|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2016Sean MillerKadeem AllenKaleb TarczewskiLas Vegas, Nevada Oregon - 95, Arizona - 89 THE MODERATOR: We'll start with Kaleb Tarczewski and Kadeem Allen. Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Kadeem, you guys had a great first half yesterday, not a yet first half today. What was the difference? KADEEM ALLEN: Today we came out strong, and when you have a game like yesterday in the second half how you finish it off and try to come out today and play as hard, it's kind of hard. But we played in there the first half. We had a good first half. But the last 2:15 was just a disaster, and Oregon just went on a run. Q. Kaleb, can you tell us what you were thinking in the closing seconds and then when your teammate had a chance to win the game here with less than a second to play? KALEB TARCZEWSKI: That loss was 100% our fault. Like Kadeem just said, the last two minutes of the first half were unacceptable. We kind of just lost doing what we do. But you have to give the team credit for really fighting in the second half and digging our way out of that hole that we put ourselves in. You have to give Mark Tollefsen tremendous credit for being on the bench for almost the entire second half and coming in and really providing our team a spark, along with Chance Comanche, he played great tonight. I think once this team learns to put it on the court for 40 minutes, we're going to be fine. Q. Kaleb, that's all well and good, but you only have one game to figure that out. Do you feel like now's the time where you guys go back to Tucson and regroup? Or how do you make that transition so quickly in three days? KALEB TARCZEWSKI: Like you said, we lose, we're done. The season's over, and I think everyone on the team understands that. I think that we're really going to be playing our best basketball in the tournament. Q. What changed when Chance was out on the court today? What was kind of the vibe that was different when he was out there? KALEB TARCZEWSKI: You know, it's really big for our team when Chance can come in the game and really give us that spark, that energy that he always provides for our team. He just provided energy when we needed it, and he scored a little bit around the rim. He protected the rim as well. It was just great to see him out there playing confident and playing like himself. And in the biggest moments, he really helped our team. Q. Was that about the craziest kind of ending you've been a part of? You're down 7 and nobody gave you a shot and you nearly pulled it out? KALEB TARCZEWSKI: I'm an old guy now so I've been through a lot of crazy games, but it was definitely, like I said, a hard-fought game, and you have to give the team tremendous credit for coming back. Unfortunately, we couldn't come away with the win tonight, but Oregon's a great team, and it happens. Q. What was Sean's message to you after the game? KALEB TARCZEWSKI: He just said play hard. Like I said earlier, we lose, we're done from here on out. So we really have to understand that. For a lot of the guys on our team this is our last time down this trail, and we really want to make the most of it. So just got to play hard and play like we did in the second half the entire game. Q. Kadeem, Elgin Cook and Dillon Brooks both had pretty strong nights tonight and they did well against you the first round. Why so much trouble against those two? KADEEM ALLEN: Well, I give credit to both of those players. They're good players. Tonight we made an adjustment and we held on to it. But they're a good team and they have good team chemistry. So they found each other and they just have some advantages sometimes to hit shots and things just went down for them. Q. The atmosphere, I've never seen a percentage of the fans that far away from home that was so large for you guys. Can you just talk a little bit about how much that helps and how it effects you? KALEB TARCZEWSKI: We have -- at Arizona we have the best fans in the country. It's amazing to kind of see the support so far away from home, and we thank them all for coming out and really supporting us, making it almost feel like a home game, almost making it feel like we're at McKale. Obviously, that helps, so we've got to thank them all. THE MODERATOR: Coach, an opening statement on the game and your thoughts? COACH MILLER: Number one, I believe that Oregon is right there to be a 1, 2 seed. I guess everyone has a different opinion, but they're certainly one of college basketball's best teams. I respect their team a great deal. To me why they're so, so good is because of how together they are. And if you add up their individual talent, though they have some tremendous players, their whole becomes greater. And that's the ultimate compliment in basketball, because that group of five has to play both offense and defense. They're not the biggest group, but I'll tell you this, this is