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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: COLUMBUSMarch 19, 2015Ed CooleyCarson DesrosiersKris DunnTyler HarrisLaDontae HentonCOLUMBUS, OHIO THE MODERATOR: Questions for Kris Dunn, LaDontae Henton, Tyler Harris and Carson Desrosiers. Q. LaDontae, this is probably an interesting matchup for you considering that you had signed with Dayton. Could you talk about obviously you changed your mind after they changed coaches. Talk about that decision and just the matchup with them. LADONTAE HENTON: I'm a firm believer in everything happens for a reason. Coach Gregory left Dayton. And I opened it back up. And Providence came calling me. It's been a right fit ever since I came here. And I think it's one of the best decisions I made in my life to come to Providence College, and everything is working out for the best. Q. You guys had a tough loss last year to Carolina, terrific game. I'm sure you're aware of the results today. You see Iowa State go down. You see Baylor go down. Notre Dame barely gets by Northeastern. Particularly as a senior, how is this tournament, how is this kind of game different for you? This really is the one-and-done. How does that affect you as a player and what will you say to your teammates? LADONTAE HENTON: Last year was a great experience for us. I understand that you can't take anybody lightly. Anybody can beat anybody on a given night. The younger guys just gotta be prepared mentally, and you just gotta experience it and have fun with it and make the most out of the opportunity. Q. Kris, watching the tournament last year, unable to play, what can you take from that experience that you think will help you going into this year's tournament? KRIS DUNN: Last year was just a blessing for me to be on the sideline actually seeing my team achieve something. So special getting back to the tournament. Just watching them play and work hard out there was just motivating and inspiring for me this year, and I just took a lot from it and just hoping that we can go out and make a run this year. Q. Carson, I'm curious what you guys did last night during the game and your reaction to playing Dayton? CARSON DESROSIERS: We watched it as a team together in our film room at the hotel. And it was a pretty good game. Both teams were definitely -- definitely belong in the tournament and we were watching with an open mind. We already scouted a little bit of each team the previous two days. Now we're looking forward to playing Dayton tomorrow. Q. Kris, do you approach this game, do you try to teach it really as just another game or do you realize the stage that you're on and the importance of this game and because of that how are you personally going to approach it? KRIS DUNN: We're just going to try to approach it as another game. I mean the atmosphere is definitely going to be exciting. Dayton's going to have a lot of fans and it's a big stage but right now we're just focused on how we're going to win the game and I think all of us have a great mindset going in, that we're just going to try to work as hard as we can. Q. Tyler, what are your memories of the last ten minutes of last year's game against North Carolina where you guys had a lead, lost a lead, had a chance. It was really a great back and forth game. TYLER HARRIS: Yeah, it was definitely an intense game. We was going back with North Carolina up and down. And I mainly remember is us losing that last rebound at the end and that's something you have to have urgency on, especially in these type of games that we play. So it all comes down to our urgency. Q. LaDontae, what have you and Kris done leadership-wise to try to get the team to this point? LADONTAE HENTON: Just trying to lead by example and tell the young guys what it takes to win at a high level. Guys on this table is experienced and they've been at this level before. So just the experience in being able to mentor the younger guys and tell them what it takes is big for us. And the young guys that are coming along helping us out a lot. Q. (Off microphone)? LADONTAE HENTON: He's one of our energy guys. He's very vocal. We feed off of him and as he plays great we play great as a team. He's our point guard, our floor general and he's the motor to the team. Q. Guys, you've been called, LaDontae and Kris Batman and Robin. If you're Batman and Robin what are Tyler and Carson? LADONTAE HENTON: I don't think we're Batman and Robin. We're just two players that want to win just like the guys next to us. We're all leaders on the team and we mean everything to the team. Everybody on the team mean something. It's not really Batman and Robin. KRIS DUNN: Like LaDontae said, there's no Batman and Robin. Everybody has a role on the team, specific role. Everybody help out. And right now we're playing good basketball and hopefully we can just keep it going. Q. LaDontae, is there any concern on your part, is there a danger to try to do too much? Obviously you're a team leader. You're a senior. It's going to be the biggest game you're going to play this year in tomorrow night. Do you have to guard against that to try to keep your emotions down a little bit? LADONTAE HENTON: I've been here before. If it was my first time maybe it would be a little tougher. But I know I've been here before and I know what it takes so just having that experience under my belt will help me out a lot. I know the guys next to me are also helping me out a lot. Everybody wants to play to win. We have to play with a sense of urgency but we've also got to play smart. Q. Given that you're playing a team that's just a little ways down the road, is there any fear of the crowd being slanted in the other direction and maybe kind of feeling like it's a road game