NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - UNC GREENSBORO VS FLORIDA STATE

March 20, 2021

Wes Miller

UNC Greensboro Spartans

Bankers Life Fieldhouse

Postgame Media Conference

Florida State - 64, UNC Greensboro - 54

THE MODERATOR: We have head coach Wes Miller. We will start with an opening statement from him.

WES MILLER: First, you've got to tip your cap to Florida State and Leonard's team. They are really difficult to prepare for. They play a style of play that we haven't seen all year with some length and athleticism and depth that we haven't seen all year.

I thought our guys did a great job of preparing this week. I thought at times we did a good job of executing our game plan. At times we didn't. Early in the game, it was obvious we were having a really hard time getting matched in transition. They convert at a really high rate when they have opportunities and numbers in the open court. Then there were times they didn't have numbers, but we weren't able to get matched and build out. Gray and others just getting downhill and taking advantage of their size and ability at the rim.

So that was something, I thought, as we settled into the game, we were a little bit -- we had chances once we were able to get back and get our defense set. I thought at times we were really good defensively. I was really proud of some of our defensive possessions, maybe not quite good enough, but we're a program that's built on the defensive end of the floor.

I thought our ball screen at times was really good. I thought we were pretty scrappy and quick to the ball, and that allowed us to stay in the game.

I think the thing that hurts the most is you feel like you had some chances. You're in a two-possession game in the last couple minutes. I'm feeling for Isaiah Miller missing the two front ends of the one and ones. He's worked so hard on his jump shot. You can see it with his numbers. Guys, we're not even -- you know, we're not sitting here in this tournament without him. He's meant more to our program than I could ever articulate. But I feel for him because I know he'll take that hard. So certainly missed some chances there.

I thought Hayden Koval had a couple of good looks. Then you have the shot at the minute mark out of bounds, and Keyshaun Langley takes a tough one. But I think it's hard to score against their set defense, and he's one of our better shooters and has good range. So I think I can live with that.

So we did have our chances. I thought we had some big stops there late, and then I thought we didn't have some big stops there late, and, again, weren't able to convert in the half court or on the free-throw line.

The biggest thing I'm proud of is no matter what happened, no matter how bad it looked at times or got away, our guys kept fighting. That's the team we've been all year. That's why we're here, and if anything, I'm really proud to be the head coach at UNC-G. I'm really proud to be the head coach of those guys because of the way they carried themselves, not just tonight, but all year.

Am I disappointed? Absolutely. I thought we blew an opportunity, but I'm not anything else but proud of how our guys handled themselves and represented our program and our university today on the floor.

Q. You're down 23-7 early. Was that a product of no matter how hard you prepare, you can't simulate what they're really like in a game setting?

WES MILLER: Well, I think it's a couple things, Joe. I think, first, they've been great in the first half of games, and they've done that to almost everybody they played against. They jump on you early. So that's something they've done all year. We talked about that with our team that was highly possible, and we kind of had to stay the course.

So I think, first, you've got to give the credit to them, but I do think it took us a while -- for whatever reason that is, it took us a while to kind of settle in and go: We can play in this game.

I'm going to look down here at the stat sheet real quick, because I haven't seen it yet, but we had ten turnovers. I'm guessing three or four of those are in the first five or six minutes. It was just uncharacteristic stuff, dropping the ball on the pitch ahead pass, passing and catching being a little sped up.

Again, give Florida State credit for that, but it did take us a while to settle in, and I do think that's the difference in the game because every time you claw back, it was hard to get over the hump because you built a pretty big hole there early. In both halves, by the way.

Q. Coach, congratulations on a fantastic season. You talked about it a little bit in your opening, but what do you think you proved to the nation today about UNC Greensboro basketball to those that may have been up familiar about your program?

WES MILLER: Well, I told the guys in the locker room it's about continuing to take steps forward when you're building a program, and it's been a decade here. The one thing that I'm really proud of is we continue to take steps forward, and each class, each group of kids that have come through have taken it another step.

Isaiah Miller's our lone senior, and he's the first player in UNC-G history to go to two NCAA Tournaments. So he took it a step farther than those that came before him that put him in this position. So we've got to now take this thing another step and get to the point that we get over the hump in one of these games.

So I hope what people see is we're not just a team that had a good year, a program that had a good year. We're a team and a program that continues to grow, and that's the goal as we hit this off-season. We're going to continue to grow.

And we've got to be back in this position, but we've got to be back in this position and get over the hump because we've been here two of the last four years, and we've been in one- or two-possession games in the last four minutes in each game we played in the NCAA Tournament and not able to get over the hump. So we've got to take another step forward.

