Last Saturday New Orleans had a 3-PT OT win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the Southland tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to this week’s NCAA tournament. The Privateers have not made the NCAA tourney since 1996 but are finally back this year and will face fellow #16-seed Mount St. Mary’s on Tuesday evening in the 1st 4 in Dayton, with the winner having the daunting task of facing defending champ Villanova in an East Region match-up on Thursday night in Buffalo. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with SR PG Christavious Gill about winning a conference title in OT.
You are 1 of several players on the roster who grew up in Louisiana: what made you choose New Orleans? I have had a relationship with Coach Sless since he started recruiting me when I was back in the 9th grade. When he came to UNO he gave me my only D-1 offer and showed me that this could be home.
What makes Coach Mark Slessinger such a good coach, and what is the most important thing that you have ever learned from him? He gives all his players confidence and shows us how to grow up and the qualities of being a man.
You are only 5’8”: do you view your size as an advantage or a disadvantage on the court? I view it as an advantage because I am much quicker on offense and can stay lower than my opponent on defense. I can do a lot of things that taller guys simply cannot do.
Last March you scored a career-high 38 PTS/8-12 3PM in a win over Northwestern State: was it just 1 of those scenarios where every shot you put up seemed to go in because you were “in the zone”? We had to win that game to make our conference tourney and I did not want our lone senior to go out like that so I played my hardest and laid it all on the line.
Your roster is loaded with juniors and seniors: how crucial has all of that experience been to your team’s success this year? It has been very crucial. Myself and 3 other juniors on the team had a down year last season but worked hard this summer. We brought in a couple of JC transfers and we all stuck together. We dropped 2 games down the stretch but pulled together and made a run in the conference tourney.
You played several power conference teams this year in Oklahoma State/USC/Washington State: which 1 of them impressed you the most? The Cowboys pressured hard on defense but that game helped turn our whole season around because it showed us that we needed to work harder.
SR SF Erik Thomas was named conference POY/conference tourney MVP: what makes him such a great player? His work ethic/positive attitude: he is always smiling and never has any negative energy. He has worked so hard for the past 12 months and even told us before the season started that he would win POY. I am prouder of him than anyone else and I let him know it every day.
You won 10 games last year and are now in the NCAA tourney: how was your team able to improve so much in only 1 year? Just working! We are blue-collar street-sweepers and never take a day off because we wanted it so much. Stephen F. Austin had won our conference for the past 3 years but we wanted to show the world that we could win. Our coaches believed in us and we listened to every word they had to say.
Last Saturday you scored 10 PTS in a 3-PT OT win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi: how were you able to pull out the win, and what was the feeling like in your locker room afterward? It was all about executing down the stretch. We felt like we had a story to tell. We were down by 7 PTS at halftime but it was like a movie in that we were able to come all the way back and make our dream come true. It was a surreal/special moment that I will never forget.
What do you think about being a #16-seed, and what do you know about Mount St. Mary’s? We are happy to be here and it is a blessing. Mount St. Mary’s is a good team who presses a lot but we look forward to playing them.