NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL FINAL - HOUSTON VS VILLANOVA

March 25, 2022

Collin Gillespie

Justin Moore

Brandon Slater

Jermaine Samuels

Eric Dixon

Jay Wright

AT&T Center

Villanova Wildcats

Elite 8 Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are being joined by Villanova head coach Jay Wright. Villanova student-athletes, Collin Gillespie, Justin Moore, Brandon Slater, Jermaine Samuels, and Eric Dixon.

JAY WRIGHT: We are obviously elated to be here and playing another day, staying in beautiful San Antonio. We love it here. Everybody's good. Everybody's healthy. Collin's knee is good. We just had a good team workout.

We know what an outstanding team we're playing that's got just great experience. They were in the Final Four last year. You can tell by the way they play in these games, they are a very comfortable in this tournament setting. They're very disciplined.

I feel like they are underrated as an offensive team. Everybody knows what a great defensive team they are, but I think they really find matchups to their advantage and execute intelligently, offensively, and part of their scheme is setting themselves up for offensive rebounds which they do a great job of.

We know we've got a lot of work ahead of us. We worked out this morning, and we still have work to do to get ready for the game tomorrow.

Q. Collin, you seem to have two legs there, but is there any little lingering doubts when something like that happens because of the serious injury that you had in the moment? And can you give an update on the next couple of hours?

COLLIN GILLESPIE: No, there's no doubt. I trust in my surgeon and everything that he did for me. So it's stable. It's just one of those things where, if you get hit, it feels a little uncomfortable, but I'm fine now. I feel good. Just next few hours will be preparing for Houston, watch a little bit more film, and just rest up.

Q. I know you guys play in the Big East, but what does Houston look like? Is there any teams in the Big East that remind you of Houston, or do you guys do a lot more research on the other teams you played this year?

JUSTIN MOORE: I can't really think of a team that they play like, but they're just a great team, a really good physical on defense. They get up in you and cause turnovers. In the offense they're really aggressive and make tough shots and crash the offensive glass. So I think they're going to be a great challenge for us.

Q. Brandon, how do you set yourself up for an offensive rebound? Obviously, that is what Houston does, but how do you see that they do it?

BRANDON SLATER: Can you ask that question one more time?

Q. Jay just said they set themselves up for offensive rebounds, and you can say, well, they missed the shot, but what do you see they do on the weak side to put themselves in that position?

BRANDON SLATER: Okay. They have very talented players that obviously have very smart understanding of the game. So when they see the ball come off, they have a great feel, and they anticipate to where the ball's going to go.

Q. For Collin and Jermaine, back after the consecutive losses to Baylor and Creighton, Coach said last night he thought maybe the team was just a little worn out, that he thought he had put you guys in a bad spot. I'm wondering, as the older leaders on this team, what was the conversation back then to try to get past that, shake through it, and start this path where you guys are now?

JERMAINE SAMUELS: I think it started, first and foremost, with me, Collin, and Justin just taking ownership. Coach is going to put us in the best positions to succeed, but we've got to go out there and get the job done. I think what we did was took it upon ourselves to focus on every single day of getting better in practice because that's where we create our habits.

We knew that our journey at the end of the day was to be the best Villanova basketball team by the end of the season, and so there was obviously going to be some bumps in the road, but we were more focused on trying to get back to what we do as a Villanova basketball team.

COLLIN GILLESPIE: He said it perfectly. I think one more thing we just talked about was sticking together, knowing that it was part of our journey and the journey of a season. There's ups and downs. We pride ourselves on saying attitude. That's what we were saying, just attitude, stick together, and let's get better and move on to the next day.

Q. Another rebounding question for Eric. When you play a team that attacks the offensive glass, like there's three, four, five guys on any miss, what's the balance between identifying the ball and identifying bodies behind you and trying to actually put a body on somebody and be in position to box out?

ERIC DIXON: I think it's just kind of like a feel thing, like rebounding, that's kind of what it is. I know me. I trust all my teammates to match up with their guys and tag up and box out. So just kind of try to do your job.

Q. Collin, Houston has said that one of the things that they need to do in order to win is make the other team play at the pace they want, but Villanova plays at an even slower pace than Houston. How slow do you think tomorrow's game will be? How will you be able to win in a game where possessions matter so much?

