NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST FOUR

March 18, 2024

Niko Medved

UD Arena

Colorado State Rams

Media Conference

Q. Coach, your thoughts on the season and what your team's been able to accomplish so far.

NIKO MEDVED: First of all, there's so much that goes into these seasons, and we're just grateful to be here. I think it's the greatest tournament in the world. I think it's one of the most difficult things to do in our sport, quite frankly, is earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Maybe this year as hard as ever, considering everything.

And to just think that we have an opportunity to do this is awesome. I mean, our guys earned that with their performance. We put together a really tough non-conference schedule. We went 12-1 and performed really, really well. We played in an elite league this year and competed really, really well.

We found a way to find ourselves here. So we're excited to be here.

And the way I look at this is we're a 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and we just get to play one more game than everybody else. That's a pretty cool deal.

Q. You have a phrase where you talk about be a cockroach. Considering your last 24 hours, how has your team handled being cockroaches?

NIKO MEDVED: Probably have to explain that to people, right?

Q. What is "be a cockroach"?

NIKO MEDVED: (Laughter). People are like, what are you talking about?

For us, we try to compare a panda bear to a cockroach. And, again, without getting into the weeds here, a panda lives in only a certain region of the world, a certain climate. They only eat one kind of food. Their environment has to be perfect for them to survive.

Then you take a cockroach, on the other hand, you've been around them, those guys can live through anything. Whether it's 50 below zero, 150 degrees. I remember having them, when I was first a student assistant and they're in your apartment, and you're trying to stomp on them with your feet or throw basketballs at them to kill them. They just live through anything.

So the point being is that cockroaches can adapt to anything in their environment, and not only survive but thrive.

That's what it is. Things happen in life, situations happen on a daily basis, and you've got to be a cockroach. You've got to find a way to not only survive but learn to thrive in those situations and make the most of what's next. And it's just another situation to do that.

Q. In the last 24 hours, what's been your greatest cockroach moment for you personally?

NIKO MEDVED: Listen, everybody, it's part of the beauty of Selection Sunday, is people, you have no idea where you're going. You don't know what your seed's going to be. There's excitement. Right?

And we were thrown a curve ball having to play tonight. Everybody knows we got home at 1:30 in the morning on Sunday. We hadn't really unpacked our bags.

We got some sleep and we go to the Selection Show and next thing you know, we're in Dayton. And obviously we were on Pacific time. Now we're East Coast. And so we're figuring out how we're going to watch UVA film, try to get our players some rest.

They tell you, hey, your flight's going to leave at 9:30. And got the guys up in the morning, brought them over, watched a little bit of film. And then flight took a little longer than we want.

And I think we landed in Dayton it was around 3:00, a little after 3:00, 3:30. And 25 minutes to the hotel, whatever it was, got in the bus, ate a taco, taped on the bus, got over there and got about 45 minutes of practice in down the road, and now we're here.

It's just a different kind of preparation, but at this time of the year, you've gotta do the things that you've practiced all year that have allowed you to be successful. And we're looking forward to tomorrow night.

Q. Do you kind of harken back to almost to MTE type of experience for this type of kind of whirlwind weekend or week?

NIKO MEDVED: Obviously you're playing a new opponent from a new league. I know the Bennett family fairly well. I think Tony, if he isn't, is clearly one of the best coaches in the country for what he's done for their program. You're preparing for an elite opponent in an elite program.

But it is, it's different because you've just been in the grind in your league. Everybody knows everything about each other. And you get an opportunity to play somebody different. And I think that's kind of neat.

Q. Virginia, people know that program and what they do well. But how much is it key for you guys to lean into what you do, too, as opposed to react to what they're doing?

NIKO MEDVED: Especially the one thing I know about Tony and Virginia and those teams, let me tell you what they're going to do. They're going to lean into what they do. That's what they've done and he's done his entire career. And that's what makes them so successful is they're great at what they do. They're not going to try to do anything different against us.

And you're exactly right. You obviously have to look at your opponent and some things that they do really well that you can help try to mitigate. But at the end of the day, yes, it's lean into what you do, the things that have allowed you to be successful when you're playing your best basketball.

