NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL SEMIFINAL - SAINT PETER'S VS PURDUE

March 24, 2022

Shaheen Holloway

Hassan Drame

Daryl Banks

KC Ndefo

Doug Edert

Matthew Lee

Fousseyni Drame

Wells Fargo Center

Saint Peter's Peacocks

Sweet 16 Media Conference

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: Let's go right to questions.

Q. One of the comments I think you made after the second round, you talked about your toughest kids being from Jersey, which is probably true. But my question to you is is that the kind of makeup of kid you're looking for in this program, and how much of your experiences as a player do you bring to the table coaching these guys up and helping them to be familiar with how to get through this kind of a situation?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: You know what, I made that comment -- I was answering a question that was asked. But yeah, typically those are the type of kids I like to recruit, guys that are underrecruited, have a chip on their shoulder with something to prove, tough, hard-nosed kids, tough minded. I'm a coach that really gets after my guys so you've got to be a tough kid and tough minded to play for me.

As far as my experience in the tournament, I was trying to share a little bit with them but not too much because I want it to be about them and not me. Just enjoy the ride, understand where we are and who we are, and continue to keep working hard.

Q. Obviously that Cinderella run has lifted the spirits of an entire nation, but can you talk about how it has provided a sense of community, togetherness and support, specifically in Jersey City, and have you and your team experienced it?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: It's been great. Not just Jersey City, just in general. With the last two years with COVID and everything, it's been so down and so dark. Right now is just a time where especially in Jersey City and New Jersey that everybody is rallying around us. It's been tremendous. The support has been unbelievable.

That's just something that even before the pandemic -- St. Peter's, when I got there, I made sure that we did a lot in the community. That's important to me. But even now, the sendoff we had last night to come down here, we had about I would say 400 people there just to send us off. It was unbelievable.

Q. What is the biggest differences between the team that was 12-11 and this team right now?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: The only difference is I would say everybody is more confident now. Before we had a lot of guys that wasn't sure of their roles on the team. A lot of guys that was still trying to find themselves and get back in shape and stuff like that.

I tell the story that the COVID pause actually helped us. I know it messed a couple teams up, but it actually helped us. It got us a chance -- we didn't play in 28 days or something like that, so we had a chance to have a mini camp to get ready and get back. Since the COVID pause this team has been a different team. We've kind of been locked in and followed the goal, and the goal was always be a defensive-first team. Early on we were trying to do some things that we couldn't do, but we've tried to get back focused.

Q. Curious about just the way this week has gone for you guys. No one was really paying attention to you nationally. There's been a little bit of a fame that's been attached to some of the players the last couple days. How have they managed that with also trying to prepare for this game?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: It's funny, it's a thin line. These guys work their butt off to get to this point, and I want these guys to get the attention that they're getting because it's good, but it's also a distraction. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, I let the media and everybody and the guys kind of do it. After yesterday we kind of shut it down just to get back focused and understand the task at hand. We've got to try to take care of business Friday night.

But you know what, this group is good. This group is older. I've got an older group, so the older guys understand what's at hand, and they kind of help the younger guys with it.

Q. This Purdue team has been referred to as sort of a Noah's ark type of team. They've got two of everything. When you were trying to prepare for them, with so much to try to take away, is there anything you've tried to focus on more than others in regards to just being the mandatory requirement to do well tomorrow night?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: You're trying to get a scouting report for them?

Q. Sure.

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: You know what, no. Purdue is a great team. Very well-coached. Great players. It's hard, man, you've got to pick and choose your poison. They've got two very good big guards down low, they've got great guards. You've got to do what you do, make some adjustments, some tweaks without trying to give up too much. But just guard them and play basketball. Do what we've been doing the whole year. We have a good scouting report in place for them.

Q. You got two guys in the program, Clarence and Ryan, with strong ties to Philadelphia. What sense have you gotten that this game means to them playing in the city that they're from?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: Who was the second guy?

Q. Ryan Whalen.

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: He's from Jersey.

Q. He went to St. Joe's.

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: For Clarence to come back home is tremendous for him. He's super excited. He's super happy. I'm happy for him. As far as Ryan, Ryan is Ryan. Ryan hasn't slept in two weeks. Ryan has been doing all the scouts. He's right now just mentally out of it, so he's like a zombie.

