NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - ABILENE CHRISTIAN VS UCLA

March 22, 2021

Joe Golding

Bankers Life Fieldhouse

Abilene Christian Wildcats

Postgame Media Conference

UCLA 67, Abilene Christian 47

JOE GOLDING: Yeah, first of all, a ton of respect to UCLA. We knew what we saw on the tape after Texas how good they were. They're very, very well-coached. They've got really, really good players. They iso-ed us a bunch today and played us one-on-one, and if we go help and run around, they've got shooters all around the floor. They moved the ball extremely well, and they had a great game plan.

Just a ton of respect for what Coach Cronin does. I don't know him personally, but looking back on his career from Murray State to Cincinnati to UCLA, there's a reason he's won as many games as he has. He's an incredible coach, he's got a really good team, and we'll be rooting for UCLA the rest of the way.

Our guys are concerned, nothing changes on my end. I love our dudes. We've got a great family. We've got a great group of guys that love each other. They had a heck of a game the other night, and we just couldn't find it tonight, man. We kept looking for it, looking for it, looking for it, and you could just see it on them, we just couldn't. You've got to give UCLA credit; they took away a lot of stuff, they made us finish at the rim and we just couldn't get it done.

Again, all credit to them, and just really proud of my guys.

Q. I remember two years ago I was just looking at the video from the locker room after the Kentucky game, and I think you mentioned you guys were excited just to be there, the experience was there. What was the atmosphere like in the locker room after today's game?

JOE GOLDING: They're disappointed. There's a lot of tears. They're disappointed. They're not happy. That's fine. I don't know if it was that way at Kentucky. It's a different feel, it's a different group. This group felt like they belonged.

Again, we kept fighting, man. We had it at five or six with about three minutes to go. It was like 10 or 12, whatever it was, and then it was at 10, under the four time-out in the first half, and we just kept telling them, man, just try to get it to five or six at half and we just didn't close out the half. We had a 10-point game. We've been there before. And then we had some good looks to start the second half, they just didn't go down. And then obviously UCLA executed offensively and they were able to separate, hit some threes and got it to 20 points and then it's going to be tough. We knew that.

Again, credit to UCLA, but it's a hurt locker room, but those guys don't understand what will happen for them. They're going to be celebrated like no team has ever been celebrated at Abilene Christian, and I can't wait to get back to Abilene and celebrate with them.

Q. Just taking a look back, a reflection at this season really, you mentioned that these guys are going to be celebrated unlike any other team in ACU history. You win the first NCAA Tournament game in program history. What does this team mean to you and ACU?

JOE GOLDING: It's a brotherhood for the rest of our life. We're starting to build that at ACU over the last five or six years. When you get texts from former players, and you got players showing up to Katy, and you've got players coming here to Indianapolis to support our team, we've got guys coming back in the summer now, working out that are playing overseas. It's a family now. It's a brotherhood that will last the rest of their life.

I told these guys about a month and a half ago, I didn't know -- they taught me a lesson in coaching, I'm obviously still young in this profession and still learning although I'm getting older. We had that special group that won 27 games a couple years ago that went to the NCAA Tournament. I didn't know if I could ever love a group as much as I loved that group. I love this group just as much.

They taught me that if you continue to build relationships with kids and you continue to coach them hard and love on them harder, that each journey, each season, man, you can have real relationships and real love. They taught me that. I told them that a month ago and I just told them that tonight. I love these guys. They've taken me on a heck of a journey this year. It's been incredible, and our staff is just so thankful.

Q. What have you hoped to have shown the nation during this tournament these past few days?

JOE GOLDING: You know, I don't know. I mean, I think what March Madness is all about is the underdog. This is a group that we played in an indoor tennis court this year because we're building a brand new facility. We've got an incredible university that we're so proud of. We've got an incredible student body that's so supportive and going on and graduating and doing great things. We're building a great alumni base. We're doing some great things on the academic side and the athletic side, and if anything I hope we continue to introduce the country to Abilene Christian. They deserve that. It's a wonderful place with great people.

So I hope that people learn about ACU. The second thing I would say is as far as our team, I just hope people know what hard work can do. When you have a group of kids that just bond together, that work extremely hard and love each other, that crazy things can happen. You can be really, really, really good at something.

These kids are not spoiled. It's a special, special, special group of dudes, man. They show up every day and they work. They just have incredible attitudes, and it's special. I don't know if that happens all the time. There's still kids out there that want that, and I think that's one thing that hopefully we taught that when you have a group of guys that believe in each other and you work hard for a common goal, that you can achieve any dream or anything you want in life.

You can say what you want. It is what it is. Abilene Christian beat the University of Texas 48 hours ago, and that's an incredible feat, man, by an incredible group of men that will be remembered forever for it.

Q. As you look at the future of this program, when you went in 2019 for the first time, now you win a game in 2021, just looking at the future of the program, how much wonders does this do for a program moving forward?

JOE GOLDING: I don't know, we're going to find out, man. We're going to give our guys some time off, then we'll have our meetings with our guys, then we'll figure it out. Obviously with an extra year of eligibility, there's a lot of things in play. We've got to figure out our roster. But we're going to continue to recruit the right kids that fit our university and that fit our program and the right kids are the kids that can be in a team atmosphere and can play for each other.

