NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - VCU VS SAINT MARY'S

March 16, 2023

Randy Bennett

Kyle Bowen

Logan Johnson

MVP Arena

St. Mary's Gaels

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by the Saint Mary's student-athletes. We have senior forward Kyle Bowen and fifth-year guard Logan Johnson with us.

Q. Hi, for both of you, just wondering how the travel went, if you've adjusted yet to the time zone and playing a game that's basically 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Is that going to be an issue for you at all tomorrow?

LOGAN JOHNSON: Travel was smooth. Ride was easy. It was a long flight, but it wasn't too bad.

We got a lot of rest yesterday, so we'll be ready to go for tomorrow. I don't think that will play into account.

KYLE BOWEN: Exactly the same. The travel was smooth. A little snowier than the Bay area, but otherwise smooth. Enjoying it so far.

Q. Kyle, what's it like as a guy from Australia -- maybe your fellow Aussies -- experiencing your first NCAA Tournament? What was that like for you? Do you have a good understanding of what it's like in Australia? Logan, as someone who's from the States, do you try to prepare like the first year Australian guys on what this experience is going to be like?

KYLE BOWEN: For sure. March Madness and college basketball in general is so different to what myself and the other three are up to. It's definitely a monster of an experience. But the guys like me and Alex who experienced it last year and this is the second time around, we're enjoying the moment but trying to do something bigger than we did last year and taking our experiences from the games we played last year to this year and hopefully doing a bit better.

Then for our true freshmen, Harry Wessels and Rory Hawke, we're just trying lay our experiences on them, telling them to cherish moments, but understand this opportunities only come around so often so you have to make the most of them while they're here.

LOGAN JOHNSON: We just let them know this is a once in a lifetime experience. You don't always get the opportunity to play in March Madness. So take it all in, soak it all up, enjoy the moment, live in the moment, and just be excited and ready to play like it's another basketball game.

Q. Is this game kind of a battle of wills in the sense that you guys want to be patient and they want to run up and down the court?

LOGAN JOHNSON: Yeah, it's two physical, tough teams that are ready to compete and go at one another. We look at it as another opponent.

We have a lot of rough and tough teams in our conference as well that want to get up and down and we like to slow down the pace. So, yeah, just that.

Q. Logan, have you played a team like VCU with that kind of style they play? If so, how did you do?

LOGAN JOHNSON: I'm sure I have in my college experience, but it's kind of like Gonzaga likes to push pace and be in your face the whole game. So I would account it to that, sure.

Q. For both of you gentlemen, when you saw the matchup come up on Sunday and you see VCU pop up, do you guys have any knowledge, any history with VCU? Or has it been a crash course in trying to figure out your first opponent for tomorrow?

KYLE BOWEN: No, I don't think as a team we knew too much about them, but it's March. You're only playing the best right now. So we knew they were going to be a tough opponent, and we're going to have our hands full.

It was more just about celebrating the moment. It was short-lived, the celebration, but we did pay our respects to the work we put in this year, and whoever we're playing against, it's first about us and how our game plan is going to adjust to the team, and we just take that day by day.

LOGAN JOHNSON: For sure, you hit that right on the head. You worry about yourself first. I feel like that's what we did, and getting ourself ready for the moment, for the opportunity, and then you worry about the team.

You only get one day of preparation in between if you win and you move on. So it's kind of like that.

Q. Do you try to slow them down, or are you willing to -- how do you get them to play your game?

LOGAN JOHNSON: We play our brand of basketball. That's exactly what we do. They're going to try to speed us up and make us play fast, and all we've got to do is slow down the pace and continue to do what we do.

Q. Is there a key to that, getting a lead, hitting the shots? Is there something that's intrinsic to getting them?

LOGAN JOHNSON: It's always about obviously hitting shots, that helps for sure. When you have the lead, you obviously want to hold it, but it's really just playing our style of basketball. You can't try to do something now different than what you've been going against all year. You play your brand of basketball, and that usually wins at the end of the day.

THE MODERATOR: Appreciate the Saint Mary's student-athletes. In four minutes, we'll have Head Coach Randy Bennett.

Thanks again for joining us. We have Saint Mary's Head Coach Randy Bennett with us. We'll open it up to any questions.

Q. There seems to be contrasting styles between you and VCU. Are they similar to maybe Gonzaga or any team you might have played? What can you do to keep the game at your pace?

RANDY BENNETT: It's funny. I was just asked that question. I think we're more alike than disalike. I guarantee you, if I talk to their coach, that our philosophies on what you have to do to win in general, and to win this game, will be pretty much in line.