not a harder working, more together, tough-minded team than them. Dana Altman, deservedly so, is the Pac-12 Coach of the Year. I don't know how you can do a better job than he's doing in that program. All of us, as part of the Pac-12, benefit because of how good they are and I think how good they're going to continue to be moving forward. They have a great style. Tonight it was an interesting game because I felt like they were the better team and the better team won. But if you really look at the game, for about 17:30 of the first half, though I don't feel like we ever took the lead, we were at a one-point game at that point. Two and a half minutes before halftime, and then they just kind of punched it out. 13, 15-2 run or whatever it was leading into halftime. That was a function of them, but also a function of us. The second half we ended up outscoring them by 15. I think that says a lot about our team. If you look at the rebounding tonight, it's great for us to get back on the positive side of that. Anytime you outrebound a team like Oregon by the amount we did, that's a good sign. 28-plus offensive rebounds. Then to give yourself a chance to win, to never give up, to just keep fighting and playing every possession until the end. We had a free throw, we could have won the game, which is amazing to think of. Then when overtime started, again, I thought they reestablished themselves as the better team. A couple of our players fouled out and they won a great game. I give our team credit for fighting. The first half, the last couple of minutes of the first half has really been what I've been fighting as their coach from day one with this group. Talked a lot after the Colorado game. I'm not negative Nelly. I understand that if you advance in the Pac-12 Tournament, that's a good thing. But if you think about the second half of the Colorado game versus the first half, it's hard to imagine we were the same team. When you do that, it's also hard to imagine that that is just going to go away. The point that I made to our group is if we're not the hard-playing, together team, like Oregon is, from this point on, we won't advance. And tonight, Oregon was the better team. They were also the more-together, harder-playing team, and that last 2:30 of the first half was something that I think reflects some of my concerns and certainly won them the game to their credit. Q. You coached a lot of really good defensive teams. How good is Oregon defensively? COACH MILLER: Well, they're really good on offense, let me say that. I don't care who you are. You pick the team right now in college basketball and you play Oregon on a neutral court, their coaching staff is going to have some tough moments when they watch them. There is no easy solution with match-ups. You say, well, maybe a zone team will have a better chance, they're great against the zone. I think they're every bit as good against the zone as they are man-to-man. The way Tyler Dorsey's shooting, and they have shooting and they have a lot of good things going for them. Defensively, it's just a unique game because they take you out of what you normally do by a soft press. They play a match-up zone. When they play man-to-man, they're super aggressive and they're quick. They read the passer's eyes. They're in the passing lanes. They do the things they need to do to make up for their lack of height. I think their defense is good enough to go all the way, but their offense is tremendous. I mean, it's really a difficult offense to guard. Q. Coach, you talked about playing with that togetherness for two halves. Is that something you can learn in a few days, or is it something you have to sort of summon? COACH MILLER: Yeah, I think so. We're 25-8, I think that's our record. I don't right now say, man, what's wrong with us? Nobody has to tell me what we do at Arizona, how high the bar is, and we have that bar high ourselves. We're disappointed that we weren't able to advance to the championship, but we're okay. We're part of the NCAA Tournament. The one thing that I look at every year now, because it's so different in college basketball, look at the programs who won't be in this year's tournament. It's mind-boggling. But we have to replace half of our roster every year, and every once in a while you won't quite be as good as you were a year ago no matter how hard you try. So with that, we have to play our best, and we have to learn from this, and we have to have a couple great days. We have to be excited to be in the tournament, and I think everybody knows that this year in the field a lot of different teams can make their way. We've been in the Sweet 16 three years in a row. There's not a lot of people that can say that. So we have a number of players that have been there, and now we have to reestablish ourselves as getting that 26th win and having a chance to play for a Sweet 16. It won't be easy, but we have a lot of