NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - GRAND CANYON VS MARYLAND

March 21, 2025

Bryce Drew

Ray Harrison

Tyon Grant-Foster

JaKobe Coles

Climate Pledge Arena

Grand Canyon Lopes

Media Conference

Maryland - 81, Grand Canyon - 49

THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and get started with an opening statement from Coach and then take questions for the student-athletes.

BRYCE DREW: Really happy. Really good team. Top 15 in the country for a reason. Start of the game I thought was a key point. We had many good looks, couldn't make 'em. And we had a little lead early, we should have been up a lot more early. And then once they got the lead slowly the momentum just kept shifting and staying in their way. This senior group's been fantastic, they won 30 games last year, 26 this year, remarkable two years for them. So proud of what they accomplished.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Tyon that first half you got it going hitting threes and I noticed you had the sparkling shoes, you changed 'em. What was behind that and just what were you looking to get going in that second half?

TYON GRANT-FOSTER: I've been doing that since high school. I change my shoes at halftime literally since high school. It was just something that I do. I know I had a good first half in them but I always just do that. Every time we have played and I didn't change my shoes, we lost, so I was like, I got to do it. I had to change hem at halftime.

Q. JaKobe, how do you prepare to play against a guy like Derik Queen or Ju Reese?

JAKOBE COLES: That's it, they're good players, they got some size. I think just going into the game we just didn't put as much pressure on 'em, just hitting shots today. I think if we would have made a couple fall it would have put pressure on not just them but the whole team. But give them credit they used their size well today. I thought Reese played really well today. He was hitting a lot of shots. Then I think queen was just playing poised and the rest of the guys were just hitting threes. So they executed their game plan well, so give them credit.

Q. Ray, didn't get your shooting going maybe like you would have liked to, was there anything about the environment that you weren't able to get going, get hot?

RAY HARRISON: No, I wouldn't say there was anything about the environment necessarily, getting in a rhythm during the game and kind of just comes and goes, so unfortunately I wasn't able to stay in a rhythm, but, yeah.

Q. You've been a part of some special NCAA moments and what's it take in a game like this in the first round to pull that rabbit out of the hat, keep the Cinderella story going what does it take?

BRYCE DREW: Margin of error we knew was going to be small coming in with just how good they are. We need to be at full strength every possession and have momentum. I thought we started out again well, but the missed layup at the beginning just kind of shrinks the momentum for us. The missed wide open threes really did that. I thought they opened the door the first five minutes for us to have a little bit of a lead, and we didn't capitalize it. Once they got the lead it just snowballed. And as they took away a little bit of our energy level, then just we got exposed in a lot of ways. So I think you got to start at a high level, you got to be at a high level, you can't lose any confidence. And you got to make shots, especially with the size difference we had to make shots tonight.

Q. Three tournament appearances in a row, starting to become, make it a habit. What steps, what things can you take out of that to continue to build the program?

BRYCE DREW: Yeah, very thankful for the opportunity to be here. I think we didn't have the energy and excitement, to be honest, like we had last year. That was kind of alarming in those first few huddles that we didn't really come out because the door was definitely open in that first segment or two. So, you know, these guys helped lay a foundation, now we need to get to the next level, we got to hit the portal hard, we got to replace a lot of good players and hopefully take our program up a whole another level for next year.

Q. Last year in Spokane the crowd seemed to be really into it, got you guys going. Do you think that kind of affected the slow start?

BRYCE DREW: No, no, I think the crowd was great. I think if we would have made shots I think they would have got behind us even more. We didn't give 'em enough of a reason to get behind us and that's on us. So for our younger guys hopefully it's a learning experience, they can learn from this and motivate 'em all summer and next year to get back and play better on this stage.

Q. You had mentioned the size a little bit earlier, 3-16 in the first half from three, was that a conversation hey we have to shoot back more or were you, what was the thought there?

BRYCE DREW: Yeah, our team, we're a Mid Major league, plays a lot of defenses that if you drive the ball it helps, we have a lot of guys that really drive the ball so we didn't want to change who we were, that's what helped win 26 games for us and 30 last year. But as we drove, especially in the first half, I thought we passed the ball well and again, I would say nearly every one of those looks were wide open. We just didn't make 'em. It's like everyone we missed it kind of just sucked a little bit of energy out of us, I think. You can talk about your defense has to carry you and give you energy, but then at the end of the day you got to make something on that end to help build some energy on the defensive end. So I think it was deflating as we missed open shot after open shot, it really hurt us.