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

March 21, 2009

MIAMI, FLORIDA

LARRY WAHL: We have with us Nic Wise, Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill. We'll open it up with questions for the student-athletes.

Q. This is for Nic and Jordan: As painful as this may be, can you guys talk about what you think about are the best traits about Chase, one player to the another, as far as his game?
NIC WISE: I think he's unselfish. You know, he's long, he's a leader, he's a voice on our team, and he's a guy that all of us look up to, including me and Jordan.
He's just a great guy to have on your team. He's a great talent, athletic, can stroke it from anywhere, gets to the rim anytime he wants, long on defense, gets steals, deflections. He just impacts the game on a whole different level. Rebounds, assists, everything, he does it all.
JORDAN HILL: Chase is a nice guy (laughter). When he wants to be.
Chase is a real competitor. When he steps on the court he's all about business. Off the court he's a cool guy to be around, and everything about him, we all love him, all appreciate him. He's a good athlete. He just goes out there, every chance he gets to go on the court he goes out there and has fun and helps the team out in any way possible.

Q. Can you talk about your impressions of Cleveland State and also Cedric Jackson, and the type of point guard he is.
NIC WISE: They're a good team. They earned their way here. They beat Syracuse, Butler, and now Wake. So they have quality wins. They play great defense, they have a great point guard, and that's what you have to have in this tournament to succeed. He played real well last night, so he's going to be a key factor for us to control tomorrow.

Q. Chase, does this weekend feel like an ordinary PAC-10 weekend with you've got the game day, then an off-day, then you've got a game? Do you guys think that helps you at all?
CHASE BUDINGER: Definitely. It feels like any other road trip that we've had. You play a game, you've got a day off and then you've got to come right back and play another game. We're treating it like any other road trip, we're preparing the same way, and we're just taking the steps like we have been in the past to try to succeed tomorrow.

Q. This is for any of you: After Cleveland State's game last night their coach said that the win put them on the map. They had been off the basketball map for a while. How much did you know about them before yesterday?
NIC WISE: We didn't know much. All we knew is that before we got into the tournament, them beating Butler, we thought they took one of our spots, so that's all we knew about them pretty much. Yesterday was an eye-opener, so we can't take them lightly like Wake Forest did.

Q. Eye-opener in what way?
NIC WISE: Just to know that they're a small-name school but they have big-name talent. You can't take them out, come out soft and pass them in the beginning because they'll come out fast and they'll hit you hard.

Q. Jordan or Chase: How much of the game did you see last night and where did you watch it?
JORDAN HILL: I really didn't see much of the game. I just seen just like -- I was just looking at Ohio State and Siena, but I just looked across and it showed the score, and I was in shock to tell you the truth. We watched film on them, and they are a hard-working team. I guess Wake Forest took hem for granted, just didn't respect their game, and they went out there and took advantage of it and just did what they had to do.
CHASE BUDINGER: Watched them a little bit in the beginning when they first had the run, and you could just see how athletic they are, how on the defensive end how quick they are. They like getting in the passing lanes, trying to create steals, create turnovers, and they love to run. You could definitely see it out there. It seems like each one of their players is playing freely. That just shows that they're a very talented team, and we've just got to come here tomorrow and be ready for them because it's going to be a tough battle.

Q. Chase, when you think back to the fall and the upheaval that was going on, did you think that maybe this kind of finish to the season wasn't going to be possible? I mean, not many teams go through what you guys had to go through. Was it in the back of your mind that maybe this is not going to be that big a year for us?
CHASE BUDINGER: No, no. I had confidence in our team that not a lot of other people did. I knew that our team was going to be very talented this year starting with me, Nic and Jordan. I knew that us three were going to lead this team to have a good season, and that's what we did. We made it to this point, were able to get our first win, all three of us, in an NCAA Tournament. We're just hoping that we can just keep on going forward from there.

Q. We're doing a national story on the economy and the effects on the tournament. I'm wondering if any of you had family or friends that might in other years have come here this weekend who didn't make the trip because of the economy?
CHASE BUDINGER: I definitely had some aunts and uncles that couldn't make the trip because air flights were too expensive and things like that. Only my mom and dad were able to come.
JORDAN HILL: Well, my parents, they're in South Carolina and Atlanta, so it really wasn't a far drive for them, so they just -- I guess, I don't know what they did, I guess they chipped in and they all came, a couple of them came down and just supported us a little bit.
NIC WISE: Yeah, my whole family pretty much planned on coming out, but only my older brother ended up coming out of five. The economy sucks, yeah.

