Saturday press conference quotes

KERMIT DAVIS: It was, it was a great day for our program and our city and our university yesterday. I was really proud of our players. I know they're on display and they played really, really well. And you look at Michigan State's stats, and I thought Tom's team, they shot it 55 percent, scored 80 points. And so our guys just kind of answered every call. What I was really proud of was kind of how they handled the win. I thought they handled it being humble and class and act like they'd been there. And that's exactly the way we wanted it especially against -- we were fortunate to win against a class program like Michigan State. But now our full attention is to Syracuse, got it started last night. But a different style. Very, very good team, very well-coached team.

Q. When you recruited Giddy Potts did you have any sense you were getting maybe the best 3-point shooter in the country? And is it kind of just one of those typical stories where a guy kind of gets overlooked for one physical trait or another that maybe the big schools didn't see?

KERMIT DAVIS: You know, there was a guy that was an assistant coach at another university that called me and he said Kermit -- and this was in the spring. It's like January, February, maybe February, and he said there's a kid in Athens, Alabama, it's real close to Murfreesboro. He said I think he fits your team. He's as good a shooter as I've ever seen. Nobody's recruiting him. We went down there, loved him. He came on the campus unofficially he and his brother. Loved it. Wasn't going to go far from home, just one of those kids. And he is, we knew he could really, really shoot it. I think he can go to any level and he shoots it like that with confidence. He's got such a good physicalness about him.

Q. Kermit, can you put into words what one more win would mean to you, your program, university, to get to the Sweet 16?

KERMIT DAVIS: You know, I think this is that I can only imagine the great publicity that we could have for a week leading up to trying to go to Chicago. And to beat another storied program like Syracuse. It would mean a lot. And I think our team, really I'll be shocked if we don't play well. And I don't know if that means we'll win the game. But I really believe that our team will play with a maturity, and I think they'll have the same demeanor as we did yesterday.

Q. What does this mean for you and the seniors, just being here, being the big underdog and winning? Just what does that mean just for these three seniors?

KERMIT DAVIS: Well, you know Perrin and Darnell and Jaqawn have been terrific. And their leadership has been outstanding. College basketball, college athletics is so funny. And the twists and turns. And we're right in the middle of our regular season championship, and we lose a tough game to UAB and tough game to Western Kentucky at home. And Giddy Potts goes out with a concussion. He's going to be out 11 days. And our guys just rallied around, and Perrin Buford and these guys did such a marvelous job and you end up here. You have to stay the course, and those guys have handled that locker room in a great manner.

Q. What has Ed meant to this team? And I was talking to Aldonis, how you sent the Kevin Ware article to them after that happened. What was that moment like? And is kind of this run in some ways an inspiration playing for Ed?

KERMIT DAVIS: I think it has. The day before our Conference USA tournament, Ed was starting. Giddy was just coming back from his concussion, and it was a gruesome injury. It really was. It was the day before we played. And it was a dislocation of a fractured ankle. And it laid bad. And we only practiced about 30 minutes. And so I walked out of the gym and just kind of gathered myself. What are we going to do with this team? And I walked back in the gym. The whole team just sat -- there was deafening silence just sitting around Ed. So we sat there and I said, guys, Ed's going to be fine. It's going to take him a while. It's probably a six-month recovery but he's going to play basketball. We kind of went back in the mode and we did we pulled off the Louisville articles and how they rallied around Kevin Ware. And we played against Kevin Ware at Georgia State. Our guys saw him healthy. I think that was good, too. And I think it made them feel better for Ed that he's going to recover. And our team did a really good job, because you talk about a guy that epitomizes student-athletes, Ed Simpson does. He's a marvelous student and a really tough guy.

Q. To go back to Giddy for a second. I think I read somewhere he showed up pretty much overweight when he came in as a freshman. How did you guys get him in shape and was that a concern for you that he was so heavy?

