"I'm doing a ton of fundraising, folks, and I have been for 14 years," he said. "One of the reasons we were in the Elite Eight is because of all the fundraising, friend-raising, whatever you want to call it, for 14 years. It's one of the reasons we have a facility that's much nicer than it was. It's filling those premium seats. It doesn't just happen with NIL. It happens with improving your facilities. It happens with donor retention. It happens with getting folks to buy into your program enough that when (NIL) was new that our people were involved and engaged to be able to support the guys on our team to be ready for this opportunity when it did show up. We were there to meet it. 

 

"I do deserve a lot of credit for that. A lot. Because it's been a 14-year journey. And had we had a different coach, or a newer young coach at the time, it wouldn't have happened. There would have been no chance. 

 

"So that's obviously been a little bit of a sort spot of mine at times. Because I think that's gone not as noticed as I would like. And obviously it's vital. In college basketball right now, NIL is a major factor."

 

We present the full audio from Brownell's press conference, which lasted more than 45 minutes.