What Kennesaw State coach Antoine Pettway said ahead of Gonzaga matchup

On Thursday night in Portland, OR, the Gonzaga Bulldogs will take on a Kennesaw State team that very few anticipated would be dancing this season under third year head coach Antoine Pettway.

The Owls, like Gonzaga, battled major adversity throughout the season - most notably losing preseason Conference USA Player of the Year Simeon Cottle in mid-January after he was charged in the points shaving scandal currently rocking college basketball.

However, Pettway and Kennesaw State persevered, finishing in sixth place in league play but managing to rattle off three straight wins - over Western Kentucky, Sam Houston State, and Louisiana Tech - to win the league's automatic bid and go dancing for just the second time in program history.

Coach Pettway talked about his team's run, getting to the tournament for the first time as a head coach, and more on Wednesday before Kennesaw State's matchup with Gonzaga on Thursday in Portland:

Opening Statement

"So blessed to be in the NCAA Tournament and get a chance to coach some amazing young men in that locker room, a bunch of high carrying guys. It's well documented some of the adversity my guys have been through this season. All they did was run right through it. Super blessed to coach these dudes, so blessed to be the head coach of a wonderful university. And we're here trying to make some noise."

On chatting with Nate Oats

"Yeah I talked to him, he's one of my biggest mentors - him and Anthony Grant from Dayton. He just talked to me about the first team he had with his Buffalo team that went to the NCAA [Tournament] and how the guys need to believe that 'hey they got a chance to win'. The team they [Alabama] played was different then, they had the big kid Huff. So it's different, but he and Mark Few are really good friends. He talked about how good of a team they were and how great a challenge and great opportunity it is as well."

On Gonzaga's length on the perimeter

"They're one of the best teams in capitalizing off turnovers and getting out in transition. They got a great amount of length on the perimeter. It's a really good team, but you expect that with a Mark Few coached team. So we know it's a tremendous challenge, we gotta do a great job of taking care of the ball and keeping those guys out of transition, because they're very dynamic."

On what he wants to see from his team

"I hope we make 25 threes tomorrow. No, I think they play a good pace, especially in transition, that's something we try to do as one of the faster playing teams in the country. If we can get stops we want to get out there in transition and be in attack mode as well. We hope our three point shot can fall, I got confidence in my guys, and we are going to play our style of basketball."

On dealing with Graham Ike in the post

"We've been praying a lot."