I hope the nation and college basketball sees that we're really competitive, that we've been consistent, and hopefully we'll keep building on that.

Q. They don't make a three-pointer in that game. That almost never happens. We know how good a three-point shooting team they are. You held them way below their season scoring average. How proud are you of the defense your team played tonight and all season?

WES MILLER: Well, listen, one of our -- the things that we really value here in terms of style of play is the defensive side of the ball first. We recruit to that. We demand that every day. We work at that every day. So I am proud. I'm proud of some of those defensive possessions. I'm proud to look down and see that they were 0 for 9 from three when that was a big key because that's the leading three-point shooting team in the ACC coming into this tournament.

Now, I'd like to have some of those transition defensive possessions back. We don't talk throughout the course of the game, and we give them an easy basket. I'd like to have some of those possessions that we don't keep rotating or stay down in the stance or lose sight of man and ball and get beat back door. There's some possessions defensively that really cost us.

But overall, I'm proud as can be, Joe. I thought tonight, not just us, you go back and watch every team that Florida State's played against this year, it is really difficult to score against their set defense in the half-court. They switch everything. They're huge. They have energy for defense.

So it's really hard to score. We needed to score off of our defense to have success, and I thought when we were playing well in segments tonight, that's what we were doing because, once it got set, we knew it was going to be fairly difficult.

Q. I wanted to ask you, what do you hope your players take away from the experience maybe down the line, 10, 15 years from now, being able to play in the tournament, especially with everything going on right now?

WES MILLER: Listen, this is a lifetime experience. I was fortunate that I got to experience it three times as a player. So I know what that feeling is like, and I also know now, 15 years removed -- yeah, around 15 years removed. I'm getting old here. But I also know now how you look back and how you remember those moments, and you have a pride that you played in this event, which is the greatest sporting event in the world.

So it just -- it's thrilling for me as a coach, and we cut down nets in Asheville two weeks ago. It's thrilling for me to know that they're going to have those same memories, and they're going to have that same experience they'll remember for the rest of their life.

Then the final thing with that is this is an NCAA Tournament unlike any other. So it's one thing to say you played in it. It will be something else to say you played in this one because, as you mentioned, all the stuff we dealt with this year.

Q. Coach Miller, what improvements have you seen from Isaiah Miller over the course of his career at UNC Greensboro?

WES MILLER: Holy moly, how much time you got? I mean, he's -- when he talked through the door, he was competitive, maybe as competitive as anybody I've ever seen. He had world-class athleticism, and he had world-class instincts, basketball instincts, especially to the basketball or defensively, in that nature. So he has that stuff now, and it's improved.

But every other part of his game has come leaps and bounds. His freshman year, we would never play him at point guard. We wouldn't even think about it because he couldn't make good decisions, he couldn't handle with his left hand, he couldn't finish with his left hand. We told him he wasn't allowed to shoot jump shots. And every year he's just added to his game and added something or multiple things to become a better player. So he's improved in every way.

He tested the draft waters last year and was told, hey, you've got to be a little bit better of a decision-maker at point guard. He had like a one-to-one assist-to-error ratio. You look up this year, and he's like 53rd in the nation in assist rate on KenPom. He wasn't even ranked in that category a year ago. They say you've got to shoot the ball better. He shoots almost 50 percent from the field this year, and we ask him to take some really difficult shots and shots off the bounce. He improves his free-throw percentage by 10 percent. Those are just some examples.

But he's improved in every way. He's learned how to understand the game and how it works with guys on both ends of the floor. If he keeps improving at this rate, there's no ceiling to what he can accomplish, and I do believe, if somebody gives him a chance, he can play in the NBA right now because he can guard in the NBA right now, and he can guard the position that's really the most difficult to guard, and that's the point guard position.

You saw him guarding ball screens tonight. He gets a couple steals and makes a couple plays tonight when the game was on the line defensively against guys that are going to get their names called. And I think that's why he can play at the next level.

Q. You mentioned Isaiah. What did you tell him after he left it all on the floor tonight, and what do you tell some of the guys who are going to follow him, like Keyshaun, who really stepped up today and has in the second half of the season?

WES MILLER: You know, I just told him after the game how much he's meant to this program and to the university and to Greensboro and to me personally and all the people in that room. I told him how much I love him and how much I'll never be able to express to him how much I love him. I don't have the words to describe that.

Then I told all those guys that he took our program a step further than the guys that got it to where it was when he walked in the door, and it's their job now to take it another step further. That's the best way to honor him. That's more or less what I said, and that's exactly how I feel.