NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - NOTRE DAME VS TEXAS TECH

March 19, 2022

Mark Adams

Adonis Arms

Davion Warren

Viejas Arena

Texas Tech Red Raiders

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Texas Tech.

Q. Adonis, we were talking with Bryson the other day. He said when you come to Texas Tech how difficult at first it is to learn the defensive philosophy. Was there a moment where you were like, man, this is kind of unique, this is difficult and hard to kind of really learn?

ADONIS ARMS: When I first got here, I didn't know what Coach Adams was talking about. I thought he was speaking a different language when he was like force side, no middle, you've got to trap on the baseline if I say so. One dribble or you're going with no dribble. I was like what are you talking about?

I had no idea what I was getting myself into. But Coach Adams, what I heard even before I got to Texas Tech, was he was the guru of defense. So whatever he was saying had to be right, because Texas Tech was good.

Q. Davion, how would you describe Mark Adams' defensive philosophy to someone who hasn't lived it, experienced it?

DAVION WARREN: Like Adonis said, Coach Adams is a guru for defense. Growing up playing basketball, you don't really work on defense. You pretty much work on your offensive skills. Just coming here, Coach Adams is learning a different defensive techniques. Our defense is pretty much a team effort. Whatever Coach Adams says it pretty much works.

Q. You've played against some great 3-point shooters this year, like Kansas and Baylor come to mind. When you play a guy like Cormac Ryan, what do you do on defense to limit him?

ADONIS ARMS: Davion already said it. It's a team effort. We've got to force him to do things that he's not as comfortable with. He's a great shooter. Yesterday he went 7-for-9 from 3 and hit some crazy 3s. We just need to eliminate those as much as possible and force him to do other things that maybe he's not as great at. But he's definitely a great shooter.

Q. Notre Dame is also a team that's made up of a lot of senior leadership. Have you drawn comparisons to some of the seniors the Fighting Irish have?

DAVION WARREN: I think we're a kind of different than Notre Dame. We're probably a little more athletic. I don't know them as a whole, but I think we're probably more of a family than those guys are. We are brothers. So I'm pretty sure those guys are brothers. But I think it's going to come down to a tough battle tomorrow. That's a pretty good team over there at Notre Dame.

Q. How do you guys feel you've been able to gel so quickly together with having so many people coming into this program from so many different walks of life in college basketball?

DAVION WARREN: We pretty much all have been a nobody at some point in our careers. And now we're starting to become players inside of this college basketball world. And even off the court we are hanging out, we all do everything together. We never leave each other behind. Even on the court, you'll always see us, whenever my brothers fall we always go and pick them up.

Q. Davion, this is your first dance, trip to the Big Dance. Comment on the experience so far especially with the way you came out yesterday?

DAVION WARREN: It's fun. Adonis asked me this before we walked in here. I told him for my first experience I'm already 1-0. And I don't plan on losing anytime soon. It's going good so far.

Q. Had a good performance yesterday. How do you stack that and make sure you stay consistent going into Sunday?

ADONIS ARMS: The game we played is over with. It's next game up, one-game-at-a-time mentality. We have a great team coming in, Notre Dame. They were in the First Four, and they're a really good team shooting the ball, attacking, scoring inside. We've got to focus on what we have tomorrow and do as best we can and eliminate them and advance in the tournament.

DAVION WARREN: Piggybacking on what he said, limit them and really focus on defense. With this team we have anybody can go off on this team. So we're not really worried about offense. We're worrying about locking them up.

Q. Adonis, you guys always play defense. Tech's been known for defense. None of that surprises anybody. But when you can score against a team the way you did the other night, how does that change things in terms of how tough it is to match up with you guys when you're playing that well offensively too?

ADONIS ARMS: I think we're a really tough team to beat. When we're playing the defense we can play and we have, like Davion said, unlimited firepower from anybody that can go off and score like that, I think we're a really hard team to play against and to scout, in my opinion. When we can score like that and play defense the way we do, I think we're just a really, really hard team to beat.

Q. All four teams that are playing on Sunday have had fan bases travel really well. What kind of environment are you expecting and how important is fan support as you guys move on in the tournament?

ADONIS ARMS: This is Red Raider Nation. They travel. I think we're going to have our family with us, wherever we go. However far we go, we'll have Red Raider Nation behind us.

DAVION WARREN: What Adonis said, Red Raiders have been behind us since day one. They've been supporting us. We did a special thing not losing in Lubbock. So they're going to support us all the way.

