NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - PENN STATE VS TEXAS A&M

March 15, 2023

Buzz Williams

Wade Taylor IV

Tyrece Radford

Dexter Dennis

Wells Fargo Arena

Texas A&M Aggies

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by the Texas A&M Aggies, Wade Taylor IV, Tyrece Radford, and Dexter Dennis.

Q. Dexter, Coach told us before as a defensive guy that you typically are put on the opponent's best offensive player. So that means you're probably going to see a lot of Jalen Pickett. Any thoughts on that match-up and facing him after watching some video of him?

DEXTER DENNIS: I think he's an extraordinary player. I think they have a great team. I think the best thing is they know each other. You can tell when you watch the clips and watch them play. They're comfortable with what they're doing which is extremely dangerous. To some it may not look like much, but they pose a threat with their outside shot-making ability and Pickett is also a weapon when he gets in the mid post area or just all around. He does a lot for their team. I think it's going to be a great match-up, as always. I think Coach is going to depend on me to do a lot of things. It's going to be fun.

Q. What is your confidence in Dexter when he goes up against a player like that?

WADE TAYLOR: Very confident. Knowing he is going to be on the best player makes the rest of the team confident because we know what he brings to the table every night.

TYRECE RADFORD: Same with me. He takes a lot of pressure off the rest of us, knowing that he's going to be guarding the best offensive player on the opposing team. That's the type of player he is. He's a great defender.

Q. Boots, you guys play different brands of basketball. They don't foul a lot, you guys get to the line a lot. You guys are a rebounding team, they don't rebound as well. How important is it to dictate your tempo and pace against what they do?

TYRECE RADFORD: We know they are good offensively, and also defensively too, but we have to stay within our roots, don't try to do anything out of our characteristics and just continue to have faith in each other and go out there and play ball.

Q. Wade, you didn't have the greatest of games in the championship game. How long did it take to put that behind you? What's your confidence level now going into the tournament?

WADE TAYLOR: As soon as the buzzer went off we got to the locker room and Coach talked to us about how far we came. Next game, last game. I knew coming into this weekend it was going to be a big opportunity for our team coming from where we came from. I knew we had the Selection Show that evening so it wasn't too hard to put it behind me.

Q. Dexter, you played for the Shockers, huge part of the culture there and made a decision to leave. Talk about the journey and what you remember from the days there and what's allowed you to be so great at Texas A&M?

DEXTER DENNIS: My time with the Shockers, that's one of my favorite homes. That place kind of molded me into the person I am today, especially coming into college as, like, a freshman. You never know what's going to happen when you transfer schools. The portal, it's a new area, a lot of things are being discussed, NIL, playing time, et cetera. So just coming over here and being able to blend in with these guys is an amazing journey. I've learned a lot about myself and the coaches have been great with me. I'm extremely grateful and extremely happy to be an Aggie. So I'm extremely thankful and I just love being here.

Q. Boots, you are one of the handful of guys on the team that has actually played in the tournament. Have you used that experience to talk to the guys who haven't been here in terms of what to expect and how to handle the pressure?

TYRECE RADFORD: Yes, and our coach, Buzz Williams, has done a wonderful job doing the same thing. Just playing every game like it's your last, even when you are not in the tournament. That carries over. Me, being an experienced player, I'm not the only one on the team that played in the tournament. Dexter played in the tournament, KK played in the tournament, Julius Marble played in the tournament.

We have a handful guys that have played in the tournament that was able to talk to the rest of the team and prepared them for this moment. I think we're pretty much prepared.

Q. Wade, you guys are a tournament team. Seems like last few tournaments, SEC Tournament last year get to the finals. This year you get to the finals, NIT finals. What is it about tournament time that you guys turn it on?

WADE TAYLOR: Just believing in one another. Going about it all season, not just when it's time to play in the tournament, just building it up from when we started in August. We know when the tournament comes, it's time to lay everything on the line time, 'cuz it's win or go home.

We just try to take every possession and every opportunity we have to shine and go 1-0 that moment. We don't want to look too far ahead because we know that moment can impact it.

Q. Wade, on Sunday night y'all said that the Number 7 seed, no reaction at all to it. I wonder since then if y'all thought anything more about it. Is it something that y'all use as additional motivation if that's needed at all?

WADE TAYLOR: It's not needed at all. I was talking to them; we just happy to be here. It's a blessing to be here from where we started and where we are now. This is my first time so I'm super excited. Just hearing our name get called that's more than enough for what this team has been through. We're just here to show what we can do.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen.

