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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: SALT LAKE CITY


March 20, 2013


Roman Banks

Derick Beltran

Jameel Grace

Malcolm Miller


SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

THE MODERATOR:  We have Southern University student‑athletes ready to go for our second session.  We have Derick Beltran, Jameel Grace and Malcolm Miller.  We will take questions for our athletes.

Q.  Jameel, every 16th seed that comes in comes in as a major underdog.  Do you guys draw extra inspiration from being the underdog going into this game?
JAMEEL GRACE:  I would have to say, no, because I think coming into the season we were going to be underdogs overall being that this was the coach's second year here and a lot of people felt that he was doing rebuilding.  So a lot of folks felt we were underdogs, but at the same time you've got to go out there every night and take care of business.

Q.  Guys, talking about being underdogs, this program was almost wiped off the map completely.  How do you hang in there?  Did you even look at this tournament as being a possibility when things were looking down?
JAMEEL GRACE:  I definitely thought this year was going to be a good opportunity for us to come to the tournament, and Coach Banks and the rest of the staff did a great job recruiting, and we worked hard every year in preseasons and we're finally able to come to the dance.
MALCOLM MILLER:  Well, I thought we was going to make it this year, too, because we work hard every day and Coach pushes us to limits we thought we couldn't be.
So I had the thought in my mind we was going to make it this year.  We just worked hard and took care of business, every single game, one game at a time.

Q.  You follow the rise of Gonzaga and realize that 20 years ago Gonzaga was Southern.  Do you pay attention to that?  Is that any kind of encouragement?  Is there any kind of blueprint to that?
DERICK BELTRAN:  Our coach told us 20 years ago Southern was the top 25 and nobody knew what Gonzaga was.  Tables are turned now, but we tried to bring Southern back to where it used to be in the 80s and 90s and stuff like that.  So we are just working hard for it.

Q.  Malcolm, not a lot of guys put up the numbers you do coming off the bench.  Is there anything in the way you play that makes you a good fit for that role?  And has that ever been a problem for you wanting to start or anything like that?
MALCOLM MILLER:  No, it ain't been a problem because in my junior college I came off the bench and doing things like that.  I had gotten hurt before the preseason started, so I had no choice but to come off the bench.  And the coach told me he needed a spark off the bench, and I never had a problem with it.  I just wanted to come in and play my role and keep things going.

Q.  I'm just wondering now that you've seen film and talked to the coaches about Gonzaga, what is your general impression of them, and how do you feel you lineup with them?
MALCOLM MILLER:  I think they're a very good ball club and their bigs look really good.  I think we match up with them well guard‑wise, and I feel like if we could just play position‑by‑position we would be able to hang in there with them.
JAMEEL GRACE:  I would have to agree with Malcolm.  They're very big on the inside, and we watched the film last night.  We know that a big key is turnover and rebounding for us.  We got to take care of the ball each and every game and that's one thing we have been big on.  As far as the guards, we know that we match up well with them and it's going to be an up‑tempo game and that's our style of basketball.  So let the best man win.
DERICK BELTRAN:  I think we have match‑up problems as well.  They're big inside.  We've got to contain them inside, and we got to do a lot of helping.  But on the wing standpoint we will be fine there.  We play up and down really fast, just like them.
But I think the inside is going to be tough for us, but I think we will handle it perfectly.  Our coach got a good game plan and we're going to follow the rules that they've given us and we're going to continue to do so.

Q.  Derick, how does it change the game when you have a guy like Malcolm that can come in and score and rebound and do the things he does?
DERICK BELTRAN:  It does everything for us.  He's the key to our success.  He plays really big in situations like this, and I know he's going to come through tomorrow.

