Players and coaches from all men's and women's 2025 NCAA Tournaments step to the media room for full March Madness press conferences before and after their NCAA tournaments games, including First Four, First and Second Round, Sweet 16, Elite Eight, the Final Four and 2025 NCAA national championship game.
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00:00Here, another outstanding first four.
00:04March Madness, alive and well.
00:07Xavier, big second half.
00:09The Musketeers, a winner, 86-80.
00:12They advance to play Friday in Milwaukee against Illinois.
00:18Game time Friday night will be 9.45.
00:24Coming to the stage, Zach Fremantle.
00:2815 points this evening.
00:31Ryan Conwell, 11 points,
00:33and Marcus Foster was brilliant.
00:36Eight of nine from the field, four of five from three.
00:3922 points and eight rebounds.
00:42Head coach, Sean Miller.
00:47Coach, before we get to questions
00:49for our student-athletes,
00:52your team's performance here tonight
00:55and being able to advance in the field of 64.
00:59Well, you know, my initial thoughts are,
01:02you know, it's one of the greatest games
01:03I've been a part of.
01:05Obviously, the energy of the crowd,
01:07our fans certainly took advantage
01:10of the proximity to Cincinnati and that emotion.
01:15And when we needed them,
01:16it was certainly a factor in the game.
01:18I think all three of these guys would tell you
01:20that we certainly felt it, really appreciated it.
01:24Look, I thought we beat an excellent Texas team.
01:27You know, they are disciplined,
01:29they have depth and talent.
01:31You know, Johnson, we knew it was gonna be,
01:34you know, a tall order to guard him,
01:36and it was.
01:38You know, he had 23 points
01:40for no lack of effort on our part.
01:42So, we knew we beat a really good team from the SEC,
01:46and we knew going into the game,
01:48it was gonna be a great challenge.
01:49I'm just so proud of these three and our team.
01:53There were just times in the game
01:54where it didn't feel like it was gonna go our way,
01:57but I'll just stick with resilience.
02:00It's the badge of this group.
02:03Right when you think you're gonna count us out, we win.
02:06Right when you think things aren't gonna go well,
02:08we have found a way,
02:10and I think that's a great characteristic
02:12in this year's, in any NCAA tournament,
02:15and we certainly have that.
02:17Let's open up questions for our student athletes.
02:21First row on the end.
02:23Yeah, Tom Archdeke and Dayton,
02:25all three of you fellas, just what it felt like out there,
02:28if it almost felt like you were in Cincinnati.
02:30I mean, it was just pretty electric.
02:34Marcus?
02:35Yeah, it pretty much felt like a home game.
02:37Like Coach Miller said, we needed everybody to pop out
02:40for us to pull that win, because that was a great Texas team.
02:43Very hard-fought victory, and I'm just proud of our guys,
02:47and Coach, and the staff for, you know, believing in us
02:50and just willing us to a win, basically.
02:53Ryan?
02:54Yeah, first and foremost, I want to give all the glory
02:56to God just to be able to play, you know,
02:58just in a special game like this.
03:01Just thank you to our fans, you know, just for the atmosphere.
03:04Like Marcus said, it just felt like a home game,
03:06and, you know, it's just a game to remember,
03:09and I'm, you know, glad we got the job done.
03:11Zach?
03:12Yeah, man, I mean, shout-out to Xavier Nation.
03:14They really came out. They supported us great tonight.
03:16They were loud.
03:17We felt their energy the whole night,
03:19and it was very much appreciated.
03:21Let's go to the back of the room, third row.
03:23Shelby Dermer with the Cincinnati Inquirer.
03:25Zach, you waited all this time to play in an NCAA tournament
03:28game, could you script a better storybook ending
03:30than dunking in the ball as the time was running out?
03:34I mean, storybook, maybe not.
03:37I mean, obviously, we would have liked to maybe win
03:38by a little more, but any win we can get is a great thing.
03:42It was a very hard-fought game.
03:44That's a very good team we just played,
03:46and I'm just thankful to be a part of it.
03:48Second row, on the end.
03:51Adam Rittenberg with ESPN Markets.
03:52What kind of went into your second-half performance
03:54individually and then as a team to kind of flip things there?
03:58Really, my teammates just found me in the open spots,
04:01and, you know, I was just confident in my shot,
04:04and I just shot it, and it went in today,
04:06and that's a good day.
04:07I mean, we needed that performance
04:08for us to pull out the victory, and like I said,
04:11I'm glad my teammates were confident in me.
04:13I know Z-Free RC, they found me a couple times,
04:16so I was able to get some clean looks,
04:18and that's what we need.
04:19We need players to step up during these times
04:21and pull out wins.
04:23Third row, far side.
04:24Mike Petralia, CLNSNC.com.
04:27For Zach and Ryan, you both battled foul trouble,
04:30obviously, in that first half.
04:32What does it say about your ability
04:34to play through the foul trouble,
04:35still play with emotion,
04:37play tight defense in a game like that?
04:40Zach?
04:41Yeah, I mean, we just try to not let it affect us.
