Here's What Purdue Players Said Before NCAA Tournament Game Against Yale
MILWAUKEE — Ahead of Purdue's first-round NCAA Tournament matchup against Yale, Zach Edey, Trevion Williams and Jaden Ivey met with the media to discuss March Madness, the Bulldogs and more.
Here's the full transcript of Thursday's press conference:
Q. Are you getting the full effect? Does this feel different? Does it feel like being part of March Madness?
TREVION WILLIAMS: Just to kind of bring it back off that, I don't think we've experienced the whole thing yet. Obviously, I've been through it. I've been through it my freshman year. And just going through it last year with these guys, they kind of get a glimpse of kind of what it's like. Although it was COVID -- but I think once we play our first game, I think everybody will get the full experience.
JADEN IVEY: Yeah, really, it feels normal. I get to go out of my room finally. Last year, I couldn't even step foot out of my room. It feels normal. And once we get open practice started, I'll start to feel like real March Madness.
Q. Jaden, I realize perfection's not going to happen, so you're not going to be at your A-game the whole time, but as you look back, you look at film, what's the difference with Purdue when you're pretty good and Purdue when you're really clicking?
JADEN IVEY: When we're pretty good, I think it shows glimpses of when we turn the ball over, you know. We make some mistakes on the defensive end. We're not as good. But when we're really good and we're all clicking, talking together on defense and just offensively just making the simple reads, I think we're the best team in the country.
Q. I was chatting with Coach last night. He kind of sat back, and he said, I've been doing this for 33 years. I've never seen it all the way. I know you guys know that, and I know that's been the storyline all season is this is a special roster. But have you had any conversations about that, of doing this for Coach Painter? It's been 42 years since Purdue's been to a Final Four, and this is the first step tomorrow.
JADEN IVEY: Yeah. I definitely want to play it for him, definitely want to make a run for him because he's given so much to this team and this university. We're just going to give it our all every time we step out on the court. And that's what we do when we step out on the court. We give it our all for Coach Painter and for the team. We're just going to try to do our best to bring him to his first national championship, and we're going to work really hard to get there.
TREVION WILLIAMS: I mean, Jaden kind of covered it. Not even just Coach Painter. Just doing it for ourselves. I think we deserve it. I think we've been working hard all year, and we've came short a couple games and a lot of games that we should have won. This is kind of our chance to kind of prove ourselves. We've missed out on the Big Ten Championship regular season and then, obviously, the tournament. So just having those things happen, at this point, we kind of have no choice but to kind of go out there and play our all.
ZACH EDEY: Yeah, kind of off what they said, there's a lot of people we do it for. Obviously, Coach Painter's one of them. He's a big thing for us. But we do it for our families. We do it for our moms. We do it for our dads. We do it for us, Coach Painter, friends back home. But there's a lot of whys on this team, but Coach Painter's definitely a big one.
Q. For Zach and Tre, can you just talk about what's most important to make sure your size advantage is as much of an advantage as it can be tomorrow now that the game starts to get played a little bit smaller again and to make sure that your guys' advantage is as much as you can get from it, the small ball element doesn't necessarily hurt you?
TREVION WILLIAMS: Just from the past couple games that we've watched so far, the early-on games, even the IU game -- we've been watching games, scouting, and the refs, they've been letting a lot of stuff go, and it's going to be -- just from watching those games, you can tell it's going to be very physical. Every game's going to be physical. I just think if we go in and embrace the physicality of the game, we'll be fine, just use our size advantage as best as possible, being smart, just being disciplined. Then, obviously, you know, having to guard those smaller teams, you know, for instance, Yale -- they're not the biggest guys in the world, but they're going to force us to guard on the perimeter as big men. Just be disciplined, and we'll be fine.
ZACH EDEY: Yeah. I think our size really comes into play. Coach Painter was talking about it on film. As long as we're physical, as long as we get as deep as we can, we just do what we can. We finish over the top of them. That's where our size comes into play. Make them pay on the offensive end for things they maybe have an advantage of in terms of defense, just really playing physical. That's really it.
