NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - LOUISIANA VS TENNESSEE

March 15, 2023

Bob Marlin

Jordan Brown

Terence Lewis

Themus Fulks

Greg Williams

Amway Center

Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns

Media Conference

Q. Jordan, Terence, can you talk about your previous experience in the NCAA Tournament and how you're using that to kind of work forward for this tournament.

JORDAN BROWN: For me, it was my freshman year of college. I was over at University of Nevada, Reno, and we got to the tournament, but unfortunately we got knocked out the first round against Florida, but it was still a fun experience. We got to do the whole shootaround with the fans and stuff that we're about to do, and it was a great time.

TERENCE LEWIS II: A couple years ago I was at North Texas and we ended up beating Purdue. They was going crazy and it was a big upset, but we lost to Villanova. I think the whole experience was amazing, just being around with the team and the coaches. We all locked in in one family. And I think it's really the same thing like as far as how we've gotten here, we're together, we've just got to take each day one by one and hopefully just win the game tomorrow.

Q. Themus, Greg, Tennessee with their three-point shooting, pretty good defending it, as well. I'll ask essentially for defending the guards, what are some of the keys to that?

THEMUS FULKS: I believe the key to the game is just compete. We may be a little undersized, but we play very hard, and we're not going to back down to nobody. We're not going to take nothing from nobody. I think as long as we compete, it's up in the air.

GREG WILLIAMS, JR.: Yeah, I would say the biggest thing is to just make them uncomfortable, make every catch difficult, every action that they try to do difficult. That's probably the biggest thing we need to do. Just trying to cause chaos within what they want to do on offense and making it useful to our advantage.

Q. What is the standout memory from that upset of Purdue, maybe in terms of the game, the momentum switch or anything of that nature? I guess what I am asking is what's key to pulling off a Cinderella-type upset?

TERENCE LEWIS II: It's a great question. I think there are a lot of things that are really key in order to pull off an upset like tomorrow's game or just any game in general. I just think we've got to learn to take certain teams' tendencies away and really just key in on certain things. Because as you saw a couple years ago, it was a back-and-forth game, and honestly that was really a home game for them. It was in Indiana and Purdue was in Indiana.

So just got to be able to go through adversity and just understand that both teams are going to make a run. We've just got to take each play-by-play by play, like just one by one by one. I just think that's the most important thing.

Q. Jordan or Greg, how much of this week, this weekend is reward for success that you have had in the conference, and how much is it an opportunity such as what Terence has experienced previously?

GREG WILLIAMS, JR.: For me personally I'd say it's more opportunity than reward. We've put in a lot of time, a lot of work to get to this point, and I think this kind of starts the opportunity, if you will. I think we have to go in and take care of business and continue to have that window of opportunity increased.

Q. There's a lot of take it one game at a time, 1-0 kind of things, but do you let yourselves think, Saint Peter's won three games last year, can you do the same thing.

GREG WILLIAMS, JR.: I think it always crosses your mind, so it's something that it may come up, it may be a thought. But at the same time, we have to realize that it is one game at a time, and in order to get to three games or however many games, you have to take care of the first one.

So just having that mindset and building on it once you get past the first one, get to the second one, get past the second one, so on. That's kind of the mindset we need to have.

Q. I saw you on a walking boot. Are you okay for tomorrow? What's your status?

GREG WILLIAMS, JR.: No, I'll be good. I'll be good.

Q. Can you talk about the injury? What did that happen?

GREG WILLIAMS, JR.: It was in a tournament, but I'll be good. I'll be ready to go.

Q. Jordan, what's your relationship with Justin Gainey, and how close did you come to -- did you ever come close to even thinking about going to Tennessee?

JORDAN BROWN: You know, he's a great coach. He was over there at Arizona with me, and he's a great guy, great coach. That was in consideration when I was thinking about transferring, but I'm here and we're having our success right now and we're continuing to work. We're a family over here, and we love it.

Q. This of course is a big spotlight. What do you guys do personally to kind of keep that even keel to where it's like just another game?

JORDAN BROWN: I think looking at it just like that, another game, another opportunity to do what we do, and knowing that we're prepared for it. We played our whole season, we had different types of games that we played in, close games, games that we had to fight and come back, games where we were battling the entire game. We've been in a lot of different situations and knowing that we're ready for anything.

TERENCE LEWIS II: Just to piggy-back on him, I don't think there's anything that we really need to do differently. We've been praying -- not praying, we've been working for this since the beginning of the year. I don't think we need to just change how we do stuff. We just take each game one by one, and we'll be perfectly fine.

Q. Just wondering how you expect the balls to come at you defensively. They obviously have a lot of big guys, and in particular what have you thought looking at film of Olivier Nkamhoua for them?

JORDAN BROWN: I think they have a great team and I'm not really sure what to expect playing against them. Whatever they decide to do, then we make our adjustments and we just react to it.

Q. I know going undefeated at home, of course impressive. Do you think Cajun Nation is going to turn out tomorrow night to have your back in the game?

