NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST FOUR

March 15, 2022

Jared Grasso

Charles Pride

Hall Elisias

Peter Kiss

UD Arena

Bryant Bulldogs

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Bryant student-athletes Hall Elisias, Peter Kiss and Charles Pride, followed by coach Jared Grasso.

Q. Charles, we've seen your social media handles, Sour Patch Chuck. What is the reasoning behind that? I heard maybe you eat a bunch of Sour Patch Kids before the game. Tell us the story behind that?

CHARLES PRIDE: Sour Patch. That's pretty much my favorite candy. And I just use Sour Patch as an instant energy boost kind of thing. Whenever I can sneak in a few Sour Patch, I'll have some and stuff like that, but it started back in high school. We used to have a big bag of Sour Patch on the scorer's table in timeouts and stuff like that. I would just grab a few of them.

Q. Peter, you've had a long college career. What's it feel like now to finally get to the NCAA Tournament and be on the real big stage where everybody can see you?

PETER KISS: For sure. Good question. I definitely have a sense of relief finally making it. It's sort of nice that all the hard work and all the long years have sort of paid off. That's a testament to my teammates and my coaches who helped along the way. And we sort of stuck together, worked hard. And it got us to where we are today. But just extremely excited for the opportunity for us as a team, as a program, as a staff, as a university.

Q. What's your impression of Wright State, and what concerns you about them?

HALL ELISIAS: They're a great team. Obviously they won their conference. We're going into this game knowing that they have a lot of size. They play through their posts and they have quick guards. Just making sure we stick to the game plan and execute what we do offensively and defensively.

PETER KISS: I think they're a unique basketball team. They like to push the ball in transition when they have opportunities and they like to slow it down in half court and play through a big in the post.

Obviously they have three really talented dudes, a point guard, wing and a man. So it's going to be an opportunity for us tough challenge for us but we're really up for it. And we're going to prepare as much as we can to be ready for the game tomorrow.

CHARLES PRIDE: They pretty much hit it right on the head. They won their conference. They have really talented players. And we just got the game plan, so we're just going to execute and just stick to what we do every single day.

Q. Peter, you're pretty animated on the court. And that serves, what, is there like two purposes? One, that it kind of jacks you up; and, two, it kind of gets the other opponent out of their game mindset, or what's the thinking?

PETER KISS: I guess that's how you see it. I sort of see it as having a lot of fun on the court. I have the most fun of anybody in the country playing basketball, bar none. So however you want to see it, you could see it. But I go out there and I compete and I do my thing and I try to help my team try to win basketball games.

Q. Were you like that as a young player, too? Is that what you're saying, the way you attacked it, 8, 9 years old?

PETER KISS: I was always edgy, confident. I guess you could say that.

Q. Peter, what's the difference between you off the court and on the court?

PETER KISS: Off the court I'm just completely different. I'm sort of a little soft-spoken, and I like to make an impact on other people's lives. And on the court people see me as sort of boisterous and animated, as he said. But I'm two different people and I embrace it. And I know that's what makes me good on the court. And I am who I am off the court. I guess that's who I am.

Q. Hall, we saw you out on the court before practice, checking out the arena. What are your impressions? When does it sink in that you are playing in the Big Dance?

HALL ELISIAS: I wasn't expecting it to be as crazy, as amazing how it looked. It will probably sink in right before tip-off that I'm really here. But right now I'm just trying to enjoy this ride with my teammates right now, getting ready for the game tomorrow.

Q. Looking through your background, you guys played an ambitious schedule early. The game against Houston, you got beat pretty badly. How did you rebound from that to get to where you are today?

CHARLES PRIDE: We just stuck with the game plan, at the beginning of the year we went through quite a few struggles, but our coach was always telling us to persevere and push through. And that's what our team did. Our team just bit into exactly what he was telling us to do.

We have a great group of guys with great character. Even when things were going hard, we all still lived in the gym and still believed in each other. So I feel like that's honestly what helped us get to this point.

