NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - IDAHO VS HOUSTON

March 18, 2026

Isaiah Brickner

Jackson Rasmussen

Kolton Mitchell

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Idaho Vandals

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by our Idaho student-athletes. We have senior guard Isaiah Brickner, freshman forward Jackson Rasmussen, and sophomore guard Kolton Mitchell. We'll open it up to questions.

Q. Kolton, we talked back on Sunday, and obviously it was really fresh and exciting. A couple of day has passed, so it's sunk in a bit. I can imagine you guys have been hard at work. Now that you're here, what's this experience been like? How have you kind of gotten in the zone to play in the NCAA Tournament game?

KOLTON MITCHELL: It's been amazing. This whole experience so far has just been so great for us and this university, being able to travel with our band and cheer and everything has been so much fun. Then today being able to come to this arena and stuff, it's just been such a blessing for us. I'm so excited to be able to play tomorrow. It's going to be great.

Q. For whoever wants to answer this, is it cool for you guys that you guys are playing here and the women's team is playing just down the road 24 hours behind you guys? What's that sort of mean for the university as a whole?

JACKSON RASMUSSEN: Yeah, for sure. I think it's really cool. I've already talked to some of them. I think they're going to try to come to our game, which I think is really special. Yeah, it's definitely very cool.

Q. For you guys to see your ability to catch fire from three, especially in the conference tournament, what have you seen from Houston's defense that you can exploit with your ability to hit from beyond the arc?

ISAIAH BRICKNER: I feel like what we've been working on these last couple of days is just making right play every single time. Houston is a super aggressive, defensive team. So being able to make simple plays and find open shots, find our guys for open shots, like you said, we have a skilled team, and everyone on this team can shoot. So just playing our brand of basketball is I feel like how we're going to be successful in this game tomorrow.

Q. One of the key things with that Houston defense, and even their offense, super slow tempo, right? 325th in the country in possessions per game. How have you guys adjusted to that? Is it something you've talked about? How do you think your game will fit against that really slow pace they like to play?

ISAIAH BRICKNER: Yeah, I mean, we're always trying to play our brand of basketball. We like to push the pace, play fast, earn early advantages. So I think we're going to try and do that same thing tomorrow, go out, play fast, and just do what we do, shoot the ball with confidence, be aggressive, play our brand.

Q. Kolton and Jackson, actually, you guys have three guys on this team who have NCAA experience. Obviously Trey was able to win that game with Fairleigh Dickinson a couple of years ago. Jack won a game at Colorado State. What's that kind of been like? Has there been messaging from them of what this experience is going to be, and has that helped you guys kind of settle in a little bit?

KOLTON MITCHELL: Yeah, I think the main thing is just kind of like what a day would look like in the tournament, coming in here, what kind of practice things are, stuff like that.

You know, all three of the guys didn't really get a lot of playing time when they played in the tournament, so just all the extra stuff is kind of the main thing that they've been able to be in our ear about and just give us familiarity with it.

Q. Kolton, Houston uses a two-point guard lineup throughout. When you watch that, does that present challenges, or how do you sort of view that match-up there with two guys that they can both have the ball in their hands?

KOLTON MITCHELL: Yeah, they got two really good point guards, but we kind of run a two point guard lineup as well, so I think we'll be able to match up pretty well with them. It's going to be a big challenge for us, but we'll be ready, and we'll be excited.