What Myles Colvin, Cam Heide Said Ahead of Purdue's NCAA Tournament Game vs. McNeese

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Purdue advanced to the second round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament with a 75-63 win over High Point on Thursday. Both Camden Heide and Myles Colvin played significant roles in the victory, getting the Boilermakers into the second round to play McNeese.

Heide recorded his first-ever double-double, scoring 11 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in the win. Myles Colvin had four points in the game, which included one of the most athletic dunks you will ever see.

Both Heide and Colvin spoke with reporters on Friday, ahead of Saturday's second round clash with McNeese. Here's what they had to say about the game and more.

On Colvin's dunk vs. High Point that went viral ...

Colvin: I did get a chance to look at it. Really nice play. I haven't really fed into it a lot, obviously trying to prepare for McNeese tomorrow, so I think it was a good play, just going out there and doing my job, getting those offensive rebounds that we did. We did a really good job doing that the whole game. I think it was just a play followed up by a really good play by me, and Cam had a really nice play after that. So I think that was really big for us.

On what has clicked for both players with more playing time ...

Heide: I would say it's just staying ready. Obviously when you have a role that you can play a lot of minutes one night, not so many the next night, you might take no shots in the game or shooting the ball quite a bit. I think it's just the preparation that goes into each and every game, each and every practice and putting as much time as you can outside of our scheduled practice times to stay ready for moments and when your name's called just going out and performing.

Colvin: Yeah, I would have to agree with what Cam says. Just preparation, really. That's a big part of all of it. Not just the physical getting exercise. I think it's also more the mental. We're not going to know how many minutes we play that night. We just try to produce as much as we can with the minutes that we have. It's just becoming more comfortable with the offense and the defense of the schemes that we have. I think that's really huge that we started to learn and grow and made a big leap from last year to this year.

On the quick turnaround from playing High Point to McNeese ...

Colvin: I don't think it's that much of a challenge for us. We have been through a lot of situations like this already in the past couple years for both of us going to Maui, going to the Rady Invitation in San Diego. So I think it's huge for us to be in those situations before the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament to prepare us for those turnarounds playing elite teams and seeing different offenses and defenses. So I think that's really huge for us.

Heide: Yeah, a lot of it is just mental preparation. You don't get enough... or I guess the same time you would get for a normal scout and these quick back-to-back games. You just have to prepare mentally, at the hotel, watching a lot of film, just getting as much time as you can to spend mentally preparing because we don't have a lot of time to physically prepare for them.

On if Colvin remembers much about his dad's (Rosevelt Colvin) playing days in New England ...

Colvin: I haven't been able to get out and walk around, but I didn't really remember a lot of his career because I was around three or four. The soonest I really remember is when I moved to Indianapolis. I think that's really where I started to get a lot of my memories as a young kid. I have seen a lot of tapes playing, but I wish I could have had the opportunity to remember that and experience that stuff.

On if Myles or his dad is the better athlete ...

Colvin: I have to go with myself. Always bet on yourself. I'm more athletic, I can jump higher. I'm definitely a little faster, so, yeah.

On the defense that McNeese can "throw" at Purdue ...

Heide: We run a lot of different plays that can go against a lot of different defenses, so for us it's just knowing what we want to run, what they're going to do defensively and different things we need to do offensively, and it helps when everyone is on the same page. That's one thing that we've challenged ourselves is making sure everyone is on the same page, everyone knows what they're doing, doing their job before and after a shot goes up. Because there's a lot of different things that can go wrong, especially if one person is not doing their job. Kind of preparing for a team that has a lot of different defenses. It just goes to our coaches and how smart they are and the game plan that they put together for us offensively.

Colvin: To add onto that, everything he said was correct and spot on. I think it's also due to us being able to play different teams and different styles of play defensively and offensively leading up to this point, and I think we have seen a lot of different teams. We played low-major teams where they have been quicker, faster getting to the ball and disrupt our office. We have also been against teams that are bigger, stronger. So I think it's just also a preparation, like we said, being in situations where we can have those quick turnarounds but also playing those teams where we're not used to playing them during the season, during the Big Ten play and that's helped us along the way.

On preparing for McNeese's popular student manager ...

Colvin: I think the team, we have seen him on our social media, but it's really cool for him to have that NIL deal and all that stuff. We're focused on getting the job done and winning the game.

Heide: I agree with that.

On what has clicked for both players with more playing time ...

On if Myles or his dad is the better athlete ...

On the defense that McNeese can "throw" at Purdue ...

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