positive things working on our side of the ledger, as evidenced by -- think about how well we played against Oregon in the second half. Q. What's been the most impressive part of this season -- of Allonzo Trier's season for his freshman year? COACH MILLER: One of the things that's overlooked with Allonzo is you have to remember he missed seven-plus games in the Pac-12, and where his development would be today would be further ahead. He was there in a learning mode, but he wasn't playing, and that's where you really learn when you get in the game and practice. So he missed some time. But he scores the ball so easily. He's as consistent of a scorer that I've coached for a freshman. It's easy for him to be in double figures. Like all freshmen, he's learning the game. He'll get better at certain things as he moves forward. I was really impressed with Tyler Dorsey. Unfortunately, I got a little bit of him this summer when I was with Team USA and he was on Greece's team. He played a similar way in that tournament where he was poised. He plays like an older player, so I think those two guys, Allonzo on our end and Tyler, that's what makes the Pac-12 so great this year. I watched Oregon-Washington the other day, and you see the freshmen that Washington has, man, we have some incredibly talented young players in our conference. I'm proud to be a part of our conference this year. I don't think we take a back seat to any, and I think we're going to have a ton of teams in the NCAA Tournament. I say a ton. I can't give you the number, but whoever enters this year's NCAA Tournament from the Pac-12 is capable of winning a couple games. We played a great schedule. Q. Talk about the play of your star guard tonight down the stretch. He's been clutch all year for you. COACH MILLER: Gabe? Q. Of course, Gabe, Gabe York has been incredible, and again tonight down the stretch. His role going forward and what he means to this team? COACH MILLER: Gabe's had a terrific season. He was rewarded by All Pac-12. What he did in the last weekend in McKale, I've never seen before. And he did it here at the end. Wish we maybe could have gotten it out of him a little bit earlier, but it's hard to ask Gabe to give more than he has. He's had a tremendous senior year. We're proud of him. He's hung in there through his freshman year when he didn't play a lot. I think it's been well chronicled. And then he played on two excellent teams. Didn't get enough credit for the role he had the last couple of years, but this year is his year and we need him to play great. Him and Kaleb both. Last night I failed to mention, Kaleb Tarczewski yesterday against Colorado won more games as an Arizona player than anyone has ever done. I mean, if you want me to go roll call, I will, I'll start naming them. But there's quite a few names on that list that have gone on to do great things. I think it says a lot about the four-year run that those guys have been on, Gabe and him, and the amount of great games and big games Kaleb has played in. I'll leave it with that. That's really what we'll rely on in the NCAA Tournament, those guys that are battle tested, that have been there and done it time after time. So hopefully they'll be at their best, and we'll be ready to go and represent the Pac-12 as best we can in this year's NCAA Tournament. We're excited and looking forward to it. As disappointing as it is now, I think I'm anxious to get to Sunday to see who we're going to play and where we're going. Q. As good as the Pac-12 is I think most people in this room would agree with that. It's 12:30 back east right now. Are you concerned that people back east don't know how good the conference is, that the Selection Committee, because the games are being tipped off so late all the time? COACH MILLER: No, with our new television deal that happened a few years ago -- you know, I'm from that area, so they all watch Arizona games. They see them. We're on there. A lot of people at the end of the night they love nothing more than to be able to turn on a great game or two good teams. I think we've become that. For a while when I was at Xavier I would be that coach and that guy and I would turn on and see Gonzaga, and sometimes I would ask myself: I wonder why some of these other games aren't on the same network? Well, the Pac-12 has become that. I mean, we have -- if you watch Utah right now and Cal and you watch out there and watch the game, there are three lottery picks playing in the same game. So I think we're well beyond worrying about do people give us credibility. And I know that the Selection Committee, because we've been in the tournament so many times, they do their homework. They're not going to fall prey to going to bed early. I think they're going to look at the numbers. You cannot deny the numbers of our conference and the quality from top to bottom this year. 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
|