NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - DELAWARE VS VILLANOVA

March 17, 2022

Martin Ingelsby

Jameer Nelson, Jr.

Dylan Painter

Ryan Allen

PPG Paints Arena

Delaware Blue Hens

Media Conference

Q. Is there always something that makes the NCAAs a little more real, being here a little closer to game time?

JAMEER NELSON, JR.: Just really getting here and just seeing all the March Madness signs and logos, that's real what I did it for me, just getting here. That's when it really hit me.

Q. (No microphone)

DYLAN PAINTER: Yeah, it's definitely cool. I've been here before, but to see these guys experience it as well is definitely cool, to see their eyes light up when they walk through. And this is kind of what me, Ryan and Kevin talked about before we came back this year. It's great to see it all come to fruition.

RYAN ALLEN: Yeah, just kind of the same thing what Jameer was saying, seeing all the March Madness stuff, seeing our names under it. Pretty much ending every year with the CAA tournament and now finally being here, actually being here is when it actually hit me.

Q. Your head coach was a pretty good player back in his day. Have you ever watched highlights of him play? What do you know about his game?

DYLAN PAINTER: I don't know if there's many highlights out there, just because I feel like it was a long time ago. I don't know if they even had cameras. (Laughter).

We've looked at his stats. I think he averaged like seven assists a game, which I don't think anybody on our team does. Kevin is probably close. He talks about sharing the basketball, so we can kind of believe him when he says that because he obviously shared the basketball a lot.

Q. Jameer, I know you spend a lot of time answering questions about being Jameer Nelson, Jr. Has that especially been the case this week with being in the NCAA Tournament? Has it really hit home this week because now you are also an NCAA Tournament basketball player, taking into account your father's background having been one himself?

JAMEER NELSON, JR.: I've definitely been asked a lot of questions, I'm not going to lie. I've been getting asked questions all my life, crazy questions, personal questions. It's just regular at this point.

Q. Has it been kind of neat to get a little bit more of that this week and to just maybe get a little extra reminder of your dad's background and kind of get to do what he did?

JAMEER NELSON, JR.: Yeah, I'm super grateful to be his son and be compared to him. He's a great player, and it's just amazing to be compared to him, yeah.

Q. Dylan and Ryan, obviously you guys made a decision in the off-season whether or not you were going to return for your COVID year. And now sitting here at this press conference getting ready to play in March Madness, can you reflect on that decision and the season and kind of how it obviously was all worthwhile?

DYLAN PAINTER: Definitely just being here, first of all, it's worthwhile. The season was a lot of ups and downs, especially like our lowest point was just a couple weeks ago before the CAA tournament, and we kind of rallied together that week. And to come out on top and be here, it made the whole season worth it.

RYAN ALLEN: Yeah, Dylan and Kevin kind of made a decision before me, so it made my decision a lot easier. But the goal coming back always was to win a championship and to just be here, I'm very proud to be a Delaware Blue Hen and be here to represent my team.

Q. Jameer, what has your dad taught you about performing on a big stage?

JAMEER NELSON, JR.: Honestly, yeah, he hasn't given me any pointers. I need to ask him. I'm not going to lie. I haven't asked him yet. I've got to talk to him. We don't normally talk about basketball that much honestly. He just told me to be consistent, play hard.

Q. Dylan, was it immediately obvious that you'd made the right move when you transferred, and was it as simple as playing time, or was there more that went into it?

DYLAN PAINTER: I think it was immediately obvious, especially like when I started playing, just like -- it was mostly playing time, but that also affected happiness, mental health, all that stuff. And then just coming to Delaware, being able to start playing, I think late December 2019, it just made it all worth it. I immediately felt better just being out there with my brothers, and representing the University of Delaware has been great.

Q. You've been here before as a part of the Villanova basketball team, but can you kind of compare and contrast representing University of Delaware and maybe a different appreciation for making it as a mid-major school?

DYLAN PAINTER: Yeah, it's definitely a different feeling coming in here as a Villanova basketball player. We were always one of the top seeds in the tournament. We were always expected to get out of this first weekend, but here I think everybody is expecting us to lose tomorrow, so we don't really have anything to lose. We're going to go out there and play hard and give it all we've got. Whatever happens out there, we're going to be happy that we went out there and represented this school and this team.

Q. For both Ryan and Dylan, it's amazing to look and see two all-CAA players sitting on the bench for Delaware. Ryan, we talked about it after you guys played up at Drexel and you came off the bench and had a big game up there. What's it been like for you coming off the bench and being in that role for the first time in your career? And Dylan, same question for you after Ryan answers.

