WATCH: Jerome Tang, Wildcat players discuss NCAA Tournament bid

On what it means

Wow, this is terrific. In light of what is happening in other places, good friend of mine, Issac Brown, goes to one NCAA Tournament in three years and he loses his job. Josh Pastner goes to one in seven at Georgia Tech and he loses his job. I just told our administration, staff that we can’t ever get tired or take this for granted. It’s hard to do. It’s really, really hard to do. So it’s a blessing, we’re very thankful to God for this opportunity. I know that it’s because of him that I’m sitting here, we have the team that we have, the type of season that we’ve had. We have ‘crazy faith’ on our shirts because it took what some people called crazy and other people called faith, we called it crazy faith. I just am very, very thankful.

On out the mud and this season

Well, I think all the guys on our team are guys who have had to overcome some things in their lives and they weren’t necessarily always the guys that everybody expected to be successful. If you listen to each of their stories, although they had success in their lives, they had to overcome things to have those successes. Like myself, my dad wasn’t a basketball coach. My mom didn’t play sports. I don’t have an administrator in my family. I had to work for everything. I’m extremely blessed by God to be put in the situations that I’ve been put in. But had to work really hard at it. It’s just another example of God’s faithfulness to our hard work.

On most gratifying part of the season

You see the smiles on the faces. Quis and I went to lunch in the summertime and I remember telling him that I would do everything that I possibly could to put a team around him to give him a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament because I felt like he and Ish deserved that. I remember him telling me that it didn’t matter if we got seven or 13, that he’s got this Kemba Walker thing about him that I’m going to take whoever around me and go do this thing. So that’s really gratifying. When you recruit guys, you tell them ‘these are some things we want to accomplish and we think we can do this with you.’ These guys believed us and came and saw it come to pass. It’s always nice when you can live up to your word to the young men you bring into your program.

On getting back to work

No. Really, like I’ve told everybody, we’re going to take some time when I get through doing this stuff, we’re going to go back to my house together and take an hour or so and just celebrate. Because it doesn’t happen all the time. Too many times in the past, we have just rushed right into it and haven’t appreciated it. I want everybody in our program to be thankful for this and celebrate it. Then, we’ll get to work. We’re going to take some time to celebrate it. Gene was telling Marco right now, that he remembers in July when we had five guys and walking around like ‘do these guys know what they’re doing? What is going on here?’ So this whole accomplishment, what we’ve been able to do, since March 22, it takes pause, a little bit of celebration, being thankful.

On Montana St

I actually watched their championship game. I know, I think, I don’t want to be incorrect, this is a first-year coach there because the last guy was really successful and went to either Portland or Portland State. I know they have a history of success. If I’m correct, they went into double overtime in their semifinals. I remember seeing their best player was talking with the coach about the last play that they need to run. They were on the same page. Caught a lob backdoor. I know they are used to winning, excited to be in this tournament as we are. No team in this tournament is not a good team. Everybody has played a tough schedule and had to accomplish a lot of things to win three games in three days in their league is really tough. That’s what I know. I know we’re about to play a good team and it’s going to be a lot of fun.

On elevating the program this season

Man, my staff. They all believed in what we wanted to accomplish and what we could accomplish. The days that somebody in the group didn’t believe, the other guys picked them up and moved it forward. We came into this situation really feeling like this was a goal of mine. This was a great place. If we treated it like the place that it was and pursued the type of players that our fans deserve to cheer for, we could accomplish special things. So, it’s the whole staff. Then, the players, their belief.

On emotions

When the names where coming out, I was calculating in my head. But around 4:00-4:30, I was in the bullpen and I was watching the end of the Purdue game and just thinking that our name is going to be called, I know this. It was really surreal. I wasn’t high. I wasn’t low. I was just kind of numbing. I was very thankful, I was just thanking God for giving me this opportunity.

On grading his team

We’re a three seed in the NCAA Tournament in March we had two players. I think we get all the bonus points too.

On the celebration with the team

No. That’s going to be us, our own private celebration.

On matchups and knowledge of tournament games

I hope that it’s going to pay dividends in how we prepare and stuff. I really don’t know enough about this first matchup to say ‘Hey this a good matchup, this is a bad matchup.’ I know that we’re going to have our guys prepared, as they will, Montana State will. The hardest game to win is the first one. Everybody has multiple days to prepare and all their friends are sending them scouting reports. They know people on other staffs and are trying to find out as much as we are. Then, the whole, how are you are going to handle the emotions of it? That comes into also.

On playing on Friday, preference

I wanted to play on Friday. Most of the upsets take place on Thursday. So it’s something about watching a higher seed get upset that first day that really gets people more locked in on the second day. We can tell them all we want. But it’s something about seeing it happen that makes a difference.

On response of the team since loss to TCU

I like it. We’ve had time to work on us, get better. Guys have been energetic, locked in. They understand the finality of this thing. So nobody is wants the last practice to be the last practice. Or the last game to be the last game.

On playing in North Carolina being meaningful

No. Not really. In the summer, as a high school coach, I would drive local kids, some that I coached and some that played at other schools to five star camp in Hendon City, Virginia. On the way we would stop in Atlanta and go to camp. On the way back, we would stop in Durham, drive down to Chapel Hill, so they could see the two schools. Drive back to Atlanta, so they could spend the night. Get up the next morning and visit Georgia Tech and drive home. One time we took a detour and visited Auburn. I did that so kids could get a chance to see colleges and build their desire to be part of something like that.

