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NIT POSTSEASON TOURNAMENTApril 2, 2015Johnny DawkinsChasson RandleNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Stanford – 66 COACH DAWKINS: Well, I think it was an incredible game, I think the type of game you expect in a championship and when you're competing for a championship. I was really proud of our guys because I thought Miami played extremely well in the second half, but our guys just refused to lose. I think that's what you saw down the stretch of the game, the last few minutes and in overtime, just a will to win. And just really, really proud of this group. And for my seniors especially, to go out on this note and to have a chance to cut down a net to win a championship, they will remember that for the rest of their lives. We talked about that at halftime and we talked about it before the game, just the memories that they will have, having had success here if they were fortunate enough to win at Madison Square Garden against a very good basketball team for a championship. Just really, really proud of our guys. Q. Chasson, this moment has to be exciting but the free throws leading up to it, any pressure in overtime? CHASSON RANDLE: There were no nerves. I had been in that position before earlier in the year at UCLA, and I made the first one, missed the second one. So I remember; I'd be in practice thinking about that, I'll be back in this moment and how am I going to feel. I just wanted to feel as calm as possible, and when I got up there, I did. I was calm and I was fortunate to knock them down. Q. You guys had a little trouble, in regulation making shots‑‑ it seemed in overtime you took it over and decided you were going to make this team win. What were your thoughts going into overtime? CHASSON RANDLE: You know, just refuse to lose. My teammates and my coaches, they told us we've still got control of this game. We just wanted to go out there and be aggressive, and we knew we had five minutes for the rest of our season. We just wanted to come out as champions. Q. The last call, did you feel like it could have gone either way? It looked as if you might have leaned into him. CHASSON RANDLE: The ref called it, so I can't do anything about it. Q. You've had that regular 35‑second clock in this game‑‑ how much does that 30‑second clock make a difference‑‑ COACH DAWKINS: It does make a difference. You're always looking at time to score and making decisions based on that, though. For us, I looked at the differential, and the differential was more than enough. It was eight without them taking a shot. So I'm figuring worst‑case scenario, I'll have the eight, probably have ten or 12 if the shots goes up for four or five seconds, rebound it. So I knew with that amount of time, we get one stop, we would have one good possession because there was a lot of time on the clock. We were going to put the ball in Chasson's hands and he was going to decide it for us, and he did. Q. The feeling, the euphoria of your last college game being as a champion, what's that like? CHASSON RANDLE: It's just a great feeling, just to be able to end your season and your career with a win. I'm just so happy with our seniors and all six of us, as well as the younger guys, they will have something to hang their hats on in the spring and summer when they are working to get either back here or with the NCAA Championship. Q. Obviously you guys hope to get to the NCAA; when you lost those games down the stretch and ended up in the NIT, does getting here, winning this, in a way make up for that? Does it change the way you feel completely about your season? COACH DAWKINS: Well, absolutely. When you win a championship, how many teams are going to win championships this year? Not very many. So to have a championship moment, it goes with you for the rest of your life. Of course, there was disappointment that we didn't make a tournament, like there was for a lot of teams. We felt like a lot of teams that we were a bubble team, and it could have gone our way just as easily as it went some of those teams' way that went in there. But we didn't hang our heads. When we said we were invited to the NIT, we looked at each other and said, hey, we're in it. Let's prove everybody wrong. Let's prove that we should have been a team that could have gone into the NCAA Tournament. And the only way you can do that in my opinion is coming here and having success, and that's what we were able to do. Q. You're down three, probably two possessions left in overtime. Was it you were going to put the ball in Chasson's hands and see what he could do to get the lead back? COACH DAWKINS: We needed a quick score down the stretch, and in doing so, he's had a hot hand and he's been doing a lot of scoring for us down the stretch and we wanted to continue to ride him at that point. Toward the end of the game we said, let's ride him and he came up with a big play. The last one, of course, we say the guy leaned in or whatever on the jumpshot‑‑ you know, I thought he got fouled. It's plane of verticality rule: So if you're not jumping directly straight up then any leaning in or hands down, it's an automatic foul. I'm just happy the ref, he had the nerve to make the call because I thought it was the right call from my angle, and I was standing pretty much straight across from the play. Q. Two NITs now in the last four years. What's your perspective on that? Do you say, hey, as a program we want to be about more than that? COACH DAWKINS: Most definitely. We are a program that want to compete in the NCAA and want to compete for championships. Unfortunately that has not happened as much as we would like, but our last four years, we've won two NIT championships and we have gone to the Sweet16. I don't think that's horrible. I think we have shown that we can be competitive in either tournament because when we've been in any of them, we've had success. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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