NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - SAINT MARY'S VS UCLA

March 18, 2022

Randy Bennett

Logan Johnson

Tommy Kuhse

Alex Ducas

Moda Center

Saint Mary's Gaels

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: With us now are St. Mary's student-athletes, Tommy Kuhse, Logan Johnson and Alex Ducas.

Q. Alex, watching you guys the other night you seemed so precise and disciplined with the way you played. How would you describe the team's style of basketball? Would you say there is an international influence with so many players from out of the country?

ALEX DUCAS: We play pretty slow and methodical, a lot of pick and rolls, a lot of catch-and-shoots and we have some international guys and I think it helps when you get guys from different countries to help influence styles into this team. International ball, play slow, move the ball extra passes and I think it helps our team.

Q. Tommy, yesterday you mentioned how things kind of changed in practice when Logan came to you guys and he really goes at people. Can you elaborate on that more?

TOMMY KUHSE: He's the ultimate competitor. Whatever drill it is, whatever competition it is, you know he's going to get the best out of his teammates.

He's always very verbal. When he talks, everyone listens, you know, no matter what he's saying, sometimes it's nonsense but sometimes it's good stuff. He's always talking and he's always communicating and it's really good for our team.

Q. Alex, when did you first know about St. Mary's given the school's Australian pipeline and how did the recruiting go? Did the coaches come there or did you seek them out given the history between the school and Australia?

ALEX DUCAS: I knew about St. Mary's, obviously they were a hot team to come through Australia and always get a couple games on TV here and there so if I did watch college ball it was St. Mary's, and I was lucky enough to go through the sport in Canberra where my head coach Adam and others played here so once I went through Australian Sport he gave me the connected pieces to this team and ever since we started interacting I loved it.

Q. Alex, what's up with the hair?

ALEX DUCAS: I mean, I hope you guys like it. My mom was on my back a lot. She hated my other haircut so she said you're not going anywhere unless you get a haircut so you can thank her for that.

Q. No more man bun?

ALEX DUCAS: No more man bun.

Q. I'm sure the other guys know the history that UCLA brings 11 national titles. From Australia were you aware of UCLA's pedigree?

ALEX DUCAS: No, not really. I knew who St. Mary's was and Gonzaga was, from the rivalry but you hear the names here and there the Power Five schools. I didn't know too much about them, I know they were a good school and a good program. That's about it, really.

Q. Tommy, the rest of the locker room, does the name UCLA, because they were a power house so long ago, does it mean something to you guys when you hear that name?

TOMMY KUHSE: The name definitely carries weight, obviously John Wooden being a big part of that, I have read books on him and stuff like that. We know they're a good team and that's all we're concerned about. We're not too concerned about the history, really.

Q. Alex, can you capture what these two guys mean to this program and maybe why they mean so much to the program?

ALEX DUCAS: It's hard to describe. They epitomize what being a St. Mary's player is, they're the first on the court, they're great men on and off the court, they're guys you can go to, they're more than our best friends they're family to us and they're a massive part of our team and I'm sure you can ask 1-15 and ask what they are thankful for and it's these guys and without them we wouldn't be here in this position.

Q. I wondered if your team does a bracket challenge? Did you guys fill out brackets? I'm sure you had St. Mary's going deep. Otherwise I wondered if you predicted correctly any first-round upsets or have guessed any today?

TOMMY KUHSE: I didn't fill out a bracket.

Q. Do you guys watch the tournament when you are playing in it?

TOMMY KUHSE: Yeah, especially the WCC teams. We root for those two teams but we haven't had any bracket challenges.

ALEX DUCAS: I've never filled out a bracket.

Q. Alex, I think it's fair to say early in the season you weren't shooting the ball the way you normally can. In maybe the last four to six weeks you have started shooting better. What changed?