On scouting of opponents

They’re talking about it right now. Sometimes guys have past experience with certain coaches and stuff. They’ll figure out who wants to take what scout. We’ll divide that up. Then everybody will watch games. It will probably take about an hour or so to download five to seven games, whatever it is. We’re going to breakdown and watch. We have friends all over that are going to send us scouting reports of people who have played them the last couple of years and build the game plan from there.

On simulating NCAA Tournament experience in preparation

No. There’s nothing like it until you can experience it. You go into that first practice where you get to run out on the blue carpet and go out there and the fans are in the stands and do it, you see the logos. The Big 12 gets heading in that direction. Nothing quite like that. It’s like that for everybody. Some teams may have more experience than others or it’s not a new thing. You never get tired of it.

On how hungry the team is

The last two days haven’t been about the new season. I think, depending on how many guys are in the gym shooting by themselves and how we get into it tomorrow, I’ll get an idea. I know they like each other. They like playing together. I don’t think anybody wants the season to end because they are a fun group to be around. That’s important. The last couple of days we’ve only been working n us. We haven’t made it about the NCAA Tournament.

On what he learned at Baylor

I want them to enjoy it, soak it all in. Get rid of, knock out all of the ticket stuff tonight so they don’t have to worry about that in the next couple of days so we can focus on preparation. It’s not six games or whatever, it’s one game. We have to play one game six times, let’s just focus on one game.

Nowell on what it means to be in the NCAAT

It’s a blessing. Glory to God. We ain’t done yet. We still got something to prove, we still have that chip on our shoulder. We’re happy to be here and we want to make a deep run.

Nowell on what it means to go to the NCAAT in his final season

It’s a blessing to see that my faith, hard work paid off. I get to spend it with the guys I love the most in my final season. It’s a blessing. I’m going to take it one game at a time. It’s nothing different than playing on the road in the Big 12. That’s how I’m going to handle it. March is different. I’m just going to embrace it, do the whole thing.

Johnson on what it means given the story

Always say thank God. It’s an opportunity. It means a lot knowing all the hard work, everything I’ve been through and adversity, guys trusting in me, my work trusting in them. Knowing our goals and sticking together, figuring it out and getting to the Tournament and being ranked this high is a blessing. I’m grateful to be here.

Johnson on this being Tang’s vision

That was the vision. He told me from day one that he wasn’t trying to rebuild this program, he wanted to win right away. That’s why I wanted to come in. Toughest conference in college basketball, best basketball played here. I wanted to showcase my skills through this conference and show Coach Tang what he had.

Sills on the mood since getting back

I feel like the mood has been good. We had fantastic practice today. We all competed at a high level. I feel like we got our swagger back after the two games we lost on the road. I feel like we came in, executed and had fun with energy. I feel like we played together, I feel like we are going to take that to March Madness.

Nowell on how much can be proven

I mean we have a lot. Guys are not done yet. Individually and from a team standpoint. I feel like getting here is a blessing, but winning and going on and advancing to different rounds is even more important. We want to create good memories that we can remember for a lifetime. This is a special group of guys that we have on this team. We all like each other, we all love each other. We want the best for each other. I feel like taking that practice we had today and going on with it through March Madness will be key, vital to our success.

Nowell on playing at Madison Square Garden if K-State makes it to Sweet 16

I mean big time. I always dreamed as a kid of playing in Madison Square Garden. I looked up to Kemba Walker growing up. What he’s done in the Garden. But I have to focus on one game at a time, can’t look too far ahead. That’s when you get beat. You have to take it one day, one game at a time, when that happens, I’ll think about it.

Johnson on Montana St scout

No [we haven’t done any yet].

Johnson on family, friends going to game(s)

I wouldn’t say a big crowd. My main circle that I’ve been around. My close friends and family, sister, siblings. I expect them all to come.

Johnson on what they do now

We’re just chilling now. We had practice earlier.

Nowell on what they do now

Just chilling. Probably talk about what we are feeling, trying to embrace it together. And from here on out, we have to focus on winning. We know who our opponent is. So we have to do everything in our power to do everything to be prepared and ready again.

Nowell on what Tang said when they were announced

Everybody was just happy. I mean, everybody was just thankful to be in this position. Looking back at where we started to now, the coaches, they just congratulated us on all of our hard work. Sticking together from the very start.

Johnson on being a No. 3 vs. No. 4

I mean, I feel like we played in the big games. We showed up early in the season and got some big wins. So I feel like we can compete at a high level, like we’re one of the best teams out here. We just have to carry it over to March Madness. And we’ll find out there.

Nowell on cheers before being announced

We were just playing around because we thought we were going to be in New York. Whenver Albany came up and we didn’t see our name selected, we just said, ‘Ahhh.’ Now we know who we play, so it’s going to be fun.

Nowell on paying attention to bracketology

No.

Nowell on Crazy Faith shirts

It’s actually a 1-2 because we started out with two guys – me and Ish. Then it leads on to everybody that we have on the roster. We have crazy faith from the jump – me and Ish. We did everything and anything in our power to get guys here. Now, to see that we’re selected on Selection Sunday it’s a testament to our Crazy Faith.

Sills on NCAA Tournament experience

I made it all the way to the Elite Eight. Going to the tournament is all about having connection. Going 1-0 and not thinking ahead. Focusing on one game at a time and keeping the main thing the main thing. Everybody showed up, we’re going to show out. March Madness anything can happen.