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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: LOUISVILLEMarch 18, 2015Troy CaupainLarry DavisJermaine SandersLOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY Q. Guys, hard not to pay attention to all the talking heads and everything on TV. Has it gone noticed by you guys that everybody is picking Purdue? TROY CAUPAIN: It's kind of been like that all year regardless of who we're playing in the conference. It's nothing new. We've always been the underdog, and we've just got to take that as motivation to prove that we can come out victorious. Q. How do you guys defend the way you do without fouling? JERMAINE SANDERS: It's more basically a team oriented defense. It's not one-on-one. So we just defend the ball with five people. That's why we don't foul as much as other teams do that try to guard with one defender. TROY CAUPAIN: I guess teaching defense, you kind of play defense not to foul. It's best to stay solid in front of the ball. Hand up. If you do get beat, don't foul. You've got big men behind you to clean it up off the backboard, blocked shots. Just contest it, and if they don't make the shot, you take it off the rim. Q. Fairly basic question, guys, but what do you have to do to win? What is the key in terms of -- for instance, they've got a couple really big guys inside. They play strong defense like you guys do. What do you see that you really need to have to do to come out on top? TROY CAUPAIN: Make them shoot jump shots. They've got two 7-footers. So their offense is based off inside then out. If we can make it, and our bigs do a good job, and our guards have good ball pressure. It will be hard for them to get the ball inside so they can get easy shots. We contest the three and box out and rebound, I think we'll have a chance. JERMAINE SANDERS: I also think we can hurt them in transition because of the big guys they have. We run the floor very well. I think that will be the X factor in the game is getting points in transition. Q. Jermaine, when is a player at the University of Cincinnati made aware of the importance of defense and how? JERMAINE SANDERS: From the first day you step on campus, you know that the defense is what's going to get us to win the game. That's the way that we've been playing ever since I got here. So I know that defense is the most important thing for our team to be successful. Q. Jermaine, as a freshman, you got to make it to the Sweet 16. You had two losses in a row. How important is it for you to get back on that winning side in your senior year? JERMAINE SANDERS: It's very important for me to win this game tomorrow, knowing that it could be my last game. So I've just got to focus in and do what we've got to do defensively to stop them. Run transition, and we should be all right. Q. For both players, when you pride yourself on defense the way you all do, going up against a team that also plays some pretty stingy defense, you like that option of trying to outperform them when it comes to defense? JERMAINE SANDERS: Yeah, I do like the option. I think that we are well up for the challenge, knowing that we played against teams like SMU, who also are a stingy defensive team. I think our offense will be ready for big defense. TROY CAUPAIN: Yeah, but we've been in this situation before. Our conference is known for defense. You've got to follow the scouting report and execute. You don't want to take shots early in the clock. You want to rotate the ball, ball reversal. Teams like that, it's kind of hard to play defense so aggressive for all 35 seconds. Late in the clock, something's bound to happen. You just follow the scouting report, execute on defense, and get your best shot at the rim. Q. What are some of the things that you see in Purdue that concern you as far as who do you consider some of the guys that you really have to contain on their offense? JERMAINE SANDERS: We know that they're a big-oriented, big-man team. So we know that we've got to keep A.J. Hammons off the boards and make it hard for him not to catch the ball so deep in the post. That should be the key to the game. TROY CAUPAIN: I don't know names, but I know numbers, number 35. He's a solid player, offense and defense. Late in the clock, they look for him to score if they can't get the ball inside. They'll reload the box on him and make other players beat us on the court. Also, their big men, they've got two 7-footers that come in equally talented. When one goes off, you've still got to play hard when the second one comes in. You stop those three and make other people on their team score the ball and make plays, you'll be successful. Q. Purdue has had trouble in its offense from time to time this year. They go through lulls where they'll go 10, 15 minutes without scoring. If you guys and your defense are able to succeed at that, is that the time you think you might be able to put them away if you have that happen? JERMAINE SANDERS: I believe that will be the time we can put them away. Like I said, we've got to rebound the ball very well in this game so we can get out in transition and score and make the big guys tired and keep running. It could be a fast-paced game. But I don't think they'll be able to compete with us in a fast-paced game. TROY CAUPAIN: I agree with that. It's kind of hard to stay in the game and you don't score the ball. You've just got to keep playing however the game goes. We want to rebound the ball and get in transition. We've got to score the ball as well. We can't go when they don't score. We've got to capitalize on the possessions that they don't score on. Q. When you talk about your offense, when it's clicking