NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - GEORGIA ST.VS GONZAGA

March 16, 2022

Rob Lanier

Kane Williams

Justin Roberts

Eliel Nsoseme

Corey Allen

Moda Center

Georgia State Panthers

Media Conference

Q. Just for all of you guys, you're experienced, a senior-oriented team. How does that help you going into this challenge that you're facing?

KANE WILLIAMS: I'll start. I think it just adds that poise to our team, and down the stretch we'll need that veteran experience, and I think we bring that to the table.

Our experience is going to help us throughout this tournament.

JUSTIN ROBERTS: So piggy-back off what Kane said, just having that experience, having the wherewithal to know what's going on and being in there, having the same confidence and just having that confidence and just because you're been in that situation multiple times, so you just know how to do it and what to do.

Q. You're coming in as a 16 seed. You're playing the No. 1 seed in the tournament in Gonzaga. Talk about your thoughts on taking on a program that has the prestige that Gonzaga has.

COREY ALLEN: We've just got to come out and play like we've been playing these last 12 games that we won. Just stay focused on the game plan and everything will fall in place for us.

ELIEL NSOSEME: I think that they do have a good program. They have a great coach. They've got a great story.

At the end of the day we have to do what we do best, is come play hard and play defense and do everything we can do to pull it off.

JUSTIN ROBERTS: Just play the game. Play the game of basketball and not really focus on what's across their chest and just play the game and play it to the best of our abilities.

And I think by the end of the game we'll be in position.

KANE WILLIAMS: At the end of the day it's a 5-on-5 game, us against them. They're a good team, but we're a good team, too, and we're trying to earn the same kind of prestige they have and build a reputation in this tournament.

Q. Kane, can you kind of elaborate on that a little bit? They're the granddaddy of all mid-majors in terms of success. Does that give you guys inspiration, also?

KANE WILLIAMS: I wouldn't say that. I mean, they've made a name for themselves over the last few years, and they're a good team. Great program.

But we're a good team and we're a great program. I think it's time for everybody else to see that.

Q. Kane, those guys play so fast; what are you guys going to do to slow them down or keep pace with them?

KANE WILLIAMS: Well, we've just got to get back. We've got to get back and play some defense. We know what they're known for and what they're good at doing, and they're going to execute.

We've just got to weather the storm and we've got to keep playing. They're going to throw the first punch probably, but we're going to throw some punches, as well, and we're not going to be scared, not going to back down.

I'm not taking anything away from them, but they need to be worried about us, as well.

Q. You alluded to they need to know about what Georgia State needs to bring. Obviously I think Georgia State is a little unknown to some of the basketball fans. Talk about what makes this Georgia State team so special.

KANE WILLIAMS: What makes Georgia State special is not too many know about us right now, but we're a great team. We've been a good program for the past few years and we're just going to keep building on that. We're going to keep making a name for ourselves and hopefully everybody will wake up and see what we've got to bring.

JUSTIN ROBERTS: I feel like in the beginning of the season we had the talent, and by the end, like now, we have the willingness. That's what makes it special to me. I feel like we've got a lot of guys that are willing to do the right thing, willing to get on the floor, willing to go get the extra rebound, willing to go do what it takes to win, and I feel like that's what makes us special.

COREY ALLEN: We play together, as well. Like Justin said, we've got a lot of guys that's willing to do the right things and stuff like that. That's all we've got to do, just do the right stuff.

Q. Can you talk about that matchup inside you'll probably be dealing with, Drew or Chet or a combination thereof? What do you make of the matchup in the paint?

ELIEL NSOSEME: It's going to be a great matchup. It's going to be a fun time to play against some good players. At the end of the day I'll do what I do best. I've been doing this all year long, and it's going to be fun. It's fun to play, and I'm excited to have this matchup and to just show up and show what we can do as a team.

Because at the end of the day it's never going to be one against one, it's going to be if somebody got the ball in the post, it's going to be one against five, and there's going to be five of us that's going to be there and step up.

Q. Corey, 29 points the last two games in the conference tournament, MVP. I think Coach had been waiting for that kind of offense from you all year. When did you see that getting ready to happen? Could you feel it? And Justin, you've played with him all this time. Could you see it about to happen, as well?

COREY ALLEN: I mean, really it's nothing you can really see. It just clicked. I've been waiting for it to happen all season, too, but I'm happy it happened at the right time.

JUSTIN ROBERTS: Yeah, Corey is special. Corey is a really great player. Corey is one of the best players I've ever played with from when I was young to now. Seeing him score and seeing him struggle a little bit and seeing how that affected him and then seeing how him having 29 points in the last two games and then us winning the championship and him getting the MVP, it's just well deserved, so I'm just proud of him and happy for him and happy for our team, as well.

