NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - RICHMOND VS PROVIDENCE

March 18, 2022

Chris Mooney

Jacob Gilyard

Grant Golden

KeyBank Center

Richmond Spiders

Media Conference

Q. Grant, this is relatively new for Spiders, and I wonder how hard it is to remain focused on basketball when so much is swirling around you on the outside.

GRANT GOLDEN: Certainly a lot going on. I think, like you said, because this is new for us, we've never done this before. You certainly don't realize how much stuff like this and media and everything -- you don't really understand how much goes into it with that part until you get here, but I think this group has sort of been on a mission starting last week, and I think everybody, 1 through 20, has done a really good job of staying locked in, so we're trying to block out the outside noise. Like I said, I think it started last week going into D.C., and we sort of kept that same mentality here in Buffalo.

Q. This is for either of you guys. You guys just like Providence are a very experienced group. Nothing seems to flap you guys or make you flustered. How do you think that will impact tomorrow's game just with the experience that both teams possess?

GRANT GOLDEN: Yeah, they're -- my brother plays for Butler, so I have watched a lot of their games throughout the years. Like you said, really experienced group, really talented group. Nate Watson is a really good player. I'm sure he will be at the top of the scouting report for us, but they have good players all over. Bynum coming off the bench plays like a leading scorer. To have that amount of scoring ability coming off the bench is huge for any team.

They have shooters all around, so certainly will be a good match-up, and we're looking forward to starting to prepare today and getting to tomorrow at 6:00.

Q. I'm interested in both of your thoughts here. You guys wouldn't even be here if you hadn't beaten Davidson, and now here you are. You have a chance to go to the Sweet 16. In terms of your basketball life, what does this opportunity mean for you guys given where all your journeys are from?

JACOB GILYARD: To get an opportunity to go to the Sweet 16 is everything you dream of as a kid. That's kind of why you play basketball or why you want to go play college basketball is for this reason, so we're excited.

At the end of the day, like you said, if we wouldn't have beat Davidson, we wouldn't be here. It started on Thursday when we played Rhode Island, but we were picked preseason second. We weren't -- we didn't look at ourselves as an average six seed in the A-10. We didn't look as ourselves as an average 12 seed coming into the tournament. We think a lot of people are going to underestimate us, and that's fine, but we're excited to be here.

Q. I would like to hear from both of you guys because you have different roles.

What was it like to learn the Princeton offense, the Richmond offense? It has a reputation for being different than a lot of others, so when you got on to campus, you've been around six years, have you mastered it yet?

GRANT GOLDEN: Yeah, at this point I like to think that we've mastered it to an extent, but, no, obviously getting recruited by Richmond and hearing their pitch about the Princeton offense and from my perspective being the big man and being able to have the ball that much and make that many decisions was certainly very appealing.

Obviously, I came in as a freshman, and eventually medically red shirted and had heart surgery, but I was playing behind T.J. Cline who was A-10 player of that year. That's my best friend, has been. To sit and watch the rest of that season and watch him sort of masterfully work through that offense and really dominate with the system that Coach Mooney has, I think that was really good for me to sit there and watch someone who was so good at running the offense and sort of knew all the right decisions to make, knew all the right plays to make. So to be able to watch him that freshman year, I think, really helped me accelerate when I was younger in terms of me learning it.

JACOB GILYARD: Mine is less complex than that. I thought it was pretty easy personally. The ball is always in my hands. When we started running our offense, it started with me figuring out where to go. I didn't have too hard a time picking up with it, but I watched a lot of film, studied it a lot, and I think we did a pretty good job at figuring out how to run it.

Q. I'm just curious, I'm sure in the last week, in the last 24 hours, you've heard a lot about Richmond's history as a double-digit seed, and now that you've added to that tradition, in hindsight, what is the recipe to knocking off a higher-seeded team? Is there anything beyond just playing well in terms of mentality, locker room approach that goes into doing that?

JACOB GILYARD: I would say it's kind of all the above. I think our offense is pretty complex, like we were just talking about. It's pretty hard to guard. So for us, it's kind of just locking it on the defensive end.

Obviously it's a little bit of a locker room approach, a little bit of studying film, kind of understanding what the other team is going to do, but at the end of the day, it's kind of -- it's just a one-game series. You don't have to beat somebody two times, nine times, four times, whatever it is. You just have to beat them once, so we go in with that mindset. These 40 minutes is all we're worried about, and that's what we're going to do, give it 100% in those 40 minutes.

Q. For Jacob, after seven games of playing 40 minutes, what would your reaction be if your coach took you out of the game? Would you be thinking, like, pointing to somebody else or something?

