Everything Jai Lucas said ahead of First March Madness Game Against Missouri

The Miami Hurricanes are on a new journey with first-year head coach Jai Lucas. The best turnaround in D1 basketball continues to go unnoticed, but what better time than now for others to pay attention?

Lucas spoke to the media ahead of their No.7 Seed vs. No. 10 Seed matchup against the Missouri Tigers.

Here is what the first year head coach had to say:

JAI LUCAS: For us this is what you practice for, this is what you play for in this moment to be here in the first round in St. Louis. We wouldn't want to be anywhere else and give us a chance to come compete, and what should be a great environment. Whenever you play against a team that is close, hopefully they bring a lot of fans, and it adds to the environment and makes it feel like March.

We are excited about that opportunity, excited to play and just excited to get ready.

Q. Jai, is there any benefit to playing the last game so you guys get to -- your guys and your players get to see all of these games with what's happening to Duke, just so they can sort of see by the time it gets to your game, do you think the players especially who haven't been in this before can really see what March Madness is, the intensity of these games, any benefits to being there as opposed to being one of the first games?

JAI LUCAS: I would say yes and no. The longer it goes the more anxious you get watching all of the games and seeing all of the games. But also you can realize how quick it can be over. Just the realization of this is it, if you don't come out and play to the standard, don't come out to compete your season can be done in 40 minutes. That's a big part of it.

I wouldn't say it is a benefit. I am on the fence with that one. Wait until 9:10, it is going to be miserable tomorrow.

Q. I wonder if you could just tell us a little bit about what it was like working with Mark Mitchell when he was at Duke and how you have seen him grow since then too?

JAI LUCAS: Mark, one he is a great kid. Comes from a great family. We kind of came in together, if I am not wrong my freshman year -- his freshman year was my first year at Duke. You know, he was one of the guys I got to work with. He is just a great kid. I am so proud, also so happy for him and the player that he has become and the role he has been able to play, being at Duke, coming to Duke, being All American, all of the accolades that he had, playing with other good players, you never really know how it is going to go. He showed up every day to work.

When he felt it was his opportunity to make a change he did that. His family did it in the best way that could be done. Now watching him be a go-to player and kind of be -- I mean, I think he leads them in every category, if I am not wrong, kind of be the man is exciting. I am happy for him.

Q. Marcus Allen's story since it has unfolded since December, can you kind of walk through what that has meant to your program, and wrapping your arms around that, and then having him here how important that is?

JAI LUCAS: Man, it was a tough, tough situation. It is information and something that you never want to hear. When everything happened with Marcus, the biggest thing with Marcus is he wanted to still be treated like Marcus. So we had to make sure we did that around the program.

And for us as a team, it is just giving us the appreciation value that nothing is promised, and you can't take anything for granted, and you have to go out and attack every day.

Whenever Marcus is around, even before he was diagnosed with cancer, he is kind of the heartbeat of the team, he is the guy who was hear and the guy everybody kind of gravitated towards. Same thing when he is around and him being on this trip with us and being able to be back and forth in between treatments and practicing. He did scouting for us yesterday. He was Mark Mitchell.

Having him around keeps the guys and keeps the perspective of the program in the right place.

Q. You said before in a way you are trying to take a positive out of the fact that Missouri will be playing in their home state, I think it is 120 miles, compared to coming from Miami to here. Can you talk a little bit more about that? You would think it would be a disadvantage this is going to be kind of home game for them. How are you managing that?

JAI LUCAS: For us it kind of goes with our motto and theme for the year. We haven't really been respected to the level that we think we should be. Where we were projected to be in the ACC, the projections beginning of the year, now being a Tournament team. Now you get all of this stuff and get all of this credit and praise, and then you get a seventh seed and have to go on the road.

So for us it is business as usual. We won eight road games. We are expecting it to be like a road game. We are treat it go like being a real road game. We have to go and earn and take our respect like we have done the whole year.

Q. Obviously, both teams kind of have superstar forwards going into this one with Mark Mitchell and Malik Reneau. I curious what your thoughts are on the matchup and kind of what are the differences between those two players?

JAI LUCAS: To be honest with you, there is not a lot of differences. The way they kind of use Mark is very similar to how we use Malik. Like you were saying, they are both the kind of primary person on each team.

The thing will come down to what team takes care of the ball the best way. Go throughout the game and what team can kind of capitalize on that, and the second biggest part be the glass, who can control the glass and win the rebounding battle. It starts with those two because they are the leading scorers, and I would say the best player on each team. I would say it is going to come down to -- I won't call them complementary, but everybody else around them, how their impact on the game is won.

Q. I am wondering, you have been in the Tournament before with Duke, now you are here as a head coach. How is the experience different coming in as like a Duke assistant coach or assistant coach for another program and coming in as head coach? How is the March Madness experience different for you?

JAI LUCAS: For me it is making sure you are setting the right tone and the right temperature for what it should be. A lot of times, even at Duke, Kentucky or Texas when we were here, you can kind of be just satisfied with getting here. This is what it should be. You should want to get here. That's the whole thing. It is not just getting here, it is winning and advancing when you get here.

Making sure as a program we have as much confidence as possible and our mind frame and approach is in the right way, but also not making it like too much or heightened, adding to the anxiety. Like everybody understands it is March Madness. Everybody knows when you are going home. Keeping it in our daily approach and how we have done it all year is also the big part of the job being the head coach.

As assistant coach you can kind of watch games on your phone, kind of just mess around and do your scout. But as the head coach, there's a lot more that you are responsible for. So just making sure I am doing my part in that way.

Q. To fill in one more detail on Marcus Allen. Has he been constantly a practice presence? Is this new, recent? Kind of fill us in there.

JAI LUCAS: I would say within the last month he has been. His treatments have been kind of once every six weeks. After the treatments is when he kind of feels his worst, so now that he is almost a week from his last one, he was able to kind of come and do that.

I would say it has been pretty consistent about those two weeks in between the treatments where he comes and practices and participates in practice, whether it is -- he is not out there full blast. He will get a few reps and then rest and kind of do that. But it is a big part of his treatment is just making sure we keep it as normal as possible for him. Part of this battle of not only the chemo, it is the mental part.

Making sure that he is still feeling like Marcus. I had the unfortunate circumstance of dealing with this with Andrew Jones when he was at Texas when he was there, when he had leukemia. I have kind of been through it and seen it and understand kind of what it is. Being able to help Marcus through that also, I kind of knew some of the little things that could help him.

Q. Jai, the margins are so tight in this game. I kind of think back to your guys game against Cal this season. How did that ultimately tighten the screws for your team and eventually the platform it gave you guys to execute down the stretch of the season and now into this part of the postseason?

JAI LUCAS: That game our team was kind of changing. I believe that was the first game without Drew when he had stepped away a little bit. We missed every layup down the stretch. You are giving me PTSD right now. We have been in so many tight games. We have been in so many close games. 8 or 10 or something that have been ten or less. Then all of our losses a lot of them have been one possession. You think about Louisville, Cal, Florida State at Virginia. Those tight ones we lost in conference. All of that experience is giving us confidence in those moments not to panic. We won our fair share too.

You pull from all of that data in these moments that's why your schedule and conference all of that stuff is so important. When you getting in these moments in March, all of the games are close. All of them are tight. You look at the games today and what happens they are close. You have to be able to pull from your experiences. That's what helps you down the stretch in these games.

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