We would like to welcome head Coach Buzz Williams from Texas A&M Aggies. Welcome to Des Moines, Coach.

Q. Buzz, you've told us before that you typically put Dexter as a top defender on the opponent's best offensive player. I would ask, what is it that makes you have so much confidence in Dexter in those match-ups, and if you'll also comment on the match-up and what you do to try to contain them to whatever degree you can.

BUZZ WILLIAMS: We want to be careful what we say publicly about the game and our strategy.

Coach is an incredible coach. Spent a lot of time in the NBA, has had a fast rise in college and he's done a tremendous job. 22 may be the best 6'6" guard in the country, statistically, for sure.

I think Dexter's competitiveness along with his IQ is what makes him so good. He's for sure the best perimeter defender on our team. I don't think that anybody in our organization would question that, and I think that I've said it to you throughout the year. Statistically, on the glass, I think that's the thing that has changed our team the most, is that he is our leading rebounder while also guarding the best player. He absorbs the scouting report in a way that I've never seen a player absorb it.

He does a lot of work away from the office to be prepared for what's in front of him. He's ultra mature in how he lives his life, but also in how he goes about his daily work. He's literally the same person every day. I had no relationship with Dex prior to his arrival. As you know, he didn't get here in the summer because he had to finish his internship.

In the eight months that he's been here, his impact, I'm not sure can be quantified. I think he's as big of a reason as any that we are still playing. There's many, but to be able to guard the best player every night and lead your team in rebounding as a perimeter player, that just speaks to how competitive he is and how accountable he is in everything that he does.

Q. Buzz, I was wondering if you could give us a little insight into the mindset of the team right now. Certainly from talking to Boots and Dex and Wade, they seem pretty relaxed from a distance.

BUZZ WILLIAMS: Yeah, I think those guys have probably watched as much tape as I have. 4 was texting me at 3:30 Monday morning and I was like, 4, I have to go to bed at some point. When we got back together as a team, we have a routine we follow two days before, one day before, and not just those three guys, but everybody in the organization is familiar with the rhythm of that and Boots corrected me a couple of times as I started two-day prep. We don't refer to names, everything is number-based, and I didn't include one of the numbers, and Boots caught me. Those guys are excited. Those guys are thankful.

The relationship between those three guys, and there are several others, but I think the spirit between the players is as good as I've ever seen. They have worked incredibly hard to get to this point. They're thankful for the opportunity. They have very low egos. They care about one another and collectively, they just want to -- what do we need to do to keep playing? That's a lot of fun to be around.

Q. Buzz, how do you treat tomorrow differently when you have to wait and then wait and then wait for the late game? Or do you treat it any differently with your guys?

BUZZ WILLIAMS: Yeah, so at home we have shootaround eight hours before the game, as long as school doesn't dictate that. But as often as we can, we're going to have shootaround eight hours before. Obviously when you get to tournament play you can't dictate the shootaround. Our shootaround tomorrow is 9-and-a-half-hours before and it's only 20 minutes.

So I don't know that -- there is a lot of excitement to be able to watch the games, but when you are the last game, that's a lot of emotion to watch. So the one thing that I have talked to them about, and I was telling my wife this last night when the games in Dayton started, one of the groomsmen in our wedding is the coach at Corpus Christi. So when we got to the hotel and finished all of our day's work, she said, who do they play when they win? And I was like, I don't know. I haven't even looked at the bracket. I've tried to stay in my routine. Thankful we're playing. Understand the stage. Completely aware of the platform. But I think a part of our success is staying in such a narrow lane that you almost become unaware of other things. That's one of the things that I have mentioned to our guys is it's okay to be happy and excited and knowing what's happening, but we have to still have the maturity to stay locked in.

If it was anything other than the NCAA Tournament, I would probably try to create some distraction, but I don't think that we have to do much different than what we've always done. It will just end up being a longer nap time; that's what we call it. When we finish praying at the end of shootaround, guys, hurry up and leave, we gotta get to nap time. They're making fun of me because if I don't ever sleep, but I guess we will get a longer nap tomorrow with it. What time is it supposed to start?

Q. (No microphone.)

BUZZ WILLIAMS: So it will be 9:22 when it starts.

Q. Coach, where is Manny in progression in getting himself back? Second, is there a memory from when before you were a Coach that you remember about the NCAA Tournament that you fell in love with the tournament?

