NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - NORTHERN KENTUCKY VS HOUSTON

March 15, 2023

Kelvin Sampson

Legacy Arena

Houston Cougars

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: At this time we will start with Coach Kelvin Sampson, and we will go straight to questions.

Q. Kelvin, can you give us first of all -- hope you are doing well. Can you give an update status on Marcus?

COACH SAMPSON: Who?

Q. Marcus Sasser.

COACH SAMPSON: What number is he?

Q. Okay. Even in Birmingham, you bust our chops, right?

COACH SAMPSON: Don't ever forget where you came from, Berman.

Q. And I don't. Can you give us an update on Marcus?

COACH SAMPSON: He did some things today. Broke a sweat. Did some shooting drills. He didn't go full speed. So that's the update. I don't know. We'll see. Game is at 8:20 tomorrow night. It's one of those infamous game-time decisions, I guess. We'll see. I mean, if it had been up to Marcus he might have tried to play Sunday. Sometimes as a coach you have to save them from themselves. I'm not going to jeopardize he or our team, but Marcus and I have the kind of relationship where he will do what I ask him to do.

Q. Kelvin, as a follow-up to that, you mentioned this in Fort Worth, given his importance and your desire not to put him in any harm or additional harm, is there value in sitting him for a game, or does that kind of play with a player's rhythm and this time of year and getting out there?

COACH SAMPSON: Yeah. Well, I know how hard it is to win a game. So if he's -- if the doctors think he can play, and if he wants to play and we're not risking further injury then he will play. If he is, he won't. Simple as that. But if we don't, we got some other kids on scholarship we'll throw out there. Okay, guys, that's it. You just want to know about Marcus, right? That's why you came, to ask about Marcus? The other guys on the team don't matter. Is that what you are saying. If you have no other questions, I can leave. My man's got one.

Q. I know players were saying they have a lot of respect for NKU and what they can do, you were saying something to these guys the other day. Same thing, you saw them play and have a lot of respect for what they can do. What are the biggest challenges that they give you?

COACH SAMPSON: There's a lot of things about basketball that's very subjective. And there's a lot of things that's very objective. For instance, if I were taking a test and there were true and false or multiple choice and they had three answers, I can study and give you the answer. But in subjective it's totally how you see it or how would you react to it, and that's how they play. They are very subjective with their defense. It's a matchup, switching, stripping, grabbing, turn you over. They force you to play in a way you haven't seen before. You know, it doesn't matter who plays against them, you are going to have possessions where you look lost because they don't do anything that has anything to do with the plays or sets or actions that we've run this year. You know, it's concepts. They go through with a cutter, they don't go through with a cutter. They switch every screen. They force you to play outside of the paint because they pack the paint. So, you know, the closest thing I've seen to their defense is when Mick Cronin was at Cincinnati. When Mick was there, they ran a similar type of defense. Jerry Tarkanian when he was a coach at Vegas and Fresno, they called it the "Amoeba". Very similar. It's good. Team is very well put together. Warrick kid, star. Left handed. It's hard to keep him off his left -- every team he's played against has tried to make him go right, so he knows how to go left. I love the Vinson kid. Smart, knows how to play. Ball player. Brandon kid, elite offensive rebounder. Rhodes, Robinson, Faulkner, well put together. They have a good team. Which is kind of a duh statement. They are champions. Teams that are here are good. Every team is good. When our name was flashed up on the bracket, I knew we would be playing a good team. So we prepare for a Northern Kentucky team that's been through the battles, they are well-tested, they are well-coached, and they are very disciplined.

Q. Kelvin, you've talked about before that you're always learning. What's something over the past few years in the tournament that you've learned about yourself or managing the team that you feel can help going with this group of guys that you have this season, if anything at all?