KERMIT DAVIS: Well, we tried to get him to go to only one bowl of ranch with everything he eats instead of two bowls, all right, so that was a start. But he just is one of those guys that he just, his eating habits were just poor. And he had never really trained. I don't even know how much weights he's ever lifted. He walked into the weight room, he's as strong as any football guy on our campus. I mean, as we use in the south, and I'm from Mississippi, he's just country strong. He's built like that. But then Giddy started to understand his body and then when he got down and his body fat really went down, then he saw how much a better player that he is. We're still going to work on it in the spring. I think Giddy probably weighs about 219, 220, and I think if he can get down to maybe seven or eight pounds less he'll become even more athletic.

Q. Heading into this matchup on Sunday, what's just one thing that you see could really be a difficult challenge for you guys offensively?

KERMIT DAVIS: Well, you know, Jim's team and the zone is what it is. His guards are so big and so athletic. And they do such a good job of recruiting the guards that fit how they're going to defend. And they only give up like 30 percent from 3. And so they guard the 3-point line. And you can't fall in love with that and start shooting bad 3s. Hopefully the interchangeable parts of our team -- Reggie, Perrin, Darnell, in and out -- you've got to drive the ball. You've got to get paint touches against the zone and hopefully good ball movement. And different guys that can be able to penetrate the zone will help.

Q. Your guys were talking about academic accountability and the point system you have. I guess Reggie said you can only get to four points you don't want to be that guy. Can you explain to us what that system is?

KERMIT DAVIS: Yeah, you know we implemented -- I have a marvelous lady, Wynnifred Counts, who's been at our school for, gosh, 26, 27 years. And if you're late for a class, you're minus half a point. You miss a class it's half a point. If there's some kind of disruption -- and all I do, I'm just the enforcer of the rules and I don't deviate at all. You get positive points, too. You make a certain grade in a class or whatever, test, you get positive points. If you get minus two points, you run the next morning at 6:30. If you get to four then it becomes a peer-pressure deal where the whole team runs. So that's only happened like twice in our deal. But it keeps them accountable and we put the points on the board. And I think Aldonis Foote is the only guy that's got a point right now on our board when we left to go to St. Louis. And it really helped. Probably the article that came out in the USA Today that our men's and women's team have 100 percent graduation rate right now. And the last one that was figured by the NCAA. And I think in the spring Jaqawn Raymond changed his major to computer engineering, so he'll take another year. Darnell and Perrin will graduate on time. And I think it's 41 or 42 straight players in a row that have graduated that have exhausted their eligibility. So it's really, really important. And we've had junior college guys in that mix, too. And I think it's 15 or 16 straight junior college guys. So it's really important, like it is to every coach, but it really is for our guys. And they've done a great job with it.

Q. I'm wondering, going from an Izzo man-to-man to a Boeheim 2-3 zone, it's such a drastic difference. How do you change your mindset and get into it; how much have you seen? How much do you take away from the Dayton success at getting to the rim?

KERMIT DAVIS: Yeah, it is. It's a totally different preparation, and you try to go back and think about some teams that we've played in zone. And there's two or three teams in our league that play zone. And they don't assimilate the length and the guards and the things that Syracuse do. But we did, we just got done watching the Dayton game early on. They got a lot of paint touches the ball moved really well. But what Syracuse does, it's what they can do. They can kind of figure out where guys are. They adjust, they do a great job at halftime, as the game gets longer, their guys understand where your guys are. So that's why I think you've got to have a little more unpredictability and the movement throughout the game and different things that you do is important against them.

Q. Your career had a little different path back at the start when you got going. I was wondering when you look back at that one year at A&M how maybe that affected you or did it change your outlook or your approach to the coaching profession at all?

