NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - VERMONT VS MARQUETTE

March 18, 2023

Shaka Smart

Oso Ighodaro

David Joplin

Sean Jones

Nationwide Arena

Marquette Golden Eagles

Media Conference

SEAN JONES: (No audio) ball screens, try to pick on the man that you have in the orange -- we used to call it orange, the man under the basket. Try to have to make him make a read.

Their guards are explosive, get downhill -- Tyson, shooter. A.J. seems like the head of a snake, orchestrates the offense pretty well. If we're able to make them uncomfortable not let them get easy buckets that would be great for us.

Q. The matchup between Hoggard and Tyler what have you been able to pick up on A.J. within the last couple of hours or so as you prepare your scout, and I know you have practice too to prepare for him?

OSO IGHODARO: (No audio).

Q. Oso, Michigan State has a lot of big guys in the paint. What's your role you see yourself in in controlling the paint as you always do?

OSO IGHODARO: I don't think my role changes at all (no audio).

Q. Seeing what's happened with some of the higher seeds, with FDU and Princeton in the last two days, what's the mindset for you guys being a favorite? And does watching those other teams go down make it any more difficult? What wrinkle does that add to this whole process for you guys?

DAVID JOPLIN: (No audio) gotta get ready to go at 'em.

Q. In that second half yesterday seemed like defensively you guys were able to pick it up a little bit with that intensity. Coach was talking maybe that first half was the first-game jitters in the NCAA Tournament. Is that what it seemed like for you guys? And what were you able to exploit in the second half after halftime?

SEAN JONES: I feel like in the first half, you know, like you said, a little bit of first-game jitters, I would say we had those a little bit. We weren't communicating at our highest level or at our standard that we preach every day.

I feel like the second half, at halftime we were able to come together, talk about what we wanted to do better on the defensive end. We got out there like we've talked about using our ball pressure, we picked that up. We were talking and communicating at high levels. And we were able to make them crack eventually.

Q. Sean, when you really get the defensive pressure cranked up, what does that do for you? And can you see it in your opponents' eyes, uh-ho, here it comes?

SEAN JONES: That's funny. I don't really look towards the opponents eyes like that to see how our pressure is affecting them, but I do see it affect our energy as a team. So when anybody like me or Stevie or anybody, Chase, David, Oso, anybody decides to pick up the ball pressure, it gives us energy to all feed off of.

And we like to feed off of each other's energy. That's something we preach and it helps our connectivity. So it helps us a lot. Yeah.

COACH SMART: First of all, big congrats to Coach Stimmel and the team, big win today, lacrosse.

We're excited to be here, heading into the game against Michigan State tomorrow. Heck of a program. I remember my first year in coaching as a 22-year-old kid, watching Coach Izzo's Mateen Cleaves-led team squad win the National Championship. And that for me was a moment that cemented in my mind college basketball was where I wanted to be.

So I've always been a fan of Coach Izzo and his program and the way they play and the way they conduct themselves. And for us it's a heck of an opportunity to compete against them tomorrow night.

Q. Coach Izzo's teams are going to be tough. They're going to be good at rebounding. So in a short turnaround, short prep, how have you prepared your team to what you're going to see tomorrow?

COACH SMART: I think the preparation isn't so much in the short turnaround, it's what you've done all year and who you've competed against all year and the way that you prepared as a group all year.

There's nothing new that we can or will do in between yesterday's games and tomorrow night's game. It's about us being the best version of us. Certainly there will be some points of emphasis relative to Michigan State but our focus is on being the best version of Marquette on the offensive end, defensive end and most importantly, culturally -- how we act, interact and respond for 40 minutes.

Q. What was it about the 2000 team that cemented that in your mind? And Tom was in here talking about how 10 years ago you were calling him for a scouting report on Michigan when you guys played them in the Palace. What do you remember about that conversation?

