PHILADELPHIA — Tennessee basketball is back in the NCAA Tournament and preparing to face Miami (Ohio) in its opening game of the tournament on Friday afternoon. Miami enters the matchup 32-1 after knocking off SMU in a First Four game on Wednesday night.
Ahead of the matchup, Miami coach Travis Steele met with the media and discussed what he knows about Tennessee, the development of multiple players and much more. Here’s everything Steele said.
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Opening statement
“Yeah, excited to be here. Came off a good one last night against SMU, thought our guys played really well. A great environment, one of the best NCAA Tournaments I have been part of. It was like a home game for us. Appreciate Miami nation turning out for us tonight. With Tennessee, we have a really formidable opponent, got a ton of respect for coach Barnes and their program. They got a real identity. Super tough, got to block them out. We got a lot of a lot of challenges for tomorrow.”
On the Miami swim team showing up to the First Four game in speedos, the fan support in Dayton
“We need to get them back here, don’t we? Number one, I saw — in the game, you’re really locked in. Then all of a sudden, you see a group of young men in Speedos coming down the stairwell right there in the end zone, and the place just absolutely erupted when it happened.
I know if I was distracted, I know the young man at the line was distracted. Obviously, it worked. He missed a free throw, but it’s been just super cool across the board, man, the support we’ve gotten like from where we were my year one, we were getting 200, 300 people at a game. This past season, we’re at 10,640 selling out. All of sudden, tickets are going for $200 or $300 on StubHub or SeatGeek to see the crowd we had last night. I’m happy that our guys were able to get that experience as well.”
On the mindset he wants his players to have
“Yeah, number one, have fun. Enjoy it. Dude, this is what you work your lifetime for. These are dreams you have as a little kid. You fill out all the brackets, all the tournaments, all the March Madness over the years. This is it. When you get to be part of it. It’s really surreal.
At the same time, our guys know our level of expectation are to advance. I recruited each guy in our locker room to try to get to the NCAA Tournament. That’s when anything can happen. You’re 40 minutes away. The best team doesn’t have to win. This isn’t the NBA series, best of seven. It’s 40 minutes. Our guys are really confident. We know we have to create our separation with our preparation. It’s a quick turnaround, but they know we have to be prepared to beat a formidable opponent like Tennessee.”
On the role Antwone Woolfork has on the team
“Number one, Antwone is a terrific young man. Unbelievable. He has such a unique personality. So glad he joined our family when he transferred from Rutgers. His high school coach, Chet Mason, was a former player here at Miami. That was a big reason we were able to get him here. Thank God for Chet, too, but Antwone is our enforcer. He can bang inside. He can guard on the perimeter. He’s very unique defensively because of his feet and his strength. He rebounds the ball really well.
In a lot of ways, he’s a hub for us on the offensive end. We play through a lot of him at the elbow, the high post, the low post. He scores, but man can he pass. He just makes our offense go with our skill set and his versatility and his IQ. He’s been a great player for us, he’s an even better young man. Couldn’t be more proud to have him in our family.”
On the development of freshman Trey Perry and Justin Kirby
“Yeah, I’ll start with Trey Perry. Trey has gotten so much better. He’s learned how to play with other really, really good players. He’s learned how to play the point guard position. He can really score. He’s got a gift to score the ball, and we want him to be him. But he’s also starting to understand space, how to be more efficient with the ball. He’s also understanding the defensive side of the ball. It’s a two-way game, and he’s really, really gotten better off that send better on the ball.
And then Justin Kirby was red-shirting the first half of the season. He didn’t play in any non-conference games, and what idiot was red-shirting him, is what we got to ask. He’s so athletic. He’s fearless. He rebounds, he defends. He can shoot open threes. He cuts. He does a lot of things where he doesn’t need the ball to be effective, which makes him just an easy kind of — you can just plug him in any time, no matter who is on the floor.
Super proud of his growth and his mindset that he’s had this year. That’s difficult to go from, Hey, we’re red-shirting. And then we have a young man, Evan Ipsaro, who is arguably the best point guard in all mid-major basketball go down with a season-ending injury halfway through the season, Kirby gets thrown to the fire and to do what he’s done, man, it’s been really, really impressive.”
