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Yeah. OK, we have Alabama, the advancing team up here on the podium. We have head coach Nate Oates, we have Mark Sears, we have Aidan Holloway, and we have Chris Youngblood. Alabama moves on to Saturday's Elite Eight game on Saturday. That will be at *** time to be determined. We're gonna open it with an opening statement from Coach Oates, then we will go to questions for the student athletes. We'll dismiss them and then take, take questions for coach. So coach, if you want to start with an opening statement. I mean that that was *** fun game if you uh like offense that was, uh, it's fun for the fans. I'm sure at least for the Alabama fans, uh, you know, and listen, I know I, I gotta teach these guys some math occasionally I told series there's *** thing called regression to the mean, you know, his last 6 games he was shooting 14%, 5 of 35. He's not *** 14% shooter obviously. Uh, they had been going under ball screens on just about every game we watched. I told both those guys, uh, Holloway and, uh, seriously, uh, man, I hope they go under us because that's we're gonna ra them so we're in the gym last night, the night before, but you know these guys show up for voluntary shooting every time it's available to make sure that they're ready to go and that work pays off, you know we wanna base our program on hard work so. Told Mark he's playing chess, not checkers. He just kind of set everybody up with that 5 or 35 thinking he was in *** slump and he's gonna come out, shoot like 63% ain't bad, so 103s I think first guy in NCA tournament history. I was told that had at least 8 3s and 7 assists. So you know, not only was he scoring it, he was moving it helps to get assists when you get guys like CY and uh Aidan Holloway making shots like they did too. So between these three guys we had 21 3s. it's. You know, we've hit 22 before *** couple times I think I think maybe 23 we've never had 25 so uh you know and BYU with with their personnel we knew that they, you know, they once started going under, but they always collapse. I mean they kind of have to and they kind of got away with it against some teams that don't space like we do, but I, I told these guys going in I, if if you'll move the ball. We end up with 27 assists. I'm not sure where that ranks in tournament history, but if you'll move the ball, our offense is designed to to beat *** defense like this. So they're heavy in the gaps. They over help and, and we did. So now they're *** really good offensive team too. Everybody questioned whether we had defense to win, uh, for some reason nobody was talking about our offense. So like, uh, I've gotten to know Mike D'Antoni *** little bit, he, he made the point that your offense only has to be, you know. One point in the efficiency better than your defense to win the game. Now we're trying to get stops and I thought we did *** pretty good job. They went on *** run. I remember Sears got *** steal, you know, when they started to make *** run there in the second half is *** big play. We got *** bunch of old boards, you know, our second chance points. I thought we hit some 3s off that. We gave them too many second chance, but we did hit some 3s off it. So, uh, like it was good. We were able to, uh, rest some guy, you know, our top minute guy was series with just over 30 and then. You know, nobody else You know, Kurt CY and uh Grant 27 and 25, so you know whoever we play, you know, we're able to get these guys *** little bit more rest than normal. So proud of our guys we're, we're in the Elite Eight for the third time in school history and back to back. So, uh, Sears has been in the middle of it. These two guys came to play with them and then they're unbelievable backcourt together. I, I thought LeBaron did *** good job. You know, moving the ball, uh, tonight too, should he, he went 2 or 3 himself, he ends up with 6 assists, so I, I thought everybody played well in their roles tonight. Start with questions for the student athletes. Raise your hand. We'll get *** microphone. Give name and affiliation before asking your question. We'll start here in the front row. On this side. Jackson Shanks, Seton Hall Center for Sport Media. Aidan, we talked yesterday about how you've matured through the tournament last year with Auburn, *** first round exit this year you hadn't really had the game that put you on the map and today whenever Mark went out in that second half, it almost like it lit *** fire under you and you were able to answer each BYU 3 with your own. What about tonight made you so successful and allowed you to perform at that level? Uh my, my teammates just found me, honestly, uh. That's all I'll say