BUFFALO, N.Y. – It was a laid-back day in KeyBank Center Wednesday. A calmness spread throughout the building; it will gradually be replaced with the storm of Thursday's Round of 64 matchups.
In addition to all eight teams holding open practices for the fans, every head coach took some time to answer questions from the media. Over 15 minutes apiece, the eight program leaders discussed everything under the sun, from their upcoming opponent to NIL to player nicknames.
Here were the best soundbites from the media interview room in Buffalo.
South Florida HC Bryan Hodgson
"A good, good friend of mine called me – one of the few people that I'd pick up the phone for the night before our conference championship game. And he called me, and he said, I'm just telling you right now, you're going to win this thing tomorrow and you're going to play in Buffalo, New York. I'm like, man, that would be amazing. That would be the icing on the cake.
... I turn the corner to come out and sit down with my players to look up at the Jumbotron, and immediately, the second I sat down, they announced South Florida playing Louisville in Buffalo, and my heart just dropped, in a very positive way. It's [an unbelievable] full circle moment for me."
"There is no distraction, there's no noise [around a coaching change]. This is the most [focused] and locked-in group I've ever been around. I had somebody ask me a similar question the other day at my press conference when we returned home from the conference tournament championship. My answer to them was, did we look distracted on Saturday and Sunday in those games? We obviously did not, and neither am I."
"When [Buffalo] beat Arizona [in 2018], our guys got on that plane from the Buffalo airport [wholeheartedly] believing we were going to go in there to win that game. My guys in that locker room right now feel the same way. We know that we're here because of the work we've put in. There's no luck."
Louisville HC Pat Kelsey
"During the recruiting process, this was one of the things [Mikel Brown Jr.] talked about all the time is the opportunity to play in March Madness under these really big lights, and he wants to play really bad. He's just not there physically right now."
"I think [tomorrow's game is between] two teams that have similar styles and philosophies. I can tell you this: Both the people that are here in the building and then the people that are watching around the country at home on their television or wherever the heck they're watching it, they're going to be entertained. It's going to be a really, really fun game."
"I'm fortunate to have the best job in the entire country, in my opinion ... our administration [understands that] our sports programs being successful is the lifeblood of our city. Now, that weekend in May when the Kentucky Derby is happening, the city stands still and it's all about thoroughbred racing. But the other 364 days of the year, it's about the stinking Cardinals."
North Dakota State HC David Richman
"I'm not a huge analytics guy, but we've studied some upsets. And if we can make some threes tomorrow – a bunch of them – hey, tip the cap to us and we would love every bit about it. But our program is built on defending, valuing the basketball and finishing possessions. That's how we won the Summit League championship last week or a little over a week ago."
"[Coen Carr is] an absolute freak. But what I love is that athleticism isn't just in space. He's a tough kid, too. He rebounds. He gets downhill. Yeah, he's going to present some challenges."
"Maybe we don't have NCAA Tournament experience, but we have age, maturity. We have college basketball experience. Like it or not, the only way you're going to get there right now is through the portal. In a couple weeks when our season is done, we'll be embracing it again."
"Our process has allowed me the conviction to sit here and tell you [that] we'll go find somebody [in the portal or high school] that we're going to make happy. If that may be only for nine months or it may be for two years, then that's just where we're at in today's game."
Michigan State HC Tom Izzo
Teams are good here. Weather is fine for me. No distractions. I don't have to worry about my guys out at the beach or anything. We're just hunkering down and looking forward to an incredible weekend.
"I've answered a lot of questions about the NIL, and what I'm most disappointed in is there's no transparency. So you're asking me a question that I have zero idea. I hear the rumors, you hear the rumors of what some people are paying some people. If those rumors are true, then we need a lot, a lot, a lot of money and so does everybody else.
... Does it always help to have more money? Sure. But if that's the only thing that matters, I think there will be a lot more of the guys that left that will be leaving, including me, because that's not what it's all about."
"If you told me somebody was making $50 million or $2 million, I really wouldn't have an honest idea. And coaches lie. We all lie. We're not going to tell you the truth because that's an advantage for somebody ... So transparency would be my thing."
