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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: AUSTINMarch 21, 2013Shamir DavisDequan HicksJames HulbinMike McConathyJalan WestAUSTIN, TEXAS THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with the student‑athletes from Northwestern State. Questions? Q. Could all four of you guys talk about the style you play with so many substitutions and does it ever get discouraging to know that you're coming out of the game? SHAMIR DAVIS: Well everyone knows we go five man rotation about every three to four minutes. Just try to put pressure on the offensive players. We pick up full court and everyone knows that they're going to come out. So that's one thing about our team, everyone's going to play. At any given moment, everyone's going to play. Whether you're tired, whether you're hot, whether you're cold, you're going to come out. So we all know that coming into the game and we try to bring all our energy. JALAN WEST: I think that we don't get discouraged because everybody holds each other accountable. We try to wear teams down so if one come out and do their best, the next player come in and try to do their best also. I think it helps us out as a whole by wearing the other team's offensive players down, the way that we pressure and get after it. DEQUAN HICKS: I wouldn't say so much discouraged. I would say we know we got fresh legs coming in so we can go in play our hardest for three minutes and then get the subs in for fresh legs. Get their three minutes and then we can come back in and add on to it. So I don't say discouraged. I say it's a big part of our success. JAMES HULBIN: I agree. It's not discouraging if the first five go out and set the tempo, then the second five will come out there and try it and keep the tempo going. Stay with the defense pressure, make sure the pressure's up high and just run our lanes and just play team basketball. Q. The fact that this school is able to pull a 14 over a 3 in 2006 when you guys beat Iowa, your school, how much confidence does that give you, that can you do it again tomorrow and knock Florida off? JAMES HULBIN: It gives us a lot of confidence. Everybody is just reminiscing on the 2006 team. We just pretty much trying to set our pace for our own memories in the future, future players at our program too. So we're playing with a lot of confidence, we just play our game. Q. With that being said, how important is it for you guys to set your own legacy as a team. A lot of people talk about that 2006 game. But how important is it for you guys to set your own legacy with a win against Florida? DEQUAN HICKS: I think that it's very important for us, because we don't want to just be faced off one game, known as one game. We want to be known as a whole, a whole alumni, not just one team, one game, one shot. Just a whole new look. Q. Shamir, talk about what you do know of Florida? You look at a team that's been so close to being to the Final Four the last couple years, won national championships back to back years not too long ago, and they got a couple seniors who really feel like they have something to prove. Talk about a team like that and how dangerous they are. SHAMIR DAVIS: Everyone knows coach Billy Donovan does a great job with his players. They have a great defensive team and also they can score. They got bigs on the inside and a lot of great guard play. We watched them a couple times this year, even though we're kind of busy with our own schedule, but we caught a couple of their games and we know they like to get up‑and‑down the floor also. That kind of matches up with what we do also, so it ought to be a good game. Q. Coach McConathy, when he sells you guys on this style of play, what kind of sacrifice do you have to make, I guess, to play 15, 18 minutes? JALAN WEST: I think the sacrifice we make is just trusting your teammates, knowing that you're not going to be in the game the whole time, even if you're hot. You just got to trust your teammates to get in the game and do the same thing that you were doing and that's doing your best and that's what I think we do well. Q. For Jalan, I notice you hurt your ankle during the Stephen F. Austin game. How is your ankle feeling and will you be a hundred percent for Florida? JALAN WEST: I wouldn't say a hundred percent. No percentage. I think it's good. I think I'll be fine. I think my teammates will just keep the intensity, keep me confident in it and I think I ought to be fine. THE MODERATOR: Okay, gentlemen, we're going to let you go. We'll take an opening statement from coach. COACH MCCONATHY: Just excited about being in the NCAA tournament. I've been away from here for a few years and glad that our kids could experience this and be here with the opportunity to continue to play in such a great event. THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions. Q. Can you talk about the genesis of your style of play and I don't know, did it come from hockey? And also do you ever have a hard time getting a kid to come to school because, hey, coach, I'm out after three minutes? COACH MCCONATHY: Well, a former coach that passed away told me I wouldn't play for myself. But it kind of evolved in junior college back in the '80s for one or two years and then picked it up back in the '90s at Bossier Parish Community College. The reason that I did this was because we had so many good players I was having a lot of moral issues. So I figured out that if I played 10, I could at least keep 10 happy. And that would be a little bit easier. Now we were having several good players there at the junior college I was at, Bossier Parish Community College, and that's kind of where it involved at. Years ago, Perry Clark at Tulane ran something similar to this, but his second wave though was a posse, is what he called it, and I think that was in the, I want to say that was in the maybe the early '90s. But they had a specific purpose of trap, of running presses. Our situation is generally we're just doing the same thing, we're running the same offense. I haven't got creative enough or I'm not smart enough to be able to put two groups doing two different things. But I think that to answer the second part of your question, I think that it's a great recruiting