NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL SEMIFINAL - ARKANSAS VS GONZAGA

March 24, 2022

Eric Musselman

Trey Wade

JD Notae

Jaylin Williams

Chase Center

Arkansas Razorbacks

Sweet 16 Postgame Media Conference

Arkansas 74, Gonzaga 68

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I just thought defensively we played so good. I thought we did a great job of forcing turnovers. 15 turnovers. Gonzaga is a great passing team. They're extremely unselfish. We held them to nine assists, so that differential of assist to turnovers, we felt like things we wanted to do defensively. I thought Trey Wade did a great job of denying and pressuring their trail man. We eliminated a lot of their high-lows, which was extremely important for us. Au'Diese's defense just incredible the entire game on their point guard.

Then Trey Wade's points when we desperately needed them were huge for us as well, and then Jay Will with the double-double played incredible interior. We actually outscored them in the paint, which was one of our goals, although we did not get to the foul line as much as maybe we had hoped to. We have to do a better job of drawing FTAs.

Q. Trey, I'm going to be nosey: Who were you on the phone up walking up on the stage? And, two, what's the feeling of maybe having the game of your life on this stage?

TREY WADE: It was one of my brothers. They had called me and congratulated me. It's a big stage. It's what you dream of. I'm happy we got it done. I'm happy I played a good game, but on to the next one.

Q. This one is for Coach: Big win for y'all, obviously. How about just the thought on the defensive game plan? Seems like you guys stuck to it for 40 minutes and never let up the whole way through.

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Again, I thought it's one of the fastest-paced teams that I've ever seen with the push of the ball, but even this morning we were still working on our transition defense. We wanted to take away their long outlet passes. That was something that we picked up on film when Nembhard would get a head of steam, and Au'Diese met him really, really early away in the back court, and I thought that really helped, and they did a great job of their pitch-ahead sideline and break. We took that away.

We grinded in our prep. I give these guys a ton of credit. We took a four-hour flight after traveling from Buffalo to Fayetteville for 24 hours to here, and then we went straight to an hour and 45 minute practice.

Can't compliment these guys and the entire team enough for the way that they buy in to game preparation. It's probably the coolest thing I've ever been a part of that they just kind of do what we ask.

Q. For any of the players: Did you sense your defense frustrating them in terms of pace of play and just getting in their way the whole time?

J.D. NOTAE: Yeah. I fell like Trey Wade did a good job of pressuring that trail man, like Coach said, taking him out of a lot of stuff that they like to do, and then Au'Diese just on Nembhard picking them up early, slowing them down a little bit. I think they got a little frustrated.

Q. Yesterday Coach spoke with us and said how he was going to show you guys clips of essentially the disrespect you were getting heading into this game being the underdogs. Just wanted to know from the players' perspective, what kind of role did that play in this year just giving you guys maybe a little fuel heading into this game?

JAYLIN WILLIAMS: Yeah. I think we're being disrespected the whole year, so it's just another thing for us. They gave them an 86% chance to win. We saw that and everything they were saying. We felt like they were dancing before the game. That was disrespect to us. We came into the game playing hard and had a chip on our shoulder. Every game we do, and we played hard for 40 minutes, so that's just what we do now.

Q. Each of you can take this. This is the first time Arkansas has knocked off a No. 1 seed, the 11th try. How big was that? And Gonzaga was a heavy favorite. Just how does it feel to beat the No. 1 overall seed?

J.D. NOTAE: This is what we dreamed about. This is what we came here to do. Coach said before we left Fayetteville, if we didn't want to win, then don't get on the plane. I feel like we brought that the whole time we're here.

TREY WADE: Yeah. You want us to answer? Yeah, yeah. Just being the underdog, man, use it to your advantage. They never see you coming, and we just came out and played balls to the wall, and we got it done.

JAYLIN WILLIAMS: They got it.

Q. Jaylin, you've had a chance to go up against Oscar Tshiebwe, Colin Castleton, two other great players tonight. How much do you think going up against those guys earlier in the season prepared you for this match-up against Holmgren and Timme tonight?

JAYLIN WILLIAMS: For sure it prepared me a lot. I feel like every time I played against a big, it prepared me for the next one we were playing. Playing against those great bigs in SEC just prepared us for tonight. We saw a lot of the same things they did during SEC, but we've been versing good bigs the whole year, so it was just another game for us.

Q. For Eric: Andrew has very rarely been locked down like he was tonight. What was the key of what Toney did with him, and as well for the bigs. You did a nice job on their bigs where are?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: We were fortunate. We played Andrew when he was at Florida, and we were at Nevada, and we didn't do a good enough job of pressuring him and being physical, and then we played him, obviously, my first year at Arkansas, and I thought he did a really good job against us. I went back and watched all of his clips from those two games because, obviously, we have the same system in, but we have different personnel. And certainly the job that Au'Diese did -- because we had a really tough decision because J.D. is a really good defender too and a high steal player, but we felt like that cross-match might benefit us. I was a little worried about matching up that way and then the transition game.

And then inside we just wanted to be physical, plain and simple. We wanted them to feel bodies. I played in that league. I know what some of the teams are like in that league, and the physicality and the speed that we can play with is just different, and, obviously, they played a really tough schedule early in the season, but it's been a long time in conference play since they faced a team like us.

