NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - DRAKE VS MIAMI (FL)

March 16, 2023

Jim Larranaga

Jordan Miller

Nijel Pack

MVP Arena

Miami (FL) Hurricanes

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by the Miami student-athletes. We have senior guard Jordan Miller, sophomore guard Nijel Pack, and junior guard Isaiah Wong. We'll open it up to any questions.

Q. I guess I'll ask Jordan and Isaiah, since you're both returning. Do you feel like your team still has something to prove? The little video thing of "don't pick us", like it seems like you guys still feel like you're trying to earn respect even though you reached the Elite Eight and you won the regular season title ACC, there's still some doubters. Can you talk about that topic and what your mentality is about that?

ISAIAH WONG: Yeah, like you said, I feel like we're still an underdog and still got to earn respect this March. I feel like with all we've been through this whole season, they've still got us coming in like losing some games. I feel like we've got to prove something this tournament.

JORDAN MILLER: Just to build off what Isaiah said, we did make it to the Elite Eight last year, but that's never the goal. The goal is the National Championship. I feel like to put Miami on the map officially would be to win a National Championship.

Obviously take it one game at a time, and if we win a National Championship, it's all the respect in the world.

Q. Why do you think it is that the program doesn't get the respect, do you think? Is it all the years of being a football school, or is it something else? Why do you think the team doesn't get the respect that you maybe think they deserve?

JORDAN MILLER: That's a good question. University of Miami is really big on football. They've had a lot of success, all credit to them. They've won National Championships.

To put your school as a quote, unquote, basketball school, you have to come with those same accolades. Like I mentioned before, I feel like winning a National Championship could really change that dynamic.

Q. Isaiah, how can you draw off the experience last year and the run you had? Every year is different, but what can you use from that experience, and how do you turn that to your advantage?

ISAIAH WONG: Just with last year's experience, we had a lot of players, a lot of great players, and I feel like coming in with me and Jordan, with the experience we have, we just feel more comfortable in this situation and we feel like we know what's going to happen, we know it's going to be a tough game, and the things we've been through is just going to bring us to tomorrow and the whole tournament.

Q. Nijel, what do you feel are the biggest three or four things you sort of brought to this team this year? And how has your transition been coming and working in with the guys?

NIJEL PACK: Transferring to this team, especially with the roster they already had, I knew we had a very talented group. Just bringing my experience and my leadership, coming from a different program, I feel like I could give some tips here and there.

Obviously I was open all year to listen to these guys. They have a lot of experience as well. So just another experienced guy on the roster trying to bring a leadership role, being a point guard, distributing to my guys, and things like that. Just trying to do whatever it takes to make this team better and make it successful.

Q. Congratulations on a great season. For Isaiah and Nijel, much has been made about your NIL deals. At this point of the season, how much is the locker room laser focused on making a deep run in the tournament versus NIL concerns right now?

ISAIAH WONG: Honestly, for the team we're very focused right now. On the stage we're on right now, we have a lot of great players on this team, and we're all focused on the main goal, and that's winning a title at the end of March.

NIJEL PACK: Yeah, I feel like the whole team, the focus is winning games. I feel like guys are not really worried about NIL. I feel like NIL comes with winning games, being successful, winning big championships and things like that.

I feel like we can win big championships, especially a tournament like this, and NIL things will come with that.

Q. Now that you guys have had time to scout Drake, can all three of you talk about what concerns you about them? What are their strengths? And how do you think you guys match up? Especially with not knowing how Norchad will be, how do you think you'll play?

JORDAN MILLER: Concerns, I mean, they made it to the tournament. They're here along with us and 66 other teams. So they're good.

As far as matchups, we match up pretty well. Norchad is obviously day by day, but we have time to prepare without him, versus Duke we didn't. Obviously we'd love to have him.

Like I said, they're a good team. I feel like whoever comes out on top is the team that plays the hardest, that wants it more. March is just about can you hit shots and can you get stops? They call it March Madness for a reason. We just mainly want to leave it all on the court.

NIJEL PACK: Drake's a great team. Seeing their film, they make a lot of shots. We've got to definitely pressure them to make sure they don't get runs going. They have some guys on the team that play their roles really well. We know that the ball runs through Penn a lot.

We've got to make sure we stop the ball, play hard defense and block out the rebounds. Like anything else, if we do our jobs, do what we do well, I feel like we can be successful.

ISAIAH WONG: Like they said, Drake's a good team. They shoot the ball very well, and I feel like we have a great match-up with them. We know Norchad, he was injured in the Duke game, but we still got, like, Anthony, A.J. We still got bigs, and I feel like if they play good, we're going to be good.

