NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL SEMIFINAL - MICHIGAN VS VILLANOVA

March 23, 2022

Jay Wright

Collin Gillespie

Justin Moore

Jermaine Samuels

AT&T Center

Villanova Wildcats

Sweet 16 Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We will get started here with questions for Villanova student-athletes, Collin Gillespie, Justin Moore, Jermaine Samuels. Villanova takes on Michigan tomorrow at 6:15 on CBS here in San Antonio.

Q. Collin and Jermaine, obviously you guys were here for the 2018 championship game, but just talk about how different your roles are and the experiences you guys have had getting back to playing in San Antonio against Michigan again.

COLLIN GILLESPIE: Yeah, it's been very different from freshman year obviously. We were just role guys on a team with six guys who had been in big games before. So we learned a lot from those guys and the preparation that it takes to get to that point.

Now that we're back in San Antonio, it doesn't really -- like the two don't really correlate. It's a completely different team, new year, and that's the way that we look at it every year. Every team is different. Every team is new. So the journey is going to be different for that team.

We're just taking it one day at a time trying to get better each day.

JERMAINE SAMUELS: Like Collin was saying, different roles back then, especially being freshmen back then, different situation. Just same place, same team, entirely different team. But it is pretty cool to see how things lined up.

Q. For any or all of you guys, someone can tell me if I have this a little off, but Hunter Dickinson kind of compared you guys to a more disciplined Iowa. I'm wondering if you have any comparisons of Michigan.

THE MODERATOR: Just like who you would compare them to.

JUSTIN MOORE: I wouldn't say -- I can't really think of a team now that I would compare them to. They're just a really great team with a big guy like Hunter Dickinson who can really get it going and a lot of great guards, small, quick, athletic guards who can really speed you up and finish at the rim and make threes. So they're a really great team.

Q. You've had a lot of these kinds of games, not with that big guy, but with speedy guards versus big guards. What's the specific challenge? Do you like playing against smaller speedy guards?

COLLIN GILLESPIE: I think we've had a good mix of both. I think we played against great big guys this year early on in the year. There's some really good big guys in our conference as well. But we've also been able to play against quick speedy guards as well.

I don't think we have a preference. I think Michigan presents some difficulties in Hunter is really big and he makes the right decisions, whether he's going to score or he's going to kick it out and get other guys shots. Then the guards make plays for them as well.

So they're a really good team. They're well coached. We have to guard them as a team and guard their big as a team as well.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you guys for your time. Best of luck tomorrow.

All right, everybody. We've got Villanova head coach Jay Wright with us.

Q. Curious what you remember about the Eli Brooks recruitment. Did you ever see him getting to the level he's at right now where he's been so good as of late?

JAY WRIGHT: I'll answer the second part first. I did see him getting this good, and this is what we thought he would be. That's why we recruited him.

As I remember it -- I'm not always good at this, but he visited our place, and then he told us he was going to take a visit to Michigan and then make his decision. Then he visited Michigan, then he called me and told me he was going to Michigan. That's what I remember.

Great, great kid. Great family. This is kind of what we thought he'd be. We thought he'd be a four-year guy and a great player and winner, champion by the time he was done. He's got such great character, great basketball IQ, brilliant student, and a great competitor. Yeah, it's a shame we got to go against him because you root for a guy like that.

Q. Jay, when you were here 2018, won the championship, Collin and Jermaine had much different roles, but talk about how you've seen their development and how big a role they do play and how they've kind of grown this program?

JAY WRIGHT: It's interesting that they were watching it all. Collin played a little bit. Jermaine was injured some that year, didn't get to play a lot. But they watched the leadership of Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, and they really learned from that and they've become the same kind of leaders.

When you had Jalen and Mikal and guys like that, you never think you're going to get leaders like that again. Then you watch Collin and Jermaine and you realize, if you have guys like that, there's a chance they can pass it on. They stay in touch with each other, and I know that they are -- I know Jalen, Mikal and the guys are really proud of Jermaine's development and Collin's development and the way they lead this program.

Q. You mentioned the other day about kind of getting through the round of 32 and getting into the Sweet 16. From here, I don't know if it's gravy or whatever you want to call it, but have you noticed in the times that you've been here that your team feels like it can play looser once it gets to the Sweet 16 or a certain level of the tournament?

JAY WRIGHT: That's interesting. I don't think when you get to this point you play looser, but I think when you get to this point you feel more confident in the things you do. I think individually each player feels more confident in himself based on having been through two very difficult games and realizing that other players struggled in those games, other great players, because of the competition and the pressure and that you have personally accomplished that.

Then as a team, that's how you feel. Probably a matter of semantics. I don't know if you feel looser, but you feel like, okay, what we do works. Let's stick to what we do. When you start the tournament, you don't know, hey, are the things that we did all year, are they going to work? I think that's the difference when you get to the second weekend.

Q. I think a lot of outsiders look at it as Michigan's size versus your perimeter attack, especially with Hunter in the middle, but I'd much rather hear what you see about this matchup.

JAY WRIGHT: I think, when you look at it, that's the obvious difference. However, I think that Michigan's guards are really underrated. I think Eli Brooks is one of the best guards in the country. He's a winner.

Jones being in that lineup is really impactful for them. He's an outstanding player. And I think him being out for a little bit has actually helped Frankie Collins get a lot better.

