NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - HOUSTON VS ILLINOIS

March 19, 2022

Kelvin Sampson

Fabian White

Kyler Edwards

Taze Moore

PPG Paints Arena

Houston Cougars

Media Conference

Q. Kyler, the other day Collin was talking about how tough your mom is. How much of your toughness comes from her, and how has she influenced your basketball career?

KYLER EDWARDS: Yeah, I think my mom is the toughest lady in the world. She's my first coach, so she has a lot to do with it. She kind of like forced the game. She has a lot to do with me playing right now.

Q. Taze, this question is for you. It seems like every game we see you one or two plays our eyes pop out of our heads. You had that no-look pass last night and you always come up with something it seems every game. Do you consciously know, hey, wait a minute, I need to make some plays here to rev these guys up, or does that just come to you in the flow of the game? How does that work? Every time you make one of those plays, everybody's energy level seems to come up on the team.

KYLER EDWARDS: I kind of like to have fun with the game, so it's just in the flow of the game. Just playing basketball.

TAZE MOORE: If I'm not really going, these guys get me going. Kyler and Fabe are probably the biggest people that always tell me we need you. With the big time plays, I don't think of it like that, I just try to play basketball, and if they say they need me, I just try to do my best to come through.

Q. Fabian, you've had some match-ups with big men either here or in your conference. Now that you've had a chance to look at Illinois, any thoughts on Kofi and the challenge he presents.

FABIAN WHITE JR.: Yeah, he's a monster, but we have a game plan. We have the same game plan for every big man we play against. So we're going to stick to the game play, play the coaching, play defense, rebound, and hopefully that takes us to the next round.

Q. Kyler, thinking back to your freshman year at Tech and your first NCAA game, how different did that feel from what last night felt like for you?

KYLER EDWARDS: Very different. There's not one of the same game in the NCAA Tournament. They all have their own unique feel and flow. It was just different last night because I actually -- this is actually like my team -- not my team, but me actually contributing more on this team than I did my freshman year team.

Q. The transition for you, how difficult was that coming from a program where you had great success at Tech to joining another program, new teammates, and all that comes with that?

KYLER EDWARDS: It was an easy transition because the coaches are kind of the same, and the coaches have a similar style of coaching, bringing the best out of you. So it was easy for me to move from there to here.

Q. Fabian, you mentioned the strategy against post players for you guys is the same no matter who it is, but one thing Kofi does very well is draw a lot of fouls. How do you draw the line defensively of being aggressive, making him uncomfortable without putting him at the line and getting in foul trouble?

FABIAN WHITE JR.: Just keep our hands off him really and keep our body off him. He plays aggressive, that's how he draws all his fouls. We've got to still stick to playing aggressive. But if you get elbowed in the face, you get elbowed in the face. But you've got to stay aggressive, don't foul him, just play with our bodies, hands up, and that's the game plan right there.

Q. Fabian, how much does that electronic stimulation thing on your back help you during the games? With all you went through with the rehab last year, do you get better at playing through pain or discomfort or is that something you're more comfortable with?

FABIAN WHITE JR.: One thing about this program, you learn to push through adversity and pain. That little belt, yeah, it helps out a little bit. Because last game it got a little stiff, but it has like a warming pad on it that loosens it up a little bit, so it does help out a lot.

Q. I get the sense that you guys are very close, and considering that we know this tournament can end just like that, how much are you guys embracing this moment, especially being seniors?

KYLER EDWARDS: I mean, we all know how important this tournament is to one another. We've been talking about it from day one since we got here. Ever since we talked about it, we've been getting just closer and closer, doing everything together.

I just think just us enjoying each other's company right now and doing everything we can do to win will be great for us.

TAZE MOORE: I can honestly say this started for us in June when we all kind of met each other. And it was easier for guys like Fabian and the guys that were already there like Mark and Tramon to bring in me and Kyler. And we just built bonds with each other, and it's just kept going since there. And I think we're going to always be close just because we came together at an early stage of the season, like June, August -- June, July, all that type of time. I don't even know how to explain it, man. I don't even know.