COACH SMART: The biggest thing I remember about that, first of all, Michigan was loaded. They gave us a rough go at the Palace that day. But before the game I always use these different things in pregames and different props to the team. So I use this audio recording of Mateen. He had called me and left me a voice mail.

And I just asked him to kind of give the guys some words of wisdom because he actually had come and spent a couple of days at VCU earlier that season.

And I can't say up here publicly what he said because it's not appropriate. But what he said will forever ring in my mind. But it also falls under the category of sometimes what we do as coaches is more meaningful to us than it is to the players.

And so we didn't fare very well that day. But Mitch McGary and Tim Hardaway Jr. and Trey Burke, and Stauskas had a lot to do with that.

But Coach Izzo has always been -- I think he along with George Raveling is America's coaches mentor. I think if you polled the coaches across the country, Coach Iz would be at or near the top in terms of coaches that we look up to, that we call every once in a while for advice, that we watch press conferences and keep a close eye on just what he's doing because he's had such a high standard of excellence for so long.

Q. All season you've emphasized the importance of defense. How important is that defense going to be tomorrow against Michigan State who finds so much success beyond the arc?

COACH SMART: We have to make sure we have a high hand contest. They're shooting the ball at a high rate. I think fourth in the country right now from 3. They have a lot of different guys making shots. But Hauser, particularly, is shooting the cover off the ball.

So when guys are shooting that well, you can't depend on them to miss. You have to make them miss. And that's easier said than done against Michigan State because their offense is fast paced. They run a lot of actions. They're very good at screening. And they pass the ball well. That's a great combination.

But for us, we've got to make sure we're aggressive. I thought when we had good defensive possessions yesterday, there was an aggressiveness about us. And we have to ramp that up even to another level.

Q. Andy Katz just came out with his power rankings for the last 32 teams. Has Marquette at 14. The disrespect has been there all season. You've been underdog. But continuing into tomorrow, what's that mentality like when people like the experts still keep getting you guys down low, still disrespecting you all?

COACH SMART: I love Andy Katz, and I appreciate everyone that covers our game. But I actually put more stock into how our players feel. And it's always interesting to me how these rankings and these ratings change. It's like the game's over. Now it changes.

Andy Katz picked UConn to win the Big East Tournament. Does that impact us? No, we went and won the Big East Tournament.

I learned in 2011, that was my first time coaching in the NCAA Tournament, that what people say about you, what they say you're going to do, where they put you in power rankings, really has nothing to do with the outcome of the game.

It's more about how your players feel and what they're able to do in terms of carrying over that feeling on the court.

Q. How do you feel about, are there any concerns with Tyler's thumb? Sounds like he's for sure playing. What kind of boost is it to have him coming out and the team knowing he's coming out at 100 percent?

COACH SMART: Tyler's played all year. It's never really been a thought that he was not going to play. He went out of the game early yesterday and guys kept playing. But then he came right back in. So the plan is for him to play and we're excited about having him out there.

Q. Shaka, I know you mentioned that you guys have to play Marquette basketball, but there are some points of emphasis for Michigan State. You already touched on Hauser and the way they pass the ball. But I'm wondering if you've seen anything in the scouting in the few hours that it's been that you think you guys can exploit well, and what other points of emphasis you have for tomorrow?

COACH SMART: I have to pull a Nick Saban on you with that one. I'm not going to tell you what we're going to exploit. They've got an older team. They've got a good toughness about them.

I think Walker and Hoggard really set a tone for them, the way they push the ball. They seem to be playing really, really well together. Defensively and on the glass, their bigs really play their role and they play with great aggressiveness. And, like I said, they're shooting the ball really well. So we have to get a high hand on them. We've got to be disruptive.

On our offensive end we've seen everything under the sun in terms of the way teams can guard. So it's not even so much about scheming, it's more about us moving the ball. It's amazing. We talk about EGBs in our program, energy generating behaviors. The number one EGB in all of basketball is passing -- move the ball.

If our guys have a willingness to do that over the course of 40 minutes, we will handle whatever type of defense that we see and we'll make adjustments.