JACOB GILYARD: I think the last time I came out of a game, I told him to take me out. I couldn't remember the last time he tried to take me out. It would probably be crazy. I would just wonder what he was thinking, why he did that. I would be interested to know what the logic was behind that, but, I mean, at the end of the day, I trust him. If he thinks taking me out is going to give us the best chance to win, then I'm all for it. Anything we can do to help the team win.

Q. Just to follow up because a lot of coaches nowadays on all levels think resting guys is important. What is the key to you being so tireless and never having to leave the game?

JACOB GILYARD: I don't think there's a key to it. I don't know. We do a pretty good job of making sure after games I do recovery. I try not to get in ice baths. I'm not a big fan, but we do a good job of making sure that my legs are ready for the next game. I kind of just get lost in the game.

At the end of the day, you can find ways to conserve your energy out there. The media time-outs definitely help me a little bit, but I kind of just blackout. I love playing basketball, and I'm trying to play it 24/7, so it's pretty easy for me.

Q. Jacob, I want to go back to what you said earlier about the A-10. Obviously, we follow it closely here. Bonaventure was everybody's pick. They didn't get there. You guys were picked near them, and you struggled at times during the season, and you ended up where you did.

How difficult was it this year just to try to navigate through that league as a team that a lot of people targeted going in, and it made it tougher and did that make it tough -- did it make you guys tougher at the end of the season?

JACOB GILYARD: I think that might be an answer to her question earlier, why we do so well as a double-digit seed. In the A-10, we have a target on our back with so many older guys, people have scouted us for so long and understand what we do.

When we're here, I don't think we're -- we're not the people that -- or the team that people are gunning for. We're on the opposite end of that. At the end of the day, A-10 is a really good conference. I don't think it gets as much respect as it deserves. There are teams like Davidson. There are teams like us, Bonaventure, St. Louis. Dayton has a team full of freshmen and sophomores that are going to be really good in a few years. It is a tough league, and it's prepared us for where we're going to be and where we're at right now.

Q. Grant, you mentioned Providence's age and experience. I wonder when you watch them on film, what sort of jumps out in terms of talent, style, defensive tendencies, those sorts of things that concern you?

GRANT GOLDEN: Yeah. Like I said, I think there's talent one through five, lots of shooting all around the court. Obviously, being older -- an older group, they've obviously played together like us, so a lot of experience out there together. And they sort of know what each other is trying to do out there, but I think the games that I have watched them this year and, obviously, you know, the film that we have all watched since yesterday, you know, they really dominate in close games the last four to six minutes of games.

If it's a close game, they do a really great job. Certainly a testament to Coach Cooley, and certainly a testament to those guys and the experience they have as well. We just have to be ready, try to win four minutes at a time. And once we get to the last four minutes and hopefully still being in it, just hopefully give ourselves a chance to execute down the stretch.

CHRIS MOONEY: Well, we're excited to get started. Did a lot of -- as coaches, of course, we did a lot of prep work last night and this morning. Providence is awfully good. Champions of the Big East regular season. Really impressive competitive level, a strength, physicality. Very impressive team. We'll certainly have our hands full and a lot to get ready for.

Q. As you prioritize things, what is the primary value or primary values of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament at Richmond and for your program, for the school and the program?

CHRIS MOONEY: I don't understand.

Q. In other words, what are the advantages? Obviously, there are dozens of them, but as you see them, what are the most important things that your program and the school gains from qualifying and advancing?

CHRIS MOONEY: For our program, obviously, the ability -- the exposure that we get from playing in this tournament from playing on national TV in the championship game on Sunday, to have another opportunity to play a game, you know, it's just great exposure. It certainly impacts or hopefully will impact recruiting because that's one of the biggest things in recruiting that you are trying to help the recruit visualize himself being successful at your school, and this does it obviously front and center.

From a school standpoint, it's gigantic. I think especially a school like Richmond, which is a tremendous school, a tremendous academic school, as evidenced by you, John, but is not the kind of place that's necessarily going to be -- to get this kind of exposure. Richmond doesn't necessarily want all kinds of exposure. I think it stands alone for what it is, but for Richmond to be able to be a school of its size, a liberal arts college, to be able to stand toe to toe with some of the biggest schools in the country or some of the best colleges in the country, I think means an awful lot.

Q. As long as I got it here, can I follow up just by asking, what knocks your socks off about Providence? Is there something that jumps out at you?

