NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - VERMONT VS ARKANSAS

March 16, 2022

Eric Musselman

Stanley Umude

J.D. Notae

Jaylin Williams

KeyBank Center

Arkansas Razorbacks

Media Conference

Q. Hey, guys. This is for Stanley. You know, Stanley, you've waited five years and, like, 130 some games to finally get to play in the NCAA tournament. What's that journey been like, and is it this kind of what you pictured if you came to Arkansas you would be sitting here at one of these NCAA press conferences, and how happy are you that you made this decision?

STANLEY UMUDE: Yeah, I'm real excited to be playing in March Madness finally. It's been one of my big goals since I started playing basketball, so I'm just excited to get to start playing, actually, with my guys.

Q. Then, if I could do a follow-up. You know, Arkansas -- who else did you think about, and just what -- it's been an up-and-down year, but obviously it's ending the right way.

STANLEY UMUDE: Right when I got in the portal, I wasn't thinking of any other schools. I talked with Coach Muss, it was about who could beat what he had to offer, and there wasn't much that could beat it.

Q. J.D., I'm interested in your thoughts on Coach Musselman. We see the flamboyance and the enthusiasm, him running around. What's it like dealing with that part of him, and what's it like on an everyday basis having that kind of energy every day?

J.D. NOTAE: Great, man. He just, like, always energized. He's always happy. Sometimes he's angry. Most of the times, but he is just him. Coach Muss, that's my guy. I've been with him for three years, so we got that relationship, so it's just fun to be around him.

Q. Jaylin, just curious what you have seen so far from Vermont that stood out to you as you guys prepare, and then maybe your particular thoughts on the match-up with Ryan Davis?

JAYLIN WILLIAMS: They're a really solid team. I think they're the fourth oldest team in the NCAA, so they're really an old team, a lot of guys that have experience. They're a really good shooting team. They're probably one of the best shooting teams we've played this year.

So we're looking forward to this match-up. We know what we've got to do, and Ryan Davis is a great player. He can space the floor, play in the post, and do a lot for their team, and he is put in a lot of play making positions for them too. He is a great player, and it's going to be a good match-up.

Q. My question to you guys is last year's run ended in the Elite 8 with a loss to Baylor. What strengths does this team this year have that give you the opportunity to go back to the Elite 8? Care to just talk about that a little bit, just the strengths that you guys have?

JAYLIN WILLIAMS: I would say a strength that we have this year that we didn't have last year was a lot of more experience. We might not have as many older guys, but we have a lot of guys that have played in the position that we want to get back to, like J.D. started Elite 8, Davo started Elite 8. I started in the Elite 8. We have a lot of guys that know what it takes to get there, and we've been in that position, so we feel like we can help these other guys knowing what it takes to get there.

Q. You were fortunate enough to get to play in the NCAA tournament run as a freshman. Stanley waited five years. Au'Diese waited four years. Even I know that's nine years together. How happy are you that these older guys are getting an opportunity, and maybe Stanley as a follow-up after Jaylin, does it mean more to you? I know as a freshman you got to the Summit Finals, and you were one win away, but do you think now you appreciate it more? Jaylin and Stanley.

JAYLIN WILLIAMS: It's great being able to share the court with these guys knowing how hungry they are for these wins. They're just as hungry as we are going into these games. They want to win. We all want to win together. We want to go far in this tournament. Being able to share the court with these guys, it's been great, and I'm ready to keep going.

STANLEY UMUDE: It feels great to finally be able to make it to the tournament. I know you said Jaylin made it his first year, but it takes a lot of work, and coming from a midmajor where you have to win all three games to make it, it's tough. Being able to be in this position is a blessing, and I'm happy to be here with my guys.

Q. Stanley, I asked Eric Henderson at South Dakota State earlier about what he remembered about you when you were at South Dakota. He mentioned you had a couple of really big scoring games against them that came to mind first for him, and then he commented on your improvement defensively.

What strides do you feel like you've made on that end of the floor, and then what do you remember about maybe those big games you had?