RYAN ALLEN: Honestly, it's been pretty easy. Like I said all the time, I was willing to sacrifice anything for the moment we had a week ago. I just took it as one of those opportunities to prove my point in saying, I was willing to do anything for a championship, and just coming off the bench, being able to support my guys, it's something that I have fun doing to be honest.

DYLAN PAINTER: It's actually been kind of hard for me. Pretty much from the start I was always a starter my whole career here. And just coming off the bench, at first it was hard, but I can't really complain because my two front court mates Andrew Carr and Jyare Davis have been playing out of their minds lately, playing unbelievable basketball. It's great to come in and spell them for a couple minutes, and any three of us can have it going on any night.

I think we have one of the best front courts -- definitely the best front court in the CAA and we're going to surprise some people in this whole grand scheme of college basketball what we can do.

Q. Dylan, after Selection Sunday, Jay kind of said that he was a little concerned because he said, if anybody could be able to tell what Villanova basketball is about, it's you. Do you think leading up into this week they've kind of leaned on you in kind of a coaching role and been asking you questions about what the program is about?

DYLAN PAINTER: Honestly, not really. Our big thing is we prepare to be the best Delaware basketball team we can be, so we focus probably 80 percent on what we do and only 20 percent on the other team.

They've asked a couple little questions, but it hasn't really been a big focus on what I can tell -- all the secrets. It's kind of out in the open. They shoot a lot of threes, they play hard, and it's kind of like the same thing we do. We shoot a lot of threes, we play hard, and it's just going to be a fun game.

Q. Dylan, with that being said, have you considered what it might be like to line up across from those guys, just getting out there on the court actually -- obviously having played with some of them?

DYLAN PAINTER: As an athlete you always try to play every game the same, so that's going to be my approach when we go out there and play the same way. I haven't thought about what it's going to be lining up against them. I think it will probably hit me after the game how crazy this is, how everything is going to come full circle.

Right now I'm just prepared on playing 40 minutes of hard-playing basketball.

Q. Jameer, can you talk about what the support of the Newark community and the campus community has been like over the past couple of weeks?

JAMEER NELSON, JR.: It's been amazing. It's felt like a whole celebration throughout the school the past week after we won. We love the support. Everybody has been embracing us. We have people come out to different events throughout the week. It's just been great.

DYLAN PAINTER: Delaware is kind of weird how they do their semesters. They have a winter session until February 7, so most of our season, the students aren't even there, but ever since they got back a couple weeks ago, we've had a lot of guys at our games, a lot of fans. And then seeing them come out to the CAA tournament, especially for the championship day, and it felt like a home-court advantage out there was kind of amazing. And then just like the general community on social media and everything has been really, really awesome.

RYAN ALLEN: Since I've been here, like the last five years, it's been crazy just to see how the fan base has gone up pretty much every year. And I would say like this past year after we won a championship, like the fan base support has went up four times as much as it's been. Like we really appreciate it.

Q. Ryan and Jameer, during the season I think you were eighth in the CAA at defending the three just percentage-wise. In the CAA tournament nobody had more than four threes against you. You're not going to give up state secrets, but why? What happened there?

JAMEER NELSON, JR.: I felt like we got a really talented group of guys, and I feel like just our sense of urgency had just went up. We got to the tournament, we had a really hard practice -- we had a really hard week of practice. We'd get up at 7:00, and it was a tough week. But our guys just responded.

RYAN ALLEN: Yeah, I think towards the end we came together as a team and realized how good defensively guards we were, and also how good of a front court we had, how long and athletic they are, how we can kind of funnel our offense towards them and kind of just close out pretty hard on the threes. I think that's kind of where it came from.

Q. What's it like representing the CAA out there in Pittsburgh, and talk about tomorrow's experience that you're going to remember playing against a very tough Villanova squad.

JAMEER NELSON, JR.: It's always great to represent your league, and I feel like we're doing a great job doing that.

Playing Villanova, I wasn't here, but maybe these guys could speak on that.

DYLAN PAINTER: I didn't play, so Ryan can speak on that.

RYAN ALLEN: I played and they're a well-coached team just like a lot of other teams in the CAA. So yeah, one, coming from the CAA and representing the CAA, it's an honor, especially being a guard with a lot of the great guard play that's in that league.

But back to playing Villanova a couple years ago, that was a fun experience. It was a good experience. I'm glad we got to play that game and we're able to play them again tomorrow. We already kind of know what their core guys like to do. I think that will be an advantage that we have going into the game.