tomorrow? LADONTAE HENTON: It's not really a fear. I mean we have played a lot of road games during the year. So if it is a lot of Dayton fans so be it. We have to play through adversity like we have all year. Q. Do you think it's fair that -- obviously you guys are the higher seed and the lower seed is from an hour away. Do you think -- I know it didn't have anything to do with it -- but do you think it's fair, if anybody wants to answer that, kind of the way it's played out? TYLER HARRIS: I think it's just it is what it is. You've still got to go out there and play the game and compete. So we've got to be aware that it is somewhat of a home game to them. But at the end of the day we've just got to go out there and play our game. Q. Carson, do you think there's any advantages or disadvantage that Dayton has played a game already, they're kind of already in tournament mode, how do you kind of see that? CARSON DESROSIERS: I think we've gone through this season. I can think back to finals week in early December. The Big East gives us a break at some point in the middle of our Big East schedule as well. So we've come off breaks like this. We just played on Friday and we've prepared well. We've practiced pretty hard. So it's not like we've been kind of out of it. We've been practicing really hard and I think our practices are harder than the game. So we'll be ready. Q. Carson, obviously you wanted to repeat as Big East Tournament champions. But looking back on it, does the tough loss to Villanova, especially the way it ended, in some ways prepare you for the idea that starting tomorrow it can end that fast? CARSON DESROSIERS: Yeah, I think you want to come into the NCAA Tournament ideally without a loss, on a win streak, which is what we did last year. But we're playing pretty good basketball right now regardless of the outcome of Friday's game. So we all know that. And we have the opportunity to start a winning streak, and that's what we want to do. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Coach, a brief comment about being in Columbus. COACH COOLEY: Well, first of all, I want to thank the President of the United States for taking the time to do a bracket for college basketball. I really do. To have the Commander-in-Chief have so much admiration for college basketball definitely tells you how valuable our sport is to our society. So Barack, Mr. President, thank you. We're really excited to be here. Our players, our administrators, this is a dream come true for us. It's a great opportunity and we're humbled and we're excited to compete. Q. Would you say that the president knows more about foreign affairs or college basketball? COACH COOLEY: I think he knows a lot about what he knows. Q. Particularly having been through it last year with North Carolina, which was also your first NCAA Tournament game as a head coach, will you approach it any differently? Will you prepare your kids not so much the Xs and Os as mentally any differently because of what this tournament is? COACH COOLEY: Great question. Last year, again, being the first time here, a little nervous. Not that I'm not nervous now because I think we're getting ready to play a great team. It's just a little different. You're feeling -- our veteran players in particular, Carson, LaDontae and Tyler -- have a different aura about them that I like. When you play in this tournament here, it's more about emotion, passion and energy. The Xs and Os, you gotta call a couple of good plays but it's going to be about who brings it, who has great effort. Some 50/50 balls, can we get to those. It's not so much Xs and Os as it is determination and grit. Q. Are you at all frustrated by the fact that you -- obviously mentioned Dayton's a quality team -- I know you have to play them, they're 75 miles from their home arena. COACH COOLEY: Not frustrated at all. We're actually excited about it. I think the NCAA does the best job of all the tournaments. And that's just the way it shook out. If we're worried about what Dayton's doing, we're not concentrating on what Providence is doing. Providence College is here to compete. We're here to compete the best we can, and not so much worry about the crowd. If we do what we're supposed to do and we play as a group, we share, we care, we love, we are going to find ourselves in a great situation. So I'm not worried about that at all. Q. You talked yesterday about how there might be a little bit of anxiety not knowing exactly who you're going to play. Do you think that there was a benefit to that, though, that you get to maybe focus a little bit more internally on what you guys need to do to get a win? COACH COOLEY: That was something that I've never gone through as an assistant coach or head coach, being in that, you know, you're trying to prepare for two teams over three days. And so what it did allow us to do is to concentrate on us. And at the end of the day that's what it's really about. But when we found out -- we watched the game last night as a team and we did some team scouting. It was a great game with Boise and Dayton. So our guys were familiar when we got to the practice court today. But that was a different experience and something that we'll learn from. And now we know who we're playing. So we're excited. Q. First of all, could you give us an explanation of your hat? COACH COOLEY: Well, my wife is a retired police officer. And I love the police, and I thank them for what they do protecting our freedoms within our city and our country. So the gentleman who is here with me today, I told him I wanted to bring that up to honor our police because I think they do a great job and sometimes they're looked at in the wrong way. Q. Secondly, I noticed in your schedule you had some great early