|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DENVERMarch 18, 2016Chris BeardLis ShoshiJosh HaginsDenver, Colorado THE MODERATOR: We're ready to begin with the student-athletes from Little Rock. We'll now take questions for our student-athletes. Q. Josh, you wake up this morning, you're on the cover of USA Today, espn.com. How cool is this? JOSH HAGINS: It's awesome. At the same time we came in for a reason. We're on a mission right now. It was really important for us to wake up this morning just really focused on Iowa State. Everything that happened yesterday, we appreciated it, it was a good team win. Everybody stepped up. But we're already on to the next one. Q. How do you keep that edge? JOSH HAGINS: Bottom line is we always play with a chip on our shoulder, you know what I mean? We're a bunch of guys that really didn't get the same opportunities as everybody else. For a lot of us -- no, for all of us, this is our first time here. We just want to make a statement. The bottom line is we came here to play, we came here to win. That's our goal right now. Q. Josh, when you guys are down double digits with five minutes to play, what was the conversation like with your teammates? JOSH HAGINS: I mean, we just fight, man. Bottom line is we got a lot of guys that don't have any quit in 'em. If you're going to win a game, you got to believe you can. There's nobody on our team that didn't think we were going to win that game. We got a lot of belief in ourselves and we just kept playing. We caught some breaks and were able to make it happen towards the end. Lis hit some big shots. Kemy hit some big shots. Everybody stepped up. It wasn't like a one-man thing. This team, we got a lot of fight to us. We just kept coming. That's how we did it. Q. You have been so balanced all year. Oftentimes when a mid-major team makes a run, it's because some guy starts playing out of his mind. Do you feel that way, Josh? JOSH HAGINS: That's a tough question. To be honest, man, I tend to step up when we need it. You know what I mean? Our team, it's not called for every night with us. We've had nights where Roger's had 30, where G has this 30, where Lis has stepped up and had double-doubles. We're a team. We really don't care who gets the credit, or who gets all the accolades, this, that and the third. We just play together. That's really hard to find in college basketball. That speaks to our composure and maturity as a team. I just love playing with these guys. Q. By most accounts you have already won. How do you maintain the drive going into this game? LIS SHOSHI: What happened yesterday was awesome, but we're done with it. We enjoy it last night. Now we getting focused for a really good Iowa State team. They got really good players. We just trying to get ready for them, you know, see what happens Saturday. We just trying to get ready and fight. Q. When you play a team like Purdue, the inside-outside attack, you have an Iowa State team that's spread out. How do you defend a team that has so many shooters at all positions? LIS SHOSHI: I'll leave that to our coaching staff. They do the scout, they gave us the game plan. We have to execute what they give us. They've been doing that all year. They've been doing such a great job preparing us for the game. We have to believe what they give to us and execute tomorrow against a really good Iowa State team. JOSH HAGINS: Good answer, I like that (laughter). LIS SHOSHI: I'm getting good at this (smiling). Q. You celebrated last night. At what point did you refocus for what's coming Saturday? JOSH HAGINS: Pretty much as soon as we woke up this morning. We woke up about 9:00, 10:00, something like that, went straight to film. Ate breakfast, went straight to film. We understand we have a really good team we're about to play. The team is a little different than what we played before. But we just got to get ready for them. We're going to need our best 40 minutes Saturday. Q. Josh, Monte Morris is going to be guarding you. I assume you're going to have a piece of him also. Talk about him and what he brings to Iowa State. JOSH HAGINS: He's a fantastic player. He's averaging I think 14-7, second team all Big 12. He's very versatile, knows exactly what he's doing. Got a lot of composure. He's a point guard that a lot of guys in college respect, you know what I mean? He's very talented. It should make for a really good matchup. Q. You guys all during the season represented Little Rock. Now you're getting recognition, not just in the state of Arkansas, but nationwide. How does it feel to be representing the state of Arkansas as the only Division I team playing at this time of year? LIS SHOSHI: Josh answers this because he's from here. I can't talk about that (smiling). JOSH HAGINS: We really don't look at it like that. It's not it's us versus any other team in Arkansas. We play for the city of