago to the day where Drake won its last NCAA Tournament victory. I'm curious if you could elaborate on what this win means for the program?

COACH DEVRIES: Yeah, I mean, it's been a long time. And our guys knew that. It was something that getting the opportunity to be here, first of all, was something that these kids dream about. Coaches we dream about it. So then to get a win for our program that hasn't happened in 50 years, it's really exciting.

Again, these guys have fought through so much. And for them to be the ones that were able to get this one, I think is really deserving.

Q. Wanted to ask you about the resiliency. What stood out about your guys' path, getting into the tournament, being unsure, and then you went almost ten minutes without a field goal in the first half. What stood out to you, just your group's path to this point?

COACH DEVRIES: I think the biggest thing, when you look at it, we got off to a great start on the year. We were 14-0. And then we had to go through a three-week COVID pause. I know other teams in the country had to go through similar things. But that was a hard thing for our guys to do.

Then you lose two first-team all-league guys, Roman Penn and ShanQuan Hemphill, after that. And we had to play 14 games in the last 33 days of the season. These guys have really had to battle and fight through adversity to play their way into the tournament. So this opportunity isn't taken lightly by any of us.

And all year they've battled back from deficits and today was no different. We continue to challenge them that they've been here before and just to stay with it, trust each other. And they did that. And we were able to close out both halves playing -- we got our offense going and they continued to get stops while we were struggling. So just a heck of an effort by the guys.

Q. What did you tell your guys during those timeouts when the offense wasn't clicking? Looked like you weren't yourselves. How did you get them to stay in the game?

COACH DEVRIES: We just thought the ball was sticking a little bit. We weren't getting it side to side enough throughout the game. We wanted to get some interior touches as well. But most importantly it was just getting the ball moving where we could get them out of a set defense where they were having to chase us a little bit.

And then it helped we started knocking down a few shots to loosen it up as well. But as long as -- in our timeouts the whole focus was really more on our defense; just keep guarding to keep us in this because we'll break free at some point. You've just got to trust it. And we got enough stops to not let it get out of reach. I thought that was maybe the biggest key of the game was just our ability to stay within striking distance.

Q. Tremell and Joe, the fortitude maybe to knock down some huge shots. What did you think about those two down the stretch?

COACH DEVRIES: Yeah, I thought they were both awesome offensively. They both made big plays, again, when we didn't have much going. We didn't have any rhythm to really anything we were doing the whole night. So for them to step up and make a couple of big shots there down the stretch was awesome. And them to have the confidence to do it, I think says a lot about them and their belief in themselves and one another.

Q. Your team struggled in the first half. What was the message? Did you have a specific message for the team going into the second half?

COACH DEVRIES: It was the same thing. Just keep guarding. We were able to get it back to basically a one-point game, basically a tie game at halftime. And it was 21-20. So defensively we were doing some really good things. And Wichita State presents a lot of problems on that end, and their ability to crash the offensive glass.

I thought we were hanging in there the way we needed to. But Wichita State, they're good defensively. And their length bothered us at times at the rim, and we needed to adjust it out a little bit and kick it out more. And I thought the second half we were able to get more of that, especially that last seven, eight minutes.

Q. For Darnell to just, specifically on him, to battle through that foul trouble, obviously that's a tightrope down the stretch in a game. Just what's it say to you that he can come back in with the four fouls and play in the level physically that he played and come up big on the offensive end.

COACH DEVRIES: Yeah, he did a great job. And that was a tough matchup for him especially with four fouls. He had to -- that was a physical game down in the blocks and he made some huge plays, made a huge shot, the 15-footer there late in the game. But had a big rebound, really challenged some things at the rim. So his ability not to foul and stay in that game was really critical for us to come away with a win.

Q. Two quick ones, D.J.'s defense on Etienne, I thought was the difference in the game. And Tank didn't play much in the second half. How did you feel like he's survived tonight?

COACH DEVRIES: D.J.'s our best defender. He has been all year. He's dynamite at that end. He's so focused defensively. He understands where guys are trying to get to. He beats them to spots. His defensive effort tonight was awesome. He held one of the best players in the country to one point. I thought he was sensational. Can't say enough good things about the effort that he put forth in that game.

And then Tank, he could have came back in that second half. I just felt like going into the game we wanted to keep him on a minute restriction, and I didn't want to push that. Obviously his health and safety is my number one priority, and even though he wanted to go back in, I just didn't feel like we wanted to do that at that time.

So we'll let him rest tomorrow and then we'll see how he feels on Saturday on his availability and how much he feels like he can play if he can.

Q. To follow up on Tank, did you kind of have a wonder going into the game what you were going to see from him? When he went out there pretty confident what he was going to be able to do?

COACH DEVRIES: We weren't really sure. We've been pretty cautious with him trying to get him to this point. So we hadn't pushed him a lot in practice. We've been trying to take it as easy as we can and let him kind of tell us how he's felt leading up to today. And then I told him going into the game, if you get out there and you don't feel like you can go and stuff you've just got to tell me so I can get you out.

So we weren't really sure. I told him he just had to be honest with me when he gets out there, how he feels, and we'll base it off of that with the trainers and him and determine how much he would play and things. But he felt pretty good in the first half. I think when he got in at halftime and things it started stiffening up on him. So we wanted to be a little more cautious that second half.

Q. What does it mean to advance to the first round?

COACH DEVRIES: We're super excited. I mean, it's something we haven't done here in our program in a long, long time. So excited for our guys, excited for the program, excited for our university, the city of Des Moines. So we're thankful to be moving on. Grateful for the opportunity and can't wait to get back out there.