STANLEY UMUDE: I think I had any career high against them in the Pentagon. I had 41. We lost at their place. I had 34. Those were those two games he was probably talking about. As far as the defensive side, I think I just have been thinking more about it going into the games. I think playing at South Dakota I had a lot of scoring responsibility, so I think coming here and knowing that I have to play that role, defense and rebounding, so I think it's just a mindset coming into the game knowing what I've got to do and taking care of business.

Q. Stanley, is there any SEC teams or other teams that you have faced this year that you feel like Vermont kind of is similar to, or are they unique at all?

STANLEY UMUDE: I wouldn't say SEC. I would say teams like UNI, a lot of smart teams that really move the ball and shoot threes, so I think it's just a real slower paced game with them. I think the SEC is a faster paced conference, so I think it's going to be different, but we're doing a good job preparing for them.

Q. Then for any of you, I guess we can start with Jaylin, what do you make of this region and how it's a pretty stacked one with Gonzaga at the top?

JAYLIN WILLIAMS: It was a pretty stacked region, but we're just looking at this team that's ahead of us right now, focus on the game that's in front of us, and we'll cross that road when we get there.

Q. A couple of questions. First off, Stanley, I remember before practice started back in October, you talked about your freshman year one of the guys that brought the stools out for the starters when the time-outs came. When you think back on that and how far you've come since then, how would you kind of describe -- I think you didn't play much in that. Obviously, you're playing a lot for one of the best teams in the country.

STANLEY UMUDE: It's a blessing. It's just a testament to the work I put in, and I think just believing in myself even when I was doing that at South Dakota, pulling out the stools in time-outs, I think that confidence in myself never waivered, so I think that I'm just happy to be here. Really just try to take it all in and live in the moment.

Q. Maybe for Stanley and J.D., I know you guys really shored up your three-point defense the last part of the season, but A&M shot pretty well. Eric obviously was not happy. This is a pretty good three-point shooting team on paper. What do you think about their three-point shooting, and do you expect to get back playing the kind of perimeter defense you played for most of the last 20 or however many games it's been?

STANLEY UMUDE: Coach has been on us. Hands and eyeballs at all times. Especially with a team like this. They can really shoot it, so we take that away from them and make them dribble, then we'll be in a good position. I think it's just keep improving and keep focusing on that three-point percentage defense.

J.D. NOTAE: Just to piggyback off what Stan said. Just keeping our hands and eyeballs and making them shoot in the two-point area and just forcing everything to be tough. That's what we want to do to them.

Q. This is for Jaylin, J.D., Last year you guys finished real strong just like you did this year. You get beat in the SEC tournament semifinals. You're number four seed. You are playing 13 seed from a midmajor in the northeast. This seems like a lot of similarities. Have you thought about that, and if so, what are your thoughts on that?

J.D. NOTAE: Yeah, we kind of had the same position from last year, same type of team that we're going to play, so we just got to come prepared. And from the start of the game, we've got to be on point, and we can't come out slow like we did last year versus Colgate, and then have to fight our way all the way back, so we want to come out and just come from the jump and just play hard.

Q. This is for J.D. and Jaylin. Do you guys feel like you're more at home with Bob asking all these questions?

JAYLIN WILLIAMS: What did he say? (Laughing).

J.D. NOTAE: A little bit, obviously.

Q. Stanley, Caleb Cline is a guy that you know from your days at South Dakota. He has been a GA on the team for a couple of years. Kind of what's y'all's relationship, and kind of what's it like to spend time with him here to share this experience with him?

STANLEY UMUDE: Me and Cline, we've got a really good relationship. My junior year, he was my roommate actually at South Dakota. I've known him for a long time. And coming here, it was nice to know that I had somebody that cared about me so that he wasn't going to lead me away and tell me something I didn't want to hear or tell me stuff I just want to hear to get here. I think that it was nice to have him in that recruiting process.

Q. J.D., I talked to Jaylin a little earlier at the Falls, and he said you were the best 2K player on the team. What are those -- what are those games like, and kind of what's the team bonding experience in a more normal tournament setting now?

