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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: SALT LAKE CITYMarch 15, 2017Brian JonesQuinton HookerDrick BernstineCorey BaldwinSalt Lake City, Utah Q. Everybody has expectations of a 15-2. Can you give your expectations of what that game means tomorrow? QUINTON HOOKER: I think for us there's a history of 15 beating 2. So it gives us a little bit added boost to prepare and get ready for the game. And that kind of goes with how our team is. We're driven, regarded, and we're ready to play some ball. Q. What's the journey been like for you guys up to this point? COREY BALDWIN: It's an amazing journey. Everybody stood together since the beginning of the year. We had goals we set and reached every one of them as a team. So it was a great experience this whole year. DRICK BERNSTINE: As a team we just came together. This was -- where we wanted to be at the end of the day. When we first started practicing in the summer, we were talking about 20 and tourney. That's what Coach Jones instilled in us. From the first day of practice we wanted to work as hard as we could so we could get here. And that's why we're here, I believe. Q. After you guys lost in 2014, some things changed within the program and that's what got you here today. Can you touch on that. QUINTON HOOKER: Yeah, with me being here the longest, especially after that, I think just like the culture change definitely happened. With being so close and stuff like that, seeing how hard it is to get to that position, I think the whole mindset changed. Being focused on and off the court, putting in extra work. And honestly it especially came together this year, but I think last year was a big year for us, as well, where we came together as a team and got that team chemistry to be able to do what we're doing now. DRICK BERNSTINE: Ever since me and Corey both came in the same year, and one thing Quinton talked to me about when I first got there, that we stay focused and continue build as a team. And most important thing is family with Coach Jones. I think we took that and really ran with it. All the guys are really close. And I think that shows on the court, honestly. Q. What do you know about Arizona, Q, and if you had to have one player you had to focus on what would that be? QUINTON HOOKER: Right now Markkanen is our big focus, a big guy that can stretch the floor. They're a long, athletic team that plays great D. So really our focus is getting stops, rebounding, that's going to be a big expectation for us is to lead in rebounding and getting out in transition, just playing our game and having some fun. Q. A lot has been made about the tempo you play in, one of the fastest in the country. Seems like you play faster and faster with each game then the wins started racking up. DRICK BERNSTINE: It's as a collective group I think we always focus on running. Our best offense is transition, definitely. All of us really thrive in transition from Corey shooting 3's to Q shooting 3's, to beating everybody in transition. We all do that really well. And we're really talented and we can all push the ball, so that helps as well with us winning and scoring a lot of points. Q. You said you guys were kind of focused on Markkanen and shutting him down. In terms of guard play, who is somebody you key on? QUINTON HOOKER: In the point guard position, they all get out and go in transition a little bit. Trier is a great player, too, so being able to slow him down and slow down some of his touches is something we're focused on, too. Q. Wonder what the atmosphere has been like on campus and in town? Was it fun, crazy, hard to deal with to focus on the game? COREY BALDWIN: Yeah. It was a big win for the history of UND, making it for the first time in the tournament. Getting back and seeing all the fans celebrate with us, it was a remarkable experience. But we had one day to celebrate. But the next day was back in business, and we had to fly out and get ready to play tomorrow. Q. For people who have been to your state but not to your school, could you describe the atmosphere of playing there, the fans, the expectations, all those things that make a sports culture? QUINTON HOOKER: You know, playing in Grand Forks and at the Betty is unbelievable, really. For the last four years I've seen it go from a slight buzz to unbelievable. Honestly, with our culture change ourselves as a team, it's changed as a community, too, for our support. Grand Forks has a long history of supporting their athletics, especially with hockey and football. This year has been a great year for the university as well. Especially with four teams winning four Big Sky titles, it's been huge. Each season the crowd is getting another great team, another great set of students to support. And honestly, it's been great, the entire town is buzzing, full of energy. It's really something special to be a part of. Q. You mentioned hockey, that's a huge deal there. Are you rivaling that now as far as the excitement? DRICK BERNSTINE: I'll say we're riding with them. They had a lot of success last year, and we kind of learned from that, honestly. Took some of their traits and built them on to our own. And honestly, it's not really a rivalry between us, we're actually really close with a lot of the hockey guys, so that's a great thing, as well. Q. Can you guys touch on what it was like when you found out in the selection show, you guys were just getting up in the air, can you take us through that crazy moment and what that was like? COREY BALDWIN: I was actually about to fall asleep, because I thought we weren't going to make it. Then I heard everybody