COLLIN GILLESPIE: I think we're just going to take whatever we see. We're going to run offense to score, and that could be a possession where we get out and go in transition or walk it up the floor and get into a set or whatever something that Coach calls. Yeah, we're just going to take whatever we have and whatever we see. Could be faster, could be slower. Our main focus is going out there and playing Villanova basketball for 40 minutes.

JAY WRIGHT: Could I make a comment about the acumen of our sports writers and the concepts of rebounding? We've got Mike Jensen talking about getting to the weak side. We got the balance between seeing your man and seeing the ball. Like this is impressive. This is very impressive.

He was giving them the answer. Mike was giving them the answer.

Q. Jay, Kelvin was in here earlier talking a lot about his early time at Houston and people trying to talk about recapturing the glory of the '80s, and he said a program like Villanova can't relate to that because they're Villanova and they've always been great. I imagine you might have a different take on that from your early years in which you inherited and just the process of actually sort of turning the page and building something that is great now as opposed to looking backward.

JAY WRIGHT: I hope to answer your question. I think that he's right. When you come to a place like Villanova, you do benefit from great tradition. There are a lot of foundations set in place. There's a culture that's already set in place. There's a history. There's a pride.

But there can be little interruptions sometimes. We even had it during our tenure a little bit. It seems like people always want to go back to the glory days. You could have one down year, and they want to go back to the glory days.

So I have great respect for the difficulty when you're at a program like Houston, who does have a great history, then they had a little interruption there. There's a lot of pressure on you as a coach when you come back to get it back there. People just remember the good times. They don't remember how hard it was to get to those good times. And Kelvin's done an amazing job of not just getting them there, but maintaining, which is the next step, which is really difficult. Maintaining a level of success that is really highly respected by all of us in basketball.

Q. Your thoughts about their defense physicality, and second part of that, their offensive rebounding?

JAY WRIGHT: It's just really impressive. Every coach tries to get their team to play that way. You wouldn't talk to one coach who would say, you know, I don't care if my guys play hard defensively. I don't care if they play every possession like it's the last possession of their life. We all try to get our guys to do that. Kelvin gets his guys to do it. They do it. They literally play every defensive possession like it's the last possession of the game.

We all -- all of us in coaching, it's a tight circle in coaching. We all have great respect for Kelvin for that reason. It's not an easy thing to do. And then their offensive rebounding, to the questions earlier, like all their plays are set up so that they have guys in position on the weak side that are out of the off-the-ball action that are set to go to the offensive glass, and they know when they're supposed to go and they're really smart about it.

It's not just -- they don't just run a play to get a shot. They run a play to get a shot and have the people set up on the weak side for offensive rebounding position. Sometimes they have them matched up with favorable matchups to jump over those people. It's really intelligent. I don't think they get enough credit for what they do offensively.

That was the answer that Brandon Slater should have given you. Sorry.

Q. I'll take it from you, thanks.

JAY WRIGHT: He still had some preparation work to do, you can tell.

Q. I've never heard you say this before, but I can't remember. Maybe it was the Big East tournament, where you said shout out to Big Al the Masseuse for what was needed. I'm curious, seriously, how -- when you decided that such things were needed as part of your program? And feel free to give us any Big Al the Masseuse anecdotes.

JAY WRIGHT: I get on Big Al the Masseuse. I get on him about the pressure we put on him. Like getting Jermaine Samuels to play in the Big East tournament, I've never seen a guy get turned around, like where he's walking crooked like this, and then all of a sudden he's out on the court getting a double double. That was all Al. I don't know what he did to him.

But to answer your question about -- it was at least 10 to 15 years ago when we hired John Shackelton as our strength coach. We realized in recruiting, in the development of our players, and in the success of a season, taking care of these guys' bodies mentally and physically was one of the most important things we had to do.

I would say all of the decisions we make every day about when we're going to practice, when we're going to meet has to do with their mental and physical health. I don't mean mental health in a negative way, I mean like keeping their minds fresh, keeping their bodies fresh, getting in the hot tubs, cold tubs, masseuse. Stretching with Shack, flush days, that supersedes anything else we do, watching film, practice. And having time for Al to get their bodies massaged and their muscles right, that supersedes everything.