tool, because a kid coming in when he's a freshman has an opportunity to play. But on the back side of that, they have to remember, when they get to be juniors and seniors, that when they were freshmen they had an opportunity to play and they need to be aware of that. A little bit of a struggle sometimes when you bring junior college players in. DeQuan Hicks, Bryce White, probably have adjusted to our system, as well as, any players that I've ever had in 14 years with the exception of Chris Thompson that played on our first NCAA team. And that's because he had already done it for two years, because he played for me in junior college. Q. I know it's been a much different team than 2006 when your team won as a 14 seed over a three. Talk about that experience and just, I mean how do you want this team to view that as far as moving ahead? COACH MCCONATHY: The 2005, 2006, these two teams have a lot of parallels but then there's some differences. That team was built off of a cohesiveness because they had grown up as babies. There was 11 freshmen, and then the next year, and then on to that to winning a conference championship, getting knocked out in the championship game.  And then that year coming in winning the championship and winning the tournament. This team can really get the ball up‑and‑down the floor. That team could, but really not to the efficiency level that this team could. The difference there would be we played good defense there, but I really think that this group has some really good passers, not that the other team didn't. But this team, it just seems like the ball never sticks and the ball is pushed up the floor so quickly. There will be times when we're coming up the floor in games to where they have scored and I look up and we have got three passes and we're laying the ball in or shooting six foot shots, or it's four passes and the post man's passing to the wing, cut to the bucket and laid the ball up. I think that the efficiency in passing has been a big plus for this team. Q. Talk about the up tempo style that you guys play. Talking to the Florida players just a minute ago, that's all they really talked about was just the up tempo, the way you guys run the court. You substitute five in at a time, and that seemed to be one of the concerns they had playing you guys. Talk about that and how that really helps you guys out knowing that that's the style that you've been playing. COACH MCCONATHY: Well, I just think that it's who we are. We played that way all year and we have got to continue to do that. I think it helps us because, when you look at our stat line, we get it from different places every night. Sure we got four guys that are averaging in double figures, but it might be a Brison White that comes in and has 22 points or one game he had six steals and 15 points. I think 15 minutes he played. So you're getting it from a lot of different areas, a lot of different times, and maybe sometimes not very many minutes, but they're very efficient when they're in there. I believe that DeQuan Hicks was, per minute in the game playing time, that he was the leading scorer per minute that he played. So efficiency is an important part there. That's just who we are and I just really think that that's been a good thing for us. I think that our kids have a unique bond and they like their identity. And they enjoy playing and having fun playing the game. And happy players make sometimes good players. So we like that. Q. After watching Florida on film what are your impressions, initial observations I guess, of their defense and how well the players fit together? COACH MCCONATHY: They're real good. (Laughter.) They're real good and very, I'm just so impressed with the talent level, but the team and the program that they have, but the ball never sticks. Defensively they're always in position. They're going to make it extremely hard on you to be able to get anything easy. They're going to mix up their defenses and they're going to make you try to make you make mistakes. I think one of the keys there is that you got to take care of the ball and not let yourself get put in a position where you have live ball turnovers, where they're going down and getting layups. Q. I'm curious, you faced the No. 1 scoring team in the country three times. Is there any similarities between Stephen F. Austin and Florida that your team can be prepared for? COACH MCCONATHY: I think both of them are so well coached, such great defensive teams, but I think too the efficiency of their offense and the fact that the ball moves, they have their system, they stay with their ball screens, they do so many things, in, out, pick and pops, all the different areas that they have that are efficient in their game that make a huge difference and make it ‑‑ there's a little difference between Stephen F. and Florida, because of the fact that Florida's going to nail threes. And they're going to shoot threes where Stephen F. Austin is not going to take very many threes. Q. Talk about facing three SEC teams this year. I know it was earlier in the year, but did that help you in any way preparing for Florida? COACH MCCONATHY: Well I think any time you get to go in big venues and large conferences and successful conferences like the SEC it helps you. I think it helped us to see where we were. More or less along the lines of if you belong. If you look at the scores on those games, we lost to A & M by 13, I think 15 or 17 to Arkansas, right after Christmas, but it was a much closer game than that. It's one of those that kind of got away from us. But we were right in there hanging in there. Then LSU early, we got down early and then we came back. Of course, I don't know if that was their first home game, it was one of the first ones. Of course John Jones and I kind of ‑‑ I'm a little bit older than him, but we grew up together. So I knew he would be ready to put a whupping on me. And he did. But I just think that the fact that we played those teams and we sought caliber of play helps when you come play a Florida, of course, who won the league. It helps that other teams were not in the top, but still I think it helps you to have played those teams. Q. This is the only site of the eight that doesn't have a local or regional type team and most all