Q. Jameer, when we talked before the season you talked about how you used to go against Ryan Allen and you've kind of developed a little rivalry, a little healthy dislike for an opposing guard. How have you enjoyed playing with him this year? It's obvious you guys have developed a pretty nice bond. How have you admired the way he's handled this year and approached his different kind of role?

JAMEER NELSON, JR.: I feel like nobody -- well, first off, I used to hate Ryan when we played because I played him my freshman year, and he was talking smack to me. I just hated him. But I love him now, and I feel like nobody has been around him like me. I'm his roommate, so for him to go through all the stuff he's going through that people don't even know, it shows how much of a competitor he is and what a hard worker he is and how he's dedicated to the game.

Q. We know that Dylan has some familiarity with the Villanova roster but Ryan, you were all WCAC. Can you talk about some of the familiarity getting back to your high school days with some of these guys at Villanova?

RYAN ALLEN: Yeah, shout-out to my little bros, Brandon Slater, Justin Moore. Justin, I played with him for two years, his freshman and sophomore year, when I was a junior and senior at DeMatha. Brandon Slater, I don't know that personally, but I've been around him enough. We both plays with takeover, so we've had the 17-U, 16-U battles in practice every Wednesday. It's just going to be fun. It's going to be fun being out there with them at the same time.

Before that, though, it's going to be cool, but as soon as that alarm goes up, they're going to hate me just like Jameer hated me.

Q. Obviously you guys entered the CAA tournament as a fifth seed and every game that you guys played you were the lower seed. What did you learn from that and playing in that, and how is that going to help you tomorrow when you're going into another game where you guys are the underdogs?

RYAN ALLEN: I think what I learned is that we look good in them blue jerseys. I think we've kind of taken on the underdog role and embraced it. I mean, we're going to keep using that to fuel our batteries and go from there.

DYLAN PAINTER: Yeah, I think another thing we learned is there were a couple games during the regular season that we might have underperformed that kind of led to that underdog status, but when we reached that CAA tournament we didn't feel like we were underdogs at all. We kind of knew that we could go out there and win every game, which we did. And then going into this being an underdog again, we're just going to go in there confident like we were last week.

JAMEER NELSON, JR.: We feel like whenever we go on the road and play on the road, we have a different vibe in the locker room. When we come out of the hotel it's more of like a game mentality, a togetherness. I don't know how, but on the road it just happens, and it's amazing.

MARTIN INGELSBY: Well, very, very excited to be here. This is a great moment for our university, for our student-athletes to get into the NCAA Tournament, to celebrate this, to be a part of Selection Sunday, and obviously be up here in Pittsburgh.

It's been a whirlwind couple days for us. I guess 10 days for us to be here. But couldn't be more proud to represent the university and for our guys to experience this.

Q. Martin, I asked Dylan if he had seen you play, if he had seen your game back in the day. He said he wasn't even sure if they had cameras back then, that you were so old. How do you respond to that, and do you take away playing time hearing that?

MARTIN INGELSBY: I did read on ESPN they ranked the coaches as players in the NCAA Tournament, and I was 14th, so I'm going to have to make sure I send him that link. I was fortunate to have experienced the NCAA Tournament. I've talked to our group about it. Again, so excited for these guys to be able to do it.

If Dylan Painter was on my team, he'd get a lot of shots, I'll tell you that.

Q. Martin, it's amazing to kind of look at your bench sometimes and see two former all-CAA guys sitting there in Ryan and Dylan. How valuable has it been to have those guys in those roles and how have they adapted to being guys coming off the bench, and how has it been valuable for you guys to have them coming off the bench?

MARTIN INGELSBY: Yeah, both of those guys are great teammates, and they want what's best for our team. I think each situation was a little different, guys coming off of injuries. Obviously Dylan got hurt the middle part of CAA play, and then Ryan has been in and out of the starting lineup. And again, those guys just want what's best for our team, and I think the group that we're starting moving forward has given us a good boost and good impact on both ends of the floor to get off to a good start. And then those two guys coming in at the first media time-out, I like the dynamic it brings to our group.

They're confident guys. They want to do what's best for the team. They know they get in there and they get a chance to play well and compete and represent our team, and then for each game it's different. One guy could be getting 12 to 15 minutes in the first half and maybe we start him the second half. We're trying to mix and match to put ourselves in the best position to win that particular game.

Q. I had two questions I wanted to ask about the influence of two different people on you. The first is Dereck Whittenburg. What did you extract from him? What did you get out of working under him for that year under Wagner?

MARTIN INGELSBY: Well, I actually sent him a text. I don't know if he told you this, but after we won the championship on Tuesday, just thanking him for giving me the opportunity in this profession. I'll never forget the day that Coach Brey called me. I was home for my brother's graduation from Villanova university, and he said, I don't know what you're doing right now but hop in the car and drive to Staten Island, New York.