BUZZ WILLIAMS: Yeah, Mo has done really good and Mo has helped us. I think the way he's helped us is he has not tried to have this grand entrance. Like, hey, I'm Mo and I'm back! I was telling him, as he was sitting out, I know this is not fun, and I don't know you don't want to hear me say this. This is actually going to be good for you. I don't think that there is a better roommate for you to have on the road than Dexter and I don't think there is a better example for you to sit on the side and watch than Dexter.

His maturity, his approach, his consistency, his impact on the game without having the ball in his hands, all of those things that you're watching and all of those things you're hearing, you are learning it in a different way because you can't be out there.

I think his self-awareness is better than it has ever been. There has been a couple of times when we were in Nashville, Travis, when I took him out -- because I knew what I just called he didn't know. That's not really for any other reason than he just missed eight-and-a-half weeks of the season. But I think he has helped us, and I think that it also changes the complexion of our team just a little bit in a positive way, but I think as it relates to his career, nobody ever wants to get hurt, nobody ever wants to break a bone, but I do think that the wisdom that has been acquired will be good for him long term.

Where I grew up, we didn't have cable TV. You couldn't get it on the red dirt road that I grew up on. So CBS, ABC, NBC and there was a local station, KTVT. It was Channel 11. We got four stations. I remember all of it.

Q. Most of the guys that Penn State is leaning on are products of the portal. You guys have had success in the portal as well. For a program like Penn State that has had less success in the tournament, less success getting to the tournament, has had to rely on more cyclical things, as someone who has been around for a while, how do you think the portal changes the algorithm for sustainability of success?

BUZZ WILLIAMS: Whoa! I like your question! Coach has done a phenomenal job. We've played Penn State twice in my career as a head coach. James Franklin is one of my heroes. I do think the portal has changed the model of college athletics. Every coach has a different thought process. And also, when you take a job, to some degree it dictates what you have to do. The portal is just another avenue now available.

They're the oldest team in the country, with multiple portal guys. But when he took over for Coach Chambers, not sure that there was another option that made them better/more competitive quicker. Obviously, offensively what he does is very complex. I think he's taken the skill of those that have only been to one school and those that have been to multiple schools and done an extraordinary job teaching and coaching how they want to play.

The more I watch, and with each passing day, I have more confidence in understanding what they are trying to accomplish. As much as there are so many layers to what they do offensively, I think what they do defensively is very sound as well. I know he's an offensive genius and he's deserving of all of that credit, but I think a portion, prior to him being the OC at Purdue, I think he spent most of his time in the NBA as a defensive guy. You can kinda tell, here is what they're doing on offense, but you can't take away how sound they are defensively.

I was telling our team, like, green is really good and red is really bad and yellow is somewhere in between. Their team is distinct green or red, there is no yellow. And it's because they're very committed to what they're doing. They're not turning the ball over. The third least turnover rate in the country. Half of their balls are going to be shot from three and they're going to shoot more and make more than any team in the country.

They're not trying to get fouled because they're not going to the charge circle. They're not going to offensive rebound because they're not going to give up any points in transition. Like they're very distinct. I think you can do that, the more mature your players are to understand we're going to be great at this, this is our strength. This is our weakness and we're not even trying to make it yellow. It can stay red but the green is going to become neon green because we're going to do it so often. I think however you build your program, the more mature guys you have the better.

Q. Buzz, going to Jalen Pickett and their backcourt, how of exciting is it a match-up when you look at what you have in Wade and Boots?

BUZZ WILLIAMS: This is what I would say on that: Not to dismiss the question. I actually think that's how Penn State has beat teams. When you begin to think that it's this player versus 22. 22 is going to beat you every time. We have spent an inordinate amount of time since Monday -- if you give all your attention to 22 he's going to be the decision maker that beats you. You have to be really careful in how we play defense.

It's not going to be about a player. We're going to be aware of that player, but those other players are why they've won eight out of their last ten. 22 is making the decision, but it's not like 22 is scoring 40 points a game. But he is -- the coach and 22 are putting other players in positions and when you make the decision, then they're making the decision and that second decision is what has led to their success since Valentine's Day.

Do I like our team? Sure. Do I like our perimeter guys? My whole life I like guards. I think our group has done pretty well and you could argue that's why we're still playing but to zero in and go, it's 22, 22 is the decision maker but those other guys will beat you if you act like the whole thing revolves around 22.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.