NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - NEW MEXICO ST. VS UCONN

March 16, 2022

Chris Jans

Sir' Jabari Rice

Johnny McCants

Clayton Henry

Teddy Allen

KeyBank Center

New Mexico St. Aggies

Media Conference

Q. This one is just like for the floor, I guess. Talking to a bunch of New Mexico State guys who have experience in the NCAA tournament who have been here before, you know, obviously not getting to be here last year, just talk about the feeling that you had walking into the gym today and what the feeling of being back in March Madness is like.

SIR' JABARI RICE: I think we're all determined. We all know what we did to get here, and I think we're just all ready to play. We're all anxious to play. I don't think it's no -- nothing else to it. We're just all determined and ready for the game.

JOHNNY McCANTS: I would say it's motivation for the whole team really. Coming into a big environment like this and getting to play on a big stage, get to experience new feelings and everything. Not being able to make the tournament last year was hurtful for most of the guys, but we're here now. We worked hard this whole year to get to this point, so we're not going to take it lightly.

Q. I know this is out of your element being from the cold all the way from New Mexico, but 5/12 seed. Normally when it goes that route, as of late, that 12 seed has kind of been the favorite. Did that -- would that give you guys an edge, a spark to know that you're the 12th seed in this particular match-up here?

JOHNNY McCANTS: Me personally, no. Like I said, we're just going to look at UConn like another team. Like a 12-5 seed. Everybody can talk a bunch about it, but we're grown men. All of us are grown men. We're looking at this game as a winning opportunity. I don't know. It's a big difference just because it's 12-5. Everybody has something to say about it, but we're just going to look at each team as someone that we can beat.

Q. What do you think?

CLAYTON HENRY: I'm just looking at them as a normal opponent. I'm not really seeing the seeds. We just come into the game, and we're going to try to win.

Q. Johnny, this question is for you, sir. Did you talk to Shaquille O'Neil about working on free-throw shooting, sir? Oh, man.

JOHNNY McCANTS: He gave me a few pointers. No, I'm kidding. It's been a bad year for me at the line. I'm going to continue to keep my confidence, try continue to go to the line and help out the team as most as I can.

SIR' JABARI RICE: He blocks shots like O'Neill and takes more charges than O'Neill.

Q. On a serious note, what have you done to elevate your games and get to this point in the NCAA tournament? Speak on that a little bit.

SIR' JABARI RICE: The work and the lab. We spend hours in the lab every day. Hours after hours that don't require -- that's not required, and it's literally every person on this court. I mean, every person on this end. We just all spend hours, and we all have something to -- we have a value to bring to the team, so I think we're all just trying to maximize our value and see how many wins we can get.

CLAYTON HENRY: I would say we never got complacent. We always wanted to get more regardless of if we was on a winning streak or we were seen as a first seed in the WACC. We never got complacent. We always wanted more, and we knew there was more to come.

Q. As for Teddy, obviously, you have been in a game against UConn. I know obviously you didn't play. Doesn't exactly give you any scout --

TEDDY ALLEN: Did I?

Q. Yeah, when they played Wichita.

TEDDY ALLEN: Okay. Okay. (Laughing). I didn't play. I red shirted.

Q. You were there.

TEDDY ALLEN: No, I didn't play.

Q. What did you learn from your scout since? What do you have to do well against them to win?

TEDDY ALLEN: They are a real tough team. They play pretty hard, and they're athletic, and they're well-coached. I think the personnel is a lot different from even two years ago, whenever that was, but they're a tough team, really well-coached, and they're athletic.

Usually well-coached, athletic teams always are good because they don't have much weaknesses, but I feel the same way about our team. I think we're athletic and tough, and well-coached. It's going to be a fun match-up for sure.

Q. Does scoring always come naturally to you? You have to work on it too, but talk about your offensive game.

TEDDY ALLEN: I'm just a -- I don't know. (Laughing). I don't know. I don't know. No, it's just -- I feel like, to be honest, though, when I first started playing basketball, I wasn't as athletic, but I had a knack for scoring, so I just had to find a lot of ways, and I think as I got older and grown into my body, I just always stuck with that, and it was just the first part of -- first level of my game.