yelling, and we found out we were playing Arizona. Everybody was so excited. The women's team was on the plane with us. Everyone was rejoicing, it was like a great experience going up. Everyone was smiling the whole ride. Q. You guys play a lot of games in your conference at altitude like here. Do you do anything different to prepare or do you find your rotation is different when you're playing or is it the same? DRICK BERNSTINE: For the most part I say it's the same. Sometimes we do a little extra running. But as of late, throughout this winning streak we've been on, we haven't done anything extra. It remains to be the same thing. The altitude doesn't really affect us, we run at the same pace. As crazy as it sounds, you've got to push through, mentally being tough, honestly. Q. You guys, Arizona and North Dakota, have had similar opponents. Have you talked to anybody, for instance Northern Colorado, about what they saw and potential ways of how to beat them? QUINTON HOOKER: We watched their game film when they played them. And Northern Colorado played them pretty tough, too. So it's somebody that we can look to to see what they did. It's somebody that we've been looking to, also. Q. You guys are the ultimate underdogs in a lot of ways, in a sport that revels in the underdog. Do you like that feeling? DRICK BERNSTINE: I say we definitely like it. I think even last year, just building off of last year, nobody ever thought we'd be any good. We snuck up on people last year. We ended up losing in the semifinals. As of this year I think we're still kind of sneaking up on people because they just didn't really believe it. Like North Dakota basketball has never been this great. It's something you've got to embrace. It's a really good thing. We all kind of take that under our wing and just walk with a chip on our shoulder knowing that people don't really believe sometimes. QUINTON HOOKER: To add on to that, after we had won the regular season title, people were still doubting if we were going to finish it out in the tournament. Being the underdog is something that here at North Dakota we've been, for most of us the entire time we've been here. God has put us all here for a reason, we think we're a special group. It's fun to play with my guys and this team. We're excited to be here. COACH BRIAN JONES: Well, obviously we're excited to be here. To me it finally hits now. It's for real, I guess is the term, once we walked into this building, seeing the other teams, seeing this environment, obviously just walking into here. It's not just Wayne interviewing me at the home facility back at Grand Forks, North Dakota. It's a thrill to be here. I was able to do it as a player and as an assistant coach, but obviously as the head coach it's has special meaning because you're the one running the program. A lot of work has paid off. A lot of great coaches along the way, a lot of great players on this journey with us, that's why it's so special for us. Q. You said you were here as a player. What do you remember most about being here as a player and what memories have you shared with your guys? COACH BRIAN JONES: The biggest thing is I played for Northern Iowa, and we beat Mizzou. We upset Mizzou with a shot at the horn. That was obviously a great scenario. But next year is the 27th year anniversary of that. And how fired up the guys are about that team and that experience, 27 years ago. And that's what I've talked about. This is something you're going to remember for the rest of your life and you're going to be able to draw upon through your walk through life, the good, and just the life journeys. This is a great opportunity for you, enjoy it, embrace it. It doesn't happen that -- obviously that easily. So don't get caught up in not enjoying it, because it's too special of a few days for us. Not just the players individually, for our university and the community. Just have fun with it, because it's something really, really special. Q. What are the keys for you guys, personally, in the game tomorrow, besides getting out and running it? COACH BRIAN JONES: We talked, just tongue in cheek, we talked about what are some things we can do. We can beat them to the laundromat. We've got whiter skin, more pasty skin, as coaches bigger bellies and more bald spots. That's what we can beat as far as the staff, I don't know about the team. Running is a big part of what we do. The thing that I want to stress to our guys is we've got to be who we are. You don't get to the big stage and all of a sudden forget about what you've done through 31 games. We want to be able to get out and play fast, because that's what we've done. But I think the key for us is we've got to be able to rebound, obviously, with their length, and value the basketball. They are so good defensively. I don't know, maybe they do, and obviously we're just getting the first time we're playing them, but obviously in the PAC 12 and watching them from afar, I don't know how much credit they get defensively, how good they are. Not just their guard play, as far as knocking the ball loose, but once you do get a chance to get your feet in the paint their length at the rim. We're going to have to do a great job of finding ways to get great shots, and that's not always easy against a superior defensive team. So I think offensively we have to value the basketball, we've got to be able to get great shots for us with floor balance. But defensively we've got to really just get back in transition and find ways to slow them up the best we can. We don't have the size. But one thing we do have is kids who are fearless, and they've shown that all year long, and just continue to be