NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL SEMIFINAL - GONZAGA VS UCLA

March 23, 2023

Mark Few

Julian Strawther

Malachi Smith

Drew Timme

T-Mobile Arena

Gonzaga Bulldogs

Sweet 16 Postgame Media Conference

Gonzaga - 79, UCLA - 76

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Gonzaga.

COACH FEW: Well, it was just an unbelievable basketball game. They had us on the ropes there at halftime. And maybe even coming out of halftime the first couple of possessions.

But challenged the guys at the half to get back to playing our way. And I thought we played much better defense in the second half. And cut down on our turnovers. That was what was really killing us in the first half.

But we knew UCLA has the heart of a champion, especially when they have Jaquez and Tyger out there. And we were fortunate enough to hold them off. And Jules hit a big shot, just like his good buddy Jalen a couple of years ago.

Q. Julian, hometown product, take me through your emotions hitting the huge shot and eventually the game-winner in your hometown.

JULIAN STRAWTHER: It's moments like that you can't make up. Those are literally the moments you dream of. To even make a shot like that in March Madness and just to be back home in Vegas is like the cherry on top.

But words can't describe how proud I am of just our team and our resilience. I mean nothing was going our way. We weren't playing our brand of basketball at all through that whole first half. We flipped that switch. And there's not a lot of teams in the country who could bond together and make a run like that.

Q. Drew, can you just describe what we all just witnessed?

DREW TIMME: (Laughs.) One shining moment. I think that's the best way to describe it. I mean, Julian, man, he just took on all of GU and just buttered that thing. I mean, I can't even describe what he did. It's crazy. It's just like that Jalen shot, man. But it's crazy. I can't even really describe it.

I'm not speechless too much and I'm pretty speechless after that. But I am the number one Julian Strawther fan forever now.

Q. Julian, was that the play called that Coach Few called for you to take a pull-up 3 like that? Take me through the play call and when you got the ball, what you did?

JULIAN STRAWTHER: The play was a little dribble hand-off action, see if we could get their defense on their heels a bit. And initially when Coach drew it, he kind of drew, just search it a little bit, maybe go downhill. And I kind of just asked him, like, can I shoot it? If no one steps up on me do you want me to shoot it. And he was like, absolutely. And then I shot it.

COACH FEW: A little stronger language than that. (Laughter).

JULIAN STRAWTHER: I'm just keeping it PG, man.

Q. Drew, you tied Brandon Clarke's school record tonight with 36 points in a tourney game. As a guy who has only lost 12 games in your college career, did you just put the team on your back, and did you just refuse to lose or something like that?

DREW TIMME: No, I mean, we just got hit in the mouth and we just had to battle and fight. And in the first half the ball just happened to be bouncing friendly to me. I felt I was hot. I just wanted to keep shooting.

And in the second half, Malachi really stepped up, Julian stepped up. 'Ton was playing huge defense. We just rallied.

I think that's the story of this year. The first 20, as much as we might not like it to be, is probably not our best 20. But somehow, some way we dig deep and we find a way to come together and rally and keep fighting. And I think that's the beauty of this team: We may be down but we're not out.

Q. Drew, you were all over the glass today, all over the board. Saturday you have a big matchup against another great rebounding team. Adama is huge. What are you looking forward to in that matchup?

DREW TIMME: It's going to be a battle. They have two great bigs looking at the matchup. They're both forces. They're both equally good. It's going to be a battle. We'll have to play hard and gritty and we're going to have to get dirty and nasty, do whatever it takes to win because they have a hell of a duo, big-man punch. It's going to be a war.

Q. Drew, you made the decision to come back and be a part of this team this season. To sit here in this moment, one step away from the Final Four, reflecting on the fact that you decided to come back, just what this run has been like for you personally?

DREW TIMME: To be honest, we're just playing. We're not worried about when my last game is or this or that. It doesn't matter. One game at a time. Final Four's a long 40 minutes away, long 40 minutes. You can't even think about that.

Just game by game, day-by-day. I don't like to get sentimental or think about feelings in that regard. But I wouldn't want to go to war with anyone else other than these guys.

Q. Julian, you're from Las Vegas. Just talk about the crowd tonight. Is it something you saw when you were playing high school ball? Were you pretty excited how the arena was?

JULIAN STRAWTHER: Every time we got a chance to come down here play Vegas, Vegas usually shows up and show out. And it's loud and electric. We had an opportunity to play UCLA last year in T-Mobile Arena. It was a similar atmosphere. It was crazy. It's a great venue and city. It's slowly becoming a basketball town. I'm just super how the crowd was, it was really loud in there.

