NCAA Men's 1st and 2nd Rounds: Hartford Friday, March 22, 2019 Hartford, Connecticut Ja Morant I've been working on most of my life really, the fundamentals. I'd say I keyed in more on just shooting Murray State Racers more game shots this year, coming off ball screens and such, and feel like I got way better at it. Q. For both guys, what kind of challenges does it bring playing such a big team? Obviously they Q. Talk a little bit about the culture at Murray State start 7'4", 6'9", and their best player might be 6'10 that attracted each of you to want to come play off the bench. Have you seen teams that big and and go to school at Murray State. what kind of challenge is that? SHAQ BUCHANAN: We knew about the winning SHAQ BUCHANAN: It will be tough. We haven't tradition, getting to the tournament, producing pros, matched up with the team with that type of size all year. and then the fan base, the family atmosphere. That's We've seen bigs though, playing athletic teams. So we what I was looking for coming into -- my next school, practice on things like that, but I don't think it will bother me coming from JUCO, and Murray State brought me us. We're ready for the challenge. in, and I saw all those things. That's why I chose Murray State. JA MORANT: They are a very long and athletic team. Like he said, we haven't seen a team like that before JA MORANT: Murray State just has a great program. since Alabama. But we're just going to go into the And really I'd say what brought me in was the family game the same way we've been going into every thing. I'm a big family person, and since day one, they game. Just try to play our game and just do what we made me family and they just made it their job just to do. get me to come here and I felt like I made a great decision. Q. Obviously, Ja had a great game yesterday, but the team as a whole played tremendous. I think Q. For both you guys, can you just talk about what you had 30 field goals and 23 assists. What do you the whole deal is with the wrestling belts in the need to keep that up tomorrow night against locker room? Florida State? SHAQ BUCHANAN: Our Coach Matt, he a huge SHAQ BUCHANAN: We have a solid team. We know wrestling fan. One of our managers brought a Ja will get all of the attention. Like it's amazing, but at wrestling best last year to the first OVC game. We just the same time, we know how to handle that. And we used it like our trophy, our motivation. This year we know everybody's going to be keyed in on him added two more. It's just something to look forward to. tomorrow, so we just going to make plays for him like After a big win, we get to celebrate putting on our we did against Marquette. wrestling belts.

JA MORANT: I'll say we just have a very talented JA MORANT: Like you said, Coach Matt is a big group. We have a lot of people who can score the wrestling fan and we just kept it going since last year. basketball, and we are very unselfish. Like you said, And this year, obviously we won the regular season we had 23 assists yesterday. It's just how we play the championship, won the OVC championship, and now game, just try to instead of taking a good shot, get a we're looking forward to winning the National great shot. So really just try to go out and make the Championship and that's the three WWE belts. best of every possession. Q. Talk a little bit about each of you, the process Q. I guess I'm wondering what your offseason was that is so important to the Murray State basketball like. You made such a big jump this season from program and as Coach McMahon alludes to, very good freshman to to All-American sophomore. getting ready for the next big thing that's there. What were you working on? What was your How do you apply that to what you're doing now process like this offseason to make this big and preparing for Florida State? improvement? SHAQ BUCHANAN: It fit in well with this tournament JA MORANT: I really just worked on the same things right now because we play Thursday, more like we play

Rev #1 by #448 at 2019-03-22 18:36:00 GMT page 1 of 2 Thursday/Saturday. We going through it the same as we would if it was in the conference, play that Thursday, celebrate that Thursday and move on after that, Friday, like today, and get prepared for Saturday.

JA MORANT: Like he said, it's something we're used to playing on Thursday/Saturday. So we just take every game -- go into every game the same way. We been doing this really most of this second half of the season, playing Thursday, recovery Friday, focus on the team we got coming up Saturday, focus on them before the game and go out and just fight, try to get a win.

Q. Guys, against Florida State tomorrow, what do you feel like will be the biggest challenge that you'll have to earmark going into the match-up? JA MORANT: I'd just say they're length. Like I said before, they are a very long and athletic team, can get after the ball some. So really I think our focus will just be taking care of the ball.

On the defensive end, we try to play the same, just focus on trying to force the team to take tough shots. Don't give them any easy looks. I think really taking care of the ball is our main focus.

