|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DENVERMarch 16, 2016Chris BeardRoger WoodsJosh HaginsDenver, Colorado THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Little Rock student-athletes. We'll now take questions for our student-athletes. Q. If both of you could address this. How would you describe your defensive style and why has that helped you have success this season? JOSH HAGINS: We're a team that we like to play in the gaps. We're real big on trying to keep it out of the paint. We're not necessarily a team that's going to let you shoot threes. Over the course of time we want you to shoot threes and you kind of anticipate it. We try to keep teams out of the lane and go from there. ROGER WOODS: Like Josh said, we're a gap team. We're not very big, so we use our speed to keep people out of the paint or whatever. Q. What is it about this collection of guys that has enabled you guys to overcome adding so many different pieces to the puzzle within the last year and get to the NCAA tournament? JOSH HAGINS: We're not a young team. I'm not sure exactly where we are. But we're one of the older teams in the country. With that being said, man, we have a lot of composure in adversity situations. Our non-conference schedule was perfect for us. It set us up for every possible situation we could face during the season. We learned to handle it over time. With our composure and maturity, man, we just make for a great team. ROGER WOODS: We're not an unselfish team. We got a lot of guys that sacrifice a lot over the course of the year. We come together and play as one. That's how we find a way to win games. Q. It's pretty rare for a first-year head coach to make such an impact in his first year. What was it about Coach Beard for you guys that enabled this turnaround to happen so quickly? JOSH HAGINS: I mean, he puts everything he has into what we're doing. When he first got the job, we talked to him immediately after the press conference, he talked about not rebuilding, doing anything for the future. He talked about winning right now. That's why we stayed, put our trust in him. Chris Beard is a fantastic coach and we all love him. Q. Talking about all the new pieces that you have this year, go back to last June or July when you got this group together, what was your first impression? Did you think you had something or you had a lot of work to do? What was the first impression with all the new pieces? ROGER WOODS: We had a lot of players with a lot of different stories that was really impressive. Everybody has to assist, especially the new guys. The older guys like Josh, they had a story, had success. We all wanted to come together and get something going in Little Rock. Q. Josh, have you always seen yourself as a leader of this group or did that develop over time? JOSH HAGINS: I kind of feel like since I had been there the previous three years, it was kind of my role to do that. We had a lot of guys that were coming from ju-co and stuff like that, they were kind of new to the D1 thing. I felt with me and Rog being there before, it was my responsibility to step up and be there for this team. We've done a good job to this point, but we're not done yet. Q. Josh, how has the city and the campus responded to the success y'all have had thus far? JOSH HAGINS: We created a lot of buzz. The support right now is fantastic. Our athletic director, he's done a fantastic job with our program. He made a fantastic hire in Chris Beard. We've been working hard just to make Little Rock proud, man. I think the whole rebranding thing was about the city coming together and becoming one. That's what we're trying to do. Q. Roger, you obviously are coming off a pretty good tournament where you were able to get inside and score. Against some of Purdue's bigs, which are bigger than any team you played, are you going to have to do anything different? ROGER WOODS: No, I'm not worried about it. I go into every game the same way: just go out from the start of the game get a feel of how they guard me, how I can guard them, how I can impact play the game the best way I can. Q. Josh, what are some challenges for your defense that Purdue presents? JOSH HAGINS: Naturally rebounding. I think that's the biggest team in the country, if I'm not mistaken. But rebounding, it's an issue that we're kind of concerned about. They score a lot off post points. We got to find ways to just keep them out of the paint. That's what we're kind of working on this whole week. Q. What is your pregame-hype song? Is there a song that you listen to before the game? ROGER WOODS: It might be 'Baby Daddy Broke' by Chief Keef Ft. Gucci Mane. JOSH HAGINS: Yeah, it's that one. We have that 'Running Off The Plug Twice'. Those same two every time. Q. When you first got to practice together, how long did it take before you realized that this was a championship-caliber team? Was there a specific moment, a practice, a game early in the year, where you knew the chemistry was right? JOSH HAGINS: For us, I think we kind of realized it right around when we played DePaul. Won by 10-plus in both halves. We were able to put a full 40 minutes together. That's hard to do with a new team, new guys and chemistry to worry about. For us to come