J.D. NOTAE: I mean, it's fun just playing 2K. 2K actually helped me get better just making reads, just playing defense, all that. Stan thinks he can beat me, but he really can't. No, just having fun. Just bonding. Everybody play 2K, so we all just be on the sticks.

STANLEY UMUDE: Who said he was the best at 2K player?

J.D. NOTAE: Jay Will.

STANLEY UMUDE: You ain't never seen me play.

Q. You are coming off of the Elite 8 last year, and great stretch of run up until the SEC tournament. It feels like naturally you are all getting still being put on upset watch. Is that adding any extra motivation for you all going into the game tomorrow?

JAYLIN WILLIAMS: For sure, but I feel like that has been our thing since the beginning of the season. We've always been overlooked. We're 0-3 at the beginning of the conference, and everybody turned our back on us, and we kept believing in each other. What this team can do I feel like the sky is the limit. We believe in each other. We believe that the guy next to us is going to make the big shot every game no matter who it is. We just keep believing in each other, and we're going to go game by game.

J.D. NOTAE: Just to kind of go on what Jay Will said, we always believe in each other. Each and every day we come to practice, go hard, so when we get in the game, I feel like we all are comfortable in our positions, whatever it is, and when we're down, we feel like we're never out of the game. We were down 20 to Tennessee, but we felt like we were still right there in it. This group, we just fight.

Q. This is more for J.D. and Stanley. I asked Moses Moody this a few weeks ago because I personally haven't seen it. He said he hadn't seen it. Can Jaylin Williams frown? He does nothing but smile. Does he have the physical ability to frown?

STANLEY UMUDE: Have you seen him when he is tired out there sometimes? (Laughing).

No, yeah, Jay Will is always enthusiastic. He is happy to be here, you can tell. He is never really in a bad mood practice-wise or anything like that. He is always getting us going.

Q. Jaylin, you didn't get a chance to answer my question about the similarities between last year and this year. I mean, being fourth seed coming off the semifinal loss, et cetera, does it strike you as kind of a similar situation?

JAYLIN WILLIAMS: Yeah, for sure. It's a similar situation for sure, but we're also more prepared. Like the guys that were here last year, they got to experience that. We know that we can't have that slow start. We know that we got to go from the jump and respect every team that's in front of us, so we also grew from last year. So we got to write our own stories, and we just have to do our own thing.

Q. For Jaylin, Eric said the other day on his radio show that when he was in Nevada and they were ranked in the top five and they started 15-30 or whatever, that they just weren't having fun, and he sounded like he was determined for you guys to have fun.

I know he took you out on the boat in Tampa and took you to Niagara Falls. Obviously you are working hard and everything, but do you feel like Eric is trying to make it fun also, and if so, what's that like? For Jaylin and J.D.

JAYLIN WILLIAMS: Coach Muss does a good job making sure we're having fun during practice. Yesterday he got our trainer and C. Wood out there, they were guarding each other, and it was just a fun experience with the team. He tries to make it fun and tries to make sure that we're locked in, but we're also having fun doing it. It keeps the process good, keeps us interested in the whole thing.

J.D. NOTAE: Just getting to know each other still a little bit, so we do games where somebody got to tell something about their life, and he listens to a lot of podcasts. So me, Stan, Jay Will, we have different podcasts, and he will bring up a different point about our podcast so that some of the teammates may have not have knew. It will be --

Q. What's some of the advice that you gave to youth that's looking to be like Jaylin or J.D. or Stanley? What's some of the advice that you are giving them out there back at home?

J.D. NOTAE: Just to keep going. Every day is not going to be perfect. Every day is not going to be the way you want it to be, so you just got to keep fighting and just don't get down on yourself too much and just keep going.

STANLEY UMUDE: You got it? Piggyback off of that. Just as far as basketball to the youth, if you love what you're doing and you are able to get past the hard days because it's not always easy, but just make sure you love what you are doing, and you just put your head down and work. Eventually you're going to be able to make it to where you're trying to go.

