Mason Gillis, Zach Edey Preview Purdue's NCAA Tournament Game Against Fairleigh Dickinson
COLUMBUS, Ohio — No. 1 seed Purdue basketball tips off against No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament on Friday at Nationwide Arena.
Mason Gillis and Zach Edey met with the media Thursday to preview the matchup and give their thoughts on the Knights. The two teams are scheduled to play at 6:50 p.m. ET, and the game will be televised on TNT.
Here's the complete transcript of their press conference:
Q. What are your takeaways from yesterday's game watching Fairleigh Dickinson? What did you see from them?
MASON GILLIS: They press a lot, we've been working on that. I would assume they would press us. And just my personal thing is we'll be throwing the ball to Zach a lot.
ZACH EDEY: They shoot a lot of 3s and press a lot. They're smaller so they get out in transition, they're quick. Definitely a different look than what we're used to in the Big Ten, but they're good for sure.
Q. Zach, they're the shortest team in the tournament. Do you think about that their tallest guy is 6'6"? What's the emphasis on that?
EDEY: It's something. Playing against shorter guys is a different look than playing against taller guys. Not necessarily easier all the time, the way you have to play with them, you have to treat them almost with like safety gloves because almost anything I do — since I'm bigger — looks really bad. So I really have to keep that in mind, stay out of foul trouble with it and really try to dominate the game.
Q. They're shooters, how comfortable are you with your perimeter defense?
EDEY: I think we're good. We've been good all season, our defense has been really solid, especially in the half-court. We'll stick to what we've done.
Q. Anything you guys are trying to prove this year in the March Madness tournament?
GILLIS: I'd say that we can make a deep run. The past years we've come up short a couple times. We haven't made it to the Final Four in a long time. We're just planning to get back there and win it all.
Q. How big of a run can you guys make this year compared to years past?
GILLIS: We can win it all. We have the pieces, we have the big man. We have myself, we have our guards. Over the course of this season, we've come together and we have never lost mind of our goals. Every single practice we're appreciating what we want.
And whether you want to get on a philosophical level, but we're speaking things into existence. And so we're just going to continue to do that and take care of what we need to do.
EDEY: I agree with him.
Q. What do you mean by "we're speaking things into existence?" What's that look like?
GILLIS: For me, it's been four years. I got here and the goals were always to win Big Ten Conference, win the Big Ten tourney and win the National Championship.
My first year here, I didn't play and we didn't make it. Second year, we weren't able to win the conference tourney. Third year, we weren't able to. And finally my fourth year we won it by three games and won the tourney. And now we're set for a run in March Madness right now.
And from a day-to-day basis, it's just kind of preaching in our huddles, coach Paint preaches our goals, I preach our goals. The guys commented on it. I always try and just repeat small things like don't forget what we're playing for, or this game matters as much as the last three games, or this game means as much as -- coming up, three games, it's game by game, practice by practice, day by day -- keeping things small and not forgetting what we're here for.
Q. Zach, this year the Big Ten kind of, as usual, brutalized each other. Everybody seemed to be like 11-7 or somewhere in there. Does that make you guys tournament ready? Does that prepare you for this kind of format?
EDEY: I definitely think it does. In the Big Ten, like you said, it's always so close, so many teams are always so good. From top to bottom, there are not really any off-games. And basically every win you can get is a good win, whether it's at home or on the road, kind of separates yourself in those rankings.
I'll bet you can name a lot of teams that wish they could have one game back in the Big Ten. It's almost a conference tournament setting where every game is always super, super important.
Q. Zach, obviously you're used to being taller than everybody else around you. What do you know about Ansley Almonor from what you've scouted and what you've done? He was kind of, FDU's big man, so to speak. And what's the challenge for him offensively trying to get you out of the paint to guard him?
EDEY: They have really good big men, super skilled. Obviously, he said they're a little undersized, they can take you out to the perimeter, put the ball on the floor. They can create some problems for us, so we have to kind of stay away from those, game plan for those, and come out and execute.