I think trying to do anything different than that is going to set yourself up to not have success.

Q. With the Rams, where are they at their best?

NIKO MEDVED: If you follow us, we're a team when we're at our best we don't turn the ball over. We share it at a high level. We get back on defense. We force teams to play late in the shot clock, which I don't think will be an issue tomorrow night. I say that tongue in cheek. But we do do that fairly well.

I think we're tough minded. I think we're together. And we've got an elite point guard, and some other terrific players, too. And we move it. We share it and we knock down shots. So sounds pretty simple, but that's been our formula.

Q. Welcome to Dayton. However much sleep you've had, you talk about this being the greatest tourney in the world and the difficulty of getting an at-large bid. I wonder where do you come down on the potential for the tournament to change in the future? I know a lot of different things floating around; who knows what might happen. But your general viewpoint on that?

NIKO MEDVED: I think I've said for years there's been a lot of pushback on, oh, no, we can't expand the tournament.

And while I understand that, I said to people for years, I said well they're gonna expand it. It's just a matter of time. I think we're probably closer to that than people realize.

Maybe I'll get pushback on this, but in my opinion -- this is my opinion -- I think there's very little difference between somebody who is a 7 seed and the sixth team out of the tournament -- maybe especially this year more than ever. And there's more parity in our sport.

And just with conference realignment and some of those other things, I think that's inevitable. And they're going to do it -- I hope they find a strategic way to do it. And I think there's still a way to do it where you don't lose what we have right now.

And obviously change is scary for some people. But we've lived through more change here in the last couple of years in college sports and our sport than ever before, and I think there's going to be more.

I think it's a matter of time, maybe sooner than later, before the NCAA Tournament expands. And I think we can do it in a way that makes sense for everybody.

Q. Two years ago you were in the tournament and there are a fair amount of players, I know a lot of roster changes, especially this day and age, bringing in new transfers, but you do have a lot of players that were on the team last year that are back this year. Does that help you knowing you were just in this stage two years ago as opposed to had the gap been longer?

NIKO MEDVED: Obviously there's been some guys who have been here in this moment before and know what that's like. I don't know. We'll see.

Obviously, Isaiah, who is an elite player, he's been on this stage before. He understands what that's like. I think this is a team that's played in big games.

One thing I know, I'm familiar with Dayton. When I was the head coach at Furman I took my team here to play. I followed them on TV. Awesome place. The energy, the people love basketball here. They support this tournament at a high level.

And so, to be honest, the fan support here, tell me if I'm wrong on this, it's going to be better than a lot of the first sites anywhere because people care about it so much. So it's going to be awesome.

Q. You guys are one of six teams from your conference in the March Madness. What kind of advantage does that lend you having to sort of run through the gauntlet in conference play coming into the tournament?

NIKO MEDVED: Again, I think there's probably a lot of people who maybe don't stay up to watch Mountain West after dark, as they call it. But the league's been awesome.

I've been in it for a long time as an assistant and a head coach and I've been in other places around the country. The level of competition from top to bottom was unlike anything I've ever seen this year.

I think that clearly prepares us for this. And I think we had a really difficult non-conference schedule, too. We played Creighton, who we were fortunate enough to beat. We played Colorado who is in the tournament, in the nonleague. We played Saint Mary's, who is in the tournament. We beat Washington on a neutral, Boston College on a neutral. We challenged ourselves.

And so I think all those experiences prepare you for this. And I'm sure Virginia would say the same thing. But I think both teams feel battle tested and they know tomorrow will be a battle.

Q. Talking about how difficult your league is in the Mountain West, Isaiah Stevens, now two times first-team all conference and led the conference in assists. Obviously also very capable of scoring the basketball, over 16 points per game. Talk about him as a player and what he's meant to your program.

NIKO MEDVED: I mean, I can't -- people who follow us -- I can't even put it into words. Isaiah Stevens is a unicorn. He's been our starting point guard for five years. That was clear about a month into camp when he was on campus his freshman year.

I'll never forget when I told him before we started in the fall I took him to lunch and I said, Isaiah, you're going to be the starting point guard here and I intend for it to be that way for the rest of your career.