PETER KISS: It was a tough loss for sure. We had to come back and regroup. We made sure, like Chuck said, we stayed in the gym and stuck to our daily habits. But at the end of the day, the goal in a long college basketball season is to play your best basketball in March. So obviously we learned from that loss and did as much as we can on the court as well as off the court and tried to continue to get better throughout the course of the season.

Q. Pete and Chuck, Wright State is based out of Dayton. Their school is here. What are you expecting the atmosphere to be like knowing they're so close to home?

PETER KISS: I mean, it's going to be a great atmosphere. I'm excited for it. I love playing in front of people. Our team's extremely competitive. We have an edge. We live in the gym. It's not going to be anything different from playing at home or playing anywhere else. We're just excited to play in the NCAA Tournament and do something special for our school and for our program.

CHARLES PRIDE: Pete hit it on the head. We're very excited to be here. We do know that they'll probably be filling the stands with a bunch of their fans and stuff like that. But this is no different than any other game. We have a game plan. We're going to be watching film. And it's just all about executing and stuff like that, following the game plan and playing basketball.

Q. Peter, why is it off the court you're so drawn to Special Olympic kids and stuff like that? What's the reason? What's the pull there?

PETER KISS: One of my best friends' father runs a special needs division. That's how I got introduced to it. But I just really enjoy seeing a smile on a kid's face and sort of making their day a little better because they do go through their own challenges. Just something as simple as holding their hand, walking down the court or running with them, rebounding or shooting, just makes the biggest difference in their lives.

I've seen it throughout the years and particularly this year with the Unified Dolphins. But it's just something I love doing and I love impacting people's lives off the court. And I am who I am off the court, so that helps me impact people's lives off the court. So sort of like a dual sword.

Q. Jared, your coach, what has he done? What's he instilled in you guys that maybe made you believe you could get here?

HALL ELISIAS: I'd say Coach Grasso, he instills a lot of confidence in us. Allows us to take pride in the work that we put in. And he's always getting on us to do what we do, don't let anybody take our confidence away from us, continue to fight each and every day.

We know our struggles early, it's just a culmination of having new guys. And he, every single day in practice, instills that confidence, tells us to continue to work and we'd have the last laugh at the end of the year.

PETER KISS: Coach Grasso, first and foremost, is the best coach I've ever been coached by and been around. He's extremely special, the most hardworking person I've ever been around as well. But he really instills hard work in us, and like Hall said, the confidence that comes with that hard work.

He preaches about our habits and how you sort of revert back to your habits when the going gets tough. So I'm so thankful to have someone like that in my life. And I'm forever indebted to him for that.

CHARLES PRIDE: Yeah, Coach Grasso is, like Pete said, one of the best coaches I've ever had in my life. And he instills hard work, and what I really feel stands out about him, is aside from the coaching aspect, he's just like a great person. He's someone that, besides basketball, you could step into his office and talk to him about anything and he'll be there for you. He's just someone you could always count on at any time. You call him at any time he'll answer his phone and he'll always have your back.

Q. Being a 16 seed, you guys were probably hoping for a higher seed. How did you react to that? And is it motivation, or what do you do with that?

CHARLES PRIDE: Being a 16 seed, we don't really have much control over what seed we're going to get and stuff like that. But we're glad to be here and we know the team that we're going to play, and we have the game plan in. So we're just going to play really hard and execute the game plan.

PETER KISS: It's just an extremely special moment just being in the tournament. I'm sure we couldn't really imagine this two years ago let alone a year ago. So we're just sort of enjoying the moment and doing what we do best as a group. And then we'll be ready to go when the ball gets tipped. I mean, we'll play anyone anywhere. So that doesn't really matter.

HALL ELISIAS: Like Pete said, we just want a chance. Doesn't matter what seed we're at. Just happy to be here. Take it day by day, step by step, enjoy this ride and have an opportunity to do something special for the program, for the team, for each other.

Q. Peter, what did you find at Bryant that's made it click so much compared to your other two schools, or why did it work here?