I'm like, whoa, I'm not sure I can do that. He said, Dereck Whittenburg has a GA position for you, I think it would be a great fit for you, he's a DeMatha guy, and I think it could be a good opportunity for you to get your feet wet in the profession.

I learned so much from Dereck and my experience at Wagner College in 10 months. It was a short 10 months, but we had a really good team. We went to the NCAA Tournament. We played Pitt in the NCAA Tournament. I just think that kind of got me excited about being in this profession to be able to coach and teach and lead, and I was doing a lot of things behind the scenes kind of involved in the program.

Very fortunate for that opportunity to get away from Notre Dame but also to learn about the profession.

And the second one?

Q. What, if anything, do you and your brother ever discuss -- do you try to extract anything from what Brad does in his career, and does he try to learn from you anything that can apply one way or the other?

MARTIN INGELSBY: You know, Brad and I were 16 months apart. We shared a room growing up. I probably get it from my dad, but a competitive spirit and a competitive fight. We had battles back in the day, a lot of battles on the basketball court in the backyard competing.

Just to really see his passion and his love for doing what he loves, and he has an unbelievable knack for telling a story and being really good at his craft, and we just support each other.

He's been a great friend to me. He's probably talked me off the ledge many times throughout my coaching career. He keeps me grounded. He sends me a text before every game, text after every game. I couldn't be more happy for his success.

In the summers we spent a lot of time down on the Jersey Shore, drinking some beers on my dad's porch down there, reminiscing and talking about our past experiences. There's just a passion. His competitive fight to do what he loves to do is something that we talk about.

Q. You didn't make the tournament as a player until your senior year at Notre Dame. Do you remember that Xavier game pretty clearly? And is there anything you can relate to your guys kind of going through the same thing now?

MARTIN INGELSBY: Yeah, when I went to Notre Dame, we had had a program that had not been to the NCAA Tournament in a long time. I kind of compare it to Ryan, Kevin, and Dylan coming back to be able to lead this team to the NCAA Tournament. Because that was my focus as a point guard and captain of that team to be able to get our program back to the Big Dance. That's what our group talked about. I reference that a lot with our team and their commitment.

So thankful for those guys coming back and believing in me, our program, the vision we have for our program. And again, I wanted nothing more for them than to be able to experience this moment and to take advantage of this moment.

I remember that game very vividly. We beat a really good Xavier team. Skip Prosser was the head coach. I didn't play particularly well in the game. I remember Coach Brey taking me out of the game. I had one or two careless turnovers and the end of the game. But just to be able to get into that game, to be in the NCAA tournament, to be able to win a game, that's a memory for me that will last a lifetime. Then we got to the second round and unfortunately lost to Mississippi.

Again, I'm so excited for our guys to be able to experience this, to be a part of this. I know there will be a lot of nerves like there was for me back in 2001, but once the game gets started, those guys will be ready to go.

Q. It's been such a great week in Newark and the community has really been excited for this team. What's it like for you to represent this university and this state on such a big stage?

MARTIN INGELSBY: Yeah, it's a really proud moment. It's a lot of hard work going into building a program. I think when Chrissi hired me six years ago, it wasn't about putting a basketball team together, it was really about building a basketball program. I'm really proud about where we are and the support we have from our athletic director, from our president. We have a great alignment top to bottom.

Coach Brey always talked about, hey, if you can get it to this position, that state, the community, the fan base will love you forever. And I think you saw that yesterday when we left, the sendoff and being on campus. Just so much energy and life and excitement around this basketball team that we're thankful for, and we're grateful for the opportunity to be here representing the University of Delaware.

You know, it's fitting because I thought we had some teams before that were good enough to get here. We had some transfers, we had a COVID year, so to be able to come back and do it like we did, I think it's a great story, too.

We were reeling about two weeks ago. We had lost two and a half games in a row at the end of the year. We had to regroup. We had to refocus. I don't think we're in this position if we didn't go through that adversity the last two games at home and then losing that Towson game. And I give our guys a lot of credit for refocusing, getting back to work, digging in, to be able to put ourselves in that position to be able to compete for a championship on Tuesday night.

Q. I wanted to ask you first about your dad and growing up, obviously he had a tremendous career at Villanova and you heard all the stories. But growing up and following Villanova, what was the years that you remember that stood out to you the most, whether it was going to games, watching it, a couple stories you remember before you obviously in the late '90s went to Notre Dame.

