NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - RICHMOND VS PROVIDENCE

March 19, 2022

Jared Bynum

Ed Cooley

Al Durham

Noah Horchler

A.J. Reeves

Nate Watson

KeyBank Center

Providence Friars

Media Conference

Providence 79, Richmond 51

ED COOLEY: We're taking a deep breath. First, I'm really, proud of our men. That was as well as we've played all year, and we picked the right time to do it. I think we clicked at every level. I think we played with a sense of urgency and a sense of purpose. Really proud of the staff and our preparation in the quick turnaround to play against a very talented and determined team.

I'm just kind of speechless. I really am. To be sitting here with these gentlemen and the sacrifice and the road where the doubt just continues to flow through the veins of those who don't trust or believe, we're sitting here. We're still here, and it's a testament to their emotional maturity, and their physical talent that was doubted.

These guys came together with a vision. We're going to enjoy this moment and know we have a really, really hard game ahead of us, but today we're here.

Q. This is for Nate and A.J. Before the Big East tournament, we talked to you guys about what this team would look like if everything clicked. I don't know if you guys remember that, but is tonight that example?

NATE WATSON: Yeah, tonight is definitely that example. Like I said before, every night is a different guy, but tonight everybody showed up and gave us that energy we had. There was energy on the bench. Coach Cooley had a lot of energy, and I was very proud of the guys to finally make history and get to the Sweet 16.

A.J. REEVES: Just going off what Nate said, we're dangerous when we're hitting from all cylinders inside and out. We have a lot of threats on this team both on the offensive end and on the defensive end, and when we play like this, I feel like we're the best team in the country.

Q. You were on fire today, four for six from the court. What was in the pregame meal, man? 4 for 6. You end up with a double-double. Can we just talk about your game and ask about that meal?

NOAH HORCHLER: I mean, Coach was calling my number today, and, I mean, some days you go in like that. Just trust in coach, and he trusts in me every day, and shots fell today.

Q. Coach said it himself. This is probably one of the best games that you had all season. You all played a lot of basketball. For y'all to basically come to this tournament and to ball out the way you did, can you comfortably say that you guys are finally hitting your stride at the right time?

NOAH HORCHLER: We prepared all week. We got to give a lot of credit to the scout team too. They come and prepare us, and we knew they had a Princeton offense, and we knew what we had to take away tonight, and that's what we did.

Q. Al, I want to know what the conversation was like amongst yourself coming out of halftime and those first four minutes trying to resume what you left off at the first half?

AL DURHAM: We knew they were a comfortable team playing from behind, and they came back in the last five, six games. So we wanted to come out with a zero-zero mentality. We start the first half and then the start of the second half, just energetic, strong, and gritty. We wanted to keep the defense up, and our defense led to our offense, and I think that took a stride tonight.

Q. You talked about the knowns the other day. Just defensively what Justin did in particular on Tyler Burton tonight, just how much did that really set the tone for what the rest of you had to do defensively?

JARED BYNUM: We talked about known and known, and taking away some of their top guys and their best players, and fortunately we got one of the best defenders in the country on our team. And when we put them on the assignment, he really takes it to heart, and he knows how much of an impact that has on the game, our game. And leading us to the game, we're preaching defense first, defense first, and getting with just three stops. And we were able to go out and execute our game plan on defense, and that just gave us a lot more energy and confidence on the offensive end.

Q. The same to Jared. The point guard is a good scorer. Just kind of he didn't have a very good night. What was your focus on trying to contain him?

JARED BYNUM: You have to give credit to the coaching staff who put together a great scout. We didn't have too much time to prepare for them, only a couple of hours. And our team was really dialed in to film and watching film on our own time and then we were able to get in the gym and go through some walk-throughs and stuff. We were really dialed in and focused on what we had to do to stop them. Got to give a lot of credit to the coaching staff and everybody on the team that was part of the defensive effort tonight.

Q. In the middle, Noah, in the middle here. When you guys are shooting three-pointers, it seems as if you can take it up another notch. Could you feel that in the first half, and then were you hunting for your three-point shot?

NOAH HORCHLER: Like I said, when Coach calls our number, we're ready to shoot the ball. Shots were falling tonight, and it felt great.

Q. Jared, I see you got that championship belt over there. What does this mean for the program, a big win like this during this time of the year?

JARED BYNUM: This actually is the Chief of Dimes Belt. After every game, whoever got the most assists, you get the Chief of Dimes Belt. Noah got two belts tonight. He got King of the Boards and Bad Dude Belt. He outdid me tonight.

Q. Congratulations, Ed. I asked you yesterday what it would mean to be a Sweet 16 coach and to be identified in that way. I would imagine now that that goal has been achieved, you might have some thoughts on it.

ED COOLEY: A lot of thoughts on it, and I'm happy for Bob Driscoll as he is retiring this year. I'm very excited about the Big East to have a member in that field. I'm thinking about my kids. I'm thinking about the journey. I'm thinking about our staff. This is stuff you dream about. This is what March Madness is all about.

As a kid you say one day when I grow up, well, I'm grown up, and I'm here. I'm very, very emotional, and -- wow. I'm just very, very grateful, very grateful, very appreciative.

Q. (Off microphone.)

You guys have intestinal fortitude, great intestinal fortitude, getting over some of the naysayers and saying that you guys were lucky. I just want to know, what does the Ed Cooley culture look like because it's a winning one as we can see.

ED COOLEY: I won't take credit for our culture. I think it's an organizational culture. It's something that we've built over years, and you try not to worry about what others say. I trust our players. Our culture and our identity is integrity. It's competing for championships. It's a graduating 100% of our student-athletes and telling our guys they're better than they are, just try to inspire young men to be better.