SHAQ BUCHANAN: Like he was saying, taking care of the ball. Forcing them at like a terrible shot, limiting them to one shot, making sure we . We know the taller and tougher they are, it's going to be a tough game. We know we have to box out.

Rev #1 by #448 at 2019-03-22 18:36:00 GMT page 2 of 2 NCAA Men's 1st and 2nd Rounds: Hartford Friday, March 22, 2019 Hartford, Connecticut Matt McMahon Murray State Racers Saturday during the long layoff to try to keep our guys in the same routine. But our guys know we have to Q. The story about Ja's high school recruitment turn the page now and start to turn focus in on finding has an oft told. I want to ask it slightly differently. ways to beat Florida State tomorrow. Going from freshman to sophomore year, over this last summer, did he take a leap or was it more he's Q. Matt, I'm wondering if you can just kind of reflect just due to the design of your team able to on your coaching trajectory a little bit, and what it showcase it more. And if I did take a leap, when meant to get this opportunity at Murray State, a did that happen and how? place you knew the culture and the program and MATT McMAHON: Well, I think he did take a leap, but I the basketball excellence, and how you go about think he did not receive enough credit for the terrific sustaining that. freshman year that he did have. I think we talked MATT McMAHON: I'm always forever grateful to Allen yesterday. His numbers of almost 13 points, 7 Ward, our former Director of Athletics, and Dr. Davies, rebounds, 6 1/2 assists a game have only been our former President who believed in me and gave me accomplished by eight other players in the last 25 the opportunity. And as we built the program, we had years of . to basically start over with our roster and the culture in the locker room. And it was not easy and they were So I thought there were plenty of signs for what was in right there, extremely supportive and really helped me store last year as a freshman, but it's a great credit to along the way to get to this . him and the work he put in in the offseason. You see the growth in his game. But what I'm really most proud And then I think for us, what was really critical was this of, I think, he's really grown and developed as a leader signing class, when we were able to add Ja Morant and has done an outstanding job of being a great voice Tevin Brown, Shaq Buchanan, and then that spring, and leader of our team. Anthony Smith. You're talking about four just relentless competitors, very unselfish players who are all about Q. Coach, I asked your players, Ja obviously had a winning. And I think their two-year record really great performance yesterday, but the team as a reflects that. 54-10 now; 42 of those wins by double whole did as well: 23 assists on 30 field goals. figures. They really made it a dominant two-year run What do you need to do to keep that up against for our program. Florida State tomorrow night? MATT McMAHON: I think when you talk about Florida Q. Can you reflect on -- you were in Ruston for like state, there's a lot of the things that jump out. The first two weeks, then you get the call. What that period to me is they're one of the elite defensive teams in all of time was like? of college basketball. Tremendous physicality, great MATT McMAHON: Well, it was an interesting story. I'll size at every position. Make it very difficult on you to try to go through as quick as I can. My college coach, score around the basket. They turn teams over. We Buzz Peterson, was named the head coach at the will certainly have to execute extremely well to be able University of Tennessee. This was back 2001. I went to score against such a dominant defense. with him to be a graduate assistant. My roommate was Eric Konkol who is now the head coach of Louisiana Q. You guys played Thursday/Saturday since Tech, so we got to be very good friends over the years. January, and you talked a lot about that rhythm this He's a rising star in the business. And we always year, about the execution and the way that the talked about if one of us got an opportunity to be a week has played out. Is that something that you head coach, the other one joining as an assistant. feel like maybe is a boon for your team going into Saturday knowing you have the Thursday/Saturday So I got the opportunity to do that, went to Ruston. I day bounceback? was there two weeks and luckily for me, my family, we MATT McMAHON: I don't think so. We've been able to never moved. We never packed up a single box. We stay in this routine going on 11 weeks now and kept didn't buy a car. We didn't buy a house. And then out things pretty similar. Last week we scrimmaged on of of the blue, Coach Prohm got the job at Iowa State,