fearless and resilient and find a way to stick around through the course of the 40 minutes. Q. Do you look at the common opponents you have, did you pick up anything out of that? COACH BRIAN JONES: Yeah, some of those -- we did. We watched those. I'm a film junkie, so I try to watch everything. That was more our level, type of bodies that we present against them. But it was so long ago. Obviously Northern Colorado played well. But Bakersfield played them very well, too. They both played a lot of zone, that's something we don't do. That's why it's a little different for us. But more importantly I think it was -- when there's not a lot of film out there and I think now there's so much film out there on each team, it's not as easy to sneak up on these opponents like they did early in the season. For me I try to look at -- I'm a coach that looks under every rock I can, just to find an advantage, whether it's the first game of the year or the last game of the year. I've watched everything. I've tried to call some coaches, even just to pick their brain. But it's still -- it's going to be a tremendous task for us, but at the same time I'm very confident in who we are and what we've been about, and what the young men will do once they step on the floor. Q. You said after the win in the Big Sky Tournament that it was a culmination of a two-year process. Can you take me through what happened to get to that? COACH BRIAN JONES: Starting before that, I call it the lost year, where as coaches we start recruiting a couple of kids that don't fit you or got away from who you are as a program. So the year before that we had a bad year. I've always said I've learned so much about myself during that time. We took some transfers and things that just didn't work for North Dakota. That next year we recruited all high school kids, like we'd done up until then. And we took a trip to Europe. That was huge. I'm a proponent of that. I know a lot of coaches do that. We were able to go to Italy and France two years ago. That started the journey. Ten days together overseas, learning about one another, in a foreign country, playing against high-quality opponents. That's where I thought we had something. I thought we'd go over there and struggle, but we didn't. We won every game and played really well. And that transpired over the course of the fall, we were the 7th youngest team last year in Division I. Won 17 games. Within those 17 we lost 7 by a total of 16 or 17 points. We had a chance to win 24. That's why I think going into this year we've won a lot of close games, we're 4-0 in overtime. But it was all part of last year, learning and growing through those opportunities and misses. And then our guys, being so devastated when we got beat by Weber State in the semifinals when we controlled the entire game. I had to go through the valley. We had to go through the valley as a program, to get to the mountaintop right now. It just doesn't happen at this level. You have to be able to appreciate and understand losing before you know how to win a championship. That's what it took for all of us, including myself. Q. You guys won the Big Sky regular season title, and you still felt like a little bit of an underdog going into the Big Sky tournament. And you were down late against Weber in that final. Have your guys played with a chip on their shoulder down the stretch? COACH BRIAN JONES: I think so, because, one, we had to go through a lot of new things. We've always been the hunter, we've never been hunted. We've never had a target on our back. It took us some time to get comfortable with that. But even with that Weber and Montana are still the premier two teams in our league. We had a great year this year, but every year you're walking into that season knowing, how can we beat Weber, how can we beat Montana, because they've done that consistently. Especially the older guys that have been through it understood that those are the programs that we always strive to beat. That's who I knew -- we won the regular season, but even when we beat Weber at their place. I knew we were going to have to face them to get to the championship or win the championship. That's the respect I have for Coach Rahe, with what he's done for that program. We've always taken the road less traveled. We went from Division II to Division I. People who don't know, that's an extremely difficult journey because of the scheduling. The kids you recruit don't have an opportunity to play in the postseason. So you're not always getting the type of talent you need to compete. So, yeah, it's just a road that's less traveled, but I think it's prepared us for today. And our guys, a lot of them were underrecruited, we had to develop, that's why they had that chip on their shoulder. They're still out there to prove they belong. They're great kids, but a lot were underrecruited or just overlooked, whether it was lack of size, lack of foot speed, so they're always out there trying to prove that they can play on this stage. Q. What was it like when you finally got there and came back from Reno, what was the excitement level around campus and town, was it hard to keep your team focused? COACH BRIAN JONES: Honestly, we tried to enjoy it, because it's hard. One, we had -- so we win the championship. We had a 4 a.m. departure from Reno to get home. Lovely weather there. And then the selection show we're stuck on the tarmac, literally taking off. I mean we're probably ten feet off the ground right when they show Arizona and North Dakota. We didn't have a selection show. We were celebrating in our plane. It was a little different. Once we got home, we had fans turning up at the gym, at