"When it's a full-court lob and it's a behind-the-back dunk [from Coen Carr], even I kind of sit up in my chair a little bit more than I should. I still get excited about stuff like that."
"We're sitting there [on Selection Sunday] kind of hidden. Then you see [the] TV going on some of these places, and people are going nuts, and I remember when that was us. I do miss that a little bit. But there's a privilege to missing it, and that privilege is that you have done it on a consistent basis. If there's one thing whenever I leave that I want to be known for, it's consistency."
Howard HC Kenny Blakeney
"This [schedule] works out [perfectly] with the rhythm of how we do things. In our league, in the MEAC, we play Saturday and Monday. So for me, my preparation goes all in on the team that we're playing on Saturday. I don't even really tune into who we're playing on Monday until after the game on Saturday."
"Our league gets really, I think, [hit] because our teams have to play so many buy games, and by the time they are deep in the schedule or starting the regular conference schedule, some of those teams have lost 10, 11, 12, 13 games. It adds up when you look at NET and you look at KenPom numbers and things like that. But there's a lot of teams in the country that won't schedule games against Norfolk State or they won't schedule a game against North Carolina Central or they won't schedule against us."
"For us, it's going to be certainly a challenge [against Michigan], but I think we'll have fun trying to figure out the puzzle."
Michigan HC Dusty May
"This year, we had so many blowouts. We weren't in very many close games so we didn't get to learn as much about ourselves as we did in the Big Ten Tournament.
... I think we've been getting 10-to-20 possessions less over the last month of the season than we got before that. So teams have slowed down tempo, teams have tried to restrict our freedom of movement, they've tried to get more physical with us. So we haven't adjusted to that rugged play as well as we need to if we're going to be as good as anybody in the country."
"I think our consistency is just the number of capable players we have. We always talk about it, that no one plays great every game. You're going to have a bad night, I'm going to have a bad night. But our team has been deep enough where if someone has had an off night, someone else has been more than capable of coming in and carrying the load."
"That's probably our biggest fight every day is not thinking about what happens the day you lose. Because when you lose in college basketball, your last game, the next 24 to 48 hours is a tsunami. You don't know what direction [it's] coming, you don't know what direction it's going, but you know there are a lot of people counting on you to make quick, decisive decisions that impact their futures."
"I think evaluation is more important than ever, and that's even evaluating who you're going to pay as your max players, as your mid-level players, and whatnot. And also evaluate guys that can impact winning in the future that maybe don't have great expectations.
... There is value in a coaching staff and group that can win with less by getting great value."
Saint Louis HC Josh Schertz
"There's always speculation [with] who's coming back, who's going where, what's happening with coaches, what's happening with players. I think one of our program bedrocks is be where your feet are, just to be present. It would be so disappointing to go through this experience and not enjoy it and to not be where your feet are."
"What you have to do is prepare for what you think the opponent is going to give you [in practice], and you have to be as thorough as possible but also as efficient as possible. You're not trying to grind these guys down."
"I don't want to forget all the time that I spent the first 28 years [of coaching] trying to reach this level, and I want to enjoy it as much as I can."
"Everything [Robbie Avila] sacrificed, he sacrificed money, he sacrificed playing time. He sets an unbelievable tenor for our whole program, his sense of humor, his humility, his team orientation, the kind of competitor he is, the way he cares about people, his compassion. I could go on for days about what he's meant."
"[Favorite] nickname [for Avila]? I'll go Milk Chamberlain or SLU Alcindor."
Georgia HC Mike White
"[Blue Cain has] been consistent with his work. With these 20-year-olds these days, no one wants to be called a glue guy, but he's a guy that does a lot well. He came here as a catch-and-shoot guy who's turned into, on certain nights, a really good defender, and those nights are becoming more frequent."
"[The SEC is] deep. I'll give you some more [words] just for fun. You can take them or leave them. Athletic, competitive, the best. It's become the best league in the country."
"When we're playing well ... I think we're one of the best offensive teams in the country.
... Defensively, we've shown it at times, and we've shown it against some of the best offenses in the country. Can we put it all together? That's what it'll take to advance."