They're really good defensively. They turn you over. They pressure a little more than we do, but their defensive on-ball coverage is similar. Their commitment to defense is similar. Offensively they play with their on-balls -- with their guards and on-balls a lot, like we do. And they play hard, they're tough.

So they have great tradition as a program. We played them five or six years ago. It's similar. He came from that tree, from that coaching staff. They've been good for a long, long time, VCU. It's a good program.

Q. Randy, could you kind of reflect on what Logan has meant to this program? Obviously he's kind of -- he brings that toughness to this team. How much of that do you think goes back to just his upbringing and his family?

RANDY BENNETT: Logan means everything to our program. He's one of our three leaders, and he's an alpha. He prides himself on -- he's a really good team guy, like he cares about his team. He cares about winning.

He's not into all the fluff, into the it's all about me. He's not into that, which I'd like to think our program is that way and I know our other two seniors are that way.

Yeah, he's a tough kid. You can about count on him to bring it every time he steps on that court.

Yeah, I would say everybody's upbringing has to do with how they turn out and how they are, and he is no exception. His wasn't easy, and his mom did a tremendous job of raising her five kids, and he was not the oldest, so he had to scrap for whatever he could get, had to watch his older brother do his career and kind of saw how it was supposed to go. All that stuff has become Logan's DNA, and it's become our DNA as a team.

Q. You played against Trayce Jackson-Davis last year in the NCAA Tournament. He's now a consensus All-American. I know you had your season and everything, but I'm just curious if you had a chance to see him much and if you had thoughts on what took him from good player to consensus All-American.

RANDY BENNETT: No, I didn't watch him anymore after we played him. I was done with him. That was a nightmare getting ready for that one.

He had a tremendous year. When he came back, when I saw that he was coming back, I was like there's a First Team All-American coming back. They have one. If you can get those type of guys back -- because I'm sure he could have gone pro and probably gotten drafted.

But he came back. It's cool. I think it's cool for college basketball. He's an exceptional player. Because they have guys like him, they were able to have a special season.

Q. When you look at your roster and you're down to ten, is that ever a problem?

RANDY BENNETT: Not if you don't get hurt. You know what, that was by design. We have ten. I think it's -- you've really got to think about how you're going to manage your program now, and with the ability for kids to put their name in the portal and be eligible the next year, it's changed.

I don't know, I went with ten because you're going to want to play those guys. All those guys are good players for us. When we were able to separate games, I wanted to be able to play those guys heavy minutes. When you have 13 or 14 guys that are eligible, you've got to try to get them all in, and I don't know if you can keep any of them happy.

So it was totally by design. You do need to catch a little good luck and not have any serious injuries, and we were able to. Some luck, some because we have a great trainer and strength coach.

It's worked out. Some guys have played through some nicks and pains, but I think it's a good way to go. It's a good way to keep your guys happy and to develop your players eight, nine, and ten, because you're going to get them some minutes in games. If you had to split it between seven guys instead of three or four guys, it wouldn't go as well in my opinion.

Q. As a coach that's leaned heavily on international guys over the years, is there anything you have to do to prepare maybe someone from Australia or Estonia or their first NCAA Tournament experience?

RANDY BENNETT: Whether it's U.S. or international, the first NCAA Tournament is a different deal. The best thing you can do is have players returning that have played in the NCAA Tournament because they have a clue what's coming.

If you haven't -- I mean, U.S. guys, they don't know either. They have no idea how big a deal it is, how big a stage you're on, the protocols that go with the NCAA Tournament. It's just you have to be able to manage that. I always use the word compartmentalize.

But I think it's part of being a good competitor. You have to be able to block everything else out and focus in on the game. All these interviews, all this stuff, all the shootaround in front of the crowd, it's exciting. But you have to -- as a player and as a coach, you have to get them there. The focus is to play well, and you have to get them locked in so that they can do that.

If you don't -- we call it jumping the fight. You can't jump the fight. You'd better be ready for the fight. If you get caught up in all the other stuff that goes with it and don't focus on actually doing your job and being prepared, you're not going to play well.

So international or U.S., I don't think it matters. International probably have even less of a clue, but at that stage, it doesn't matter. It's just you have to get them educated, and hopefully they get in an NCAA Tournament so then when they return, they do have experience.

Q. When you look at seedings, then you don't?

RANDY BENNETT: Right. Right. Like they're all one game. And they're all good. I don't care, 4-13, 3-14, 5-12, it doesn't matter. There's no bums in this thing. If you got in this tournament, it's hard to get in. There's only 68 out of 350. It's really hard to get in.

So, yeah, we just here's next up, one at a time, meal to meal.