about that. It was just *** good game. My teammates found me, uh, and I just tried to not focus on shot making and focus on everything else and shotma ended up, you know what I'm saying, working out *** little bit. So just shout out to my teammates for finding me all game. We're going to come to this side in row 2. Uh, Mark Canazaro from the New York Post, this is for Mark. Um, did you feel, is it possible to feel *** game like this coming for you and, and what is the feeling like when they're just going down like that? Honest, uh, like coach said, you know, we've been working all week to prepare for, uh, to get our shot right and, you know, uh, just the, the matter of preparation we put in it, it led to the success we had tonight. We're gonna stay, we're gonna come to the front row in the middle. Uh, Mark, or for any of the guys, but we'll start with Mark since you had the biggest night, um, when coach says, hey, we're gression to the mean, hey, you know, they're playing you, you know, how much do you believe it? How much do you expect it I guess is the better word. Yeah, um, even though when I was shooting 14%, my confidence was still high, you know, I never stopped doubting myself and stopped believing in myself and my teammates also, they kept encouraging me to keep shooting and keep shooting and keep shooting it, and you know, that's just uh show trusting them that even though when I'm not at my highest peak that they still trust and want me to shoot the ball. So you know it's *** big shout out to them and you know, just, uh, yeah, you know, just they went under the ball screen and uh I was able to get my rhythm early. Chris, you also want to answer that question? Uh, to be honest with you, before all y'all talking about 14%, I had no idea who was shooting 14% because I, I never really paid attention to, you know, Mark's incredible player, so all I know is when he gets the ball, the defense is collapsing on him, so I don't even feel like he's shooting 14%, but regardless if he is or not, his gravity that uh that he has on defenses, you know, something I never played well with before, so yeah, you don't really realize he's shooting 14%. Next two questions are right in front of me, row 3. Guys, congratulations. Drew Allen with NBA draft net. So I checked, uh, this question is for anybody. Uh, I checked the stat sheet at halftime. 80% of field goal attempts were from 3. You guys slowed down *** little bit in the second half. You finished the game 77% of your field goal attempts were from 3. I went through your schedule usually about *** little less than half. Sometimes you go over half, like *** couple more shots. What went into that and I was 77% of your vehicle attempts were coming from 3. Why don't we start with Aiden and then we'll go to, uh, Chris. Um, I would say just for these two guys next to me, an open 3 is kind of *** layup, so we're happy with 77% of our shots coming from 3 today, so, um, like, like coach said to start off, you know, the way they play defense they're in the gaps heavy and then if we have proper spacing. And if we don't take one dribble too much or we're we're playing selfish ready to move the ball, you know, we're capable of having 80%, 77% um percentage of our shots being threes, so that's it's pretty simple. Stay in that same row. Matt Nolander CBS Sports. Mark, this is for you right here in front of you. Um, I want to dig *** little bit deeper. You've made 10 3 pointers tonight. That's 1 shy of the NCAA tournament record. Um, could you just take us into what it feels like to play that well against *** team that good on *** stage this big? Are you physically conscious of what is happening as it continues to progress because it looked like you were in *** zone and and knew they were there for the killing. Yeah, like you said, you know, I, I, I was just in the zone, you know, uh, once I saw the 1st 3 fall in, I felt like the basket was like as big as an ocean, and I every time I shot, I felt like it was going in. So yeah, you know, I just lost myself in the game and, you know, just let everything else happen. I will go 1 row back in row 4. Hi, uh, Garrett Las with Mid Major Madness for Chris. Um, Chris, obviously you got *** great coach up here with you. Uh, you played 4 years before that under coach Amir, uh, Adur Rahim, obviously I know this might be an emotional question, but you know what, you know, what did he do to prepare you for this season for this moment you think about him when you're out there playing? Uh, probably the most important thing that I think about every practice, every game is, you know, playing selfless, you know, not really, because, you know, previous 4 years, you know, I was the