Q. I know you guys have talked about staying focused one game at a time and all that kind of stuff. But you're an Indianapolis kid. When you see the game that could be next with the victory, how hard is it to try to not look that far ahead?

NIJEL PACK: Just staying focused on one game at a time for sure. We know how good of a team Drake is. We have to get above them first. The next game after that, they have to win as well. After watching both our games and we both win and that happens to be the case, it will be a fun little game to play. But we're just trying to focus on winning our first game.

Q. For any of you guys, Coach L always seems to have little life lessons or little surprises to motivate you guys into these big games. Has there been anything? What's been his message? Is there anything fun, different, unique that he brought out? Any song, dance, speech, anything like that?

JORDAN MILLER: Coach L, we were in the tournament last year, and he kind of reiterated the same thing this year, just to have fun. Even though there's a lot of pressure to win and advance, mainly just soak it in and have fun and enjoy the moment.

We have people that's never been to the tournament before, so you know it's new to them. But he also says the most fun is winning. So we're just looking, like I said, to just leave it all on the court. Enjoy these times. For me, it's my last go around. So I'm really just trying to soak it all in.

I love playing with these guys. And just have fun.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks again for being with us. We have Miami Head Coach Jim Larranaga.

Q. Welcome to Albany. Speaking on behalf of NBC 6 in South Florida, can you just give us an update on Norchad and what his impact either on or off the court for you guys will mean for the team?

JIM LARRANAGA: His impact is always huge. He's got the biggest personality you could ever imagine. His energy on and off the court, his relationship with his teammates and our community is sensational.

We'll find out in about a half hour whether or not he's going to be able to go because we're going to put him through a workout today and see how he does. If he's good, we're good. If he's not, we'll know it, and we'll make the adjustment.

Q. I wanted to get your thoughts on Nijel Pack and sort of what do you see as the biggest impact he's made for your team and the success you've had this year?

JIM LARRANAGA: I love Nijel. He's made such a tremendous transition from being a shooting guard at Kansas State to being a point guard at Miami. He's had the ball in his hands. He's quarterbacked our team. He's done a great job of getting everyone else involved while still scoring the ball on a very regular basis.

I think I saw this stat, he was actually our leading scorer in the month of February. To be able to do that and still get everybody else involved is terrific.

He's a catalyst on defense. He always guards the opposing team's point guard, and he's doing a terrific job at that end of the floor as well.

His teammates love him, and we are ultra-confident in his abilities.

Q. Talk about defending Tucker DeVries and what he brings to the table. Is there a player in the ACC you can compare him to?

JIM LARRANAGA: First of all, it's very hard to compare a player of his capability because he's so versatile. The closest one might be Hunter Tyson from Clemson, but Hunter Tyson is more of a specialist. The thing about DeVries is he can do everything. He can shoot the three, put the ball on the ground and drive it. He can post you up. He's an outstanding passer. He can use ball screens, but he can also be the ball screener.

So we don't find many guys like that in college basketball at all. The guy is an NBA talent, and we know he's going to be a hard cover for us.

Q. I just want to ask about your team's mentality. I saw the little video, "don't pick us", like a little bit of an underdog still. Why do you think it is that a team that reached the Elite Eight and won the regular season ACC title, why do you still -- why do you think that the team still feels a little bit -- I don't want to say slighted, but maybe underappreciated?

JIM LARRANAGA: I don't think the team feels that way. I think the media does. I think they're always voting us -- last year they voted us 12th in the ACC, this year 4th. Quite frankly, I don't think my coaching staff and players really care about that.

I think what we care about is playing great basketball, being the best that we can be each and every game. I think the guys feel very, very confident in their abilities. We've won the regular season. We've been ranked in the Top 25 or 20 almost all season long.

We believe in ourselves, and that video was, I think, really well done. That wasn't our players' idea. That was -- what do they call it? Players Tribune, that was their idea. The guys liked it, so we did it. It was pretty good, though, wasn't it?

Q. My followup is you have so much experience getting teams prepared for tournaments. How is this team's preparation different or similar to last year? Last year you guys came in and made kind of a surprise run to the Elite Eight. How have you approached entering this Albany tournament with this particular team?

JIM LARRANAGA: What I've shared with the players is, if there's 68 teams in the tournament, every one of them has earned their way in either by winning their conference tournament and is on a winning streak or has been invited as an at large team, and only 36 schools get to do that. So everybody in the tournament has a really good team.

