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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: JACKSONVILLEMarch 20, 2019Joe GoldingJaylen FranklinJaren LewisHayden FarquharJacksonville, Florida Q. What has the dynamic of the team been like since you guys have seen Jalone and B.J. leave and now you guys have Damien Daniels and Joe Pleasant stepping up? How has that changed the dynamic of the team and helped you guys to get to this point? JAREN LEWIS: Really just what we've been preaching all year, just next-guy-up mentality, just being ready for your moment. The young guys have done a great job, just staying prepared, staying in the gym. It was really nothing new to us. We knew they could step up. We knew the talent they had. We knew they could contribute. So it wasn't really surprising to us. The dynamic hasn't changed so much, it was just younger players stepping up and doing what we knew they could do. Q. Hayden, it's good to see you on the corner there; question for you: Obviously there's been some transition towards the second half of the season. Did you ever think you would be on this platform, small town, Throckmorton, all of a sudden on a big stage in front of all of us? Did you ever imagine this? HAYDEN FARQUHAR: No, I never imagined it but I dreamed about it. But yeah, it's truly amazing just being from a small town, just coming from a town with 700 people and coming to Abilene where there's 100,000 people, that was a big change, and now coming to Jacksonville, Florida, to play on the biggest stage in college basketball is truly amazing. Q. When you came to Abilene, you knew the AC would be ineligible to be in the postseason for the first two years, and now you're in the tournament as seniors. Just explain the emotions and what it's like finally being here. JAYLEN FRANKLIN: I mean, it feels amazing. This was always a dream come true. We've preached about this for our senior year over the summers, so like we want to go to the NCAA Tournament, we want to go play at the biggest stage. We're here now, and we've just got to make some noise. Q. When you look at the Kentucky team, what is it that stands out about those guys, and what do you guys have to do tomorrow night? HAYDEN FARQUHAR: They're big. They're athletic. We've just got to block out and just play team defense, and we've just got to hone in on the defensive side, and they're really big and they're really tall, they're really athletic, and we've just got to stay together as a team and just push through. JAREN LEWIS: Yeah, I mean, obviously they're really talented, a lot of guys with great skill levels, athleticism is really the big thing we look at, and they have that at all five positions. Really boxing out is going to be important. We've got to take care of the ball, and we just know we have to stay focused and locked into our game plan. Q. A lot of talk about dreams come true after the Southland Tournament. Have you guys woken up, or is this still kind of dreamland for you guys? JAYLEN FRANKLIN: I mean, we done woken up. After the Southland Conference Tournament I couldn't really sleep. I slept with the trophy in my hand that same night. But we're woken up and now it's time for us to get to business and have some fun and play with confidence. Q. Jaren, you played with Joel Berry, J Frank you played with Malik Monk and KeVaughn Allen growing up. Does the fact that you did that take a little bit of the mystique away from, oh, my gosh, it's Kentucky? You've played with some of the best guys in the world. JAREN LEWIS: Yeah, I would say so. It's nothing new really, it's just basketball. At the end of the day, that's what it is. I don't really have like a mystique or anything, no nerves. It's just going out there, we're hooping. It's not really a huge deal. Yeah, I mean, it's a big stage, NCAA Tournament is what we've been working for, but at the end of the day, it's no pressure for us, it's just playing basketball, doing what we love, doing what we've been doing for years now. JAYLEN FRANKLIN: Following on what Jaren said, we're just here to play basketball. I mean, I played with those guys, and they taught me a lot, you know. They're just here to have fun, I guess. Q. Have you heard from either of those guys? JAYLEN FRANKLIN: Yeah, I heard from KeVaughn. I called him right after the Selection Show. He was like, "Hey, man, you've got Kentucky. Dream come true." I said, "I know, I know, I know. I've just got to get to work, man." Q. For Hayden, you mentioned coming from a small-town background; what was your first impression of coming into this arena knowing this is the big stage here? HAYDEN FARQUHAR: It was awesome. Just like you said, coming from a small town, just not getting out there -- we don't even have like fast food restaurants or anything, but just coming into this arena and looking at the atmosphere it's going to bring during the game is going to be truly awesome. Q. Obviously for Abilene Christian, this being the first time in the tournament, then you have such a storied program like Kentucky, and even Jaylen, you mentioned just a couple answers ago this being a dream come true. How does the difference between the two programs play into your mindset going into this game tomorrow? And Jaylen kind of specifically, why is this a dream come true for you? JAYLEN FRANKLIN: It's a dream come true because you always want to play against higher-ranked schools, you know, and this is up there. Kentucky is a great team, great program, great players and great coaching staff. I used to grow up watching them and just being out there -- not being out there, but just watching them and dreaming about going to Kentucky. But this is truly a dream come true. I'm just going to embrace this moment. Q. Jaren, for you, this is kind of a homecoming in a sense, being from Orlando and being back in your home state. What's