On the eve of their first round game of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, the Albany Great Danes participated in First-Round Practice Day at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
Head coach Will Brown and four players -- Brian Lillis, Jason Siggers, Brent Wilson and Jamar Wilson -- took to the podium for the practice-day press conference at 11:20 a.m. (see transcript below). Albany then participated in its open-practice session (photo gallery).
PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES
REPORTER: Jamar, what have you seen of Sean Singletary, like have you seen any of his games this year? Did you watch any particular games on film leading up to this game and what did you think.
JAMAR WILSON: Obviously he's a good player. I believe some of us watched some of his games this year. He's a really explosive, quick player, plays with a lot of heart. Obviously he's a good player just like his team, we just want to make sure we can contain him and do our best to win this game.
REPORTER: For any of the players actually, I mean, right after the draw was done on Sunday, I know the guys said the game, that you liked the match-up, now that you've had a few days to watch the film, how do you feel of this match-up and how realistic is it to upset this team?
JASON SIGGERS: Well, we're definitely the underdog, I think, but we never doubt ourselves. We know that we can win the game and if we execute the game plan and play hard with a lot of heart, we know it's a winnable game and that's what we try to come out here and do.
REPORTER: The question is to Brent Wilson. How do you think you're going to be able to work against the post players of Virginia and how do you think you'll rank among the post players that you played during the year?
BRENT WILSON: Just size-wise, they're bigger than anyone we played in the America East, six-ten, six-eleven, you don't find that too much in the America East, so size-wise they're bigger than most we played against during the regular season, but we played against the post from U-Conn, Boise State, so I think they rank up there with the best we've seen all year so we've got to make sure we can defend them and Virginia is dominated with guard play, so we've got to focus on them and not give them easy buckets.
REPORTER: Jason and Brian, when you guys look at Virginia, do you look at them as an ACC team that you're going against or is this a clean slate?
BRIAN LILLIS: Basically our coach did a great job of putting us in a situation to think we can beat this team, we don't look at them as an ACC team, we look at them as the next game on the schedule. We're going to go out there like it's any other game and just play our best.
JASON SIGGERS: I see everybody the same. They're all basketball players, no matter what level you play on. They put their clothes on the same way we do. We're all just going out there trying to win and we're all just basketball players.
REPORTER: Jamar, any of the other players, talk about the experience how with Connecticut last year helps you going into this game and are there any sets of finishing off what you began last year?
JAMAR WILSON: Yeah, I think it was a great experience, being that last year was our first trip and like I said a couple of times, we were just more so happy with getting our feet wet and, you know, like if we were a 16 seed it really didn't matter as long as we really had a chance to experience being there and experience what the NCAA is, and I think this year, us playing for the best seed possible and pulling out of the draw Virginia, I think it's a good thing and we're definitely going to try to win this year, not to say we didn't try to win last year but I feel we match up better with Virginia than we did with U-Conn last year, especially being that they're guard dominated like us, I think we're just going to make the best of it.
REPORTER: Brent, do you guys feel like you have to slow down the tempo of this game?
BRENT WILSON: I think one of their main strengths is being on the floor so I think if we can slow down our tempo and make them defend, it will definitely be in our favor.
REPORTER: Any of you guys that were here last year can answer this, what specifically did you learn from that game, playing on a big stage, dealing with nerves and jitters that you think might help you this year?
BRIAN LILLIS: Basically I feel like it's confidence, you know, because last year we were playing against the six-five NBA players and just like us staying with them and having a chance to win the game basically just gives us confidence going into this year too.
JAMAR WILSON: I feel like it definitely helped us. It just, even though we didn't win that game, it just shows you that any team in college can be beaten on any given day, so you just have to play your hardest and do what you can do and try to control your own destiny.
REPORTER: You've sort of become sort of a You-Tube star in the last few days because of your role in a particular dunk that happened, how are you adjusting to your cyber fame?
BRENT WILSON: Well, there's been a couple articles in the Times Union about it as well. I've gotten quite a few phone calls from people back home. So I've adjusted well. Like I said, if it takes getting dunked on two consecutive championships, it can happen next year as well if we get a third, it's fine with me. I'd rather it not happen, obviously. I think the worst part was we're both from Iowa and I called a lot of friends back home to watch the game because it's rarely on TV back there, so everybody I went to high school with saw it as well so that was probably the worst part.
JAMAR WILSON: Make sure we have extra ice for him too.