CHRIS MOONEY: Probably their competitiveness and physicality. They're strong. They're older, also physical. I think that's a big part of Ed's program is taking the fight to the other team and bringing that competitiveness to the game, and I think they do that in a very impressive way.

Q. Obviously, we follow the league closely here. Bonaventure had a lot of hype this year, didn't get to where they thought they could. You guys had a lot of hype coming into the season and you found it at the end right when you needed to.

How much did the up-and-down nature of the season prepare you for this, and you kind of alluded to it, but Sweet 16, what does that mean to kids, the opportunity that is there that they probably dreamed their whole basketball journeys for?

CHRIS MOONEY: I think that, again, this goes back to a little bit more of being an outside the Power Six. If a team inside the Power Six Conference is up and down or didn't finish where they were projected to finish, but got in safely and as a six seed, you know, it seems like they did what they were supposed to do, and they're certainly able to play with anybody in the country.

In our conference, 14 teams, you know, St. Bonaventure finished fourth, had some really big wins, had a great season, but they're excluded from the tournament because the field is not very big necessarily. I just think it's a different interpretation that we have to do a little bit better to qualify. And in our conference tournament run, we beat three top 50 schools or top 55 in three days to get to win the championship, and that's not something that all the Power Five Conference teams had to do.

In the ACC, I don't think the two teams in the finals had to do that, but we just don't have quite as much room for error, and that's the way it is, but I wish we had a little bit more because I feel like our top five or six schools this year especially can compete with just about anybody.

In terms of, yeah, the Sweet 16, that would be -- it's just another -- obviously, it's one more game now, which is what makes it so exciting, but if you can do that, when we made the Sweet 16 in 2011, to have that opportunity to be one of only 16 teams remaining, and it's just such a stamp of approval or stamp of establishment if you can accomplish something like that.

Being here is one step. Obviously, that's another step in that, and it just marks your program, I think, as one of the -- of one of the very relevant programs in the country.

Q. When guys my age hear the Princeton offense, it's like mythical, right? Is it more common now? In other words, do you see it being stolen and how? And I guess the other part of it is, just how difficult is it to teach guys?

CHRIS MOONEY: That's a great question, and I think that's spot on in that -- my college coach, Pete Carrill, I feel like he was 60 years ahead of his time because now it's much more common. When I played in college, Princeton would be on -- when Princeton would be on television, there weren't as many games on television. We would be playing North Carolina State or UCLA or Arizona.

Of course, the game was going to be a little bit slower and more methodical to give ourselves a chance, but Coach Carrill in terms of five guys being on the perimeter, everybody being skillful, cutting being as or more important than screening, skill level being really high. That was really very unique at the time. I don't feel like it's as unique now. I feel like everybody -- not everybody, but South Dakota State certainly has elements of that. Iowa has elements of that. In our conference, I feel like most of the teams at some point have five guys out or four perimeter guys at a time in the game, so I do think it's more common.

In terms of being able to teach it, I think that we try -- what we try to identify is a guy who has a feel for the game, so it's an intangible or something you can't necessarily define or chart, but just his feel for the game. And if a guy has a good feel for the game, he seems to pick things up pretty quickly.

It's not necessarily an offense per se as much as it is a way of playing and making decisions. The players make all of the decisions. The more quickly you make them and the more soundly you make them, the better you are at it. If you have a go ahead feel for the game, it's pretty easy. If you don't have a good feel for the game, you know, that's going to take some time for sure.

Q. When you watch Providence on film, what makes them so good and so successful late in games, final few minutes?

CHRIS MOONEY: Well, they have good guard play, and the fact that they can go to a few different guards -- Bynum, although he comes off the bench now, plays a lot of minutes, so he is a sure-handed ball handler, a guy who can not only create but get his own shot.

Their presence on the backboard is impressive. They're a fairly low turnover team, and their age and experience. They're generally throwing the guy -- throwing the ball to a guy who is a senior or grad student, so I feel like those things -- and they're also -- I feel like they're very good at imposing their will, and they're going to play how Providence plays.

They may adjust one way or another, I'm sure, in a scouting report or how they guard certain things, but they're very confident, and they're going play the way Providence plays, and I think there's a lot to be said for that over the course of a season especially because then it also goes back to reinforcing their own toughness and what they believe in, and so I think then that helps them in the next situation where it's a close game.

Q. Two years ago, you guys were NCAA tournament team in most people's eyes, Providence as well. Most of the guys who will play tomorrow were on that team, the core of that team. Providence went the transfer route.

Talk about kind of building your team from that moment until now and the kind of loyalty you hung with those kids.

