THE MODERATOR: Head Coach of the Bulldogs is with us, Mark Few. We'll have an opening statement from Coach.
MARK FEW: Well, it's awesome to be back in the NCAA Tournament here. I think it's 27 straight for us, which is just an incredible accomplishment by everybody... school, administration, program, players, coaching staff, fans, everything. I mean, I think it's one of the coolest kind of underrated accomplishments in all of American sports.
This year was challenging because I think there were times where it was kind of up in the air. I think when you do something like that, you have to be mindful of a sense of entitlement that kind of is everywhere. We talked about it a lot with our team that nobody is gifted into this tournament. You've got to earn your way into it, and it's really, really hard. That's what makes it so special.
We've been kind of celebrating that and then looking forward to coming to Wichita and playing a really, really, really good Georgia team.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. You mentioned entitlement. I know you've talked to the players about that and what it means, and I hear you on occasion mention the fans also can't take it for granted.
MARK FEW: And the media.
Q. And the media.
MARK FEW: Yeah, sure.
Q. What are we missing? Can you express that again what it is we need to understand about this incredible streak?
MARK FEW: Just how hard it is. I mean, if it was so easy and everybody did it, there would be more of us that have done it 27 straight times. I mean, just that.
It's really, really, really hard. There are some great teams out there. There's some really, really good teams out there, and there's obviously some hungry teams that would do anything. There are some players.
We had two this year on our squad that had never been to the NCAA Tournament, and they've been in basketball five, six years and were dying to come to a place that could get them to the NCAA Tournament. You factor that in over 365 teams, you know, there's only 68 slots.
I mean, I guess that's it. And it's human nature, right? When something happens over the course of time, I think we all have a tendency to expect it to happen. That's not the case, and that's what makes this tournament so cool and so fun and such an amazing worldwide sporting event.
Q. Hey, Coach, you mentioned some of those young guys who hadn't played in the tournament before. What do you tell them to get this ready for this stage?
MARK FEW: Just channel all the best things that you have in your game and in your mind and live in that moment and enjoy the heck out of it. As I also tell them, it's a one-and-done tournament where you can't have a bad afternoon or a bad night.
It's not so much whether you are making shots or making perfect plays on defense. You just can't have a bad night in your effort, in your energy, and then also your mental prep. You have to be dialed into the scouts and hit all that.
You're not going to play perfect, but you are going to have to have a perfect effort.
Q. Just a quick follow-up. We were speaking with some of the players a minute ago, and they mentioned how important those first four minutes are in a game during March Madness. What can you do to get them ready for those first four minutes and to help them dominate?
MARK FEW: They're ready. I've got guys that have played a lot of these games, so, I mean, we're ready. The first four is okay. There's 36 others. We better be good in the last four too. I mean, that's quite frankly what we struggled in the most earlier in the year.
I'm probably more focussing on that than I am on the first four.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports