NATIONAL INVITATION TOURNAMENT: UTAH VALLEY VS UAB

March 27, 2023

Trey Woodbury

Todd Phillips

Justin Harmon

Orleans Arena

Utah Valley Wolverines

Semi Finals Pregame Press Conference

TODD PHILLIPS: We are just super excited to be here, one of eight teams remaining playing, so you know, it's been a journey of a year for our team and just so proud of what they have done and their accomplishments.

Q. Just for Trey to start, your career coming full circle being back here in Vegas what does this experience mean to you and how has this kind of gone for you?

TREY WOODBURY: It's been cool. I mean, it's been full circle now. It's been a little bit crazy since we were just here a couple weeks ago. But I'm excited that I get to go out with a bang in Vegas and just always excited to be home.

Q. Seems like Trey, especially -- everybody is playing on a different level right now but he doesn't seem to want to end his career right now. What has this run been for him? What have you seen out many him?

TODD PHILLIPS: You know what it's been super fun to watch, night-in, night-out he's doing something different. I think that's what's a tribute to Trey is when he we got him, he's like, hey, I'm just not a three-point shooter. He's like, I can handle the ball, I can move it.

So for his senior year we said let's make you the point guard and go out and do a lot of things. You see that he's on triple-double watch almost every night now. I think the last, what, five games it's been seven assists and seven rebounds and 14 points and just playing at a high, high level.

For a staff, to see all the hard work that he's put in, it's just been real fun to watch. Sometimes we have to sit back and watch. We are calling stuff and doing things, and it's like, just let Trey do his thing, and he makes our team a lot better.

Q. You seem to be playing at a different level right now. What's sparked you guys and how important has this tournament been for you?

JUSTIN HARMON: We just want to win. This whole season, we just been winning and we not really familiar with losing. When we win -- we just love playing with each other. That's what really helped us together after the tough loss that we had here a few weeks ago, so yeah.

Q. Utah Valley is not a school that a lot of people nationally are familiar with. I know that we saw a lot of folks becoming familiar with you all last week in the game against Cincinnati. How would you describe Utah Valley and what do you want people to know about Utah Valley that haven't heard of you before?

TODD PHILLIPS: Yeah, we don't even have a number by our name in the tournament here, so we're excited about that. Kind of, you know, playing the underdog role which is fantastic for our guys.

I think the thing that we would like you to know is it's a great university, right. There's over 40,000 students there. It's the biggest one in the State of Utah.

Obviously we are young to Division I. So we are just an up-and-coming program. And that's what's been so exciting for me as an assistant coach to be part of it and be part of these guys' lives is it's continued to grow. We have great facility, great support, and our administration is top-notch to helping us to get to where we need to get.

I think you'll see Utah Valley in the future as we continue to grow and better, that you'll see our name popping up there more and more.

Q. There's been a lot of talk about Conference USA with two teams in this Final Four, two teams in the other Final Four and Charlotte doing well in the CBI. How is the WAC, though? Anything you'd like to say on behalf of the WAC?

TODD PHILLIPS: The WAC is a monster. It's a monster. You know, obviously Conference USA has been unbelievable. We talk to our guys all the time, hey, there's eight teams left and three of them are from Conference USA.

But the WAC has been tremendous this year in terms of what they have done, Sam Houston, obviously, Grand Canyon, SUU, Southern Utah has been really good.

And just the growth of the league. We added Texas schools who play a different way than, maybe, say, us at Utah Valley and Grand Canyon play, and then you have Seattle who shoots a million threes. It's a really fun league to be part of. Every night you're playing against a different type of style of basketball.

I think it gets you ready for this time of year. We played Cincinnati, we played Colorado, completely different styles of play, and our guys have adapted and played that way. That's what's been fun for me. It's like, oh, I got these guys, they press you; get our press breaker in. Oh, these guys are shooting the threes; we've got to guard the three.

Probably ask these guys what they thought about playing in the WAC.

TREY WOODBURY: Same thing. You never know. Just so many different type of things. You have guys that just played their tail off every night. Not the most talented league, but I can guarantee you every team is going to come at you hard. The WAC has been tough, but it's been super fun to compete and be a part of every year.

Q. Do you expect to get a good turnout from the Green fans this week?

TODD PHILLIPS: 100 percent. The Woodbury family will be here in force. What we got, a couple hundred coming, from the Woodbury? No, we'll have a good turnout. We had a great turnout for the WAC tournament.

So obviously getting those people to come back down and as you guys have seen on ESPN and everything else like that, our president is such a supporter of our program. She's our biggest fan, and so she's always rounding up people and getting people here, so we and he can to have a good crowd for us.

Q. The NIT Championship has been synonymous with the Garden and New York. What was your reactions what you realized that you would be coming to Las Vegas for the semis and possibly the final?

JUSTIN HARMON: I personally, it was one of my dreams to play in the Garden. But it's cool wherever we play at. We looking to win. But it's a real downer that we're not playing at the Garden.

TREY WOODBURY: Yeah, I'd agree, kinda sucks. But we're excited to be here and Orleans is also a great venue, and I'm excited to be home.

TODD PHILLIPS: I'd echo that with Trey. Obviously the opportunity to play, but for this team and the run we've had this year in the NIT, that's been in itself such an experience for our guys. We try to preach to them, it's something they will always remember, right. Always remember this experience. And so it's been a great ride and a lot of fun and we hope to continue it.

Q. Have you started to think about like reflecting on your career and kind of the legacy you've left and that kind of thing at this point?

TREY WOODBURY: I'm trying not to think about it too much. I'm just trying to play.

But you know, it's starting to hit me just how much fun and how much these coaches have believed in me being here. I'm just extremely grateful for the opportunity that they gave me, bringing me to UVU and believing in me. They have put me in a position to be really successful, and just have trusted me over the years.

So looking back, I'm just grateful to my teammates and coaches and the university.

Q. For you, you made that decision and you left your hometown after a season and you ended up at UVU. Thinking back, how tough was that decision of where to go and how happy are you with how it all turned out?

TREY WOODBURY: For me it was tough. I didn't want to leave UNLV necessarily. That was my hometown school. But when I met these guys and I met the people at UVU and got a chance to visit UVU, I realized this is going to be a great place for me. So I kind of never looked back and embraced it, and they embraced me can it worked out for the best.

Q. Coach said hundreds; how many people do you think will be here from the Woodbury extended family?

TREY WOODBURY: Not that much. Maybe like 20 people. Maybe my dad might sound like a hundred himself, yeah.

Q. What kind of a teammate has Trey been?

JUSTIN HARMON: Yeah, this my brother. This my dog. All of the above. Trey, he a special person, leader, point guard, best friend, brother.

But Trey, he really -- Trey don't really look to score. Trey is always looking to make the next person better. That's what I love about him.

But Trey is everything you could think of: Funny, goofy, great teammate for sure.

TREY WOODBURY: Thanks.

Q. You talked about being back in this building, and you've been here quite a bit, played here several times. What has this building meant through your college year, the last year coming back and playing a couple games and you've had conference tournaments here? What has this building meant in your career?

TREY WOODBURY: It's special for me just because I have ton of memories going all the way back to high school here. It's just every time I get a chance to play here and step on the court, it's like a lot of just good memories and emotions flowing. I feel like that builds me up and prepares me for the next game, and makes me want to play even better than I have before and make new memories. Every time I step in here, it's always, you know, special.

Q. A couple of weeks ago in this same room we talked about Aziz, and I think it was you, Trey, but might have been Jay harms who called him a freak or an alien. What is it about Aziz that's been so fun to play with? And the way that he's broken out with you guys has been really impressive. I want to ask Coach about Aziz, but maybe I'll let you guys go first.

JUSTIN HARMON: Aziz is a special person. It's like you kind of get both ends of the stick. He played defense and he a lob threat. When he's just driving to the basket, it's easy to make a decision. Either you throw it up or just go dunk it.

But Aziz is special. He is a special person, yeah. That was me that said that he was an alien (laughter).

TODD PHILLIPS: Aziz is unique but I think the thing that probably people need to know about him is how hard he works. We got him, he came in from Akron and his English wasn't great. Wasn't horrible but wasn't great. He had to learn the language. I think he speaks five, six languages.

But probably the first three months as we got to know him, he's in the gym in the morning; he's in the gym for practice; he's in the gym afterwards. Literally, probably a month into the season we went to him and said, get out of the gym; you're killing your body. You're killing yourself; the amount of work that that kid has put in to get to where he has, and I think he has a huge ceiling.

These guys know it's fun to play with him because you throw the ball anywhere around the basket; and if you throw it bad, it's actually going to be a highlight. It's even better if you throw a bad pass because he'll make it look silly with what he does.

The kid continues to grow, and we loved what he does for our defense. He anchors he's our defense, and on offense he just keeps getting better and better as a player, tremendous work ethic. So just fun to have a kid like that, and also to have his talent with this team. I think that's been such a strength for us is we can hurt you in a lot of ways.

We've got these guards out here, like we said can go dunk on you so you have to worry about them. But that big comes over, that big is getting dunked on by our big, so they kind of have to pick their poison and. I think the teams really understood that and played to that level this year, and I think that's why you're seeing the success in the NIT Championship that's all clicking right now.

Q. Big topic of conversations all season in college basketball has been obviously the transfer portal: Is it good for basketball; is it not good for players, things of that nature. Can you talk about your experience with the transfer for all being here in Vegas and now finding success with Utah Valley and being back here in the NIT semis?

TREY WOODBURY: Yeah, I 100 percent support the transfer portal. I don't think that everybody is going to come into college necessarily in the perfect situation for them, and so transfer portal is just an opportunity to learn and grow and find somewhere that you're going to fit. For me, it was a great experience.

Like I said, I landed here. Coaches embraced me and the university embraced me, and I never looked back. I think transfer portal is a good thing.

Q. What's your take on this widespread parity in college basketball now? Can you relate to the Florida Atlantics of the world that made a run to the Final Four? And from a coaching standpoint, what's it like selling players on a program when you can say that literally you can go to a final four and it's within grasp?

TODD PHILLIPS: Yeah, I think that's a big sell now is obviously we can beat anybody on any given day. I mean, the great thing for us as a mid major is we get to go play some really good programs at their place, and obviously we've proven we can beat them at their place and that's pretty fun. That's a lot of fun to do.

The transfer portal to me is a love/hate relationship. We love it when we get guys. We hit it with we lose guys. It kind of all balances itself out. I think kind of continuing it prove who you are with our program. You know, we are trying to prove what kind of players we can develop, and our strength has been in developing guys.

And so guys want to come; hey, a second-chance guy. I'm a big junior college guy. I was in the junior college ranks for a long time, and that's what we sell kids on all the time coming from Division I is, hey, get your MoJo back. Here is a second chance for you.

And I think the portal is a little bit like that, too. Gets guys a second chance, and to find that right fit. We are all sold and recruited, hey, a lot of kids recruit to the highest level. But they have got to find a right fit

So it's been fun for us because we recruit all over the country, all over the world, for kids. We are bringing in really good portal kids, and kids that are leaving our program give other kids opportunity. And if some of those kind wouldn't leave; we've had kids step in a that been better than the kid that left. That's been, I guess, the love/hate relationship we have.

Q. How big was it when you guys did get Trey? I know you just come aboard, but how big was that moment to get a kid like him?

TODD PHILLIPS: Huge moment. High fives around when we got the recruiting done. Felt like we beat him out on a couple other schools that at the time were maybe higher level than us. Super excited.

The crazy thing with all of this is it's not an exact science. You know, we thought he could do more things than maybe other schools thought he could do and now he's got to prove it, right. And so that was a big game changer for us, because now going into year two for us and trying to get our guys now in, and Trey was probably one of the very first of our guys that we got that year and very happy to have him in the program. Unbelievable.

Q. How much of a foundation did he help you guys lay along the way to get to where you are?

TODD PHILLIPS: The whole first level, right, the foundation, you've got to build the walls. You've got that whole first level done. Now we can go in the basement and upstairs. Huge foundation. Because you can see what he can do. He can do so many things.

We played him at the four a little bit his first year, and I may be -- sorry to say this out of turn but he was killing Weaver State. Put him at the four; like we can't guard him when he plays the four. And then he goes back to his normal position, a three.

And this year again we asked him to play the point guard. It's like, hey, we want to put our best players on the floor. You take a little bit of hit in your scoring; I mean, if he wasn't playing the point guard for us he could score 20 a game, easy. But we wouldn't be the same team.

His passing, I mean, 7 assists a game is -- I think he's the best point guard in the West and unbelievable what he can do. He's just not the typical point guard, right. He's a little different but he handles the ball, gets guys in our offense, he makes shots, he handles the ball big time down the stretch and so just a tremendous player for us, and so he was huge for us.

Q. It was a surprise when you played here in the conference tournament. How big was that in your recovery mentally, knowing you could come back and have some confidence?

TREY WOODBURY: You mean after our conference tournament, just the possibility of coming back here?

Q. When you were hurt and you came back and played here before in the conference season. Being in rehab and, like, understanding, you know, you have the confidence that you can come back and play.

TREY WOODBURY: Yeah, that was a little bit of a crazy time for me. Through that rehab process, and we got here to the tournament and I was like, man, I can't sit out. I can't sit out. That's just what this building does to me. That's what the big games do to me. I just couldn't help myself.

And so that was big for me to go into the summer, too, knowing that I can hit the gym hard and I'm physically and mentally ready to be back. So that was very important for me for sure, that conference tournament last year.