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

March 17, 2023

Randy Bennett

Mitchell Saxon

Alex Ducas

MVP Arena

St. Mary's Gaels

Media Conference

Saint Mary's - 63, VCU - 51

THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen of the media, we are joined by Saint Mary's College Coach Randy Bennett and two student-athletes, to my far left Mitchell Saxen and Alex Ducas.

Coach, if you could please open it up with some comments.

RANDY BENNETT: It's kind of just what I thought it would be. People ask me if our styles are that different, and I didn't think they were and I don't. They extend their man-to-man pressure more and press a little bit.

The heart of the deal is we both really take a lot of pride in our defense. I thought it would be a gritty, tough game to score, and it was for us. Didn't shoot it well first half.

Second half Saxen, Mitchell did a great job inside. This guy next to me, Alex, was good the whole way. That's kind of where we had the edge. I thought we'd beat them inside. Both teams have good guards.

It was a gritty game, and we just kind of outlasted them a little bit and got a little separation and were able to hang on.

Q. Coach, 3 for 17 night from beyond the arc, how do you get your guys to completely buy in defensively and disregard the offensive struggles and buy in defensively on the other side of the ball?

RANDY BENNETT: I think our senior leadership does that. They've gone through our program. They're freshman, they played in the tournament. Then sophomores, it was COVID year. Actually, we didn't get to play that first year, right? They had some adversity. That COVID year was a tough year. We didn't get to play a full schedule. Alex got hurt.

So our only chance in games that year was to really defend. That's when we started developing the gritty thing. Last year it started paying off. We got Alex back, and Logan became a player, all of them became a player, and we were good, and we made the tournament.

So they figured out, I think during the COVID year, how valuable it is to be really good defensively. So no matter what, the defense should travel with us, and it did tonight. I usually feel pretty confident that we'll do a good job on them defensively, and we did. That's what won us the game, and it starts with your seniors.

Q. Mitchell, you said that this match-up is a good one for you and maybe were you looking to do a little bit more offensively inside?

MITCHELL SAXEN: Yeah, the way they covered their pick-and-rolls a little bit was showing hard with their bigs. We knew, if I roll hard and made myself available, we could get good post position inside.

We hadn't been playing the best against that type of coverage. Gonzaga did it really well against us. So we knew coming in we had to be really assertive there and make a concerted effort to get it inside, which we did.

Q. When Baldwin went out for that six, seven minute stretch, it seemed like, for VCU, did you sense a change in them? That's when it seemed like you all maybe started to assert things a little bit more.

ALEX DUCAS: I didn't notice too much of a change. I think he's definitely an incredible player and helps his team in multiple ways. We knew other guys on the team would step up.

They're a gritty, tough team, and we knew they wouldn't back down. Yeah, we kind of took that, tried to make that an advantage for us and see if we could push the ball a bit more and use our guard play a bit more.

I think we went on a good run when he went out, unfortunately, but I didn't notice it too massively.

MITCHELL SAXEN: The whole second half, our message to each other was keep plugging, keep running our offense, and they're going to break. That might have been the tipping point that broke the dam, but I think it's a testament to our persistence and just trusting each other that we were able to just keep plugging until the water broke.

Q. Mitchell, you jumped on them early, scored a bunch of points within the first few minutes of the game. Was this a game where you sensed that you needed to do that to be able to end up winning it at the end?

MITCHELL SAXEN: Not necessarily going in, but we had to get on the O-boards early. We were struggling a little bit. We were all missing layups and shots we usually make.

So we just kind of had to keep with it and be aggressive in there and get the job done.

Q. Alex, has your role changed at all when Aidan goes out like that? He obviously had the foul trouble and spent most of the second half on the bench. Does your role at all change as far as regarding the offense?

ALEX DUCAS: Not necessarily in terms of running the offense, but I do try to be a bit more aggressive and try to provide a bit more scoring for the team in that sense.

We back Aidan all the way. I know sometimes he has tough nights. Yeah, I do try and take a little bit of a step forward and be more aggressive in certain parts of my game just to provide for that scoring that he kind of takes away when he goes out.

