NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - ARIZONA STATE VS TCU

March 16, 2023

Jamie Dixon

Mike Miles

Emanuel Miller

Chuck O'Bannon

Damion Baugh

Ball Arena

TCU Horned Frogs

Media Conference

Q. Mike, I'm sure you guys watched the game last night. What are some of your first impressions of Arizona State?

MIKE MILES JR: They're a good team, very athletic, can shoot. Our job is to not let them get comfortable shooting the ball. They got hot last night, so against us we want to make sure that doesn't happen.

Q. Emanuel, the injuries, the tough schedule, how do you think that's prepared you guys for this moment right now?

EMANUEL MILLER: I think all the previous moments, like you said, regarding the injuries, regarding all the things we've been through, I think it's prepared us in a good way just because not a lot of other teams in the tournament have experienced what we've been through, so I think the level of maturity that we have to overcome the obstacles I think is going to help us in this tournament.

Q. Chuck, last weekend we saw "Playoff Chuck" make an appearance. You seem to really hit your stride in some games that we hadn't seen in some previous games. How did that make you feel and what has that brought into what you're ready for this weekend?

CHUCK O'BANNON JR: It feels good. I just wasn't able to catch a rhythm all season and finally caught that rhythm, so hopefully I can stay in it for the rest of the season. It felt good, but it really depends on based on the way we play.

Q. Mike, I'm just curious what last season's NCAA Tournament appearance did for you guys and what kind of takeaways you can bring into this season.

MIKE MILES JR: Honestly, it just gave us experience. It was all our first time in the tournament last year, now we've all been here before and we know what to expect. Just coming out and playing hard and relying on our experience. We can just play our game and try and get the win.

Q. Damion, when you think about this team, as Steven mentioned earlier, what all you guys have been through, does it feel like now you're whole, finally everyone is healthy and on the same page?

DAMION BAUGH: Yeah, it's life. Ups and downs in life. It's just us sticking together. We all know we've got each other's back, so it's just all coming together now.

Q. Chuck, you spent obviously some time in the Pac-12 earlier in your career. Does it relate still as far as the style of play in that league? Can you kind of know what you're going to see or get out of Arizona State because of your time back then?

CHUCK O'BANNON JR: Yeah, definitely. Pac-12 was more offense oriented. Big 12 was more defensive. That's really what it is. They're going to shoot a little bit more crazier shots than we are. They're going to play a little faster than we do. But it's on us to play defense, be in the gaps, load up early, just be ready for anything that comes our way.

Q. Mike, obviously this team you guys last season were a lot of newcomers together, guys that transferred into the program. Do you feel like this time around with how much you've been together the past two years that you're more prepared for a deep run this time around?

MIKE MILES JR: Yeah, I feel like we all know how each other play, we know each other games, we know where we like the ball. We've been on the same team for two years so we're back at this point in March and we're going to try and do better than we did last year and just help each other. Somebody might not have it going tomorrow, but someone is going to step up and we will have each other's backs.

Q. Damion, you guys are one of the best fast break teams in the country. Arizona State just coming off a game yesterday hasn't had a lot of time in between. Do you think that's something you can take advantage of tomorrow night?

DAMION BAUGH: Yeah. Yeah.

JAMIE DIXON: Just got done with a workout over a Regis. They were great. Thank you very much for them allowing us to use their facility. There were a couple players over there from Northern Arizona, so that was cool to see.

Obviously a little different. We didn't find out until 10:00 or so last night who we were playing. I did some stuff last night, had the scouting report ready for both teams and obviously did a walk-through last night, had a little practice today and we'll get some shots up.

I feel pretty good about where we are health-wise, and as I've told our guys. We feel like we're playing our best basketball. I felt like we played very well in the Big 12 tournament with the win against Kansas State and had every opportunity against Texas. Didn't get it done, but I liked how hard we played and how we executed at the same time in the half court.

Worked on transition offense but wasn't as good in that last game, and we just didn't convert on our opportunities, so we've got to do that this game.

Q. What were some of your first impressions of Arizona State Wednesday night?

JAMIE DIXON: Yeah, I had seen them play earlier in the year. I think I watched them in the Creighton game and saw Coach McDermott, just saw Coach Drew, but I thought -- I know I've seen them play a couple times, so I'd seen how athletic they were, how long, knew some of their guys, as well, a lot of their guys.

They made shots, and that's something -- everybody looks good when they make shots, and they made shots for 40 minutes. They're athletic. I was probably maybe more -- the thing that stood -- a little bit -- knew they had good players. Surprised not so much, but they all played well last night, so the depth is probably the thing that I gained from last night initially. Been watching tape and doing all kinds of work on them since that time.

Q. Just curious, with a year under this team's belt, playing together obviously last season, still kind of getting to know each other, what kind of takeaways did you have from last season in the NCAA Tournament and what do you expect to be different this time around?