Q. Nic, in your mind how was Coach able to keep everything together there when you guys were going through that, and as far as who was going to coach? Obviously he was put in a tough situation. How did he come through that do you think?
NIC WISE: Basically just saying that he was in the same predicament as us. Nobody signed up for having Coach Wilson having to leave us early this year. He wasn't expecting to be a head coach. We weren't expecting to have three coaches in three years. Basically just letting us know that he's there for us, and you can tell that they really care for us, that any time we needed them, they never wavered with their trust in us. All we had to do was put our trust in them, and it worked out for us.
LARRY WAHL: We'll let the student-athletes take off and we'll bring up Coach Pennell, who is here.
Questions for Coach Pennell?

Q. What was your impression of Cleveland State last night?
COACH RUSS PENNELL: I thought Cleveland State played an outstanding game, and I thought it was much like the way we came out. I thought they came out very aggressive and jumped on Wake Forest early and had Wake playing kind of uphill the entire game, much like we kind of had Utah doing the same thing.
I was very impressed with their quickness, especially on the perimeter. Their guards are outstanding and do a real nice job and create havoc just with their ability to not only penetrate with the basketball but the way they defend on the defensive end. They get up into you and cause problems. They're a very underrated team, and as we talked to our players today, you've got to be careful in this tournament not to read what's on the front of a jersey because everyone in this tournament is good. You get teams like Cleveland State and Siena and maybe some teams we don't see as much on national television, you can't get fooled by the fact they don't get that much hype, because they've got great players.

Q. Until last Sunday you guys didn't even know if you would make it into the Tournament. Until last night a lot of people didn't even know Cleveland State existed. With these two teams going head to head, a lot of people kind of overlooking these teams. You talked about being underrated for Cleveland State. How do you think this will match up on a national scale?
COACH RUSS PENNELL: Well, I think the big thing is it's a game between two good basketball teams that have earned their way here. Cleveland State, when you beat Butler on Butler's home floor, you're respected in the basketball world, there's no question about that. When you beat Syracuse in the Carrier Dome, you're a good basketball team. When you beat Wake Forest in the NCAA Tournament, you don't have a fluke three times, okay, and they're a good basketball team, and I think that the game tomorrow will be a game that -- can we handle their quickness? Can they handle our size? And I think whoever can kind of force their will on the other team will probably come out victorious.

Q. Take us back a little bit to the fall when all that upheaval was going on. I mean, what was going through your mind as far as, man, what have I got into here? Did you think this kind of finish to the season was possible? Was that the furthest thing from your mind at that point?
COACH RUSS PENNELL: It actually was the furthest thing from my mind. At first I was very disappointed, not disappointed for me, I was disappointed for our team, and I guess a little for myself from the standpoint of I really wanted to work under Lute Olsen. That's the main reason that I came to Arizona. I had been out of coaching for four years, but it wasn't because I didn't have opportunities. I'd had a chance every year to get back in, and it just wasn't the right situation. It wasn't what I really wanted. And when Coach Olsen contacted me, I knew that's what I wanted to do.
So when he stepped away because of the health issues, there was a little part of me that wondered what it would be like to work under him for a year. But I think it actually helped us all because we all knew we were in the same boat. The players understood. They had come to Arizona to play for Lute Olsen, not for Russ Pennell, and by the same token I had come to work under him.
I think we had common ground to work from, and then we just tried to make it a day at a time honestly. I know it sounds like a clichÃ©, but it's true. Could we get through this practice and then the next practice, and then there was a game, and it just kind of started unfolding and you saw the team coming together especially as a unit and just being unselfish with their approach.

Q. When is the last time you heard from Lute?
COACH RUSS PENNELL: I talked to him right after we were selected last Sunday, and I'm sure I'll hear from him again. Knowing him, he wouldn't want to disrupt what we're doing this weekend. He would look at yesterday and tomorrow as one event, and so I'm sure we'll hear from him soon. But had a real good conversation with him right after the Selection Show on Sunday.
LARRY WAHL: We'll let Coach go and get ready for tomorrow's game.

End of FastScripts

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