NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - CHATTANOOGA VS ILLINOIS

March 17, 2022

Brad Underwood

Kofi Cockburn

Andre Curbelo

Trent Frazier

PPG Paints Arena

Illinois Fighting Illini

Media Conference

Q. Kofi and Trent, this kind of being a lot of your last year or last run with this core that's rebuilt the program, do you kind of approach this tournament any differently and how are you considering that?

TRENT FRAZIER: Obviously we approach it differently, having the experience with last year. But I think our mindset is the same; we're trying to get to where we want to get to as far as New Orleans.

But I think as far as the mindset, we have a different approach to our mindset. We're more hungry. Obviously you have three vets up here, but we're more focused, more locked in. We have the mindset of just trying to kill anything in front of us and making sure nothing stops us.

We've just got to have good energy and just be focused.

Q. Trent and Kofi, Coach has been talking lately about having fun and not being tense. Are you guys having fun? Has that been a problem? Have you been a little too tense or a little bit too tight on offense?

KOFI COCKBURN: I mean, there have been instances where we have been a little bit tense and stuff. That doesn't usually work for us. Whenever we're tense and we're overhyped, we never play the way we should. He just reminds us to have fun, keep remembering the reason why you play basketball, why you started playing basketball and remember all that fun you had when you were younger and when you had nothing to worry about basically. That's when you play at your best, when you're having fun. You're sharing that energy with your guys and you're elevating your guys. That's definitely been an emphasis.

Q. Trent and Andre, for those of us that don't know Kofi, how would you describe him?

ANDRE CURBELO: I mean, you can see it right now, he's a funny dude, brings energy every time, every day. Always has that loud voice that can -- some guys come into practice a little down, a little tired, and when you see him, you know you're going to have a good day because he's going to bring smiles and a lot of energy to practice or to the game or the locker room, whatever it is.

Even though he's big like that, a very energetic dude, and he brings it every day.

TRENT FRAZIER: I mean, same thing he said. Energetic, laughter. He's always smiling.

I think as a team, we kind of feed off him, him being the biggest player on the court, knowing he's using his voice, everyone feeding off of him, bringing the same amount of energy. Like Belo said, guys come in tired sometimes, but with him being on this team, always smiling, bringing hella energy, it's always fun to be around him. He kind of helps us in that area and in that part.

Q. Trent, what did it mean for you guys to have him come back?

TRENT FRAZIER: It's huge. Obviously having an All-American, a big, where he's so dominant, having him in the front court for us is really important. Especially when teams know how to adjust to us, having good guards on our team, Belo, Plummer, Monte, J. Guys try to tend to figure us out, but having Kofi on the court with us frees up everybody because all the eyes are on him.

I think he's done an unbelievable job bringing a lot of attention to him but also passing it out to open guys, getting them shots. But he's been huge for us.

Q. Trent and Kofi, when you think back to the way last year ended against Loyola, what's the feeling being back here? I'd imagine there's a lot of you over the last 12 months that have just wanted to get back here and get that next shot. Now that you're here, what's that feeling and how do you want to try and seize the opportunity?

TRENT FRAZIER: Like I said at the beginning, we have a different mindset. Obviously not as different as last year. We obviously had the same mindset, but we have a different approach to our mindset, us being more focused. Like Kofi said, it's March. If you're not having fun then we shouldn't be here. We're playing free. We're having fun, and we're ready to go on a run.

But at the end of the day, the biggest thing is our energy, our connectivity, and just like I said, having fun. It's a fun time right now, and we're happy to be back here and do something special.

KOFI COCKBURN: Yeah, our loss last year was a huge lesson for us. Coming back especially with the vets that had been through the NCAA Tournament, that we could basically show the younger guys how important it is to come out here and give it your all because you never know when the season could end. It might end like that and it's a hard feeling. We cried, and it was like a bad locker room, everybody was so emotional inside. We're trying to prevent that right now, so we're more eager, we're more locked in and we're more focused.

Q. Andre and Trent, two really good guards for the Mocs, Jean Baptiste and Malachi Smith. What's the key to slowing those guys down on offense?

TRENT FRAZIER: Same keys we've done all year in the Big Ten. We've guarded pros all year at that spot, at that position. We've played big-time teams with guards that can go for 30. Our mindset isn't any different. Obviously those are two good players over there, but as far as our mindset, I think it's the same. Like it's been all year, dominating on that side of the ball, being focused and just playing with hella energy and trying to get stops, and that's what it's all about. Our mindset is pretty similar.

Q. Kofi, you guys all have had a chance to show what you had all year long. We're down to the end of the season now. You may be on the NBA radar. How do you take advantage of that on a big stage like this?

