NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - VERMONT VS MARQUETTE

March 16, 2023

Shaka Smart

Nationwide Arena

Marquette Golden Eagles

Media Conference

COACH SMART: Really excited to be here in Columbus with our guys. It's been heck of a journey to this point. And very, very enthusiastic about getting started with the NCAA Tournament.

Our team has been all about relationships from the very beginning, the way that our guys try to make each other better on and off the court. Never been around a better group from that standpoint.

So as we start here, with this game against Vermont, our focus has been just on being the best version of us and trying to make sure that anything else that's on the side, we block out and we just allow that to be and focus on who we are.

Just really grateful to be here and very appreciative of the guys that we have in our locker room. And excited to get started tomorrow.

Q. We saw in the Big East Tournament how deadly the offense can be, especially in those short little spurts. What makes you guys, in particular, so hard to defend from Tyler on downwards?

COACH SMART: I think our guys' willingness to share the ball is one of the best attributes that we have. And then we also have some guys that can really pass the basketball, share the basketball, create for others.

Obviously Tyler is the head of the snake from a standpoint of creation of shots for our team. But Oso Ighodaro, we believe, is one of the best passers around at that size. And other guys on our team that have gotten better and better.

I believe passing is contagious and so is not passing. So the way that our guys have been willing to share the ball and create closeouts for one another has helped us be good on offense.

Q. A few minutes ago Tom Izzo was talking about sort of the double-edged sword of playing in a very physical conference. On one hand it prepares you for any play you'll face, but on the other hand he says it can wear you down a little bit over the course of a season. I'm curious where the Big East would fall on that spectrum in terms of how it's prepared you for this tournament?

COACH SMART: Where does the Big East fall on the spectrum of physicality?

Q. (Off Microphone)?

COACH SMART: Let's be honest, college basketball season gets longer and longer. And now they're talking about putting games in August. So these guys are human beings.

I think with the proliferation of interest and media coverage in our sport, there's never been more expected of the players from a physical standpoint. I think sometimes it can be too much. I'm probably in the minority there.

I would say for our team specifically, knock on wood, our guys have done a pretty good job hanging in there, taking care of their bodies, fighting through different challenges, physically.

The Big East is a monster and the refs let you play. It's probably similar to what Coach Iz was talking about.

I actually thought you were going a different direction with that question. You actually have to adjust to the officials here in the NCAA Tournament because not all the officials are going to come from a conference that you're familiar with. And watching some of the games the last couple of days, a lot of fouls being called. There's an adjustment there. I think our guys have hung in there pretty good through everything that's been asked of them.

Q. I'll ask you about our local young man on your team, Sean Jones. What have you seen from him this year, and how exciting is it for a young guy like that to be in the tournament and be here in his hometown?

COACH SMART: Sean's been great. He's got, first of all, just a terrific way about him in terms of competing and enjoying being part of something larger than himself on a team. And I'm really proud of him. He's probably, of all of our freshmen, he's probably had the biggest adjustment on the court in terms of the role he had before he got to college and then what we're asking him to do this year for this team.

And he's been huge in helping us with defensive pressure, intensity, aggressiveness, offensively creating shots for other guys, getting in the paint and using his speed as an advantage.

I asked him the other day, what do you think about going back to Columbus? And Sean, he's pretty serious sometimes, he said, going to be focused on the game. It's pretty neat to be playing in your hometown in the NCAA Tournament. And I really hope for him that he can play well and he can be part of helping his team advance.

Q. Throughout coaching careers, you're going to have ups and you're going to have downs. Just wonder, as a coach, when things aren't going well, what does it take to stick to what you believe in as a coach? Obviously you're going to maybe change schemes or things like that. But when it comes to you as a successful coach, how hard is it to stick to what you believe in, your core, when things aren't going well?

COACH SMART: I think it's increasingly hard to stick to what you believe in because all the people around you and on the outside practice resulting, which is judging the process by the results.

And we live in that type of society now. So and so is a good coach because they got good results yesterday, last week. So and so is a bad coach because they got bad results. And as we know, it's not how life works. And so it takes a real conviction.

I was lucky just to be around some guys early in my career as an assistant coach that helped me have a level of belief in our process and how we do things, really from what I stole and learned from them.

And then I'm fortunate to have some older guys in my life right now that have got into an age where they encourage me to not give one iota about what anyone thinks, no disrespect to anyone in this room in the media, or on the outside, because if those people knew what they were doing from the standpoint of coaching or playing, they would be doing those things.

And so George Raveling specifically has been really powerful as a mentor to me to help me just try to stay with what it is that we're trying to do and that we believe in.

These guys are living, breathing human beings. They are ever-changing. They have feelings. They have lives outside of basketball. And it's confusing for them when you change up. And so we've tried to be very consistent with them. We value relationships, value growth and we value victory, what goes into victory. Everybody wants to win but not everyone's willing to do the things that go into it.

Q. Stevie is such an interesting case, you see him walking around, smiling all the time. He's such a sweet guy. But then get him on the court, he's talking junk. He's up in the player he's guarding. Why do you think he's able to switch his demeanor so quickly once he steps on the line?

COACH SMART: He has character. If you cut him open, there's some championship-level DNA inside of him. He's someone that he comes from great stock. If you want to have a great culture, culture is how you interact, respond, that's all it is, then you better have guys like Stevie Mitchell.

