NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - FDU VS FAU

March 19, 2023

Tobin Anderson

Grant Singleton

Demetre Roberts

Joe Munden Jr.

Nationwide Arena

FDU Knights

Media Conference

Florida Atlantic - 78, Fairleigh Dickinson - 70

COACH ANDERSON: Congrats to Florida Atlantic. I thought they played very well. They answered every time we made a run. Great second half, we got off to a great start.

I didn't think we played great the first half, didn't play FDU basketball. Then the second half we played really well. Had a couple of runs, got up by four a couple times, by three. And they answered.

Every time they hit a big 3 or made big shots. Davis hurt us, obviously. So congrats to them. Wish them the best going forward.

I couldn't be more proud of a basketball team and a bunch of guys right here. My guys here and in the locker room, what a historical run.

We always talk about 6-0 runs, we were one 6-0 run away from Sweet 16. We went toe to toe with a top-five team in the country, and this team is a Top 25 team in the country. We went toe to toe the last few days with two great teams and didn't back down, didn't go away.

We're not just happy to be here. So I couldn't be more proud of our team, our players, the team, the program, the administration, the people around me, the family. It stinks.

I told them in the locker room the hardest part is not being able to go to practice the next day. I love being around these guys. Now you don't see them as much, especially the guys who move on. But it was an incredible run. And we're proud of what we did.

Q. Now that this run is over, could you put into words what this last week has been like for you all, the magical run that you guys had?

DEMETRE ROBERTS: When we look back at things, we started July 5th, getting to know the new players, new culture, new coaches for the players that stayed from last year. There's learning each other.

Going forward, we were picked last in every poll. The practices, the hard practices, the 6:00 a.m. films, the 40s and 40s, 60 and 60s that we had to run, all the running we had to do, I couldn't be more proud of this team.

We overcame a lot of things. Everybody improved this year from me to everybody else. Joe Munden improved. Ansley Almonor improved. Sean Moore improved. Everybody, from one through 15 improved. And to get to this moment it's kind of hard. I'm very proud (indiscernible) on the outcome.

Q. Demetre and Grant, you knew this moment was going to come where you would play a last game together after all this time. Could you speak what your emotions are? Obviously it's quick after the game, but I don't know if you had a word in the locker room, anything like that, together?

DEMETRE ROBERTS: Me and Grant have been close for five years. So that bond is never going to change, win, lose or draw. We're still going to stay the same.

We play the game with class. We have respect. That's one thing I can say, personally. That's my brother. We bond well on and off the court. It makes everything special. I I'll love him forever.

GRANT SINGLETON: Just it's a bittersweet moment because you always want to suit up the next game next to your brother. It's always special playing next to him. We feed off each other well.

Like he said, that's been my brother for five years. We've been around Coach. It's a great relationship to have. But even off the court, everything's going to stay the same. Still going to be my roommate. Still going to be the guy I kick it with every day. It's special, but you always want to suit up that next game and play, but things happen.

Q. If I could ask you about these two guys next to you, what they've meant to you, just the run they had together and certainly this year?

JOE MUNDEN JR.: I think everything that these two guys have done together, including Coach Anderson, has been nothing short of remarkable. It's something that you really have to just sit back and appreciate because guards like this don't come around too often.

I really want to just take this time to just tell them how much I appreciate these two -- these three, actually, including Coach. These guys have came and changed this program in ways that I never could have imagined.

Last year we were sitting -- at this time I was sitting in my dorm room, I sitting in my dorm room. I didn't know when the next time I was going to play basketball was. And for these guys to come in and bring us here to this place where we're honestly not supposed to be, it's amazing.

I really appreciate these guys, and I wish them the best moving forward. These are my brothers for life.

Q. Was there any part -- when you guys come out, down 9-0, where maybe you were still gassed from the last couple days?

COACH ANDERSON: No, I thought we missed some easy shots early. I actually thought we played halfway decent to start the game. We missed a couple layups, a couple wide-open layups, and some funny things happened. You don't want to get down 9-0, was it 9-0? You don't want that to happen, but sometimes I've been ahead sometimes 9-0 and things go crazy too.

