NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - ILLINOIS VS ARKANSAS

March 15, 2023

Eric Musselman

Anthony Black

Davonte Davis

Wells Fargo Arena

Arkansas Razorbacks

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: Happy to have joining us the Arkansas Razorbacks, Anthony Black and Davonte Davis.

Q. Anthony, how is your foot doing? Feeling good?

ANTHONY BLACK: Yeah, I'm feeling good, it's good.

Q. Davonte, I look at your season and Illinois's season, it's similar. You were both ranked early and you had some tough losses, big wins, at the end of the day you are here where everybody wants to be. How would you say your season has been overall with ups and downs and getting here and what have you thought of Illinois's season, studying up on them?

DAVONTE DAVIS: Starting with us, I think our season has been up and down, but I think we have learned through the ups and downs. As individuals and as a group as well. I think it humbled us and helped us as a whole group and I feel like we have gotten better through the ups and downs.

Looking at Illinois, similar records and ups and downs as well, but we're coming in to win and we are just focused on beating them for sure.

ANTHONY BLACK: Kind of like he said. We learned a lot this year. We got a pretty young team. We got six freshmen and a lot of transfers so it's our first time really playing together. We learned a lot and we got better throughout the season. I think same goes for them, they won some big games. They're a good team so we've just got to be ready to play.

Q. Devo, I assume you are going to take Terrance Shannon. Did you guard him much two years ago? He's an All-Big Ten player, what do you think of him?

DAVONTE DAVIS: I think I guarded him a little bit two years ago. He's gotten good and with the team he's on now he's got the ball in his hand more and he's ball dominant. It's not just me guarding him, it's the whole team. We're coming into the game knowing we are helping each other on defense guarding him and his teammates for sure.

Q. Do you guys see similarities between you and Illinois and the way you guys play?

ANTHONY BLACK: We have seen a lot of similarities, watching the film. They're a long, athletic team. They strive at the rim. They shoot a lot of three balls, but they're streaky as we can be at times. They're a lot like us and they're athletic and physical and long just like us.

Q. Devo, they were talking about the lead-up to this game and I thought about the teams you have been a part of in the first round, struggled in the first round, found your footing. What have you noticed about the intensity level of that first game of the NCAA Tournament?

DAVONTE DAVIS: I can say my first year, it was totally different from last year, and I think it's going to be different from this year, for sure, but I say that because there was a lot of older dudes on that team so the outlook, it will be much different. But the first game for sure, it is a lot of intensity. It's exciting, but it's nervous, and especially coming in, we know that we have guys like Anthony, Nick, Jordan Walsh, guys new to the college game and they have learned for sure and we know they have grown. We know this postseason, it can be hard and we have talked to them more and more about it.

We are just trying to teach those guys and want them to know coming into this game, it's going to be hard, we know that. Nobody wants to go home. So we just want to come in and play as hard as we can and execute for sure. I think by saying that, if we do that, we can win. So the first game, just come in and play hard. I mean, it's going to be hard regardless. It's March Madness, you know?

Q. You guys have good size and length, obviously, but you look at Illinois they have -- seems like their point guard is 6'9. They have a guard 6'7", Anthony, just like you. What do you think about their size and the pace that you guys need to play at to combat that?

ANTHONY BLACK: Like you said, they're tall, athletic. They come from a different league so they might not be used to playing teams that play like us. So we're going to try to use that, play fast, and try to explain match-ups and control their length and athleticism on defense.

DAVONTE DAVIS: Basically like he said. We match up similar, so we feel like it could be an up and down game, but like he said, they're in a different conference. So we don't know how they're going to come out, but we're going to play our game for sure.

Q. Brad Underwood said you guys remind him of Texas. That's a compliment, I would think. Is there anybody you guys played this year that remind you of Illinois, that you all played in the SEC or nonconference or anything?

DAVONTE DAVIS: I don't know. I don't think so, with the big they got, Dain Dainja, and, like you said, 6'8" guard playing a 1 the majority of the game. With the length they have on the wings, I don't think nobody in our conference -- nah, I can't say Kentucky. So I don't think so. This is going to be new. I think it's something thrown at us, but we will be able to execute with what they got coming at us. Overall I think even though we haven't seen anything similar we will be ready for the contest.

ANTHONY BLACK: What he said.

Q. Devo, you referenced the past two teams, guys like Justin Smith, Jalen Tate, guys that played college ball a long time. Is there anything you took away with those conversations the last two years in the tournament that you maybe told AB or some of the other guys in the locker room?