But he's excited, too, to be back. I know he's a St. Joe's guy.

Right now we're really not thinking about all that. We're just kind of thinking about seeing what we can do with Purdue on Friday.

Q. You spoke of your vision with this team and where you ultimately saw it. Can you just get us caught up to speed on how the journey has taken shape over the last three years and what it's led to at this moment?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: It's been great. I'll be honest with you, it's been great. We've got a lot of support at St. Peter's, the administration has been unbelievable. As far as the players, when you bring a group of guys in that kind of fit you and fit your personality and know what you want -- I've been very lucky to have a group of guys that are not just great on the court, but they're great in the classroom, they're great in the community, and when you've got guys like that, it makes it very easy.

I'm the head of the snake. I'm here, in practice I'm this and that, but these guys are carrying the mission out to a tee. I don't think they get enough credit for what they're doing or what they did.

Q. No 15 seed has ever gotten to the Elite 8. You guys are the first New York area team to even get to this point in 22 years. Can you just put into context what Friday night means?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: It means everything. It's funny, everybody keeps talking about my team that played 22 years ago. Wow. Geez, I'm getting old.

You know, it's great. Like you try not to think about that. I try not to put that kind of pressure on the team. We just try to take it one game at a time.

But if that could happen, it would be tremendous. Unbelievable. Not just for New Jersey, like just for the Tri-State area, period, to have a team represented in the Elite 8 is something that you think about doing as a coach.

It's hard to get to this point, so when you're here, you've just got to continue to keep working and try to get further and further.

Q. You mentioned the other day that you had a kid you were going to try to use in practice to try to mimic what Zach Edey does for Purdue --

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: It didn't happen. It didn't happen. I tried.

Q. Was that Jerry that you tried it with?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: Yeah, we tried to do it with Jerry. Jerry is good, but big fella from Purdue, he's a different animal -- excuse me, a different player.

Q. Has Doug been sharing his chicken wings with everybody now that he has the NIL deal?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: Man, you know what? It's funny, Doug and I had a conversation about that yesterday. Everybody was telling me what was going on yesterday, so I know why now. It's from the chicken wings.

Q. I'm curious, you've had a quote of yours on a billboard already, he's getting kind of his 15 minutes of name with the NIL deal, the mustache, the Twitter account. What are some of the wilder things you've seen this week and is there anything that's stood out among the extraordinary images of the week?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: You know, I try to keep it simple for our guys. I didn't want it to get too crazy and too big. Obviously with the media attention it's good and bad, but this team, they've been good. They haven't been worried about too much. You can't keep them off social media so obviously they're reading a lot of things, but for the most part I haven't seen a difference in them. These guys have been level headed, kind of even keel, so we'll just keep it that way.

Q. What is the message that your players send to every underrecruited, underrated kid who has big dreams?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: Just keep working, keep believing in yourself. Understand it's a process. Things are not going to happen overnight. You've got to go to a place that best fits you and do what you're trying to do, not worry about the name on the front of your Jersey, kind of just worry about the opportunity that you have.

For us, that's why I really like this group. They came and they believed in my vision. Think about it. When is the last time a group, somebody played 12 guys double figure minutes? I've been trying to do that since my first year and people said you can't do that, you can't do that, and everybody is doing is now. All the teams that's winning have 10 guys playing double figure minutes. Just believe in yourself, kind of go a place that fits what you're trying to do, and anything is possible.

Q. You talked about how your guys have been dealing with the distractions earlier this week. Obviously there's a lot of news about you and what may lie ahead. How have you been able to block out all of the extra noise the last few days?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: Yeah, I don't worry about stuff like that. I don't deal with rumors. I don't deal with all that type of stuff. I focus on the task at hand. The task at hand is to try to beat a good Purdue team on Friday night and that's been my focus ever since last Saturday night.

Q. You talked about your makeup and the makeup of the team being -- making them built for this moment. Can you give us some examples of something you've gone through, something one of your players has gone through that made you ready for this moment?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: Well, I don't make this about me. This is about the players. If you look at our track record since I've been here, our non-conference schedule has kind of been built around that. My first year we played at Auburn, North Carolina State, Clemson; then the second year we played at UConn, Providence, St. John's, Maryland. This year obviously St. John's, Maryland.