KERMIT DAVIS: It was 30 years ago when I got this great opportunity at Texas A&M, and we had won a bunch of games at Idaho. I made some mistakes there. I guess it was in 1990. I think, you know, I never wish it on anybody but if you go through it, it probably makes you a better coach in appreciation. And it did. We kind of had to recycle our career. So I went back, from a junior college, back to Utah State to Idaho, ISU, Middle Tennessee. It teaches you a lot of things. I'm a lot better person, a lot better coach because of that experience.

Q. I understand from talking to a lot of your guys that Jacob, although he hasn't been able to play, and won't be able to play for the remainder of this season, has nonetheless been kind of both an inspirational figure but also a real contributor. I was wondering if you could just describe some of the ways that he's helped you with your team?

KERMIT DAVIS: You know, Jacob Ivory was our starting point guard and we lost him to a concussion. So we really fought some injuries and after we won the Conference USA championship, Jacob was just crying, just had tears in his eyes and didn't play. Early in the summer you ask your guys who is your best leader, Jacob Ivory; who is the toughest guy, Jacob Ivory; who is the best teammate, Jacob Ivory. We lost a lot in losing him. But we've taken him on every trip. He's right in the middle of warm-ups and everything. He is as good a person as there is and we just hope he'll get healthy.

Q. We talked to your team about continuing to play with a chip on their shoulder. Do you like that, that they keep doing that?

KERMIT DAVIS: You know, I don't know if chips on your shoulders win any games. I really don't. I think it just comes down to playing basketball for the time that you're out there. I just think that we have good players and I think they believe in themselves. I think they believe in our system and how we play. I don't know if you have to play with chips on your shoulder, I don't think it will last very long. I just hope that those guys will just play basketball, try to get the scout in the game and play real confident tomorrow.

Q. Do you have any theories for why you guys are such a good three-point shooting team but have struggled this year from the foul line? In a game like yesterday where you've got to make some, what are you thinking as a coach knowing how big of a problem that's been?

KERMIT DAVIS: You know, Reggie Upshaw, you saw he makes threes. And it's like my golf game is real, real average. And he got the yips, just like in putting. He really did in the middle of the year. And in the last six or seven games he's done a lot better. Then he went to the line for the conference championship and just made them and shot them great. Yesterday he shot them and he's moving around. Free-throw shooting is like putting. If your head starts moving, your body starts moving, the chances go down. And when Reggie stays still at the line he's a lot better free throw shooter. But you're right, Darnell Harris, who's as good a five-man three-point shooter in college basketball he kind of struggled. So it's just kind of a mental thing, but they seem to make them when it's on the line, which is a good thing.

Q. Kermit, off that earlier question about the early part of your career. How much do you owe for your current position to Boots Donnelly, and what did he talk about with you when he was getting ready to hire you at middle?

KERMIT DAVIS: You know, Coach Donnelly, I'll tell you, ties to Michigan State, you try to go back to be the head coach at Idaho, and I have an older daughter that has special needs. And Moscow, Idaho is our second home back there. My wife really needed to be in the south and kind of closer to her family. And I thought it helped. It was a great move to go back with a good friend of mine at LSU, John Brady. I tried to get involved in the Middle Tennessee job, I couldn't get anywhere. I couldn't get Coach Donnelly to call me back. This is how it all works. So John Smith, used to be the head football coach at Michigan State, he and I are very best friends. He's the head coach at Louisville. He called me, out of the blue, I didn't call John, he goes, Kermit, he goes: Would you be interested in that Middle Tennessee job? Yeah, I would, John, but I can't even get the guy to call me back. He said: Well, Boots Donnelly is a great friend of mine. In five minutes Coach Donnelly calls me. And I meet him in Atlanta at the Final Four. I could tell after about ten minutes, I really thought he and I connected. And coach was great. Reminds me of my dad. My dad's a basketball coach. Coach Donnelly, he's football, old school. And he was tremendous. He called me the other day after we had won the championship. So he was great. And he's still a really, really good friend.

