Today in Chicago, Coach Thompson and senior captains Chris Wright and Austin Freeman talked to the media about starting up the NCAA Tournament.

Here are some of the highlights:

Chris Wright

On how it felt practicing again and being able to play in the tournament:
It felt good to try to end my career on the court and kind of control our own destiny. You know, one thing that we said beginning of the season is that we want to try to create — finish with our own legacy and not be remembered for the people before us and hopefully not after us. So it feels good that in some ways I can control that, and I love to play basketball. So it feels good to be on the court.

On what lessons were learned from last year’s first round loss to Ohio:
Don’t lose. … You’ve got to approach it as a championship because every game is a championship.

On having confidence after having battled back from the slump at the beginning of the Big East season:
I don’t — I mean, I guess you could say that because we’ve been in the situation before. But I think earlier in the season it was tough for us because we were going through Big East, and I think now it’s a new season. So the losing streak is in the past or whatever it is, and we want to go out and start over.

Coach John Thompson III

Opening statement:
Coach Thompson: I didn’t hear what the players said when they were up here, but I guess the question du jour is how’s Chris? Hes healthy. He’s fine. We are excited to be here, and we are excited to play.

On having Chris Wright back:
That being said, Chris is back. That’s great. But everyone has to — I mean, it’s March. Everyone has to play well. It’s not like we can just sit back and almost relax because Chris is here.

You know, we play against an outstanding team, a well-coached team, a team that’s from a terrific conference. And everyone has to be good if we’re going to have a chance to win, not just Chris.

On Julian Vaughn’s recent slump:
I think a lot of times when any athlete is in a slump, a large portion of that is mental regardless of the sport. But we told Julian we have no time for slumps right now, Julian or anyone else. So he’s fine. He’s ready to go.