|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NIT POSTSEASON TOURNAMENTApril 1, 2015Jim LarranagaNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK THE MODERATOR: Coach, if you don't mind, we'll start with an opening comment from you and then we'll open the lines up for questions. COACH LARRAÑAGA: Well, at this time of year, I don't think any team is 100 percent healthy. You always have some bumps and bruises. But we came into the NIT without Angel RodrÃÂguez who sustained a badly sprained right wrist on his shooting hand, and he only played very sparingly in the first game and re‑injured it, so he's not been available to us. And then against Richmond, Manu Lecomte sprained his right knee and he's not nearly 100 percent as was very obvious last night in our game against Temple. Ja'Quan Newton tore a ligament in his thumb. We lost Tonye Jekiri in the game; he only played six minutes and he's out for the rest of the tournament. He will not play in the championship game. He sustained a concussion in kind of a freak accident. Our guys have shown some real resiliency. They have pulled together and somehow we are able to make a comeback in the second half and defeat a very, very good Temple team. Our defense in the second half I thought was outstanding holding them to 22 percent and no three point field goals made. Q. You mentioned resiliency. This is also the second game in a row where you have rallied from a double‑digit deficit. Wondering what you learned about your team in these last couple of games. COACH LARRAÑAGA: I've learned that they like making my life more difficult. (Laughter). It is very, very challenging for any coach when your team is behind. Really, the pressure is on you to push the right buttons and to get back into contention and maybe get out in front. But the one thing I would say right now we are playing with different parts. If you look at just our point guard position, our starting point guard all year long was Angel RodrÃÂguez, and his backup was Manu Lecomte, and his backup was Ja'Quan. And last night, we went to our fourth point guard, Deandre Burnett because Angel is out, Manu Lecomte is hobbled by his knee; and Ja'Quan needed the rest, so we put Deandre Burnett at the point. I think what the guys have learned is no matter what the circumstances, if you keep playing hard on the defensive end of the board and you're willing to share the ball on offense, then you can enjoy success. I think our guys did that. Q. The other thing I'm wondering is like you said, because of these situations, you've had to play a lot of young guys. Is this something that can really benefit you going forward to next season and beyond that? COACH LARRAÑAGA: Oh, I think that's one of the greatest things about the NIT for young teams. You gain very, very valuable tournament experience in a national tournament environment. Like last night was on a neutral court and a great atmosphere, lots of electricity, lots at stake. And at one point in time last night, for an extended period, we had four freshmen on the floor together: JaÂ’Quan Newton, Deandre Burnett, James Palmer, Omar Sherman are all freshmen. They played together. In the first half, that group didn't do so good. They weren't nearly as aggressive as they were in the second half when they played really well. And in particular, Omar Sherman came in off the bench and gave us a huge lift and James Palmer's dunk I thought really gave our team some confidence down the stretch. He was really attacking aggressively at that point. Q. Any idea what your lineup will look like starting tomorrow night with Jekiri out; is Omar Sherman going to be inserted in at the four? COACH LARRAÑAGA: Right now we are going to have a practice and I have to figure out which one of the guys is going to get hurt this afternoon. They are getting hurt like every day. Even Davon Reed tweaked his knee in the shoot around yesterday, and I was afraid he wasn't going to be able to go. So we don't know yet what we are going to do. We have got Plan A, Plan B and Plan C, and in one of those plans is Omar Sherman in the starting lineup. Q. It was broadcasted on ESPN, your pregame speechyou were asked if you were having fun and you said wanted them to continue to have fun. What do you think your team benefitted from going with that approach? COACH LARRAÑAGA: Well, you have two different extremes: One where a team puts a lot of pressure on itself, and the other where it's very loose and confident. We like loose and confident. I think when a team is playing hard, playing well, a lot of times they are just out there having fun. I saw an article, I think it was in USA Today, talking about Dr.Bob Rotella helping Kentucky and keeping that team loose and focused. And Dr.Rotella is one of my dearest friends, and he's helped me and my team for the last 30 years, and he's constantly preaching to me to be sure that the guys play like they are in the summertime where they ignore mistakes, they ignore missed shots and they just enjoy competing. And I think our guys have done a great job of that. Q. It seems like all year this team has played its best under adversity with some impressive road wins and have struggled at home. What do you think is it about this team that in some ways this team seems to play best when they are in the toughest situations, and also, do you wonder why they haven't been able to do that all the time? COACH LARRAÑAGA: Well, I think there is a very simple explanation, and I don't know if someone were to interpret this as an excuse or not. But when this season started, we had nine players who had never played in a Miami uniform before, a lot of new guys. In November, we got off to a great start. We were 8‑0 primarily only because we had like seven or eight healthy bodies and all eight guys knew what they were going to play and knew what their role was. The challenge was when we started getting some guys back from injury, Deandre Burnett, Davon Reed, and eventually Ivan Cruz Uceda. Each time we added a new guy back into the rotation, we lost a little bit of chemistry. And it wasn't their fault. They had not practiced in a while because of the injury. But when you come back not having practiced in three weeks, or in Davon Reed's case, had not practiced in three months, there's a time period where you're making the transition back into being sharp and in sync with your teammates. So we lost a few games in December that I know we'd love to have back. But you can't get those back. We also had a few games in January where I thought we just put too much pressure on ourselves. And as I just said, we play much better when we are loose. We like being the underdog. We like having to overcome adversity and unfortunately we even like to overcome deficits. But I think we understand that the game is a long game and we have to play for 40 minutes, and whatever