Q. Eliel, you mentioned you're going to do what you do best. What is that if you can describe it, and what did you go through early in the year injury-wise that kept you out until January?

ELIEL NSOSEME: What I do best? What I do best is play defense, is be there for the team, rebound, make sure that my guys know that I got their back.

If somebody gets beat I'm going to step up and do what I need to do, block shot and whatever Coach needs me to do. It's natural for me to always come, and I even don't think about it, I just play the game.

Yeah, I definitely went through some tough times, but that's made me stronger. I did my best to go hard as much because I cannot go hard in the courts, on the training room, getting treatment, all that, to just make sure that I could have the chance to be there for my last year with my brothers and to just like help the team get to where we are right now.

Q. Kane, you're an old hand at this. You've been around a few times. What advice could you give these other guys about how to handle all this?

KANE WILLIAMS: I mean, I actually got to play against Elly my freshman year. It was a little bittersweet. Just stay poised, enjoy the moment, and soak it all in. It comes by quick, and by the next day, next week, it might be over with. So enjoy it, have fun, and let's go win.

ROB LANIER: Well, I would say that obviously we're excited to be here and to be a part of the tournament. I'm extremely proud of our group. It took a lot of resilience and perseverance to get to this point, and we obviously play a formidable foe.

To win the tournament we had to play the best we had played to that point, but we haven't played our best basketball yet, and quite obviously we're going to need to approach that level to give ourselves an opportunity tomorrow, and we're excited about that challenge.

Q. When you knew you were making the tournament, what was your initial reaction when you saw the No. 1 overall seed pop up on the other side of the bracket?

ROB LANIER: Well, I was hoping to kind of sit there and have some anticipation for when our name got called, and then they called it right away.

I was a little bit caught off guard, to be honest with you. But I didn't have any expectations going into it.

I was really truly open minded about the possibilities. I wasn't locked into what seed we were going to be or whatever. Although I do believe that we represent a tremendous league in the Sun Belt.

I think our league is better than people realize, and it's only going to improve because we've added some schools coming into the league.

But quite honestly, I didn't have any expectations. I knew we were going to play someone good, and that certainly did come true.

Again, we're excited about the challenge.

Q. How does it help having a bunch of seniors like you have? How does that help you get ready to play Gonzaga?

ROB LANIER: I think it helps us tremendously. When you're playing a great opponent like this and you have to withstand some runs and you're going to play a team that when you do things well defensively their ball might still go in the basket, and when you do things you way you practice offensively and you might not get what you want out of it, you've got to be able to play through those moments during the course of a game.

There's a level of poise and experience required to do that, and I think we have that with this group.

Q. We asked the same question of your players in that there's probably a lot of big-time basketball fans who don't know who Georgia State is, but obviously they're a special group that has played well enough to win a championship and get to this point. Can you talk about what makes this particular team so special?

ROB LANIER: Well, I would say last year we got to the championship game with this group, and we had five starters returning who all averaged double digits for a team that was top 20 in the country in scoring.

My concern in the off-season with the preseason No. 1 ranking that we had coming into our league is whether or not we would be able to handle that, and I thought that would be our biggest challenge.

As we were trying to address that challenge, we had some injuries and we had some COVID disruptions that put us in a unique place in terms of becoming the team that we had hoped to be.

Then when we finally got healthy, it wasn't until mid-January that we had everybody on the roster available to us. From there we started to become a team.

I think right now, we're just still playing catch-up to the team that we had expected to be in November and December and January. I think our best basketball, again, is still in front of us, and we're going to need to tap into that tomorrow.

Q. Corey Allen scored 29 in the semis and the Finals at the conference tournament. I think you were waiting for that to kind of happen, waiting for the lid to come off, as you said. Did you see that coming, and what did that mean for the team, and what does that mean going forward for his confidence?

ROB LANIER: Well, I saw it coming for our team. Not necessarily just for Corey. I think some of our shooting percentages are a little bit skewed because the data proves that we've got guys that can put the ball in the basket, and for whatever reason, our better players were taking the shots that they had made in the past and the ball wasn't going in the basket this year.

Whether it was Corey or Kane or Justin or Jalen, we expected the ball to go in the basket at some point, even though Mike Holmes doubted me on that. Where is Mike? Is Mike in the room?

I kept saying that the lid is going to come off, and so I wasn't surprised that Corey did it. I was actually more proud that Corey had, I think, eight rebounds and eight assists in that game, something like that.

And I thought that we had established going into the tournament that we could win games without being as attractive on offense as we have become accustomed to, and that if we put the two together we would become more formidable. That happened in the tournament, and again, we're going to need more of the same.