What TCU players said before matchup against Duke
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On extra motivation playing top overall seed Duke
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JAYDEN PIERRE: No. Obviously they're the 1 seed, but we look at every opponent in this tournament as a team we want to win, a team we want to beat. I think every game we value the same. We go into it playing our game with the same mentality. Whoever we play is going to be the same for us no matter what.
On facing up against Cameron Boozer
DAVID PUNCH: I think he's a lot like us, just how he creates his shots. I'm excited to see me and X go up against him. It's a great opportunity for me and him to showcase how good we are on a stage like that.
Again, I'm really excited to see how this plays out tomorrow.
On the chemistry of this TCU team
LIUTAURAS LELEVICIUS: First thing that comes to mind is that we have a lot of fun. I would say Coach would probably say sometimes too much fun. I think that's what brought us together, especially late in the season. We enjoy playing with each other. We enjoy practicing and competing.
I think that's the main point. We just enjoy being here and with each other.
TANNER TOOLSON: I think it goes deeper than just basketball too and having fun on the court. Our personalities all mix pretty well. We don't have any guys that are outcasts or different than everybody else. Everyone comes from different backgrounds, but we all come together.
We've had the same goal since day one, since we got here in June or May or whenever that was, and we've been working for the last nine or ten months. That unity has brought us closer together and helped us play well on the court.
JAYDEN PIERRE: Our mentality is something we focused in as a staff, coming together in June. Having us eat together, spend time with each other, we had a team retreat to help us get closer together. Over time we came together, and as we've been winning, it makes it easier to come together. We want to celebrate each other and have fun together.
On what Siena was able to do against Duke giving extra confidence
MICAH ROBINSON: No. Kind of like what Jayden said, we kind of view each opponent equally. Obviously in March, if you don't come out ready to play, anybody can win.
I feel like we're just going to stick with our same mentality of just doing what we do, and we feel like the rest will kind of take care of itself.
On the Big 12 compared to the Big East
JAYDEN PIERRE: You see everything in the Big 12. A lot of projected lottery picks and a lot of great teams, a lot of top 10 teams, top 25 teams. I feel like we were very battle tested. The Big 12 is the best league in the country. I feel like it's really prepared us for this moment.
The Big East has some good teams, but it's very top dominant. The top four teams are usually pretty good, but you have some teams that are not as good in the bottom half of the league. But the Big 12, 1 through 16 is all good.
On TCU never winning two games in a row in the NCAA Tournament
DAVID PUNCH: No, it doesn't really matter too much. It's a new year. This is a new squad. It's going to be a different outcome, I feel. We don't intend to carry a lot of things from last year, prior years. I try not to.
So I look at every game as a new opportunity to prove somebody wrong or make a new statement or even have a new goal. Winning two games, this is a goal for us.
MICAH ROBINSON: Kind of not the opposite of that, but kind of we know that we have a chance to kind of do something special. We know that we're kind of one game away from making TCU history.
I'm not going to say that that's like something that's driving us, but I just feel like that's something else that we could add to the list of good things that we've been able to accomplish this year.
On Cayden Boozer and Isaiah Evans
JAYDEN PIERRE: Last game he had a very good game. He's playing aggressive. He stepped into his corner role, a bigger role since he's been playing. They have good guards. They're a good team.
I think our guys we have very good guards ourselves. We can speed them up, get up in them, pressure them, play our defense. I think this will be a good matchup for us for sure.
On keeping confidence up when shots weren't falling against Ohio State
TANNER TOOLSON: I think in the first half we had a really big run that spurted our confidence a little bit and also on defense. The way we play defense is very different from anybody in the country. There's only a select few teams that play like us. With our defensive pressure, with the way that we can handle different offenses, the way we handle different looks that Ohio State gave us, that defensive pressure is always going to be there. That's a constant. That's what we always say, defense travels.
When we're not scoring well, we're not very efficient, we're not making shots, I think we always rely on our defense. Oftentimes that bleeds into transition buckets, easy points, and that gives us our confidence to start shooting and play better from there.
On any tips from Siena on how to attack Duke
JAYDEN PIERRE: I don't want to give things away how we prepare. I would say they shot the ball well. They played hard. They rebounded the ball. They guarded well. All the things you need to do to win games. They did those things for the majority of the game, and there's things we know that we can do and we're going to do tomorrow.
This article originally appeared on Duke Wire: What TCU players said before matchup against Duke