JAMIE DIXON: Yeah, we've been asked a lot about that. Obviously played really well in the Seton Hall game. They were playing really good basketball and we just came out and guarded. We've got to guard. That's what we have to do, and we've got to rebound.

We've made that very clear. Our rebound numbers haven't been where we wanted them to be this year all year long. We've gotten better at it.

But at the same time, we've forced more turnovers. So possessions-wise we've kind of kept it the same. We've made up for it, and it's helped our transition baskets.

But we're different, and we're also different this year, too, because there's just so many guys being out. I don't know if you've seen our numbers, but I look at the teams -- I was looking at the Arizona-Arizona State game, it was like Arizona has missed three games with their top eight guys and he was out for a suspension for NCAA -- so again, we have a lot of reinvention of our team throughout the year with the different guys. You have Mike out nine games, Damion six, it adds up. Emanuel, Micah, they were all out.

Q. Following up off of that, having all those guys out of the lineup, was it almost a blessing in disguise because it forced guys like JaKobe and some of the other guys on the bench to step up and grow up in a sense?

JAMIE DIXON: I don't know if it's a blessing in disguise. I think we'd rather have had them, but Hada, we had real confidence in Hada, and he just started out a little slow for whatever reason. But during that stretch when Mike was out, I think you're referring to, he played really well. And so him in there is like having another starter, now when you get double figures, he was averaging double figures in nine games or something, had double figures six of those nine. But he did a really good job.

I think that's what we saw. He got major minutes in league play. Rondel has been in and out with injuries, but I feel he's at his best right now, so I feel good about that. While the guys were out, Rondel was hurt, as well, so he wasn't getting the confidence, the minutes at the same time.

JaKobe, I think JaKobe has always been a hard matchup for 5 men, so he's playing a little bit of that right now.

Q. How valuable is it to have a guy like Mike at this time of year just playing the way he is, and is it just a case of where a guy can take over a couple games and you guys can make a run based off how good --

JAMIE DIXON: Yeah, we've got to make sure -- we're always looking for him and he's always getting shots. He's the second leading scorer in the league. It happened in that last game, it seemed like we had so many transition opportunities and good shots, and normally if you're No. 1 in the country in fast break points you want to take advantage of those.

But we didn't convert, and at the same time he probably didn't get the shots we needed. There was a stretch where we got four or five stops in a row in a four-point game and didn't convert and he wasn't the guy that got the shots.

Now, they were good shots, one was a missed dunk. It just didn't go our way, but we've got to make sure that he gets looks, even if we're in transition, we've got to make sure that he gets to the foul line. He didn't get to the foul line last game, and we've got to make sure he does that.

Q. Throughout the season the team has struggled at times at the free-throw line. What's been done in the last week to prepare and focus on that?

JAMIE DIXON: Well, we're pretty good this year. For us, we've improved significantly as a free-throw shooting team. We'll shoot a lot here today. We shot a lot this morning. We shot probably longer this morning.

But I feel like we're getting the most out of our free-throw shooting but trying to improve at the same time. Our main thing is getting to the foul line. That's what we want to do. That's our biggest stat. We want to get to the foul line more than our opponents, and then that's something we've done well. Didn't do as well last game, but we've got to get to the foul line.

I think we've had some guys go a little bit up and down, but I think we're shooting 38 percent from three the last five games. It's the best we've shot the ball all year and kind of where I thought we would be in the summer. I feel like we are shooting the ball well here now.

Q. Do teams take on the persona of their coach if their coach was a player? Your teams have always had a toughness about it, which you did as a player. I wonder how Arizona State, do they mimic Bobby Hurley's game at all?

JAMIE DIXON: I can't remember what I was like as a player. You seem to have come up with some things.

I would say they play with a lot of energy, a lot of -- they're loose, Arizona State. They're fearless I think is another thing I've seen.

I don't know, I guess there's this thing about -- I didn't see it, but there's a lot of guys that didn't play. I don't know. We'll have to see. I can't remember how I played, so you'll have to remind me.

Q. Jamie, you mentioned how you guys are top in the country in fast break points. Is that something you're looking to take advantage of against a team that is going to be coming off one real day of rest after playing --

JAMIE DIXON: Yeah, I mean, we always do, if you're No. 1 in the country, been doing it all year long. We've got to get stops. We've got to get stops. The last team we did get stops, we just didn't convert.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know that we're doing it more against them than because of that, but it is certainly an emphasis of ours going forward here.

We've got to get stops against them. Our belief is if we get stops, then we can get transition opportunities. We had plenty in the last game. We just didn't convert.

We've got to get stops. If they shoot -- I think if they shoot 60 percent, we're not getting a lot -- seven turnovers and 60 percent from the field, they're not getting a lot of transition opportunities.