Q. Adonis, you guys have accomplished a lot as a program over the last few years and especially this year, but what's left to prove? Seemed like you guys feel like there's still a little bit of a chip there that's got to be removed. What are you guys out to do here?

ADONIS ARMS: We're out to win the whole thing. That's why we're here, right? March Madness. We're here to win the whole thing. I believe in this team. I believe in Coach Adams, our coaching staff, everybody behind the scenes. And I believe we can do it if we just stick to what Coach Adams preaches to us every day -- continue to work hard, believe in each other and yourself, you never know what will happen. And this is March Madness. It's the craziest time.

Q. What's the chip? What fuels you guys?

DAVION WARREN: We're underdogs. We've been underdogs our whole life. It's time to prove ourselves that we belong at this stage.

I've been to junior college. Adonis has been to a Division II and junior college. Most of us have been at lower Division Is. We haven't been recruited. We weren't these five-star kids. We're ready to prove that we belong.

Q. How does it feel to, actually, when you think about your journey, for both of you, to go from junior college to make it here, to be playing in the tournament. What would you tell yourself back in junior college? What kind of emotions come through?

ADONIS ARMS: I would just say never stop believing in God. Never stop working. Don't quit. You never know what's around the corner. If you quit, you have no chance of making it this far anyway. So why stop on your dreams when you can just keep working and eventually get there. So I just tell my inner self, keep working.

DAVION WARREN: Just keep working. Stay the course. There's going to be bad games, there's going to be great games, bad practices, great practices. You've just got to stay level headed, never get too high or too low and just believe in yourself at all times.

Q. Going back to that fan base, I know a couple of your teammates had some parents, family members in the stands. How much does that fuel you all when you have the people that have kind of watched your journey, especially a Bryson Williams, who certainly has been a leader for you? Not only that, but can you kind of speak to the emotions personally and your teammates when you see people like that when you had senior night and now with Bryson having his family and some other guys as well like Buzo?

ADONIS ARMS: I call my mom and my sisters my super heroes. For them to see my journey at Mesa Community College and now at Texas Tech, the second round of March Madness. It's surreal. I never would have thought I would be even at Texas Tech, to be honest with you.

Just seeing them in the stands and cheering me and my teammates on and Bryson always working in the morning, just a straight dog, really, to see his family in the stands cheering him on and him still doing his thing, killing his -- it's crazy -- great player -- to see his family cheer him on and Red Raider Nation cheering us on is a beautiful thing.

DAVION WARREN: My family, personally, are back home right now. I know for sure they're watching, but Red Raider Nation all my teammates families involved is considered my family. That's how I look at it.

Q. When you're playing defense as well as you can, as a team in a game, do you see other teams? Can you tell they're gassed? Do you see something in their eyes? Is there anything where you can see kind of the demoralizing result of them trying to play against that defense for a whole game?

ADONIS ARMS: We just focus on ourselves and playing a full 40 minutes. We don't really focus on the other team, if they're gassed or tired or anything like that. We just focus on us and what we have to do to play the best defense we can and follow in Coach Adams' footsteps.

DAVION WARREN: We're just worried about ourselves. We don't care if they're gassed or not gassed. We want them at their full strength so there's no excuses.

Q. You talked about, particularly Adonis, not imagining that you'd be here. When you were in community college, was there a difficult time in your career or times when you wouldn't have been able to foresee yourself not just at this level but progressing in your career?

ADONIS ARMS: For sure. There's ups and downs to anybody's journey. I don't really know how to -- I just think when you're at JUCO, it's a worldwide thing that we're like the dogs are. If you make it out of JUCO you can make it anywhere. I was told I was a diamond in the rough at Mesa Community College never to quit. For the people supporting me back until now, I thank them for not giving up on me, continuing to tell me I have a bright future and that I'm really good at basketball stuff to actually keep me going.

COACH ADAMS: So excited to make it through the first round. And we've got an opponent that's got a lot of experience, won a lot of games, a team that has a lot of momentum, winning two games this last week, playing with tremendous confidence. And they have a great coach in Coach Brey. We have our hands full, but excited about the challenge.

Q. Last time Notre Dame and Texas Tech played it was back in 1976. You were still a student at Texas Tech. Wonder if you happen to remember that game?

COACH ADAMS: Going to bring up my age (laughing). I actually don't remember that game. But I remember Notre Dame winning a lot of games. They're a team I've watched, and I studied Coach Brey's team. He's been there over 20 years, and was an assistant at Duke.