It's been really successful for us. I think our guys appreciate it. I think it's helped us with our health, and I think it's helped us in late season play. When you get to this point in the season -- that's why you kind of hear our guys say, well, what do you got to do next? They'll say we've got to rest up because we talk about that process of active rest, and Al's a big part of it.

Q. Same question I asked Collin. Both teams are some of the slowest teams in the NCAA in terms of pace. What are you planning for tomorrow night, and how do you expect the game to go?

JAY WRIGHT: I know this pace, this KenPom pace everybody talks about, we don't talk about it at all. If we feel like we got numbers we got to break, we're taking it. There are teams that have pressed us, and we played fast and scored in the 80s. I guess that just evens out from other games when you play teams that don't.

We really don't care about pace. We really don't. With that said, it depends what Houston does, I think will dictate the pace. We'll go either way. We're good.

Q. You talked about how unique Houston is in terms of their style and their physicality, and coaches that have played them talk about how hard it is to play them just once. So not only are you playing them for the first time, you also have one day to prepare for it. What are you kind of telling your guys on just how to prepare them for that intensity, especially defensively and on the glass?

JAY WRIGHT: That's a great point. There are certain styles of play that, even if you get time to prepare, you can't simulate what they do with your team. So you have to explain to your guys, like we've got to start this game. We're going to take a little smack in the mouth because you've just got to get a feel for their intensity, their physicality. We'll take it, and we'll -- but you get used to it. You eventually get used to it in any game.

Sometimes you're out of it, and you get used to it. Then you just say, well, why does a team lose by 15 in the first half, but they win the second half by three or four. They got used to it. It's too late.

So we can't take too long, but we'll have to get a feel for it and then adjust as soon as we can.

Q. To build on kind of what was asked earlier about the paying attention to the physical and mental grind of the season, those of us who have covered you for a while remember that '06 Elite Eight game against Florida, where your team looked like it was just kind of -- as great as that Florida team was, you guys looked toast. You looked dead. Did that game factor at all into changing your thinking about what you need to do to keep a team fresh over a season?

JAY WRIGHT: That's a great question. I specifically remember after that game our guys laying around in the locker room with IVs hooked up to them dehydrated, just spent, physically spent, and we had played a single or a double overtime game the night before against Boston College, two nights before.

So I was trying to remember when Mike asked me how many years ago it was, it definitely -- it was when we hired John Shackelton. I can't remember how many years he has been with us, but it would make sense. It would be right after that. That's a great question, and I didn't really think of it this way, but we've never felt like that after a game before -- again, since that.

Like I remember in '18, we actually finished the season, and we were saying to each other, like we could keep going for two more weeks. We felt like we had done such a good job of it. So we were not doing that back then definitely.

Q. Your guys, when maybe they don't agree with a call, they start clapping. I don't remember Josh Hart doing that. You could tell he didn't agree with any call that was ever made against him.

JAY WRIGHT: Josh Hart was supposed to do that. He was.

Q. My question is who invented that one? That's not a Collin Gillespie thing.

JAY WRIGHT: Who invented that one (Laughter)? It's just a concept that we try to talk about our attitude, and that's the only thing we can control. We try to practice that. Like you're going to get bad calls. You're going to get tough plays in a game. So what is your mindset on the next play? Your mindset's got to -- you've got to control your mindset.

So when something like that happens, we clap our hands, we say attitude. That's telling our teammates, we got it. Our head's right for the next play. And it avoids us also arguing with the refs.

Josh Hart was one of the best players in the history of Villanova, greatest teammate, greatest kid in the world. Was not great at that particular technique.

Q. Tomorrow night will likely be as close to a true road atmosphere as you can get in the NCAA Tournament. What are you expecting?

JAY WRIGHT: We're expecting a road game. What's funny, we really didn't think -- you know, you think about it one game at a time, and we never thought about it until I started watching that game last night when our game was over. Then it hit me. Like wow, we're in for it, man. They're going to have a great following here.

We've got a great crowd here too. I hope our guys can make some noise with them.

Q. From a coach's perspective like yours, Kelvin lost two of his top players in December.

JAY WRIGHT: Unbelievable.