Q. They watched you guys last year at this time walk off the court with a lot of emotion and stunned against North Texas. Did that discussion even need to happen this year of this can't happen again in the first round? How are you going to lean into the feelings you felt last March leaving Lucas Oil Stadium?
TREVION WILLIAMS: We've been watching film on that game. At least I have. And I know we have a couple times as a team. But we've watched film on that game pretty much all summer, and that was kind of our drive and motivation, becoming a team that we were -- or that we are. It still motivates us to this day. You appreciate experiences like that because these guys are freshmen and they were young and they didn't know what they came into. They didn't know what to expect coming to the tournament. Now they know what it feels like, you know, to -- in March Madness, you never know. You can be beaten on any given night. You've got to respect everybody. Everybody's here for a reason. And like I said, they've been through it. So now that they know how it feels, believe me it's going to drive not only them but our team.
Q. Zach and Trevion, is there a part of you that's looking forward to getting away from Big Ten teams who know your every move and know everything about you guys, that maybe you'll get a little bit more freedom down low?
ZACH EDEY: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's one thing we kind of said going into March Madness. In the Big Ten, most teams have been playing the same style of basketball for like 30 years now, so everyone knows exactly how each other plays. Everyone knows that's what they run. So getting out of that and teams have to play us on like a two- or three-day scout, it's going to be a lot different. There's going to be a lot more things to help because people don't have all that time to prepare for us. It's tough. It's hard to simulate some of the things that we have on this team. I'm looking forward to getting that fresh feel that we had at the beginning of the season before we started the Big Ten play.
Q. Trevion, you played on a team that made a deep tournament run. What have you shared or what can you share about these guys about what it takes to navigate these next couple of weeks for something like that?
TREVION WILLIAMS: Like you said, I have been a part of it. As a freshman, I didn't play that much. But when my number was called, you know, I had energy. I was ready to go. And these guys are different because they both start now. As a freshman, I was on the bench -- or I was coming off the bench, I should say. But one thing I always try to tell those guys is try to respect every team and just -- most importantly, just have fun, man. This is our best time of year. This is the time we should have fun, the time you come together with your team and really trust each other. I don't say much, but one thing I do say is I just always tell them to have fun. Jaden and Zach, I tell them before every game, Don't worry about anything else out on the court, just have fun. That's it.
Q. Jaden, for you again, Trevion, really quickly, and Jaden, I want to know what you said to make him giggle later. Trevion, really quickly, you said you watched that film a lot on North Texas. Was that your choice, or Painter wants you guys to watch it?
TREVION WILLIAMS: It's a little bit of both. We've had time. Coach will pull us in the film room, and we'll watch a couple clips. I know when we started our first set of, like, summer workouts, Coach had us watching that film. In summer, you're like, Well, the season's not here, so what are we watching film on? And it kind of made me wonder. And the first thing he pulled out was the North Texas film. You know, that's something you don't expect as a player. Obviously, it was heartbreaking to go through. It was a hard pill to swallow, man. But that's something he started out with in summer. He wanted to kind of build that foundation and let guys know, like, here's where we are, and here's what we need to do to get better from it. I've obviously watched my own film. I couldn't stop thinking about it after the loss. I think I watched it every other week after. Man, it was just, like I said it was a hard pill to swallow because I know -- I truly believe in our team, and I know we're better than that.
Q. Then, Jaden, you guys are in one-game-at-a-time mode, I would assume, but still there is a big picture here. Are you allowed to talk about what your big picture goal is? Like you guys arrived here. What's going to make a successful month?
JADEN IVEY: Obviously, we have the big picture as a national championship. Everyone has dreams and goals of winning a national championship. But you just have to approach it one game at a time. I'm ready to hoop for real. I don't like waiting to play games. But I'm ready to hoop, and I'm ready to get going with my team.
Q. For Jaden, I was just wondering what you remembered about playing on that under-19 team with James Jones, the Yale coach last summer. Anything sticks out about him?
JADEN IVEY: He actually texted me, I think, a couple weeks ago. He just said, you know, Good luck with the rest of the season, and you're doing well. I appreciate Coach Jones. He taught me a lot just from an emotional standpoint. I'm an emotional type player on the court, and he just said, Just keep a positive attitude about you, and Coach Jones is a great coach, and I'm looking forward to seeing him.
