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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: LITTLE ROCK

March 20, 2008

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS

THE MODERATOR: We have with us from Texas-Arlington, Rog'er Guignard, Anthony Vereen, Jermaine Griffin. Questions, please.

Q. How much of this "Us against the world" are you guys feeling right now? And, you know, just take us through what it's been like getting here.
JERMAINE GRIFFIN: It's been a very fun experience, especially making history at UTA. It's been a very good experience. I mean, since we've been down here, it's been very exciting. Never experienced something like this. Us against the world. I've been telling my teammates they lace their shoes up just like we do, we're going the play hard and give it all we've got.
ROG'ER GUIGNARD: Just like what he said, it's a great experience. Never experienced really nothing like this in my life. Us against the world, I mean, just like what he said. They lace their shoes up just like us. They take the floor just like us. Just go out there and play hard and play as a team.
ANTHONY VEREEN: It's been an emotional rollercoaster from Sunday winning the championship, doing interviews. Lot of people don't even know who we were before Sunday, still don't know who we are. And as far as us against the world, we're going to come out there and play a regular game. I know everybody else is hyping it up. This is a business for us. We're happy to be here, but at the same time, we want to continue to make history.

Q. I'm just wondering, Austin Peay earlier today they were talking about how they try to motivate themselves by watching a tape of an upset they pulled off 20-something years ago, 14 seed over a 3. You're trying to do something that's never been done, no historical precedent for a 16 over 1. What do you do to motivate yourself to get yourself to believe you can pull this off when somebody nobody has been able to do it before?
JERMAINE GRIFFIN: We look at each other in the guys and one for all, all for one. We're out here for each other. No matter what goes on in the court, as long as we play hard, and leave it all on the floor, that's all that matters. Right now, I mean, it's 15 players, we call ours 15 Bs. We're going to continue to pull for each other. Hopefully we can pull ourself through this game tomorrow. Two goals, one basketball. Once you hit the court, anything can happen.
ANTHONY VEREEN: It wasn't any precedence for our university winning the Southland Conference Championship. We motivated ourselves do that, too. We don't really need to watch any tapes or anything like that. You got to look at yourself, look at your teammates. We set this goals at the beginning of the year to win 20-plus games, win the Southland Championship, and also to win games in the NCAA Tournament, and we're at the end of the road. So we're motivated already.
ROG'ER GUIGNARD: We don't have to look at any tapes or anything like that. We've been breaking records and setting history these past -- this past year right here. We just keep on doing, play hard as a team, pull for each other, have each other's back. Go out and play as hard as we can. Just have fun.

Q. When you played here in November and beat ULR, how much has your team changed since that point in time?
ANTHONY VEREEN: We changed a lot. Brandon Long who was real big in that game, he got injured. So it was adjustment period without him having to tweak our roles a little bit. But saying that's part of the season, peaks and valleys. I think we recovered and started to peak at the right time.
ROG'ER GUIGNARD: I think after that game, everybody got closer as a team because we knew that that was a good team we just played and top in defense and everything like that. Like he said, we lost Brandon Long, which is a valuable part of our team. He's another shooter and real good motivator and offensive player.
I just think that we just pull closer. I don't know.
JERMAINE GRIFFIN: I have to agree with my other two teammates. We pulled closer after the game. Everybody had to step their roles up. Especially winning that game, I think that it helped us out as a team because we wasn't a very good team on the road winning games. We came down and won that game. Gave us a little more motivation, and also we started believing in ourself even more. We've just been a good team. We've been even closer than before.

Q. Talk about the matchup with Memphis. What impresses you from what you've seen on tape? How can you guys exploit them?
ANTHONY VEREEN: You turn on the TV, you're going to see Memphis any day, every day of the week, all year. I mean, they're a great team. We just want to try to play our game, inside out, 40 minutes, play hard and smart and try not to give them many opportunities to get out in the show time. That's our game plan. Just to play hard, play smart, go inside out, and just believe.
ROG'ER GUIGNARD: I think we execute the game plan that our coach has for us. Memphis is a great team, great team. Just go out there and play hard, get back on D and just play as a team, shoot the ball -- go out and try to shoot the ball well and just go out there and pull for each other.
JERMAINE GRIFFIN: Like my other two teammates said, we're going to go out there, play hard, box them out, and we can limit them to one shot, that would be great and try to contest every shot and push the ball. Just going to play basketball.