Q. I'm going to follow up with that one a little bit, Teddy. Dan Hurley called you a bucket in his press conference. How does it feel to have the opposing team's head coach call you a bucket?

TEDDY ALLEN: He just blowing that pregame smoke. You know how that goes. I ain't listening to that. Dan Hurley is the best coach ever. (Laughing)

Q. How do you feel about some of the match-ups that's going to take place? R.J. Cole, Tyrese Martin, how do you feel about those match-ups, and what do you have that you can benefit from those match-ups?

SIR' JABARI RICE: I think we both have size. Both teams have size, quickness. I really kind of don't want to go into it. I think we just matched up perfectly from one to two to the bench players too. I think we're a bit deeper in the bench, but they don't play a lot of guys, but I think we're matched up perfectly fine, one through the five, and I think all of our guys have a chance just like all their guys have a chance, and that's why it's going to be such a big match-up and a big battle because every -- from every position you almost get the same thing. You get playing hard, and you get smart players, good players, good shots, hard shots, good defense, so it's going to be like that on both ends. It's just the tougher team is going to come up.

CHRIS JANS: We're happy to be here. Obviously, you'll hear this all week long from players and coaches when you pick up that ball and start falling in love with the game and figure out what this March Madness is all about. This is where you want to be. This is where the biggest lights, the biggest platform and exposure to why you've worked so hard to put yourself in this position. We're excited to be here.

Our players, we're trying to tell them to soak it up as best you can. You have to be focused when it's time to be focused, and you have a task at hand, but at the same time, they're creating lifetime memories, and I want them to enjoy their time in March Madness.

Q. You've had a great run of success at New Mexico State, the whole program the last dozen years. Winning at this level has been elusive. What's your thoughts on what a win tomorrow might do? It would be a nice reward for all the hard work, really 12 years of teams have put in?

CHRIS JANS: It would be unbelievable. I get goose bumps just thinking about the idea of it, to be honest with you. I think our fan base is starving for it. They definitely deserve it. It's something that we've talked about in the past that our staff would love to be the ones to break through that ceiling. Certainly they've won and had success in the past prior to us being here. It's the one thing we haven't been able to do since we arrived, and we would love to get that done.

Our fans would -- I don't know what they would do, to be honest with you. Might be a national holiday the next day, but it would mean the world, and certainly we've got enough experience now that we understand what it takes to win, and now we've got to try to get it on the floor.

Q. Dan Hurley was up here about 30 minutes ago, and he said Teddy Allen is a bucket. You've obviously seen that a few times this year, but just kind of your thoughts on Dan Hurley saying that and seeing it on film?

CHRIS JANS: He has several monikers, which he has reminded me of. Last night was a new one. He showed me a picture of he and I, and he goes the sauce with the coach. I'm, like, the sauce? That's what they call me. Oh, I thought it was bucket. My bad. He is definitely a bucket. I've known him since high school. I was on the circuit. This is my third time recruiting him. Took me a while, but we finally got it done. He is a game planner. He has played for a lot of coaches. He has played in the NCAA tournament. He has won games in the NCAA tournament. He has certainly helped us a ton this year to win championships to put ourselves in this position.

What I love most about him is he has done an excellent job of immersing himself at New Mexico State and the community within the organization. He has seeked out the leaders when he arrived, and he built relationships with them from the jump, and certainly I'm sure he was aware that he had a reputation, et cetera, for a guy that scores a lot of baskets. So I'm sure he understood coming into a place that had success, he needed to make sure to kind of ease his way into it, if you will.

And the best thing about him is he loves ball. I mean, he loves ball. We always say as a staff, you know, that's one of the barometers that we go by is we want to recruit young people that love basketball and are passionate about it, and he certainly does. He works his tail off. He is as hard of a worker as I've ever had. And just overall, I mean, just not in his game, but on his body and his post-practice, ice baths, his pre-practice, his conditioning in the fall and days off.