it been like since you've been here? Have you been able to see family? Are you getting acclimated with the humidity a little bit more? Does it feel good to be back? JAREN LEWIS: Yeah, it feels great being back. Everyone has been giving me a hard time because it was cold when we got in yesterday, and all they say is that I complain about Texas being cold all the time, and this is not much of a difference. I'm just like, all right, give it some time. It's been great being back. I haven't got to see any family or friends yet because we've been here for a day but I have a lot of people coming out to the game tomorrow, so that should be good. Having a lot of people who haven't seen me play in a while coming out to the game. It just feels great being back. We're hoping for warmer weather, but we're just going to enjoy the moment and have fun while we're here. Q. This goes to all three of you guys: You guys all play outside the perimeter, you shoot close to 40 percent there. Kentucky knows that. This arena is going to play somewhat of a role, it seems, obviously the seats are further back and perception may be a little bit different when you guys go out to the court for the first time. What's that going to be like for you guys to have to adjust to this arena? JAYLEN FRANKLIN: I mean, we ain't really going to have to adjust. We're just going to go out there and have fun and play our game. If we're wide open, knock the shot down. Like I tell these guys all the time, if you're open, shoot the ball. Farquhar is a great shooter, Jaren is a great shooter. My whole team are great shooters. Just go out there, shoot the ball, have fun, have confidence. HAYDEN FARQUHAR: J. Frank said it, you just have to have confidence. Confidence is key in this game. Just whenever you have an open shot, take it, and have confidence that it's going to go in. Like you said, the depth perception is going to be off a little bit. That's why this shoot-around is going to be very important for us just to go out there and get shots up. So yeah. Q. Jaren or any of you guys, what was different about the team this year? You guys improved so much to win as many games as you did. Why this year? JAREN LEWIS: I think why it happened this year is because everything we went through, especially last year we kind of stumbled towards the end in late February and March, we didn't finish how we wanted, and the season definitely didn't end out the way we wanted to, and I think that definitely made us hungry. We thought about that all off-season, all summer during workouts and practices. That was the thing that was pushing us. That was a huge motivator for us. So I really just think the struggles and all the lessons we learned from the past couple years, specifically last year during the stretch is what led to us making it all come together this year. Q. You guys are now a part of a lot of firsts in those AC uniforms. Is that something you think about now, or do you guys focus on the task at hand and kind of that will be something that you guys think about later and recognize when all this is over? JAYLEN FRANKLIN: I mean, we've thought about it all year. Coach has preached about it, about making history and just being there and just having fun and play a basketball game. But right now, we've just got to look at the next task and just be ready to lock in and play basketball, you know. Q. Coach, when you had that switch in February with the excusing of Jalone and B.J. and you see Damien and Joe stepping up as freshmen to kind of take a little bit of that load and help this team along, first things first; what was it like when you told the team, and how has the transition moved into seeing those guys really step up? JOE GOLDING: Yeah, one of the emotional meetings I've ever been a part of in coaching. It was a lot of tears shed. Those guys were brothers to these guys, and so we played Southeastern I think it was 48 hours later and just got drilled. We got beat really bad at home, and that hasn't happened very often this year. I think it happened twice. I don't think we'd beat anybody in our league that day. There was just too much going on. But I think people that have been around college athletics, professional athletics, anything, I think in a six-month season, adversity always comes into play. Something is going to happen, whether it's suspensions, whether it's dismissals, whether it's injuries, adversity plays a big part in everybody's season. So when you have three seniors that you guys just talked to and a bunch of upperclassmen and some juniors that have been in this program a long time, one of our mottos is trust the process, get better every day. You guys have heard that. And the last one is finish the fight. We wanted to finish the fight for these guys, and they did an incredible job, maybe better than any team I've ever been around of handling adversity. Q. Coach, we had talked a little bit about building your brand, and just coming here now and starting to see this unfold already, what has it been like for you just to hear people start to recognize what ACU is and learn about you guys? What is that like for you to be a part of this and be the lead of this? JOE GOLDING: Yeah, this looks a little bit different than our media room back home, huh? Here's the deal, man, we couldn't have got a better draw. We're playing the University of Kentucky. I mean, one of the most historic blue bloods, maybe the most historic blue-blood college basketball program in the country. You're playing five-star recruits. You're playing a Hall-of-Fame coach, the best fan base in the country. So any time anybody the next 48 hours is going to talk about the University of Kentucky, they're going to mention Abilene Christian. So it's an incredible way for us to share our story of our university. This was the dream. This was the vision. This is what