ERIC MUSSELMAN: We're happy to be here. I feel like we've had a really good season, especially after going through a tough stretch where we were able to regroup and finish the season much like we did last year where we got hot, we feel, at the right time. We understand being a part of this tournament, just getting into it is really, really difficult for teams, and now it's a whole new season for everybody that's in the tournament. Everybody has got belief and confidence, and everybody is trying to just survive and advance and get one more game.

Q. Eric, we saw a lot of your social media presence yesterday giving it up to the Bills and Sabres and such. Just how much of the tournament is about embracing strange places, strange arenas, and having new experiences and having these guys understand that's all part of it? You still have to do the job even though maybe none of them have ever been near Buffalo before?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: All of the teams are really locked in. I'm not going to say that we're more locked in or doing more prep than anybody else because I have tremendous respect for all the coaches, but we're not doing less. This will be our second practice for the day. We've already had several film sessions, but having said that, they're student athletes at the end of the day, and you want them to have life experiences.

So going to Niagara Falls, there's a reason we were just in the back talking about the Sabres and some of our guys didn't know that -- some of the historical significance of what that NHL organization has done. Told them about one of the great hockey goalies of all time. So we're back there even in the locker room trying to educate them and have fun with it.

Certainly we think it's a really, really big part and an important part for us to embrace wherever we are. I mean, having fun with the, you know, Bills. And I wore the shirt and guys are asking me, you know, do I have a favorite player on that team? A lot of guys did not know who the Buffalo Braves were, and I was able to kind of give the significance of them moving to San Diego and so, yeah, I think it's really important. By the way, Ernie D., is one of my favorite all-time players.

Q. Coach, you mentioned how this is kind of the start of a new season. How valuable is it to have the returning experience that you have in the NCAA tournament, your guys who were there last year, and then others like Trey Wade and Chris who have been there before?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I think that there's a lot of discussion about how old teams are, which I think there's a great deal of significance in that. Obviously, Vermont, fourth oldest team in college basketball. Then there's a separate side of us having over 300 minutes played in the NCAA tournament with player experience, so I think that both are very valuable. I think there's significance in it.

Q. Have you told your players about the quarterback in Buffalo by any chance?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I've certainly talked to the staff about it. (Laughing).

Q. What is it going to take to put cut down the nets here in Buffalo?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I think the biggest thing right now is us worried -- not worried -- us continuing to work on our preparation for Vermont. They're so well-coached. They really, really understand their roles. They have not lost in a long time. Their last loss, they had two players that were sick. It was an overtime game, so this is a team that's playing with great confidence. You can see it and hear it in their interviews both with their head coach and their players.

And I think everybody that steps into this thing, I mean, I've talked about even myself as a player at the University of San Diego playing against Auburn, I mean, we were a low seed. If our point guard -- not me. I was not in the game, but for our starting point guard, if he doesn't get the ball hung up on his hip, we probably upset Auburn, and they had some NBA players, Frank Ford, and some other guys on their team that were really talented.

This is a whole new -- that's why this tournament is so awesome because you just never know what's going to happen. Last year we fell behind early, and we were able to have a really good second half, and so it's a 40-minute game, and you have to understand that as a program.

Q. Kind of piggybacking off of the opening question that Mike had. You come out and embrace the city of Buffalo. You go viral with your Buffalo sports drip. Then you go at the time kind of a response back from the Bills on social media. First, how cool is it that they're able to embrace you back? I saw you pinned that tweet from the Bills.

On top of that, did you grow up a sports fan in Buffalo at all, or did you follow specific players? Can you kind of tie that all in together?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I think anybody my age understands the significance of all of the Super Bowls that didn't go the Bills' way, but obviously, Marv Levy, he is a guy that I have studied and, you know, when you are younger and you watch teams win a lot like they did, and their logo was -- growing up in San Diego, their logo is cool. The Bills thing started during the pandemic where I had gotten some NBA teams to send some masks and T-shirts, and I would wear a different one every day to practice, and then I was able to talk to the team about, hey, here's some history on this particular team, whether it's the Boston Celtics or the Lakers and whatever, and we were able to have some fun dialogue.