together the seventh game of the season in that fashion, it kind of let us know that we had a chance. We didn't get complacent or anything like that. We weren't satisfied. We kept working and it led us to this point. Q. Have either of you ever played in a game against two seven-footers? What do you do to prepare? Shoot it over brooms? JOSH HAGINS: Not two seven-footers. We work on one normally. We understand that going into the game, we got to work around their size. It's not something we play against every game in conference. It's new to us. I mean, we'll be fine. We'll find a way to do what we have to do. Q. Their size is seen as an advantage for them. What do you feel really good about in terms of what you do going into this game? ROGER WOODS: We have a lot of guys that are versatile, that can do many things. We'll get a feel and see if we can get them outside of the paint and open up the lane for everyone else. Q. Josh, with Purdue's size being known, does that put pressure on you guys as guards? In New Orleans you pressed a bit. How do you feel about you guys as a pressing defense? JOSH HAGINS: I mean, we've added it over the course of time. We were big on real man-to-man kind of stuff. But we've added the press over the course of the year. It's been good to us. It just allows us to kind of guard in the halfcourt less, you know what I mean? You don't want to guard seven-foot, seven-two, six-nine, 250 for 30 seconds if you don't have to. If we can push the clock down to 22, 21, that's what we're trying to do. Q. I know some of you guys were a little bit concerned about the altitude. How did you feel getting out here, feeling the effects of that, trying to get used to it? ROGER WOODS: We started practice. We practiced kind of hard. Tried to get a little bit of fatigue out of the way at the beginning, so it could be just like second nature during the course of the game. Q. President Obama released his bracket today. He has Purdue. What is your reaction? JOSH HAGINS: We're going to have to prove him wrong, so... (Smiling). Q. You obviously started the season playing a lot of road games. How much more comfortable does that make you in a situation like this where you're playing on a neutral court? JOSH HAGINS: I mean, we're used to it at this point now. We understand what it takes to win a road game against a good team like Purdue. We understand what kind of intensity and effort we're going to have to bring. It's not nothing new to us. We're prepared for it. We're just going to go out there and play as hard as we can. THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student-athletes at this time. Thank you, men. We have coach for Little Rock, Chris Beard. Coach, start with some comments from you on being here in Denver and your matchup. COACH BEARD: Well, this is really cool. I had some friends that have made it to the same situation and kind of gave them a hard time that they got up on the podium, they acted all serious and stuff. I've dreamed my whole life of being in a situation like this. I'm really thankful and appreciative of the players, the ones that got us hire, those two guys that were talking to you earlier, Roger and Josh, are a big part of what we're doing. This is a great experience. I've just been encouraging the players to enjoy every step of the way, an opportunity to play against a very good, well-coached Purdue team tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Being a little nosy, what happened to your hand? But more importantly, I'm sure there's a million things you gleaned from Coach Knight over the years. Was there one or two that were most important in trying to build your team in a year? COACH BEARD: Well, the two questions are kind of connected (smiling). Last Sunday in our championship game in the Sunbelt Conference, we were playing against a very well-coached team, Monroe, we had a lot of respect for. We were not playing our best half. We were down five at half. I made a bad decision in the locker room trying to get the guys a little fired up. We talk a lot about boxing in our program. We're a good defensive team. We believe in boxing, kind of footwork. But unfortunately I didn't get the message with the handwork. A dry erase board took a bad shot. There was a chair there. I thought briefly about maybe using the chair, but Coach Knight told me never to do that, never use a chair in no situation (smiling). No, I learned a lot from coach. I'm proud to be associated with him and proud to be taking a team to the NCAA tournament that I believe plays the right way. Hopefully coach will enjoy watching us play Purdue tomorrow afternoon. Q. Is it broken? What is the condition of the hand? COACH BEARD: We also in our program have some core values. We tell kids from the first time we recruit them all the way to graduation stage, we take pride in being truth tellers. Even when things aren't pretty, you know, kid misses a class, 'Roger, did you go to class today?' 