KOFI COCKBURN: I try not to make it about myself. Obviously like a lot of people know that I have goals, I have aspirations. But I think the biggest thing for me right now is to continue winning. I feel like no matter what I do, if I score the ball or not, it's just about playing with maximum effort and us winning games. People value winners, so I try to put that above everything else.

Whatever it takes for me to win these games, advance to the next round, wherever we go, however far we get, just play my best and giving these guys the best chance to get there.

Q. Kofi, you're going head to head with Silvio De Sousa, Kansas transfer. What have you seen that impresses you with his play inside?

KOFI COCKBURN: Just his patience. He takes his time. He's never really rushed. That's going to be a challenge for me, just making sure that I stay focused and knowing that I'm basically lulling to sleep and stuff because he's so slow and he takes -- he has really good footwork from what I've seen he likes to take a second and stuff like that. His shooting has been okay. He shoots the ball pretty well for his size. Just basically watching that. He's grown over the years. I've seen him play in high school, and from what I see, he's definitely developed his game.

Q. You guys seem to be talking a lot about having fun and that's the big focus here. Obviously the way things ended in the tournament last year, do you feel the pressure this year to perform?

ANDRE CURBELO: I don't think there's any pressure. We have a great group of guys that come out every day, play hard, play with energy. I don't think there's any pressure. I think if anything it gives us a chance to even play a little more free and even more fun, just because we know what happened last year, and I think a big part of it was we might have not had a lot of fun.

We know that, and it was a good lesson, so we're going to come in this year and hopefully come out tomorrow, have a lot of fun, smiles everywhere. Because like we've been saying, when we have fun that's when we're at our best, when we're smiling and jumping and bouncing off the walls. That's what we've got to do.

Coach even said it, you've got to bring a huge -- beat box, big speakers, bring it. Whatever it is, we're going to do whatever it takes for us to have a smile on our face and go out and have fun Friday.

Q. Did you guys think you weren't having fun last year?

ANDRE CURBELO: Yeah, we was having fun, but I'm saying this year we've been emphasizing the have more fun part. Now that we've been doing that pretty much the whole year, we're going to come out and hopefully be prepared and have a smile on our face and just have fun.

KOFI COCKBURN: Not that we weren't having fun last year. I think the circumstances made it really difficult for us. Guys, we're all human, we've all got -- I feel like our mental health was a little bit off because we were all away from family, COVID had hit, there was a lot of depression and stuff going on all over the world. I think it affected the guys a lot.

We weren't able to have as much fun as we should have because obviously guys are worried about all different stuff. My family is back in Jamaica, you've got guys like Andre's family back in Puerto Rico and stuff like that. We weren't as focused on us having fun because it was such a greater -- like greater deal going on. This year we have the opportunity to come out here and have fun knowing that our family is safe and we can do what we do.

Q. Andre, you've played a bunch of games here in a row now. Do you feel like you're getting back into that flow, and if so what's that feel like on the court?

ANDRE CURBELO: Man, I've been feeling great as the days go by. I've got a few games under my belt, a few practices under my belt. I started smiling because I've been feeling it lately.

I'm not going to get into any of that. Just once again, just going to come out and have a good time. I think that's something that I've been emphasizing a lot, and that's a big part of my personality, too, just having a smile on my face. That's when I'm the best.

To answer your question, yes, and I just can't wait to continue to win tomorrow hopefully and go down the road because I know we have the team for it, and I know we can do very special things.

Without these guys, I wouldn't be able to be myself, so I've just got to continue to do what I do, smile, bounce off the walls, play defense, and just run the offense. But yeah, to answer your question, yes.

Q. Baptiste said you guys played with and against each other growing up in South Florida. Have you kept us with his career and what kind of challenges is he going to present when it comes to guarding him tomorrow?

TRENT FRAZIER: I haven't, but we played a long time ago together. Really fun times when we were kids. But he's a really good player, really physical, big guard. I think he's going to create challenges, create -- in the post, posting us up. Like I said, he's really big and physical. Obviously an elite shooter, so we've got to be dialed in on him.

Like I said before, we've been playing guys like that all year. We're just going to do what we do.

Q. Andre, with Zed Key being here and you guys being high school teammates and everything and having the opportunity to now be on this stage, I wonder if you get a chance to cross paths with him at all while you're here. And what does it mean that two guys from the same high school team are both representing their teams here in the NCAA Tournament.

ANDRE CURBELO: We have not. I think it's a little -- like five minutes away, 10 minutes, but we have not. But it's a great feeling when you have a teammate in another school and we're both here, March Madness. That's not only good for us but good for each other, Ohio State, us, Illinois, and also our high school. It brings a good image and lets people know that the school in high school, Long Island Lutheran, they do a great job developing players. Maybe that can impact all people's decision in going to maybe Lu High over another school.