well, what are the things that really go well for your offense? JERMAINE SANDERS: One thing our offense usually starts from inside to outside. When our big guys got it going, it's easy for the guards to do what they do on the wing. So that's the main -- when the offense is going good, it starts from the inside out. TROY CAUPAIN: On the half-court, we play inside out. Our big men draw a lot of attention, and when they're playing, we've just got to wheel around and knock down shots. Also in transition too, if they get the rebound, we've got to go. Three guards going. Our bigs are kind of okay in transition. They get up the floor too, sometimes faster than the other team. And you can find them in transition for dunks or screens. If it's something the other team's defense can't set up on, that's the best way to play basketball. LARRY DAVIS: First of all, congratulations to all the other teams that are in this particular site. Any time you make the NCAA Tournament, it's a great honor to make that because only the field of 68 make it. We're honored to be in it. We want to represent Cincinnati and our program at the highest level and just excited, really excited to be here and participating and look forward to tomorrow night's game. Q. Wondered if you could tell me if there really is a lot of similarities between Purdue and Cincinnati and how they approach the game, especially defensively? LARRY DAVIS: If you look at the numbers, it's staggeringly close in terms of number of points allowed. We both hold teams to about 39 percent shooting from the field. I think they're allowing 64, and we're allowing 62 points per game overall for the year. The only difference really between the two, I think, is the foul disparity. They seem to foul a lot more than we do. But other than that, the numbers, you could have the rebounding numbers, the shooting percentage numbers, all that, it lines up within one or two points. Blocked shots, within a tenth of a point. So we do both defend and play very similarly defensively. They do it out of man to man. We do it a little more out of zone. Although they'll play a little zone, and we'll play a little man. As my dad used to say, there's 100 ways to skin a cat. You've just got to figure out which way is best for you. Q. What have you told your team in the last few days about having to face two 7-footers either constantly having at least one in the game or doing what Purdue has done just a little bit of, which is having them both in the game simultaneously? How are you prepared for that? LARRY DAVIS: We've got two guys that are 6'10", 6'11", one being similar to the size of your two guys in Coreontae DeBerry 6'10", 270. Octavius Ellis is not as big weight-wise, but he's 6'10", 6'11". Our guys are used to facing that every day. What we've tried to prepare for is the physicality with which those two guys play. They both are guys that throw their weight around, throw their bodies around. We've tried to prepare our team in general for how physical the game could be. We've got to be prepared for that. We have a reputation for playing hard and physical as well, but Big Ten basketball, and I've known Coach Painter for a long time. His teams are going to play very hard and be very, very physical. We've tried to prepare our guys for the physicality of the game and how hard they're going to post up, how hard they're going to defend you, those kinds of things. Q. Coach, when you have two teams that are so very similar separated by almost millimeters, it seems, what do you have to try to do? Is it more execute your things as succinctly and perfectly as possible? No margin for error, I guess? LARRY DAVIS: Yeah, I think it will be who wins the battle of the wills a little bit. Who can separate themselves in each of those areas -- shooting percentage. Who tomorrow stays true to their numbers and holds that team to around 38 to 39 percent. Will one of us be able to get going on offense and shoot 45, 50 percent? Rebounding, we're awful even in rebounding. Tomorrow can one of us dominate the other in rebounding a little bit? Those kinds of things will separate who wins or loses the game. Again, it's going to come down to will. Who can put their will on the other team. Q. What has Gary Clark brought to your team this season and contributed? LARRY DAVIS: Well, for a freshman, he's been unbelievable in terms of just -- I've been doing this for over 30-some years. I don't know I've ever been around a freshman that is that coachable, that quick, and just bought into everything that you said. Whatever you ask him to do, he does. I think, if we told him, "Hey, Gary, stand on the midcourt and stand on your head and spin around three times," he'd do that every day just to be a better player. He's brought us a guy that can score around the basket. We're fortunate that all of our big guys -- a lot of times you have big guys that are shot blockers only or rebounders only. Gary, he and Octavius lead this group, but he can score around the basket, and he's also putting up pretty good rebounding numbers for a freshman. For a freshman to do what he's done, we've asked him to probably do too much. Usually, a guy like Gary, if he's on a team that has experience, we don't have a lot of people coming back. He's a good player for you, but he's maybe your sixth man. He's coming off the bench or whatever. We've asked him from day one to be a starter and help lead us in rebounding, help lead us in scoring, and he's been up to the task. He's means a lot to us. I will say this, unbelievably coachable kid and great kid. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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