Q. If there is one area that you feel that you can exploit, what would that be? One weakness do you think Memphis has?
ANTHONY VEREEN: Everybody else talks about the free throw shooting. I would guess if they get any open looks, try to foul them and put them on the line, if you had to say one weakness. Obviously that hadn't worked too well. They only lost one game. We just going to go out there and execute our game plan. That's all we can do.
ROG'ER GUIGNARD: To be honest, I mean, they're a great team to me. That's basically what I see as their weakness is free throws. They haven't really lost any games but one. That really hasn't been working. So I mean, just go out there and play hard. That's all I can say.
JERMAINE GRIFFIN: Like Anthony Vereen said, fast break -- it kind of gets them going. You give them a fast break, let them get a dunk or something, they kind of feed off that. If they're on a fast break, we're just going to foul them. That's all we can do, send them to the line, make them earn the points from there.
THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Gentlemen, thank you very much. Great to have you here. Best of luck to you.
With us is Scott Cross, the head coach at Texas-Arlington. Coach, if you would, a comment or two about being here, and then we'll open things up for questions.
COACH CROSS: Thank you. First of all, this is extremely great honor for us to be here. I cannot tell you how excited we are. It's been 49 years since the program has been Division I, and to finally be in the NCAA Tournament, I'm really, really proud and excited to be a part of it.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Scott, would you talk about Larry Posey and what he means to this team both on and off the court?
COACH CROSS: Larry Posey, he's the guy. He's our defensive specialist. We put him on the opposing team's best player. He does a great job with his intensity. He picks the guys up. In the locker room before the game, he gets everybody right. He's that guy that's going to get everybody pumped up and fired up for the game. He's a winner. He won I believe 35 games in high school, won the National Championship at Milby (phonetic) High School and did the same thing for us in the conference tournament down in Cady, Texas. He's just a great, great basketball player. Off the court he's a great leader for our players, as well.

Q. You guys feel like you can beat the Memphis Tigers and be the first team to ever upset the number one?
COACH CROSS: I definitely think there's a chance. We're definitely not going to lose the game before they even throw the ball up. As long as they're keeping score and, you know, keeping time, we're going to play with the mindset that we're going out there to win the game.
We know they're extremely talented, one of the best teams in the country, if not the best team in the country, but we're got going to give them the game before it even starts.

Q. Going back to Larry Posey. He's the guy who had to balance basketball with his mother's illness. How well was he able to do that and stay on track?
COACH CROSS: Extremely well. Posey is an extremely intelligent guy. He makes great grades. He's extremely close to his mom. I know that it was very, very difficult for him but may have even gave him a little bit of extra added motivation down the stretch to get UTA over the top and get us to the NCAA Tournament. I know he's made his family extremely proud. They were at all the games. Just to see the look on his face when we won the conference tournament was unbelievable. Definitely priceless.

Q. In analyzing film, what have you determined is the focus in preparing for Memphis?
COACH CROSS: They're extremely talented. The more you watch them, the more you see -- a lot of people say "Oh, they just go out there and play, they just hoop." They don't. They have a lot of players that can go one-on-one that can score, but there's a definite method to everything they do, exploit mismatches. They play unselfish. We're definitely going to have to do the best we can to control their penetration and, you know, get down and play great defense because they're extremely good scorers, all of them.

Q. Speaking of exploiting mismatches, are there any weaknesses in Memphis's game that you feel like you guys can chip away on?
COACH CROSS: No, I don't see any weaknesses. You know, everybody says their free throw shooting. When we were 8-0 at the beginning of the season, everybody said that about us. You can find a flaw in anything when you stack a stat sheet, but again the bottom line is if you're winning or you're losing.
They're winning games. I don't see many weaknesses. We'll definitely try and do what we do in every single game, try to go inside, outside. I don't see any weaknesses in their team at all.

Q. What did the game in November you guys played against Little Rock do for your team's confidence?
COACH CROSS: It was huge for us. It was our first big game on the road. Our guys came in. Little Rock is a very talented team. They're well coached. It was a hard-fought game. It came down to the wire, and it was a huge win for us.
Our guys stepped up and took -- to win a game against them on the road, it was a huge confidence builder. I definitely don't think that we would have been 8-0 if we wouldn't have gotten that game. That made our guys really believe in what we were doing and believe we could go on the road and win games.

Q. One last question about Posey. Fans of physical basketball, are they going to get their money's worth?
COACH CROSS: Very, very similar players. Dorsey, he's a little bit taller than him. They're very similar players. They both love to bank down there. They're both tough, physical, athletic guys. Fans will definitely get their money's worth watching those two guys go at it.

Q. With only having three seniors on this team, what do you think that this will do for the underclass man and the younger guys for their career in the next two, three years at UTA?
COACH CROSS: I think, first of all, just all the stuff that goes with the NCAA Tournament is phenomenal, just like the police escort over here. The guys, they're just kind of in awe of everything. They want to be back. Now that they're here, they're going to start to believe this is what we should be doing, not saying, "Well, we need to get the monkey off our back and prove everybody wrong and get to the NCAA Tournament."
I think there's a little bit different mindset going into next year. They're going to believe and know this is where we should be, this is what we work for, and now we're finally here.
THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Coach, appreciate it very much. Congratulations to you. Best of luck.

End of FastScripts

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