March 17, 2008

Coach Milan Brown
Opening Statement
"We feel it is a great opportunity for our program to get some national exposure, obviously, and a chance for us to put a notch on our belt to have the opportunity to when an NCAA tournament game and move on and, as somebody told me which was great, to have the privilege to play North Carolina."

On preparing early for Coppin State
"After we won the game, actually Wednesday night, we talked about the possibly of us being in the opening round game. Because of what happened in the Southland (Conference), then it gave us the opportunity to think the other way that maybe we wouldn't be in it. But once we got to Sunday and got to practice, just talking to our staff, we kind of started thinking, well alright, maybe Mississippi Valley, maybe Coppin State, maybe Northwestern State. So I almost rolled the dice, kind of, and just said, `Alright, let's try to go over something that Coppin does today in practice maybe just to give us a leg up. If it doesn't work out, fine; but if it does, then we're a little bit more prepared.' We tried to go into practice and just say we're going to work on a couple of things that they did, but I guess my kids are little too smart. They started asking, `Who is this?' So I said, well it's Coppin State. This is what they try to do. When their name popped up, and that's who we're playing, I guess it made it looked like I was a genie, I guess."

How hard is it to be noticed given your geographic location?
"There's good basketball in Maryland. There's no question about that. When you have an opportunity like we have right now, you want to definitely take advantage of it. Most of the guys in our area, we know each other. We root for each other when we're not playing each other, obviously. It's a great opportunity, and the guys are excited and I'm excited for our program to have some chance to get some exposure for our program to show who we are as a university. We are very similar to how our school is. We are a tight-knit, family-oriented, everybody's fighting for everybody else, and win, lose, or draw we always stick together. It's kind of good that our basketball family is kind of like our university family."

What do you think of the idea of the Opening Round game?
"Being in the situation both as a player at Howard University and as a coach at Mount St. Mary's, I know it is only one school, it is usually going to give one school that's not a major conference player a chance to be in the spotlight. I'm all for it. Obviously, there are going to be some hard decisions that are going to be made on actually who plays in it, and the debate goes on, are you actually in the tournament, how do you feel about playing and being the 65th team. I'm pretty sure tomorrow night when we play, for our squad and Coppin's I don't think you will see any of our guys looking like we are not in the tournament. I just an opportunity to showcase what you think you've been doing all year long just on a bigger stage."

What does Coppin State do well?
"One thing is the kid, [Tywain] McKee, is really good. He basically put them on his back to win the MEAC tournament. For all intents and purposes, he may walk out on the floor tomorrow night and before jump ball, he might be the best player on the floor. That's always scary in a one game situation because a player of his caliber could just have a night where he could just beat you by himself. We are going to try to make sure we give them a few different looks, hopefully, and just try to make them take a lot of contested, tough shots. We know Fang likes to switch his defenses and play multiple zones, so we'll have to make sure we're still aggressive playing against that, trying to get some scoring opportunities. We're just going to try to be aggressive on both ends. We won't try to change what we have done to get us to this point. We're going to be who we've been the whole time, and that's aggressive on both ends of the floor."

Do you still have connections in Ohio?
"When I was an assistant coach at William & Mary, I coached under Rick Bourgess, who was an assistant with Ohio State, and one of the film coordinators with them as well, Jamie Kaczmarek, who is with Coastal Carolina. It's also good to be back because I played here (UD Arena) against Kansas in 1992 in the NCAA tournament. So it's kind of funny, my last college game was a loss to Fang in the MEAC tournament, and then as a player I lost in Dayton to Roy Williams. I guess you could say I owe both of those guys."

On following legendary coach Jim Phelan
"It's had its ups and downs obviously because you want to do so well, and no one is going to put more pressure on me than me. I was just so excited about the opportunity five years ago. We are a smaller school. Coach Phelan is to me, like Dean Smith is to Roy Williams, like Judd Heathcoat is to [Tom] Izzo. I got a chance to learn and be mentored by a Hall of Fame coach and when I got the job, I told them that I would do everything in my power to make sure that night in and night out you are proud of the product that was out on the floor. Championship or not, that has been my biggest motivation. Now, he's not only my mentor, he's a really good friend of mine. I'm just excited that I was the one. Usually, you don't want to be the one to follow up a legend, but I think it helped that I was an assistant coach there before, and Mt. St. Mary's took me right in. I'm a graduate of Howard University, but I feel like Mt. St. Mary's is a part of my family as well, so that made the transition easier. Obviously, I pretty sure everyone is a little bit happier now. It's been good."

On Coach Phelan being a coach 49 years
"That's really rare in this day and age, just for a university to have patience like that. I don't know if it will ever happen again. I know I'm not going to do it. I think I yell and scream too much. I don't think I'll make it that long. It is a testament to who he is as a person. He had some other opportunities to look at, he liked what he was doing, he was comfortable where he was, and he was comfortable with who he was. He didn't have to go up the ladder and chase the NBA job. He just wanted to coach. He stayed at it that long. That's why he has a street named after him in our town. That's why the court is `Jim Phelan Court'."