04:44You know, you got to play the game
04:45the way you're going to play the game.
04:46I mean, if they're going to call fouls,
04:47then it is what it is, but if you let a couple fouls,
04:50you know, make you play soft and make you back up
04:52or whatever, you're going to end up giving up points.
04:54You're going to end up losing the game,
04:55so we just got to keep fighting through it.
04:58Ryan?
04:59Yeah, I would say, like Free said,
05:00you can only control what you can control,
05:02so, you know, just going out there,
05:04trusting that my teammates got my back
05:05and that my coaches will put me in the right position
05:08to succeed on the court despite the fouls,
05:10and, you know, that's what we did today.
05:13In the back, fourth row.
05:15Jeff Warner with the Associated Press.
05:18In the first half, they scored 26 of their 41 points
05:21at the rim.
05:23What changed in the second half?
05:24I'm sure foul trouble might have contributed
05:26a little bit to that, but what changed in the second half?
05:29What adjustments did you make to stop that?
05:31Marcus?
05:33I would just say our defensive intensity,
05:34just getting more deflections,
05:36focusing on getting kills at halftime.
05:38We only had one kill and not enough deflection.
05:40We're a 30-deflection team every night,
05:42and when we get deflections, it's hard to beat us,
05:44and so we really just locked in on that.
05:46We understood that we didn't really have
05:48much of a problem on offense, but a problem on defense,
05:51and once we addressed that, things started to go our way.
05:55Zach?
05:57Yeah, just like Marcus said, yeah.
06:02I kind of lost my train of thought.
06:05What was different about our defense?
06:07Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, my bad.
06:09Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, my bad.
06:12We were really a lot more of a tight group.
06:14We made a big emphasis at halftime
06:16to get in the gaps, get in the paint.
06:18You know, they're a much more attack-the-basket type of team,
06:22so we really had to clog the lane on them,
06:24and we did a good job of doing that, trusting each other.
06:27A couple more questions for our student athletes.
06:31Let's go to the end there in the back.
06:33For Marcus and Ryan, what y'all did to hold Trey down,
06:38did you feel like y'all frustrated him
06:39and made it at times hard to even get the ball in his hands?
06:44I mean, with a player like that, it's pretty hard to stop him.
06:48The biggest thing you can do is just make every catch tough.
06:51Every time he catches it, you got to smother him
06:53and make him uncomfortable, and that's what we tried to do.
06:56I mean, he's a great player, so, I mean,
06:57he still ended the game with 23 points,
06:59and, you know, the most important thing
07:01is getting the victory, and that's what we did,
07:02so that's what we tried to focus on,
07:04more so Texas as opposed to just him.
07:07One more question for our student athletes.
07:10Rick Brewing, musketeerreport.com.
07:12Marcus, I know it was a team effort
07:13against Trey Johnson tonight, but when you're guarding
07:15a great player like that individually,
07:17did it kind of spark, you know,
07:20the challenge side of yourself offensively
07:22and get you going on that end, too?
07:24Yeah, most definitely, I mean, I look at myself
07:26as a competitor and a two-way player,
07:28so just being able to have the opportunity
07:31to go against a young, fresh talent
07:33who has the opportunity to get drafted just,
07:35you know, it was exciting to me,
07:36and it made me want to play even harder and even better
07:40and wanted to compete more on the other end
07:42as opposed to just having to guard them,
07:44so I feel like this atmosphere and the competition
07:47brought out the best in me, and I'm thankful for that.
07:51Zach, Ryan, Marcus, outstanding game.
07:55We want to wish you the best of luck
07:57against Illinois on Friday night.
07:59Electric atmosphere, thank you so much.
08:01Yes, sir. Thank you.
08:02Thank you, guys. Good job, fellas.
08:04As our student-athletes exit,
08:07we now focus our attention on coach.
08:12Questions on the floor for Sean Miller.
08:15Let's go to the first row in the middle.
08:20Sean, a couple things.
08:21Marcus Foster, his threes in the second half,
08:24how big those were, and just the crowd.
08:27I mean, this was a neutral side game,
08:30but I wonder how much that may have been worth
08:32to keep going when they were down 10 or 12.
08:36Yeah, no, I mean, the thing about the tournament,
08:38you know, I've been in it a number of times.
08:40You know, I was at Arizona one time,
08:42and ironically, we played the winner of the game
08:45that we were just in,
08:47and we played it in Providence, Rhode Island,
08:49and if you get a map out,
08:51that was definitely not to our advantage,
08:53flying from Tucson, Arizona, to Providence, Rhode Island,
08:56and then playing Fred VanVleet and Baker in Wichita State,
09:00and you're like, wow, it didn't feel like
09:01they were the last four in, either.
09:04You just got to keep getting into tournament.
09:05You know, sometimes you get a good bounce.
09:08The second thing that happens in this tournament
09:10is individual players, you know, they rise to the challenge.
09:13You know, Marcus Foster is a very important player for us,
09:17but he hasn't been our leading scorer very often,
09:20and tonight, if he doesn't rise to the challenge
09:23and go four for five from three
09:25or eight for nine from the floor,
09:27it might not matter how close we were to Cincinnati.