ALEX DUCAS: Obviously I didn't start out to well, but I had the confidence from my teammates and coaches to keep shooting and keep working on my game and they said things would come eventually and I guess I got a few extra workouts in the gym and I trusted that and I'm a good shooter and I knew things would play out the right way.

TOMMY KUHSE: It's huge for us because he's a huge part of our offense. He spaces the floor so well, our pick and roll game and when he's hitting shots it changes the dynamic, I think you've seen it in games throughout the year. When he's on we are at our best. So we have to keep finding ways to get him the ball and keep him going at times but he's huge for us.

Q. Alex, is there still an Australian day game for the team with snacks and Australian music?

ALEX DUCAS: There definitely is and it's what I look forward to in playing the WCC schedule. There are not so many snacks or that influence in Australian food anymore but there are still a few restaurants around town that provide a meal for us when they can.

Q. I noticed there are a couple of Kiwis on the roster, is there a fun rivalry between you?

ALEX DUCAS: There definitely is a fun rivalry. The clash of the Aussies and Zacks which dates back a long way but it's fun and it's competitive with me and Kyle and Quinn and Fotu and that keeps us going for sure.

Q. Logan, Coach Cronin had some good things to say about you, how close he feels to you and how happy he is that things worked out. I know you mentioned the other night that it had been three years, and you weren't dwelling on it but you know Coach enough. What do you expect from a team that's coached by him to be like? Are they like you in terms of toughness and that kind of thing?

LOGAN JOHNSON: For sure. That's one of the people that helped me instill that on the court, constantly. Always being tough, apples being physical, never expecting anything, and I think that's one of the things that I was able to carry over very easily to St. Mary's was that physical type of play.

I know Tommy Kuhse said earlier talking about how practice is ramped up when I stepped on campus and I kind of epitomized myself on always playing hard every possession, never expecting anything given. So, for sure, I thank him for that. I thank him for a lot of things, obviously, but that's my guy, through and through.

Q. Tommy, you mentioned watching the other WCC games. What did you see last nature watching that USF game, if you had a chance to?

TOMMY KUHSE: I was rooting for them. Bouyea had a heck of a game. He's been doing it all year, so it was cool to see him do it on a national stage and get that national attention. Felt bad for Massalski that he wasn't able to play. He has worked hard to be there, would have been cool to see their whole team in it.

THE MODERATOR: On gentlemen, thank you for your time. Best of luck tomorrow.

We are joined by head coach for St. Mary's, Randy Bennett.

COACH BENNETT: Excited to be here. You play Indiana in your first game and UCLA in the second game, doesn't get any better than that. I think those are the first and third most championships in any NCAA Tournament. We're excited to be in the game.

Q. Watching you yesterday the two words that stood out to me were precise and disciplined. How would you describe your style of basketball and with you say there is an international influence with so many guys from out of the country?

COACH BENNETT: Yeah, you know, I would describe our style of basketball as trying to be tough defensively, don't give teams easy shots, keep 'em out of transition. Keep 'em off the offensive boards.

The basic things I think you need to win. I think when you start playing against better teams and in the NCAA Tournament you better be good in those areas. You better be good at defensively transition D, keep 'em off the three. No easy buckets. Win the boards and take care of the ball offensively and take good shots.

It's nothing tricky. I think a lot of times because of the way we defend, makes it a grindy game for the opposing team and then a lower-scoring game. Offensively, there is international influence. We have watched so much, we have had international players. You study basketball. You try and figure out how you can score as a team. I think we are on the front end of using on balls in college basketball. We went pretty heavy on it early, back when we had Mickey McConnell and Matt Dellavedova back in 2010. It's a big part of our offense, how we're recruiting, why we recruit and we always try and play with two point guards and I think these two guards that we have now as starters, Tommy and Logan are an example of that. They've improved and become good guards and attacking you and using on balls, and we play off that a lot.

Q. Seeing if you have any comments about Todd Golden heading to Florida and San Francisco is going to hire from within and bring on Chris Gerlufsen as their next head coach?