It's definitely a great feeling. He's my brother, my guy. I talk to him every now and then. It's definitely a great feeling to know that we have two players from the same high school here.

BRAD UNDERWOOD: It's obviously a wonderful experience to be a part of March Madness. I'm excited to be back here with all of you in person. I'm excited that we've got fans. I'm excited that as we know the NCAA Tournament, one of the great, great sporting events of all time, it's somewhat back to normal.

That's exciting.

It'll be an unbelievable tournament in terms of I think anybody can win this thing. But we've got a great opponent in Chattanooga. You have to show up. You have to be prepared. You have to play with great energy. You have to play loose.

It's one of the things we've talked about at length with our team is having fun, enjoying the moment, and just going out and playing as hard as we can play.

We're excited, and Pittsburgh is a great venue, and we're excited to be here.

Q. I didn't get a chance to ask Kofi, but how much do you think last year's tournament drove him towards the decision to come back? Secondly, what does it mean to have him back?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: Well, I think it was a part of him coming back. Kofi is very, very smart, and he was a second team All-American last year. His legacy means a lot to him. His jersey is going to hang in our rafters, which is special. He's a wonderful student. He's tracking towards graduation, getting closer.

I think all of that stuff played with him. He's loved in not just the State of Illinois or Champaign-Urbana but the State of Illinois, as well. So I think it's part of it.

That was a bad feeling we had last year in that locker room. To have him back, you're talking about a first-team All-American, you're talking about arguably the most dominant player in college basketball physically. To have that option is a pretty doggone good option to have.

Q. You touched on it in your opening statement, guys having fun. From the players it was a big emphasis from what they were talking about. Why to you was it so important that these guys just sort of embrace having fun out here?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: You know, I've talked about this a little bit. Last year when we won the Big Ten Tournament we didn't -- we never got to celebrate. We never got to get excited about the NCAA Tournament. We played with a great chip on our shoulder going into the Big Ten Tournament. We won that, and then we were whisked off into quarantine for 24 hours. We never got to put a finality, a final touch on that. You didn't hear your name announced on Selection Sunday. We were standing on a stage getting a trophy.

To me that's the end of the regular season, it's the start of the new and it's something to get excited about. This year we're going to make sure we do that right.

Q. What impresses you the most about the Mocs' defense?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: They've got a lot of size. There's no doubt about that. For a mid-major program, to have legitimate -- high major size, they're bigger than we are. To be able to throw three bodies out there at the center position, they're very, very sound, they're well-coached. They know exactly what they're doing. They can mix up their ball screen coverages three or four different ways.

They're very solid, very sound. You can tell they're a veteran team, and they don't beat themselves and you've got to make shots to beat them.

Q. How is the health of the team heading into the tournament? Are you expecting to have every player available tomorrow?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: I am. Yes. It's the best it's been since June.

Q. The emphasis of keeping things light, having fun, have you seen anything different from the players where they've embraced that in the last four days?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: You know, I think our practices have had a ton of energy. Now, that doesn't mean we win games because of that. But we've been very focused. We've had a great focus, we've had a great presence about us.

Again, just trying to tell guys to enjoy the little things and enjoy the experience of it all and take it all in and let your hair down and let's go play.

Q. How do you combat maybe the human nature of feeling tense or any of that? Is there a concerted effort or do they handle it themselves?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: This team is pretty loose now. This team has got a little swag about them. They've got some confidence. I don't worry about that. I think that we've got to play with the right tempo, that helps us, the right pace. Sometimes we get going too fast, sometimes we get going too slow. When we play with the right -- in the right pace, then we're in a pretty good place.

Q. You mentioned earlier that UTC has a lot of bodies they can throw at you. It obviously seems to be something that they might be throwing at Kofi specifically in this game. What sort of plan do you have in place to be able to handle the amount of size they're throwing at you?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: Do you really think I'm going to answer that? (Laughing).

Kofi has seen just about every type of coverage. He's one of the most fouled players in America. It doesn't matter. From early on in the season when we played Arizona, they doubled, he passes it out. Whether it's triple coverage, doesn't matter. We've seen just about everything there is to see.

That's the growth of Kofi being a junior. He's just about seen every type of coverage there is.

Q. You guys were so good last year, such a disappointing finish to the season. I wonder for you personally, how much have you looked forward to getting back here, just getting another crack at it? You guys have had another great season and now here you are. How would you kind of describe the way you're feeling as another opportunity in the Big Dance presents itself?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: Well, I look forward to getting to the NCAA Tournament every year. That's our goal. That's one of our goals.

