NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - NORTH TEXAS VS VILLANOVA

March 21, 2021

Grant McCasland

Bankers Life Fieldhouse

North Texas Mean Green

Postgame Media Conference

Villanova - 84, North Texas - 61

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Coach McCasland.

COACH MCCASLAND: Give Villanova all the credit, man. It's a tremendous program. Championship program, one that we aspire to be like. And they took it to us offensively. They ended up with 15 3-pointers. When they're making those perimeter shots and you're trying to defend them from there and they're getting into the paint and -- just had us on our heels.

We've been an aggressive team all year long. We found a way to get it done on the defensive end. When they got us so spread out making 3s early. And we honestly just competed and gave ourselves a chance on the offensive end early, just couldn't keep up with them. And it's a tremendous offensive team. They've been struggling from 3, but they weren't struggling tonight.

And to their credit, they were really sharp and tough and you can tell they kind of got that flow to them now. With the point guard being out, you can see they've got some games under their belt and they've got good pace and changed defenses on us and made it hard on us.

Man, I spent so much time in the locker room. I apologize I took so long, but this is an amazing group that we had this year and our team and what they've done and this program is really remarkable. And so just hard to tell them bye.

Q. It was such a tremendous year for you guys with reaching so many milestones. Can you just talk about what this year meant for your guys' program?

COACH MCCASLAND: I mean, it was just -- just coaching this team was everything that you hoped it would be as a coach. And I told them, what I'll never forget is being in the middle of the season and we're playing and bringing my sons up to the gym at 9:00 at night and walking out there with them, and we've got eight guys out there working out on their own.

And we stayed until about 11, in and out, while my sons were out there shooting and rebounding for them and including them and playing them in one-on-one. And it's 10:30 at night and here come four more.

The entire team comes back up at night. People wonder how you win these games, how you set records, how you have the best finish in the school's history, first tournament in school history. It's because the guys spend an inordinate amount of time putting their heart and soul into it. And it's a remarkable run rooted in hard work. They believe in each other. They serve each other and they compete, which is what we push them to do every day. And I love this group. And they'll be one of the best in the history of the school, if not the best.

Q. Obviously tough loss for you guys tonight. What was your message to the guys in the locker room there after this one?

COACH MCCASLAND: Well, honestly I wanted to stay in the coach's room the whole time because I didn't want to end it. These kind of teams, you don't want them to end. You don't want it to stop. The moment you have to walk in there, you have to talk about -- we have to talk about just what they mean to us and the words don't do it. The words don't do it.

What Javion has done, what Zach Simmons, James Reese and Thomas Bell, JJ Murray, that senior group, Jahmiah Simmons. The work they put in and what they've done as a group, told them how much I love them, how grateful I am for back-to-back championships, winning a tournament, winning an NCAA Tournament. And you're down 20 or whatever and those guys are coming in the huddles with four minutes left -- let's keep fighting, let's find a way to get back into this. They just don't quit.

This team, they love each other and they said that to each other. And this will be -- this is one of the hardest moments of coaching and the worst part of it, because the season ends abruptly and you don't anticipate it happening because everybody believed we were going to win. But Villanova had different plans, and it's a great program. And obviously they were better tonight.

Q. Even though you guys were down the whole game you guys kept fighting, as you said. Guys in the huddle saying how can we get back into this. Can you just talk about that mentality this whole season, just how special this group of guys has been?

COACH MCCASLAND: Yeah, just it's a resilient group. The thing you love to hear, and a few of the guys said it, they just miss being around each other. They just love being around each other -- not games, not just practices -- they just love being around each other. We did a retreat and we did karaoke, and they'll stay together for, like, two and a half hours just doing karaoke and singing songs and hanging out with each other.

This group wasn't just connected on the floor. They were connected off the floor. And when you have that and your hardest worker is your best player in Javion Hamlet, and he sets the tone and he doesn't care about personal accolades but he believes in himself the way he does, I mean, man, it works. That's the thing those guys shared with one another. Just how much they'll miss being around each other every day. That's the part of teams that you miss and that's what this group was was special -- they were special on and they were special off.

Q. You had that moment there with Javion, I think, with all the players really when they came out with about 50 seconds left. I know you gave Javion a hug first. What was kind of -- I don't know if you said anything to him or what you felt in that moment.

COACH MCCASLAND: Can't even put into words what he's meant to this program and what he's done. I told him he's a warrior and I love him.

Q. Do you think -- obviously a lot of these guys are seniors and it's a weird year with the opportunity to come back. Do you get a sense that there's a desire to kind of come back with some of these guys?

COACH MCCASLAND: That's a hard question to answer. We haven't really addressed it, honestly, and it's a good question. But I think at this moment what we've all poured our hearts into is how do we win. That's what I told them at the beginning, let's just figure out a way to do everything we can to put ourselves in the best position. And they did. Won an NCAA Tournament game, first in school's history. They won a conference championship, first Conference USA championship in school's history, tournament championship. I told him I loved him and he was a warrior. The dude believed when not many people did.

Q. We've talked before about the guys in the past seasons -- Ryan Wards, Michael Miller and DJ Draper -- all that, what can you say about the culture that you have created within this program and how it will be able to continue for seasons to come?

COACH MCCASLAND: The blessing of coaching guys that care more about others than they care about their own accomplishments is that it can carry on. Like that's how you move forward is when the greater purpose is not your own individual accomplishments. And that's what these guys were. That's what they lived. That's what DJ Draper, Deng Geu, Mike Miller, I mean, that's the beauty of I think being a part of a team and that's where you can always establish it like Drez coming off the floor, like, Coach we'll be back. And you've got to have that mentality that there's always hope. And I think that's what those guys established, was there was going to be hope for a greater day and now we can build on the fact that we made it to the NCAA Tournament and won a game and nobody wanted to go out this way. It's a heck of a team to lose to. And we usually have been doing it on the defensive end. We've been scrapping and we just couldn't find a way to get enough stops to keep it going. But the culture has been established because of the unselfishness and the heart to serve one another and, like you said, a lot of guys have gone before them that have put them in this position, and I think that's how you build on it.

Q. The game really turned after you got that eight-point lead and they hit a bunch of 3s, they had the barrage to close the half. What did you see happen during that run that really got them going?

COACH MCCASLAND: We got confused in transition a couple times. The ones in the half court, we were a little short on our close-outs. And they got a couple of guys that haven't been making 3s. You've got to figure out how you want to try to guard them in space. And in hindsight getting after them would have been probably better but they're so physical and strong the way they drive it. So you want to contest them and try to rebound it and they made some kind of short closeout 3s on us in rhythm. And then they got a few in transition and we got confused on who we were guarding. And we kind of -- we were scoring early. We had what we wanted early offensively. And I think we kind of got in that flow of, like, man, let's just score with them. And that's a team that you can't trade punches with; you've got to still maintain the tempo and composure defensively that you want. To their credit, they just kept spreading us out. When Eric Dixon is making 3s in the corner and Cole Swider, who we were trying to guard, shot faked and made one. And number 4 hadn't made a 3, had made 1-for-17, makes 2-for-2 in the first half, and you try to figure out who you can guard and who you're trying to keep in front and they just kept spreading us out. But it's the transition 3s that I think got us and got us on our heels after a few makes.