COACH BENNETT: I'm happy for Todd. Found out this morning. What a great opportunity. He's earned it. He's had a tremendous year this year, got in the NCAA Tournament and finished number 22 overall in the net. That's ridiculous, how hard that is to do. He's able to capitalize on that and go to -- what great program, University of Florida. I'm just happy. He's one of ours. He played for us, he was in our program five years, he was captain of this team, he went to the NCAA Tournament twice.

He's a sharp guy. He'll do really well. I just think he's -- he thinks things through. It wasn't easy for him to take over after Kyle, and he did. He couldn't have done better. Look forward to talking to him, actually. Haven't had a chance, yet. I don't know Coach Gerlufsen very well. I don't know that whole deal. Great for him. He's been an assistant for a while and he was obviously part of that deal this year and this is his first year there. I'm always happy for guys. They put the time in, they do the work and they are rewarded by getting a head coaching job where they are at or someplace else. It doesn't always turn out that way. I've known plenty of guys that have done a good job and then all of the sudden they don't have a job.

Q. How have you incorporated the Princeton offense and how is that part of your offensive scheme?

COACH BENNETT: We don't really do the Princeton offense. I would say the one thing we do that's similar to the Princeton offense is our spacing, four out, one in, rules of movement, maybe, like back cuts. We keep the floor spaced. Most people when they watch us play they notice that our spacing is good. There's not a lot of clutter inside, around the basket, especially when we are setting on-balls with our 5man. And our deal is -- we're -- I would say we run a lot of stuff. It doesn't look like we do, but we run a lot of different things with our on-balls and then sets that get the ball in the post or sets that get us into an on-ball again but there's some action in front of it.

That's kind of -- without giving up any more than that, that's how we -- that's how we approach it offensively.

Q. Randy, Tara VanDerveer women's head coach at Stanford put out a call and challenge every coach in the men's and women's NCAA Tournament to match her in donating $10 for every made three in their tournament, not just by their team but by every team.

To put that money toward humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. I wondered if you knew about that and if you are just now learning will you be joining the challenge? Her SID is going to track it for her and tell her at the end of every tournament day this number of threes were hit today

COACH BENNETT: I'm totally supportive of it. Let me know what those numbers look like before I totally join it, but I would definitely support that. Been something that's been on my mind, that whole Ukraine-Russia thing. Every day I try and find out about it, what's going on because we're consumed in our own little world. That's just a bigger deal. It makes no sense to me. Anyhow, yeah, tell their SID to call me.

Q. Without giving away trade secrets what are one or two things you think you have to do to beat UCLA tomorrow?

COACH BENNETT: Well, we have to play well. We played well yesterday and I said that. I talked to our team about it. I said you can worry about all these things and do this, do that, you've got to play well. You've got to make shots. You can't turn the ball over. You better know what you're doing defensively.

I think the biggies on them are you've got to take care of the ball and you can't give them transition. They're fairly much a half court team, it's probably going to end up a half court game, 5 on 5 at half court, and you can't afford to give up easy baskets like pick six's that go to lay-ups or not getting back in transition and give them easy buckets, because they do have guys that can score. I think those are the biggies. They can get you a lot of ways. Yeah, they have good players, good balance but they can four guys that can really score and you better figure out how you're going to deal with those four and then don't give 'em second shots. Play well.

Q. You mentioned "grindy games" in your games in the first half of the season they were fairly grindy and they have looked better the last four to six weeks. How much of that is Alex Ducas being able to knock down threes that he wasn't able to do in the first part of the season?"

COACH BENNETT: That's the big difference we didn't have Alex after the ninth game last year. He's a weapon for us. He spaces the floor for us. You're not going to help off Alex so that gives Tommy and Logan and others more room in the post, more room to operate. You hit on why we've gotten better. We've gotten better offensively and those guards have gotten better. It's not that simple, ever, but that's a big part of it. Those guards have gotten better at making decisions. Early on Tommy and Logan every game they would have three or four bad shots. That's too many to have -- you can have one or two a game but they were going -- they could go four or five bad shots in a game, each one of them. So as they got better at making decisions and just a good decision sometimes not shooting it, kick it out, let somebody else try and make a play. We got better at that and as we have, we've become a better team and our offensive numbers have gotten better and we look less grindy.