Rev #1 by #448 at 2019-03-22 18:57:00 GMT page 1 of 3 and I was fortunate to get the opportunity to come back an opportunity to win tomorrow. and interview for the job at Murray. Q. Coach, talk a little bit about Ja Morant being the Q. Some of the players were talking about how latest of the Murray State point guards to have high energy you are and how you're kind of success, but the string of guards that have come bouncing off the walls even at 8:00 a.m. Are you a through recently and why that culture has coffee person? Is this like natural energy? Where cultivated the players that have found success does this come from? after college. MATT McMAHON: No. There's a drink that we do MATT McMAHON: I think during my eight years, we've enjoy. I mean, it's all legal. But I'm not a coffee been very fortunate to recruit some great point guards. person. But, no, I love what I do. I mean, we're It starts there. And I really believe in our player coaching college basketball. We get to make an development program, helping guys get better on and impact on young people's lives, hopefully help them be off the court. But it started for me, getting to be an in a position when they leave Murray State to have assistant and Coach , , great success, not only as basketball players, but as two terrific players, both NBA draft picks, who have men, as fathers, husbands. And those things very over a combined ten years in the NBA of experience. important to me, so I say it all of the time. I wear shorts and T-shirts to work every day. I really have it And the Jonathan Stark who was such an elite player made, so just very passionate and fortunate to get to for us our two years is having great success in the G- do what we do. League as part of the Timberwolves organization. I think it says a lot about him. He averaged 22 points Q. You go back in that locker room right now, and almost 6 assists a game as a junior at the point everyone seems relaxed. How do you have guys guard position. And after Ja's first day on campus, going from being loose and relaxed to knowing going into his senior year, he came in and said to when it's time to focus? And it seems like that's Coach Nichols, Ja's going to starting for us on day one. something these guys have been good at all year. So we went to the two attack that year and MATT McMAHON: I think it's really important and these it worked out really well for us with the championship guys have been able to strike that balance. I think and the NCAA Tournament. that's one of our biggest strengths is the chemistry of our team. I think we have guys who get along really And now Ja is the latest, and I think we have a couple well. They are all in, bought in to what we're trying to more great ones on the way. For me, when I talk to our do. They love playing together. They love winning coaching staff, it's about recruiting, scouting, and then together. And I talk to them about it all of the time. It the player development program. How much time are should be fun. I think sometimes that gets lost in the you going to invest in our players, in the gym, off the business side of college athletics. I want them to have court, building those relationships. I think those are the absolute time of their lives playing. They've put in what helped players build that trust and keep getting the work. We give them basically Christmas Day off, better while they're at Murray State. and they work the other 364 days out of the year. You only get so many game days. They need to go out and Q. Coach, obviously Ja and the rest of the team enjoy it and just play and have the time of their lives. had a great trajectory the last two, three years. But yourself as a head coach, you're starting to have Q. You talked a little bit about it a few minutes ago, that trajectory as well. How do you keep yourself but how do you beat Florida State and how do you grounded in the moment here in Hartford and guys execute your game plan tomorrow to perhaps perhaps keep it going as head coach in Murray come away with a win? State? MATT McMAHON: Well, there's a long list of things that MATT McMAHON: I don't worry about trajectories and will have to get marked off if we want to have an all of that stuff. I'm just trying to help build the Murray opportunity to win tomorrow. I touched on their elite State program as strong as we can. Make sure we're defense, so our ability to execute at the offensive end investing a lot of time and energy and care in our will be critical. Obviously, you see they have great size players, help them get better. I always try to keep at every position. They're relentless to the offensive things in perspective. For me growing up, I always glass. Can we compete with them on the boards, I wanted to play in the NCAA Tournament. It was always think will be important. How we're able to guard them a dream of mine. You know, skipped school as a kid so will be critical. I could stay home and watch the tournament all day, wanted to play in it one day, was fortunate to get that I mean, this time of year, you're not going to play any opportunity. bad teams, so we'll have to play very, very well to have

Rev #1 by #448 at 2019-03-22 18:57:00 GMT page 2 of 3 And then when you see what a great experience it was as a player, I want our guys to get to experience those same things. That's what it's all about for me is making sure our players have a great experience while they're at Murray State. I think if we do things the way we want them done, the culture is built the way we want it, the foundation is in place, the winning and all of that will take care of itself.

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