For Coach K, a great offensive mind, has a great relationship with his players. He's been one of the guys that I've always felt was kind of a mentor to me, a guy I read about and watched what he does and done in the past. Great coach.

Q. And looking towards obviously tomorrow now, Notre Dame you've touched upon, is a team that's already played two games in this tournament. What are some of the pros and cons of playing a team that's had that extra game and might be a little more battle tested in the tournament so far?

COACH ADAMS: You can look at it a couple of ways. But they're experienced and every time you win, you're more invested. And they've had some tough games and it shows they're a tough team, resilient team. And a lot of leadership, great coaching and really good players. And most importantly they're playing with a lot of confidence.

Q. Your players consider themselves underdogs. That's how they value themselves. How much does that play into how you guys play with your defense? That mentality, how does that feed into the way they defend because not everybody likes to defend?

COACH ADAMS: I resent that a little bit (laughter). We have a identity and that's defense. And our guys have certainly bought into it. We have great players that understand how important defense is. And as a coach it's challenging to get some teams, some players to understand how important it is to guard them on one end and then go down and score and be unselfish.

But so many of our players came from humble beginnings, and they've had some difficult times even getting here. There's so many great stories of these guys and how people gave up on them. They didn't give up on themselves.

And all these transfers, they've got a lot of scars. And they're tough people and they've got a dream of getting to the national championship and winning it. And certainly am proud I get an opportunity to coach these guys.

Q. You alluded to some of those transfers. Can you speak to Adonis and what he brings to this team, just from an outside perspective, not on the ball? Because obviously everyone knows what type of player he is. But what kind of person is he based on his journey as you've kind of seen with your journey going JUCO, college ranks, all those?

COACH ADAMS: He's one of those, started out in junior college. I think he was a walk-on, had to prove himself. And on to Division II and then Division I. But he's a guy that's been the player at a couple of the programs, and then went to -- I think he was more of -- well, he was a sixth man, an unbelievable sixth man.

That's a lot of, kind of the personality of our team. We've had a lot of these guys that were the player and they come in here and they're part of the pack, and they trust and believe in that.

But Adonis, unbelievable personality. Always has a smile on his face. It's contagious. Everybody loves him. He's grown a lot as a player in that he's much more disciplined at taking shots.

We've had to move him over to the point guard spot at times. And he just wants to win. And really, really proud of his improvement and the progress he's made over the last three months.

Q. Danny Sprinkle from Montana State was blown away at the sheer size and athleticism of your defenders. When you're looking to recruit a defender, what's the typecast? What are you looking for? What does it say that you were able to find all these guys from humble beginnings, like junior colleges, and other places?

COACH ADAMS: Well, I've said this before, and I think I stole it off of a movie, "The Miracle on Ice," the guy talks about he didn't recruit maybe the very best players, but he recruited the right guys, the right players.

And all the way through here we've done our due diligence and worked on trying to find guys that would buy into being coached and had a great reputation of being good people and playing hard. And it starts with that right there.

If you've got a guy that wants to be coached and coached hard, then you're a very fortunate head coach. I'm very blessed and lucky to coach these guys. It starts with that.

We've got guys that have size and length, and that certainly helps when you're putting together a defensive team. So it starts with character and the toughness. And then along with that we like the athleticism and size.

We don't really have the shot blocker like we had with Tariq Owens going back several years ago. But these guys take charges and sacrifice their body, get on the floor and understand if they play hard they've got a chance to win.

Q. We just talked to Davion about this being his first time to the Big Dance. Bryson too. Just from your perspective as a coach, seeing them so excited to be here for the first time, through your eyes what does it mean to you?

COACH ADAMS: Those guys are special because it's their first time and they've worked extremely hard to get here and our entire team is happy for these guys that they get to share this experience with them. And it's such -- until you've been here and been in this NCAA Tournament, it is really hard to describe the emotion, the satisfaction of being in a tournament and winning and even being here and all the things that go with it with interviews and being in the spotlight.

And they've enjoyed it and they appreciate it at the same time. Those two guys have kept it all in perspective and know that we've got to keep winning and not let these distractions hinder their performance or the team. Gotta a very mature group, a lot of experienced guys and that's certainly helpful.

Q. Everyone knows what you guys are capable of defensively. But when you score like you did the other night, when you pair those two things together so effectively, how does that change the potential ceiling, whatever you want to call it?

COACH ADAMS: We weren't really planning on scoring that many points, but there were so many naysayers saying we couldn't score, we thought we'd prove a point and score 100. I think we scored more points than anybody in the tournament.