President Schubert and the board of regents wanted to do. They wanted to go Division I so we could share our story of our University. My job as being the head basketball coach was to get us to this point. That's my job. That's what I did. I have an incredible group of players that believed in a vision and dream, and we're here, and I want them to enjoy the ride. I want them to live it every minute, and we're going to share the story of our wonderful university and we're honored. It's a privilege to play the University of Kentucky. It's an incredible moment for our university to be paired up with them. Q. It was always your dream, you told me a few weeks ago, to coach in the NCAA Tournament, and you sort of did that at Little Rock, Arkansas. You played in a first four game, got beat out. Now as a head coach you're here as a 15 seed. Describe the emotions of achieving that dream finally. JOE GOLDING: Yeah, it's been a wild ride. I think you have to find things in this business that motivate you, what motivates you to keep on. This is a grind. This is a hard business, especially at our level, but any level it's tough. I just haven't been fortunate enough to get any higher than this level, not as a player or a coach. So I don't know how that other level is. But it's been an incredible run. As a player I wasn't good enough to play Division I. I thought I was good enough but nobody would recruit me, so I was a Division II player but I always wanted to be a part of March Madness. I remember my dad, as a little kid letting me skip school and we'd sit at home and we'd watch games on Thursdays and Fridays. It was just something we did as a family and it was a lot of fun. So then I got the opportunity from Steve Shields at Arkansas-Little Rock to be an assistant coach. I owe a lot to him. He gave me a huge break in the business, and I was able to go there and we were able to experience it. As an assistant coach it was a lot of fun. We went to Dayton, which was great. I love the city of Dayton. We got beat but here is the funny story, we were back home. I think we played on Tuesday night, I think UNC Asheville beat us. Really good game, beat us, and we were back home Wednesday before a lot of my buddies in the business had even left to go play their game, and the tournament was already over for us. This has been great being a head coach, being able to lead my alma mater to the NCAA Tournament, being able to play the University of Kentucky and being able to experience it and really be a part of March Madness tomorrow night, it's an incredible opportunity for me, and it's something I'm going to take a lot of pride in one day down the road. Q. I wanted to ask you about PJ Washington, how prominent he is in the game planning you guys are doing, how impactful can he be? JOE GOLDING: Well, if he shows up to play in a walking boot and Coach Cal lets him play in a walking boot, we might have a chance. You just saw our post from Throckmorton, Texas. If he takes the walking boot off, we've got a problem. He's really good. He's talented. He's one of eight problems we have on their roster. They're very, very talented. I honestly -- I don't know what we're going to do. We're still trying to figure that out. He's an incredible talent. If he's making shots and he's scoring the ball on the block, then he's really tough to defend. So we've got to try to force him away from the rim as much as we can, but that's easier said than done. You've got four other pros on the floor with him, too. We've got our hands full on that and still trying to figure that out. If you've got any ideas, I'd love for you to share them with me, man. You've probably seen them a little more than I have. Q. You've had a little bit of a back and forth with Tech's coach Chris Beard. Have you talked to him about kind of what this is like? And also how important is it to kind of keep it light this time of year and kind of keep things fun and everything after the grind of the season that you talked about? JOE GOLDING: Yeah, I don't think there's any secret in Coach Beard and I's relationship. He coached me at Abilene Christian. He's my best friend, not just in the business, he's been my best friend for 20 years. This was a dream and vision we had years ago, man, when we'd go float the rivers with a bunch of old ball coaches. Some of these guys in the deuce, some guys are D-3 guys. We have a really tight circle that we've really kept close over the years, and this was a vision and a dream that we used to always talk about. He was the first phone call I had Saturday night, and he's had his run. He's had his eight seconds in Vegas, man. He's on a heck of a run right now. He's a heck of a ball coach. We saw that firsthand this year. He's been incredible for our university the last few years we played. He was an assistant at Abilene Christian. He got masters at Abilene Christian. So he's taken some pride in this, I think. So the friendship has been great. He doesn't have any answers for Kentucky, unfortunately, but I think down the road one day we're going to have a heck of a story to share, you know. I'm proud to call him a friend. But it's not just basketball with him, man, it's life. We've been through a lot together the last 20 years. He's been right by my side, and we've both had ups and downs, both had a ton of adversity, but we finished the fight. He's doing a heck of a job, and I'm really, really proud of him. We're not going to play them anymore, though; we're done playing Tech. Q. Knowing the kind of run your team was on this year and what you were capable of, how difficult was the decision to part ways with a couple of players fairly recently, and also how proud have you been at the way your team appeared to respond to some untimely adversity? JOE GOLDING: Yeah, I can't really comment on the situation, obviously. Unfortunately I'd like