University of North Texas Athletics
Facing The Media At The NCAA Tournament In Oklahoma City
3/17/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Oklahoma City, Okla. (3/17/10) - The 2010 North Texas men's basketball team received its first dose of March Madness with the Wednesday press conference and shoot-around. The Mean Green faces second-seeded Kansas State on Thursday afternoon at the Ford Center.
Junior Josh White and senior Eric Tramiel faced the local Dallas-Fort Worth media and also fielded questions from the Kansas State press corp. Most of the questions focused on the experience of the Mean Green team and the talented Kansas State guards.
Tramiel talked about being a senior on this 2010 team and not being ready to see his season end.
"Our goal is to go as far as we can, and I have to play with that purpose every game, every night in and out," said Tramiel.
"Experience always helps. Being in a certain situation, even though this is our first time pretty much the whole team except Mangrum, but the experience is a big deal. Us guys, we played together last year. We know how it felt to lose in a conference tournament, and this year we're trying to get to a better goal."
White has watched Kansas State play a number of times on television so he's familiar with the Wildcats. He knows they have great guards and that they play a very physical game.
"One thing that stood out to us is they play really hard," said White. "They pressure the ball so it's going to be a pretty tough challenge for us."
"I think we match really well with their guards. Even though they're not that big of guards, they are really good. They take about 50 percent of their shots. They get up points and shots in a hurry. We have to defend well every possession. We can't take a possession off."
Being a No. 15 seed, the Mean Green has a tough challenge in facing the No. 2 seed Kansas State. North Texas head coach Johnny Jones is aware of the challenge he and his team is facing.
"We know we have a great challenge in front of us," said Jones. "We know what's out there, but the only thing we can ask of them is to go out and play as hard as we can, play their best and give it everything that they have and just see what happens, and I feel good about them."
The Mean Green has also gone from being the team that everyone wanted to beat to being a small fish in a big pond.
"I think one of the best things for this basketball team is the success they've had after the initial onset of this year being picked to win the conference or picked to win the conference tournament, and what happens is I think with the pressure being there, I think we've had a target on our chest all year long.
"It's a veteran basketball team. I think they were able to come through the regular season and the tournament in great fashion. So I think this is the next step, and I as a coach can look and see they're not satisfied by being in the NCAA Tournament. So, I know that they'll go out and play tomorrow with the sense of urgency and not being satisfied just to be here."