Q.  Jameel and Derick, you guys mentioned you play up‑tempo and obviously you have had a few low‑scoring games, including the conference tournament, four of your last six opponents you held to under 60 points which is impressive.
JAMEEL GRACE:  We are comfortable with our style of play, but some nights the ball is not going to go in.  It's not our offense that got us here.  I think we play great defense as a team, and that's just one thing from the start is Coach said you go big on defense, and that's what got us here right now.
DERICK BELTRAN:  We have a defensive team.  I think offensively we struggle some nights, I think any good team does, without defensively is what got us here, like Jameel said.  And I think if we go out there and hang our hat on defense our offense will take care of itself.
THE MODERATOR:  All right, gentlemen, thank you.  Now we will take questions for Coach Banks.

Q.  Coach, congratulations on getting here.  Now that you've seen film of these guys, what's your impression and how do you think you line up with them?
COACH BANKS:  They're even better than what I thought.  We watched a lot of film on these guys.  We're going to have to play one of our best brands of basketball.  They're a versatile ball club.  They can beat you many ways.  I actually think they're a good team on the inside, but equally as well on the outside.
As we studied these guys, and in preparing for them, our problem is sort of like how you pick your poison.  They're capable to pound you on the glass, but if you're not paying too much attention to the guys on the perimeter, Bell and those guys can shoot the basketball and they can hurt you equally as well.
We're going to have a lot of energy.  We're going to have to be physically tough to match up with their toughness and probably play one of our better basketball games that we have played all season long.

Q.  Coach, as you rebuild the program, do you look at Gonzaga and what they have accomplished and hold that as some kind of a blueprint or talk to your players about how to develop a franchise?
COACH BANKS:  No question about it.  I've been using these guys all year long as an example to building a program, in my respect, I think rebuilding a program and all the years where they come from.
I think they are a true example of what we're trying to do at Southern University.  Actually, when you watch their program and how they play, we're similar in many ways.
I think they have bigger size and some quality players, but, you know, a lot of times as we are watching them and scouting them we try to do some of the same thing.  It will be a great contest for us.  It won't be anything that we're unfamiliar with, but it's the man on the court trying to stop what they're doing.

Q.  A little bit of irony now that you've got them?
COACH BANKS:  Yeah, the guys, when we drew them, all year long you hear Gonzaga in our locker room, prespeeches and practices about working hard and building and how you have to play and several other programs.  But the guys kinda looked at me and said, "Coach, Gonzaga."
So that was a lasting moment, and we're anxious to get on the floor against them.

Q.  On the subject of rebuilding, can you give us the quick version or not‑so‑quick version of what you were looking at when you took this program over, not just on the court, but obviously in the classroom?
COACH BANKS:  I think a lot of times what has been lost in the shuffle at this moment is what we had to do in the classroom.  You're talking about phase 3 penalties, taking away your scholarships, practice times and obviously on the bubble, probably going into phase 4, losing your program at that time.
We had to do a tremendous job of getting guys eligible.  I think when I walked on campus during summer school we had one eligible player, so the assistant coaches came in, worked, and did a great job of walking kids to class and trying to make sure that we can get out of this dire straight that we are in academically.
What happened is that the guys that we kept, ended up weeding some out, I think they made a commitment.  It wasn't about the talent, but it was about working hard.  It's a testament to a group of guys that came together and believed in something and trying to achieve a goal.
This team started last year winning 17 games.  Wasn't able to go to any postseason play, remarkable from where a program came from.  They had won more than games in that year than they had in the last three years.  To get to this point I thought it would be a four‑or‑five‑year period to get to this point.  Actually, we still have a lot of work to do, but we will enjoy this one along the way.

Q.  What is it about Malcolm Miller's game that you think makes him such a great fit for that guy coming off the bench who scores the way he does?
COACH BANKS:  Coming off the bench it unfolded differently.  Malcolm had a wrist injury preseason.  He has a wrist injury, and he was out.  Actually, I don't think he played in our first scrimmage game.
Also, we do a lot of other things as it relates to the program, how we play the style of ball we play.  It took him a while to adjust to that.  So what happened is that we started with a certain lineup, and I believe in defense first, and we put a defensive lineup out there.
We started bringing him in and it worked, it fit him.  He had the same role in junior college.  He game off the bench and Malcolm started embracing it and the team started embracing it.  So if it wasn't broken I wasn't trying to fix anything and it led to where we are now.
To this point it has given us extra motivation when he comes in the game.  We're a different type of team offensively, and he's a tremendous player.  He has been able to, without really knowing our system, is playing some of his better basketball now because he's learning how to read screens, come off screens, learning our defensive philosophy, more so.
He's a kid that we play at the 3 and the 4, and he's able to cause some match‑up problems and that has helped our ball club quite a bit.