PETER KISS: I don't think I have a direct answer to that. I can tell you I found a coach that I have a special relationship with and teammates who have my back and I have theirs. And I guess I could tell you that we work a little different here. And Coach Buck is the best strength coach in the country and we have the best support staff in the country. Coach Cole is one of the best in the country at skill work, kill work.

And we have the best coaching staff in terms of coaching staff and players. And I really felt when Coach Grasso called me and I just trusted in Coach Grasso and bought into his plan, program, et cetera.

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by head coach Jared Grasso.

COACH GRASSO: Really proud of this group. This group has been through a lot, struggled early on in the season and continued to work, continued to evolve. And I have a group of guys with a toughness and an edge who kind of bought into the process of just getting better every day. I know culture is coach-speak but they've built a culture of guys who put a lot of time into basketball, who are committed to winning and doing it the right way.

So proud of this group. Excited that we have a chance to be here. And we feel like we're not done yet. We've kind of played our best basketball down the stretch and this group has continued to work over this last week. So looking forward to tomorrow night, great opportunity for the program, great opportunity for our university, and playing against a really good Wright State team in their backyard. It's going to be a battle against a good team but our guys will be ready to compete tomorrow night.

Q. Being a 16 seed, I know you were probably hoping for more. How do you view that? Happy to be here, et cetera?

COACH GRASSO: I'm not too caught up in the seed. That stuff doesn't really affect me. We're going to play who they told us to play, wherever they told us to play. That's always been my mindset. We schedule that way. We play a really tough non-conference schedule.

But wherever they told us to go we'll be there. Our guys are ready to compete. Could we have been a higher seed? I think so, but it doesn't matter. They tell you where to go and who to play. And we prepare and we prepare accordingly, and again I think our guys will be ready to compete. I know they're excited to be here, but we're still on a mission to keep winning games. This group has been through a lot and a lot of adversity and overcome that. We're going to be ready to play whoever is in front of us, and I like going to battle with the group that I have.

Q. What has Erickson Bans contributed to your team how did he help you to this point?

COACH GRASSO: Erickson is a kid who is going to be a really good player for us. He had a huge impact when Peter Kiss was out a couple games midseason. He ended up being a starter for us. Offensively you could see what he has the ability to do. Obviously he's Rhode Island's all-time leading scorer. He's a freshman. He's got three more years after this.

He needs a great summer in the weight room, great summer of improvement to be a really great player down the line. He gives us a spark defensively. He's fast twitch, athletic. He's a guy off the bench who can heat our pressure up and get us going with a little bit more pace. And he's a kid whose best basketball is ahead of him, who is learning what it takes to be a great player because we have older, veteran guys who work that way. He's starting to understand how hard you have to work to be a really good player at this level. I think he has a chance to make a big step moving forward.

Q. What did you see in Peter Kiss when you went after him to get him and what's he done for this program?

COACH GRASSO: I've known Peter for a long time. He started at my alma mater, Quinnipiac. I coached against him when I was the associate head coach at Iona. When he left Iona I tried to get him to come to Iona.

He was at Rutgers with a staff I know very well. And his AAU coaches and mentors are friends of mine. When he was leaving Rutgers it wasn't really a long recruitment. His kind of people around him wanted him with me and thought that I could kind of help him grow both as a person and a player.

I like the edge that he has. You can't get that out of some people. Like people see him play, and, yeah, he's got an edge to him and a toughness and the theatrics that go with it sometimes. But that's what makes him the player he is. If he didn't have that he wouldn't be the player that he is.

So sometimes you've got to reel him back in but he wants to compete, he wants to win. And listen, that kid spent every, since he committed to us, he basically has spent the last two years on campus.

This summer he probably trained four or five times a day. Like he was obsessive with it, from 5.00 a.m. to midnight he'd get four or five workouts in a day. I think his work ethic has improved since we got him. And he's taken his game to another level. It's a credit to him and how hard he's worked.