Q. Just wondering if you've ever had a back-toback coaching matchup like going from Izzo to Boeheim?

KERMIT DAVIS: No, not that caliber. Not that caliber right there. You're talking about as two good of guys basketball-wise as has been in our profession. That really is. Not only the tradition of their schools, but both those guys and what they've done, national championship coaches. So it's just a great opportunity for all of us to play against that caliber of team.

Q. Just what you can say about Win Case and how much he's meant to this team and his story coming to you with Bill Self telling him he should take an opportunity like that?

KERMIT DAVIS: Win Case, I think he's seven or eight years. He won two national championships as the head coach as Oklahoma City College. So Win is a really good basketball coach. I had an opening, and Bill called me and he said: Kermit, you've got good people skills and I've got good people skills, but I'm going to tell you a guy that's off the chart, that's better than both of us combined, it's a guy named Win Case. I have heard of Win but I really don't know him. I interviewed Win Case. He was terrific. He's got that infectious smile. He's been a great recruiter for our team. He's meant a ton over the last six years and all the winning we've had.

Q. I'm just curious, how much of what happened at A&M do you share with your current players about adversity and persevering and all that?

KERMIT DAVIS: Nothing. Nothing at all. Not with my players. Not at all. It's what happened. It has nothing to do with them, you know. And it happened 20 something years ago. And, like I said, it's one of those things that we all grow from adversity. We've all had it in this room. And so it's something, like I said, that has helped me and has helped me as a coach prepare for the opportunity now. But not at all. I've never brought it up to them.

Q. I'm assuming you learned a lot about coaching from your dad. I'm just wondering how much of that do you still use, that's still applicable and do you talk to him still about?

KERMIT DAVIS: My father's 80. And he was a high school coach. And then he was the Army coach at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and then he went to Mississippi State as an assistant. When I was growing up, I was there at every practice, my brother and I, I don't know if it's really the Xs and Os, he was such a southern gentleman. He had such great people skills. He was SEC Coach of the Year 1970. I think when you're young you pull from all the things -- you're just around it all the time. And the people that I got to meet just with him is probably the biggest thing. But I still talk to him every day. I don't know if you could ever have a better childhood than to grow up with a guy that's coaching in the SEC and be able to travel to all those schools and do those things.

Q. Have you been watching any of the ESPN highlights, any of that, and what are your thoughts on being this year's "Cinderella"?

KERMIT DAVIS: You know, I think I've seen the highlights once. And I really haven't seen too much of it. I guess the next day is when you really kind of see it from a national perspective. And just proud of your players. And like you said but we talked about it a lot. I said guys there's going to be some great stories coming out of this tournament. And it would be nice if it was Middle Tennessee. We talked about it during the week. You just hear about these stories all the time. And so it's really great when you become a fabric of your community. And I've been there 14 years. We're a huge part of everything that goes on there. We love that place. And to see good things like that happen to Murfreesboro and the fans and the Middle Tennessee State brand, it means a lot to Betty and I, for sure.

Q. Coach, you'll be facing another tall guard at Syracuse. You had success shutting down Valentine yesterday by putting multiple players including Perrin Buford on him. Do you expect the same one through five switching tomorrow?

KERMIT DAVIS: You know, we'll do some switching at times, depending on the personnel that Syracuse has in the game. We'll play our 1-3-1 trapping defense. I think that helps slow really good guards down. But it really sometimes matters what kind of personnel we have in the game where they've got to pick and pop the four spot, the different guy that sets the ball screens or switching. So that's something we'll try to get in our practice today.

Q. Can you put into words what making the Sweet 16 would mean to you to this team to this program?

JAQAWN RAYMOND: It would mean a lot to me personally because it would be a great way to end my senior year to go to a Sweet 16. It's always been a dream of mine to go to the Sweet 16. As for the program, I think it will be the first Sweet 16 we went to. So it will be a big key to win the game for the program.

REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: For myself it would be a huge accomplishment. Every kid, when you're growing up, kind of dreams going to the NCAA Tournament and making it to the round of 32, Sweet 16, the Final Four, championship. So just to say that I could possibly play in the Sweet 16, for myself, that's a huge accomplishment. For my team, like Jaqawn said, it's huge for our program being a smaller school. It just puts us out there on the national level.

PERRIN BUFORD: And for me, I feel like to make the Sweet 16 it makes all the hard work worth it. I'm a gym rat and I feel like when you put the work in the results will come. And for this team I feel like we put in a lot of work, starting last year, even though we struggled and this year it all came together. And I just feel like it would be a real big deal. For the university it would be good, like they said, to put us on the national stage.

Q. Jaqawn, are you happy that you packed for Sunday, first off? And second what's been the mood in the locker room over the past 24 hours, really, just your reaction first off?

JAQAWN RAYMOND: Our mood in the locker room is the same as it was when we came into yesterday's game. Coming into this game business-like. We come into this game knowing we're going to win this game. There's no pressure on us. We have nothing to lose. We're going to go out there and give it our all.

Q. Jaqawn and Perrin, I know this team has a lot of guys that made their way to Middle Tennessee State after being elsewhere. Can you talk about why you picked here and what your journey was to get here after being at different colleges?

PERRIN BUFORD: Well, coming to Middle has been bittersweet because I went to two junior colleges, one at Motlow State in Lynchburg, Tennessee, then the other at Southwest Tennessee where I played under the same coach. I just followed him. He was a great mentor to me and just told me a lot and showed me a lot. So coming here was kind of based off a lot of different other factors. But I don't regret my decision at all. It's been a wonderful ride. And I just enjoy the journey.

JAQAWN RAYMOND: As for me transferring from N.C. State was a big step. I didn't know what to expect. So with me, Coach Towe was the main reason I transferred, and then Coach Moxley, who is at NC State now, we grew a big bond together, me and Coach Towe and Coach Mox. So that got me here and talking to Coach Davis. This experience has been one of the top moments of my life and I wouldn't change it for the world.

Q. Reggie, what have you guys really seen that you guys are going to have a hard time with really going up against the 2-3 zone?

REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: Just their length, their size. Both like on the perimeter of their 2-3 zone and then in the middle. They have great rebounders. I mean, anytime you play a team who has the length that they have at each position and then just how hectic they kind of play their 2-3 zone, it always presents a challenge for your team. But if we just continue to stay aggressive on the offensive end and crash the offensive boards, we'll have a great chance of winning this game.

Q. Have you guys watched Syracuse through the course of the season. And at a glance is there somewhere you could excel in terms of the matchup?

REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: I haven't really watched much of Syracuse play this season. But the season being so long we kind of get caught up in our own conference play. But I can say the only part, the main thing in the game that we could probably advance or excel in our offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding. Anytime you can limit a team to one shot, you always have a great chance to win the game.

JAQAWN RAYMOND: And I think I've seen Syracuse play probably once or twice. And the key for us, like he said, will be rebounding, but also we have five shooters that can spread the floor. And we know what we have to do. We have to get the ball inside, but we also can penetrate and kick to our shooters.

Q. What's it really been like for all of you guys seeing yourself on ESPN, Twitter, just everything? What's that been like to see your own highlights all over the place?

PERRIN BUFORD: For me, it's a blessing. I just give all thanks to God, my savior. So for me just seeing it it's just a blessing because I know how much work I've put in in the offseason. And it's all coming to life and just seeing it it's like unreal.

REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: Like what Perrin said, it's really an honor anytime you can see yourself on TV, see highlights of your teammates doing great things on the court, and then you hear other people speaking so highly of you, it's really a blessing and honor.

Q. Coach Davis talked yesterday about 100 percent graduation rate, I think 40 straight players graduating who have exhausted their eligibility. How demanding is he from that perspective and how much pride is taken on the academic side of your program?