Q. You referenced UCLA's history when you started your talk. We asked your players about it and they seemed aware of it but not phased by it. Is that because of their age? Confidence? Where does that come from?

COACH BENNETT: Part of it is their age. They don't -- I grew up on John Wooden, that's the guy I followed, I read up on. I could tell you every bit of that history. But it's like anything else, they weren't around for Indiana's either, like when we were winning all the national championships, even the U.S. guys probably don't know it. They definitely don't know it like we know it but I still think there is -- they're still good programs, they're in the NCAA Tournament, UCLA was in the Final Four last year, Ben Howland had them in it three out of four years so they have had recent championship-type success. So our guys probably know that one more than they would Indiana and also because it's on the west coast. But, yeah, I think that's it. I think they're just not as old as us.

Q. You've done it more than I think probably anyone in recent years. How do you beat Gonzaga?

COACH BENNETT: You better guard 'em, you can't outscore them. That sounds crazy but you can't run with them. Nobody -- it's just -- we've been -- yeah, the only time we have had success against them is when we have been able to limit them. Tough to do. It's not a two-step process. There's a lot of things that are involved.

I haven't watched Memphis much this year. We played them last year. I walked away from the game when we played Memphis and I thought they were really good defensively. So if they still are then it will be a ball game.

Q. I was surprised to see St. Mary's and UCLA have not played since 1990. You have been at St. Mary's a long time. Have you ever considered a nonconference, adding them to the schedule at any point and any particular reason why you haven't played in so long?

COACH BENNETT: Yeah, I would do that in a second if it was a home and home situation. I don't think our programs are at a level anymore that we need to go and get bought on a guarantee game. It comes down to that.

I think teams are getting -- they have to study that pretty hard, I think, because you've got to find ways to get Quad 1 games non conference. That's a way. We did it this year against Mountain West teams in the Maui classic. That's where we were able to get our six Quad 1 or 2 games in nonconference. I don't know if the Pac-12 is doing that yet, but sometimes a conference will say this or that, but we want to play any good team we can in a home and home or neutral situation. Maybe a neutral is more likely. I would love a home and home because those are great games for our fans. I would hope we're a great game for their fan.

Q. You play in the same time zone as UCLA. You guys tip late when the east coast is often asleep. Have you seen them much this year casually, catching them on TV? Or are you so locked into the WCC that you don't care?

COACH BENNETT: You know what? I'm a little crazy on that. I pretty much only watch who we're playing in WCC. Every once in a while I catch them. I saw them last year in the NCAA Tournament because we were done and they were playing. I'm rooting for them, friends with Mick, whole deal, and they played Gonzaga. But this year I haven't watched them much until about 24 hours ago. That's where it's at and don't forget to have that SID call me.

Q. You touched on the age part of it, but the confidence part of it knowing that you have played the number one team in the country three times, beat them at your place. To what degree does that give your players confident as you advance deeper into the tournament?

COACH BENNETT: That's real confidence. You talk about confidence, sometimes people spout off and they act like they're confident but they're not. When you beat a good team like Gonzaga or other good teams and we have beat other good teams and accumulated confidence along the way but when you do that, it is real. You can feel it the next day in the gym at practice. Balls go in the basket at a much higher rate. It's crazy. That's the advantage we have of having Gonzaga in our league. We get a crack at number 1 usually three times a year, at least two times a year.

After that, we just feel like whoever we play is not going to be more talented than them, not going to be better coached than them, not going to be a better team than them. We know that. When you can beat 'em, then you feel like you can play with anybody.

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