NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - HIGH POINT VS WISCONSIN

March 18, 2026

Flynn Clayman

Rob Martin

Terry Anderson

Cam'Ron Fletcher

Moda Center

High Point Panthers

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by High Point student-athletes. At this time we will open it up to questions.

Q. You guys spent the entire year as heavy favorites in the Big South conference. You were sort of hunted. Now you get to be the hunters. Tell me about your outlook for this game.

CAM'RON FLETCHER: I would say knowing that we are the underdog in the game coming in, we have nothing to lose. I mean, go out and give it your all.

ROB MARTIN: I say just doing what got us here, playing High Point basketball, staying together, stuff like that. Just focus on the game plan and listen to coach and stuff like that, yeah.

TERRY ANDERSON: I feel like we should just keep doing what we doing, keep playing with intensity. Also I feel like all year we really felt like the underdogs the whole year.

Q. Rob, obviously you guys aren't short on good guard play, wing play. In preparation for this matchup with the Badgers, what has stood out in the tandem between John Blackwell and Nick Boyd?

ROB MARTIN: Knowing they got two guards that can get downhill, they're the head of the snake. Just slowing them down, guarding at high level, we playing high-level guards. Being together, helping each other out on the court.

They play fast, physical, they know how to play the game of basketball, they won a lot of games, they beat a lot of good teams. Just giving our all out there, playing well, helping one another, yeah.

Q. I've heard the term 'we play High Point basketball' a lot in the last couple of weeks. Can you define that? What is High Point basketball the way you want to play?

ROB MARTIN: I say defend at a high level, being there for another. Just playing together, having fun. Basketball's supposed to be fun. Just going out there, having fun. Being coachable.

TERRY ANDERSON: He said it right. Just playing together, playing with intensity, high hands. Defensive effort, getting steals, get in the lanes, having the ball move around, not too sticky. Just together, for sure.

Q. Terry, can we revisit the underdog stuff. When you're playing a team from the Big Ten that probably a lot of people think that team's the favorite, do you come to this game with a chip on your shoulder?

TERRY ANDERSON: Yes, sir. I mean, my whole life I feel like we've been underdogs our whole life for real. No extra chip, but we have to show the world who we are, who High Point basketball is. We come with that extra chip, for sure.

Q. In terms of preparation, how important is the last 24 hours before the game, when the game plan truly gets implemented?

CAM'RON FLETCHER: Probably the most important 24 hours in our life, knowing that this could be our last game, which we don't want it to be. Knowing that if we lose, we go home. We don't want to do that. We want to be a Cinderella team, they say, in March.

I feel like these next 24 hours is going to be the most important of our life with preparation and scouting, knowing the game plan and things of that nature.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Best of luck tomorrow. We'll close the press conference there. Head coach will be up soon.

We are joined by High Point head coach Flynn Clayman. Coach, welcome to Portland. We'll begin with an opening statement, then open it up to questions.

FLYNN CLAYMAN: Yeah, I mean, obviously really happy to be back, back-to-back for High Point University. So happy for High Point University, for President Qubein, for Dan Hauser, the support we've gotten from our university. Our students are so excited to be back.

It's just added a whole other layer, the great university that High Point is, our men's basketball success. Along with our women I should add. My wife in the NCAA tournament as well as an assistant with our women.

A dream come true scenario. Obviously our guys are really excited about the opportunity to play a Big Ten team on national TV for a lot at stake. We've won a lot of games this year. We won 30 games. We haven't had an opportunity to play a team of this caliber.

We're looking forward to it. They're a great team. We got our work cut out for us, for sure. They've beaten five top-10 teams in the country last I checked. They're pretty darn good.

But we're excited about the opportunity.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. In terms of some of the preparation for this game, you talked about some of those big wins, obviously kind of a lot of their focus is the back court. What has stood out about John Blackwell, Nick Boyd?

FLYNN CLAYMAN: Yeah, I mean, elite, elite guards. You got a heavy right hand guy and a heavy left hand guy, which causes problems for your game plan at times.

Just really good players. Showing our guys, these are shots they're going to shoot, four feet behind the line, no hesitation, no nothing. There's really not a whole lot to say about them other than they're high-level Big Ten players.

We have to bring our best effort against them, we have to contest everything, fight over screens, we have to be tough. Try to make it as uncomfortable as we can on them. Guys at that a level, even when you make it uncomfortable for them, they're still going to stuff the stat sheet. We just have to try to lower their efficiency just a bit. That's really your goal with guys like that.

Q. Your familiarity with Austin Rapp, what stands out to you about him on film?

FLYNN CLAYMAN: I actually coached in Australia. That was my first coaching. I coached a year and a half there. I was actually out there I think it was a little over a year ago with his dad. Really nice guy. I knew about him when he was going to Portland. I knew he was going to be really good. It didn't surprise me one bit that he had the season he had there, then is at Wisconsin doing what he's doing.

He's just a remarkable shooter, a great player who understands his role. He's going to play this game at a very high level for a long time because he understands his role and plays it well.

Q. You talk about Nick Boyd's left hand. He goes to that pretty consistently. What do you notice on film about how he's able to get there?

FLYNN CLAYMAN: Yeah, I mean, he's used to people trying to take away his left, that sort of thing. He is just crafty with it. He'll go to his right to get back to his left, he'll spin move on you. If you send him right in the ball screen, he's going to try to snake it back.