As a coach, you get to coach guys like that, you know, it makes you feel good. Like you're on the same page. I'm happy for him. Personally he has won everything he can win, and he has helped us. Really how he has went about it with immersing himself at our place, our program, our school, and I've been told by people around him that it's as happy as he has ever been. Hopefully he will play well tomorrow. He has had some foul recently, and it slowed us down. We're a much better basketball team when he is not in foul trouble.

Q. Congratulations, Coach Chris, on your success. Will you talk about Teddy Allen a lot, but what are some of the other elements that is going to push you past the first round of this tournament and get you to advance?

CHRIS JANS: It's going to be hard. UConn is well taught and well schooled on both ends of the floor. Unfortunately, when you break them down on tape, you don't find many weaknesses. For those industry insiders when you look at their KenPom, it's a whole lot of green, and it's pretty dark in the columns of the greenness of how well they do in a bunch of different categories across the KenPom sheet.

The thing that jumps out the most is just their starting five is just -- they're so cohesive, and they're not missing anything. They've got a point guard that can score. They can organize it. They got wings that can score it, shoot it, drive it, rebound it, and then certainly they've got guys around the basket that can score it back to the basket.

They're number one in the country in offensive rebounds. They're fifth in block percentage. They make all the athletic plays, and then they just don't turn it over that much. They're tough. They're tough. They're well-coached. I think most coaches are going to tell you when you play a team like this, you better not turn the ball over, especially a live ball turnover because they're going to convert it into points or fouls. And essentially it's going to be a road game for us, and that certainly could change the momentum if we have any, and we have to stay away from that as best we can, and then we're going to have to figure out a way to at best neutralize him on the back boards.

We're not going to win a jumping contest. They're going to beat us in most of those across the board. We're going to have to do our work on the ground before the ball is shot and try to get bodies on people and fight and scratch and claw and do the best job that we can to try to even them out a little bit on the backboards.

Q. A little while ago, Dan Hurley talked about how old this team is and how you've really got a lot of veterans, but it's not just age with this group. You know, there's March Madness experience with this group too. How much of an advantage does that give you having multiple starters who have played in March before?

CHRIS JANS: First of all, I wish my guys were with me. I saw a picture of Coach Hurley, and he had his players up here. I'm not sure why I didn't get to come up here with my players. That would have been a lot more fun. I don't know. They probably wanted all the shine without me there, I guess. I don't know.

People talk about that, and certainly it's an advantage if you have people that have been through it. You can't teach experience, but if I'm not mistaken, they were here last year, and they got a bunch more guys that probably have played in more NCAA tournament games than we have, so I don't think we have an advantage over them by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly it's nice to have people that have played under the brighter lights that have been up at these platforms, that have practiced in front of people prior to a game, which isn't the norm. We've asked those guys to educate the kids that haven't prior to coming here to make sure they understand what they're walking into, but at the end of the day, tomorrow at 6:50 we're going to tip the ball, and we're going to get after it for 40 minutes and try to figure out a way to win the game.

Q. Knowing the emphasis that's going to be put on Teddy tomorrow, what's it going to take for him to be successful in his game?

CHRIS JANS: That's a great question. He is going to have to make really smart decision. Obviously, he has had a lot of different defenses this year. He was leading scorer at Nebraska in that league prior to coming here, so it's not as if he hasn't faced defenses that give him a lot of attention, and he certainly has a ton in our league this past year. When he puts the ball on the floor, they swarm to it, and they try to demand that he makes him give it out to make other people beat him.

In our championship game, Abilene Christian trapped him every time he got the ball, and he did an excellent job of moving the ball and understanding what they were trying to do and trusting his teammates.

Certainly we're not exactly sure how the game will unfold or what their plan will be, but I'm sure there will be some of that. Like always, he has to make good decisions. He has to understand that it's going to be hard to get up against a team like that. He is going to have to give it up and get to the midrange, which I know is outdated, but he is still pretty good at it. Like always, he is going to have to make really good decisions with the basketball because he is going to get a lots of attention.