Losing the championship game last year kind of put a chip on his shoulder and maybe the reason he came back for the additional year because he still had something to prove. And he wasn't voted player of the year in our league, which I don't make those decisions. But obviously if you watched him in the conference tournament and look at his numbers I thought he was a player of the year type of player for us.

He's got an edge. It's what makes him good, and it gives our team an edge. I need edgy guys. I need tough guys. That's what I was as a player. That's the way I want my teams to play. And I want him in my foxhole.

Q. What's the difference between Peter Kiss on the court and Peter Kiss off the court? Seems like two different personalities there.

COACH GRASSO: It's two different human beings. On the floor, he's a competitive, nasty, tough, edgy winner. Off the floor, he's a soft-spoken -- he's got a huge heart. I knew right away, the way he is with my children, my children love him. And he's unbelievable in the community, working with the Special Olympics and giving back.

And that's what his heart is. And there were people, when I recruited Pete, who told me I shouldn't take him, for whatever reasons or misconceptions they had about him. The kid has an enormous heart, cares about people, cares about children, unbelievable in the community. If you see him after the games, the way he is with children, he's got a special trait in him that he wants to give back.

Like we'd have Saturday games and Friday night he's working with the Special Olympics that night before game because he enjoys doing it. He wasn't asked to do that or told to do that. It's something he enjoys doing. He wants to give back. And most kids at a young age don't understand that but that's what it's all about.

This is all bigger than basketball. And thankfully for me I was the son of a coach and was blessed to be raised to understand that and understand the give-back piece. And it's something I really try and instill in my players. It's bigger than basketball. And Pete understands that. And it's why he's going to be successful in life.

Q. Where does that edge come from?

COACH GRASSO: He was a kid who was underrecruited coming out of high school. He wasn't a great player. His freshman and sophomore years in high school, he was kind of underrecruited. And he wants to prove people wrong. At Rutgers he played a year, started some games, redshirted the next year. And he kind of came with a chip on his shoulder. And I want guys with a chip on their shoulder with something to prove.

We have a lot of guys on our roster -- all their stories are different -- we have a lot of guys with an edge and a chip. And it's what makes our team's spirit, if you watch us play it's the reason we play the way we do. They're edgy and tough and they want to compete.

But for him I think he's been slighted throughout his career. I think people questioned him when he feels younger. I think his first years of college, four years of college didn't go the way he probably had hoped. And me and Pete have a special relationship. We spend a lot of time together trying to help him evolve as a player and as a person.

And he wants to win. And he wants to be good. And when you want those things, everyone wants those things. Are you willing to put the time into it? And he does. When he steps on the floor, he's a guy who is going to do everything it takes to win and some people misconstrue it as whatever they may, but he's just a competitor. And again when the lights go on, he's a guy you want on your team.

Q. Charles Pride, he told us he used to eat Sour Patch Kids on the sideline in high school. Is that on the diet plan at Bryant? And what did you think of him when you saw him when he was younger?

COACH GRASSO: He eats Sour Patch Kids all day long, I don't know if I've ever see him without Sour Patch Kids, thus the nickname Sour Patch Chuck. And his NIL deal, Sour Patch Smoothy that they sell right now.

As a high school kid, I was his first scholarship offer when I was the associate head coach at Iona. And he was just a tough, competitive junkyard dog. His skill set hadn't evolved yet. I just loved his toughness.

He continued to improve, continued to improve. And obviously he's turned himself into a really good college basketball player. And he'll be one of the all time greats by the time he's done playing at Bryant.

But beyond that he's an even better kid. He's a special, special kid. When we took him I told administrators, by the time he's done here he'll be the most liked kid on this campus. Like he's special. He has a good smile. He's great with people. He's soft-spoken. Everyone loves him on campus. He's very humble.

He's the kind of kid you want to be around. When he steps in the floor he has a look in his eye. He is the opposite of Pete. Pete wants to talk. Chuck just looks you in the eye, stares at you. You can yell at him, challenge him. He stares at you and goes out and he's a junkyard dog, doesn't stop. He'll do whatever it takes to win.

