Everything Dailyn Swain, Tramon Mark, and Jordan Pope said ahead of Texas' NCAA Tournament matchup with BYU

Here’s everything Dailyn Swain, Tramon Mark, and Jordan Pope said ahead of the Texas Longhorns’ first round matchup versus BYU in the NCAA Tournament.

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Q. Quick turnaround for you guys, emotional game last night, especially when you add in the fact that Sean Miller was met with some hostility. Was that added motivation for you to win that game for him given the boos?

DAILYN SWAIN: I would say so, for sure, especially for me playing at Xavier with him. I felt that energy, too. Heard the boos when we came out to warm up the first time.

He understands that feeling. Hostile environments like that make the game a little bit more fun. I think we were all extra motivated for sure.

TRAMON MARK: For sure, they called his name out. The whole crowd started booing. Hearing stuff like that, it gives you a chip on your shoulder, more than we already had. Just coming out, playing hard. That’s what we did.

JORDAN POPE: Yeah, definitely going into today we knew that was probably going to happen. To hear the boos and all the chirps, definitely added that chip and that motivation to get the job done for Coach Miller. I’m glad was able to do that.

Q. I would like each of you to estimate how much sleep you got last night, especially Tramon.

TRAMON MARK: I would say about six, seven hours. Decent.

DAILYN SWAIN: I would say like six hours maybe. That’s the most.

JORDAN POPE: Yeah, maybe like five, six, but all broken up into small spurts. I couldn’t stay asleep for too long. It was definitely an interesting 10 hours I’d say (smiling).

Q. It’s a quick turnaround, but what do you know about BYU? What stands out on their end?

TRAMON MARK: They’re a great offensive team, you know. They have great guys that can get downhill. They have guys that can shoot. They have great offensive rebounding. They’re big.

They’re a good team. They’re solid all around. We have to come out, play our game plan and execute.

DAILYN SWAIN: Yeah, I would say the same. Super talented team. Very up-tempo style, great coach. They held their own in a great conference, so they’re a pretty good team, for sure.

JORDAN POPE: They’re a pretty fast-paced team that runs the floor pretty well. Like Tramon said, a really good offense with a really good point guard, obviously A.J., a nice rim protector with shooters around them.

Being able to come into this game executing our game plan, knowing what we need to do defensively to give ourselves the best chance at winning.

Q. Jordan, a couple hours away from Corvallis right now. You spent a lot of time down there playing for the Beavers. How does it feel to be back in Oregon? Was there anything you missed about your time now that you’re in Austin?

JORDAN POPE: It definitely feels good to be back. I haven’t been able to be on the West Coast since I’ve been to Texas the last two years, outside of our season opener last year in Vegas.

It definitely feels good to be back, maybe play in front of some old Beaver fans of mine. Just to be able to put on a show and have this opportunity in front of us to play on this big stage, seeing how far I’ve come. Obviously coming from Oregon State. I loved Corvallis. I don’t want to compare the two from Austin. It was a great place. I loved my time there.

I’m glad to be at where I’m at now.

Q. Jordan, Wayne Tinkle, they parted ways with him. What did he mean to you as a coach at Oregon State?

JORDAN POPE: It meant a lot. Coming out of high school, I was underrecruited, in my opinion. He was one of the few coaches that gave me a chance. Without him and my time at Oregon State, I wouldn’t be here at the University of Texas.

Coming out of high school, I was extremely thankful and blessed for a guy to give me an opportunity when not many did. Like I said, I wouldn’t be here without that chance that he gave me.

Q. Jordan, you were there at a weird time, the Pac-12 collapsed. Would you have stayed at Oregon State? Did you want to stay?

JORDAN POPE: My decision to go to Oregon State out of high school, Pac-12 was a dream of mine. When that all fell apart, it definitely played a huge role into my departure from there.

I’m not sure what I would have done if that would have never happened. But I’m glad to be a Longhorn. Being in Austin has changed my life, has helped me in ways I couldn’t even describe or imagine.

Yeah, I’m glad to be a Longhorn and I’m thankful for my time in Corvallis.

Q. Dailyn, it’s possible you and AJ Dybantsa could hear your names called in the NBA Draft this summer. I know you put the team first. Whenever you’re playing against a top elite player like that, do you feel the competition side of you raises up a different level?

DAILYN SWAIN: Yeah, I would say so, for sure. He’s a super talented player, potentially the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft. I see myself as an NBA player in the future as well. I’m a competitor, for sure it brings that energy out of me.

Like you said, I put the team first. I am trying to impact the game as much as I can to help our team win no matter who we’re playing against.

Q. You’re coming off such an emotional roller coaster ride from last night’s game, you come here, you can’t really get much further geographically. You mentioned all the sleep you managed to get. How much of a challenge will it be for you and the rest of the team to get yourself in gear and try to avoid that jet lag and coming out sluggish?

TRAMON MARK: We’re a team full of competitors. So it won’t really be that much of a challenge for us to get up and play the game that we all love to do. So just coming out tomorrow, playing as hard as we can shouldn’t be a challenge. It won’t be a challenge actually. That’s what we’re going to do.

DAILYN SWAIN: Yeah, I mean, we’re all adults. We’re grown men. We know what we signed up for. I look at it as a privilege to be able to travel the way we do, and get to places as fast as we do, be able to get our sleep and have everyone manage our days as good as they do, make sure they prioritize our rest, get energy.

Sometimes that can be an advantage, already be in the flow in a tournament game. It will be there first game. I look at it more of an advantage, for sure.

JORDAN POPE: We all should be blessed and privileged to be student-athletes in today’s age with all the resources that we have. There’s no excuses there.

What more motivation, chip on your shoulder do you need than to be playing a 6 seed BYU team that’s really good in Portland, Oregon for a March Madness game to potentially get to the round of 32? There’s not much other motivation you need than that.

We’re all big boys. We’ve all worked very hard to get to this point. It won’t be a deciding factor in terms of our traveling and things like that.

Q. Dailyn, you went through this last year with playing on Wednesday night, then the quick turnaround, going out two days later. What do you recall from the experience physically, emotionally, mentally, about playing for Xavier and then having to turn around and play a first-round game afterwards?

DAILYN SWAIN: I remember a super familiar feeling. We played an emotional game. We beat Texas in the First Four. We were all talking about it all night, struggling to get sleep for that next day.

But we were just grateful to have the day in between to reset, think about the next game, scout for that next team.

It’s a blessing to play in the tournament no matter what the route is, whether you have to play two days before, the day before, whatever it is.

It’s a good feeling. We were all super blessed to be there. Hopefully we can capitalize off of this year, for sure.