INVESCO QQQ LEGACY CLASSIC: HOWARD VS NORTH CAROLINA A&T

December 18, 2021

Will Jones

Prudential Center

North Carolina A&T Aggies

Postgame Press Conference

Howard 79 - N.C. A&T 57

WILL JONES: First and foremost, Howard played an unbelievable game. Extreme energy. They shared the basketball. They came in on a mission to win the game, so hats off to Howard.

North Carolina A & T tonight did not play with energy. We could not control the rebound battle. We got destroyed on the glass, and we didn't play with any type of rhythm. When you don't play the right way, bad things happen, and, you know, we've got to get back, and we've got to fix it, and we have to be more consistent. Questions.

Q. (Inaudible)

WILL JONES: Yeah, definitely. Games are getting canceled. Guys are having to stay home for the virus, so the opportunity to play kind of goes back to last year. Last year I told the guys, man, you have to be happy to be able to practice, and so it's kind of getting back to that spot where now you don't know if tomorrow is -- tomorrow is not promised in terms of if you are going to be able to play, and it was definitely good to play and hopefully we should have put our best foot forward, but we didn't tonight.

Q. (Inaudible)

WILL JONES: A&T is doing a lot of really good things. We haven't lost a MIAC game in a long time, and so for us to come here and not win, I'm a little bit disappointed about the results, but A&T as a whole academically, on the football field, on the basketball court, girls, we've been doing some really good things. I think we're going to continue to do those things that we charter into a new dimension in terms of a new league, but I think we're going to continue to work.

Q. The opportunity to play in this Invesco Legacy Classic -- and getting this opportunity to play on TNT, what does that mean for your program and HBCUs in general because, you know, I'm going getting ready to do the first-ever HBCU all-star game -- and now you have events like this leading to the final. What type of event like this mean to the program and HBCUs across the landscape?

WILL JONES: It's big. Any time that you did get on national TV outside of ESPN, I mean, a lot more people are open to TNT. That's a national audience. Some people that may not tune into ESPN, they get a chance to see what's going on. Even if they're just flipping through the channels, they see an HBCU, two games on TNT, they're like, hey, let me check this out.

I think the crowd was a great crowd. I thought the production, the marketing. What they put into this thing is big-time, and it gives these guys an opportunity to see what big-time looks like, so I want to tip my hat to the Legacy Classic in terms of putting on this event, following through. It was a big-time experience for the guys.

Q. (Inaudible)

WILL JONES: Appreciate you guys, thank you.