REPORTER: Coach Brown, do you have any comments?
COACH WILL BROWN: I'm excited to be here. I'm very excited, this is a extraordinary group of young men I've had the experience to coach. A confident group. Everybody from staff to players has packed through Monday. We're not here to keep this game close. We're here to try to win some games in this tournament and advance. And this group of kids really thinks that they have an opportunity to do that, so we're very excited about the tip-off tomorrow at noon and we're going to give Virginia our best shot and hopefully it's good enough.
REPORTER: After kind of running out of gas in that game last year in the last seven, eight minutes, do you think this team has what it takes to play a full 40-minute game?
COACH WILL BROWN: We learned quite a bit from last year's game. Again, we played the most talented team in the country last year in U-Conn. They shot around before us, when they were walking around on the floor, their point guards were bigger than our power forwards. So physically and athletically, they were more gifted than we were. And I think we had so much adrenaline, we had the whole arena cheering for us, we were up 12 with 12 minutes to go, tied with a little over 6 minutes to go and then we just wore down and obviously U-Conn took their game to another level and I think the gap in talent and athleticism and quickness caught up to us, but I was very proud of our basketball team. I think that experience last year will allow us to play very confidently tomorrow. We will not be intimidated. We will not be in awe of this atmosphere.
REPORTER: It looks like your roster has players from all over the country, a couple from Iowa, Texas, Missouri. What is your recruiting plan, philosophy, strategy, whatever?
COACH WILL BROWN: Well, I want to get student athletes that fit the university profile, Albany is a special institution, we're trying to build a special academic program and I think we've done that. The biggest thing is building quality individuals, and I think we've done that so far. It's great to see quality kids have success. When we recruit, when I first got the job, we moved so quickly from Division III to II to I, I'd call kids from the University of Albany and they'd tell me, Albany State in Georgia? They had no idea who we were. We figured we'd go nationwide and recruit AAU kids. There were so many established programs at Hoster and Fordham and we just wanted to reach out and open up as many doors as we could nationwide and we've been very fortunate because we do have some great players and good kids from all over the country.
REPORTER: You must have a big budget.
COACH WILL BROWN: Our budget's pretty good. We have the resources to be successful and that's a credit to Dr. Lee McElroy, our director of athletics and the university has made a commitment to men's basketball and I think they're happy that they've done that because of success that we've had in the past two years and because of the quality of kids that we have in our program.
REPORTER: Given the guards that Virginia has, do you kind of see this as a pinnacle kind of game for Jamar, everything that he's kind of built up to, this is sort of one of his good final tests to see how far he's come?
COACH WILL BROWN: I think last year on ESPN, against Vermont in our conference championship game, Jamar put on a show, he put on a show again this year against Vermont in the championship game. I thought personally he was the best player on the floor against U-Conn in the NCAA tournament last year. So he is not going to be intimidated because he's going up against an all-ACC court. Jamar is a very confident individual. I think he thinks that he'll play well tomorrow and he's pretty confident that our team will play well. So I don't think he's looking at this as a one-on-one match-up. The one good thing about Jamar is all he wants to do is win, and I think if Jamar has two points, if we win, he'll be happy. If he has 30
and we lose, he'll be disappointed. He's a smart kid. He realizes this is an opportunity to compete against a young man who's an all ACC player and possible first round NBA draft pick. I've said it over and over, Jamar is probably the best player in the country that nobody has heard about. People are starting to hear more and more about him and it's nice to see him have an opportunity as well as our program on a national stage.
REPORTER: How do you rate their guards, Virginia's guards against the ones that you've seen or played against, and are they the keys, just holding them down in check?
COACH WILL BROWN: Well, their guards are as good as any team we've played against, that's for sure. We've played against some good back courts, but Singletary and Reynolds are special. And I think that's why Virginia was the co-regular season champs in the ACC. You know, so we obviously are not going to stop them completely. We need to make them work for everything they get, try to contain them a little bit. The best way for us to do that is to make this a half court basketball game. I think Virginia really excels in transition. I think if we can take away their transition opportunities and force them to play us five on five on both ends of the floor, I think we'll be successful.
REPORTER: How well do you know Rob Lanier and Steve Seymour when they were at Siena, is it odd to see them in a first round game like this?