We came together early as a team, and we just stick together, and we just have fun with it every day.

FABIAN WHITE JR.: We probably got closer in conditioning month. If anyone knows, our conditioning month is pretty hard. We've got to stick together. We've got to hold each other up when we're tired. It started there, and now we just genuinely love playing the game with each other. That's it right there.

Q. I'd like all three of you to comment on this, but after the game, Kelvin said, look, sometimes offenses break down in college basketball, then they pull it back up, they reset. Our guys if they're open, they just pull the trigger. They're in attack mode all the time. Could you talk about the mindset when you come down on offense?

KYLER EDWARDS: Coach never tells us to pull it back or pull it back by a leash, but he always lets us free and do what we have to do and play freely and give us the confidence to do what we have to do.

TAZE MOORE: I can agree with Kyler. There's not a time he tells us not to take an open shot or to be aggressive. He always looks for us to go to the boards and do what we have to do in transition or offense, just to score early.

FABIAN WHITE JR.: We just emphasize offensive rebounds so we're not worried about a missed shot really. As long as we put it on the rim, we feel like we can go get it again.

Q. Kyler, late J'Wan Roberts made a bucket and I can't remember who was with him but he made a motion. What is that motion? You do it after threes, but is that the ball is too hot? Can you explain what that is?

KYLER EDWARDS: That just means he was too small.

Q. Kyler, the tournament experience that you have had, does that bring you a calmness on the floor or allow you to process things differently, maybe to handle momentum runs or things like that?

KYLER EDWARDS: Most definitely. Because me being experienced in this tournament, it gives me a lot of confidence to know what I'm doing out there on the court. And I just feel like I'm a veteran out there so I can know when to make the right plays, know when to do certain things. So yeah, I think the experience helps me out a lot.

Q. Have you shared that with (indiscernible)?

KYLER EDWARDS: Yeah, most definitely. And Fabe can, too, because he's right there with me in the experienced level column. We both tell our stories and what we have to do in the game.

Q. Taze, you've talked to us very openly about some of the things you went through just to keep your basketball career alive. Now that you're here, part of a great team and a tournament and experiencing this with U of H, what stands out to you? How special is this experience and how badly do you want to keep it going?

TAZE MOORE: I want to keep it going as long as we can. I want to win a Natty. I know that's the first thing Fabe told us when we got here is we're trying to win a Natty. And we just try to push through hard things, hard times just to get to where we need to be.

Q. Kelvin was saying after the game that he's as proud of this team and what it's gone through to get here as any team he's ever coached. What does that mean to you guys, and does it mean something else to get a compliment from him considering how long he's been doing this?

FABIAN WHITE JR.: It means a lot coming from a Hall of Fame coach, but we've been through a lot of adversity. Our two best players went down, everybody counted us out, and we still persevered and won conference, regular season championships, conference tournament championships, and now we're just trying to continue playing throughout March and win this next game.

TAZE MOORE: What Fabe said is kind of hard not to re-say so I'm going to just agree with Fabe on that.

KYLER EDWARDS: Yeah, I think when Tramon and Marcus went out, everybody tried to count us out. Probably still do. A lot of people don't believe in us in this tournament and that's what we're trying to prove, that we're here to stay and we're still the team to beat.

Q. To follow up with the other guys' question and what you just said about people are maybe underestimating you, you're not from a Power Five conference but you've been in the top teams the last couple years. Everybody talks about the Power Five conferences, the Dukes, the Kentuckys. Is that a motivational point for you at all?

FABIAN WHITE JR.: Technically we're Power Six.

But no, not really. It's not really motivation. We've always been the underdog since I've been here especially, so we just take it to the chin, just trust our work and keep it moving.

Q. You guys mentioned the injuries. Houston and Illinois are the two teams that have lost the most games this year to injuries and suspension. What's it say about you guys that you're both still playing at this point in the season?