Q. Jaden, I told you I caught up with your mom yesterday for a little bit before they were heading out to their tournament game. She told me they scheduled practice tomorrow from 11:00 to 1:00 so she can watch you. She packed her Purdue shirt. I also talked to Coach Painter, and he said you guys are going to try to watch their game on Saturday. He admitted he thinks you play a little better when your mom is in the stands and it's unfortunate she can't be there. But, I guess, how are you guys embracing each other, embracing your separate opportunities while both going dancing at the same time?
JADEN IVEY: We're just super blessed to just be in this position. I just think it's just what God's done for us to put us in this position. You know, both of us are in March Madness right now. We're doing what we love to do. It's just a blessing.
Obviously, I'm not going to have her in the stands, but I know she's going to be rooting for me, and I'm going to be rooting for her. You know, I don't want to see her -- I want to see her go far, so I don't want to see her in the stands, and I know she doesn't want to see me in the stands. I'm just so blessed to be here, and I know she's supper excited to get her journey started, too.
Q. Is it easier or harder to play in the post against smaller guys as opposed to your kind of traditional 6-10, 7-foot guys you see more in the Big Ten that you don't necessarily have to worry about squashing?
TREVION WILLIAMS: Honestly, it's a little tougher because you kind of got to worry about guys flopping and, you know -- I don't know. I mean, I don't really know how to explain it, but -- I don't know -- it just teaches you to be physical with everybody. I would say with the smaller guys, it's different. You've got to worry about we're so big, and those little guys kind of get under us. They try to get into us, take our ball. I would say it's tougher with the little guy, whereas with a big dude, you can kind of bang a little bit and be as physical as you want. But that's just how things are with smaller guys. They send doubles a lot, so it just prepares you for whatever they throw at you.
ZACH EDEY: It's definitely a lot different. Obviously when you have smaller guys on you, they know that, so they'll send double teams at you. They'll tell their guys try to set up some fouls, so you have to really watch, like, what you're doing with your arms. And even when you do nothing wrong, they just fall over, and you get the foul anyways just because they're smaller. And they're allowed to do a lot of different stuff to you. It's just a different game. Obviously, it's easier to get to the post position. It's easier to back them down. But you just have to worry about a completely different game, really, when you're playing a small guy.
Q. For Jaden. For as much as we're talking about getting the ball inside, you guys have been really good all year in transition. Is there anything you guys have to do or want to do to kind of get out in the open floor a little bit more? Is it about forcing turnovers? What's kind of the secret sauce there?
JADEN IVEY: I think the biggest thing is getting rebounds. I think we did a good job because -- Iowa, I think we won the rebound battle, but we had turnovers. And I think when we cut the turnovers and just make the simple reads and -- that just opens up a lot in transition for us to get going.
Q. Trevion, this is also serious, but we often see some smiles come from the guys. Who's the guy on this team who relaxes it, kind of breaks the mood, or kind of keeps things a little bit light when you guys kind of need a moment to just kind of relax?
TREVION WILLIAMS: I don't know. I guess, like I say, myself. I try to be positive all the time with the season and with everything going on, man. You constantly have stuff just coming at you, coming at us as a team. I try to be that guy, that voice to try to keep everybody level-headed, try to keep everybody happy, smiling. Even this dude, he tries to -- when he gets in game mode, he's like straight-faced. Like I just tell him when he's out there, Just have fun. I tell him to try to smile all the time. This dude, too. I don't know. I guess you could say I'm the guy and I've kind of accepted that roll on our team, just being an energy guy, being positive, being happy. It does more than you think, and I think they appreciate it, so I try to, you know -- and it's also something I've learned to do, something I've grown into. I used to be the quiet guy on the team. I was always to myself. And as I grew up, as I got more mature, you know, I found out that that's kind of being selfish, you know, because, as a team, you should be able to open up and talk to guys and be honest with them and -- I don't know -- just keep them level-headed. Like I said, it's something I've grown into, but I've definitely accepted it as a senior and as a leader on this team.
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