He's very, very fun-loving and enjoys having fun. He loves being around his teammates. He's also a very serious guy. He's serious about his academics, a 4.0 student. He's serious about his basketball. He's in the gym every day at 8:00 in the morning, regardless of whether it's an off day, practice day, game day, working on his game. And he's serious about his team.

He loves team. If you have a group of guys that don't really care about team, then you don't have a team. And we're fortunate to have Stevie Mitchell and the rest of his teammates that care about each other.

Q. I'm guessing you've been asked some variation of this question about Kam over the course of the season. But he wasn't necessarily, probably wrongly, the most hyped guy coming out of high school in Memphis. But I'm curious if you expected him to elevate his game the way he has so soon in his college career, and sort of what's gone into him transforming himself into a really good college basketball player?

COACH SMART: I absolutely expected it. In fact I expected more from him. He's one of the guys on our team, maybe one other guy I can point to, that has way more in him, like, way more. Tomorrow would be a great day for him to explode and show that.

At the same time, he's a sophomore and it takes time. It's process. He's our leading scorer. So we're appreciative.

But this guy, he's got a special offensive ability that -- I haven't coached a lot of guys that have everything he has.

On last year's team he was obviously a freshman. And we had a bunch of older guys that had no recognition of how good this guy was. And I'd be like, guys, give him the ball.

One of the things that's great about our team this year is that Kam's teammates understand what Kam can be and what he can do. So you'll see him out there bombing some crazy shots. But it's all part of a larger formula and plan that these guys have worked together on since going back to April. And he's got great things ahead of him.

Q. Shaka, Coach Enfield was saying before that he leans on some of those memories from his Dunk City run. I was just wondering, since you took a program on a magical run through March, does that kind of shape your messaging when you're a higher seed and going against an experienced Vermont team?

COACH SMART: Not really. I mean, I think anything that we have from the standpoint of experience as a coaching staff, we try to convey to our guys. Our guys know we're the higher seed. Our guys know that Vermont is a dangerous team. We do our same scouting to prepare for Vermont and what they do.

But it's way more about us being the best version of us. In 2011, when we beat USC, then Georgetown and Purdue and Florida State and Kansas, I bet if you asked those coaches, they probably would give us some credit. But then they probably would say, hey, on that day we didn't do that well enough or we weren't quite as good as we needed to be in this or that.

So we're going to focus on us because that's what we can control. And we believe in who we have in our locker room. If we do that, then the results will take care of themselves. You certainly need some luck sometimes, especially in this type of event.

But I'm grateful for the guys we have. And if we can continue to have larger antidotes then the inhibitors that get in the way sometimes, then we'll be fine.

Q. Somebody you probably didn't expect to be asked about today, Jonah Lucas, I know you understand the value of walk-on. Tell me what a guy like that adds to your program as a scout-team guy, somebody that will do whatever it takes to help his team get better?

COACH SMART: Our walk-ons are incredibly important, especially as a freshman. It's not easy to come in as a freshman and make the transition to college basketball.

Our guys every day are selfless. They pour into their teammates. They know they're not going to play in the game unless it's a lopsided game. And they prepare for practice even more so than the scholarship guys because they've got to know the other team's stuff. And they do a great job executing what we asked them to do from a scout-team standpoint.

So very, very grateful for Jonah and all of our walk-ons.

Q. I didn't ask any of the guys, so I don't know the answer, but is there a theme for this tournament or these first session of rounds? If there is, why did you choose to go with that?

COACH SMART: Of course there's a theme. There's always a theme. But I'll tell you later because I could tell you what our theme is and you wouldn't really understand. It's kind of an inside thing. But the emphasis is always on us being the best version of us.

Q. Before you went out to New York you were talking about in order for your team to have the run they did in New York, you had to get production from your bench. I want to talk about your freshmen on that bench -- Chase, Ben and Sean. How have you seen them grow throughout this season because you've trusted them in an opportunity to get a lot of minutes throughout the season.

COACH SMART: I tend to play freshmen more than maybe other coaches might or even some of the assistant coaches on our staff. We'll go into games sometimes -- and I won't call out the assistant coaches -- but they'll say, ah, maybe we need to shorten the bench in this game.

And I don't know, I just think as a freshman, if you can't get out there and get your feet wet and get some opportunity, then you're just going to be starting from square one the next year. And in this transfer-portal world we live in, it's like, well, they weren't going to put me in the game that year, then why would they do it the next year?

So grateful that the three freshmen we have have gotten a lot of opportunity. Those guys, freshman year is all about learning from mistakes and then also putting successful experiences in your pocket.

So they've got 34 games worth of mistakes and successful experiences in their pocket. When this season gets done, and hopefully it's sometime down the road, but when the season gets done and they take a week off and they come back in the gym, they'll have a different look to them. They won't look like freshmen anymore.

But right now it's all about what can I do to contribute to help my team be better and how can I best be a star in my role? And I think Sean Jones has done a terrific job of saying, how do I use my quickness to impact the game positively for my team?

Chase Ross, his athleticism, his length, his ability to get in the paint, his ability to shoot, made some big shots for us in New York.

And then Ben Gold, I think, has as much or more potential than anyone on our team, but also had increasingly challenging adjustment as he made the decision to come to Marquette because it's like he had to make the freshman adjustment and the international adjustment.

And he's really come out there and fought and scrapped and clawed and just tried to impact the team in any way that he can. So we need those guys for sure.

David Joplin coming off the bench. They don't have to come in and be heroes, they just have to come in and make positive contributions to our team.