'No, I didn't, coach.' I don't respect the fact that he does that, but he tells the truth. Yes, the hand is broken. We got the best team doctor in college basketball, Dr. V, back in Little Rock. He assures me it will be okay in about six weeks. Q. What is your biggest concern about tomorrow's game? COACH BEARD: Well, you're always concerned going into any game. We certainly have a lot of respect for the competition. I hope that we're able to play Little Rock basketball. I think that we've prepared our players for this stage by playing the most competitive, toughest non-conference schedule in the country, in my opinion, this year. We won 27 games in the regular season. We're now at 29 games. Second to most in college basketball. I think we're ready for this stage. It would be a concern that our guys relax and do the things that got us here. Obviously with Purdue, there's all sorts of concerns. I haven't slept in two days. They're the biggest team in college basketball. Their size will present challenges. My whole life has been a challenge. Our players, we all got stories. We don't have a lot of polished McDonald's All-Americans or guys that have taken Easy Street. We've have guys that have had to work and earn things, including a trip to this tournament. A lot of talk about were we going to be in or not. We said, Let's not think about that, let's just go win the conference tournament. I think it will be the same tomorrow. We'll have to play with an edge and do all the things that helped get us here. Q. A lot has been made about their size. What is your impression of their guards and how yours match up with them? COACH BEARD: Well, first of all, with their size, it's legit. I talked to a couple coaching friends, getting some information about Purdue, like all of us coaches do, make calls. The comment that just kept coming up and up and up is how big they are in person. They're like, Chris, you think they're big on film, wait till you see them on tape. Our favorite show is the TNT deal with the NBA. One of my friends said it's going to be like Kenny trying to guard Charles. After I watched a couple games, I texted my friend back saying, I disagree. This is going to be Ernie trying to guard Shaq. I got a lot of laughs with my friend. They're a big team. We played big teams before. We scheduled games like San Diego State and Texas Tech on purpose in our non-conference so when we do make the NCAA tournament, we do have some experience to draw back on. Q. Is there something about your approach, the way you do things, or maybe this group of guys, maybe both, that allowed you to put so many new pieces together and succeed so quickly? COACH BEARD: Yeah, I think so. Our thing is we have a day-to-day process that we take a lot of pride in. As a coach, I've never had a two-, three-, four-year plan. I've never even had a one-year plan. I have a daily plan, try to get up and do the best I can as a coach every day. We set up a day-to-day process for our players: exercise, academics, sleep, among many other things. We really stay focused on trying to do our best each day. I think that daily process contributed to us having early success with our non-conference and being able to sustain it all the way through the conference championship. Our players are the ones that deserve credit. They've executed it almost perfectly this year. They're the reason we're here today and I'm having a cool experience like this, is because of the guys in the locker room right now that played for Little Rock this season. Q. What was your philosophy on adding new players? Were you concerned at all about chemistry when you did have some returning senior guys? What was the process of getting the right guys that could fit in immediately? COACH BEARD: This is something that we've been able to do over the years at different levels, with different jobs, is bring teams together quickly. There's some key things we believe in. We're all in a talent business. You have to recruit talented players that can win your conference, they can win games in this tournament. We certainly have that. That's why we're sitting here with a really good record and a good team. Equally important to talent is character. Every guy or our roster has some character. They got a story, they got some backbone. They're guys that want to play for each other. Always, I've always thought about relationships. Good players want to be coached, want to trust their coach. Successful coaches want players they can trust. One of the biggest factors in trust is time. So the big challenge when you try to do something quickly in year one is you don't have as much time as the competition, so we try to spend a lot of time with our players off the floor developing relationships. When practice started for us October 1st, we were already a close-knit team because of all the things we've done off the court in the spring, summer and fall. Q. You mentioned Little Rock basketball. What is that? What is your offensive and defensive style? COACH BEARD: Little Rock basketball, number one, is unselfishness at the core. On offense, we want to share the ball. We don't want to have one leading scorer in the conference. We want to have four or five guys in double figures. We don't want to be featured by one player, we want to be featured by a team. On the defensive end, it's the same idea. All of us guard the ball, all of us block out, all of us defend at a high level. Really we take a lot of pride in team basketball. Q. When was the moment where you felt