JAQAWN RAYMOND: He's very big on academics, especially when we go out of town. He makes sure our academic advisor has everything lined up for us, what we need to do over the course of us missing school. So that's his biggest issue is academics. He doesn't play about that, and he takes that very serious.

REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: Coach Davis is really strict about academics. We have this thing called the point system. Anytime you're late for a class or you may miss a class or anything, you get a point. And then if you get to like two points you have to run in the morning and then if you get to four points the whole team has to run. You don't want to be that guy. So everybody makes sure they're on time to class and make it to class.

Q. You guys are in the national conversation now. Folks are saying how good this team is. Questions have come up about the seeding. But I'm sure you all knew this, but now that all these things are swirling, does that change anything for you in terms of added pressure, added focus, or is it still just one step at a time?

PERRIN BUFORD: Our look is still the same. This team is hungry, and we're just ready to come out and win and just play like we've been playing all year long. We feel like we're a good team, and I'm glad that people are starting to recognize it. But it doesn't put any pressure on us at all. We still have the same mindset and just want to continue to ride the streak.

REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: There's no pressure on us. I know myself and my teammates, Coach Davis, when we were watching the Selection Show and we saw we got a 15 seed we were kind of, I wouldn't say we felt disrespected, but we definitely knew that we were better than a 15 seed. We were thinking like a 13 seed maybe. But as far as there being pressure, there's no pressure on us. We just have to go out and play how we know we can play. And as you saw yesterday, we can really compete with anyone in the nation.

JAQAWN RAYMOND: Coach Davis is very strict on tradition, and with us we play to who we are. We don't play outside of who we're not. We're going to guard them and we're going to be tough. That's what we do. And if we do those two things we will come out successful in tomorrow's game.

Q. Can you share some of the tweets and texts that you got after the last game?

JAQAWN RAYMOND: Of course you know our phones were buzzing nonstop from the time we got out of the game to this morning probably. There were some mad tweets, of course, and some good tweets. We just took it all in and we left that yesterday and we're moving forward to tomorrow.

REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: When I got to my phone after yesterday's game, I probably had, like, at least 500 notifications from all the different medias. So as far as like Twitter, I saw a couple of things where they were talking about I looked like Kid 'n Play. But mostly it was just kind of like what Jaqawn said. A lot of people were mad that we upset and messed everybody's brackets up, and there were a lot of people as far as like in Murfreesboro, everybody was congratulating us and things like that.

PERRIN BUFORD: Friends and family hit me up, friends and family who watched the game, who had been watching me, just congratulating me and things like that. And a couple people retweeted something I said, like a couple days before the tournament. I put on there just wait and watch and be a witness. And so they retweeted that and a lot of people is like, okay, we're a witness and things like that. So that was pretty cool.

Q. I gotta ask you, Giddy Potts, your teammate. He doesn't look like a basketball player. He looks like he should be playing fullback for somebody. Do you guys ever kid him about that?

REGGIE UPSHAW JR.: When Giddy first came to MTSU on his visit, he has a younger brother that's taller than him, kind of looks like me, well, my body type. And so when the coaches kind of brought us in the weight room to meet him, they were like, man, Giddy, he's a great shooter all that kind of stuff. And so I walked up to his younger brother thinking he was Giddy. I was like, man, we can't wait to get you here. He was, like, no, you're talking about my brother. I looked at Giddy and at this time he was easily 240 pounds. So just seeing somebody like that out there doing the things he does on the court with his body type and his size and how quick he can move it's really amazing.

Q. One of the tweets I saw last night was from Benny Cunningham, NFL the player from Middle Tennessee State. Do you guys know him at all. Is he ever around the basketball program?

JAQAWN RAYMOND: Well, I know him from when I was a senior in high school. I've been at MT for four years. Me and him, we've grown close over the years. We're not as close as we used to be when he was at MT. But I know him and every time he comes back, we're always talking about what this team can accomplish. And he's the only one that really believes in us outside of ourselves.