KYLER EDWARDS: I just think that means we're tough. Both teams are tough, and we know how to fight through adversity. When times hit, we know how to push through that.

Q. Taze and Kyler, a lot of people were talking about Kofi for good reason, but do you think Josh is still a little underrated and how do you think he looks forward to a matchup like this against another big guy?

TAZE MOORE: Josh is definitely underrated as a big man in the whole country. Him going against Kofi, I think he'll handle his own, and I know he will just from the standpoint of Josh is a competitor. He doesn't want to go out any other way besides him winning.

KYLER EDWARDS: I can add on to that. Josh is a very competitive guy. He looks forward to this challenge, he knows what's at stake, and he knows we need him to play good to win this game, so I think he'll come through for us tomorrow.

Q. You mentioned last night about Kyler and his toughness and how tournament tested he is. What kind of comfort does that give you as a coach to have a guy out there who has been through this all before?

KELVIN SAMPSON: Well, I think it's valuable. I think it's also valuable for his teammates, especially -- we're playing three freshmen a lot of minutes. We have a 19-year-old freshman point guard in Jamal Shead that Kyler is probably his best friend who he spends most of his time with on the team.

I think it's comforting for Jamal to lean on him. Fabian was on the Final Four team last year, but he tore his ACL in May and didn't come back until February, so he missed the majority of the season. Just played -- I don't remember how many games he played, but he just played piecemeal minutes.

I think it helps all our players. Taze Moore this time last year was at Cal State Bakersfield.

But Kyler is quiet. He's not braggadocios, doesn't have a dynamic personality. He's very humble, kind of a quiet leader on the team. Our kids respect him a lot, so I think that's very valuable for our players.

Q. Fabian was talking about guarding Kofi Cockburn and how you guys have the same tenets in attacking opposing posts. What do you see as the value for your players in terms of knowing if an opponent has a great post player, it doesn't really matter because we're going to keep doing the same things, that sort of consistency knowing what the strategy is going to be heading into every game, no matter what?

KELVIN SAMPSON: Well, it's not that simple. If it was, then we wouldn't really need coaches probably. We played Ohio State a couple years ago in the tournament. I don't remember his first name, but his last name was Wesson. Do you guys remember him? He was a really good player. But if you're posting up on the block, it makes our jobs somewhat easier. It's not easy at all guarding really good players, but we can double you with how we do it.

The tough thing about Kofi is he doesn't post-up on the block. Everything is high-low, which means he's in the middle of the lane, and that's the most difficult part of the floor to bring help or support a defender.

We're still watching. I didn't watch film last night. 20 years ago I might have watched last night, but I had about 15 minutes to play with my granddaughter before she went to bed last night, so I elected to play with her.

But I got up this morning and watched a bunch of Illinois. When you've got one day, you just do the best you can. But Kofi is a load.

The fact that -- I think what Brad does is really smart, where they post him up, because it's difficult to bring help in the middle of the lane.

Kofi embraces being the big guy. Not all big guys like being big guys. They want to show you what else they can do. But he is a big man in every sense of the word.

They've done a nice job developing him. Some of the tape I watched this morning wasn't just all dunks and post moves. He's got a little floater to him. If you give it to him early on a short roll, he'll catch it and knows how to make a shot from 10, 12 feet without jump stopping.

He's got some skill. He probably didn't have that when he first got to Illinois, so hats off to their coaching staff for developing that.

But they've got a good team. They've got a veteran team, well put together. Plummer kid is a sniper. Frazier kid can really shoot and play. Really like the Hawkins kid. Their whole team, everybody -- Williams kid, they all fit. You can see why they did well in their conference.

Q. I was going to ask kind of along those lines if there was anybody that you've played maybe in the tournament or in conference that's sort of comparable, but I'm not sure there is to Kofi. Also last night Chattanooga, I think they used 11 fouls on him to get him to the line. Do you not maybe have that luxury just because the rotations, the numbers of guys you have? If you elected to do something like that, does that sort of play against you because of your numbers?