Little Rock, you know what I'm saying? When Mr. Conkey (phonetic) did the rebranding, I think it was all about Little Rock, the city coming together. We play for that city. We're just trying to make everybody proud, man. They put a lot of time into what we've been doing, invested a lot of time and energy and effort into this whole season. We're just kind of glad it's paying off. Q. Lis, can you speak to the challenge it is to face Georges Niang. LIS SHOSHI: I mean, you know, I watched him play before. We knew we were going to play him. We watched the scout today. He's probably like top-five players in the country right now. He's really good. You know it's going to be a tough matchup for me and our whole team. But players like that, you have to stop them as a team. You can't go one-on-one with them because they're really good. Q. Lis, I know what Josh said is right, a lot of guys made big shots. When you see Josh make some of the shots he made yesterday, how does it inspire you guys? LIS SHOSHI: Like it's not the first time, you know. Our first away game at San Diego State, that's where he started hitting those step-backs. Then we went to Tulsa. He hit three of those step-backs, too. Our whole team knew just to give the ball to Josh. You know what he's going to do, he's going to go step-back from the halfcourt. We knew he would hit it. Just try to get a stop and go to overtime. Q. Josh, Iowa State plays at a faster tempo. You're slower tempo. What is the key for you to try to dictate the tempo? JOSH HAGINS: I mean, we just can't get sped up ourselves. With a team like that, they try to get up and down. We can't be one of those teams that try to play like them. We have to be ourselves. If you ask us what our style of play is, it's just to win. College championship games are not played in the hundreds and 90s, but around the 70s and 80s. If we can keep it around there, we give ourselves a chance. If we let them get up and down, they average like 30 fastbreak points, we don't have a chance, that's not our game. Q. Lis, there's three European big men left in this regional. I don't know if you know Sabonis or Poeltl at all or have watched their games. What is it about the European style of big men that's different than guys raised in America? LIS SHOSHI: I don't really know. We focus on the skill a lot over there. You just shoot a lot, skill. That's about it, I guess. You know, that might be the only difference, but not really. I don't know. Q. Crazy finish in the last five minutes. You were still down the line double digits. What do you have to do tomorrow to avoid that scenario? JOSH HAGINS: I mean, we're at a point now where you're playing the best of the best. There's 32 teams left. Every team that's left is good. So bottom line is you can't have spurts -- you're going to make mistakes obviously, but you can't have spurts where you just kind of blank out, you're not really focused, especially with Iowa State. You go four minutes where you're not really locked in, they'll score 20 points in that four-minute span. They're a talented team, good up and down. We have to lock in for 40 minutes. It's going to take our best 40 minutes to get the job done, but we're up to it. THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student-athletes at this time. Thank you, men. We're here with Little Rock head coach Chris Beard. Coach, if you can start with talking a little bit about your matchup tomorrow. COACH BEARD: Well, we got a lot of respect for Iowa State's program. I coached in the Big 12 for many years. Coach Adams on our staff now was in the Big 12 last year. We're familiar with their team just from a basketball standpoint, just a fan. I love to watch games at night. I've watched Iowa State play two or three times. In my opinion it's one of the best coaching jobs in the country this year to follow what Fred Hoiberg did and for the new staff to come in and win at this level and get back to the NCAA tournament with a high seed is maybe one of the best untold stories in college basketball this year. We'll have to play very well. We'll have to play our best 40 minutes of the season. But that's what March is. So that's our objective. That's what we're going to try to do tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: We'll now take questions. Q. You represented Little Rock throughout the entire season. With the success you've had, it seems like the whole state of Arkansas is jumping on the bandwagon now. Do you feel now you're representing more than just Little Rock and the capital city? COACH BEARD: Yeah, and that's awesome. We take a lot of pride in that. First of all, we represent a lot of people that have been with us from day one, not just the people that are jumping on now. Those are the people we're really appreciative of, our season ticketholder that believed in us before we ever played a game, our