On traveling over 300 miles to play a team 45 minutes away
"To travel all this way...the first thing my sports information guy said to me was, `Why don't they just open the Verizon Center and let us play there?' You save more money and travel, and both of us know the winner goes to Raleigh anyway. In the process of them making the selections, you go where you are supposed to go. If they would have told us to play Coppin State in Anaheim, we'd be on the plane to Anaheim. It doesn't really matter to myself or the squad. We're just really excited about the opportunity. We can't wait for 7:30 Tuesday."

On Coach Beard of Howard and his influence
"That was something that I discussed with him as soon as my playing career was over. He said, `You have to be crazy to coach, and you just might be crazy enough to do this.' Obviously, he was right. He was a big factor in not only deciding to go into coaching but some of things that I do now with our squad. When I played under him at Howard University, we were a good defensive team. When I played, our motto was 65. We didn't want anybody to score 65 points. That was what we tried to do. I think some of that has carried on to us being a good defensive team now. My father taught me how to be tough as a man, but he taught me how to be tough as a basketball player both physically and mentally. Looking back now, you don't know when you're playing then, but I had the opportunity to play under a head coach who was an NBA player, an NBA coach, and my assistant coach was Jerry Eaves, who won a national championship with Louisville and had NBA experience. I learned a great deal from those guys, and I feel really blessed to be in that situation that I was able to learn from him. When I get out of here tonight, I need to call him. He probably wants to tell me what to do."

Talk about being in the NCAA Tournament and what it means to you?
Chris Vann - I think we're overwhelmed that we are here. It's something that none of us have ever taken part of during our time here at the school. We're just overwhelmed to be here and we have a chance to do big things.

Jean Cajou - I agree with Chris. I think it's a great opportunity for us to come in here and play in this type of atmosphere against a team like Coppin State. I think it will be good for us, our school and our classmates.

Jeremy Goode - I believe this is a big game for us and both of the schools, Coppin State and Mount Saint Mary's. Just to partake in a game like this is great for both programs. It's been a while since we've been here and we've never been here before. It means a lot for both teams.

How hectic and exciting has it been preparing for the NCAA Tournament?< Chris Vann - I think it's a little different for us since we are in the play-in game. We found out yesterday so we had to rush up here this morning catching our flight. The other teams have until Thursday or Friday to go wherever they play. It's a great opportunity. Like I said before, we've never done this before and we're enjoying every bit of it.

What do you guys think of the idea of a play-in game even though you won your conference tournament?
Jeremy Goode - I don't really think it should be a play-in game. Both teams won their conference championships and we both deserve a chance to play and be set in the field. Having the play-in game and saying you're officially in over the other in the NCAA Tournament. I don't really know where to go with it. I think that if you win, you should be in and not something you have to play for to get in.

Can you guys break down Coppin State and what you have to do to beat this team?
Jean Cajou - We went over them in practice the last couple of days on Saturday and Sunday. We went over their guard plays. We've got to control their guards and keep them in front of us. We have to rebound a lot against them since we do not know too much about them. We know that their guards are good and they rebound the ball well. We have to focus on that a lot and on some of the defensive things we have to do. Our main thing is to stop them on defense and control the backboards.

How would you describe your style of play and what to expect on Tuesday?Chris Vann - We're a team-oriented team. We play up-tempo basketball and push the ball on the breaks. We just find the open man. We're also a defensive team because we strive on defense. Our defense leads to the offense. You'll see a lot of Jeremy and Jean pushing the ball and giving the ball to the shooters and give the ball to where we are efficient at.

Talk about the offense being opened up after the regular season loss to Sacred Heart.
Jeremy Goode - I don't believe that there was a time we didn't focus on defense. Coach has always focused on defense. At the same time we really committed to pushing the basketball and getting easy shots from our defense. Any time we can get an easy shot and not let another team set up in their defense, that's always going to be a plus for us. If we push, we have better opportunities. To answer your question, we never stopped paying attention to defense we just made better decisions on the offensive end. Coach always wanted us to do, we just didn't commit totally to it. Once we saw what he was trying to do, things started working out for us.

Even though you haven't played in the NCAA Tournament, what has prepared you for this?
Chris Vann - We've all been in big state games. Myself I've been in the state championship game in Virginia and I'm sure Jeremy and Jean have been to something similar. Things like AAU where you have packed houses, we've played in a number of games where there's been a lot of people in attendance. We're not worried about that. We're just here to play basketball and come nine o'clock, we'll see.

Is it a bonus to play against Coppin State or would you have liked to play a team that you know better?
Jean Cajou - Even though we haven't played them before, I think it's good for both teams not knowing exactly who you are going to play. It'll be good for us to have both teams get after it tomorrow than it would be not knowing who you are playing Thursday or Friday.

Chris Vann - To go off of Jean's answer, I think it's something big for our program and Mount St. Mary's. It's definitely a game that we're capable of winning. The university has never won an NCAA Tournament game since they turned Division I. To get this win would be big for the program and to get our name out there.