So I thought we actually were playing okay. We just missed some shots, a couple of layups at the rim. But you're always worried because it's been a crazy 48 hours for us. And you didn't want to -- hopefully we're not content or not -- I didn't think we were.

Then once that happened, we got through that. We went toe to toe the rest of the way. We end up losing by eight. The whole rest of the way -- it was a heck of a college basketball game.

Q. Regarding Grant and Demetre, I know you've spoken a lot about those two guys, but can you put into words now that it is final, they played their last game. What your emotion is?

COACH ANDERSON: They're like sons to me. Probably 150 games down, how many practices, how many times at my house, my daughter's out there. We get beat; it's not about the loss. It's about those guys moving on.

They're like sons. You couldn't ask for two better people. They're playing Division II basketball for four years. You watched these last two games, if you just put a neutral person out there and watched these two guys play, those are really good guards, very good guards.

But they're even better people. They're better competitors. There's never been a time I've had to tell them to not act classy or not do the right thing. They're just wonderful. And it's hard to get guys like that.

So I'm sad because I don't get a chance to coach those two anymore. But they'll be like -- they're like sons. They'll move on. I'm so proud of those two.

What a great thing for them to come here and be able to experience this and be in this environment, for people to see how good they really are. So I'm happy for them. There's nothing to be sad about. I'm sad that it's over. I'm sad we can't practice anymore.

But that's -- what we did was incredibly special. And that will be something for the rest of their lives. And they'll have great careers and have great lives and great families and they'll come back.

And I don't how many of my ex-players came in tonight, guys flying in from all over the place, guys I hadn't seen in 15-20 years. As a coach, that's a wonderful thing.

There's no doubt these two guys, hopefully I can coach -- they're going to go play overseas. Hopefully they'll bring their families back to see us play in 15, 20 years.

I hope I'm still coaching in 15, 20 years. We'll see how that goes. But they're just two wonderful, wonderful people.

Q. You used the word "special," used that Saturday as well. Now that it's over, how special has this run been for you guys? And what are you going to remember about this going forward? And what do you think your players will remember?

COACH ANDERSON: Everything. Everything. Just being here and being in this environment, seeing the crowd. Tonight was the same way, everybody chanting "FDU." And the TV audience, we were going head to head, the place is going crazy. The police escorts, everything.

This is a great tournament. It's a great -- it makes you want to get back here as much as you can. Once you get to this on Division II, Division III, you're in the Division I tournament, I want to get back here.

If I feel that way, I know the players too there will be a little more fire for us going forward.

They'll remember the whole -- everything. They'll remember each other, the crowds. We left the hotel today, the band's playing, we're high-fiving. The president is there, he's been an unbelievable supporter, friends and family are there.

We won -- we -- the team last year (indiscernible) won four games. The story is four games to where we're at. We were a 6-0 run away from the Sweet 16. They won four games last year. To have those kind of people around you, the kind of character we had to fight through that, be resilient.

I don't know about sports stories, that's going to be the most amazing because, like, they were saying, who was it we were watching, K-State. Jerome Tang, a really good friend from five years ago, has done a great job. He's done an unbelievable job.

They were 15-17 last year. We were 4-22 -- 4-22 to one -- we're right there to go to the Sweet 16. If that's not one of the most amazing things I've seen in my life or anybody else has seen -- that's crazy.

So every part of this I'll remember forever and they will too. We can go on as long as we want to. I don't care. We've got a charter in the middle of the night or something. I'm on the "Today Show" tomorrow morning, so I'm not going to sleep anyway.

Q. You mentioned just the chaos and everything the last 48 hours. A team in your situation could have come out, been flat, and just had never been in the game. What was the hardest part in the last 48 hours of trying to handle everything and make sure you guys handled it in the right way?