the circumstances are, you've got to fight through the adversity, and we've done a good job of that throughout the season. Q. Could you talk about the matchup with Stanford and what you think of their squad? COACH LARRAÑAGA: Well, they have got one of the most dynamic point guards in the country in Chasson Randle. The closest things I can come to is the guards who play for Notre Dame, Demetrius Jackson and Jerian Grant are both like that; you could look at the Duke guards of Tyus Jones and Quinn Cook: He's at that level. And he's the leading scorer in Stanford history, he's a big shot‑maker. He's also a big shot creator for his teammates. And inside, Stefan Nastic is a horse. He can rebound; he can defend. He's very, very physical, and he's a real force inside offensively. They have got very good balance up and down their lineup. I think we matchup pretty well with them when we are healthy. I don't know how we'll be matched up with them now. If we had Tonye, he would be a great match‑up for Nastic. If Angel were there and Manu Lecomte were healthy, I think we would be a great match‑up at that point guard position. So we are going to have to kind of figure some things out once the game gets started. But we've been making a ton of adjustments throughout these NIT games. In just about every game, we've been faced with circumstances far different than we saw during the ACC regular season. Q. As I'm hearing you talk here, when you're in a situation where you're using your fourth point guard and you've had to make all these adjustments, don't you have to do what you said before, as far as have fun, keep it real simple of just playing hard on defense and sharing the ball; don't you just have to simplify things a little bit and take that approach? COACH LARRAÑAGA: Yes, I do. One of the adjustments we made last night and we did it against Richmond for a short while, too, we put Sheldon McClellan at the point. And he had not played point guard until the Richmond game. He's always been at the wing. We also put Sheldon McClellan and Davon Reed in our high‑low game. We had not done that until there was like 15 minutes left in the game last night. So we had played 36 games and had never attempted to put them in the high‑low. But without Tonye, and Davon and Sheldon McClellan are perhaps our best one‑on‑one players and scorers; we put them in the high‑low situation to give them opportunities to do what normally like Tonye would be doing inside. So we are constantly making adjustments and the best part about the team is they are very receptive and understanding that this has been created by circumstance. And they are willing listeners and then going out and executing the plan. But leaving them in that right mental frame of mind of being loose and keeping it pretty simple, not making it too complicated for them, has really been a good formula. Q. And another adjustment, too, that other kids have had to deal with is the shot clock. How do you think they have done with that? COACH LARRAÑAGA: I am really surprised as to how much of an impact it's having. It's far greater than I ever anticipated. We bring the 30‑second shot clock in, I think we are going to see some dramatic changes in offense and defense. For us, the guys don't notice the shot clock because they don't really pay that much attention to it when it's at 35, and maybe once or twice a game, it gets down to the last few seconds. But in these games, it's get to go 30 seconds very, very quickly, and we are put in a position where we have to hurry. And even when I've told them at a time‑out, hey, the shot clock is down to 12, we've got it out at the side, we need to attack right away, give ourselves plenty of time to get a good shot; the players tend to be patient like you normally want them to be. So I think it's going to be a major change in college basketball if the 30‑second clock comes in. Q. I wanted to ask you about Sheldon McClellan, he's already had a big season and some big games but it seems like he's really driving in clutch situations during this tournament. Can you talk about his confidence and what has allowed him to make so many big shots? COACH LARRAÑAGA: I think one of the things that has happened since Angel RodrÃÂguez has been injured‑‑ well, let me start with this. Sheldon and Angel are a dynamic combination, and Angel is constantly finding Sheldon, and Sheldon really benefits from Angel's passing and his ability to find Sheldon. Since Angel has been out, Sheldon McClellan has kind of had to take on more of a leadership role and had to work at getting himself open, and then also taking upon himself when he has the ball in his hand of creating shots for himself and teammates. And I think as these games transpire, he's gotten better and better at it. Last night, we called a time‑out and put him at the point, and then got him the ball and said, hey, take over the game, and he made two great decisions and scored right away twice. He did the same thing at Richmond and I think that's just helping his confidence and his teammates' confidence in him. Q. I know before you left for New York that this was going to be a business trip but maybe you would take the team for a Broadway show or something. What have you been able to do in New York? COACH LARRAÑAGA: We've gotten a lot of treatments. Our trainer has been kept very busy. We haven't done any socializing or touring or go to a movie or show. We've been at the hotel and our trainer has been kept very busy. Our strength and conditioning coach try and keep the guys stretched and loose. It's been a very challenging two or three weeks since the injury bug hit us. So we've been able to rest the guys more at the hotel and basically preparing for the games and not doing much else. Q. Your experience playing in Madison Square Garden against UCLA, and coming back to this venue and being from that neck of the woods, what has that experience been like for you and does it bring back any interesting memories from when you played in the Garden? COACH LARRAÑAGA: Yeah, I would say leading up to the game, I was excited for our team. I had no idea how emotional I would get once I stepped on the Madison Square Garden court and the lights went down and were just focused on the playing surface. And as the players were introduced, I felt so emotional and felt like, man, is this fantastic. And for me, for my staff, for my team, for the University of Miami, for our fans, our cheerleaders, the environment and the setting of playing in the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, is very, very special. And now having done it as a head coach, I'll never forget it. And I remember a lot of what it was like to play at Madison Square Garden the first time against UCLA and Kareem Abdul‑Jabbar, and now I know what it's like to coach a team. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|