So we don't talk about seeding. We don't care where we're seeded. We don't care where our opponent is seeded. What we care about is not who we play or where we play, but it's how we play. We need to play really well. We know that. We need to execute our game plan better than our opponent executes their game plan because everybody you face is very, very capable of beating you, and we feel very confident that no matter who we get matched up with, we feel very, very good about our chances as well.

Q. I know you're not playing against Coach Pitino, but he's here. Obviously there's a lot of speculation about his future. Just in terms of him as a trendsetter or cutting edge coach, started with a lot of three-pointers at Providence and match-up zone. Is there any specific examples where you've seen Rick really kind of ahead of the curve and other coaches followed suit or the game followed suit?

JIM LARRANAGA: In regard to Rick Pitino, I would start with his experience at the Five-Star Basketball Camp, where he developed his teaching skills. He had been a good player at UMass, but he became a much better teacher, coach, and he was innovative. So he had the full court press. And then maybe go back to a match-up zone. He experimented with different things.

First at Boston University and then in the NBA, then at Providence, then at Kentucky and Louisville. He's had a lot of opportunity to try different things because he's had so many teams with different personnel.

I think when you have that, now that he has that at Iona, he has all that experience to rely on. Okay, this is what works. This is what doesn't work. Wherever he coaches, he's a Hall of Famer and going to do a great job.

Q. (No microphone).

JIM LARRANAGA: Oh, I'm sure. I don't know his coaching tree completely, but he's had a lot of guys who have worked for him that have done very well.

Q. A follow on the Rick Pitino train a little bit. Earlier today, he said he wanted to coach for another decade. He's 70. Where do you stand on maybe how much longer you want to go when he's talking another decade and being around 80, and you guys are at least contemporaries in that department.

JIM LARRANAGA: I would say it this way. I'm going to coach as long as the University of Miami would like me to be their head coach. I have a contract now. I intend to meet my responsibilities and try to be the best leader and ambassador of the University of Miami, our basketball program, our athletic department, and the university as a whole.

Whether that's three, four years, ten years, I don't know. I'm older than Rick by a few years -- not that much, but a few. So I don't forecast or predict the future. I'm just enjoying my time right now. I live in the present.

Q. Jim, I'm just wondering, back on the age thing a little bit, does it mean more each time to make the tournament, to bring a team into the tournament, do you have a different appreciation and love for it because you've been doing it so long? And does each one mean more to you now than it did a long time ago?

JIM LARRANAGA: I think my appreciation really began as a mid-major coach, realizing how difficult it is to get to the NCAA Tournament. At Bowling Green, we couldn't do it. At George Mason, no one really gave us a chance. They told me you're never going to win the league. You're like the worst team. I was like that's not right.

But when we got there for the first time, we had to win the conference tournament. Then our goal was, hey, if we don't win the tournament, can we get an at large bid? And we were the first CAA team to do that in 2006, and that got us to the Final Four. Then we got back in 2008, 2011, and each time it just became more significant because of how difficult it really is for a mid-major team in a one-bid league to do that.

Then when we moved to Miami and you're facing the Blue Bloods, you've got Duke and Carolina and Syracuse and Louisville and Notre Dame, you're saying to yourself, shoot, this is even more difficult because you've got so many people in front of you and only so many teams can go.

So every time we've gotten there in 2013 and beyond has been very special. I know it's very special for each member of the team because they might only go through it one time. So you want to make that trip very memorable. Last year we were able to do it. A few years back we lost to Loyola from the Missouri Valley, by the way, and we made it very memorable for Sister Jean.

To this day, that drives me nuts because we got beat on a buzzer beater. So every year is special.

Q. You mentioned Loyola. I was going to ask you about that. Obviously a different team, a different MVC opponent, but do you take anything from that match-up into this one against Drake?

JIM LARRANAGA: Well, not just that match-up, but every time my teams have faced a Missouri Valley team -- we faced Wichita State back in 2006, not just once, but twice. We played them at Wichita State, then we played them in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.

We've played Creighton that same year, and they beat us by 22. So I remember that very, very clearly. And then we went to Creighton the next year, and they beat us by one. We have the utmost respect for the Missouri Valley Conference. It's a basketball league. They don't really devote energy to football. Most of them, I don't think, even have football.

But their basketball is vitally important to them. They draw great crowds. And Drake right now is really on a roll. Coach DeVries has done a great job. He's got five straight 20-win seasons. They've won 13 of their last 14 games. They've got guys who are like 25 years old. I mean, they're really, really good. We have the utmost respect for them and their league.