main guy, so you know I got talented players like Biz and Mark beside me. So really just being the ultimate team player, you know, just not really worry about myself playing within the flow of the game and just, you know, losing yourself within the game, within the team, you know, I might end up with 19 points, I might end with 5 points, but you know as long as you get *** win, you know, I'm considered *** winner. We'll take one more question for the student athletes over here hoops on this side, uh, coach, everybody talks about 3 pointers made, but could you talk about your 3 point defense? I mean, we try to play analytically sound on both sides of the ball. So Free throws #1 at the rims #2. Obviously uncontested at the rims as much as possible and then kick out threes and then on the other side of the ball we're trying to not put him to the free throw line so you know we didn't do *** great job of that in my opinion they got 20 free throws we were following too much, particularly in the second half we tried to take away the 3, you know, they ended up getting 30 off which is too many. We, we were trying not to let them get that off, but I did think we contested enough. I mean they didn't shoot it. Great, you know, they were 6 or 30 and then obviously we're not trying to give up shots at the round. So you know, our, our, our, our defense is designed not to give up 3. Sometimes we do *** good job of it, sometimes we don't, but we tried to guard all the pick and rolls with just two guys, you know, we saw some other teams always pulling the third guy in and Demon's so good, 68 point guard catching that we, we were trying not to give those up. We didn't wanna give up any transition threes and then obviously. Not trying to give up, penetrate over help kick, you know, I remember we gave up one of those in the second half and we gave up *** transition one back to back, uh, wasn't real happy with that. So but yeah, we're, we don't wanna give up threes. So our, our defense did ***, *** fairly decent job at times with it, but not, not to the level we need to, but yeah, we try to play analytically sound basketball on both sides of the ball. We'll excuse the student athletes at this time. Appreciate you guys. We will see you tomorrow and Saturday. he picked, uh, BYU, that one right there. So just so you know. All right, we'll take questions for coach. We'll start on this side in the back. Uh, coach Aashina Koiki, *** lot of sports talk. Uh, congratulations on the win. Um, the record that your team broke for most threes was, uh, Loyola Marymount's team in 1990 in the, uh, second round against the defending national champion at that time, Michigan. Uh, that was one of the most, you know, seminal moments in NCAA tournament history with Jeff Friar's threes and. Bo Kimball shooting left handed in honor of Hank Gathers. What does it mean to you that this team is now gonna be along, you know, the lines of that Lila Marymount team and then surpassed them and any memories of that game knowing that Lila Marymount, you know, was kind of, you know, uh. Intrepid in shooting all those threes that wasn't happening in the NCAA and now you guys, I loved watching them play. That was my freshman year in high school that year. Uh, I remember Bo Kimbell shooting the left-hand free throws in honor of Hank. I love watching them play, they get up and down. Maybe part of the reason we coached the way we coach, it's *** little more fun that way. So I didn't know that they had the record in the tournament, so you know, I guess it's, it's nice to beat that record. Uh, it's interesting, Michigan won in '89, right? So. When I, uh, before I got into the division one, I was the head coach at Romulus back in Detroit. Terry Mills from Romulus and he played on that Michigan team in '89, I believe, and they won it. I, I, I believe so. I, uh, because they won that state championship in '86, we got the only two state championship with Romulus, uh, E Wilkerson coached Terry and then I coached some pretty good kids in 2013, so it's an interesting history, but. I love that Loyola Marymount team. It's nice we're able to win. I, I do believe that the, uh, the record for threes made in the game is held by Troy right out of Alabama with 28. Uh, we weren't getting to 28 tonight, but 25 is not bad. We'll stay in the back row, we'll go dead in the middle there Jeff. Jeff Borello, ESPN, um, before you took over Alabama had been to one Sweet 16 in 30 years. Um, now it's 4 and 5, and you're playing for the 2nd straight Final Four on Saturday. Can you just, how do you reflect on just how far the program has come in, in such *** short amount of time? Yeah, I mean, obviously with, you know, when I got