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NCAA MEN'S 1ST ROUND: DAYTONMarch 15, 2011Ed BiedenbachD.J. CunninghamMatt DickeyJ.P. PrimmDAYTON, OHIO UNC Asheville – 81 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by UNC Asheville coach Eddie Biedenbach and student-athletes J.P. Primm, Matt Dickey and D.J. Cunningham. Coach, an opening statement. COACH BIEDENBACH: I just heard a little bit of your last comment. What was it that you said about attendance? THE MODERATOR: This was the 84th NCAA Tournament game held here. The most ever. With that, here's Coach. COACH BIEDENBACH: I'll tell you what, I couldn't be happier with the city of Dayton, how they treated us in 2003. Wish we would have been back here since then. But we messed up a couple of times. But the way they treated us this trip here, you all are a class-act, and I thank you for what you've done. I couldn't be prouder of our team, how they handled themselves all season long. We were up and down. We had a bit of a rocky road sometime during the season. But we started to put it together late and we had another bump in the road when we had some leads on Charleston Southern and Northeastern in the bracket busters. But I think that taught our guys a lesson or maybe reemphasized a lesson they learned earlier because we had been playing pretty good basketball for a while. But we ended up stringing six together the last six of the season and this one. A lot of them were just like this. Now, we had a couple that we were able to stretch the lead on some people, but we always were in a position, not always, but often in a position where we wouldn't give up. We would make a shot, make a defensive play. And I've told them time and again we'll score on the offensive end. We gotta learn, we gotta play better and together defense individually as a team and work together and communicate. And they did that again tonight. We haven't pressed too much during the year. We worked on it a little bit in practice the last couple of days, and it paid off. And these guys made it work. It's not perhaps what you do but how these guys do it. We've had great, great play out of Matt Dickey and J.P. Primm all year long. D.J. Cunningham has come along, was our starting center, and has had a really good year, 100 percent over last year. Had some unfortunate injuries, three of them. He only played eight games. Coming off the bench and doing what he did tonight, with not a whole lot of game success in the last month here, was absolutely phenomenal. And between them, you know, they won the game for us. So couldn't be prouder of these guys. Couldn't be prouder of our whole team. And it's great to have a chance to go to DC. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. All three of you, when you get sent here to Dayton instead of the main 64-team bracket, now that it's behind you and you're moving on, was it important for you guys to win this game and get a chance to play in the main part of the tournament? J.P. PRIMM: Yeah, no doubt. You know, when we came in, Coach was just telling us don't be satisfied, don't be satisfied. And as we practiced yesterday, you know, we did a lot of cramming. And I think we came out and we done -- we done our best. And now we're headed to Washington. But like I said, Coach was just telling us, mainly, keep pushing, keep pushing, and everything will fall into place. And it did. So we're headed to Washington. MATT DICKEY: Yeah, I think when we first heard that we were going to be in the play-in game, I looked around, some of the guys were kind of -- we were obviously happy. We're in the NCAA Tournament. That's a blessing in itself. But I think we wanted to be in the second round, I guess, or now it's the second round, but being in this game, playing against a team that's about the same caliber as us -- and they were good. They were a really good team. It's a good win for us, and now we'll be moving on to the second round in DC, and we're excited about that. D.J. CUNNINGHAM: Yeah, just to add on to what J.P. and Matt said, it's truly a blessing to be here. But at the same time, Coach has told us before we came down here, you know, it's kind of a good thing to get to play in this play-in game because we go to the next round now and we've got one game under our belt; we ain't got the butterfly feeling when we walk out on Thursday. So it's a blessing to be here. We'll take whatever we get. Q. Matt, can you talk about your scoring in the second half, how things picked up, and in particular the 3-pointer in the corner there that tied the game? MATT DICKEY: I mean, the guys -- I came in at halftime, they kept telling me keep being aggressive, shots will start falling. And the guys have been behind me all season when I've been in a little slump or something. That just gives me such encouragement to go and play hard the second half. And shots started falling, I was able to get open looks, guys were getting me the ball in the right places. And, like I said, the shots started falling, and it felt good. The 3 in the corner, I thought J.P.'s was going down first, and when I saw D.J. hustle, got the rebound, we kicked it around, and I honestly didn't know how much time was on the clock. I didn't want to tell Coach B. that, but I was pretty sure it was under 15, 20 seconds. I just did a move there that I've been working on in the off-season, and it paid off. Q. For all three of you, like you said, this is a quick turnaround now. Have you thought about the -- I guess you guys are hopping on a plane now, flying down to DC. Have you thought about how that's going to impact your week as opposed to maybe just normal? J.P. PRIMM: No, you know, for two weeks straight we've been playing on a Tuesday, Thursday and a Saturday. And Coach has been saying that over and over now, and last week we played Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday for our championship; the week before that we played the same thing. And it's nothing new for us. And all of a sudden we get we're flying tonight, we're flying out to Washington, and, like I said before, we're going to feel presidential again. COACH BIEDENBACH: Then we're going to DC. J.P. PRIMM: And we're going to DC. That's even better. MATT DICKEY: Yeah, on top of that, I think we're just more excited than anything. This is such a cool experience for us. Mid major school, this is what you dream of. This is where you want to be. And we're here. We got a win, and now I'm sure playing Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday will be tiring, possibly Saturday will be tiring but I think we'll have enough adrenaline to get us through. D.J. CUNNINGHAM: Again, I echo what they said. I think our coaches will have us ready. We've been on this routine for a while, like they said. I don't think it's going to change anything. I think our coaches will have us going through our normal routines in practice. They'll have our scouting reports ready for us. I think we'll be well prepared for playing on Thursday. Q. I just wondered you said you guys -- of course you'd like to be in the regular bracket of 64 or whatever, but out there tonight, did it feel like -- it felt