COACH ANDERSON: I've been coaching for 21 years. I'm 51 years old. I walk out there to peek at the Michigan State game, and there's people wanting to get a picture with me. Who wants to get a picture with me 48 hours ago? My wife might get a picture of me, my kids might want a picture of me. There's people lined up to get a picture of me. And I'm old.

Imagine being 19, 20 years old, all of a sudden you've got cameras around, we've got people around, they're on ESPN. It's a lot. Right? And it's all awesome. It's all awesome. That's a lot to put on people.

So I was proud of the fact that we didn't let that bother us too much. We got off to a little slow start, but we were not content, complacent, the whole thing. So going through all this stuff, I mean, what an incredible thing. But, man, it's been a lot. It's been a -- but wonderful. It's all wonderful. It's all great and incredible.

Q. You talked about, just a few questions ago, you want to make sure that you get back here, how you love the environment. What do you have to do to ensure that this team doesn't become complacent and can get back to this Big Dance that everybody dreams of getting to?

COACH ANDERSON: So my background -- this is my eighth -- I'm not trying to be arrogant or cocky -- but this is my eighth division NCAA Tournament in a row. It's exactly the same thing. Once you get here, it's a huge advantage. Because now the guys see all the stuff, all the bells and whistles, but the environment, the teams. So I think it will help motivate our guys, motivate our program. Help in recruiting.

There's a lot of facets it will help with. So I think that's just a big advantage to be in here for all of us going forward. We will not be complacent. There's no way. I'm not a complacent person. I have an unbelievable coaching staff.

Let's be honest, we were a very good basketball team. The last two weeks, we were a very good basketball team. I wouldn't mind -- there's a lot of teams I wouldn't mind playing right now. I wouldn't have said that a month ago. I think we're just going to get better and better, the program's going to get better, and there's going to be a lot of success.

Q. You talked about wanting your entire team to enjoy every single aspect of this. But knowing that you had a job to do, was there at any point that you had to wrangle them in and focus them, or were they there?

COACH ANDERSON: We talked the other day about the philosophy of 22-2. Break the day down into 24 hours. 22 hours in the day is -- basketball is not the most important thing. Basketball takes a back seat to school, to family, to friends, to social time. But for two hours a day, basketball becomes the most important thing. So that was our culture. Demetre talked about culture. Culture is hard.

We had to come into the program, culture is being on time, culture is doing the right thing. Culture is treating people the right way, saying please and thank you. Culture is all the little things, right?

We talk about 22-2. The first day I got the job, I hand it to them. This is how we're going to live, we'll live by 22-2. We didn't change just because we won. So we said, hey, these two hours, when it's just basketball, let's concentrate on Florida Atlantic. Let's concentrate on the preparation. But when you go away, when we're not meeting for film or not practicing, go do what you do, which I guess it's make TikTok because there's a lot of TikToks out there. I guess that's what they do.

If that's your culture, if you lean back on your culture on the good and bad days, things end up being pretty good. You lose a game, it's still your culture. You win a game, it's still your culture. We didn't change from our culture at all. And that's credit to those guys.

Q. How quickly does the pivot come for you now in terms of recruiting, whether it's your own guys, the portal, everything, just building off the success and just getting into big picture of the program?

COACH ANDERSON: Oh, God. If I had 1100 unreturned texts before the game, I'm sure I've got more now. I've got to do all that kind of stuff and do that. But we're going to enjoy this for a little bit, obviously. Going to take a couple of weeks off, get back to school, get their grades and stuff taken care of. It doesn't stop. It's part of coaching college. I like to fish. I love to fish. I'm a good fisherman.

My brother Tucker is back here, and my sister Sarah, my two siblings I love dearly are here. My parents are not. My dad, my mom passed away. But I love my two siblings. So I like to fish. So I can't wait to go fishing. I'm hoping when this is all done. But we're going to work and get better and use this and use the momentum we created to make the program better and at some point I'm going fishing.