Even though we rely on defense -- I've always said your offense can knock somebody out and you need to be able to score. Proud of our guys for doing that. I wish I could bottle that up and we can have it for tomorrow as well.

But sharing the ball, we had 23 assists and so that reinforces to our guys we've got to just share the ball and have good spacing. But we had six guys in double figures, and that's how it's been all year. We've always had someone -- Bryson has been the one guy who's been really consistent. But there's been someone along the way that helped us win a game coming off the bench and making big plays for us.

Q. Do you notice, and if so, how, late in games the wear and tear on other teams against your defense? Do you see it in their eyes? Do you see it in their legs? Do you notice what that does to the other, to opponents when you play defense at the top level?

COACH ADAMS: We try to sell that. That's what we try to do. And kind of the boxing mentality. We hope we get guys where they want to throw in the towel. We wear them down and we substitute a lot.

When you get to this level playing the best in the country, that may not be, wouldn't be as true. But that's been kind of our mentality and that's certainly worked for us over this past season.

Q. With the one day you have to prepare for Notre Dame, without going too deep on the X's and O's, what do you focus on the most?

COACH ADAMS: That 3-point line. They're so good at shooting 3s. That's always the very first thing I look at, at box scores when I'm scouting a team. I go to the 3-point line, who can shoot 3s and who can't. And they've got a bunch of 3-point shooters.

So certainly a sleepless night for me last night. A lot of worry to try to find ways to find those guys in transition. They have a lot of great sets to get those guys open. Our team understands that. We've got a huge challenge guarding them on the 3-point line because they have so many 3-point shooters.

Q. Players were talking about being underdogs. But seemed like Notre Dame has a big fan base here, whether they've traveled or they're just local. And you may be coming in as, maybe the villain, so to speak, as the higher seed. Everybody loves the underdog in the tournament. I'm wondering if you'll use that and mention that to your players before the game?

COACH ADAMS: We played that role many times. And we've been in some hostile environments. And we go to Kansas and Ohio State. There's a lot of great fan bases and played against a lot of great players, guys that are future NBA players.

But we're still in a neutral game. We're going to play our best. And we love playing in front of big crowds. Our guys responded really well to it, I think, in every game we've been in. I think they enjoy the pressure and the excitement of that.

Q. Wanted to ask you about Obanor. He averaged 10 and 5 this year but now had four NCAA tourney games and four double-doubles.

COACH ADAMS: How about that. Great.

Q. Is he a kid that rises to the occasion when the lights are brightest or something?

COACH ADAMS: First, he's a great competitor. He wants to keep this team alive and knows how important it is to do whatever he can to do that. And he's been one of our best offensive rebounders and made big shots for us. His defense, his defense has really improved. He wants to do whatever it takes to be on the floor and get those minutes to help us win and then find ways to win.

Q. Going off an earlier question, seems like all four teams playing on Sunday, their fan bases have traveled really well. What kind of environment are you expecting, and how important is fan support as you advance in the tournament?

COACH ADAMS: You just look back at our home record. We're undefeated. 18-0. And we've had great fan support. The Red Raider Nation has always followed us. We expect a big crowd here. And having fans support you and be behind you, means a lot from a coach's perspective it helps me get these guys fired up and keep them going for 40 minutes, and the guys certainly appreciate it. And we should have a great showing of Red Raider fans here tomorrow.

Q. As a matchup here as between offensive-minded and defensive-minded teams, who is the one in particular that you're trying to shut down tomorrow? You can look at the guy got 29 points yesterday, but you can also try and find out who is going to have the hot hand tomorrow.

COACH ADAMS: Well, who is the offensive mind, who is the defensive mind? I certainly wouldn't want Coach Brey to be offended by that.

I know he's got a great offensive mind and defensive mind. So they play really good defense as well and block out, don't give up a lot of second and third shots.

When you look at their team, we have a lot of respect -- they've got good inside scorers, can take it inside. They've got all the 3-point shooters. The point guards cannot only are good at facilitating but can also drive. So when you talk about stopping 3-point shooters, they're not letting them drive to the middle and kick it out. There's a lot of ways to score them. We've got to stop all their sets. It's difficult to say.

Neither one of us have a whole lot of time to prepare. I don't know exactly what he's going to do with only another day to get ready for our defense. And it's kind of the same on our end. We don't have a lot of time -- they've tons of sets. They run them really well.

At the end of the day, it comes back we've just got to play well, do what we do best, and stick to our identity, and I'm sure they'll do the same.