like you had a pretty good crowd, felt like a tournament gathering. Talk about the experience for you guys. J.P. PRIMM: It was definitely a great feeling. Late in the game we started making plays and I could hear the crowd getting behind us. I think that really boosted us and gave us more confidence than what we had. D.J. made a good pass to Jaron Lane, and then the crowd oohing and ahhing, and that gives us encouragement when you're on the road and you have people behind you. But it was definitely a great feeling. MATT DICKEY: Yeah, after what he said, I think it was a great crowd tonight. We got a smaller gym. We play in front of a little over a thousand. And to play in games like this that are in front of such a big crowd and on such a big stage, it's really exciting for us. We had nerves at the beginning of the game, but I think we got past that and we performed really well in the second half. D.J. CUNNINGHAM: Our fans have been 100 percent -- I don't even know the word for it. They're amazing. They're always supporting us. No matter where we went to this year, we've always had some kind of fan base. Me being from Ohio, it's good to look up and see my family up there. I got to see a few familiar faces I haven't seen in a while. So I'm really proud of our fans always coming and supporting us. And just very appreciative of that. Q. Are you going to try to treat Pitt with that No. 1 next to their name, or are you just going to try to keep the number out of there and just look at them as another opponent that you're going to face? J.P. PRIMM: Always has been a No. 1 team, I don't think nothing would change preparation-wise. And, like I say, you dream when you're little about playing the Dukes, the Carolinas, the No. 1 teams in the nation. And now you're going to give it your all. Coaches and them, they've done such a great job this year on preparing us to play whoever we play. And if that's -- we played Ohio State and coach prepared us well. We're going to go out and play our hardest. MATT DICKEY: I think it's obvious that we'll notice the number beside their name. But I thought we have to put that out. We played big teams this year. Ohio State, Carolina, teams like that. And I think they've really helped us, especially during conference play and now being in the tournament, knowing that we're probably not going to be a higher seed playing -- we're going to be playing a team like that, and now we are. And I think we've had good preparation throughout the year playing the bigger teams like that to get us ready for a game like Thursday. D.J. CUNNINGHAM: I think the strength of our schedule this year, like they said, is going to help us a lot. We never look at -- I don't personally look at that number. I just view it as another team. We've got to prepare the same way we always do. We don't take anyone lightly; when you do, that's when you get beat. But I think like they said, the strength of our schedule with the way Coach has always done it, I think that helps a lot when you get to this tournament time. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Eddie, have you thought about what this turnaround is going to be like, hopping on a plane here in a little bit and getting down, processing film, getting these guys settled, the whole ball of wax? COACH BIEDENBACH: Yes. And, you know, it's not particularly easy, but it's not particularly hard. If we spent the night here tonight in the hotel, these guys wouldn't go to bed until 1:00 or 2:00. They're so excited about the win, about the great atmosphere here at Dayton. It's what we wanted to accomplish. We get up in that plane, they may sleep a little bit because they can't move around too much. But we'll get in there, 12:30, 1:00, go to bed, let them sleep a little later in the morning. We don't practice until 5:00 or 6:00, I can't remember. We only have an hour. But we'll get plenty of preparation. We'll have watched Pitt on TV often. They're a veteran, very tough, rugged team. And they're a difficult challenge for us. But that's why we play the schedule that we have. Pitt is a really good team. We're 145th in the RPI. They're in the top 10. They're that good. If they go out there and play a great game, make shots and we play well, we'll try to make a game of it. If they fall asleep on us and say, hey, or if they're nervous -- which they won't be -- but if they're nervous for the opening round and we have this one under our belt. But this is a great opportunity for us. We're not going to lose the game or win the game because we're nervous playing Pitt, because we've played everybody. We've played four to seven of these kind of games every year. We played the defending national champs every year with the exception of once or twice where we couldn't get Florida, although Billy Donovan wants to play and he's a good friend. But if you look at our schedule through the years, the next year we play those guys. Played Bibby at Arizona, played Michigan State, played all those guys. Is that smart on my part? No, because we've lost about 80 some games. But when we win our league, we know that's who we're going to play. I want these guys to go in there with that experience to play guys like that, and we want to play well. And, you know, most of you guys here have played at some level or followed basketball a ton. I remember playing against Oscar Robertson and Jerry West, guys like that. I don't remember Bobby Smith and Joe Adams. You want to play against these guys. Our guys want to be pros just like the other guys. And if they know that after playing this schedule we played in the off-season, they've got to work on their strength or their skills or whatever. These two kids here have led us all year long and they have worked their tail off. First year I can't remember who we played, Michigan State or Ohio State or whoever, and they have worked. And now one of them is First-Team All-Conference and the other is second. And I wouldn't trade them for anybody. There's other guards a little bigger, a little stronger, but we play together, and we play tough and we think we play the game where it's supposed to be played. We took five or six bad shots, guys, that wanted to take over the game, wanted to win it for each other. I told them in the huddle, I said, hey, we've got to play basketball and make shots, not make shots and shoot our way in or out of the game. Gotta play the game. And we've done that most of the year. Not perfectly. But we're getting there. And I like where we are right now. I thought Arkansas was really good, Little Rock. We watched them on tape. And they're very similar to three teams that we played this year, only they're a little bit better. And I was really concerned. Their guards were quicker than ours, and they played absolutely great. They're well coached, and I was shocked that a few things we tried, the press and other things, we came up with the plays we needed to get back in the game. But I couldn't be prouder of our guys. But Arkansas has a lot to be proud of, too. They're a really good team. Thank you. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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