COACH SAMPSON: Something you ask something if they are writing a book. What have I learned about myself? I have been to 19 of these. And they are all the same to me. It's the Tournament. It's what everybody wants to do. People that don't have a basketball background have no idea how hard it is to make NCAA Tournament. One of my best friends was Tommy Amaker. Coached against him when he was at Michigan. He was there six years and didn't make the tournament. He was a great coach, and had a very successful program, but they didn't make the tournament. That's how hard it is. Look at the programs in our conference who hasn't made it in years. Look at the year we went to the Final Four I don't think Duke or Kentucky made the tournament. If you ask me what I learned, I don't know if I've learned as much as I've had things reconfirmed or reaffirmed. When you go through the rigors of a 30-plus game schedule, and you ride the highs and lows of 18 to 22-year-olds. And every day you have a thermometer and you are sticking it under their tongue, or you are taking your index finger and middle finger and you are placing it on their wrist to check their pulse. As a coach, nobody knows your team like you do, because the coach deals in facts. Everybody else deals in opinions. So I've learned nothing. I know the facts of our basketball team. I know how our team ticks, I know their temperature. But temperature is important. Understanding the purpose of a thermometer might be more important. But it's a tournament. I don't get overly excited about it. I don't overreact to it. Our last three games was East Carolina, Cincinnati, and Memphis. And now our next game is Northern Kentucky. I can see other people getting all crazy about this stuff. We don't. We have been doing this 30-some games. This is our next game. For some people, this is their first game. What is our record? I don't know. What is our record? It's our 35th game, think about it. Not our first one. It's our 35th. It's our next game. And that's the way we have approached it since I've been here.

Q. Kelvin, Jarace Walker has done a lot of different things for you this year. He's a freshman. People want to talk about lottery pick. But this is a moment for him to shine and to really show what he can do within your team. What's it like from your perspective for him entering this tournament, knowing it's a little different for him just to where his future might immediately go?

COACH SAMPSON: Well, my approach to Jarace is he's a spoke. He's not the wheel; he's a spoke. The wheel is the team. It's not a player. It's not an individual. We have a team -- a really good team because we're made up of really good spokes, and they all fit. Jarace has a role. His role is not to lead us in scoring. He's not going to get the most shots. He's not a volume scorer. You know, if he was in a program that wasn't 31-3 or wasn't ranked or any of that, that was just kind of, you know, a rebuilding program and he went there and he's shooting all the balls. Jarace can put some numbers now, but he would have some 6/25 nights too. But he would have some 14/25 nights. So you have to decide which night who he is. But for us he fits. I think Jarace likes that. I think that's why Jarace chose us because he knew we were going to be good. He didn't have to go somewhere and be somebody he's not. Jarace's game doesn't equal be the best player. He's not Allen Iverson; he's not Kevin Durant. He's not that kind of a player. But he came to play for a coach who understood him and understood who he is. That's why Jarace is -- he's ridden the wave of the freshmen. He's up and down a little bit. But he's been really good this year. Now if he left some people wanting more then that's because you didn't know who he was. Some people say, we thought he would be better. Based on what? That somebody that you have no idea who he is put a number a five-number before his name? What is a five-star? Now go back to the year we went to the Final Four, the two best recruiting classes in the nation was Kentucky and Duke. They had a team full of five-stars. Neither one of them made the tournament. They didn't make it. We had none and we went to the Final Four. What is the goal? To collect -- to find as many pieces of gold that you can, or just have the best team you can? I know how to put together a team. I know how a team fits. I recruited him because he's not a star. I recruited him because he embraces being a great teammate. I saw him play for team Thrill, his AAU team out of Baltimore. I went down to Bradenton, saw him play with IMG a lot. He plays for us like he needs to play.

The last game we played, you know, we played without our best player, he didn't play very well. He needed to play better. For us to win that game, he needed to have played better. But he didn't need to play -- scored 30 points and get 20 rebounds. Jarace can be the best player on the floor getting 14 points and 8 rebounds because he impacts it other ways. His best games are going to be much more like 14 to 15 points, 7, 8 rebounds. That's a really good game for him. Now a kid like that also could get drafted sixth in the draft. There's a kid that got drafted 30th last year that averaged 4 points a game. The NBA draft has nothing to do with stats. Now, where you're rated in guys that do that recruiting services, they may look at stats. But I don't look at stats. But I'm not a fan. I'm not a season ticket holder. I actually do this for a living. What I look for is a kid that fits our program. And I think that's going to be Jarace's value in the NBA. He fits. So whoever drafts him, and he will be drafted high, whoever drafts him is getting a kid who is going to be a great fit. He's not just going to be your leading scorer. He's a great piece on a championship team because he's very unselfish, he's a great teammate. That's what great teams have. Great teams are full of great teammates.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.