The Oakland University men’s basketball team held a team practice in Milwaukee, Wis. Thursday in preparation for its matchup with Pittsburgh Friday afternoon in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

Following practice, head coach Greg Kampe and seniors Derick Nelson and Johnathon Jones answered questions from members of the national media.

Here is the transcript:

Q. Now that you’ve gone through the celebration, what it’s like to be in the tournament, get down to — what is it going to take to beat Pittsburgh tomorrow, and is there anything that you have planned for them that might be different than somebody else that you play in your league or — I know you played the Syracuses of the world and Michigan States, people like that. Do you change your game plan against a team like Pittsburgh that might offer something different to you?

JOHNATHON JONES: I don’t think so. I think we stay to our defensive principles, pressuring and rebounding, passing again, we’ve been doing that well. So I think we just stick to that and just stick to our key principles and I think we’ll be okay.

Q. What’s the difference between those early non-conference games when you guys weren’t as competitive as you would like to be and now against a team of that caliber? Why is this going to be different, I guess?

DERICK NELSON: In the beginning of the season, we were trying to fill out lineups and getting used to playing with each other, and so those games were kind of getting us ready for a conference season.

But now we’re here to win. And those games, I mean, we wanted to win them, but it was more about getting ready for our conference.

Q. When you faced some of those top teams and don’t maybe have the success you’re looking for, how do you turn that into a positive blessing that you can apply to this game?

JOHNATHON JONES: I think you look at what you did well and what you didn’t do well. In those games you have to limit your mistakes and most of the times we didn’t. That’s why we lost the way we did.

But we just look at the film and take what we did positive and try to expand on what we did so we can get to the games like we have tomorrow, just work on that.

Q. Johnathon, how excited are you guys? Because everybody points to the games against Syracuse and Kansas and the margin, everybody talks about that. How excited are you that you guys will be facing Pitt on equal footing, AKA the West Coast Swing before the Syracuse game. Do you guys have you all have equal rest now? How excited are you guys that you’re on equal footing with the big team now when you play them?

JOHNATHON JONES: We feel pretty good. We know they have a great team and great guards and everything like that, but we feel on a neutral court we’re just as equal as them. We played a tough schedule and we’re ready for them. We had two long winning streaks during the season, so we know if we just play well like we have been that it should be a good game.

Q. Derick, how much of an underdog do you guys feel like? Have you heard any experts picking you, friends or family picking you in their brackets to win this game?

DERICK NELSON: As far as the experts, I don’t think I’ve seen one person pick us. All my friends and family, of course they picked us. But I’m not sure. I didn’t see their brackets, actually. So I have to check that. But we don’t feel like underdogs at all.

Q. Did you face Pitt back in ’06, is that right?

JOHNATHON JONES: Yeah, we did.

Q. Can you describe what that game was like and how this might be different?

JOHNATHON JONES: From what I remember, I think we were leading most of the game, and they got on a little run during — towards the end of the first half, I think we were still up. And I think for the most part it was just going back and forth. I think they pulled away at the end. But we played them at their place. The atmosphere was great.

Obviously, the speed of the game was a little bit different. But I think we handled it well. And we adjusted to how they played, and we kind of slowed it down and made them play our game. So I think we just have to go into the game with our mindset that don’t let them dictate us, and slow it down to how we want to play the game.

Q. Johnathon, can you talk about your counterpart, Ashton Gibbs, and what you feel about him as a player?

JOHNATHON JONES: Great player, one of the top guards in the Big East. We know going into the game he’s the focus point for their team. We have to limit his touches and know everywhere he’s at on the court. If we can just do that and limit his touches and contest all his shots, I think we’ll have a great chance of containing him.

Q. Your coach is known as a bit of a character. Something about a recruiting process or first impression when you got to Oakland, something that kind of captures what he’s all about.

DERICK NELSON: Coach is real tough. That’s just one thing that sticks out to me. He’s a real tough competitor, tough person. And if you’re really sensitive, you can’t really play under him.

