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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: SAN JOSEMarch 20, 2013Marvin MenziesDaniel MullingsBandja SySAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: We are joined by student‑athletes Bandja Sy, as senior forward, and Daniel Mullings, sophomore guard. Q. Curious, either of you two guys speak to the experience of last year's tournament taught you coming to this point. BANDJA SY: It's definitely going to help us as a team, because me and Daniel played that game last year. Played big minutes. So we'll be able to advise our teammates, be comfortable and play our game. DANIEL MULLINGS: Like Bandja said, I think it's an advantage for us, because me and Bandja played last year, so we'll be able to tell the new guys about the experience from last year about what to look out for, and just a heads up so they don't have to run into some of the things we ran into last year. Q. Bandja, talk about this is your third NCAA tournament in four years, and what it means for you to go out with a bang, so to say, and even more so what it would mean for you to get a victory here? BANDJA SY: Yeah, since I'm a senior it means a lot to me to go back to the Big Dance, and eventually win a game or two or three or four would mean a lot to me. And especially with that team. I really think we have the potential to do something here. Q. Daniel, just talk about Sim and the effect he has out on court, how he changes things. DANIEL MULLINGS: Sim, as we all know, he's 7‑5, big guy, big presence inside, you know. I think he changes the whole game for us and other teams, as well, because a lot of teams are not used to seeing that big of a size in there. And while guys are driving in he's just a big force, just blocking everything, and altering shots. So it's a great advantage for us having him inside. Q. Do you know Grandy Glaze from Saint Louis? DANIEL MULLINGS: I don't really know him, but I know of him. I've seen him around back home in Canada. Q. Obviously you look to senior leadership in situations. Bandja, you're a senior. Talk about Tyrone Watson as a senior. Obviously we don't know whether or not his injuries are going to allow him to play, but as a team leader in the locker room, can you talk about that a little bit. BANDJA SY: Whenever Tyrone plays, we all know it's going to be a big part of supporting us, even though he's on the bench, in the locker room and stuff. He has experience, too. He's a big talker to us. He gives us advice and stuff. So whether Tyrone plays or not, he will be a big part of us tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: We'll welcome now the head coach of New Mexico State, Marvin Menzies, for the opening press conference for New Mexico State. Q. Coach, you've played some pretty tough out‑of‑conference games, New Mexico twice. How do you think those games and other games in the conference have prepared you to face Saint Louis? COACH MENZIES: Hopefully they prepared us big time. Because those environments were very good. Even our rivals, UTEP, we had two good environments there at home and away when we played them. And I think that just in general when you have that type of emotional atmosphere and adrenaline that those guys feel is an opportunity for them to, you know, have that experience. And I think when they get those experiences in the future then, you know, it will probably give them some kind of comfort level on how to deal with it. We've done that typically in the past and I think it will bode well for us here in the tournament. Q. Coach, No. 1, what's the status of Tyrone Watson, and secondly, if he's not able to play, can you talk about his leadership as a whole, as a senior, what he brings to the table, this being the third time he's at an NCAA tournament in four years? COACH MENZIES: His status, we're playing it by ear with what they tell us he can and he cannot do. He's constantly receiving treatment and he is improving, so there is a possibility he could play. But his 100 percent has to be better than Remi and Renaldo's for him to play. So we have to kind of gauge that. And we'll determine whether he can go or not. I think he'd like to go at 10 percent, you know, obviously, in this environment and with this opportunity, being the 75th year of the tournament and so forth. He's pretty excited. But we've got to make that call. As far as his contribution to the team, there's ‑‑ I mean, it's hard to measure. He was unanimous vote for the team captain by both the staff and the players when the year started. He just has, you know, like we talk about, that experience. That level of experience is something that you can't duplicate. He says things to the guys that we might say the same thing as a staff but, you know, it's going to be taken a little bit differently as a player. And maybe even engaged a little bit more as a player, as a peer. So that's invaluable, when you know he's saying the right things. Now, it could also work the other way, but we don't have that problem with Ty, he's on board 100 percent and doing great with the locker room. Q. Saint Louis defense has drawn rave reviews everywhere it goes. What do you see as the challenges that you have to do to deal with it? COACH MENZIES: You've got to be able to read and react. They throw so many different things at you. They'll guard the ball screen in several different ways. They have several different players that will guard differently. So their bigs may pick and pop or their bigs may pick‑and‑roll. Or our bigs may do those things and they know how to adjust to those things accordingly. So they're just really solid. You can see Rick Majerus all over them, throughout the fiber of how they play. I had the opportunity to go against Rick when I was at San Diego State and he's left his imprint very, very firmly on these guys. There's no question that they're playing inspired by him and especially on the defensive end. I think that's right now probably their staple right now, is part of their signature is how well they're playing and guarding, doing things so