CHRIS MOONEY: Yeah, exactly. They're also an older team, I feel like we're an older team that's gotten old together. You know, everybody on our team has gotten old at Richmond, but I think that being in the transfer market, that's going to be such a normal thing for just about every team now. I can't see many teams just -- certainly not in our situation where you have guys who are fourth and fifth year seniors who have played together the whole time.

I feel like that event, when the tournament was canceled and we're an at-large team, really devastating. And then last year was very, very difficult for us. We had pauses and testing and quarantining, and we had a couple of our players quarantine for over 40 days and were never sick.

And then for those guys to kind of double down on Richmond even though things outside of their control or Richmond's control for them to double down on Richmond is really special, and like I said, I don't think it will happen again at Richmond or elsewhere, but we have kind of been able to stay old with the same guys.

And Providence guys are terrific. And a lot of schools across the country have added pieces that are older and really talented, but we've been able to do it with our guys. I think it's a great story.

Q. You said a while back that if Jacob Gilyard had four more inches, he would be in the NBA already. Do you have any doubt that given a chance that he will have a career at that level?

CHRIS MOONEY: Yeah. I think is he unique. I do think he can. I think if he is given the opportunity, then he would be able to -- he would be able to make the most of it. It's so difficult because how many guys are his size in the league and defending and all those kinds of things, but his sense for the game and elite anticipation, quickness. He has no negative qualities other than not being quite tall enough, but I do think he could succeed and find his way because he has been able to do that at this level to such a high degree, and I would be confident that he would be able to find a way.

Q. This is a very big-picture question, but 17 years at a school isn't exactly a short period of time. I'm just curious, what has kept you at Richmond? Why is the city, the school, the program right for you?

CHRIS MOONEY: Well, when I took the -- when I came from the Air Force Academy and I took the Richmond job, and I had a feeling that taking the job at Richmond, I wouldn't have to go to the next -- if we could do well and there was another opportunity, I wouldn't have to make the jump, which I think some coaches are in because the pay is so much greater or it's a chance to be in a conference that's so much bigger, I thought that I could stay at Richmond or I could decline an offer, again, if we did well.

That kind of has proven to be true. When I've had the opportunity, the relationship that I've had with Richmond, there's a few ADs now and a few presidents, has been great, and it hasn't been transactional. It hasn't -- it hasn't been what have you done, what have you guys done. It's been very much trying to build something, trying to do it in a certain way.

I think there are challenges at Richmond in that we probably can't recruit everybody in the country, and we've always embraced that. We've always thought that, well, the guys we can recruit, they'll have an affinity for Richmond. They'll have an instinct that Richmond is a great place. Because of that, then subsequently, we've had great guys. The school has invested in basketball. The school has invested in our program, and then also my children were born there, and they've been at the same school and those kinds of things. We've even managed to make a friend or two since we've been there. I think that's probably -- all those reasons probably together is why it has happened.

Q. I'm fascinated by your offense, so I'm going to swing back to it.

In talking to a couple of people about the secret sauce of the Princeton offense, somebody said, well, part of it was it was sort of kept secret. In other words, it wasn't talked about. You can look at it on film, but, A, was that true, and, B, why did that maybe keep it a secret or keep it more effective because people weren't necessarily going out to clinics and saying, okay, here is how you teach it?

CHRIS MOONEY: That's certainly true. I can remember Coach Carrill when we would play away games or neutral games, making sure nobody was around to see our practice and highly secretive, and he was amazing at giving an hour clinic talk without one time talking about anything that had to do with our offense, but keeping everybody captivated and head down in the notebook.

I think it was secret for a long time. It was also really -- when I was playing, only Princeton was doing it. I think at first it was started to be copied a little bit more by teams in the Ivy League because they were so familiar with it, and they were so -- the scouting is so often and saying, well, I think this is the key to that play. Even if they had a different interpretation, it started to look a little bit more like it.

Then so many of us who played for Coach Carrill went into coaching. John Thompson, Sydney Johnson, Mitch Henderson, Mike Brennan, Joe Scott, myself. Since that happened, then all of a sudden, now it's in more and more conferences, which I think is a go ahead thing because I think at the time, like I said, it had a connotation that was -- some people would be fascinated by it. Often 18-year-old recruits wouldn't be.

Now I think it has become mainstream enough or -- nobody calls it -- nobody from us calls it the Princeton offense, so I think it's become that it's popular enough or common enough that it's basketball. I really think the place you see it the most is the NBA. The Warriors, you know, they score on so many cuts. The lane is always fairly empty. Different concepts I think that Coach Carrill helped take to the NBA when he was an assistant with the Kings, I think really you see it the most there.