NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - SAINT PETER'S VS KENTUCKY

March 16, 2022

Shaheen Holloway

Daryl Banks

Fousseyni Drame

KC Ndefo

Hassan Drame

Matthew Lee

Doug Edert

Gainbridge Fieldhouse

Saint Peter's Peacocks

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by six student-athletes from Saint Peter's University, Daryl Banks, III, Fousseyni Drame, KC Ndefo, Fousseyni Drame, Matthew Lee and Doug Edert. If you have a question for our student-athletes, please raise your hand. We will get a microphone to you.

Q. For any of the guys. What do you know about Coach Holloway's playing career, and how has his style helped with the identity of this team?

DOUG EDERT: Coach Holloway was a great player. He brings a lot of the intensity with his coaching, and I think he gets that from when he was a player. He only cares about winning, and that's what he brings to this program. So we all do the same as well.

FOUSSEYNI DRAME: One thing about Coach Holloway is his passion. He's so passionate about what he does.

HASSAN DRAME: What we know is about his toughness that he taught us every day in practice.

DARYL BANKS III: His passion, his intensity. That's what he instills in us, and we bring it every day to practice, the games. That's overall what we picked up from him.

KC NDEFO: Coach was a great player at Seton Hall. He brings winning to our program, hard work. Tries to bring 110% with everything we do, and he coaches that way, and we try to play that way in everything we do.

MATTHEW LEE: Coach Holloway was an amazing player, and he currently is an amazing coach. He's played all over the place, professional, All-American. So everything he says we try to piggyback on and execute on the court.

And if you watched film on him back when he was playing, he was very fiery, passionate. And that's what he brings every day as a coach.

Q. KC, at your size, what makes you such a great shot blocker?

KC NDEFO: Well, I just try to use my God-given ability, timing, things that God gave me. Just trying to compete and go out there and do whatever I can for my team. I always feel like I've been a good shot blocker, so translating what I've always had and what God gave me is what I try to bring to the table.

Q. For Doug and Matthew, curious what is your favorite part of playing for Coach?

DOUG EDERT: I love the intensity part of it. Every practice we have we go 110% every time, every minute we are on the court. We're playing as hard as we possibly can because he's coaching us to be that way.

MATTHEW LEE: Like Doug said, he gives 100% as a coach, and that makes you want to give 100% as a player. He doesn't let us slack after. If we're doing things the wrong way, he's not going to let us get away with that. And that's what I love about him. He's not going to let us go in the wrong direction.

Q. Kentucky is on TV all the time. How much have you guys watched them on TV and what impression, if at all, they've made on you?

KC NDEFO: We watched a lot of scout. When we seen that's who we would be matched up on, we got right to scout, watched a lot of film. And that's what our coaching staff likes us to do, is watch a lot of film. And they're a team like us, out there trying to compete and play the game.

Q. For Doug and Daryl, you guys made this run through the conference tournament, and you get here and see you're going to play the 2 seed, Kentucky. What is the mentality for you guys going in? What is your mentality there?

DOUG EDERT: The mentality is to win the game. Go out there and get the job done, that's it.

DARYL BANKS III: It's another game. We're going to approach it the same way we approach every game. We did our scout. We did everything. We're going to try to go out there, execute our game plan and get the W.

Q. Curious for all of you guys, how much a chip on the shoulder is a factor? Shaheen talks about the fact that he specifically recruits players with a chip on their shoulder. Do you all feel like you have that, and is this a chip-on-the-shoulder game tomorrow night?

DOUG EDERT: Yeah, we all got a chip on our shoulder. We all have something to prove, both individually and as a team. I feel like tomorrow is a great chance and a great opportunity for us to do so.

HASSAN DRAME: We all have chip on our shoulder, because at the end of day we have one mentality: Whoever we are playing, they put their shoes on, put on a jersey; we do same thing. We don't need the name on the jersey. All we see is a player in front of us just like us.

DARYL BANKS III: Just to piggyback, all of us come from different places and high schools where some of us may not have the same opportunity, and Coach sees that in us, and he pushes us every day coming into the season and every year.