Q. Mitchell, everybody makes a big deal of the travel that you folks had to deal with and all of the teams, a very quick preparation. You're facing a team 74 points a game over the last 20 games, kept them to a season low. Just talk about the tremendous effort, especially with the challenge of the travel.

MITCHELL SAXEN: It's definitely a challenge, but we're not a group for excuses. Our senior leadership is really tight and together. We've been through some battles before. Coach talked about the COVID year, and then last year our whole motto was gritty, not pretty.

So we've been here. We've been in these tough situations, and we know how to keep our head above water and play our game.

Q. Obviously Saint Mary's has kind of struggled in the second round. Coach Bennett hasn't been to a Sweet 16 yet. What would it mean for you to be on the team that gets him to a Sweet 16?

ALEX DUCAS: Coach has been to a Sweet 16 before, and we plan on making another one.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you. Mitchell and Alex, best of luck.

Q. Coach, you guys were right on track with your rebounding percentage today grabbing around 56 percent of your total rebounds, which is what you guys normally do for the season. Do you think you can keep up that production against a potential bigger team like UConn?

RANDY BENNETT: That's a hard question to answer because knowing who they are. If they're not good on the boards, yes. If they're really good on the boards, then they're good at blocking out and going to the boards and probably have big bodies.

These guys, VCU, was like an even on the boards. So I thought that was going to be an advantage for us. It's a little hard on film. I haven't seen how big they are in person. I just thought that was going to be an advantage for us.

I think we're like Number 1 in the country on defensive rebounding percentage, which is crazy. We're pretty good there. So I think we're dialed in and we do our job, we'll fare well on rebounding. We usually fare well defensively.

Q. Randy, you had some foul trouble in your backcourt. Did that alter how you wanted to do things?

RANDY BENNETT: What do you mean?

Q. You had Aidan with four fouls and had to sit on the bench for a while. Then the other two guys.

RANDY BENNETT: Logan had fouls early?

Q. Yeah.

RANDY BENNETT: We definitely don't want foul trouble with Aidan. He's our second leading scorer. He got into foul trouble, and Augustas Marciulionis was playing really. We could have put him back in with 5 to go, but I felt we were playing well and Augustas had a lot of confidence and rolled with him. We would have put Aidan in had we needed him down the stretch.

He's got to get better. He's got to learn in these games you can't pick up fouls three and four. You've got to be careful with it.

That was his first NCAA Tournament game, and you can say what you want as a player, but in the NCAA Tournament, it's different. Everything's different. You're on the grand stage. Like I said before, this is the best sporting event in this country. So everybody's watching.

There's a little pressure there. I look forward to seeing him play Sunday. He's a good player. He got in foul trouble, and he didn't have a great game today, but he'll bounce back.

Q. When you guys start shooting as you did, the first six, seven minutes of the game, especially in the first half, especially from three, what goes through your head when it's 1 for 8, 1 for 12, I don't know, going down that road?

RANDY BENNETT: During the game right there in the present, I'm just evaluating whether it's a good three -- a good shot or a bad shot. I thought of our 11 threes in the first half, 9 of them were good shots.

I think Ducas and Aidan will usually hit a high percentage. Aidan didn't, and Ducas was the guy who hit the one. But I just think if we get those shots during the course of the game, the law of averages will work out as long as they're good shots.

We're a good shooting team. We're not a great shooting team. They were 3 for 5, I think, at halftime from three. We were 1 for 11. I thought that, if we keep playing well defensively and on the boards, I thought the numbers would work out, and they kind of did.

Q. Randy, how much does it speak to the number of weapons you have on this team when you were still able to win the game fairly comfortably despite having Aidan on the bench the majority of the second half?

RANDY BENNETT: I think all three of our guards are good, and I think our perimeter is good. So Augustas comes off, and he's going to be one of the guys next year, like one of our main guys. So he's a good player.

In these type of situations, where either Logan or Aidan can't play because of fouls or whatever. They're hurt or they're not playing as well as they normally do, he is -- it's a luxury to have him because not everybody has one like that.

So he saved us. He was really good. Yeah, I'm glad we have him. Our perimeter is usually pretty good as far as scoring and defensively. Most nights I feel like we're in a good place with our perimeter.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much and best of luck on Sunday.