At that time he didn't know it was going to five years, but he's the all time leading scorer, all time leader in assists, all time winningest player, all time human being, all time leader -- you can't even put enough adjectives around that and what he means to me and to our program.

He's been a hall of fame player on there and has just exemplified what it means to be in our program at the highest level.

And he's one of the rare guys that stayed. He could have had any opportunity he wanted here and decided to do it with us at CSU. And he's just truly a special player and a special person.

Q. With your team, I think it's interesting that you've sort of, in this day and age of the transfer portal, you have quite a few talented players from the Division II ranks. And what they've meant to your program. And then also sort of that side of the transfer that maybe a lot of people don't see.

NIKO MEDVED: That's been something that's been successful. We've had several guys from the Division II level. We have one from the Division III level, a couple of Division II All-Americans.

This year Joel Scott was the Division II national player of the year, and he's played at a high level in our league, at the highest levels of college basketball.

I think for us, you know, we've had to get creative in how we recruit. And we look for the right kinds of fits for our program. And I believe sometimes people, you can confuse potential with production, and these are highly productive guys who played on high-level winning programs at the Division II level for great coaches. And they're able to do it when they're at the top of the scouting report.

And oftentimes you find that that production translates to our level.

The other thing that's really neat about those guys -- all our guys are -- but those guys, probably when they started their career at a lower level, they never anticipated or dreamt about playing in a tournament like this at the highest level. And they're so appreciative of everything they have, and that's so refreshing as a coach.

Q. On the other end of it you have another transfer in Nique Clifford who is a really talented player, has always been looked at in that light, and what he's been able to do with Colorado and now coming over to Colorado State, what he's been able to bring to the Rams?

NIKO MEDVED: He's a young man we recruited heavily out of high school and decided to join our evil brother down the road -- I love you Tad Boyle.

But for him, it was just an opportunity where, you know, wanted a change, and he's come over here and he's just fit in seamlessly from day one. He's an elite human being. He's a talented player. He's been able to fill a role that we desperately needed, and he's had a great season for us. He was an All Conference level player. Fun to watch. Wouldn't be here where we are without him.

Q. I asked this to the players who joined us earlier, their favorite March Madness moment. Your favorite moment.

NIKO MEDVED: Man, I'll remember it like it was yesterday, sitting in my parents' living room. We were going to have dinner, and I'm watching Duke, Kentucky and watched Christian Laettner make that shot live on TV on Sunday, and I'll never forget that, a moment watching it with my family and whatever because I can still -- I have that snapshot in time.

I'm that old, right, I can remember that, watching it. Sorry to those guys, right, who were playing or whatever. But I remember it like it was yesterday.

Q. From that, you've been able to experience this stage as a coach. Your favorite moment coaching in March Madness?

NIKO MEDVED: You know, as an assistant coach, I think one of the coolest moments was my last year as an assistant at CSU was having those guys that had gone through an incredible journey together. We got into the tournament and we beat Missouri, and getting that win for that group of seniors and the NCAA Tournament was incredibly special.

Two years ago, that group of guys that went to the tournament, the year before we went through COVID, -- I thought we were going to make it -- we had a really unfortunate circumstances down the stretch in the regular season. One of the first teams left out two years ago. We had an opportunity to go and be a 6 seed. Even though it didn't work out. Just those guys getting on that journey and having an opportunity to just get into this tournament was pretty cool.

Q. Focusing on this moment, if you've been able to, what's your biggest concern and looking at Virginia and trying to prepare for the Cavaliers?

NIKO MEDVED: I have as much respect for Tony and what he's done with his program and the way he does it, I think he's one, if not the best coach, in the country, gets more out of teams than anyone who has done it.

They are never going to beat themselves. You have to beat them. They're going to play the style of game they want to play no matter who they're playing, and it's been like that through the course of his career. It's difficult to get anything in transition. It's difficult to get quality shots. They're going to force you to guard and screen you and they really, it's like being in quicksand, sometimes, playing against them.

If you're going to have an opportunity to go out and beat Virginia, you'll have to earn it and win possessions and find a way to steal it at the end. And so that's what concerns me because you know the level of consistency and the culture that they have in their program.