And, again, we showed up at the right time to play our best game. This was literally our best game of the season. I stole something and I wrote it down, Torchler. I hope I answered your question, but that was big-time. I'm going to steal that one, baby. That was awesome.

Q. Coach, I mean, you said if you only hit the right stride, this is what you want to do. Basically, you play over 30 games to get to this point. Now you guys are moving on to the Sweet 16, so how proud are you of this core group of guys, first and foremost?

ED COOLEY: You sit back and you take your coach's hat off. It is a credit to the staff and our ability to identify young men that could just come to Providence College and can play for us in the system that we want to play. To have it all come together when you have this on the line on the national stage and to perform like that, it's just a credit to their fortitude. It really is.

You dream of stuff like this. This isn't easy. The team we played has been playing really, really well, and I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the commitment that Richmond has had to Coach Mooney. They haven't been to the tournament since 2012, I believe, and not many administrations are going to hang in there with someone like that, so it's a credit to their administration for continuing to believe in who I think is one of the best coaches in the country. That guy deserves a lot of credit, but the administration deserves a lot of credit for hanging in there when times were tough, and he delivered, so congratulations to Richmond.

Q. Going into -- now you guys you play Kansas. What does this here -- the way you guys played today, how much is it a vote of confidence that gives you guys heading into a match-up with Kansas next?

ED COOLEY: I think it gives us a lot of confidence. Obviously, we're going to play against a blue blood that had a really, really hard game today against a Big East opponent, so I'm pretty sure that we'll be well scouted as they will. It just tells you you're building the program the right way. You are doing it with men of high integrity and great character, and it should be a great game. I'm excited to get to Chicago for some deep pan pizza. I can't wait to get to the Windy City and just experience the madness of March.

Q. Congratulations, first of all. Obviously, you packed your defense in your bags up to this trip to Buffalo. You shot the ball well for the fifth maybe since the Villanova game, but the stat that jumped out to me, 18 assists on 28 baskets. Just talk about what it was like everyone sharing tonight?

ED COOLEY: I go back to we have conversations. There's some days the ball just goes in the basket, and there are some days where it don't, and today was one of those days where I thought Al Durham got us off to a great start. I thought our energy -- I thought the first four minutes set the tone. And in our preparation, it's funny, I had Al -- I had Jared read what I wrote this morning during our walk-through. It was embrace the moment, mindset, connected and disciplined.

I thought we really showed that on the floor today, but it was -- I hope we can continue to play that way because if we do, we're going to be a tough out.

Q. They say in moments like this, you maybe need some time for it to sink in getting into the Sweet 16. That said, you have been thinking about this for a lot of years.

ED COOLEY: I've been thinking about this my whole life.

Q. So how are you processing this? Is it too soon? Maybe. I'll just leave it open-ended like that. How are you absorbing this moment?

ED COOLEY: I'm emotionally just trying to get the enormity of it. I grew up a Providence College fan. I grew up in that city hoping and praying one day just to get a chance, get a chance, and Bob Driscoll believed in me. Father Shanley, now Father Sicard, believed in me, and that goes much deeper than you guys in this room can imagine.

I look at the sacrifice that my wife had to give who was a police officer and gave up her career to follow just a dream, and I'm sitting here in front of you as the coach of Providence College headed to a Sweet 16 that I was on the bench as an assistant coach, but to do it as a head coach, I couldn't be more proud. More importantly, I'm very, very proud that I'm a member of the Big East Conference.

Q. How is it sinking into you as the game is winding down, and you hear the fans chanting your name behind you, the appreciation that goes back and forth there? Can you put that into words for somebody who will never live -- very few people get to experience it.

ED COOLEY: I was trying to grasp the moment, and Jeff Battle, who is our associate head coach, and is amazing. He said, coach, this is a wrap. (Laughing). With about 1:47, I still thought we were going to lose, and he made me laugh when he said that. I just can't tell you how grateful I feel for our players, our college, our city. It's hard to get to this point. We're just a little school that everybody says, oh, it's Providence. Well, Providence is in the damn building.

Q. Coach, why was your perimeter defense so effective, and then defending the Princeton offense, all the back door cuts and everything, it seemed like closing out on those kick-outs when we they didn't get the backdoor cuts --

ED COOLEY: I thought our preparation was second to none. And, again, it all started right when they had an upset win over Iowa. You know, we sat in the film room until about 4:00, 5:00 in the morning. We slept about two hours and tried to put a game plan together, and I thought our young men executed an incredible game plan.

I thought our staff did a great job breaking it down, and we stayed in that room until we felt comfortable what we had to try to do. That was -- our staff did a great job. Again, because of the success that we've had this year, the head coach gets a lot of credit. That credit goes to our staff, and it's amazing to me that search firms and ADs are missing the boat on a head coaching staff that they should be pulling from Providence College because all those guys deserve a lot of credit.

Q. It's been interesting to me. A lot of coaches say we don't listen to that noise, we don't care what the outsiders say, but you guys have seemingly leaned into this idea that the luckiest team in America, we don't think you're that good. Why?

ED COOLEY: You try to block that out, but some of it's inevitable. You know, it challenges you. It challenges your manhood. It challenges your team. Last time I checked, we weren't that bad. You know, we're not that bad. They can't do this. They can't do that. I'm a person who appreciates what I have and not what I don't have. I'm a person that appreciates an opportunity. Anytime there's 40 minutes in a game, there's 94 feet of opportunity.

The more the narrative on doubt and luck and this and that, yeah, it plays on you. The players will come in the locker room and talk about it, and I tongue-in-cheek it a little bit, but, you know, you got some older guys out there just willing to try to compete for respect. I don't have to be liked, but I'll be damned if you're not going to respect me.

Go Friars, baby.

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