The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Holds Press Conference, Practice At UD Arena
3/14/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 14, 2011
DAYTON, Ohio - The UAB men's basketball team practiced for approximately 45 minutes on Monday night in preparation for the 2011 NCAA Tournament First Four, which is set to take place on Tuesday night. The Blazers, who held a press conference prior the practice at UD Arena on the campus of the University of Dayton, will tip off against Clemson at approximately 9 p.m. ET (8 p.m. CT) and can be seen on Tru TV.
Prior to the practice, senior guards Aaron Johnson and Jamarr Sanders, along with head coach Mike Davis, had a chance to answer questions at the podium. Below are a few quotes from Monday night.
MODERATOR: We're joined by UAB student athletes Jamarr Sanders and Aaron Johnson. Questions for the student athletes.
Q. Jamarr, we've been hearing on the radio, on TV, seeing it online, that maybe you guys don't belong here. And what do you think of that?
Jamarr Sanders: I think it's just those guys doing their job. I mean, they get paid to comment on their opinions on basketball. So I just take it as they're doing their job. And they just I mean, they believe other teams should be in, that's what they believe, that's their opinion, but the committee selected us to be in. So that's all we care about.
Q. A lot has been said about the other teams, about the quick turnaround and getting here quick, and finding out. But for you guys, with the way you played nonconference a couple of times, five games in nine days, and also with not having as much practice because of the APR stuff, is that an advantage do you think for you guys to kind of be used to these quick turnaround games?
Jamarr Sanders: I don't necessarily know if it's an advantage, but it is something that this team is used to, because that's what we'll be doing the whole season. We've been preparing to play teams on short notice, on one day preparation. So it's something that this team is used to. So it should work in our advantage. But I don't think it's a huge advantage or anything like that.
Aaron Johnson: I think it gets all the excitement, having all that anxiousness to play out the window, because we found out on Sunday, now we have to play tomorrow, on Tuesday.
So I think that it gets us more focused and it gives us less practice time, but it also gives us less time to have mental letdowns and things like that.
During a long week of waiting to play a game you could have a lot of mental letdowns and a lot of distractions that go on. And I feel like we wasn't able to get all those distractions and those letdowns, and we've been playing like this, like Jamarr said, the whole year. It's definitely something that prepares us a lot easier for these type of games.
Q. Aaron, do you feel like you have to justify your selection with the way you guys play tomorrow night? Or do you feel like your play throughout the season justified your selection?
Aaron Johnson: No, we're just coming out to win games. That's all we're trying to do. We're not worried about what people say about us. We're not trying to justify that. We're supposed to be here because the committee selected us to be here.So what other people got to say about us, they can just keep talking because we're going to play basketball.
Q. Given everything that everyone said yesterday, was there a feeling amongst you guys that it kind of spoiled your moment, regardless of whether people felt you should have been in or not?
Jamarr Sanders: It didn't spoil my moment at all. I mean, when I saw our name pop up on the Selection show, I mean, I was happy that we got in, that we got a second chance to prove ourselves and just to play basketball, to do what we love to do. So I don't think that it was any kind of surprise or anything like that.
Q. Did it bother you at all that you had to come to the First Four as opposed to just making the 64 team field?
Aaron Johnson: For me it definitely didn't bother me. When I saw my name selected, that was the thing for me. I mean, they could have put us in the 16 seed game to play, and I still would have been happy. I'm just happy to be here. This has been four long years for me in this program, and I would say three of the years we had this same position and we didn't make it.
So in my senior year, to be able to get in the tournament, no matter if it's a play in game or 12 seed is still a great seed, and it's still one of them seeds that a lot of people look at to upset a lot of teams. So we're definitely happy to be here.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you. UAB head coach Mike Davis. Coach, an opening statement.
COACH DAVIS: We're excited to be here. It's a fun time for our basketball team. We worked hard this year to get to this point. Our goal was to win the Conference USA outright, and we did that. And we feel like winning the conference was a major goal.
We feel like our conference is really, really good. We had eight teams in the top 100. Only two other conferences in the country had more. They have nine, and that's the Big East and the Big Ten.
And so our guys are excited. They're anxious about playing, and so am I.
Q. Did that spoil your guys' moment at all?
COACH DAVIS: I didn't hear it. I didn't hear it. I didn't listen to it. The things that was said, that was told to me by other people.
This should be the happiest time in these student athletes' lives. To get in the big dance is a special event for all student athletes. That's their dream. That one shining moment is the dream.