He's well used to very crafty ways to get to the hand he wants. You don't average 20 points per game and three to one assist-to-turnover if you're not able to get where you want to go, do what you want to do on the court.

It looks great on a scout to say we're going to take away this guy's hand. Great players like him, they don't make it that easy.

Q. You have one son, you and Katie. Which team is he with, Quinn, and how old is he?

FLYNN CLAYMAN: Quinn is 19 months. He's with mom, but mom's here. She came here because she didn't want to miss my first game. She's going to fly right after this game to Nashville to play Vanderbilt.

So he's here for this one. If we're fortunate enough to win, I don't think he'd be at the Saturday game. He's here. I'm so happy he's here.

Q. 12 over 5 has become such a popular upset the last few years. Will you use that in your pregame talk to hype your guys up, other 12 seeds have done this before?

FLYNN CLAYMAN: Yeah, I mean, I won't focus too much on the numbers of it. I know that's one of the popular upsets. I mean, I think it's more popular because the teams are a little more comparable now. 11-6 is probably more common than 12-5, or 13-4. We're not going to focus on that sort of thing.

We have to focus on the game plan, executing, doing what we need to do to beat this team. The numbers next to the name don't matter much.

Q. When you look at you guys statistically, one of the things that stands out is turnover percentage. You're among the nation's leaders in not turning the ball over. How much of a point of emphasis is it?

FLYNN CLAYMAN: That was definitely by design from us. We wanted guys who didn't turn it over. We wanted guys who are pesty defenders that could bother people.

We felt like in our case of having to win a conference tournament to get here, the turnover battle is huge in those tournaments.

I lost as a 1 seed as an assistant coach a few tournaments by one possession. Guys that you would probably say weren't quite as talented on the other team, but they took care of the ball.

That kind of scarred me when I lost some of those. I was like, Man, when I get my chance as a head coach, I'm going to have guards who don't turn it over. If I have to sacrifice some size, we're not going to turn it over.

When you combine that with being pesty on the other end, you have a lot of blowouts. I think we've won 25 games in double-digits. You cannot do that unless you're not turning it over and you're turning the other team over.

Q. What does it mean for the university for both the men's and women's program to be in the tournament in terms of sponsors, alumni, recruiting?

FLYNN CLAYMAN: Yeah, it's awesome. Obviously, all our sports have been fantastic and have been going to NCAA tournament. Our soccer team went to the Sweet 16. We're winning conference championships and everything. Obviously basketball gets a little more exposure this time of year.

It's great to see High Point University on the TV and people talking about what we're doing. It does a lot. If I'm not mistaken, us and Duke are the only two schools to sweep regular season and conference tournament two years in a row, men's and women's.

That just speaks to the level of commitment that High Point has. Getting to this tournament is big for the university in a lot of ways.

Q. You had some travel issues. How has that affected your team getting acclimated?

FLYNN CLAYMAN: Little travel problems. We were hoping to get out Monday just with the time difference. Because of the snow and stuff, some of these planes were grounded. We got out Tuesday. It was a little late.

When it was happening, I got reminded how spoiled we are travel-wise in the Big South. We haven't gotten on an airplane since we won the tournament in Daytona. We haven't gotten on one airplane.

So I was quickly reminded of what this actually feels like. I was in the Big Sky Conference for three years. You're talking about 3 a.m. flights connecting to this, that, no charter.

I told our guys to get over it, it's nothing. We got to be ready to practice and go. We're definitely spoiled in the Big South in our travel schedule just busing everywhere.

Q. Both teams here like to push tempo. How does that play out in a game like this?

FLYNN CLAYMAN: It's a big key to the game because on paper our tempo is more, we're faster than them. The competition they're playing against is higher level obviously.

When I look at the film, they're going to be the best transition offense we've seen this year, regardless of what the tempo numbers say. They're obviously playing way faster than traditional Wisconsin teams that you would remember in the past.

Transition defense on both sides is going to be a big key to this game.

Q. Like your counterpart tomorrow, you moved over one chair from assistant coach to head coach. What is the biggest challenge for you? How much did institutional knowledge help you?

FLYNN CLAYMAN: Yeah, I mean, obviously Coach Gard has been a great coach. I dove into his résumé a little bit more now that we got this game. He kind of like flies under the radar in my opinion, how good he's doing. He's had one season where he hasn't had 20 wins. To do that at this level is great.

I think him and what I've done are great examples to ADs that if you have a good program culture going, even if the job is highly sought after by names that might be bigger, to keep a strong culture. A lot of times it could be the best thing.

To come out year one and win 30 games, being the winningest team in the history of our conference. I hope that leads to other assistants getting opportunities when their head coaches move up.

It's a great thing to see. A lot of times the guy who really knows how to keep it going is just sitting right there on the bench.

Q. You alluded to Wisconsin's change of style. You're busy with your team. How much has that been noticeable? Is that something you keyed in on once you got matched up with them?

FLYNN CLAYMAN: Yeah, I got keyed in on them once we got matched up. I didn't realize how efficient they are in transition. So they got all five guys out there who can shoot. They're very good offensively, not just in transition but in the halfcourt. They're elite. I think they're 11th in the country in adjusted offense.

We've got our work cut out for us guarding them, not just in transition but in halfcourt.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much for your time. Good luck tomorrow.

FLYNN CLAYMAN: Thank you.