the airport. It shows that a small community like ourselves, just the pride they have in these kids. And our kids -- they've rallied around this team the last two seasons. But our guys have rallied around our community and the student body. It's more of a family thing. It's not just about our program, it was our community, too. Q. You talk about rebounding as the key. How important is pace for you guys? Does it have to be at a faster pace? COACH BRIAN JONES: It has to be at a good pace, but the thing is you can't -- the old John Wooden, be fast, but not in a hurry. We've got to be who we are. But because of their athleticism and speed we can't be sped up by that. We've still got to be under control. And be able to get the ball reverse side to side and stay within what we're trying to do. We want to play that way. I have no interest in playing the game in the 50s, I don't know many fans or coaches or players that like to play in that style. I want to be true to who we are and who I am as a coach. I don't care if it is Arizona, it could be somebody else, I'm still going to try to play that way. Q. Coaches talk before about possession-to-possession pressure in the conference tournament where only the winner is going to come here. I wonder, you're down 6 with 50 seconds to go, if I read it correctly. And I was wondering, did that add something to this, even though you don't want to be down? COACH BRIAN JONES: It's funny about leading up to that we had a few timeouts and all I kept hearing from the guys was, We got this, we just need to stop. They're always communicating, never giving in or giving up. To me that's when you know you've got a special team, when it's player led and confident in what they've done. We had so many scenarios. Every one of our overtime tournaments, we won all four, and they've been the same situation. Where as a coach how do we get -- not even to win the game -- how did we get to overtime because we had no business getting in overtime. But things fell into place for us. Our guys made plays when they needed to make plays. That was what was unique. And that was probably the most unique one of the bunch, of the four. But still, once we got there I felt this is what happened to us last year. Weber forced overtime with us, it broke our spirit a little bit. I thought once we got there, we had them. We had proven it time and time again and our guys were very confident in it. Q. You guys play a lot of games, do you change anything? COACH BRIAN JONES: As a practice, we try to do some more sprints. We'll do some drills and make them run some sprints just to shock the system. With that the day leading up -- because it does take time. It does take our guys a little bit to get comfortable with that. So hopefully since we just played in altitude last week and been doing it all season long it's not as much of a jump. But it's definitely that first -- that's why I try to get to my bench early in the game because it does zap you. It does -- once they get to the second wind they seem to perform fairly well. Q. How about the travel with Big Sky, it's not easy, you're on the perimeter of that? COACH BRIAN JONES: We are the Hawaii of the -- I guess the east. But it's no beaches and not a lot of water. That's the way I view it. It's definitely tough. It's usually 12-hour days. That's why getting on this charter flight we were a fish out of water. A direct flight somewhere and it took two hours? Our days are usually 12-hour days. And you usually have to practice. There's times where I wish they would do a day in the life of a low major, mid-major or an opponent like ourselves, to see what these kids go through. Because it's long days. And for them to perform the next night when they've had a 12-hour day, it's been tough. But, again, that's what makes our group who they are. They don't expect anything. But they go out there and try to earn everything. That's what's made North Dakota special. They're blue collar kids, for the most part our kids across the board in all our athletic teams are blue collar and tough minded because of all the hurdles they have to overcome. Q. Can you talk about Quinton Hooker, everything he's brought to you this year? COACH BRIAN JONES: He's a phenomenal person. I'll start with that. His character, just who he is. He's the Pied Piper, everybody loves him. And he'll lead anybody and everybody that will give him a chance. I just think he lives his life the right way. He's a great person in the community and on the campus. But his habits on the floor. He comes to work every day, he never cuts corners. And he's a winner. He was recruited at a higher level out of high school, but because the assistant coach and myself developed a relationship with him at such a young age, he was loyal. He had bigger opportunities. But he was about the loyalty, that family. He wants to be a part of that program that coaches are going to continue to challenge him but love him during basketball, after basketball is over, just be a part of his life once his journey is over. We've been blessed to get him. And he's been a program changer for us since he stepped on campus. I know next year there's times we all go through as coaches, you don't truly embrace it and enjoy it as much as you should while you have them, because you're so wired into what you're trying to get done. But he's going to be one of those young men that makes his mark. He's going to play professional basketball somewhere, and he's going to make his mark in the future as a husband and father, he's going to be phenomenal. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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