And my players listened to it because they felt good about getting in, but it's a part of life. It's a part of life that you have to go through.
And I'm focused on the big picture and trying to get our guys to focus on the big picture. We have nothing to prove, because we're in. And so there's 68 teams. Going to be 34 that lose on the first night. Until you get to the 16, then the eight, then four. Someone is going to lose every night.
I'm just excited for our program, excited for the city of Birmingham to be able to be in the NCAA Tournament. That's why I came to UAB, to get in the tournament. It's been a long road. And we worked hard. We made a commitment to get here, and now we're here.
Q. Is there a little bit of a chip on your guys' shoulder?
COACH DAVIS: If that takes a chip for someone to say something bad about you, then you're in the wrong business. We had a chip on our shoulder back in May. Our three things we talked about was no complaining, no blaming and no excuses, because we felt like those three things could really tear up a team and the company and relationships, and we wanted to focus on the big picture again.
So if what was said again, I didn't hear it but what was said is motivating our guys, I've done a poor job as a coach because I should have motivated our guys and had a chip on their shoulder back in May and August.
And we did. We won our league outright. So our main focus now is to try to get as far as we can in this tournament.
Q. Mike, you mentioned earlier, isn't it a misconception that you prove you belong in the tournament by the way you play in the tournament since there are upsets every year? 12 beats a 5 and sometimes a 15 beats a 2. Don't you prove that you belong in the tournament by the way you played throughout the season?
COACH DAVIS: We proved, first of all, that when the NCAA come in and they asked you to schedule a certain way, you schedule that way. We easily could have taken the easier route, losing four guys. We lost four seniors last year. We lost 60 percent of our scoring, 60 percent of our rebounding.
A lot of teams will load up on home games. We won nine I mean ten road games this year. And our nonconference schedule to go play four BCS schools on the road, with losing four seniors, is a challenge.
But we won ten top 100 games, ten. And we won nine road games. We went 6 and 2 on the road in our conference. Went 6 and 2 at home. We were the outright winners of Conference USA.
And me personally, no disrespect to anyone, by no means, but I never would have dreamed that the Conference USA outright winners would never be invited to the NCAA Tournament. Just me personally.
Other experts may have other opinions about that, but I think our conference is pretty good when you have eight teams, eight out of 12 teams in the top 100, and only two other conferences can say that, and they have nine.
And the facts are there. The facts are there. But we played well. We played really good basketball this year. We have really good teams in our league. Southern Mississippi is a very good basketball team. Marshall is a very, very good basketball team.
Tulsa finished second in our league. And Memphis is a young, talented basketball team who have gone on the road and beaten some teams.
So Tim Floyd is at UTEP, senior basketball team that is very, very good, and I feel that our conference is a good conference.
The only bad loss we had was a loss at Arizona State which I don't think was a bad loss, it's a BCS school on the road in November.
And we proved that we needed to be in it in this league whether we win tomorrow night or lose tomorrow night. To me is it doesn't mean anything because I'm really proud of my student athletes, proud of my basketball team for making the commitment.
Q. This is your fifth NCAA Tournament as a coach. What experience can you provide to your players and give them an idea of what they're going to expect tomorrow night?
COACH DAVIS: I haven't really talked to them about it, to be honest with you, because I don't want to put added pressure on them. They've heard enough of that over the last couple of days. I try to get them to focus on getting better, being the best basketball player they can be.
We talked about getting better the whole season. Not winning or losing, but getting better. But this is a great, great time. My most memorable experience was being the last two teams playing. I mean, that's the goal. If you can be the last two teams playing in college basketball, everybody in the country is watching your game.
And there's no special thing that can happen to a coach and a basketball team. This year we experienced winning the outright Conference USA championship, and our fans was unbelievable.
It was a special night in Bartow Arena. Wanted our division for a long time, and they stayed out after the game and celebrated with us, our AD, our president. Just everybody was there hugging each other, and that was a special moment.
And I think that really affected us in conference play, because you wanted to live that moment for a long time. And we had to get back to work. And I did a poor job of getting us ready to play on Thursday because I have experienced that before of winning the conference.
But our guys haven't. And this is a new experience for our team. Aaron Johnson being four years, this is his first NCAA event that he's played in and just getting off the bus, walking in here, being in this room, talking to you guys, it's a great experience.
Our guys are excited about being here, and hopefully we can get over the jitters tonight and not bring them to the game tomorrow. But if we do, as a coach, I expect that. But I expect us to play hard and play well.