When Pete was out he goes and gets 44 points. Championship game he gets 13 and 17 rebounds. He's a winner. And as good a player as he is, he's a better person. And one thing I can promise you, he always has Sour Patch Kids with him somewhere.

Q. Peter playing with an edge, to an opponent I'm wondering if it would do one of two things. They either start to concentrate on his theatrics or something and they focus on the wrong thing. Or two, it makes them wilt when they say he can back it up, it's, like, oh, crap?

COACH GRASSO: I guess it can go one way or the other. I haven't -- I actually have coached against him at Iona. And probably hated him when I was coaching against him. Listen, it's what makes him. There's times you reel it back but I'm not going to stop you from being yourself. There's times I have to talk to him about it. But that's him when he's a player. That's him when he's on the floor. That's him every day.

And you don't want to dial that back because most guys you can't dial that up with. If you have a kid who doesn't have that, they don't have it. You can try to turn a kid into a competitor. It rarely happens. Those are traits you have or you don't.

There's a balance to it. And again the people on the outside see him and question, have questions about the way he acts. Like I've spent more time with that kid than maybe any player in two years. There's good and bad. And sometimes it's a gift and a curse. But it's what makes him special. It's the reason he's turned into the leading scorer in the country. It's the reason we're sitting here in the NCAA Tournament, that our team has taken on the personality of edgy and competitive. And that's what I want.

How other opponents -- thankfully I'm not coaching against him right now and I don't of to figure that out. But when the lights go on he'll do everything he can to compete and everything he can to win and that's all I can ask for.

Q. I was looking at your schedule. You played a very ambitious nonleague schedule. The Houston game kind of jumped off the page. How were you able to turn the corner to go from that and win and get to the NCAA Tournament?

COACH GRASSO: Yeah, that one wasn't a lot of fun. And we played as poorly as we can. And losing by 67 points is embarrassing. Kelvin Sampson, like, apologized to me on the sideline, told me he had no one else to put in the game, like I was the little brother that he felt bad for.

But I knew we had a good group. And I told our staff -- we weren't good early. We went through a lot early in the season. We were a little disjointed early on. I knew that. I told our staff we're going to have some struggles and that we're just going to have to get through it. And that was part of the deal, unfortunately.

We had some suspensions, some injuries, some sicknesses. And it all happened in like the month of November and December, thankfully. Where last year it kind of hit us late in the season. Got hit with COVID going into the conference tournament. I knew eventually we'd get through it as long as we were working.

At the end of the day it helped us, because I just got the guys to buy into the day to day. Let's get better today, let's work today. Eventually a full roster on the floor for practice which we didn't have much more the preseason until after Christmas. I don't know when we had a full practice with the full team.

But once we were able to do that, we improved, because we have talented guys. We have high character guys and we have workers. But the best thing that ever happened after those losses -- we lost the Houston game, we lost in Cincinnati -- and we came back home and were able to say we just gotta get better right now. Let's just worry about improving.

Then we got hit with COVID, shut down we were playing better basketball. We played really well against New Hampshire. And then we went to Stony Brook and Hall Elisias and Peter Kiss had COVID. Then we got shut down with COVID. There was a lot.

But the group just kept working every day when you have character guys with work ethics who buy into what we're doing on a daily basis you're going to improve. We kept getting better as the year went on and kept getting more connected as the year went on. That was the biggest thing.

The adversity led to our team connecting. The adversity led to our team growing. And every team is going to go through it. It's a long season. The timing of it was right for us because it gave us time to realize we're not as good as we think we are. We have to improve if we keep working at this. And we will improve if we keep working at this, and this group did.

Q. What's it mean for you guys making it to the tournament? I know you guys came with the D1 program a couple years ago. How special is it to be there?

COACH GRASSO: Listen, it's great for our university. It's great for our program. When I took the job four years ago, my vision was to be an NCAA Tournament team. My vision was to play in front of sell-out crowds. My vision was for us to win a regular season championship. It was an arduous process. It didn't happen overnight. It was a lot of work both on the floor, recruiting, marketing in the community.

