Rylan Griffen, Jarin Stevenson preview Round of 32 matchup with Grand Canyon

Alabama head coach Nate Oats and select players spoke to reporters in Spokane, Wash., on Saturday afternoon before the Crimson Tide’s Round of 32 matchup with Grand Canyon in the NCAA Tournament. Below is everything Rylan Griffen and Jarin Stevenson said.

*** Editor’s Note: Quotes are courtesy of ASAP Sport.

Q. Rylan, the story about this team has been you guys score so much but the defense has lacked behind it. What about this team do you think can buck the trend of teams who have had good defenses and won National Championships that you guys can make score enough that defense falling behind you guys can still win despite that?

RYLAN GRIFFEN: We’re not going to win just like that. We have to play defense. Everybody knows our defensive ranking and stuff, but that doesn’t really matter right now. It’s just we could be a top-20 defense in this tournament and then win the whole tournament.

All that other stuff is just in the past. We just look forward to the future. I think we have a team that’s capable of playing great defense in the future like starting now.

We’ve just got to be consistent with it.

Q. Did you guys have a chance to watch Grand Canyon play last night? What did you take away from their athleticism and being able to disrupt the offense with their ability to block shots?

JARIN STEVENSON: I watched a little bit of Grand Canyon play. They’re very athletic. Again, going in for offensive rebounds, getting steals, getting blocks. We’ve got to be careful with that. I feel like we’ve got the team to spread the ball, spread them out and make plays.

RYLAN GRIFFEN: Yeah, Grand Canyon, they’re in a mid-major conference but they’re pretty much like a high-major team. They’ve got a bunch of high-major players who have played at the high-major level and played at a bunch of other schools and different systems.

So they’re really experienced, really athletic, really big, really strong. They’ve all got play-makers. So it’s going to be a really, really tough game. They went out against a great St. Mary’s team that deserved to be in the position that they were in and came out and beat them. So we’ve got to be ready to go.

Q. What can you do to be more consistent defensively? Yesterday you allowed 34 points in the first half and 62 in the second. How do you maintain that for a full 40 minutes?

RYLAN GRIFFEN: We’ve just got to focus and pay attention, stay locked into the scouting report, stay locked into the game plan, and just cover each other, be there for each other, help each other, make it hard on the other team and just be great IQ defenders and not selfish defenders. Just making sure we do that consistently.

We did it great in the first half, and I think we also did it great in the second half until the end. Midway through the second half they had only made two threes, so I think we guarded pretty well in the second half until the end, but we’ve got to make sure we do it full 40, not 24, not 30, not 25. Just full 40.

Q. Rylan, I think we saw yesterday that Grand Canyon had a pretty impressive fan turnout. If that is the same thing tomorrow, how do you think you’ve handled hostile environments this year and how do you think you’ll handle it tomorrow?

RYLAN GRIFFEN: Yeah, we’ve been to Tennessee, we’ve been to Auburn, we’ve been to Kentucky and all these places. So it’s not nothing that we’re not gonna have seen before. In those games that I mentioned, we actually let the crowd get in our heads. So we’ve just got to make sure we come in and be like, hey, if they have a big crowd, it’s nothing that we haven’t seen before. The game is going to be played on the court, not in the stands.

Just if they have a big crowd, we’ve got to make sure we tune it all out and get the win, because that’s where the game is going to be played, on the court. We can control whether we win or not, not the fans. Of course the fans are a big boost always, but at the end of the day, the game is played on the court. They can bring as many people as they want. We brought as many people as we wanted, like we played Tennessee on our home floor had a big crowd and still lost because the game is still played on the court.

That’s all I’ve got to say about that.

Q. A lot of college basketball these days is kind of slow and played in the half court and you guys don’t play that way. Maybe specifically what do you guys like each about the style you guys play and the way you guys play?

JARIN STEVENSON: I just feel like the fast-paced offense that we run is a lot more efficient. That’s why we have the top offense in college basketball. Just running, getting out. That’s the most efficient baskets, getting lay-ups or just open threes in transition. That’s a high-percentage shot.

So just playing fast paced, it really fits our style and gets our guys open, and it really helps us.

RYLAN GRIFFEN: Yeah, it’s hard to guard. It’s easy to go against — it’s easy to guard when you’re set on defense and everybody knows their rotations. So the point of attack is just make sure we go before the defense gets set, because I think we’re a great team on defense when we get set, too. It’s just a lot of teams be beating us in transition on offensive rebounds, stuff like that.

I think that way, playing fast just make sure you get more offensive possessions, as well. So you’ve got a chance to score more points. It doesn’t feel like you have to score every time down the floor because you’re going to burn 30 seconds of the clock and get one shot up.

So yeah, I feel like, like he said, it’s just an efficient way of playing basketball.

Q. Rylan, I’ve got a question for you. As part of the backcourt at Alabama, one of the best backcourts in the nation, what have you guys worked on all year that has made you so efficient?

RYLAN GRIFFEN: We just share the ball, make shots, get to the paint. Pretty much all our guards, pretty much everybody on the team can pass, dribble and shoot. When you’ve got five people out there that can do that, it’s kind of hard to guard.

But as far as the backcourt, we just push each other every day. It be me against Aaron sometimes, Mark against Trelly, me against Mark, Mark against Trelly. You just mix it up, throw it together. We just make each other better. Iron sharpens iron. So practicing against them dudes every day has made me better for sure, and it’s made all of us better.

Q. For both of y’all, Nate has talked recently about how you guys really enjoy playing with each other and that’s helped when y’all have gone through some adversity. What have you told each other in those moments of hardship and how have you bonded over the course of the season going back to the summer?

JARIN STEVENSON: I think the big thing is mudita. It’s a big word that we try to strive for and follow. It’s vicarious joy for each other and each other’s success. I feel like we just try to follow that and just push each other, make sure that we’re there for each other and each other’s help or if somebody makes a mistake, we’re there for them, cheer them on, and just being there for each other.

RYLAN GRIFFEN: Yeah, just the same thing. I love playing with this team. Even after a loss, I still love these dudes. It’s not like I’m upset with anybody or anything. There’s just stuff we’ve got to do to get better, but I love coming to practice the next day seeing all these dudes. I love going to war with these dudes. It makes it more fun, and it makes you want to compete a little bit harder because now it’s win or go home, and I don’t want this team to go through anything like where our season is ending on a bad note.

It makes me go harder just for my brothers, and I think everybody has that same type of attitude.

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