Q.  Is that rare to find a caliber of player like that who doesn't have a problem coming off the bench?
COACH BANKS:  This team is exemplary.  Malcolm has put a lot of egos down and focused on the goal that we always talk about, playing our brand of basketball.  He's a tremendous kid.  He hasn't complained one bit about it.
You know, he's producing numbers, but he's still understanding that he has some work to do, because he can shoot the basketball and that bailed him out a lot of times.  But a lot of times he's lost in the shuffle.  He understood that.
He works very hard to get better, so we went through a phase there, the second half of the season where he really understood it because he started off like wildfire, everybody looking for Gary Bell.  The game plan for him didn't know Malcolm Miller.  We bring him off the bench and he will go 7 for 9 and that happened several times.
But we got to the second half of the conference play and he struggled a little bit because people knew who Malcolm Miller was and that gave me a chance to reiterate that you have to use the system and get better of understanding so we can free you up and do some other things.  You just can't get a shot in transition anymore.
So he understood that and this has helped him play well the last four or five games of the season again.

Q.  Southern has been an underdog in a lot of games, a lot of situations this season.  Has the team embraced that underdog role and worked to prove themselves?
COACH BANKS:  You know, we don't look at it as the underdog.  We understand as it relates to how people look at the game, how experts adjust the game.  But we talk in our locker room preparing for the next contest and as you talk about preparing for the next contest, we know who our opponent is, but at the end of the day it's not about your opponent if you're playing for the next contest.
It could be the Lakers you're playing and we want to play the game a certain way, and if we play a certain way and compete a certain way then we can obviously win a ballgame.  So we make adjustments about our opponents and our preparations, but we're always preparing for our next contest, our next basketball game no matter who our opponent is.

Q.  Roman, had the NCAA made their final ruling when you took the job?
COACH BANKS:  We knew we wouldn't have postseason play, but we filed a waiver last year, which we were denied and filed our waiver again which happened to work out in our favor.  Our academic people, Trayvean Scott who the university added to the academic center and one thing we had to add, and the university had us do that and he took the ball and ran with it.  The university said what we had done in that amount of time was remarkable.
They sent us alert that we will be moving out of phase 3, going back to hopefully a clean slate.  So we are very pleased about that.

Q.  They took two scholarships away, initially?
COACH BANKS:  When I came in we only was operating under nine scholarships.  Then they gave us two back, and this year we are going to get all full, 13 allotment.

Q.  Coach, can you talk about the defense you guys have played this year?  What makes it so effective?  Is it pressure?  What are your core values for what you want to do at that end of the floor?
COACH BANKS:  I have been lucky to work under some good guys, Coach Kennedy, when I was at Southeastern, and he's at Texas A&M right now, and I embraced what he does, being tough and physical.
That's all blueprint.  A lot of time I tell the guys you rent your offense, but you can own your defense.  Some nights you can't control that ball going in like you would like to, so what we try to do is work hard defensively.
We have a formula that we try to take top scorers away, try to make them shoot a certain percentage, and at the end of the game if we meet our formula we should look and see we have a chance to win.  The thing about it is these guys, there weren't a lot of teams we fade all year that could beat you a lot of ways.  That put pressure on us defensively, especially with the size that they have.
It's going to be a tough outing for us, but I think we have some things planned that hopefully it can work and help us slow these guys down.  I don't think that you can necessarily stop 'em, but if we can slow 'em down a little bit, and if we're shooting the ball pretty good, I think we can make this game very competitive.
THE MODERATOR:  Thank you, Coach. 

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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