KELVIN SAMPSON: Well, the first part of your question, there's nobody comparable to Kofi. We don't play anybody -- we played Virginia and they've got a seven-foot center. We played Oregon, they've got a seven-foot center. We played -- who else did we play? Western Kentucky, Bassey. PJ Washington is not Kofi. He's Kofi's son. Kofi is a big man now. When you start trying to think how many Kofis -- Kofi is a lot closer to Shaq than he is guys we play against.

But you know, I don't know him. I've never spoken to him. Passing him in the hall is the closest I've ever been to him. But my hats off to him for coming back. Kids that have years like he had last year, those guys don't come back. And the fact that he came back and was a first-team All-American -- I don't know, was he the Player of the Year in their league? I am assuming he was.

He wasn't? Who was?

Oh, yeah, we played them, too. He's pretty good. We couldn't guard him in a phone booth. How many did he have against us, like 40 or something? That kid is a good player.

But it's a success story when kids like Kofi come back and have great years. They've got a team that can go a long way in the tournament, too. They're a good team.

They've got somebody that can play through. When your offense is democratic, you're hoping certain guys have good nights. But worst case with Kofi, he's going to go to the free-throw line 10, 12 times a game. That's worst case. Best case he'll score a bunch of buckets.

Q. Chattanooga grabbed 16 offensive rebounds last night, and your team is one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country. Is that something you're looking to exploit tomorrow, or is it kind of how you guys play the game?

KELVIN SAMPSON: Yeah, I would say the latter. It's not something we're going to all of a sudden try to do tomorrow night. Because we have a reputation of being pretty good at it, there's a huge emphasis on blocking us out, and we've seen that for years and years. Not just this year but last year's team, the year before, the year before. It's always been a big emphasis in our program.

But you know, when you have size -- when I say size, I mean width -- Kofi doesn't have to block you out to block you out, if you know what I'm saying. That dude can block out the sun. He's wide.

Just having to run around him -- we teach our kids to get to outside shoulders and try to get a hand on the ball if you can't get it, for instance. It's difficult to get around him. And then they have good size with the Payne kid off the bench and then the Hawkins kid has good size.

I don't think we're as athletic up front as Chattanooga. They are really athletic. They've got a bunch -- those 6'6" athletic kids are 6'10", 6'11" wingspans. Those are the most difficult kids to block out.

Q. How do you think your time in the NBA changed your approach to offense?

KELVIN SAMPSON: I'm not sure if there's a simple answer to that. It showed me what I didn't know. Sometimes you get in those situations and you just get humbled. I didn't know what I didn't know. When I first got to the NBA, I thought I could coach an NBA team. That couldn't have been further from the truth. I wasn't anywhere close to being qualified.

The best thing I could do was listen to Gregg Popovich. A guy that really helped me a lot was Scott Skiles. I learned a lot from Scott. I enjoyed scouting other teams. I enjoyed scouting Stan Van Gundy when he was at Orlando, Terry Stotts in Portland, Doc Rivers in Boston. A lot of really, really good offensive guys, and I felt like that's where I needed to get better.

But everything I saw was just eye-opening. I had this little yellow legal pad and I was staying in this hotel, and every night after practice, I'd go back and write things down that I learned. Then to help me learn it even more, I would copy it -- just kept writing them down. I was writing the same thing down over and over, and then I'd draw stuff up that I learned.

I watched Mike Budenholzer with his assistant do the scout report and I saw him guard -- I think they were getting ready to play the New Orleans Hornets and they were going to guard Chris Paul in a pick-and-roll on this side of the floor this way and on that side of the floor that way, and I'm going, wow, never thought of that. Just everything just blew me away.

But defensively and offensively, those guys are so good. For people that don't think they don't coach in the NBA, sometimes you don't know what you don't know. There's so much I didn't know and there's so much I learned. It helped me evolve.