09:30I don't know if we win,
09:31so we had a number of players rise to the challenge.
09:35I thought we kept fighting through the game,
09:37and no doubt about it, the energy of the crowd helped us.
09:41Let's go to the back of the room.
09:43Coach, you hadn't trailed at halftime
09:45since the loss to Creighton in Omaha,
09:47so what's it say about the resiliency,
09:49and like you mentioned with rising to that challenge,
09:51that your team was able to go into the locker room like that
09:54and pull out a victory in the second half?
09:56Yeah, we've been more of a first-half team this year.
09:58I don't know that we really have.
09:59I don't think it's, you know,
10:01that we don't play as hard in the second half.
10:04I think there are a couple teams in our league,
10:07the Big East, that they're incredibly quick and deep.
10:11St. John's comes to mind, Marquette comes to mind,
10:14and I think at times in those games,
10:16we might have worn down in the second half.
10:19I thought tonight we did not wear down.
10:21If anything, maybe we had a wearing-down effect,
10:25especially with the way the crowd was against Texas,
10:28but it was great to see us be down at halftime and respond
10:33because we've really been more of the team this season
10:36where we've had to hold our lead and get to the end.
10:40Just a reminder, please state your name,
10:43media affiliation for every question.
10:44Let's go to the far side of the room, first row.
10:47Yeah, Adam Rittenberg with ESPN.
10:48Sean, you know, given how they were scoring in the first half,
10:51where did you think the scoring was going to need
10:53to come from for you guys to rally,
10:55and how much of it did you look to foster
10:57the guys from the bench?
10:59Yeah, I mean, the gentleman behind you
11:02asked these guys a question about the field goals
11:04they had at halftime from two.
11:06It was just incredible.
11:08We had a very difficult time defending them in the first half.
11:11They were at the basket.
11:13They were in the paint. They drew fouls.
11:16We were tighter defensively.
11:19We were more help-oriented.
11:21I thought we did a better job of adjusting on the ball.
11:24Like, in other words, the guy on the ball
11:26didn't get beat as often as he would have in the first half.
11:30And we went through an awkward segment in the first half
11:32where two of our best players,
11:35I mean, they were sitting at two and three fouls,
11:37Fremantle and Conwell.
11:38And when you're a player in a tournament
11:40and you're in foul trouble, it can mess everything up.
11:43And I thought we were tentative because of that on defense.
11:47You know, I'll also say this about Texas.
11:52Chandle Weaver is really a unique player.
11:55And as we started to scout them, you know,
11:58nothing made sense to me because you're watching games
12:01and you're trying to get information,
12:03and he didn't play for a long time.
12:06Just watching him play in the SEC tournament,
12:08when he checked in the game tonight in the first half,
12:11the game flipped upside down.
12:13I mean, at halftime, I think he had three steals,
12:16and he was three for three from halftime,
12:18from the field himself.
12:19He pushed the pace, and I thought, like,
12:21the surge really happened because of him.
12:24But with Weaver, I think Texas is a better team.
12:28I really do.
12:30He's really an instrumental player.
12:31And I know they played most of the season without him,
12:33but we knew that if he would play tonight,
12:36lo and behold, he played 30 minutes.
12:39I thought they posed some different challenges against us
12:42that, quite frankly, the SEC didn't have to deal with
12:46when they played Texas this year.
12:47A great example is Ryan Conwell
12:49was four for seven from the field.
12:51A lot of that was because of Weaver.
12:53I mean, he is an amazing defender.
12:55So, you know, I think Texas probably feels that way
12:59that I'm describing, hey, we had a really important player
13:01miss most of the year.
13:03Getting him back, I think it makes our victory even better
13:06because I think Texas is an overall better team with Weaver.
13:11One more question, Arch.
13:12Yeah, Tom, Arch, Deacon, Dayton.
13:14Sean, hey, you've coached several games
13:17in this building and won here,
13:19but is this as good as this building's
13:21ever treated you or something?
13:22I mean, it was like, I don't know
13:24if it surprised you at all or not,
13:25or it was even louder than you thought?
13:28It was an amazing atmosphere and environment, amazing.
13:32And it was a great win for us.
13:34One of the best that I've been involved with.
13:37I'm going to date myself, but I think it was 1993.
13:42I was an assistant at Miami, and we came in this building
13:46and played Arizona, ironically.
13:48Damon Stoudemire and I have talked about this numerous times.
13:51Again, they had to fly all the way from Arizona.
13:54Sometimes the tournament like this does that,
13:57but that win here and then this win tonight
14:00are certainly two of the best moments
14:03in sports that I've had.
14:04I'm so proud of our team,
14:07and I thought that a couple times
14:10Texas really had us on the ropes tonight,
14:13but we hung in there and fought through it,
14:15and I think that makes the victory even sweeter.
14:18Outstanding game, outstanding second half.
14:20Coach, thank you so much.
14:22Yeah, thank you. Safe travels.