We've got really smart -- we have smarter players than we have smart coaches. So that's a good thing to have so that those guys can go out there and make the right read based on what the defense does.

Q. You built your reputation as a coach as a defensive guy. By the metrics this is the best offensive team you've had in your career. What have you done different in the season that's allowed you to have so much success on that end?

COACH SMART: Recruit. I mean, the number one thing that goes into your offense is the guys that you have on your team. And not just their physical skills, but their willingness to make guys around them better.

We have in Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro two of the best passers in college basketball at their respective positions. So that's a great start. And then we have guys with different skill sets that work really well together.

I think one of the advantages that we have had all season long, hopefully we can continue to press, is that our whole offensively and when we've been at our best defensively has been bigger than the sum of our parts. And that's because of our guys' willingness to share and work together.

Q. Want to talk about Michigan State's guards. You mentioned a little bit of Hoggard earlier but what challenges do they pose to you as you've been able to go through the scouting and film over the past couple of days. I know you watched them also before your game.

COACH SMART: Yeah, I've been watching those guys a long time. We tried to recruit Walker when he went into the transfer portal. That's when I was still at Texas, near the very end, right before I came to Marquette.

Older, tough, they do a really good job of attacking and getting in the paint. And they seem like they're passing the ball really well. Michigan State has a very good blend in their offense of on-ball and off-ball screening. Those guys, they do a nice job using pick and rolls.

And then Walker and Hauser and some of the other guys do a nice job using screens off the ball as well.

And Michigan State has always, going back to Mo Pete, done a great job with cutting and moving off the ball. That's going to be a real challenge for us. We'll have to do a good job defeating screens.

In some ways, similar to UConn, who we played three times this year, with that level of physicality and precision, the way that they cut and move and that type of aggressiveness.

Q. As someone who has a place in the lore of this event, did you have to spend your Friday night studying dreadfully boring game film, or were you able to watch the two games that went on in this building?

COACH SMART: I did both. You know, in 2023, that's like that's what all of us do is multitask. I was literally -- we had our dinner meal was at 9:00 p.m. And so before that I was in my room watching tape on Michigan State and reviewing some stuff. I like to watch our game, our last game, multiple times. So I was watching those.

And FDU was playing Purdue. And so I had that game on, and just in the background. But you could feel the energy through the TV without even really all the way watching it that FDU, as our guys would say, they were on one. They were rolling.

And they just looked like they were at the park playing. Like, it was, okay, it's our group against those guys over there. We don't really care what it says on their jersey, we're picking up teams and we're going at them.

And it's what March Madness is all about. You feel bad for the higher-seeded team when they go through that because you know that they're a terrific team that happens to not be playing terrific on that night. And that's kind of the agony of defeat of the NCAA Tournament, and I've been there, is that you only get one crack at each round. And it's win or go home.

I did feel like watching those games, really multiple games the last couple of days, I really respect and appreciate our players for being able to win three emotional games in New York City in the Big East Tournament, the last two against very highly regarded teams, and then come here and playing a team from a smaller league with a less recognizable name and having the appropriate level of respect and even fear for losing that it was required to win that game.

And, again, I've been on the other side of that when you win a conference tournament and you're riding high, feeling good about yourself, and you feel like, oh, we're going to be good against these guys. That's just not how this tournament works.

But congratulations to FDU and to all the teams that were able to pull off big upsets. That's what makes March Madness so much fun.

Q. Knowing Tom the way you do, what specifically has allowed him to get to 25 straight NCAA Tournaments, eight Final Fours, won 55 games here? What is it?

COACH SMART: A friend of mine said this, he was describing another coach -- and I think it is equally applicable to Coach Izzo -- and he said there's a few different ways to go about coaching. But what coach so and so does -- describing another coach, applicable to Coach Izzo -- is he lights himself on fire, and he makes sure that fire is so strong and so bright and so hot that it affects everyone around him. That's Coach Izzo. And he's done that for a long, long time.