DREW TIMME: Can we get some questions for Malachi? He had a hell of a game. We need to show him a little love.

Q. Malachi, it seemed like in the second half, Coach Few turned to you and Hunter quite a bit in the back court. First half they had a lot of iso buckets and you stood up defensively. Was that something you expected going in with big wing scorers or was that more of a surprise?

MALACHI SMITH: Coach tells us that, that we can come in off the bench and provide a spark on defense. And in the first half, Coach was saying that's not how we play. When I got out there I just wanted to have an impact and just help slow those guys down.

And it was a total team effort. But I just really take pride on the defensive end. And I was glad I was able to contribute.

Q. Drew, you said in the past you guys are better when the other teammates are hunting shots. Can you talk about how you got the other guys involved when you went on the run later in the second half?

DREW TIMME: It's how we play. We like all five guys to touch the ball every possession. We like to play with pace and churn the butter a little bit. That's an easy way for people to get involved.

And when you have guys hunting shots and being aggressive it just spaces the floor and makes it easier on each other. In order for us to be at our best offensively we all need to be aggressive.

Q. What was said at halftime? Seems like a tale of different halves, especially what you were able to do in the second half, you disturbed their offense. What was said at halftime?

MALACHI SMITH: That we have another 20. And we just had to realize that we weren't playing the way we know how to play. And as leaders we had to step up and just be the voice in the locker room and just say, like, you've got to forget that 20 and the next 20 has to be different.

And at the end of the day just go out there. If we're going to lose, go down swinging; don't go down not playing the way we know how to play. Whether it was a win or lost we played the second half the way that Gonzaga does.

Q. How important is it to have someone like Malachi to come in and gets a few assists, really emphasize on defense and not necessarily care about I'm going to get mine, but more being a team player?

JULIAN STRAWTHER: It's huge. Malachi touched on it his ability to be a spark. Someone had to get it going. Obviously Drew was playing really well but a lot of us were struggling. We couldn't get many stops.

And Malachi came in and he made huge plays defensively. And I think that really got him going on offense. He was able to get to his spots really easy, get to his pushout floater. He was just making plays and he was bringing energy. He was celebrating every play, offense, defense, turnover, basket. He was there. And it kind of inspired everybody.

DREW TIMME: For Malachi to be a player of the year in this conference and to come here and come off the bench, I just think it's a true testament to his character. I don't know how many people are just in general okay with accepting a lesser role because he's more capable than I think you guys see.

And he never complains. He comes in. He works hard. He does everything that's asked of him and more. And I think that's what's most admirable about him is that he could do that a lot, but he knows on this team it's not his role every night.

And I think he knows when to step up. He's great at feeling the game. And just his selflessness I think is something that's so huge for this team. And we wouldn't be here without him. And I don't think as a program we can just express our appreciation enough for what he does and what he's meant to this program.

Q. In early March you guys come to the Orleans Arena, pack the place with your fans, seems like every year. I was wondering what kind of crowd or showing are you expecting in a couple days?

MALACHI SMITH: Our fans turn out for us, but at the end of the day we've got to go roll the ball out and play. It's going to be going both ways but we've got to focus on the players in the locker room and just compete for another 40 so we can continue this journey.

Q. Julian touched on it and Drew touched on it, you have a good feel for the game. You hit big shots down the stretch. What allowed you to get in that rhythm?

MALACHI SMITH: I think one of the things when you're on the bench, you can see how the flow of the game was going. Drew was having it. They were keying on him a little more, so just being confident and being aggressive and knowing that, okay, come off ball screens and the scheme they're running, we knew those were the shots that going to be able to get.

And like Drew said, I put the work in and they've got all the faith in me. I'm going to have confidence shooting those shots. And they went in.

Q. Drew, of course already a Gonzaga legend but tonight I think you elevated to one of the best college basketball players of all time. What does that mean to you, being one of the best of all time?

DREW TIMME: That's super cool you would even say something like that. But to be honest, I'm just in the moment playing. That's not something that even like the scoring records like everyone asks me all the time. That stuff is cool but I'm not in a place where I'm going to appreciate that until I'm done.

I don't like to be sentimental I just like to put 100 percent forward not reflect to look back. But it's super cool you would say something like that. But it's something I can't appreciate until I step back and I'm removed a little bit.

Q. Malachi, just talk about when is the turning point for you guys during the season? When did you know you guys had a special ball club?