We're able to turn the corner this year with our fan base, being able to sell out crowds, which doesn't happen at our level. Our crowds the last five games were unbelievable. And we're able to recruit some players who kind of fit the way I want to play, fit the character and toughness that I wanted us to have.

And we've been able to take this program to take the next step. And we're here now to win. We're not just happy to be here. And does that mean we're going to win, no, but I know our guys are ambitious, I know they're hungry what their mindset is, excited for our university. Excited for our guys. I want them to enjoy this process because it's a special thing. But I also want to prepare to go win a basketball game on Wednesday night.

Q. For you personally, you mentioned son of a coach. You're about to be the head coach at an NCAA Tournament game. What is this moment like for you?

COACH GRASSO: You know what, son of a coach means a lot to me, being the son of Fred Grasso. My dad was a long-time college, professional coach. Passed away five years ago. His birthday was this past Saturday.

This is kind of what we talked about through my whole life. When I was a player, I knew I wanted to be a coach. I told people my dad gave me a basketball when I was three years old and I never put it down.

I sat and watched every Selection Show my whole life. I basically grew up in a gym. Like, car rides you talked about basketball. At the dinner table you talked about basketball. I'm from a basketball family. And I wouldn't be sitting here if it wasn't for my dad. He was my mentor, my hero. And I know he's watching down and enjoying this whole thing. I wish he could have been here for it. But he gave me the motivation to do this. He believed in me when things were hard as a player, things were hard as a coach.

He was always the voice of just keep working, just keep getting better. Just stick to it. And I'm blessed that I was raised by a great coach and a great man, and without his motivation I wouldn't be here. So I give a lot of the credit to him and again I wouldn't be sitting here today without him as my role model and my hero.

Q. You go through what you go through losing your father, you go to this point and you carry on, is there something to be said about the journey and what you went through after that?

COACH GRASSO: It's crazy the way things work out. The year -- my father passed in November 2017. I take the job in 2018. And he's always a part of this. I have a picture of him in my pocket every game I coach.

And I've dedicated all of this to him. Again it wouldn't be possible without him. It was a hard loss for me. He was my best friend. And you just keep moving forward and you pay the lesson forward. That's what I've taken out of it. You pay it forward. And this is all bigger than basketball.

And for me it's about the lessons I was taught growing up and having great father and great mentors and being able to now pay that forward to 18- to 24-year-old men and winning games is great. And going to the NCAA Tournament is great. But it's a lot bigger than that. I have 100 texts from former players and these guys, this group of players will be part of my life for the rest of my life.

And it's my job to put these guys to be in position to be successful young men. And my father put me in position to do that, and I just try and pay that forward and try and give back.

My mission is to give back to these guys; and hopefully with the work ethic that we instill in them and some of the morals and some of the things that our core values we instill in them, hopefully they'll be successful for their lives. And when they come back down the line, need help, I'll always be there for them.

Q. Your interim coaching year at Fordham, did you play here? And what was that like for you just that whole situation with Derrick and taking over a tough situation?

COACH GRASSO: I mean, you know what, those three months probably prepared me for this more than anything I went through. And I worked for Tim Cluess at Iona in between, who is one of the best people in basketball, coaches, in the country. But I spent three months as head coach. I learned everything this job entails. And team wasn't very good that I inherited at that point.

But we continued to play hard. I learned what it's like to move over those 18 inches. I sat in this gym with the "Go Dayton Flyers" chant going on, still rings in my ears. But I've coached in this gym multiple times in the NCAA Tournament. We've been here and haven't had any success yet. And coaching here at Fordham, didn't have any success. So the Fordham experience really helped me.

Derrick was a very good man, was good to me. And it was an unfortunate situation, but being a head coach for three months and learning on the fly was something I think expedited my curve to be prepared to be a head coach and I was blessed to work for Tim Cluess and learn from him.

Once I had the opportunity to move on get another opportunity I knew I was prepared because of those things.