The Bills were awesome. They sent me -- which is the same shirts I wore the other day. They sent me a couple of different shirts and some different masks. I was able to break it out when we found out we were headed here to Buffalo.

Q. Au'Diese and Stanley, they waited nine combined years to get here. How happy are you -- they've obviously been key guys for you. Just how happy are you that they're going to get to play in the NCAA tournament, and how can you sum up what they've meant to the team this year and helping you get to this point?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Really happy for them because if we weren't playing in this tournament, then they could call me a liar because part of the recruiting pitch was we are going to the NCAA tournament. We don't know what's going to happen when we get there, but we have the talent, we have the culture.

If you guys come to Arkansas, we're going to give you an opportunity to play in this tournament because if we don't make it, it's going to be self-inflicted, but both those guys have been absolutely phenomenal for us. You look at their seasons, there was a time where I took Stanley out of the starting line-up, and then he worked his way back into it.

Quite frankly, both of them, we need them to have good games to win in this tournament. We need both of them to have good games in order to win tomorrow. That's how important they are. Au'Diese has been a guy that we don't run any plays for, and he scores the basketball, and Stanley has done an incredible job of scoring it in the midrange, scoring it in transition, and then also scoring the basketball from three-point range when defenses collapse on our dribble drive.

Q. J.D., Jay Will, and Stanley Umude said that this Vermont team reminds them of a UNI that they played way back early in the season, not as fast as the SEC type of team. After playing 20 plus SEC games against that fast pace that most teams like to play, how difficult is it to kind of teach more of a half pace -- half court game and slow everything down?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Not all the SEC teams like to play fast. Texas A&M plays pretty doggone slow. That's why we -- that's why we scheduled our nonconference the way that we did. We felt it was important to be able to play teams that play a whole bunch of different styles. We were able to do that, whether it's Northern Iowa, whether it was Mercer that forced us to see some of our holes and to try to get guys to buy in with some of our defensive concepts. And along the way, it's like a roller coaster, there's ups and downs. And when we weren't doing what we were told, we didn't play well, and then we figured out the last two months of the season how we want to play on both sides of the ball.

Q. Earlier today I asked Eric Henderson at South Dakota State just kind of what he remembered about Stan when Stan was at South Dakota. He mentioned a couple of big games, but that this season he feels like Stan has really improved defensively more so than anything. Just what improvements has he made specifically or how has he evolved throughout the year to become, I guess, one of your, I guess, better on-balance defenders.

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Stanley has improved in a lot of areas. He was not much of a defensive guy early on. Now he is one of our best defenders. Because of his length, his athleticism, his anticipation, his toughness, his ability to defensive rebound, he has been assigned to some really difficult match-ups, especially in SEC play where he is going up against guys that they can really score the ball, guys that are going to be playing beyond college, and he has done an incredible job defensively.

And then the other area that he is much improved upon is earlier in the year, he was our kind of playing the backup five for us when Jaylin would come out. We would slide him from the power forward spot or the four spot over to the backup five, and now he has basically played for us small forward, and that's when we became a better defensive rebounding team.

He has gone from guarding fours and fives to now guarding twos and threes, and he has done a great, great job. Stayed out of foul trouble, and altered a lot of shots for opposing team's perimeter players.

Q. You've hit the portal for years now. You've done a good job with the portal. This year with the one-time transfer rule kicking in, how do you think that's affected you guys and kind of nationally with kids not having to sit out?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Jeff, I think that it's kind of been a game-changer. There's been a lot of coaching changes, and as my wife and I were talking, it's much like the NBA now. As a coach because of the ability to change your roster quickly, obviously, in the NBA, it's free agency, and then you might have a draft pick or two.

Well, college basketball has turned into a little bit where a lot of programs are only taking one or two freshmen, much like a first rounder and a second rounder. And then they're filling in with free agents, whether it be a transfer who is a second year player or maybe a grad transfer. I think it's levelled the playing field.

I look at Vermont's team, and they have Finn Sullivan from the University of San Diego, who I just found out a couple of minutes ago that my son sat next to him in a class a couple of years ago, my younger son. They have a George Washington transfer. I think that across the board, it's really changed the complexion.