We weren't going to back down, I can tell you that, inside. We took away their threes. I thought it was as good as we could play against a really, really great team that's extremely well-coached.

Q. This question is for maybe J.D. and Jaylin: You guys have now matched the run that you made last year to the Elite 8. How much of a motivating factor was it for you in the offseason, during the year to get back to this point, and then what's the hunger level to move on from here?

JAYLIN WILLIAMS: Yeah, the whole time that when the new guys came in, we preached to them like the bottom is us getting to the Elite 8, and that's what we want to do the whole time. That's what we're working towards. Of course, we're still hungry to keep achieving higher than what the expectations were, but we're just going to keep playing hard. We set the standard for ourselves to keep going up, so that's what we're going to do.

J.D. NOTAE: Just to piggyback off what Jaylin said, we knew we was going to have another great chance to make a run again. We just had to stick together and just keep playing hard.

Q. Coach, I thought J.D.'s 9-for-29 was the best offensive performance I've ever seen. The way you trusted him, put the ball in his hands, I don't think they dealt with it the whole game. It was just impressive to see you just attack, attack, attack.

ERIC MUSSELMAN: No thanks. He only took 29 shots. We trust him. I'm going to roll with the guys that have done it all year. He could have missed ten more shots, and I probably would have still called his number because I had that belief that the next one is going in. So do his teammates.

I do think that we did a really good job of finding cutters at really opportunistic times. They really, really loaded up on J.D. Devo had a great pass to a cutter. Au'Diese had a great slash, and then we needed to play through Jay Will when things kind of got discombobulated with J.D. out there handling it and sending an extra defender. And then, obviously, Trey makes those shots in practice. He's a lethal three-point shooter with his feet set, and they sloughed off and helped and over-helped off of him, and he did a great job of shooting the ball with great confidence.

Q. This is for the three players: I'm just curious obviously Eric brought you guys around town a little bit yesterday. You kind of embraced the city. You did the same thing in Buffalo. What does that do for you guys in terms of keeping you guys loose at all, and is that a factor on the court?

J.D. NOTAE: Just give us a little freedom. Get our mind off basketball and just go out and just explore the city. I've never been here, so it's kind of nice to go see it.

TREY WADE: Basically what he said. Just getting a little free time to kind of be around your teammates and not talk about basketball. I think it's good for us.

Q. Two-parter for Jaylin: You set the season rebound record tonight. Beat Derek Hood, awesome rebounder for his career. Just wonder what you think about setting the season rebound record.

Holmgren only played 23 minutes, and he still had 11 points and 14 boards. How big was that to get him in foul trouble to where he couldn't -- you limited what he could do, obviously.

JAYLIN WILLIAMS: Yeah, I'm thankful that I did that, of course, just growing up here, just being -- or growing up in Arkansas just watching them my whole life, and now I'm considered one of the ones that people are going to look and see rebounds. That's what I'm going to be remembered for.

Also, getting Chet in foul trouble, that was one of the big things for us. We wanted to keep driving at him. We wanted J.D. to play aggressive. We wanted our guards to keep driving at him. Getting him in foul trouble was a really big plan for us in that game, and we just getting doing it. We stuck to the game plan.

Q. Jaylin and Trey, what was the post-game celebration like? And who was the first person you ran to, and what was the locker room like?

JAYLIN WILLIAMS: Shoot, I don't even remember. (Laughing). I was just excited. I was excited that we won, getting back to where we were. And in the locker room it was fun. Of course, we got the water bottles, went crazy. We got on live and had fun with our team and started dancing. It's fun to win, and it's a great feeling.

TREY WADE: First person I ran to was Cade. Cade is my dog. He knew how bad I wanted to play well, so, you know, he was probably the happiest person for me. That was the first person I ran to.

Q. Coach, have you had a chance to see your mom post-game?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I went and gave her a hug. She gave me a buckeye from Ohio that my dad used to hold. She gave it to me pregame, so I'm sure she's going to give the credit to herself for that lucky buckeye she's held for 60 years or whatever.

Q. Jaylin, when you saw that last play, the pass to Stanley there, what went through your head when you saw that going in? And then you mentioned players doing their roles and the new guys taking on. What did it mean to you to see Chris Lykes in that late-game situation step in and hit two clutch free-throws like that?

JAYLIN WILLIAMS: I talked to Au'Diese when we got in the locker room, and I saw him the whole time. I don't think I looked at anybody else. He was wide open. I just waited for a guy to clear, and I threw it to him, and he did his thing. Then Chris, like, he has accepted his role. He has been a great player for us this whatever however long it's been. He has accepted everything. He has been a great leader for this team, and when he steps in at the end of the game, we're all confident in him hitting those free throws, and he just gets in and comes in, and he is a confident player, and we're just as confident as he is.

Q. Trey, how much did J.D. set the tone early with a block, a steal? And then second half, he sneaks behind Timme and gets that steal when Jaylin is defending Timme. Just those little hustle plays you guys all made.

TREY WADE: Yeah, yeah, he was being aggressive all night on the defensive and offensive end. It was big. It kept the momentum our way, and we just kept running the floor and making plays.