COACH WILL BROWN: It's definitely interesting, I got to know Rob fairly well. I thought he was a tireless worker, a very good person. A family man, somebody that I had some respect that -- that I had a lot of respect for. And Steve Seymour is a former head coach at Drexel. Dave Leitao and the Virginia kids won't be surprised at the talent level of Jamar Wilson and of the kids in our program. I'm sure Rob and Steve have told them that. But I think Rob and Steve are in pretty good situations right now coming off a season where they were co-champs in the ACC and Virginia's a great place to work and I'm glad to see both of them having success right now because they're both good people.
REPORTER: Will, for us that follow your team all year, we know you play a lot of man to man and you enjoy it. How much man to man can you play against a team like this in this conference?
COACH WILL BROWN: We're one of those teams that I'm a little pig-headed, some of you who know me. We're going to come out and guard them man to man, I can tell you that. We understand what they're trying to do. We have to make some adjustments obviously. We can't let their guards run wild on us, but we're going to stick to our guns. We're going to play
hard-nosed man to man defense. We'll have five guys guarding the ball. We'll rebound. That's the biggest thing with our team down the stretch. I think we became the best defensive team in our league this last season. You look at the Vermont game, we outrebounded the number one rebound team in the country. We had a week to prepare. Our kids executed the game plan to a T. We've had a week to prepare for this game. We've made adjustments to our man to man, but we're not trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat here. We're going to do what we've done well all year long and just continue to try to outwork our opponent.
REPORTER: Can you compare the challenge you face tomorrow with the challenge ahead last week of going to Vermont and winning with an NCAA bid on the line?
COACH WILL BROWN: I've got an interesting group of kids. They really believe in themselves. Vermont had a great season. We had never won in Burlington, Vermont, but we felt very comfortable going up there. Our kids believe they can win the basketball game. We've made some adjustments to our game plan. We did some things that we didn't do the first two times around that really helped us. We have an unbelievable fan base. It's grown over the years. They have 3000 seats in Burlington, Vermont and we were allotted 600 tickets and the fans that we had in Burlington, it felt like we were playing at home for the majority of that game. They're so passionate about their Great Danes that we felt very comfortable. The
night before the game, we took the kids to see the movie 300, I think that motivated them a little bit. We're a loose group and the experience we had last year in the conference tournament and also in the NCAA tournament really helped us, and when you have what I call a game change-up, like a kid like Jamar Wilson, you have to feel confident anytime you step on the floor.
REPORTER: Can you talk a little bit about Brett Gifford, do you think he's caught a second wind maybe the last few weeks after struggling some during the season?
COACH WILL BROWN: Brett's an interesting story, he came in in August, he was 278 pounds. January 1st, he was 235 pounds. So his body kind of underwent a metamorphosis, I mean, and I think he struggled with it. He hit that wall very early in the season because of the weight loss. And then I think the last couple of weeks in the season, it's like he caught a second win wind. He was starting to adjust to his body and he's going to be a very good player for us. He's done some great things against teams that have bigger courts. He really helped us against Chris Home. He's really going to help us tomorrow. He's doing some great things. Too many people get caught up in looking at points per game. I'm looking at he's taking up space, he's rebounding the ball, blocking some shots, altering some shots. When Jamar and Jason drive the lane, he's catching the little dump down passes down the lane, and he's really going to help us tomorrow, I'm confident of that.
REPORTER: What did you think when this particular match-up went up on the board? Come back in with back to back losses, has not played that well the last couple of weeks?
COACH WILL BROWN: Well, I like to look at the bulk of their work. There's a reason why they're the co-champions of the regular season in the ACC. You look at nine programs with great history, the Dukes, the Carolinas, Virginia was the co-champions in that league. So you have to have a tremendous amount of respect for their program, for the kids in their program and their coaching staff. Now, as a head coach, you're trying to find strengths and weaknesses and looking at their record, they're 16-1 at home, four on the road, this game is a neutral court game, so we really took a long, hard look at those road games and those neutral court games, watched those films, looked at the stats from those games to try to find some things that really would stick out in our minds that maybe we could capitalize in our game tomorrow. So tremendous amount of respect for their program and what they accomplished this year and what Dave's done in such a short time with that program. So they're a very dangerous opponent. But we were sitting there and it's nerve-racking when your team doesn't get called in the first five or 10 minutes, you're sitting there waiting, waiting, just call us, it gets to a point, I don't care where they seed us, who we're playing, just call Albany. But as it got later into the selection show, last year we were so happy just to be there and we knew we were going to probably be a 16 seed, we drew U-Conn, the place erupted and I started scratching my head saying, what did we get ourselves into. But when I saw Miami of Ohio come up on the board as a 14 seed, I knew we had a better RPI than them, so I felt confident that we were at least going to be a 14 with an outside shot at a 13, a couple of my assistants had been following the RPIs closely and they said, coach, there's been some upsets, we've got a shot at a 13. So once I was trying to figure out who was left in the three/four seeds and I'm going, Memphis is left, Texas A & M is left, I'm going okay, we'll probably play one of those two. Then I saw Virginia/Albany match-up, okay, co-champs in the ACC perimeter oriented team, we're a perimeter oriented team, anytime you're a 13 seed and you're playing a 4, you're fighting an uphip battle, but we think it's a game that we can compete in that if we can keep this game close when it comes down the stretch that all the pressure's on them and we're just going to relax and play. I don't think there is a great match-up in a 4/13 game, but we like the opportunity that we have and we really do like our chances and these kids feel they can win this game and so does the staff.