I've really, really tried hard to help my assistants, too, because I didn't want them to be archaic in their thoughts or not be willing to change their thoughts. One of the great things about being a human being is being willing to change, and being in the NBA taught me that I needed to change. I learned a lot.

When I was with Houston, I was the associate head coach so I got to make most of the assignments working with Kevin McHale, and that's where I felt like I could be a head coach in the NBA when I was there. I didn't think I was ready in Milwaukee, but I was ready in Houston.

Q. One of the things about the NCAA Tournament is you get to play against so many teams with different playing styles. How much do you enjoy the challenge of getting your guys ready in these one-and-done type situations?

KELVIN SAMPSON: You know, the finality of the season never ceases to amaze me. What time is the game tomorrow? Is it 12:00 tip? 12:10? So at 2:10 our season could be over. You're not sitting here planning on it.

Illinois is thinking if we win, we'll be in San Antonio. But they're not thinking if they lose, our season is over, because the range of emotions from scouting report, practice today, scouting report, film tonight, going back over some baseline out of bounds plays in the morning maybe or after time-out plays or start of the half plays or end -- whatever your routine is, then all of a sudden you lose. There's no more film. There's not another practice, not another game. I don't get to coach Fabian White anymore.

Those are the -- things that are sometimes tough to come to grips with is that I've never lost sight -- I'm coaching somebody's son and they've got a life after this. They're going to go on and live their life. I don't think there's anything that I enjoy more than going from being their coach to being their friend.

I've learned to enjoy that and embrace it, look forward to it.

You know, can we win tomorrow? Absolutely. Can we lose tomorrow? Absolutely. If we win, we move on. If we lose, we go home. I mean, that's the reality of being in this tournament.

Scott Drew is a really good friend of mine. I was watching an interview he was doing after their game against North Carolina. I can see how emotional he was, and I've been there. It's emotional because this is our life. We pour our lives into these young men, and we want what's best for them, and then when the game is over and you lose, that's it.

Q. With how hard you guys go in the preseason and everything you do defensively and everything you do offensive rebounding-wise early, early, what from that do you end up now kind of almost getting to take for granted? At this point in the year are there things that are instilled that you just know are there and you don't even have to bring it up?

KELVIN SAMPSON: You know what, I think just habits. If something happens once, it could be an accident. Happens twice, it could be coincidence. But if it happens three or more times, it's usually a habit.

I think all coaches -- I'm not smart enough to come up with anything new, but as a coach you want to build good habits. That's what our practices are designed around is to build habits. When the ball is shot, the ball is shot; and if you're one of our rebounders, you've got to go. We track that in practice. We track those goes and no goes. We practice tips and no tips, we practice -- we chart, we've got this plastic bubble. Silly, I know. Fran Fraschilla just gave me a great idea for the camp T-shirt, put the bubble on the camp T-shirt. Fran gets the first T-shirt, too. I think I'm beyond the NIL deals now. Maybe for my grandkids. I can get an NIL deal for Kylen and Maisy.

We just try to build habits, defensively being in the right place. It's just practice and repetition and doing things the right way, just getting kids to get outside their comfort zone.

But to do that you've got to put them in that position to be -- what's that old saying? I think we've done this forever, but I've never been smart enough to understand what some of this stuff means. Being comfortable being uncomfortable.

I've tried to do that for years and years and years, but I never used that term, but that's right. Get kids to get outside their comfort zones.

It's okay to be a nice kid, but between the lines, we want you to have a little edge to you. Want you to be -- don't get on the floor after a loose ball. Be the first one on the floor after a loose ball. If you're defending someone away from the ball, where should you be?

All defenses should be built around helping someone that got beat off the bounce or somebody that made a mistake. The helper, and then you help the helper.

