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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 5, 2020

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

THE MODERATOR: The regular season champions, Northern Iowa Panthers, are with us. They're the Number 1 seed. They'll play the winner of Drake and Illinois State. That game will be at noon on Friday. From my left to right, the Larry Bird Player of the Year, A.J. Green, the MVC Coach of the Year, Ben Jacobson, and then there's Isaiah Brown and Spencer Haldeman.

BEN JACOBSON: I would add Zay being Defensive Player of the Year, and Spence didn't get one of those, but he's been an unbelievable guy and a program guy for us. As a senior this year, just been tremendous. The guys were -- I touched on it a couple different times. The guys were great. They've been great all year, but great when it mattered most last week and got it done at home twice and at Drake. To get that outright championship, that takes a lot to get through the 18 games and be the last one standing.

We play in just a terrific league. It's hard every night. Just proud of these guys for getting that done. The thing that I've enjoyed most is no matter what's happened -- nonconference, at Grand Canyon, at Colorado, and then coming back home -- with what we've done here over the course of the 18 games, these guys just want more. It's been great the last couple of days just being around them. They've celebrated what's happened, but they just want more. It's been really awesome to be around these guys.

Q. Spencer, when you hear Coach was named Coach of the Year, as a player, what does that kind of say to you guys?
SPENCER HALDEMAN: I don't think a lot of us are surprised as players. What he does for us on the daily is incredible and something that not many players get to experience. So I mean, I think he deserves it, and a lot of people don't see what he does on the daily besides us. Like I said, we weren't too surprised.

Q. For Isaiah, you guys obviously don't know who your opponent is going to be. How weird is that, kind of, when you go through a week? Obviously, you always know who you're preparing for, and for this week not to know who you're preparing for.
ISAIAH BROWN: Yeah, obviously, during practice we scout the team we're going to play and watch film on them. Like you said, we don't know who we're going to play. During practice, we practiced a little bit of both here and there. We obviously just played Drake, so we're kind of more familiar with their stuff. If Illinois State were to win, we'd have to watch their game and get more familiar with them once again. I think whoever we're going to play, we're going to be ready to play, and we're going to come out ready.

Q. This is for the guys and Coach Jake to jump in too. In this three-game winning streak you had to put together to win the outright title, what were some of the things that you guys picked up and did better after coming off those two road losses? You knew you had to win three in a row to win it. What were the areas that you guys felt you had to play better and you did?
THE MODERATOR: We're going to start with A.J., go to Spencer, and finish with the Coach.

A.J. GREEN: I'd say, defensively we were a lot better in terms of our communication and everybody being on the same page. Then I think just kind of our mindset knowing we had two home games after those two losses and we needed to pick up both of those. Then securing the outright championship that last game, I think everybody just kind of moved past it and continued to want more, like Coach mentioned.

SPENCER HALDEMAN: Yeah, I mean, after those two losses, I mean, we kind of had to refocus up a little bit, kind of look forward instead of at those past two games. I think it showed a lot of toughness from us to keep pushing forward because, I mean, after those two losses, we could have sat down and kind of -- we kind of knew that it was still in our hands on how we were going to finish in the MVC, and we did well those last three games, and we're outright champs.

BEN JACOBSON: Yeah, I guess a couple things that come to mind. We really fought hard, and one of the things that I let it get away just a little bit. We spent a lot of time -- and most teams do -- spent a lot of time on the scouting report, a lot of time watching film of the opponent, a lot of time going through their stuff, a lot of time practicing live against their stuff, and I let that get away. When I went back and watched our first Southern Illinois game and watched the two games we had played on the road, it hit me that I let that get away from us, and we weren't fighting hard enough, and that's on me.

We've got such a tremendous group of guys. They're going to do what we ask them to do as their coaches. They're going to do it the best that they can, whether it's in practice, in film, or in the game. They're going to do almost to the letter, what they're asked to do, and it's a great compliment to these guys. So that's on me that it had gotten away. We talked about fighting harder, moving the scouting report from what it kind of got in the wrong place at the top of the pecking order, moving that down to second or third on our list, and just fighting harder.

So we spent time talking about that, spent time doing that, and these guys, it didn't take them -- it didn't take them any time to get it cranked up. Then I -- and the other thing that they did, you're down ten with 15 minutes to go on your home court after losing at Indiana State and Loyola, at that point, you're either going to respond and take care of your home court and get yourselves in a spot for the next one, or you're not. That can be a tough setting to be in, when you've had such -- you've had the year that we've had. These guys, man, they just cranked it up for that 15 minutes. I mean, absolutely cranked it up. When they knew what was going on and what it felt like, and that's a tremendous response by guys to be able to do that in that game.

Our offense was great against Evansville, all 40 minutes, and we had a complete game at Drake. But it's the response, and it's the fight that the guys really showed.

Q. Being named Coach of the Year with this group, what does it mean to you personally?
BEN JACOBSON: It really -- just really proud of these guys. I think about Wyatt and Miles from last year, seniors last year, and just how that November and December last year was -- you know, in terms of the number of times we got beat, and then more than that, the way that we got beat in some of those games, that hasn't happened to these guys at our place or in high school. That just hasn't happened. And Miles and Wyatt just really -- they kept bringing it. They kept bringing it. And A.J. and Trae, as the year went on, they got comfortable in their first year.

These guys that are now seniors, that dynamic last year is something that I think about, even though we're talking about this year. Miles and Wyatt have a lot to do with what's going on right now. The fact that these guys really paid attention to the work ethic of those two guys. They weren't going to let down. They weren't going to give in, no matter what our record was, and it got us to a great finish, and it got us to a championship game because of the way those two guys approached it.

Then to see -- last week was -- when I refer to last week, the three games in the week, that week was one of the proudest weeks of my 14 years as a head coach and my 19 years at Northern Iowa. The fight and the response and how much these guys care about each other, it all showed up. It all showed up. They wanted that outright title, and they went and got it. Nobody gave it to us. Loyola beat Bradley at Bradley, which is going to be a really hard game. That result comes out two hours before we play, and these guys just went and got it. I'm just proud of these guys.

Q. For the guys, being the 1 seed, do you feel like you've got a target on your back this weekend? And all three of you guys played an instrumental role in getting UNI to the championship game last year. How much did that experience, or how much of that experience do you think helps you coming back this year as the 1 seed?
THE MODERATOR: Isaiah, start us off, then Spencer, then finish with A.J.

ISAIAH BROWN: I'd say we've almost had a target on our back the whole season. We started off having a great tournament in Cancun, and then after that, we started receiving votes and stuff like that. So I think that attention from the NCAA just put a target on our back, especially starting conference, and Illinois State got us that first win. So we knew everybody was going to give us their best. Coach preached that we've got to be ready every time we play because we have a target on our back, and everyone is going to play their best against us.

SPENCER HALDEMAN: Kind of what Zay said. We kind of knew coming in after nonconference play that we had a target on our back. We started receiving votes. I mean, any time you see a team receiving votes, you want to give them your best shot. So, yeah, I mean, it was our job just to come ready every night. We knew we were going to get their best shot. When we lost those two games, it kind of opened our eyes, too, a little bit for the last three games, and I think it helped us in the long run.

A.J. GREEN: To build on that, I'd say just the experience we had last year in this tournament, winning two games and then having a great shot to win that last one. I think that just motivates us even more this year. Even if we are the Number 1 seed and teams are coming for us, we -- in the back of our mind, everybody on this team still remembers that game. I think we're going to do everything we can to get past that point this year.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much and best of luck.

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