Wichita, Kansas, USA
Intrust Bank Arena
Gonzaga Bulldogs
Media Conference
THE MODERATOR: We have the Gonzaga University Bulldogs with us. Ryan Nembhard, Nolan Hickman and Graham Ike. Questions, please.
What do you know about Georgia?
RYAN NEMBHARD: I know they're a good team. They play in one of the best conferences in the country. They've got size. They're athletic. They've played a lot of tough games this year, and they won a lot of tough games.
So looking forward to getting out there and competing to them.
NOLAN HICKMAN: Yeah, just piggybacking off of what Ryan said, real good squad, talented. Really big in the post position. Yeah, man, that's pretty much all I got for Georgia.
GRAHAM IKE: Yeah, these guys hit it on the head. Pretty physical team. They play a good brand of basketball, so we are expecting a physical game on both sides of the ball. Long team, yeah.
THE MODERATOR: In the last interview session there was a lot made of Georgia not being in the tournament for 26 years, playing against a program that's here every single year. Do you think that makes a difference in the student-athletes' minds?
GRAHAM IKE: It probably does make a difference. I don't know about for them, but for us we've been here before, so we have the experience so we're kind of used to these kind of games and environments. I think it does help us.
NOLAN HICKMAN: Yeah, same what G said. He pretty much said it all.
RYAN NEMBHARD: I agree.
Q. Like a lot of the other teams talk about their culture and how they're working together to get ready for the big game tomorrow? What's your motto for the games tomorrow as a team?
RYAN NEMBHARD: I think our culture just starts with who we are as a program, the tradition in the Gonzaga program. I think the culture here is second to none, you know. That's built through years of different teams, camaraderie, and especially the way Coach Few is just so consistent every year and every day on what he brings to the table.
So I think the culture is in us. I think as a team we're just getting closer and closer as the year has been going on and we're playing our best ball at the right time. Yeah, we're excited for tomorrow.
NOLAN HICKMAN: Just to piggyback off what Ryan said, I think Coach does a great job of giving us insight on previous teams before us, just how they approach every game, how they approach every practice down the stretch when they hit March and everything. I think he does a really good job with that with all the teams. At least all the teams I've been a part of. I think he does a really good job at explaining that and making us understand that.
GRAHAM IKE: Yeah, they hit it on the head.
Q. Coach said the other day that there was a point in the season where he had to mention you could play with a little more desperation, there's a lot at stake. Maybe there are streaks in the balance. Do you guys remember him talking about anything like that? He said, particularly the seniors could feel it. Any thoughts or remembrances of how he approached guys with that?
NOLAN HICKMAN: I think he honestly lets us know that around this time of year, it's always desperate. You know, you have to have a different urge to win when it comes down to this time of year. Yeah, he does a great job at trying to push that point through to us at practice. Even when we're having film sessions, you know, we don't have a lot more of these left. So yeah, he just tries to make that a point to let us seniors know.
RYAN NEMBHARD: If you're not desperate at this time of year, you're going home. Win or go home at this point, and your season is done, so you have to be desperate. Every game matters. Every game is important. It's win or go home at this point.
The least desperate team is probably going to be going home and chilling on the couch.
Q. How different is it for guys who have played in this tournament before versus all the guys on teams who are making it for the first time?
NOLAN HICKMAN: Honestly, man, I would say just the whole experience. When you hit March Madness, you hit the first round and everything, just this even media, all this plays a part in the experience of March Madness. I think the first-timers, it's a challenge for them. It's something that they just haven't experienced before.
With us being here already, I think this is something that's usual, and it's easy for us. I don't know. We understand how this thing goes. So I think that's pretty much the difference between newcomers and us seniors that's been in it for a while.
RYAN NEMBHARD: Yeah, for sure. I think the extracurricular, the media, the open gym practices and all that is just -- those are the things that you experience for the first time. Those are the things that are a little bit different. At the end of the day when you get on that court, it's basketball. So after the first four minutes probably everyone settles in, jitters will probably be gone, and it's basketball at the end of the day, so yeah.