Q. And he changed the way he did his offense with more inside than outside, that kind of stuff. You know more than I do about Xs and Os, but what do you think about what he's done with this team given what he's been through?

JAY WRIGHT: It's incredible. It really is. When you get their stats, look at their stats on the season, you see Sasser on the top line. You realize like, wow, not just two great players, their leading scorer.

I didn't get to see them as much with those guys, and so when we watch film for this game, I didn't watch those games. So I don't know as much about how it impacted how they played, but I do know, you look at any team in the country and you take the top two players off that team, none of them are in the Final Four or in the final eight. To get his team to be playing for a Final Four is incredible. I can't say I'm surprised. I think he's one of the best coaches in college basketball. So it is an incredible job by him and his staff.

Q. With the success you've had in the last decade, I imagine it's a bit of an event when you go into an opposing team's arena with the atmosphere and all that. How much does that impact your players come tournament time to sort of get them ready, toughen them up, or however you want to term that?

JAY WRIGHT: That's a great point. I hope that helps us tomorrow night. I really do. I do feel like our guys are used to that. Everywhere we go, we can tell the intensity of the crowd. People tell you, like this is the biggest game. It's the hottest ticket. So I hope that helps us tomorrow night, I really do.

And I think it's something that sometimes I feel sorry for our guys. I don't tell them, but sometimes I'm like they have no idea how big this is to the people we're playing against. They're just playing, right? But I think they realize in this game how good Houston is, and they watched that game last night, and they know the environment, and they know the -- how important this game is. So I think they know what they're going to be in for.

Q. Jay, every time around this time every year you get asked these questions of the progression of the program and what are the little things that have changed that have led to all this success, et cetera, et cetera. Maybe it's because I've been gone years ago and haven't been around. What about you, personally, do you think has changed, if anything, whether it be personal habits, whether it be nutrition, whether it be whatever. Is there anything you feel that you've actually changed, or have you been the same guy for all of that?

JAY WRIGHT: I wish my nutrition would have changed. I wish I would have gotten better. I haven't. I hope I've stayed the same guy off the court. I hope so. And I hope on the court as a coach I've evolved, I hope. The game is so different now than when we started at Villanova. The business is so different. Recruiting is different, and NIL and transfer portal and how you -- the young men are different. In 20-some years, you have to coach them differently.

So as a person, I hope I've remained the same. We try to use the word humble and hungry. And as a coach, I would say I hope I've evolved with the way the young men have changed and the way the game of college basketball has changed.

Q. As long as we're talking about change, what do you think of the new NIL environment? Do you think it's time for the NCAA to step in and establish any rules in this kind of Wild West era? And long term, how do you see it impacting a program like yours as we see multimillion dollar collectives pop up in programs around the country?

JAY WRIGHT: I think it's -- I wish the NCAA would have gotten out ahead of this years ago, but we didn't. So we are here now. Now that we're here, I don't think we can go backwards. The NCAA, I don't think they're going to be able to control this too much.

I also think this could be a good thing for college basketball if somehow we -- if we can keep the foundation that these guys are students and they're going to college to get an education, to play basketball and they can make money while they're doing it, I think in the next three or four years, if this can balance out, I think this can be a really good thing because I think it can keep -- I think the market will balance itself, and I think there's a lot of intelligent people around.

I think the collectives will figure it out. I think the universities will figure it out. And you could have a point where guys can go to college that want to be in college that want to get their degrees. They can make money. And they can go and be a professional when they choose to, when they feel like they're mature enough, when they feel like they've got enough education, as opposed to having to go because their family needs the money and they can't make any money in college.

I'd like to see a day, and it probably take three or four years, it could be a mess for three or four years. I think the transfer portal at the same time makes it difficult for these three or four years. But I think we'll get to a point where you will see NBA basketball get better because they'll get older, more mature guys when they're drafted, and I think college basketball will get better because I think guys will stay for two, three years, maybe some four, because they'll be able to make good money and get their degree and mature physically and mature emotionally.

That's my dream. That it's better for college basketball and it's better for NBA basketball. But I don't think the NCAA is ever going to be able to get it -- they're not going to be able to control it. I think it's going to be the marketplace will control it.