MALACHI SMITH: I think that LMU loss at home kind of opened our eyes and realized that if we don't play the way we're supposed to, that this season could not go the way we want it to. So I think from that game forward we kind of locked in on our defense more.

And I think we came together as a team more as well and just knew if we play the way we're supposed to play that we're capable of getting to this point. So I would say after the LMU loss at home, it kind of woke us up.

Q. How would you define the Gonzaga Bulldogs when you think about this team, this season, this run, how you define it?

JULIAN STRAWTHER: I would just say resilience. Just there's been a lot of games where we've been down at the half or down late, and there's just so much fight in this team. And we face so much adversity through the season. Early on, a lot of people were writing us off.

And like Malachi was saying, after that LMU loss, it was dark. We had a record home winning-streak going before that loss. And after that, it really woke us up.

Coach Few really got into us and he really got every piece of effort out of us. Like he really brought everything out. I'm just so proud of the guys for how we responded. It's easy to fall and fold when things aren't going right.

But every time we seem to just make a run or make a push or someone steps up. It's just huge. I mean, not too many teams can say they've been through adversity that we've been through this year and been able to be resilient.

MALACHI SMITH: I would say like chip on our shoulder. Going into every game feeling like we've got something to prove and just going out there with the mentality, we've got nothing to lose, go out swinging, and just have a chip on our shoulder and just play for each other. And that's what I would say.

DREW TIMME: I would say we're some tough SOBs. I mean, we've been down and people have loved just to kick on us and everyone just tried, Gonzaga stinks, this, that. But it can be a lot sometimes, especially when you're down and you lose and you know as a team you're not feeling as good.

And we just got back up and kept fighting. We picked ourselves up. No one gave us a hand out. We had to get up ourselves. And I think that's just a true testament of who we become. This is why you guys are seeing this growth from us. We got up by ourselves; no one picked us up. No one wanted us to get up, but we got up and I think we're just warriors. That's what coach has instilled in us from day one.

Q. To go back to the conversation you were having with Julian in the huddle about the final play, I was curious when he says, hey, can I shoot it, is that qualified it's got to be an open shot or it's got to be a certain distance? He was way back there when he let that thing go?

COACH FEW: I'm telling you, he's made that shot multiple times for us this year. You look back at the BYU game, he had a very deep 3, a dagger 3 like that in that game, very similar.

We practice that play. That's Jay Wright's play that he used in the Villanova-Carolina, the championship. That's what we call it. He makes it all the time.

When he asked me, it was stronger words than what he used. I just said, yeah, make it. Make it. But if he was closely guarded I wanted him going downhill to get to his floater which he's been great at all year.

Q. UCLA doubled in the second half on Drew just for a play and he kicked it out to Julian, hit a 3. How important is it for your team to stay ready on the perimeter even when Drew is having dominant games on the inside?

COACH FEW: That's a great call. He's been dealing with that all year. He's been dealing that his entire career. I mean, he's been so good.

So this group does a great job, especially Julian's shot ready. Malachi is shot ready. The TCU game, he threw out to Rasir Bolton at the start of the second half two times in a row. That really got us going. It's kind of who we are.

Q. Tough guarding those guys in the first half, especially those three. But how did you turn it around for nearly all the second?

COACH FEW: They're really, really good. They're not only really, really good, they're really, really tough. And I think we got knocked back much like we did in the TCU game, I think, this time it was just because of their will and toughness.

We were not guarding well. For whatever reason our ball screen coverage, defense slipped back to where it was in November. And it has not been like that the last six weeks, six or seven weeks. So I just challenged them on that and I said we've got 20 minutes. That's plenty of time.

There's no ten-point point play I'm going to draw up. Just possession by possession, we've got to play better defense. And we just had some really uncharacteristic bonehead moves in the first half. Air dribbles and I think we lost three bouncing it and traveling and doing all kinds of stuff.

So challenged them in that regard to start taking care of the ball.

And you've been with us all year, this is such a resilient crew. They just find a way to win. It's probably not as aesthetically pleasing as some of the other teams we've had up there but man is it effective.

Q. At a point when UCLA was looking good, the pace of play, was that something you felt like was in your favor, despite you guys not playing, you felt like eventually it would work in your favor?

COACH FEW: I loved the pace of play. I just did not like how we were taking care of the ball. We talked about it. The pace needed to be the same. We tried to press them a little bit in the second half to get some things going to see if that would pick them up.

But Tyger is really good at managing that. It's hard to speed him up. You have to be careful, especially with Singleton lurking out there on the perimeter.