DAVONTE DAVIS: For sure, especially coming into the postseason. You gotta be able to grind it out, you know what I mean? You're going to have body blows, you're going to be tired. These dudes, I tell them, they're young, you get banged up, you know what I mean, and you want to take care of your body, that's one thing for sure, like just seeing JD and those guys taking care of their bodies, taking care of their bodies is the most important thing. I've seen them do things that not a lot of freshman do, I think, and it's incredible for them to take care of their bodies the way they're doing.

Q. Anthony, you and Jordan and Nick all had pretty good seasons but freshman moments. Devo, what have you seen? And then Anthony, talk about your freshman season and what it's been like.

DAVONTE DAVIS: I think their season -- I can't say it was like mine because it was totally different through COVID and things like that. I think they can say they enjoyed it. I think they enjoyed it, going to Spain, going to Hawaii and being able to enjoy those moments with the team and they were able to enjoy those moments with their families.

I think it's been pretty good, for sure. It's a scene, even though seasonwise everything hasn't been the way we wanted it to always, I think they've done a good job and knowing they have grown as young men.

ANTHONY BLACK: I say I think for Nick and Jordan it's been good years, like our freshman year we had ups and downs. We had our little stretch of games where it was tough for us, but our teammates did a good job of keeping us confident and just ready to move on to the next game. They trusted us all year, and I think we're doing a solid job.

Q. AB, I know your dad played, and actually I got a chance to meet him at Baylor, which was kinda cool. We were talking about your high school background and stuff. I wonder what advice he would give you where at points where you guys as a team have struggled shooting this season, maybe a new relief or approach heading into postseason play?

ANTHONY BLACK: You say what advice?

Q. With regard to shooting.

ANTHONY BLACK: What he would probably tell me, just keep playing with confidence. He used to tell me that a lot when I was younger, so that's probably what he would tell me.

Q. Devo, Anthony was telling us the other day that he was that when he was in high school, he would be in the library or something instead of working on homework he was watching the tournament games. I was wondering if you did that as well?

DAVONTE DAVIS: Nah, I ain't gonna lie I didn't do that. I played four different sports when I was in middle school, high school so I wasn't focused in on March Madness. When I did watch it, it was fun, it was exciting for sure, though.

Q. (No microphone.)

DAVONTE DAVIS: I did my homework, yeah, I did my homework.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. We are now joined by Coach Eric Musselman from University of Arkansas Razorbacks. Coach?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Illinois presents us with a lot of issues, you can start with Terrance Shannon, one of the most versatile players in all of college basketball. He is an excellent downhill player, can stretch the defense out with threes, they're long. Excellent rebounding team, one of the best shot-blocking teams in the country.

Then Matthew Mayer, it's an interesting side note that both Mayer and Shannon we played before in the NCAA Tournament, although they were with different teams, one with Baylor and one with Texas Tech.

Q. Eric, you have a history, including this season, of doing really well, winning games when you have a little extra time to prepare. What do you think is the key to that? What goes into that?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Maybe I should have been a football coach. I think from a preparation standpoint there are a lot of things.

One, players have to retain whatever you talk about. We have had some pretty decent success with time but Illinois has had the same amount of time. They're really well coached. Their offense is something that you kinda need a little bit of time, because they're spread. They will run a blind pig action which is an old Phil Jackson backdoor-type action and they try to get the ball to the elbows and the nail with their 4 or 5 men and then they run a lot of cutting action off of that. So we have needed this time to prepare for them and learn their personnel as well.

Q. To me your season and Illinois's has followed similar trajectories. You guys were both ranked in a preseason poll. They got a size 16, you guys were size 9, you had roster issues with injuries, they had a guy leave the team, you both had some tough losses. You both have a lot of young players and some older guys. What do you think about the similarities? The trajectories that you have both endured to get here?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I would say, Bob, any of the 8, 9 seeds across the board other than maybe Florida Atlantic, because they're an outlier, but anytime there is an 8, 9 seed and it's Power Five involved, you're going to see teams that have some peaks and some valleys. That's certainly been the case with us, with the injuries and being one shot or one possession away from more than a few other wins that we potentially could have had. But we also knew when we had a roster of 13 with six freshmen that there were going to be some ups and downs and then when you have the injury and six of your 12 are freshmen that's kind of to be expected.

I think we're still evolving and still improving. I truly believe that. Hopefully tomorrow we will be a better team than we were against Texas A&M.

