NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - ABILENE CHRISTIAN VS TEXAS

March 20, 2021

Joe Pleasant

Lucas Oil Stadium - Unity Court (South)

Abilene Christian Wildcats

Postgame Media Conference

Abilene Christian - 53, Texas - 52

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with questions for our student-athlete.

Q. You just beat the flagship school in your home state, the Texas Longhorns. What does that mean to you?

JOE PLEASANT: It's an incredible feeling for the whole team. We were real excited about this game, excited that we got an opportunity to play a good program, a good team like Texas and it feels even better to get a win like this.

Q. Can you describe the mood and kind of feeling in the locker room after that big win?

JOE PLEASANT: Oh, man, we're real excited, real loud. We put in the work. We were working towards getting a win like this. I mean, it just feels nice, to be locked in on your game plan and you work hard, prepare, and at the end it just pays off on the floor.

Q. Can you take us through what you were thinking, how you handled being at the free-throw line with the game on the line with 1.2 seconds left?

JOE PLEASANT: Well, my coach, he said I was going to make the two free throws and we would get a stop on the end. I just went down, you work on free throws all the time, it's just no different, me shooting those, just me in the gym by myself. I just had to visualize them going in and then that was the result.

Q. You think about how long you guys have actually been a Division-1 program and the culture change and how much you guys have done to get to this point. What does it mean to you and what do you think this means for the ACU program moving forward?

JOE PLEASANT: It's a huge honor. For, to be a part of this program and just to see the direction this program is headed. I'm very happy with the progress this program has been making and we just want to continue to work and try to continue to build off of this.

Q. I don't know if you can hear, but your dad is probably among those that is yelling in the concourse right now. I'm out here and I just talked to him and he said you weren't very good when you were younger. I think he called you clueless as a player. What were you like? Describe kind of the player you were as a kid.

JOE PLEASANT: Yeah, you know, I wasn't the best player as a little kid. I mean, I was pretty bad. Like, I couldn't make a layup, like, trust me, it was brutal. Like, people didn't want to pick me up for pickup, like, I was just, I was just out there.

Q. So when did it change? When did you start to get better?

JOE PLEASANT: I probably would say, like, my 7th grade summer is when I really started falling in love with the process of just getting better and really working on my craft and started to make the switch to getting myself to become a better player.

Q. How were you at football?

JOE PLEASANT: I only played football like once when I was young in like -- I mean, I was cool. It's like, I don't know, I guess, I didn't really, like -- I wasn't really drawn towards it as much as basketball.

Q. Going back as a freshman here at Abilene Christian, you take on Kentucky, the program's first NCAA tournament and now you fast forward a couple years later, you're right back at it. How different is this team this year compared to two years ago?

JOE PLEASANT: I felt like two years ago we were just kind of happy to be there. It was first time experience, and this team, we were ready to take on another challenge, not just to be here, but to compete and try and get some wins down here. The relationship that we built with everybody in this locker room, we're very close, when we go out there we're playing for one another every single night.

Q. I wanted to go back to those free throws. I know obviously it's not your strong suit. I mean, are you up there, it looks like you're taking some deep breaths, are you saying anything to yourself? What's going in your head the timeout before?

JOE PLEASANT: Well, I was just trying to calm down myself, just focus in on my breathing and just not make the moment too big and just visualizing the free throws going in.

Q. Can you tell me, what's the difference between the 47 percent or so of free throws that you miss and you being able to step up there and make the two today? Is there something in, that you often do when you miss, release wrong, add, is it a mental thing, what usually goes wrong that didn't today?

JOE PLEASANT: I would say it was more of a mental thing. I feel like I've just started getting back to myself just visualizing the free throws going in and just really trying to focus in on my breathing, calm myself down, and just realizing that I work on it so much that it's no different for me just when there's no one in the gym versus like in a game.

Q. I think some people may be surprised by what they saw tonight, but I thought the defense that we saw was what you guys have done all year long. How were you guys able to stay in the game plan, stay how you know to play against the No. 3 Texas team?

JOE PLEASANT: We just had to continue to lock into the game plan, continue to believe as a team that we could get a win, and just continue to trust our coaches. They had a good game plan for us and we have the utmost confidence in them and we just locked in as a team, we trusted them, we trusted each other, and then we were able to execute the game plan.

Q. There's going to be a lot of talk about how Abilene Christian busted brackets and all these things. But when you go into a game against a team like Texas, what is being said in the locker room?

JOE PLEASANT: It's belief. You got to believe that you can beat any team that you're playing. At the end of the day we're all playing basketball. They're just like us, you know, they put their pants on the same way we do, one leg at a time. So at the end of the day just go out there compete and give it our best shot and that's what we did tonight.

Q. Your associate head coach, Brette Tanner, was talking about how you guys are just so close and it really showed tonight. You guys were bowling in the hallway at the hotel and having a lot of fun and being close, just really what does that say, I mean, like, what can you say about how close you guys were tonight on the court?

JOE PLEASANT: No, we built some really good relationships with one another, like, we're very close. That's one of the things our coaches really emphasize is trying to build good relationships with each other and with the coaching staff and I feel like when have you good relationships it pays off on the court because you just want to give more to that person beside you.

Q. When you walked up to the line, were you, did you say to yourself, I am just going to stare at that rim no matter how long I'm standing here, no matter what's going on around me. It looked like, it maybe just seemed in the moment like it was an unnatural amount of time, but did you just have in your mind, I'm going to lack at that rim and block everything else out?

JOE PLEASANT: So at the moment I was just thinking that, I was visualizing the free throws going in. Before I even shot them, I was just trying to key in on the rim, just lock in, block out the noise and just put into practice what I've done countless times before and just trust in my work I put in before.

Q. Did you have a place maybe where you practice free throws growing up? I mean, this is literally you just lived every kid's dream in a driveway or on a playground or in a gym somewhere. Walk us through maybe when you would have done that in your childhood.

JOE PLEASANT: That's like anytime I go to the gym, if I'm by myself or working out, getting up shots, always making sure I get a certain amount of free throws in because, I mean, a lot of people just think about a moment like this, where it's a close game and you got to shoot two free throws and I just feel like it's a big key to continue to work on your free throws because moments like this happen and you just got to be prepared for it.

Q. Obviously this is fantastic and everything, but you got the UCLA Bruins coming up later this week as well. How do you flip the script so quickly?

JOE PLEASANT: We just got to be able to lock in tomorrow, listen to the coach's game plan, and just kind of flush this one down the toilet and be ready and move on to the next one. You say it's a very good team, a very good program, so we just got to lock in as a team, lock into what the coaches have to tell us and just be ready to go.