So if you're in that program, you don't have a choice. It's not an option. You have to have a level of intensity. You have to have a level of passion otherwise you don't function. You don't make it. And that's why they've been to 25 straight tournaments and that's why he's had all the success he's had.

Q. A lot of mid-majors, a lot of upsets as you said, FDU over Purdue. What's it like how March Madness how the tournament is changing? And do more mid-majors deserve to be in this tournament and be able to make those magical Cinderella runs?

COACH SMART: Well, I think the biggest thing that it's saying is there's a lot less fear than there used to be. You've got two No. 16 seeds that have won in the last five years, multiple 15 seeds. You saw what Saint Peter's did last year. A lot of lower seeds winning.

They're just not afraid. They don't care. They don't overly respect anyone. They're coming at your neck. And they're able to use the slight of being the underdogs in their favor. And so I think you're going to continue to see those upsets.

Plus I think with increased media attention, social media, there's even more pressure on the favorites. And so I think that will continue.

In terms of more mid-majors in the tournament, they don't put coaches on the committee. I think it's backwards. I think the people that know basketball best are players, number one, and coaches number two. You've got none of those on the selection committee.

And that's because administrators love to be in charge and they love to make the rules and they love to act like they know the game to the level that players and coaches do.

It's not my decision. I think it's hard because the power conferences have such incredible influence over big decisions like this. But are there more deserving mid-majors? Absolutely. Would there be more upsets if there was more majors? Absolutely.

Q. One of the areas where Tom has been a little critical of his own team this year is the fluctuating defensive effort he's noticed throughout the season. No team is perfect and every team is different, but what are some of the things you try to do to generate consistent defensive effort on a nightly basis?

COACH SMART: I feel the same way as him. We've had games where for one-half we've been just terrific on the defensive end. And the second half, the other half not being nearly as good.

I think that talented players -- let's be honest, the majority of these guys largely get recruited because of offense. That's normally what gets you recruited at a high level. There's obviously exceptions to that.

And so that's where they come into college hanging their hat is the ability to score or create scoring for their team.

And it's an evolution that guys need to go through to take on what we would call a defensive identity. And all the winning guys, you talk about some of the guys that have played at Michigan State over the years -- Mateen Cleaves, Draymond Green -- all the guys that have won big, they've eventually taken on that defensive identity.

The same thing is the case for any program that's got a high, high standard. But it's challenging as a coach to instill that.

I think the only way to create that is to convince your players that it's the only way. And as we say you've got to have a gift of desperation.

But these guys are human beings. Remember, we're asking them -- we, the big "we" -- to do more and more and more each year. And pretty soon it's going to be play these games in August so we can make money on TV and all that.

Like the more we ask them to do, the harder it is to get them to be consistent. The longer we make this season, the more we try to jam into their schedules, the harder it is.

And there's teams around the country who weren't as good at defense or whatever you want to fill in the blank with because those players' minds were on other things that they were doing. And they're human beings. And I don't blame them. So it's a fight.

Q. You just mentioned the Big East Tournament, and a little before that you talked about what you've done during the season to prepare you for now. I just wanted to ask you, in year two, can you just talk about the Big East Conference, just the teams, schedule, everything you've had to go through to get you to this point right now?

COACH SMART: Absolutely. I love the Big East Conference. It's my favorite conference that I've gotten a chance to coach in as an assistant or a head coach for one simple reason. It's the ultimate basketball conference.

It's a bunch of schools that, you want to talk about gift of desperation, these schools in our league have an incredible desperation to have success in basketball by any means necessary. And you can feel that when you go on the road to Providence, when you go on the road to Villanova, when you go on the road to Seton Hall.

And as an opposing team, it is imposing but it's also a ton of fun. And as a guy that played Division III basketball, it's just a privilege and a gift to be part of that.

So I love the Big East. And I'm grateful that our guys put us in position to win the Big East this year.