the job we didn't, uh. Have the transfer portal eligible immediately the NIL so it was *** little harder to turn around immediately like, like you can now. So like we had Quinnerly who by the way, we're in his backyard, which is great. He showed up to practice and spent hanging out with our guys, but he couldn't play. We got on the transfer. He had to sit that year. That was like the last guy who the NCA wouldn't let play, so you know you try, you can't flip your roster like you can now, so. We, we got saved by COVID that year so we can say that we made the NCAA tournament every time since I've been in Alabama because I don't think we're making it that year. The, uh, so I, you know, we, I, I've been fortunate to have some really good recruiters on staff to get us some very good players. We're fortunate to walk into some good players. John Petty, all-time leading 3 point shooter, was already there, you know, uh, Avery left us some pretty good talent. uh, Herb Jones, who's been pretty good NBA player. You know, so those guys Alex Reese was here. Alex at the big 3 in our second year to send it to overtime in the Sweet 16. So you know, we, we, we kind of turned it in year 2, made the Sweet 16 run, and then the recruiting, you know, Brian Hodge and Antoine Pettway, now I got Preston Murphy. I, I've had some of the best recruiters in the country get some really good talent to play the way we want to play and. You know, I, I, I love playing this way. I think players wanna play this way. I mean, it, it was fun like BYU plays an NBA system. We, we had some better talent than them tonight, but you know it's, it's *** lot. More fun way to play basketball if you will and you know it's when you play this way and you show everybody even our first year we played this way we just didn't have as much talent to do it. And now we've been able to get the talent and hopefully we continue to get the talent we get keep the resources where we need to and just keep making these runs. I, I think the Alabama fans like us making. Deep runs in the NCAA tournament, at least I do. Got time for one more question. We'll go back here, row 3 with Matt. Nate, Matt of CBS Sports. What do you and your coaches need to do to best give your chance, uh, team *** chance to repeat on Saturday what you did here tonight, obviously asking to go 50% from 3 is *** tall task. I'm not necessarily asking that, but to repeat it as much as you can with your habits and and preparation, is that doable? Yeah, I mean. We've had plenty of games where we haven't shot it well. I think we've been really focused on making sure we don't overdo practice. Legs are fresh, minds are fresh with while still getting the scouting report in so you know they're supposed to be off their legs soon as the media gets out of the uh locker room. Let's get them back to the hotel. Let's get them off their legs. Let's get the recovery started tomorrow just be walked through. You know, and then we gotta be ready to go now we've got to keep moving the ball, you know, obviously. Whether it's Duke or Arizona, the, the their defense can be *** little different. They got some probably better room protection and try to build out on us, and we've got it, we've got to do *** good job on the offensive side of the ball, showing them how they can get the threes, but, but people ask me how many threes would you like to get off every game? Well. Kind of depends on how they guard us. They guard us like we knew BYU is going to stay heavy in the gaps, we, we'll take 50, 51, you know, if they're gonna build out, I mean we've had games where we've scored 60 plus multiple games we've scored 50, 60 plus points in the paint too, so. You know if Duke or Arizona, whoever ends up winning decides they're not gonna give us some threes, that's fine too. Let's get to the rim now. The rent protection can be *** little different. We gotta figure out how to. Deal with that *** little bit cause obviously. Uh, you know, I, I don't wanna pronounce it wrong. Come on, like 98 reach so. You know, we're in protection *** little different. We're, we're gonna have to do *** really good job on the offensive side of the ball. The other thing is our defense is gonna have to be really good because they, they both have very good offenses. So I don't know that we're gonna repeat 513s attempted, but we can have the guys ready to play the right way, in my opinion, and fresh and you know, if we get stops, it's *** lot easier to get out in transition. You can get some threes in transition too. All right, coach, thanks. I appreciate you taking the time. Thanks. Congratulations. We'll see you tomorrow and Saturday. I appreciate it. We'll have BYU in just *** second. Yeah.