I kind of have these guys ready to play against big-time teams. That's why I don't think these guys are intimidated by anybody, because these guys just go out and play basketball and have fun.

Q. Shaheen always talked about being North Jersey tough, New York tough. What does that look like?

HASSAN DRAME: Like Coach always talking about Jersey and New York toughness, he just means that for those who are familiar with New York and Jersey basketball, you always know one thing about them: They will never back down no matter what the challenge is because they were born, and when they were growing up playing basketball they always learned how to challenge when they're playing.

DARYL BANKS III: Yeah, so it's just being on this coast, being in New York and New Jersey, you have a different type of toughness, a different type of swag when you're playing the game of basketball. It's always like a chip on your shoulder really. It's just a different breed of basketball, and that's what all of us embrace when we play.

Q. Coach talked about that chip that you guys have on your shoulders and whatnot. Was that something that you guys carried with you in these first two rounds? No one gave you a chance to beat obviously Kentucky, and then you beat a really good Murray State team. I was just wondering how much does that fuel you guys throughout your practices? How much do you think about that, the fact that you're in this moment now?

KC NDEFO: Well, I feel like we've had that all year-round. This is who we are, and just being able to be on the big stage and finally show that this is what we do and this toughness and chip on our shoulder is what we bring to the table. Definitely in practice Coach thrives on and shows us that we should bring that passion and that determination to the game and towards practice every day.

DOUG EDERT: Yeah, I think that everybody on our team has a chip on their shoulder, especially our coach, too. We're all looking to prove ourselves, prove ourselves as a program, as a basketball team, and it starts in practice. Everyone is trying to compete against each other so we can be able to execute the game plan for whatever game we're about to play. And up until recently, the chip on our shoulder is just getting bigger and bigger. We're still trying to prove ourselves. We're not satisfied with anything right now, and we're going to continue to keep that going.

Q. What is the message to every kid out there who's underrated, underrecruited but has big dreams to be on a stage like this?

MATTHEW LEE: My message to any kid that's been underrecruited and an underdog is keep putting in hard work. Hard work always prevails. The cream always rises to the top, so long as you keep working hard and put in the work you're going to be good.

HASSAN DRAME: My message to the kids, it's always about timing. Time will always tell, the time that you're working. Never expect something. People's opinion is an opinion. Opinion is a form of judgment, so you can never have an opinion and judge yourself at that moment. You always have to believe in yourself.

Q. Doug, I'm curious what your week has been like this week getting some of the endorsements that you have but also trying to focus on Friday. How have you been able to focus on that?

DOUG EDERT: No, my whole focus is 100 percent on basketball. I'm really focused on this game. We look forward to keep doing whatever we're doing the same. We're going to keep that going, going into Friday. The only thing that matters right now is beating Purdue and moving on.

Q. Tell me what the week has been like.

DOUG EDERT: The week has been crazy. It's been crazy since we got here for all of us really, and we're trying to get our priorities straight, but it's very clear that our priority is getting the win.

Q. KC or any of you guys, Clarence is from Philadelphia. I was just wondering if any of you have talked to him specifically about coming home and what this game means to be played here in Philadelphia, and what he's brought to the team this year.

KC NDEFO: Yeah, most definitely. We know this is Clarence's hometown. He's very hyped about coming back home and representing back home and being on this big stage his freshman year. Clarence definitely has brang a lot of passion and definitely drive to our team. He's a big part of our team and what we do here. Having a kid from Philadelphia, they have toughness, too, so just having him on this team and aboard here is just a great thing.

Q. Daryl, can you tell us a little bit about just that emotional ride going from last weekend and winning a couple games and then having some time off and trying to get back into basketball mode here in the last day or two?

DARYL BANKS III: Yeah, you know, doing what we're doing right now is going to go down in history. All the hard work we've put in is paying off at this time. But like we've said earlier, we're not done yet. Once it happened, the next day we're moving past it. The past is the past, we've got to focus on the next game in the game plan, and we're just going to go out there and execute and give it our all. That's it.