like this team has a chance to be special and get here? COACH BEARD: Well, certainly with us, it started in the recruiting process. It started with the coaching staff that we were able to hire. That gave me a lot of confidence before we ever hit the floor, because I knew we had players and I knew we had a great staff. But with our team, if you had to pick a signature win, which I don't really know what that means, I understand the idea, I think it would be our third game of the year. First road game, we won at San Diego State, a place where Coach Fisher's teams never get beat. A place where the media like yourselves gave us no chance. Our guys bonded together. It was a big game for us. It was a big opportunity. We beat San Diego State. I think with that came more confidence. We have a process we believe in, but until you have some early success, until you validate it, you never know if your guys have really bought in. I vividly remember that San Diego State locker room with the look in our guys' eyes, this process works. That celebration, I didn't have to punch a chalkboard, so it was even a better deal on that one. Q. Coach, you talk about Purdue's size, how big they are. NCAA tournament a lot of times is about guard play. Do you believe you can out-guard them in a sense, neutralize that size advantage? COACH BEARD: I hope so. That's the plan. Purdue's got an identity that's the big guys. I'll say this, their guard play is very good, too. In my opinion, there's some pros in that backcourt. Their big guys get a lot of credit, which they deserve, but sometimes that kind of slights the guards. We have full respect for every player on their team. We do not see them as a one-dimensional team. We know we're going to have to guard all over the floor for 40 minutes to have a chance. Q. Once you got the big wins, people started paying attention. How has your team handled going from the underdog to a team that people expect more from? COACH BEARD: Yeah, it's just who we are. Me personally, I've been overlooked my whole life. I wake up every day with an edge. Guys like me get one chance. I wasn't a great player, I don't have a famous grandfather. I get up every day, surround myself with winners. Every day I feel like I'm an underdog. Our players are the same thing. Every guy on our team has a story. We all have a little bit of an edge. It's why I think we've been successful. We don't think we're better than anybody else. We respect everybody. But we certainly don't think anybody is any better than us. The whole idea of underdog, I understand the seeding and stuff like that, but we came down here to win a basketball game against a good Purdue team. That's our objective. Q. What is your status for the game with the hand? Had you questionable? COACH BEARD: I'll be there. If I had one leg and one eye, I'll make it. I've worked my whole life to coach in a game like this. Once again, I'm so appreciative and thankful for our players. They're the ones that got us here. I intend to enjoy every moment and give our guys every chance we possibly can have from a coaching standpoint to help them. Q. With all the talk of the new guys, one of them is Jalen Jackson. His minutes have gone up and down this year. What did he ultimately have to do to be able to get on the floor and be able to do what he wants to do, which is play offense? Specifically just the focus on the defense? COACH BEARD: Well-stated. That's what Jalen wants to do is play offense. Jalen is a great person. He has a story. Started his career at the Division I level, won a junior college national championship last year. One of the best offensive players I've ever coached. Per minute played, he's one of the best scorers in all of college basketball. He's worked really hard at other areas of his game. Defense is much improved. He's a big part of what we're doing. His scoring coming off the bench is very important to me. He's a starter. I learned many things from Coach Knight, one of them being the value of a six-man. His roommate, John Havlicek, was probably the best six-man in our sport. We try to have great guys coming off the bench and Jalen has done a great job coming off the bench for us. Q. I asked you in January when you were starting to play pretty well if you had made a statement yet. You said, no, statements are made in February and March. Have you done that now and what is it? Is that still part of the work you're doing? COACH BEARD: I'm really proud of our team making the tournament. I think one of the most difficult things to do in all of athletics is to be in a situation like we were when you have the most wins in college basketball, yet in many people's eyes you still have to win your conference tournament to make the tournament. That's intense. That's tough. I think the fact that we're here in the tournament after winning the Sunbelt Conference tournament I think speaks highly for our players. I don't know about statements, but I do know our guys showed we deserve to be in this tournament. We're glad to be here. We intend to take advantage of our opportunity. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much for your time, coach. COACH BEARD: Thank you. 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
|