fundamentally conditioned. It's fun to watch them play, it's impressive. Q. You mentioned it just there with Rick Majerus. I'm curious in your days what you remember of him, whether in conversations you had or games you coached against him, looking back at it now? COACH MENZIES: Well, just his ‑‑ I mean, it was his life, you know. There's a lot of coaches who coach basketball and obviously, you know, it's something they do, you know. It's who he was. I mean, he just was a true aficionado of the game. He just really, really knew his stuff. And he knew what he wanted to do. The things that stick out about him, we had a chance to visit a few times and he recruited from me when I was at the high school and junior college level, a couple of kids, back in the day, as they say. So we got to know each other. We weren't close, close, but we definitely had a lot of conversations throughout the years, in my 30‑year tenure of coaching where we've crossed paths a lot and we had a lot of common friends, and I interviewed one of his former employees, and we had a lengthy, lengthy conversation about that individual. I think the things that just stick out is he was so confident in what he wanted to do and knew who he was and it was a breath of fresh air. In this business sometimes people can be a little, I don't want to say plastic, but for the lack of a better word, plastic. And if you got Rick you were going to get exactly what he was thinking and he'd deliver it in a way that he wasn't going to be offensive, but he was going to tell you what his thoughts were. And that was refreshing. Q. For those of us who haven't had a chance to see many of your games this year, how have opponents tried to defend against Sim, seems like it's a unique challenge for teams? COACH MENZIES: Yeah, and as a result we've got a lot of different looks, we've had people play behind and help off and trap down from the high post, trap down from the opposite big, he's seen every single defensive scheme that exists. But fortunately, he's very cerebral as a player, excellent passer, very good hands and he's developed. He's still a freshman and he's still learning and he's going to make mistakes, like most players, but his maturity for his age, I think, is very advanced. So he's been able to ‑‑ his basketball IQ is very good. So he's been able to handle most of them. He still has bad habits that we're trying to replace with good habits and that will happen in time. So it's a process. But he's developing at quite a good rate, I would say, especially based on the opportunity to play a lot more minutes than maybe he would have had Tshilidzi Nephawe, our center who started the year, when he got injured, kind of thrust Sim in a larger role, and I think as a result he's benefited as a result of that. Q. To follow up, what are the challenges for the coaching staff? He's such a unique ‑‑ at 7‑5, what do you guys have to do to figure out how to use someone with that size in a game? COACH MENZIES: Well, I mean, that's a good challenge, you know, that's ‑‑ it is different, you know, coaching someone of that physical stature. Obviously you want to make sure that the things that you're telling him are accurate for his ‑‑ from his perspective, you know. There's things that you would tell maybe a 6‑10 or 6‑9 kid about stance and his posture, physical posture and things like that that might not be as comfortable for Sim. So you have to make sure you give him things that he is physically comfortable doing, No. 1. And then No. 2, are fundamentally sound that won't get him in foul trouble and things of that nature. As he continues to develop and increases lower body strength, then you'll start to see his ability to play like a 6‑10 kid or 6‑8, 6‑7 kid. And that's our hope, his physical development would enable him to be a much better player. Right now he's pretty doggone good as he is. So we're just trying to, you know, keep a high level communication and teach him the things that we need to teach him to be fundamentally sound and just learn and grow. There's challenges, but nothing, you know, extraordinary where we can't handle it. Q. Who in your opinion makes Saint Louis tick offensively and how will you go about defending them? COACH MENZIES: Well, they've got multiple positions that make them tick. I think it depends on any given day, who's hot. And I think you can look at their balanced scoring and you can say their versatility at different positions creates our biggest challenge. You've got bigs that can pick and pop. You got some that are better with the pick‑and‑roll. You've got guards that can shoot it and guards that can drive and are physical. They've got wings and forwards that are active defensively. You get multiple looks from them, which I think is the toughest challenge is to be able to identify who you're guarding and what his strengths and weaknesses are on every given pass. You may get matched up with transition that is not someone in your true position, and you've got to think what does this guy do and how do I need to guard him for these few seconds. There are a lot of different challenges when you're talking about defending them. Luckily we have a lot of length. We have a lot of athleticism, we've got some experience and we've got some things that we think about pose some challenges for them, as well. I think it will be a very interesting game to watch. Q. We're also doing a lot of different news features and such. Do you or your players really have any idea what a Billiken is, I'm told it brings good luck. Do you feel it's going to bring you luck to this tournament? COACH MENZIES: You have to have thorough knowledge of your competitors, whenever you step into the NCAA tournaments. We've done our research, we're very well versed in the Billiken and this mythical character, which is a basis of good luck and how it was created and initially the dolls that were created and morphed into this mascot for a university. So we do our research on everything. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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