You can go down every major program in college basketball, and they've been upset in the tournament. All you can do is keep coming back. That's the way I look at that.

Last year we lost, and we had a great season. This year we backed it up, we won another championship. All we can do tomorrow is show up and play and play the best we can.

We're excited every year to get back. It's six games and you've got to be your best every single night or you get beat and go home.

Q. You mentioned you've hardly been healthy since June. How much has it helped to have Grandison back and have that depth you haven't had down the stretch?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: Yeah, a lot. Jake is a valuable piece to our basketball team and Jake is a guy that passes it, shoots it. He's got great, great emotional stability for our team. He's very cerebral. He knows everything that we're doing. Again, my confidence in Jake is so high because of what he brings to the mental capacity as well as the physical.

Q. Just to clarify, is Jake cleared to go, and if so, what's his progression been like the last couple weeks?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: Yeah, he's available, and I think the one thing that he's -- he's just had to work through, it hurts. It was a process. It was an injury that hurt. You've got to go through the rehab and make sure it's strong and then you've got to figure out how to play with a little ouchie. It's one of those deals that can sting you.

But he's been great the last few days in practice. I guess this is day 3. Yeah, it's been positive.

Q. I understand you get so much energy out of scoring points, that's when you start having fun, and you guys are so reliant on the outside shooting three points. On the afternoons when it's not falling or Kofi is getting into foul trouble, how do you control the guys to stay on course and overcome those setbacks or those things that aren't going right during the course of a game?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: Yeah, and that's one of the areas where you've got to make free throws, you've got to get an offensive rebound or two. Those are the things that help you win in postseason.

Our whole system is built and our whole program is built on trying to win games when the ball doesn't go in. That's through our defense and limiting teams to one shot.

I've been in this tournament before and had a chance to win shooting 31 percent, and you don't ever want that to happen, but you've got to give yourselves a chance. Making free throws, just chopping wood, getting an offensive rebound here or there, all those things are huge because every possession counts as usually the NCAA Tournament possessions drop.

Q. I know Hugs and Frank are doing CBS studio work this week. Having done that yourself a few years ago, do you have any advice for those guys?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: Wow. I can only imagine the garbage that's going to be talked when they're doing our game.

It'll be a great tune-in to be very honest. Hugs is down low one of the funniest human beings on the planet, and Frank will chime in and play right along.

No, it'll be great insight. You've got a Hall of Famer. And Frank is -- those two guys worked together, and I know what it was like in the office with those guys every single day. It'll be a great day or two for them.

I'm not sure it'll be great for me, the stuff they're going to say, but they'll have a lot of fun at my expense I'm sure.

Q. Trent Frazier said that going against all the great guards in the Big Ten has prepared them for Malachi Smith and DJB. I was wondering is there a guard in the Big Ten that Malachi Smith kind of reminds you of?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: Yeah, I mean, he's a big guard. He's got a great body. I think that the Branham kid at Ohio State. I think that you start talking about -- he's not quite as athletic as Ivey. You start looking at the young man, Pickett, at Penn State. You go right on down the list. Brad Davison at Wisconsin. You go right on down the list, we have a lot of 6'4", 200-pound guards in our league. It won't be the first time that we've seen those type of guys.

Q. You've said that last year following the Big Ten championship, you kind of struggled to get the team going in practice ahead of the NCAA Tournament a year ago. With the rest that you guys got and you said that being so important, have you noticed a difference in the last practice before heading out here and kind of a different feeling heading into this year?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: Yeah, we've been really good the last two days. Again, I don't know how that translates but I cut today short because we were so on point. We hit everything we needed to hit and got through it. I've been really pleased.

We did not have that last year. Last year it was not easy.

Q. With Andre being back to Andre, how much does he have a pulse on that pace that you talked about in the game?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: A lot. Dre is a great defensive rebounder, so when the defensive rebounds -- I think he had 10 the other night -- he pushes pace, he pushes tempo, he forces other guys to run. We got to point to post, Kofi running down the floor. We saw Kofi's speed. There's no doubt -- Plummer got a three. Those are all things that are good for us, are good for us. Everybody benefits when Belo is pushing tempo.

Q. Before all this madness happened, did you see Chattanooga's buzzer beater in the SoCon tournament, and what was your reaction?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: I can only imagine the excitement of that. I've been close to that. We won our first round game at Stephen F. Austin or got sent to overtime on a three and a foul, but to me that's what makes this event so good. I had seen it. You couldn't miss it if you watched any TV.

That's what makes March Madness special. It's what makes it elite. It's moments like that that everybody on that team, everybody in Chattanooga, everybody in the state of Tennessee, any basketball fan to be honest, is going to remember shots like that.

What an exciting day for them.