So you've got guys like Hunter Dickinson, who's only a sophomore, but for whatever reason, in my mind, he plays like a senior to me. Eli plays like a senior. Jones is older. But all those younger guys, Houstan, Williams coming off the bench, all those guys, because of everything they've been through, have gotten better.

So you forget sometimes this was a preseason top ten team for a reason. Now, they went through a lot of struggles during the year, but for now they've got everybody back, everyone's healthy, and they're playing their best basketball. These are the teams that advance this time of year.

So it's way more than just Hunter Dickinson on this team that we have to deal with.

Q. Jay, I'm not sure how far back you and your staff were able to go watching film to get ready for this, but the last six weeks or so prior to this little run, there were significant fluctuations for Michigan in terms of their level of play. I guess, what did you kind of see from some of those ups and downs, and what has changed the last two games that's allowed them to put this little run together?

JAY WRIGHT: I think that's the point I was trying to make earlier. You have major changes within the program over the last -- you've got your head coach isn't coaching the team. Phil did an incredible job and their staff did, but that impacts your team.

The game against Ohio State, Hunter Dickinson was out. I don't know, I think it was COVID. When you have changes like that in your lineup, it really impacts your team. That happened to us at some points during the season. Even in the Big East tournament, it happened to us. We had some guys injured.

And I just feel like going through all that gave some guys opportunities to play, and it might not have come out as a win, but in the long term for the team now, I think they have great depth now. They have great balance. And they've learned to play without Hunter Dickinson, then they get him back. Like that one game that Diabate -- I think it was Ohio State when Hunter didn't play -- just went off. Everybody just grew, and then they got to play together here in the tournament, got a couple wins.

As I was saying to Mike, you start to figure it out. It's all about how you're playing right now. It doesn't matter what you did in the season. It's how you're playing right now, and I think they're playing as well as anybody in the country.

Q. Did Phil Martelli winning the 2016 Big 5 Coach of the Year award spur you on to motivate you to greater heights?

JAY WRIGHT: For the non-Philadelphians, that was a great classic Philadelphia -- was it '16 that we -- in the Big 5, we won the National Championship -- did we win the Big 5? I don't even know. But at our Big 5 banquet, Phil Martelli got the Big 5 Coach of the Year award, and Phil wouldn't take the award. He said, I'm not taking this award, and he put a piece of tape on it and said -- put my name on it. And he said, I can't take this. You won the National Championship.

In Philly, that's always been a great story. Only Phil could handle it the way he did. It was a classic.

It was not inspiration for me, Mike. That was a great night. It was a funny night.

Q. On the subject of other coaches that have impacted you, I'm wondering if anybody left you any bottles of wine in the building. And I know you've talked about it a lot, but what impact did Pop have on you during your time together in Japan?

JAY WRIGHT: You guys are probably tired of hearing it now, but Pop and R.C. are just the model of what class is in the NBA and in basketball. They did, they left me a nice bottle of wine. It's funny, Pop gave me hotels, restaurants, everything. I told him, Pop, this is college basketball, man. I'm with these guys morning, noon, and night. I don't leave these guys. We don't go out to dinner.

But the Olympic experience and the World Cup experience, we spent five years together in what was really -- it's a shame it happened this late in my career, but I'm so happy it happened. It was one of the greatest educational experiences I've had in coaching, not just as an X and O coach, but as a leader of men, to watch Pop handle that.

There should be a book written about what he did in this last Olympics because it was a mess. We had guys bailing out. They couldn't play because they were in the NBA playoffs. Guys got hurt, couldn't play. Guys testing positive for COVID. We were quarantined over there. We had guys flying in for the start of the Olympics. He kept that whole thing together and won a gold medal. It was him and Kevin Durant. It was those two, their leadership.

I thought I would like to write a book about it one day because no one knew what was going on over there. We were all quarantined. He's an amazing coach, a great leader, and, if he's your friend, he's an even better friend.

Q. In the spirit of another San Antonio question, I'm sure this city has a special place in your heart from 2018. Can you talk -- any deja vu moments since getting off the bus or good vibes from you last time here?

JAY WRIGHT: One of the great memories -- you know, the game was incredible, but after we were leaving the locker room, we were all exhausted, and we're finally getting out of here after doing the media. They said, we're going to drive you to this spot, and you're going to get a boat and go down the river. At that time, I was like you've got to be kidding me. We are shot. We can't do another event. We're done.

They're like, no, you have to do it. It's for the city. It was one of the great experiences of our life. It was the coolest. This city for a Final Four, you're a national champion, you're going down the river on a boat, and people are hanging out of trees and out of buildings, and the music's playing. Then you stop at that area where they have the stands. And they bring you up, and they play the fight song. It was incredible. It was incredible. So I always remember that.

It's been nice coming back here because we're meeting people at the hotel we met last time, the police officers that give us the escorts. I'm sure Michigan is experiencing the same thing. Really nice people here, and they love their sports. This is one of the best cities in the world to host a Final Four or a Sweet 16.

Q. Do you have any relationship with Juwan, or is it just kind of observing him from afar these last couple years?

JAY WRIGHT: Just a great respect and watching everything he's done. We see each other on the road. There's kind of a bond you have amongst coaches when you meet each other. So that's my -- I've admired him as a player throughout his NBA career, and then when he got into coaching, I admired how he approached it.

I think he's done an incredible job. I have great respect for him. It's not easy -- it's easier to be a bad player and a great coach than it is to be a great player and a great coach. It's hard to be a great player and a great coach, and he's doing it. It's pretty impressive.