KC NDEFO: We all just have the same mentality and a chip on our shoulder, because, you know, everybody here, we don't have as much TV time as others and stuff like that, but we all have the same mindset, and every team wakes up in the morning and puts their sneakers on and does the exact same routine. The chip on our shoulder, we all have it, and we are all here to do our job.

MATTHEW LEE: Yeah, like everybody said we all have a chip on our shoulder. Maybe depending on what high school you went to or stuff like that people may think you're overlooked and stuff like that so just trying to prove yourself right as much as you are trying to prove other people wrong is the mentality that we have.

Coach allows us to express ourselves and he gives us a tremendous chance to come here and play for him.

FOUSSEYNI DRAME: Like all of them say, we all have chip on our shoulder 'cuz no matter who we play we are trying to show who we are and how we got there. It doesn't matter the name of the jersey, but it's who we are playing.

Q. Matthew, you guys rank really high in all the defensive metrics. How much pride do you take in defense and what makes you such a good defensive team?

MATTHEW LEE: We take a lot of pride if our defense. I think what makes us a very good defensive team. We work on it a lot. If you saw our practices, we spend a lot of time on defense and we harp on it, we give it 100%, I feel like that's our biggest attribute is playing to the whistle and giving 100%.

THE MODERATOR: Guys, we will let you go. Congratulations on a wonderful season. Best of luck tomorrow.

We are now joined by the head Coach of Saint Peter's University, Shaheen Holloway.

Q. Shaheen, John Calipari was in here earlier, and he said even though he signed Winston Smith, you were too good for him to recruit. What do you remember about that time?

COACH HOLLOWAY: He actually came to recruit Winston Smith. This was when he was at UMass. He came to the school a few times. I know Coach Cal a little bit. He didn't come to recruit me. He came to recruit Winston. It was a different time.

Q. Coach, your players were saying they have a chip on their shoulder and they have something to prove tomorrow. What did you want them to be wanting to prove?

COACH HOLLOWAY: First of all, were they good? They wasn't a little too cocky, was they? No, I'm joking. That's the way we are. I recruit guys like that, that have a chip on their shoulder with something to prove.

A lot of guys on my team think they are supposed to be playing against Kentucky so now they get a chance to play against them.

That's who we are, a team that plays hard and have something to prove and play with a chip on your shoulder. I think that's the best way to play.

Q. I thought I read recently that you had shifted -- you felt you had gone away from your defensive philosophy a little bit, and you kind of rebooted there. Was that after the layoff? What prompted that for you?

COACH HOLLOWAY: Well, you know, this year I think we got eight new guys, a little more talented guys that can score on the offensive end. So I started in the off-season trying to be an offensive team, because we had more guys; and when we had the layoff, it put things in perspective and gave me a chance to get back to the drawing board and get back to what we do best, and that's defend.

So ever since that happened, it's made us a better team. COVID messed up some teams, but it helped us a lot.

Q. Off the wall for you, but I believe Saint Peter's University is one of the first schools to offer Zakai Zeigler last year --

COACH HOLLOWAY: You really going to throw that in my face right now?

(Laughter.)

Q. I want to know how you evaluated him so well at that point. What did you see in him then, and has he become the player or more the player than you expected he would have been at that point?

COACH HOLLOWAY: First, I'm really proud of him. He's playing his butt off for Tennessee. We recruited him early. I thought we had a good shot until AAU started. He was going to do a post-grad year at Xavier. And we recruited him hard, and I thought we had a shot. And then he played last summer for the New York Lightning in the EYBL, and from there it was history.

Q. I wonder what you think of Oscar Tshiebwe, how he's performed and what sort of impact he can have on any game.

COACH HOLLOWAY: The truth? He's a grown man playing against a bunch of kids. That's how you play. He's a great player. I think with him playing for West Virginia and got a chance to play for Coach Huggins and now playing for Coach Cal, he's just got a different mindset. He offense improved under Cal, but he gets after it on both ends of the court.

I think we have him on a smaller scale at Saint Peter's in KC Ndefo. Not as strong, but they play the same way. Like I said, on a smaller scale. Oscar, he's a grown man, but I think they're both similar. They both play really, really hard. They're both great defenders and, you know, as far as trying to guard them, we're just going to play Saint Peter's University basketball. I don't have a blueprint right now to guard him.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. Best of luck.