season wins, and then after Kentucky you lost a couple of games to some teams that I think were not tournament teams, let's put it that way. Do you think there was a Kentucky hangover, or is that just coincidence that you went into a little funk after Kentucky? COACH COOLEY: I've got a young team. I think what a lot of people don't understand is we only had three players on our roster that actually played in a game here in the NCAA Tournament last year. I don't know if it was a hangover, yet we were still growing. I think we became a better team because of those games, and I just shared in the locker room with our team: Enjoy this moment. This is a great moment. Don't take it for granted. Let's have fun. Let's do the best we can. But we didn't have a Kentucky hangover. Hey, first of all, a lot of people are going to have hangovers when they play Kentucky. And we just -- we played on the road up at Boston College, and I think a lot of teams that are in this tournament had bad games against opponents, but don't take anything away from Boston College or Brown or Kentucky, I think they're good teams. Q. You brought this up about Barack Obama, do you know who he picked in this game, in your game, he picked Dayton? COACH COOLEY: That's fine. You know what, I respect our president for what he does. It's just an opinion you know what I'm saying. You've got to play the game. Q. LaDontae Henton, obviously a key player. He originally signed with Dayton. Could you explain the process by which you got him? COACH COOLEY: Well, I think one of the most undervalued things here at Providence College has been our staff. I think we have one of the best staffs in the country. I think our administrators, our support staff, our assistant coaches have done a great job. And one of our coaches had a relationship once he opened up his recruitment and allowed us -- he was our first-ever recruit here. So I'm really -- and he's probably one of the all-time greatest players to ever come to Providence College. So I'm happy for LaDontae that he's able to have back-to-back tournament appearances. Hopefully he has saved his best for last playing in the place that he was originally going to. Q. What specific challenges does Dayton present to you and in particular Jordan Sibert? COACH COOLEY: Terrific player. I think Coach Miller has done a great job here. They have some team toughness. I think less has been more, when you look at -- they know exactly the way they want to play. They're going to spread you out a little bit and drive it. Everybody talks about our length versus their undersized. It's not about size or girth in these games, it's about how big is your heart and how willing are you to give it up for your teammate to move forward. They've got a lot of things that are going to bother us, but I'm not going to share that with anybody in here. I'm pretty sure Archie is going to say the same thing. We have some things they have to address and they have things that we have to address. At the end of the day it's going to come down to grit, passion and energy on who's going to moving forward. Q. I understand you're obviously very focused on Dayton and your own game I can't imagine you're not aware that Iowa State lost today, that Baylor lost today. COACH COOLEY: Wow. I didn't know that. That's what the madness is about. Q. And Bill Coen, good friend of yours, arguably should have upset Notre Dame, they had the ball at the end. COACH COOLEY: I watched that. Q. What do you make of that? They're 14 seeds playing 3 seeds. Two win, the other one very easily could have won. What do you make of that? COACH COOLEY: I think that's what this tournament has always been about. And I think every single year this tournament gets better and better because of the parity in college basketball. When you see -- I don't know if it's higher seed/slower seed, whoever is in the white jersey I guess is the higher seed. But it goes to tell you how special this tournament is. And if you don't come to play, you can be the greatest team ever. You've got one game. You've got to throw out seeds. You've got to throw out uniforms, mascots. You have one game to perform. If you don't perform on that one game, you're going home. I hope we're at the party and I hope the Friars are going to dance for a long time. But we've got to play one game at a time. Q. Wanted ask about your freshman, Ben Bentil. He seemed to play a lot better late in the year, double-doubles in both of the Big East games. So much of your scoring at least on paper is done by LaDontae and Kris. Having that third guy, is he sort of becoming that third guy, or what was his development like as the season went on? COACH COOLEY: Ben has always been somebody who is anxious all the time. And when we decided to bring Tyler Harris off the bench we needed some experience off the bench because we didn't have any at all. I still think Tyler is our third option if you want to call it an option. But our third scorer. And Ben is just emerging in front of ours eyes every single day. And the more he slows down, the more efficient he's becoming. He's not thinking. He's playing. He's not trying to have special plays. He's taking shots when he's open because I think he's a really, really good shooter. But it takes time to develop those young guys. When you talk about the early losses that we had, that was those young guys trying to identify roles and where do they fit in and how do they fit in. And I hope he has a big tournament left in him, because he's getting better by the second. I'm glad he's a baby. I'm really glad he's a freshman because I think he's going to do some great things in Friartown. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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