to, but I can't. But what I will tell you is it was very tough, toughest decision I've had as a head coach. Those two kids are -- they're family to us. They've been a part of the journey with us all along. And so it was tough. I couldn't be more proud of this group and how they handled it. I think it's an incredible lesson for our program and an incredible lesson for the country to learn that when adversity strikes, there's two ways to go -- you can just quit and you can make excuses or you can bunker down and fight and fight for what you want, and these guys fight, man. They fought the last -- I think, what, we won six in a row down the stretch. The double bye was really important to us because losing those two guys, we don't have the depth that we've had all year long. With those two guys I thought we were probably one of the most talented teams in our league. Without those guys, we weren't. In our league first and second place get a double bye, so that's huge. You get automatically into the semifinals. So we thought we had to go 3-1 down the stretch, we had two on the road and two at home, and we ended up going 4-0, which gave us the double bye and gave us a great opportunity to have to win two games, not three or four in our conference tournament. Incredibly proud of this group. It's a great lesson to learn. It's great for my two kids. I've got a 12-year-old and a 9-year-old and it's great lesson for them to learn. It's a great lesson for our community to learn that when things don't go your way, you can still get what you want. Q. Kind of a two-part question. In some ways is all the pressure off of your team as far as you guys can go out there and play loose and try to play the role of the Cinderella? And also, have you had a chance to replace your suit that you ripped at the selection show party? JOE GOLDING: I think there is no pressure on us, obviously. We're playing the University of Kentucky, you know. So there is no pressure. The problem is we've still got to find a way to score and rebound the basketball, you know. We can go out there as loose as we want, it doesn't matter. At the end of the day, it's University of Kentucky. We're going to keep our guys loose. I was laughing back here backstage, I've been trying to get Jaylen Franklin to talk for four years. He's our point guard, he's our leader, and he won't talk at all. He just started talking a little bit this year. He gets up here and he won't shut up, you know. I think it's great, man, that he's experiencing that. I think he's loose. I think he's having fun, and these guys deserve it, you know, so I'm excited for them to embrace it. As far as my suit, this is true, man, I'm telling you. My bonus -- it's all a fact. And the suit got ripped when I jumped up and hugged our associate head coach. He's been on this journey with me for seven years. He took a chance on me. He left a really good program where he had a ton of success and they made the NCAA Tournament at Stephen F. Austin which you guys are probably familiar with, to come here and build this with me, and man, it has not been easy. It's been the hardest thing we've ever done. It was an incredible embrace that we had the last eight seconds. Unfortunately I ripped my pants. So I get back to Abilene -- I haven't got my bonus yet, either. I just found out I don't get that until June 1st, I think. I heard somebody was going to start a GoFundMe page; I would appreciate it, any help I can get. We've got one suit place in town, that's it. One suit place, and they couldn't get it done. I guess you've got to alter and do some stuff. So I've got one suit, my man. I had two suits when the year started. I left one in an airport, true story. Had to go when we played Nicholls State and buy a suit or khaki pants and a shirt. I'm coaching them all in my baby blue suit, and I'm going to have a hole in my butt, man. So it is what it is, man. We're going to be who we are and go out there and embrace it. Q. I'm just curious, what kind of impact was there at all tangible on your program and others like yours with what Loyola did as an 11 seed last year and what the 16 seed did for winning, the impact for programs like yours? JOE GOLDING: Yeah, let me tell you, Loyola -- Porter is a good friend of Steve Shields, my boss at Little Rock, so I got a chance to know him and we got to embrace him in San Antonio. It was neat, you know, with the Final Four in Texas and get to see him, and what an incredible job he did and a great story that he got to share with the world. And so that was neat for a lot of us that are close to Porter. And then what UMBC did last year was awesome. KJ Maura, their point guard, I don't know if you guys know this, he played for us as a freshman. We recruited him. He played for us. He ended up leaving us and going to JuCo, and then got to finish the story. So we were so proud of KJ and the experience he had last year. So I think those stories, I think they're out there. I think we'll share those with our guys. I think our guys have grown up, too, watching March Madness. They know what happens. We could play Kentucky, I don't know, man, 10,000 times, we might win once, but that's March Madness. That's what tomorrow night's about. If we can find a way to keep this thing close and give ourselves a chance the last 10 minutes, you never know. That's when the madness happens. But that's really hard to do, you know. I mean, every time you watch tape -- I'm done watching tape. I quit watching tape last night. So there's nothing we can do about it. We're not going to grow tonight. We're not going to get more athletic tonight. We are who we are. We've just got to try to game plan, give our guys the best chance they can to compete, and see how long we can hang in there. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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