We'll continue to do that, but I have no idea. I'm sure it changes some things, but we're not going to change who we are just because we beat the University of Texas. It's been a great three-year run when you think about it. We've played Kentucky, Texas and UCLA now in the NCAA Tournament. Just three incredible universities, incredible institutions that just have so much history and tradition, and I think as we continue along, Abilene Christian is building a history and tradition in men's basketball.

So hopefully it continues to traject in the right way.

Q. You talked about that Texas win, obviously an emotional win for you guys. How hard is it to come into today and try to reset after a win like that?

JOE GOLDING: Yeah, it's really hard. It's tough. It's difficult to do. I think the bubble helped us a little bit. I thought we weren't as distracted as we might be with all the outside stuff. We were kind of in our own tight family and tight circle and nobody could get to us, but in today's age in 2021 those kids have phones, and we had a decision to make, take their phones away or not take their phones away, and we decided to let them keep their phones. So it's tough.

But let me say this and make sure I'm clear with this: That had nothing to do with the game tonight. UCLA is really, really good. They were prepared. They had a great game plan and they executed it perfectly. We couldn't turn them over, and that was obviously the difference in the game, the glass and the turnovers. Of course we couldn't score. We would have liked to have scored better. We knew it's tough to score any time you get in these games against Power Five guys.

But again, credit to UCLA. Yes, it's difficult, but that wasn't the difference in the game. The difference in the game is UCLA is really, really good.

Q. 10 years ago you were hired to take over this team in late July. You got a late start and you were fighting uphill all the way. You took over a Division II program that was statistically ranked toward the bottom of the nation. Can you reflect on the last 10 years as it relates to this program and then you personally as a man and as a coach?

JOE GOLDING: I'm just really proud. I'm proud of a lot of student-athletes that have been a part of a journey. I'm proud of a lot of coaches. We've got one playing in the Sweet 16 in Solomon Bozeman here next weekend that we celebrated, and we're awfully excited about at Oral Roberts.

I have a lot of pride and I'm proud. It hasn't been an easy journey. It's been the most difficult thing I've ever done professionally. There was a lot of people that thought we were crazy when we took this job. There was a lot of people that thought we could never get it done at Abilene Christian, and we just continued to fight and we continued to believe, and we had a group of young men the last seven or eight years that built a foundation and built one of the best mid-major programs in the country, although we're early in that stage.

But I'm just extremely thankful for all the players. I'm thankful for the staff. I'm thankful for the institution to give me the chance. I'm just very humbled by the entire thing. It means a lot to me. I'm from West Texas. I played basketball at Abilene Christian, and I can now say we've got this program back to where it belongs, and I think a lot of people are proud not only of our basketball program but our university, and I'll forever be thankful for that.

Q. I'm curious obviously you talked about the brand of Abilene Christian, but just the way you guys played your defensive kind of strategy, do you think that's kind of maybe a little more recognizable now, that people might try to adopt it a little bit?

JOE GOLDING: Yeah, I don't know. We just -- Coach Tanner has done an incredible job. He's become my best friend. He came on this journey with me when we were terrible. We weren't any good. He believed in me. He believed that we could build something special, and I'm as thankful to Coach Tanner as I am to anybody.

He's one of the best defensive coaches in the country. He just does an incredible job, and he told me four or five years ago, man, that the only chance we had was to get some dudes that were tough, that would fly around, and we could cause some havoc and do some things at our level. You have to win a different way at our level than you do as you move up. We can't necessarily when we play UCLA or Texas or Texas Tech or those type of teams, we can't run and gun and do all that stuff. Those guys have NBA players. Our guys if they're fortunate are probably going to go play overseas. Although I would love an NBA player one day.

Coach Tanner has done a great job. I hope that becomes an identity. When we recruit, we talk about it on the defensive end. We talk about you're going to play defense if you come to Abilene Christian, but all credit to Coach Tanner on that. He's an incredible coach. He deserves a ton of credit.

Q. You've been kind of in a bubble the past two and a half weeks. What's the first thing you're going to do now that you can get out of the bubble?

JOE GOLDING: I'm going on a road trip, my man. I don't know where I'm going. Hopefully I can find some water and a beach. I'm going to take my wife and we're going to get away for a little bit and hit the pause button. It's been a tough year with everything that's been going on. It's been nonstop, and I told my group I'm thankful. We won 24 games I guess in a COVID year and they've made it -- I can't imagine if they didn't what this year would have looked like.

I'm just, again, thankful for that group. I'm going to get away. I don't know where I'm going, maybe the hill country, maybe Gruene, Texas, get a chicken fry at the Gristmill, maybe San Antonio, maybe who knows, man. I'm sure I'll call up the river boys, get in touch with Beard, Chris Ogden, Brian Burg, those type of guys, and I'm sure we're going to get together sometime soon. But at the same time we've got to recruit. We've got to hit the pause button a little bit and get some rest, but then we've got to recruit and we've got to continue to build our program. Thanks, all you guys. I appreciate it.