the tickets were sold to local fans. So what kinds of things does a, as an underdog, do you guys bring to the table do you think that could get people pulling for you tomorrow night? COACH MCCONATHY: You didn't hear? I went out and took a bank loan out and went and bought a bunch of T‑shirts. It might be me standing out passing them out tomorrow. No, I didn't do that. But I understand that the fact that if we come and compete ‑‑ and we are local, six hours across‑‑ that if we come and we really compete and give people something to identify with, because that can be a good thing. We don't have any Texans this year, we have had some in the past, but just thankful for the opportunity to be close to home, because it's great for us to be able to get some of our fans here. And we have had a group that has been fun to watch. I think that if we come and compete to the level and take care of our business like we should, I think that they will really like this Demon hoops squad. Q. Talk a little bit about their guards and your guards. Because it seems up front both are talented at the one and two spot. How do you see that playing out tomorrow with regards to whoever can play the better game and of course get their team in the right situations to make the plays down the stretch? COACH MCCONATHY: Well, guard play is always so important. They have very talented guards. We feel like our guards are very, very talented. A little bit different in the fact of size, that we're a little bit smaller. Shamir is a little bit bigger guard in arm length. And I always say that you don't measure them from the top of your head, you measure them from the end of their fingers, because that's what they play with. But Shamir's a longer kid that can get to the bucket and Jalan is very, very quick. I think he's as talented Jalan is as talented with the ball getting into the lane and hitting people where Shamir's a guy that drives and is able to get it up and strong enough to get it up there and be able to cushion himself to get the bucket in. I think a lot of it will have to do with the defense and who can keep each other in front of them. I think that will be a key factor. Hoping that our guards are, can get inside of theirs. But I know that they're very talented and very defensive oriented and will do a great job of protecting straight line drives. Q. Florida's had a lot of close games, I think six of them were within a few points at the very, very end. Do you feel like if you guys are close with Florida that you'll be able to be on top in the game situation like that? You have the strength to overcome and be the ones to finish with the win? COACH MCCONATHY: Well, I am very hopeful that we can be close and we can be in the position to where we can make a play at the end to win a ball game. That's‑‑ being a guy that tries to get the ball up‑and‑down the floor as quick as possible, but this group has a unique ability to be able to play fast, but then also play slow enough to take good shots and in the last probably four ball games, one, two, three, well last probably five games we were caught in a situation to where it was not all just getting up‑and‑down the floor, it was a slower pace game at the end and we were able to overcome that and be able to win the game. So I'm confident in our ability to be in a tight game to be able to finish. Q. You got pretty emotional at the end of the championship game. The first question you asked or first thing you said you were so proud of Roman Banks. Roman Banks is within three of Gonzaga with two minutes 41 seconds left. So talk why you had so much pride in Roman Banks and the Southern Jaguars and Louisiana basketball? COACH MCCONATHY: Roman Banks played at Shreveport High School. Roman Banks was the coach at Southern University at Shreveport when I was coaching at Bossier Parish. He played on the team that beat Kentucky in Rupp Arena for Northwestern State. He's an in‑club graduate Hall of Fame. Any time one of your guys does good, graduates, you know, you got to feel real good about that. And we're excited for Roman. And also he coached in the Southland Conference as well as the assistant for several years at Southeastern Louisiana. So that's important. You know, and in our culture today sometimes it's not very, for whatever reason, we need to be happy when somebody does good. And it's just good to see somebody do well. Whoever it is. So we're just really excited for him and hopefully he can continue his quest to get a win. Q. Can you talk a little bit more about Northwestern State and Southern being not two of the giant programs from the state of Louisiana, but you're out in the forefront representing the state, and the top‑tier of men's basketball. COACH MCCONATHY: Well, that's interesting you ask that. I might mess this up and have to act dumb, but I think since 2001 nine programs our size have gotten to the NCAA tournament and have had more than two appearances. Southern has had, I believe, two since ‑‑ two in that period. And the same year we went in 2005, twice they went, we went as well. And now we're both back in it in 2013. Of course that was with two different coaches, but I do think it's important, because Louisiana has a tremendous, rich history of basketball. And for Southern University in the south and Northwestern State Louisiana in the north to be able involved in an event of this magnitude does a lot for the state, it does a lot for individual schools, individual programs. I mean, it's just awesome to see the enthusiasm that's out there from our students, from our towns people, from Shreveport, Baton Rouge, Alexandria. And it's really and truly, I mean Louisiana, and Texas being right over here next door to us would be the same way ‑‑ of course, Texas is a little larger than Louisiana‑‑ but when one of your teams does well, it's just good to feel good for somebody else. And, I mean, I just think that there's great basketball in Louisiana. We got 13 out of the our 17 kids in our program from Louisiana. And that just speaks a lots for the talent level. And we want to be able to continue to get those Louisiana guys to stay home. THE MODERATOR: Okay, thank you, coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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