MARTIN INGELSBY: Yeah, I grew up a huge Villanova basketball fan. I think since I can remember, I was always around the game of basketball. And as I got older, you started to get a sense of like hey, my dad was a pretty darned good player. Was a really, really good player. Obviously played in the Philadelphia Catholic League, has got his banner hanging in the rafters at Villanova.

I remember, I don't even know what years they were, but going from my home in Berwyn to the Radner Hotel, hopping in the yellow school buses that they would take to The Pavilion to drop you off in front of The Pavilion to watch Villanova basketball. That's what I did with my dad and my younger brother. We would probably go to every home game we could go to, and I just enjoyed those experiences.

My dad wore No. 24 at Villanova. I wore No. 24 at Villanova. My birthday is November 24th, so I tell people that's why I wore 24, not because of my dad, but I loved Greg Woodard. That was one of my memories of watching Villanova basketball, 6'7", shooter, he wore No. 24, and that number has really been a big part of who I am in my experience as a basketball player.

But I cherished all those moments. I remember where I was in '85 when we won the National Championship. And as a young, aspiring basketball player, like just trying to live up to my dad's success and the expectations and just trying to be like my dad because he was such a great basketball player.

We got my two youngest kids -- Ben is almost going to be five, and Jack is seven -- and for Christmas they got replica jerseys that you can buy at the Villanova bookstore of my dad's No. 24 jersey. I might have to put that out on Twitter tomorrow. They'd better not be Villanova basketball fans tomorrow.

Again, I can't go down -- the connections to Villanova, the university, everything that school has meant to me. The one thing I will say is how great Jay Wright has been to my dad and his former players and taking care of those that have come before them. I don't think any program in the country does it better than Villanova basketball at taking care of their own, their alumni, the support, the alumni functions they have. It's one big basketball family, and I know that's something that means the world to my dad.

Q. You guys in the regular season gave up 60 points or fewer just three times throughout. In the CAA Tournament you gave up fewer than 60 all three times. Was there something that connected with you guys or clicked in the week of the conference tournament that allowed you guys to excel so well defensively?

MARTIN INGELSBY: You know, we had to get back to some basics defensively. We had a really, really hard three days after the CAA tournament. We practiced at 7:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, came back and practiced in the afternoon. And I really challenged our guys and said, if we don't get better on the defensive end, the season is going to be over pretty quickly. I think our guys needed to hear that. They needed to fight for each other. We needed to get back to some hard days on the basketball court where we challenged our guys. We competed, we mixed up the jerseys.

I had to try to find a way to pull that out of them, and I told them, I said, you guys, I believe we're the best basketball team in the CAA. Like we have to play like that now or it's over.

I think that resonated with our guys. We have fifth-year guys that are old, they're mature, they talked about being in this position -- being in a position to get to the NCAA Tournament.

Again, it's amazing what one win can do for the confidence of a team, and we were able to get Drexel on Sunday and then we just buckled down and fought and kept fighting and fighting and fighting. I think that was infectious on our group, and they just weren't going to let us lose. They had that mentality of we're going to refuse to lose.

Really proud of us because we had to do it on the defensive end. It wasn't a pretty couple games offensively for us, especially in the championship game. We won 59-55, but we won it with toughness and our defense.

Q. Was it instantly obvious that Carr was a Delaware level player? Were there any debates on that? How high was he on the gangly scale and what's been the evolution?

MARTIN INGELSBY: Yeah, with any student-athlete that we recruit I feel like there's a process that we go through to evaluate them as a basketball player and then obviously a fit for our university. The more you watched Andrew Carr, the more you could see the potential down the road, his size and his skill set and for what he was able to do on the basketball court. Obviously his dad played at Delaware, his uncle played at Delaware, there was a connection there. They were excited about us.

Our recruiting process maybe drags on a little longer than maybe some other schools. We're not one of those programs that just throws out scholarship offers to be able to get likes and hearts on Twitter, whatever they call it.

I think the more we watched him, the more we evaluated him, we just thought he would be a great fit for us.

I can't say enough about his progression really over the last six to eight weeks. He's been fabulous. I mean, the toughness that he showed on the defensive end down in the CAA tournament, his ability to impact the game in so many ways. He's really, really confident offensively now. He's a versatile guy that you can play inside, you can play outside.

I think the sky's the limit for how good he can be as a basketball player in our program, and most importantly he's a great teammate. Guys love playing with him. He's one of those guys that can fill up the stat sheet and impact the game in so many ways without even scoring.

Again, it was a process for us. We're thrilled to have him. He's a great representative of this university. I'm excited to be able to continue to coach him moving forward, and we're going to need him to be really good tomorrow for us to have a chance against these guys.