If you watch Big 12 games and you see what Texas has done with their roster and you see what Texas Tech has done, and they've done -- Texas Tech has done an incredible job of finding the Davion Warrens and Adonis Arms and guys that maybe played at a lower level that have been able to contribute. I think it's really changed everything in college basketball, meaning coaches and longevity and so on.

Q. Did you like the fact that kids don't have to sit out? It took you a little while to get going this year where normally maybe you have that kid for a year in your system, and you are able to kind of get it going a little bit quicker maybe?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I think that the sit-out player, I look at the success stories, and I'm only talking about the small sample size that I have. Caleb Martin, Cody Martin, the sit-out year was incredible.

So many agents were telling him to leave Nevada, and we were telling him the benefits and the holes in their game. And we'll see what type of salaries those guys that were "too old" when they stayed a year and how much it's helped them. It's really about at the next level longevity, and those two guys made incredibly smart decisions coming back to school when everybody was telling them they would be too old, but the people that were telling them that have never sat in a draft room and don't know what the conversations are like about second rounders.

I look at J.D. Notae and how his sit-out year, how much that's impacted his growth as a player, and maybe what that growth wouldn't have looked like. He learned a whole new position, and there's a lot to go into that. I look at Jordan Caroline sit out year and the impact that it's having on his European career. I miss personally the player development year because I think it's really good for the player, but I do think movement player freedom is the way it should be. It really should be because that's the way of our world right now.

When I grew up, everybody went to one high school. Now guys go three or four high schools. When I was growing up, well, there wasn't even AAU then, but there was Junior Olympics. You played on one Junior Olympic team and that was it. Now guys are playing for seven, eight AAU teams over the course of a four-year time frame, so that's how college basketball should be. You should have the ability to make your own decision just as any student.

If my son is at the University of San Diego and not playing basketball and he wants to go to USC or UCLA, all he does is apply to school, and if he gets in, he can go. I do think it's the way of the world right now, and you have to adapt, and it's good for the student athlete.

Q. It seems like a lot of people, especially some national media folks, like Vermont as a possible upset pick. I just wonder what you make of that, and if you talked to the team about that at all, and what you say, if so?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Do you think I talk to the team about it?

Q. (Off microphone)

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Yeah. They've seen all the clips, and they'll continue to see the clips just as they did last year. Yeah, it's -- my wife continues to remind me. It's not everybody. Yeah, I mean, I think any way, shape, or form that you can motivate your team, that's our job to try to figure out every button that you can possibly push to get your team in the right mental frame.

Q. We just had Dan Hurley in here. Obviously, great family coaching lineage. You're up next. Your father, obviously, we know about, but as you're now getting to the point where you have done this for a long time at so many levels, what do you still take from him potentially or other mentors even at this stage of your career compared to when you were a younger coach?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: You mean from my father or --

Q. Yeah.

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Or from Coach Hurley? My dad?

Q. Yes.

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I think about my dad all the time. I think about my dad even in the flow of a game. We'll take an absurd shot because I give our guys a lot of freedom offensively, and I'll pound the table and then I'll kind of chuckle to myself and say my dad is up there thinking, that's an absurd shot. What are you doing? You're a horrific coach.

I'll think about would he call a timeout now? I'm constantly -- he was my idol, my best friend, and whether it's during the season and I'm home alone and I have told our local media that we made a change in the starting line-up. There wasn't a single coach that brought it up. There wasn't a player because we ask for player feedback. Nobody brought it up. It was me sitting alone late one night asking what my dad would do when we struggled, and he said put the five toughest, five biggest, five longest people out there regardless of position. That's how we stumbled into the line-up of being so big because his teams at the University of Minnesota and even with -- the Timberwolves were always big, strong players even at the off guard or the point guard position. That's what we've done. We've changed our team. We kind of slid everybody down a spot when in college basketball, everybody has kind of gone the opposite way. This group has done a good job. When people try to go small against us, it actually falls right into our lap because we do have good athleticism even when we're a taller team.