GRAHAM IKE: Yeah, to piggyback off these guys, I think for newcomers like when you get in, I feel like something that can be new for them is maybe the highs and lows of March Madness. Not getting too high, not getting too low, but just trying to stay in the middle with it because anything can happen around this time as we saw last night.
Q. We know with football players a lot of times they'll say, hey, that first hit, it's the chance to remember, hey, it's football. We're back. It's the game we've always played. What is that play for basketball players?
RYAN NEMBHARD: What was the first part?
Q. For football players a lot of times you'll hear them saying that first hit, when you hear the pads clicking, that's when you realize, okay, it's football. It's the same game we've always played. What's that play in basketball?
GRAHAM IKE: I think it's like Nolan just said, either the tipoff or the first four minutes that sets the tone.
NOLAN HICKMAN: First media, something like that.
Wichita, Kansas, USA
Intrust Bank Arena
Gonzaga Bulldogs
Media Conference
THE MODERATOR: Head Coach of the Bulldogs is with us, Mark Few. We'll have an opening statement from Coach.
MARK FEW: Well, it's awesome to be back in the NCAA Tournament here. I think it's 27 straight for us, which is just an incredible accomplishment by everybody... school, administration, program, players, coaching staff, fans, everything. I mean, I think it's one of the coolest kind of underrated accomplishments in all of American sports.
This year was challenging because I think there were times where it was kind of up in the air. I think when you do something like that, you have to be mindful of a sense of entitlement that kind of is everywhere. We talked about it a lot with our team that nobody is gifted into this tournament. You've got to earn your way into it, and it's really, really hard. That's what makes it so special.
We've been kind of celebrating that and then looking forward to coming to Wichita and playing a really, really, really good Georgia team.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. You mentioned entitlement. I know you've talked to the players about that and what it means, and I hear you on occasion mention the fans also can't take it for granted.
MARK FEW: And the media.
Q. And the media.
MARK FEW: Yeah, sure.
Q. What are we missing? Can you express that again what it is we need to understand about this incredible streak?
MARK FEW: Just how hard it is. I mean, if it was so easy and everybody did it, there would be more of us that have done it 27 straight times. I mean, just that.
It's really, really, really hard. There are some great teams out there. There's some really, really good teams out there, and there's obviously some hungry teams that would do anything. There are some players.
We had two this year on our squad that had never been to the NCAA Tournament, and they've been in basketball five, six years and were dying to come to a place that could get them to the NCAA Tournament. You factor that in over 365 teams, you know, there's only 68 slots.
I mean, I guess that's it. And it's human nature, right? When something happens over the course of time, I think we all have a tendency to expect it to happen. That's not the case, and that's what makes this tournament so cool and so fun and such an amazing worldwide sporting event.
Q. Hey, Coach, you mentioned some of those young guys who hadn't played in the tournament before. What do you tell them to get this ready for this stage?
MARK FEW: Just channel all the best things that you have in your game and in your mind and live in that moment and enjoy the heck out of it. As I also tell them, it's a one-and-done tournament where you can't have a bad afternoon or a bad night.
It's not so much whether you are making shots or making perfect plays on defense. You just can't have a bad night in your effort, in your energy, and then also your mental prep. You have to be dialed into the scouts and hit all that.
You're not going to play perfect, but you are going to have to have a perfect effort.
Q. Just a quick follow-up. We were speaking with some of the players a minute ago, and they mentioned how important those first four minutes are in a game during March Madness. What can you do to get them ready for those first four minutes and to help them dominate?
MARK FEW: They're ready. I've got guys that have played a lot of these games, so, I mean, we're ready. The first four is okay. There's 36 others. We better be good in the last four too. I mean, that's quite frankly what we struggled in the most earlier in the year.
I'm probably more focussing on that than I am on the first four.