JOHNATHON JONES: I just like how he lets everything out. He doesn’t hold anything back. He’s going to tell you how he feels. Then move on to the next play. You know exactly what he wants out of you. So you can’t go into the game saying, well, I didn’t know you wanted this because he’s going to tell you what he wants and he wants you to execute it how he says.

Q. Johnathon, can you talk about what your big man Keith Benson does defensively, how he changed the game, maybe a story a shot block, or how does he affect things?

JOHNATHON JONES: Benson, he affects the offense and defense. He can pressure up on the guards, because we know we have his help in the back there to block shots to control the paint. And then with him down there, I mean championship game, one play, he blocked the shot and started our transition. So with him back there, just anchors our defense and sparks our offense into transition.

Q. Can you pinpoint why you think No. 14 seed is maybe a little out of line, that perhaps you should have deserved a 12 or 13, and perhaps does that start from what league you come from rather than how good you play on the court?

DERICK NELSON: I guess you know it might have taken in account those games earlier in the season where we didn’t really compete like we wanted to. But we were initially disappointed about the 14 seed, but you can’t do anything about it. You just come out and you play and you show why you should have a higher seed. And I think things like that, like you need to — you have to earn that type of respect.

So if we come out, have a good showing for our league, then maybe in the future, you know, our league, we’ll get a lot more respect when seeding comes into consideration.

Q. I asked the players this question. I’ll pose it to you as well. How do you feel about the fact that as opposed to match-ups with Syracuse and Kansas, you guys are on more equal footing? You don’t have a West Coast Swing in front of it and you haven’t been 36 hours going around the West Coast before coming into this game. It’s all equal footing, neutral court. How excited are you guys about that chance?

COACH KAMPE: I appreciate you making excuses for us. That’s really nice, because those games didn’t turn out very well. Those games were a long time ago. And you know as a coach your job is to make your team get better. And we put a challenging schedule in front of us always. And then we try and get better.

And I think our team has done that. We’ve won 20 of our last 21 games. Of course, we haven’t played a Kansas or a Syracuse or whoever in that 21. But I think we’re way better today than we were back then. I’m not answering your question because I would view that as an excuse for the way we played in November or December. Those teams beat us. They beat us good. Okay. We learned from it and we got better.

Q. Can you talk about the challenges of denying Ashton Gibbs the ball and trying to keep him down a little bit?

COACH KAMPE: I’ll say this and then he’ll get 30. But we’ve got a guy that I think can guard him, Johnathon Jones. And the reason I say I think he can guard him is because he guarded Sherron Collins, when Michigan State had Drew Neitzel and the year he was their whole team, we lost 74-71, I think, to them, and Neitzel only got nine shots in the game. So we’ve got a guy that we think can guard that. Now, us thinking it and him doing it are two different things. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.

But we feel good going into the match-up that we have someone who can hang with him.

Q. In the day and age when you see a lot of coaches jump into the next job year after year what’s kept you at Oakland and what is kind of your goals here at that university?

COACH KAMPE: It’s amazing how often I get asked that. It really is. I’ve tried to change the answer just for the fun of it. But it really comes back down to the grass is always greener on the other side. And I’m just a guy who — I come from Defiance, Ohio, little town. My dad put fertilizer on his yard and he tried to make it as green as he could make it. So pretty much my background — this is my job, not to chase other jobs, but to do my job as best I can. And I really view that my job is to make Oakland a special place. I’ve said that many times and I’ll say it again. And when I’m done with this thing I hope that people think it’s a special place that kids want to go there. And we won a lot of games and we won them in the right way with good people and with good kids. And I’m also lucky that I have pretty good job security.

I have a great president, who I think he believes in me. At least that’s what he’s told me. And I have a pretty good contract. It’s pretty nice to stay.

There’s also something to be able to walk across the campus, to know everyone on the campus from the janitors to cooks. That’s kind of a good lifestyle.

