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

March 20, 2021

RaiQuan Gray

Florida State Seminoles

Bankers Life Fieldhouse

Postgame Media Conference

Florida State - 64, UNC Greensboro - 54

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to this NCAA March Madness press conference, featuring the Florida State Seminoles after their 64-54 victory over UNC Greensboro. We're going to hear from redshirt junior forward Raiquan Gray after a 17 points and 7 rebound performance. We'll hear from him first, followed by FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton.

We've got Raiquan Gray with us now, the Florida State junior forward. We'll begin the press conference.

Q. Raiquan, congratulations on the victory. Just curious, obviously, you guys didn't get to play last year. How much are you guys sort of playing for last year's team? And also, how confident are you guys that you'll be able to make a run after today?

RAIQUAN GRAY: Like you said, last year we didn't get to participate in this tournament. Everyone was shut down. We were kind of playing for the guys that came before us. They set a legacy. We made some runs to the Sweet 16, Elite Eight, and I'm confident we have the team and the talent to get to the Final Four and actually get over that hump.

We carry a lot of pride with us at Florida State, our university, the guys that came before us. That's definitely our motivation going forward, to have last year's team on our mind and advancing for this year's team.

Q. Raiquan, you guys didn't hit a three, and you only attempted one in the second half. What was the message at halftime? Obviously, you got Balsa going early in the second half. It just seemed like Coach told you: We're going downhill. Don't shoot threes, get to the basket?

RAIQUAN GRAY: Not necessarily. We just took what the defense gave us. We knew we had a height advantage and a strength advantage on those guys, and we didn't want to settle for jump shots. Our game plan coming in was to attack the paint and use our athleticism to attack the basket and use what the defense gives us.

We missed some shots, but our defense really pulled us through in the game. Considering how our offense was, our defense was the key thing that pulled this win out for us.

Q. Raiquan, I think M.J. had four points and Scottie had four points. It's not a new thing, the depth of this team and how many different guys can do it. What does it say about this team being able to win an NCAA Tournament game when those guys give you less than ten points total?

RAIQUAN GRAY: Like I said before, those guys go out and play defense regardless of how their offensive game is going. We've got a whole team that can come in and defend anybody.

I think that's where we belong, especially in the tournament time. All your shots are not going to fall. You're going to miss some easy baskets, but you can control what you do on the defensive end and how much effort you play with.

Those guys do it. Scottie's going to bring energy every day. M.J. is a poised player. He wants to win. Regardless of whether their shots are falling or not, they're going to play defense and make sure we got this win. I really appreciate those guys coming out tonight and giving that effort.

Q. Hey, Raiquan, how important was your team's composure today? With a team like that, they kept fighting back, kept fighting back, it could be easy to get frustrated, but you guys were able to keep your composure and each time move that lead back out.

RAIQUAN GRAY: I think we just learned from our mistakes in the past. Obviously, these last few games the last couple weeks of the regular season, you can go to Georgia Tech game, we were up in that game, and North Carolina game, and things like that. I think we just learned from our mistake.

We limited our turnovers. We still turned the ball over a little too much today. But I think at the end of the day, we learned from our past games. Taking care of the ball when we needed to, getting quality shots, and like I said before, getting stops on defense.

That was a key thing we did down the stretch that we didn't do in the past games that we lost when we were up. So defense and playing smart basketball on the offensive end is really what helped us tonight.

Q. Raiquan, I know it must seem like a lifetime ago, but I believe your last tournament game two years ago, you went scoreless against Gonzaga. I was curious, how has your skill set progressed from two years ago, and/or did you learn anything from that loss that you think helped you or will help you this year?

RAIQUAN GRAY: I'm an older guy. I think my maturity was a huge thing, going back to two years ago. I think I was kind of anxious back then, excited to play as a redshirt freshman.

Now I'm an older guy and I'm one of the leaders on the team that guys look at and lean on. So I think I have to be composed throughout all situations. Just play my game. My teammates believe in me, my coaching staff believes in me. If I just go out and play my game, I think I'll be fine. But definitely the maturity thing is big compared to two years ago.

Q. Raiquan, the ACC didn't have such a great opening day of the tournament. Looks like you guys might be carrying the torch for the league. Are you looking forward to that?

RAIQUAN GRAY: Yeah, I mean, we kind of control what we can control. We can't control what the other teams play or if they win or not. But it's kind of sad to see those teams go away so quick.

But like I said, we're going to control what we can control, and Colorado is our next opponent. We're looking forward to those guys, and we definitely want to represent the ACC in a good fashion. Obviously, we're going to take pride in that and try to win this thing for our conference and show that we're the best conference in the country.