On responding to the disappointment of the MAC Tournament loss against UMass
“I hate when coaches say, hey, it’s good to take a loss. That’s complete coach speak. That’s not true. We try to win. Championship level teams learn from wins. It’s unfortunate, right? You outplayed us, it’s totally on me. I told our guys right afterwards in the locker room, locker rooms can be emotional. Our guys were upset, shocked. I said, hey, let’s shower up, get back to the hotel so I could gather my thoughts a little bit. I just said, Fellas, listen, our season is not over. I can’t have any doom and gloom around our program, Debbie Downers, whatever you want to call it. I don’t need any sad faces. We have to move on. We have to own this performance. Watch it, get better from it, learn from it, and we have to plush it, and we have to be who we have been all year.
We have a lot of joy in our locker room in our process, our practices, our guys love each other. We can’t lose that. If we lose that, then we’re not going to get the result that we want in the NCAA Tournament when that opportunity presents itself. So we had to flip the script real quick. I don’t know if our guys knew how I was going to react. Was I going to throw a tantrum like a two-year-old in the locker room, all that? I will win, lose, draw with our guys. I love our guys, but our guys were able to move on very quickly and learn from the loss to UMass.”
On what they want to prove against Tennessee, people calling them a Cinderella
“It’s funny. I don’t know if we necessarily have anything to prove to others. We have stuff to prove to ourselves. We block out that outside noise. I told our guys if we’re not asking for those guys’ opinion about our team, I’m not calling them for advice, then why the heck should we listen to them now? We know how good we are. We know we deserve this opportunity. We knew we were a team that could advance. We’re very confident in that. We’re going to go showcase that.
I’m happy that our guys are able to do it on this stage. We love the stage. Our guys love the bright lights, and our guys will be ready.”
On having players from near Philadelphia
“Awesome. A couple of our guys had that last night being in Dayton. You had Eian Elmer, Cincinnati; Evan Ipsaro, Cincinnati; Trey Perry, Luke Skaljac, Cleveland; Antwone, Cleveland. Now closer to home for Brant. His mom and dad come to every game. They’re so passionate, they’re awesome, but he’s going to have a lot of family members here.
It’s cool when you can do it closer back to home in a moment like this, NCAA Tournament. The stage doesn’t get any bigger, man. This is the best tournament in the entire world regardless of sport.”
On facing Rick Barnes
“First time I have coached against Rick Barnes but, listen, I have watched his teams a lot over the years, huge fan, studies his teams. He’s a Hall of Fame coach.”
On his growth as a coach
“Number one, I’m really appreciative of the opportunity I’ve had here from our athletic director David Sayler and President Crawford. I think I’ve grown just as far as — you are your experiences. I have been around some great coaches; Chris Macks, Kelvin Sampsons of the world, and they’ve all had a huge impact on me, but I’ve got to be me. I’m not Chris Mack. I’m not Kelvin Sampson. I’m not Sean Miller. I’m Travis Steele.
I think number one how to build culture is really important, especially in this landscape. I think it helps with retention. I think also just developing your system. How do you become a better teacher? You want to make it seem very, very simple for your guys, but you want it to be very complex, right? For your opponents.
I think that’s what great teachers have the ability to do, to make things complex seem so simple. And then focusing on the things you can control. That’s the messaging that you give your guys on a day-to-day basis, how you lead and how you steer your ship is so, so important on the journey. The journey, the season’s a lifetime.”
On Eian Elmer being the emotional leader of Miami’s team
“Yeah, super proud of him, too. He was in foul trouble for the whole night. He played less than 25 minutes, and he had 23 points. His freshman year, he mentally would not have been able to handle that.
Just growth, man. Again, super proud of how mature he’s become. He makes plays on both ends… defensively, offensively. He can shoot. He can score. A big block, a big dunk, a big three. He’s confident. He can guard multiple positions. He’s just grown so much, man.
From where he was, like I said, when he first came in to where he is right now, it’s almost unrecognizable. He deserves all the credit, as well as our assistant coach, Khristian Smith does a great job with him as well, his position coach. But, man, Eian is playing at a really, really high level right now.”
