What San Diego State's Miles Byrd said on Selection Sunday
San Diego State is into their fifth consecutive NCAA tournament. The Aztecs will get started on Tuesday night in the first four in Dayton, Ohio. An 11-seed in the South Region, San Diego State will matchup against North Carolina with the winner advancing to take on Ole Miss in Milwaukee on Friday.
The Aztecs lost to Boise State in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference tournament and were left waiting to see if they would hear their name called on Sunday. San Diego State wing Miles Byrd, who redshirted during their run to the National Championship game two seasons ago, has stepped up to be one of two players averaging double figures on this season’s team. The six-foot-seven Byrd averaged 13 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals per game this year to help lead a young San Diego State team.
Here’s everything the redshirt sophomore Byrd said after learning the Aztec’s fate on Sunday evening.
ON AWAITING SELECTION SUNDAY
“Yeah, it's been pretty stressful, definitely scared. I know we did the work this year to be a tournament team, but it was just down to the committee's decision after getting home from Vegas I've been on my couch pretty much last two days on bubble watch you know watching other teams that we were rooting for and stuff. I had seen Creighton as a nine and Louisville who most people had as six on their brackets go eight and nine in that in the right away so I was a little nervous but glad we got our name called.”
ON NORTH CAROLINA
“Yeah, I'm pretty familiar with their roster, I mean it's a lot of a lot of known players you know it's North Carolina basketball Tarheels basketball so obviously we're going to be playing against a historical program, but I too think on the west coast we're a pretty historical program as well so it's going to be a fun matchup we're just ready to get out to Dayton.”
“I mean it's going to be super fun playing against a team like that you know a lot of kids probably dream of going to schools like that growing up, so I mean it's definitely going to be one to remember. On the controversial side you know it's not really up to us we're just happy that we got our names called so congrats to them for getting theirs as well.”
ON PLAYING IN THE FIRST FOUR
“I mean we definitely let some slip late in the year, so I mean just the fact that we're grateful enough to be able to go to Dayton and you know be in the NCAA tournament. I've said this multiple times you know I was I was spoiled my first year you know getting a five (seed), second year getting a five (seed) so I mean this time it's a little bit different, but you know trying to go in for the same result which is the National Championship.”
ON THE SENSE OF RELIEF OF MAKING THE TOURNAMENT
“It definitely takes a lot of the stress away you know I think we had the wins to be in the NCAA tournament. You know we had the resume for it, but you know it's not up to us at the end of the day and the committee put us in so we're just excited to be in and hopefully go get a win.”
ON THIS YEAR’S SUCCESS AGAINST BIG NAME PROGRAMS
“I think just playing carefree basketball. You know (Coach Dutcher) is a is a coach that lets you play freely so I mean you get in these games against high level players I mean and you kind of just let your skill take over. One thing we're always going to do is defense you know we struggled rebounding the past few games, but you know we got (Magoon Gwath) back so hopefully that rebounding error by us gets fixed in the next game. But yeah, I mean it's fun whenever you get to play basketball and especially when it's against a historical program like North Carolina so we're excited.”
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Bodie DeSilva has been covering sports in San Diego for more than a decade. He previously covered San Diego State athletics for Scout/Fox Sports.