So we just got back there. We changed a little bit, and not even change. We just reinforced what our ball screen coverage was supposed to be, and they did a much better job in the second half. Their numbers are 30 percent field goal, 27 from 3s, much, much better than it was in the first half.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the similarities to your last game as an assistant, in '99, West Regional. TCU had the tip-in in the end in the Sweet 16 and then you faced UConn in the Elite Eight. I know it was a lifetime ago, but I was curious your memories, any similarity to now in terms of getting a team ready after such an exciting Sweet 16 game or anything?

COACH FEW: No, I couldn't even tell you. That was like 77 dog years ago or something when you do this coaching stuff. Maybe 125 dog years or something.

I did tell the guys this, like, hey, we celebrated -- we didn't celebrate, but we were so excited after the Final Four win over UCLA. I think I just said we'll celebrate this in the locker room and we're on to UConn when we walk out of this locker room.

So they got the message. They're dialed in. UConn -- I think they're playing probably better than anybody in the tournament right now. I've got to see them several times. They've just done a fabulous job of roster building. The pieces they have fit really, really well. They've got multiple bigs. They've got big wings. They've got guards that can shoot 3s and run some good stuff. And that's going to be a heck of a challenge for us.

Q. So much of this tournament people talk about validation and winning games. When a game comes down to what it just came down to, where they hit a big-time shot, you answer, can you just describe that contrast and the wave that comes with it versus what people on the outside sometimes are saying about these games once they go final?

COACH FEW: I agree with a lot of the stuff you referenced in that, I said this before, I think it's the hardest thing to do in our profession is to win NCAA Tournament games. It's so hard to get to this tournament as we saw this year. We've got some legendary programs that didn't even make it this year when you look at Villanova. It's an unbelievable program. North Carolina if not the greatest program ever, close to it -- Duke or Kansas. And Michigan didn't make it.

So there's some great programs that did not make the tournament. And once you get into the tournament, I think everybody can see just how hard it is to win. It's hard to win a 3-14 game. It's hard to win a 1-16 game. We've been in multiple of those and there's a tremendous amount of pressure.

So you've just got to find a way to win and you've got to trust your guys. You've got to keep them confident. I got after them a little bit but I made sure, I said the only way we're going to do this is if we play with emotion and confidence and we get back, quit moping. Let's go, 20 minutes left.

Q. You just mentioned roster building with UConn. How important was it for you to have guys off the bench that can do different things? You've got bigger wings you leaned on a lot in the second half. Seems like a better matchup for them. How important is that?

COACH FEW: It's been great to have. But it's been a challenge for myself and our staff. And you just figure out which one of those guards is playing good. You know? And kind of juggling them around.

And I think we got it right today in the second half. I thought Hunter really, really stepped up and gave us great minutes and energized us, as well as you guys referenced Malachi. And he's done that numerous times for us.

But the TCU game, it was a Rasir Bolton story. And Nolan Hickman was tough minded, did a lot of great things in that game.

It's just finding that balance with those guys. In the end, though, the three of Anton, Drew and Julian are most likely always out there. And even though Jules wasn't having his best game, I have so much confidence in him being able to step up and make a shot like that.

Q. Coach, looking at the guys that were just sitting there next to you, Malachi has the big steal at the end to silence the game. Julian has the 3 to get the victory. Drew scores almost 40. You talk about this team being resilient. Where does this game stack up to other games where we've seen the resiliency of Gonzaga?

COACH FEW: I mean, they've kind of had several of these this year. We had several of them in our league. At the start I think we dug our way back and won. First two, we had on the road with San Francisco and Santa Clara was like that. We had to do the same thing with BYU on the road. They were all on the road. We stacked those where we were behind really wasn't looking good. This one's probably up there with them but surpasses them just because of the moment and what we were playing for and all that.

Q. Really big game tonight. What do you have to do tomorrow to keep the momentum going until Saturday because I know (indiscernible) don't want to have a letdown, but what do you have to do to keep everybody ready to go?

COACH FEW: I don't think that's going to be a problem. We're playing to go to the Final Four. So that's a dream of all the players, and certainly, as a coach, you want that for your players.

It's more about getting them rested. And obviously after a game like this, about all you can do is walk through some stuff and move them around a little bit tomorrow, go through -- UConn's a hard one-day prep, man. They run a lot of great stuff. They're not a simple team to guard. They have multiple players that can really hurt you.

So we'll be up all night tonight and burning it at both ends to get these guys ready. We'll have to play extremely good to be able to beat a team as good as UConn, the way they're playing.