Q. KC, could you just put into context what this opportunity means? No 15 seed has ever made an Elite 8, it's 22 years since a New York area team has ever gotten to this stage. You guys have gone from basically off the radar to kind of the sports story in the country right now.

KC NDEFO: This is an amazing opportunity. This opportunity is surreal and our feelings are surreal, but just staying the course and sticking to the game plan and executing the game plan is our main focus and just staying consistent with what we do is what we're trying to do here. Being the underdogs and being doubted is what we thrive off of, and we're just trying to keep that mindset and keep on doing what we're doing.

Q. I just want to have your reaction, guys; there is a tweet that said, I'm cracking up about how the commentators keep acting surprised that the St. Peter's men's basketball team don't seem scared about this moment. Of course not, these guys have to cross Kennedy Boulevard every day. That is way scarier than this game. Can you tell me how you're facing the pressure for Friday night?

MATTHEW LEE: Yeah, crossing Kennedy Boulevard can be tough sometimes. But no, we don't feel any pressure. We're just here to play basketball, something we've been doing our whole career. Even though it's a bigger stage, at the end of the day it's just basketball.

DOUG EDERT: That's funny what Matt said, it is a little difficult crossing there. But in regards to that, I will say that there's no pressure at all, honestly. There's no pressure at all.

I think that there's nothing to be scared of. There's nothing really that's different now. We've been playing basketball this whole season. We've been -- we had our ups and downs, and we're just going to look forward to keep executing the game plan and just keep doing what we've been doing.

Q. Doug, we saw this week your chicken wing deal, you have a sweatshirt line out. Is there anything else that's out that we haven't seen yet?

DOUG EDERT: No, nothing right now.

Q. Have you turned down deals or opportunities?

DOUG EDERT: I haven't been really looking at it as much. Like I said, I'm focused on getting the win on Friday.

Q. What kind of comes with your chicken wing deal? What do you get out of that? Is there food for the team, for you?

DOUG EDERT: With all due respect, no comment. Sorry.

Q. Coach talked about how you guys -- sort of the COVID breaks helped you guys when you didn't play for a while. What changed after that?

DARYL BANKS III: The COVID break put us on pause and it kind of put a perspective on things for us how the game could be taken away from you at any second. Just thinking about that, we knew when we came back, we had to really lock in and really focus and buy into what Coach was telling us, and ever since then the season went up from there.

FOUSSEYNI DRAME: Like Daryl said, it was just a blessing for us because it was like an eye opening for us.

Q. From the players' perspective, what does it mean to you guys to feel that you've been able to represent all the people from your community and knowing that you've been underdogs but been able to overcome all the adversity from your season so far?

DOUG EDERT: Yeah, it's been awesome. It feels amazing to be an inspiration to people, especially young kids who may one day be in our shoes that we are in now. It just means a lot to all of us that we're inspiring people every day with what we're doing, and with hard work you can achieve anything.

MATTHEW LEE: Yeah, like Doug said, it's a blessing for us to be on this stage and put on for our cities and our family back home. Like he said, just inspiring the youth that could be in our shoes and just showing them that anything is possible is really our main goal.

Q. Statistically all season it's been reflected that the defense is the strength of your team, and it definitely makes sense with some of Coach Holloway's comments all year. But in the tournament offensively you've been fantastic against the likes of Kentucky and Murray State. Is there something you've been focusing on that you feel like has made it all come together, or is it just what you guys have been doing all year and it's just on the biggest stage now?

DARYL BANKS III: Yeah, so we like to say that our defense leads to our offense. If we take care of the defensive end, our offense is going to come second and it's going to usually flow. If we come into the game worried about our offense that's usually when we struggle.

Coach has just been harping on us being sharp, running through our sets hard, and that's really what it's been.

Q. When you guys have watched film of Purdue, obviously they're big, they have size, they have really talented guards. Is there any intimidation factor just kind of what you guys are going up against here?

KC NDEFO: Yeah, like they said before, it's just basketball. I don't think you should go into any game being intimidated by anybody. As a person yourself, I don't think you should be intimidated by anything. We're just trying to execute the game plan, go into it with the same mindset of beating these guys and just taking it one step at a time, just focusing on the scout, focusing on practice, and then going into the game tomorrow and executing the game plan.