Q. Coach, I know you enjoyed going out to San Francisco last year, your mom got to make that because of your time out there, but how nice is it to be six hours away from Fayetteville considering you played in Buffalo and San Francisco last year?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Yeah, we hope that we have a really good showing. Champaign is an hour closer than we are, but both programs are close enough that somebody could drive to it. Our fans have traveled really well in the past and I hope that continues for us tomorrow.

Q. Eric, did you play Iowa when you were --

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Iowa Energy, yeah. Nick Nurse was the coach, now coaching in Toronto.

Q. What was your experience as a pro coach here like? I guess you know your way around Des Moines a little bit.

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I really don't, but as a coach, especially at the pro level you come in and play the game and leave.

Q. You guys have good size but Illinois is really big. They have guards as big as you guys do. What do you think of their height and how it can impact the game and if you can get it up and down a little bit more maybe you can negate that?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I think Illinois is a really good offensive transition team, there is no doubt about that. But they do have great size, and when you look across the board they can block a shot at every position. That's unique to play a team that 1-5 can alter shots and when you put together a roster with length, that's one of the things that you want to do. That's one of the advantages that you want to have is to try to make people shoot over the top of you.

They have a point guard in Shannon who has great size and length and Anthony Black has great length as well. Both teams I feel are going to try to get out in offensive transition.

They probably execute the shot clock a little bit longer than we do. Having said that, transition defense is probably going to be important for both teams.

Q. You mentioned Shannon and Mayer, anybody else stand out?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I like the roster, Epps has done a great job, and he was out for a time but he can score the basketball, 10 points a game, another freshman in Ty Rodgers, who plays really hard, can get people off the bounce, gets extra possessions for him, by how hard he plays, 42 inside, great spin move, loves to spin baseline off either block. Melendez, obviously, can make a three. Does a great job of basket cutting, has had some spectacular dunks from the right corner.

So, yeah, they're -- that's everybody. I don't know who I'm missing, but if you want to ask about a special guy or particular guy I will probably tell you specifics on him, but off the top of my head that's some of the things that we're aware of, from watching them play.

Q. Eric, a ghost from your Rapid City Thriller days.

ERIC MUSSELMAN: What's up?

Q. I was looking over your long list of support staff. It seems like you have 16 or 17 folks on your support staff. Is that the new trend in college basketball going forward? That's a sizable staff. I think Illinois had fewer than a dozen.

ERIC MUSSELMAN: We put everybody on our website. I don't know about everybody else, but we have GAs and everybody on there. Certainly with the way college basketball is going, you know, right now we're trying to get ready for Illinois, but there is also a whole other aspect of the portal.

There's people in our conference doing home visits right now while we're trying to get ready to play and perform well in this tournament. So there's a reason for -- we try to be at the forefront of analytics, so we have a couple of guys on staff that do that. Certainly our GAs are really important to us as guys that can rebound for guys. But we have tried to model it much off how an NBA team does with specific roles and responsibilities.

Q. Eric, obviously AB, Nick and Jordan came in with a lot of hype, and Nick has been in and out of the lineup. How do you think they have done with all of the expectations and how they have played this season?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I think all three of them have done really well, and obviously you mentioned Nick, who has been in and out of the lineup, and he's continuing to get his rhythm. That's really hard on any player at any level, let alone a player that is playing in the SEC. Jordan has done a great job. He plays so hard. He can can play three different positions for us, Anthony has been an All-SEC player.

I think all of those guys have done a great job. Three guys that have started most of the year when they have been available. Not many programs have started three freshmen like we have, again, for the majority of the season. Obviously some guys have been in and out based on match-ups and so on, so forth. But I think those guys have done a great job. They're playing in the NCAA Tournament, three freshmen that will have a big role for us tomorrow afternoon.

Q. You brought up recruiting and I'm assuming you're referencing Chris Beard. He got hired at Ole Miss. I remember coaches talking about the balancing of the portal and bowl prep. How do you as a head coach balance recruiting, focusing on that and getting ready for Illinois tomorrow?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: The number one objective -- I really wasn't referring to Coach at all. There were three other SEC schools that have done an in-home visit with someone, so it wasn't him. Our job right now is to figure out a way to beat Illinois. That's our job. Having said that, we did have a meeting yesterday among a bunch of Illinois prep. We did have a recruiting meeting, because you have to.

The timing of it, not quite sure how it came about where teams are all playing -- you work all year long for this time, no different than last year, I remember doing five Zooms, I think it was five, maybe four before we played Gonzaga the night before, up until maybe 11:15, 11:30 at night doing Zooms, when you are trying to make an Elite Eight, playing in an Sweet 16 game. Recruiting is a huge portion of our job, and to say you are not doing any of it right now, would probably not be true.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.