Q. How much does coach Painter draw off his experiences as a player and his experience in the tournament? Is that something he talks to you about a lot or not much?
EDEY: I don't think he's ever talked to us about his experiences in the tournament.
Q. Playing in the early season tournament, the Phil Knight event and winning that, and winning the Big Ten Tournament, does that experience help you at all as you get ready for this tournament now?
GILLIS: Absolutely. We haven't lost on a neutral court and we plan to keep it that way.
Q. When you look back at last year, at the end, what did you learn from that Saint Peter's game? Are there any parallels to this game in terms of -- not to say, not to take them seriously, but what they did to you guys and how much of a shock that was to you?
GILLIS: I would say that we have to go into every single game with the utmost respect of the competition, whoever we're playing, no matter their name. And whenever we step between the lines, we have to stay focused on our game plan and throughout the game stay focused on our game plan, not get comfortable if we're up in the lead and they come back and score. They start pressing us and we're lackadaisical on what we're supposed to be doing.
I told the guys all year, our game plan wins. What we do wins. And if we stay with that, I'm not worried about much.
EDEY: Yes, every team is here for a reason. No team gets here by accident. Every team in this tournament is good. We're going to take everyone seriously. Doesn't matter what seed they are.
Q. Mason, what's it like to have a weapon like the big guy? And how much has your guys' confidence grown along with seeing Zach develop?
GILLIS: It's nice to say that we have something that nobody else in the country does. But at the same time, how good of a basketball player he is, he's a better person. That's why we respect him so much.
He's a normal guy just like all of us. He's nice, does what he's supposed to do, takes care of his responsibilities. But then he's dominant on the court unlike anybody else.
So Paint always tells us we're in trouble on the court or don't know what to do just throw it to him. It's very nice to have a relief like that, and our confidence has grown just from him telling us to be ready.
There are not too many great players in the world that are telling their teammates to shoot the ball more or to be more aggressive. And he's always telling us to be more aggressive. And we tell him to be more aggressive.
It's kind of like a back-and-forth thing. We all love each other. We're all playing for each other. We're all playing for Purdue. And so whenever that comes together like it is this year, a lot of success comes from that.
Q. There was a moment in the Big Ten Tournament where Fletcher made a 3 and he kind of shrugged, and Painter gave a fist pump, like about time, it's finally going through for me. It's not easy to be a freshman and play as many minutes as he has in college basketball. Couple that with maybe not shooting it quite as well as he would want down the stretch, how have you seen him weather that storm, and where do you think his mindset is going into this tournament?
EDEY: I think Fletcher is one of the most confident people I've been around in terms of off the court and on the court.
That throw you're talking about, I think he shrugged, the only reason he shrugged was because it was at the end of a shot clock and he kind of flung it up. It was kind of like a prayer.
But I think he's just a very confident guy. He's going to keep shooting. We all want him to keep shooting. We need him to keep shooting. No matter what his numbers look like, we know what he brings to the table.
We know what type of gravity he can bring to the offense. Other teams know that, too. He'll never get an easy look.
It's tough to be a freshman in our league, and he's made it look easy up to this point. But it's not -- he has to keep shooting, has to keep having that confidence that he's played with all season.
GILLIS: I would say he works at it, too, every single day. I'm in the gym. Whenever I'm there he's there. And so it's great to be able to see. All of our guys are like that, but I know Fletcher is in there every single day working on it. And just to see him keeping that confidence. It will all work out when (indiscernible) works.
Q. Mason, you said earlier they press a lot and you're going to throw it to him. Is that what you said?
GILLIS: Not necessarily. What I was saying is whenever we're in a half-court setting or they're pressuring the ball, coach Paint just says we have Zach down there; just throw it to him.
But to break their press we have been working on things and we are on the same page right now and we know what we're going to do.
Q. I was referencing not what you said a minute ago, but what you said like the first question was about the press, and I thought you said you were going to throw it to him. It's in the transcript if you said it?
GILLIS: It's not in there right now. But we have our press breaks. Zach's always available. So if we need him, he'll come up and save the day.
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