Q. Do you feel like you have the weight of the league on your shoulders, representing the league in the tournament?

COACH KAMPE: I think our league gets crapped on, yeah. I think it’s not warranted. I think basketball in our league is really good. Our third place team this year beat New Mexico, who is in the tournament, ranked in the top ten. They beat Missouri, who is in the tournament. They beat Stanford at Stanford.

Our second place team beat a really good Atlantic ten team. They won last night in the post season tournament. Our league’s really good. The problem is that you have to win in the NCAA tournament, and the last time a team — we won a game in 2005. But you people won’t count that. It counts in the record book but winning that opening round game counts, but it doesn’t view as a win.

So not counting that, we haven’t won since Valpo went to the Sweet 16 in the late ’90s. I think we get that. We’re a 51 RPI and we got a 14 seed.

So obviously there isn’t a lot of respect for our league. Because they say your RPI is so important, and we’re 51. And we’re a 14th seed. So I think it would behoove us to win a game in the tournament, and I think it would really help our league, the prestige of our league.

Q. That being said, how much of an underdog do your guys feel like, and how do you play that up if at all with your team going into the game with a chip on your shoulder sort of thing?

COACH KAMPE: What people don’t understand, and because we’re in Michigan, and Michigan State and Oakland have a very good relationship, as our programs have been close for many years, I see this there, too, and you get it being in Pittsburgh, is your team goes every year.

And because you go every year, I think you view this different than we do. I mean, this is a reward for us. Our kids sitting up here, me being here, this is a reward for a great season.

We’re not going to cut the nets down, and I said this to somebody in Pittsburgh this week — we’re not going to cut the nets down in Indianapolis. We know that. Our kids know that. They have a goal to make it to the Sweet 16. We got to storm the court, cut the nets down at our league tournament. That’s where the pressure was. You don’t realize what pressure is when you can win 26 games and if you don’t win that last one you’re not going, that’s pressure.

So our kids went through that, excelled, achieved and they’re here. We don’t think we’re the underdog. We don’t have a chip. We’re so happy to be here; and because of that, I expect us to play free and easy and expect us to go have some fun with it. They say are you going to change your style of play? No. But if it gets in the last three minutes, if we have a chance to win, we’ll change. But this is a reward.

Q. Is that a concern — getting back to the free and easy — that your kids won’t do that? Do they come out tight? Here’s the NCAA tournament, and they’re looking for somebody else to shoot, not them?

COACH KAMPE: I’ve got a veteran team who has tried so hard and tried so many times to get here, I don’t see that happening. It happened in the league championship game. We were pitiful the first five, six minutes we couldn’t make a shot. But that was because of the pressure to get here. We’re here. I don’t expect it. If it does, I’m going to blame you, Tom.

Q. You talk about the pressure, can you compare your pressure that you deal with and the goals getting to the Sweet 16 to the pressure maybe a Pitt is facing that they’re not expected — everybody — it’s guaranteed a victory, first round victory? And the Sweet 16 isn’t good enough. Just put yourself in Jamie Dixon’s shoes.

COACH KAMPE: That’s exactly right. You’ve hit it right on the head. If we win — Jamie Dixon is a great basketball coach. He’s proved that. He’s proven himself. He doesn’t have to beat Oakland to prove that. But if somehow we won, there’s going to be a bunch of people in Pittsburgh that think what’s wrong with him, this was a bad year. All that stuff.

They lost a lot of players off a great team last year. They had a fluke shot. Don’t tell Villanova I said fluke — a great shot that knocked them out. And they could have been in the Final Four. That’s their pressure is to get there. Our pressure is to get here.

So it’s completely different but it’s the same. Our kids feel the same amount of pressure that their kids do. I feel the same amount of pressure that he feels. He’s just on a bigger national stage, and ours is just within ourselves.

But if we were to win, yeah, they’ll be devastated and people will be upset about it. If we were to lose, everybody’s going to clap their hands and say you had a great year. I understand that.

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