THEMUS FULKS: 100 percent. We've been trying to do this for them the entire season. I think it's a great opportunity for us, and of course we know that we're going to have the support behind us. And I think as long as we play hard and we compete and we hear that crowd cheering for us, the sky's the limit.

BOB MARLIN: It's a pleasure to be here participating in the NCAA Tournament with this team, representing the Sun Belt conference. We've had a really good year and had some great wins and had an outstanding tournament just a week ago.

We know a lot about Tennessee, and Rick Barnes and I have been friends for a while, and he's a tremendous coach. They've got a great team, and we're honored to play these guys. At this stage of the year, you're going to play someone that's good, and we feel fortunate to be playing Tennessee.

Q. Coach, of course this game different from all the others. As a coach, what do you do to help your players realize that it's not, or it's just like every other game?

BOB MARLIN: Well, we can talk about it, but they know. They're anxious a little bit. We'll keep them in a good place. We have guys that have been in the tournament before, and we have a coaching staff that's been in the tournament for many years. I think that's a big help to us.

Q. I wanted to follow up on that, on how beneficial that experience is. How helpful is it for you as a coach to have those players along with you lowering the temperature of that excitement and that anxiety?

BOB MARLIN: Right, they're familiar with the process certainly and have experienced it, and they've done a good job helping to lead our team in that area.

Q. In what ways have they been able to -- is it more by talking to their teammates, here's what to expect when you go out there in front of the bright lights, or is it more just showing?

BOB MARLIN: I think it's talking at this stage. They're close. We've got a really connected group, and they listen to each other.

I think their talking has helped influence the other guys and made them feel somewhat at ease.

Q. How big is the margin between a brand-name program and a mid-major champion, and where is the difference found?

BOB MARLIN: Well, there's certainly a difference in the two levels of play. Tennessee is a storied program, as we talked about. They had some great players and great teams over the years. We've played them, our school has played them in the past in the NCAA Tournament, and actually Jordan's father, Dion, played against Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament.

Again, we're excited to be here, and all the experience really helps.

Q. Can you talk about when you found out Jordan was going to transfer in and what that meant to you and this program.

BOB MARLIN: Yeah. We recruited him hard out of high school, and he visited us, UCLA, St. John's, some big schools on his initial visits and then settled on Nevada and then went to Arizona when Mus left and then turned around and called us. Actually the last three schools this time were us, Texas and Tennessee. So they had a connection to him, as well.

But it's meant a lot to have him in our program. I think he's as good as any inside player in this tournament. He had a great year this year, and I know he'll be the focal point. He gets double- and triple-teamed every night, but he can really score the ball. He's got great footwork. He's got a great left hand, right hand. He's got the total package on the offensive end.

Q. What has been the overall impact he's had on your program and just has he elevated this team since he's been at your school?

BOB MARLIN: Without a doubt. He's helped us win the championship. He was most outstanding player of the Sun Belt championship. He was preseason Player of the Year. He got the most votes of any player for all-conference. He just had a tremendous year and very consistent in his approach. He matured a lot. He graduated at Christmas, and I think that took a load off of him, as well.

Q. I was wondering what you think of Olivier Nkamhoua for Tennessee and what he brings to their team?

BOB MARLIN: He's an excellent player, really good rebounder, as all those guys are. Good defensively, can score the ball a little bit, also, but I like him a lot. I like several of their guys, actually.

Q. Speaking of one of those guys, Santiago especially with his three-point shooting, what is the team going to have to do to keep that in check?

BOB MARLIN: That's a difficult task, right. Along those lines, I told our team yesterday that I voted him second-team all-American in my NABC vote just last week. He didn't make it, but I think he's that good. I've watched him play for a long time. We're going to have to really stay close to him and try to make him uncomfortable, but he plays at such a good pace, it's hard to do.

Q. Rick Barnes said you have a relationship back from his Texas days and when you guys were crossing paths. Any stories or relationship things you can tell us about you and Coach Barnes?

BOB MARLIN: Not necessarily. He'd stop when he was in Texas, and then when I took the job in Lafayette, he'd stop on the way through and call me and we'd visit and stuff like that. But he's always been a class act to me. I appreciate the opportunity to play against his team.

I mean, I know we're getting a team that's great defensively and going to be really tough, but knowing Rick a long time, I guess one storyline would be that we were both assistants at Alabama at one time.

Q. Coach, I want to ask since you're talking about storylines, one storyline is Tennessee has these players out with injuries. How does that affect your team?

BOB MARLIN: We've had some injuries, too. Greg Williams was hurt and didn't play in the second half of our championship game, and he has not practiced yet full speed since he's been back, so that's still a question mark for us. But certainly Zeigler is a really good player. I enjoyed watching him play and actually saw the game and the pass when he hurt himself. That was a big blow to Tennessee in my opinion. They've lost some difficult games down the stretch. With him being out, that was a major factor in the way they finished the year.