Q. Raiquan, I was wondering, did Leonard, did Coach Hamilton even tell you guys he had hurt himself? And I guess he's still standing. He looks like the same guy even with, I guess, a ruptured Achilles. And I know he's a serious dude, but do you make fun of him at all? Are you guys allowed to do that?

RAIQUAN GRAY: Yeah, he's a funny guy. He doesn't really mind. We saw him walking through practice one day with a boot on, and he explained to us what happened. He kind of keeps things to himself to limit distractions on our team.

Obviously, that's our head coach, and we care about his health and stuff like that, but he's a tough guy. He doesn't really tell us how he's feeling or complain about it, so we just want to keep going. That's how we kind of take on the mentality to keep going and not let things bother us.

He's a tough guy. We crack jokes here and there about him walking around in his boot, but that's our guy. We're going to go out there and play for him.

Q. Raiquan, how big was it for Balsa early on in the second half to kind of get you guys going maybe as you guys were maybe coming out of the intermission? What would you say of his performance today?

RAIQUAN GRAY: It was huge. We depend on him a lot inside for rebounds, blocked shots, scoring. When he's aggressive, that's when we're at our best. He's a huge part of our team, but when he's going, we're definitely a high-level team. We tell him all the time we have confidence in him so just to play his game.

It's obviously been his first tournament game, and he had to settle down a little bit. I think he did that coming out in the second half. You saw him playing aggressive and being who he was. He had a great performance, and I think that he's going to keep building off of it, and the sky's the limit for him. I think he's going to be a huge part of our tournament run this year.

Q. Do you know anything about -- obviously, you guys are going to play Colorado. Do you guys know anything of Colorado going into this next game?

RAIQUAN GRAY: I mean, I've watched them a few times, just late night up on ESPN and stuff like that. Caught a few Pac-12 games. But as a team, we haven't sat down and discussed those guys yet. I think we'll do that later tonight once we get back and settled.

They're a good team, obviously. Not many teams make it to the round of 32. So obviously they're a good team. They come out of a great conference. This is going to be a good basketball team. We have to come out with the same mentality, try to win the game by all means, and let the chips fall where they fall. They're a good team, like I said before, but we're just going to game plan later today and find out some things about them.

Q. So you guys didn't know that Coach Hamilton had ruptured his Achilles until he shows up at practice in a boot, is that right? Do you guys borrow from his toughness? I mean, he's walking around out there like nothing's wrong.

RAIQUAN GRAY: Yeah, I mean, he just came to practice one day, and he was a little late, just walking in with a boot. And we kind of just asked, and he explained. Yeah, like I said before, he's a tough guy. That's how he puts it. He instills toughness in us. He doesn't like to complain about anything or let little things bother him. He's walking around like he's healthy 100 percent even though how he's feeling. He's going to show up every day and be the same coach and be a leader for us.

That's how we feel. Showing up in a boot is extra motivation to go out there and play with something. That's our guy. He's our head coach, and we all love him.

Q. Thanks for taking my question. What does it mean to win today after last week's tough loss to Georgia Tech in the championship game? What did you guys do to be more focused on winning this First Round match?

RAIQUAN GRAY: I mean, obviously, it means a lot. First off, it means a lot. Not many teams can advance to the round of 32. We just had to be ourselves. I think that the ACC Championship game was not the team that we're capable of.

I think today was just a snippet of it. I think we're going to keep getting better as we advance throughout the tournament. We came out today and was ourselves. We rebounded and stayed after it and played tough down the stretch.

That's who we are, and that's our identity. As long as we keep being ourselves, we have a chance to win the championship. That's our mentality going into each game is just be ourselves and let the chips fall where they fall.

Q. Hey, Raiquan, I was just wondering, you guys have succeeded this year with your offense. You're the number one scoring team in the ACC, but this game you really relied on your defense. Can you just talk about how important that is? Especially in the tournament, how that can really lead to success for you guys.

RAIQUAN GRAY: I mean, it's super important. I think that not many people view us as a defensive team, but if you know Florida State basketball and Coach Ham, we're junkyard dogs. We get after it on defense.

I think we had a few slip-ups these last few games. We know what we're capable of, and I think we showed that a little bit tonight. We still can clean some things up, but I think our defense is going to take us to where we need to be.

Defense wins championships, that's what everyone is saying, and that's what we believe in. That's what our coach is preaching. That's what we're going to rely on. We can always rely on our defensive effort, and that's what we're going to do for the rest of the tournament.

THE MODERATOR: Raiquan, thank you so much. Congratulations again. Best of luck in the next round.