But to be good at defense, boy, that takes a lot of work. I think the hardest thing to teach in basketball is being good on defense because kids come in -- they didn't come to school to be good at defense. They came -- they want to put the biscuit in the basket and they want to do it a lot. And they don't want you to say anything to them if they miss it. Coach, don't mess with my game.

I've had to define some games, and most of the time it's telling them the truth about their game.

But that's also the part of coaching I think as you get older and you're on your way out maybe that you miss the most is just seeing kids get better, seeing them enjoy the fruits of their work and seeing them be successful.

Like I really enjoyed watching Taze Moore. I wish you could have seen him in June. You talk about a fart in a skillet, Lord help. Now you look at him now, he's turned into a pretty good basketball player. Had no clue when he got here.

I said, best part of your game is you should go try to be one of those Instagram dunkers. That's about right. That's what you are, a halftime show or something. Now he's become a good basketball player, and hats off to him because that's not easy to do to embrace that and work at it because it took a lot of work. It took a lot of failure and being uncomfortable. But he did it. So hats off to him.

Q. Kyler just talked to us about the great confidence that he has received from your coaching, shoot the basketball, I'm not going to take you out for taking good shots, I want you to shoot. What are you trying to help -- is it everyone to have that confidence and how can that help in this big stage with the stakes that you just talked about where it is one-and-done?

KELVIN SAMPSON: Well, one of the things that players should understand is nobody's opinion really matters. Who cares what anybody outside of our locker room thinks? Anybody? Really? You're worried about other people's opinion? People that give opinions negatively are the people that sometimes think their opinion matters. It doesn't. Nor should it. Be comfortable with who you are. Don't let other people define you at all, in no way, form or fashion. Those people that are trying to define you don't even know you. They think they do based on what somebody else said maybe, but they really don't.

Kyler -- I had an analytic -- I pulled up some graphs for Quentin Grimes last year. I showed him our record when he attempted 13 or more shots, regardless of his shooting percentage. I showed him what his percentage was. People would get on Quentin about shooting too much. He couldn't shoot enough. Whether the ball went in or not, we were, I think, No. 2 in the nation, we were rebounding right at 39 percent of our misses, and most of those were his missed shots. But we were winning the games -- the lower his shooting percentage, the more we won.

Last year's run to the Final Four, we could have easily lost to Rutgers. We were very lucky in that game. Rutgers had us beat. They outplayed us. Simple. They did.

Quentin went to the line and shot two free throws, he missed them both. But on the second miss, we had this little free throw action we run called Australia, and Fabian got his hand on it, tipped it, wound up going to Jarreau, Jarreau swung it to Grimes, caught it and shot it.

Had he made one of the two, we'd have probably lost, but he missed the second one, we got it, he wound up making a three and we went from down five to down two and were very fortunate to win.

But that's an example of don't be afraid to miss, and I think that helps them later in life about failure. The first step on anybody's ladder to success is usually failure. You just can't be afraid to fail, and that was Kyler's biggest issue.

There's a lot of similarities in Quentin coming from Kansas and Kyler coming from Texas Tech in that neither one came in with a lot of confidence.

Sometimes you're not just teaching basketball skills, you're teaching life skills. These kids needed to know it's okay to fail. It's okay to miss a shot.

There's days -- Quentin was a good practice shooter. Kyler is not necessarily a great practice shooter. Sometimes he struggles with certain things.

But I think Quannas White who did a great job with Quentin, and Quannas has done a great job with Kyler, too, with their confidence through repetition and work. No substitute for work.

Just really proud of Kyler and the way he's handled this year.

Being 30-5 is a great accomplishment no matter what happens, but every one of our kids have had a piece of that. That's why when I watch the kids cut the net down and take a piece of the net and put it in their hat -- I told them in the locker room after the Memphis game, I hope you guys understand the metaphor that that net represents. Don't look at the championship today, but I want you to look at June, how far you guys have come since June, and that's a great reflection on them. Really proud of this team. It's a good team. Maybe not a great team but we're a good team.