REPORTER: How about the Utah comparative score there?
COACH WILL BROWN: I watched the Utah film. You've got to remember, they were playing three games in three days in Puerto Rico, probably a lot of distractions in Puerto Rico, it's tough to play three games in three days. We did go to Utah and beat Utah and Utah did beat Virginia fairly easily, but again, what Virginia did in the ACC regular season was very impressive. We watched that game, I don't know how much we can take from that Utah game. We did see some things that we did differently against Utah than Virginia did and we'll try to capitalize on some weakness, but I've got nothing but respect like I said earlier for their program. Anytime you win a conference as good as the ACC, you're a darn good basketball team.
REPORTER: What stood out about those road and neutral site games for them, Coach?
COACH WILL BROWN: That wouldn't be fair if I told you. They have created, in my mind, an unbelievable home court advantage, a great fan base, those kids play with a ton of confidence and almost like a little bit extra swagger on their home floor. I think when you have some success at home and you have passionate fans, I think when your kids step on the floor, one, they expect to win, two they've got that sixth man in the crowd and, again, they're comfortable. I think when you start to use a couple of games on the road, you start to question whether you can get it done on the road. If you have that mindset to get it done. And with young kids, you never know what they're thinking, but I do know that most teams, I would imagine, are much more comfortable at home, whereas our team, we're very comfortable at home or on the road and that's why I thought we had a shot at a 13 seed because I think the selection committee looks at the last 10 games, they look at your road wins and they also look at how you're doing your conference tournament, I think we appeased them in all those areas.
LOCKER ROOM QUOTES
JAMAR WILSON
On lesson's learned in the conference tournament
"I feel it definitely helped us out. Even though we didn't win, it showed any team can be defeated on any given day. You just need to play your hardest and do what you can do. You just control your own destiny."
JAMAR WILSON
On Virginia's Sean Singletary
"He's a good player. He is real explosive, a quick player and plays with a lot of heart just like his team. We just need to contain him."
JAMAR WILSON
On last year's experience
"It was a great experience because last year was our first trip. We were just happy to get our feet wet. This year we are definitely trying to win, not to say we didn't try last year. I think the match-up is better this year with Virginia than UConn last year. We just need to make the best of it."
JASON SIGGERS
On last year's experience
"What it really showed is that every team is 0-0 going into the tournament. You can't look at the name on the jersey or the conference they are from. That won't help you win. Anyone can beat anyone on any night."
JASON SIGGERS
On the tournament
"It is more intense than last year. Some people think we can win, but we still are the underdog. We just have to live in the moment and enjoy the game and the tournament. I love the atmosphere and it makes me want to play even more."
BRENT WILSON
On last year's experience
"It gives us extra experience. To play against so many NBA prospects gave us a lot of confidence. We are a lot looser this year than last. We know the process this year."
BRENT WILSON
On playing Virginia
"I am just going to stand my ground. We are going to stick with the game plan. They get up and down the court quickly. They are ACC athletes for a reason. If we can slow down the tempo it will definitely benefit us. To know this could be our seniors last game makes us want to play harder."
BRIAN LILLIS
On the tournament last year
"Playing in the tournament last year gave us a lot of experience. We played with five or six NBA players. To be able to stay with them shows us we can play any team."
BRIAN LILLIS
On playing an ACC team
"Our coaches do a good job of putting us in the right mind set. We are just going to play our best. We don't think of this game as playing an ACC team ? they are just another team."