student body, other sports, students on campus, our administration. The city of Little Rock has been awesome. Those of you that have been to Little Rock, it's the capital city of a great state. It's a great place to live. We got a great school. We've always just thought, Why not us? Why can't we have a team that can be in the NCAA tournament every year? To me, there's no reason we can't. We're really proud to be here this first season and we look forward to competing in a lot of these tournaments in the future as well. Q. You always talk about these guys play with a chip on their shoulder. They are the talk of the college basketball world. How do you keep that edge on them? COACH BEARD: Tell them the truth. Last night when we got back to the hotel at 7:00, we got a bite to eat. Gave the guys two and a half hours. I said, Guys, enjoy it, get on your phone, watch TV, call your girlfriends, enjoy it. When we get back here at 9:30, we're back to business. To us the biggest game of the year has always been the next game on the schedule. Tomorrow will be the biggest game I ever coached in because it's the next game on the schedule. Our players have really embraced this idea. I have a lot of faith and confidence that we'll do that. It obviously is a challenge 'cause this is a special time. But we've got some experienced guys. Even though we're kind of new to the national scene, it's or first year, we have four seniors and seven juniors. These guys have been waiting for this moment their whole life. I think we'll be ready. Q. How do you keep them from looking at this, and yourself, as once in a lifetime? COACH BEARD: Yeah, just again, one day at a time. One book that I read to every team I've coached all the way back since 1999 and my first head-coaching job was The Precious Present. It's a book about the most valuable advice you could ever give somebody is to live in the present, not the past, not the future. I think in these moments, obviously the past is awesome because we beat Purdue to advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Obviously the future is good, these guys are going to get a championship ring from winning the Sunbelt Conference, we'll hang a banner. There's going to be a lot of good things in the future. At our banquet this year we'll probably have steak and lobster, not grilled chicken because it's been an unbelievable year. There's a lot of things in the past and future, but right now is the precious present. Right now is an opportunity to advance to the Sweet 16, right now is an opportunity to live to play another day. Another thing I told the guys yesterday, growing up as a kid in Irving, Texas, I played basketball all the time. I loved it. It was my life. We would play at Northwest Recreation Center. When that wasn't open, we would play at Conflans Park. As a kid I always remember wanting to play one more game. The rec center would close at 10:00. But sometimes the lady at the front desk, she would let us stay, Hey, guys, play one more game because I got to clean up the rec room. That was the best news in the world, we got to play one more game. At Conflans Park, we could only play till it got dark. The first one of us to turn 16, we learned to pull our car up there and put the lights on the court so we could play one more game. Eventually the cops would come and tell us we had to leave. But it's the whole idea of one more game. That's why today is special, one more press conference, one more practice. Tomorrow we get to play again. Our objective is to win tomorrow so we can have one more day after that. I think our guys are really embracing that idea. Q. How did the Knights, both Bob and Pat, shape your coaching philosophy? Have you heard from Bob this week? COACH BEARD: Coach has been great to me from the day he hired me. I learned so much from him. He basically gave me an opportunity. I was a junior college coach, he gave me an opportunity to coach in the Big 12. A lot is made of my relationship with coach, but equally important is Pat Knight. I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for Pat knight. He was a friend, mentor, gave me an opportunity to be associate head coach at Texas Tech when coach retired. I learned a lot from those guys. I learned the idea of preparation. Look, everybody in basketball, every level, wants to win. You ask any player, any coach before a game, anybody would say, Yes, I want to win. Nobody would say they didn't want to win. But only a few people want to prepare to win. I really learned about the whole idea of preparation from coach and Pat among many other things. I'm very proud to be associated with that family. I'm proud of how we won, following the rules, doing it the right way. I'm proud of our academic record. I'm proud of our relationship with our players. A lot of things we do at Little Rock today are based on my relationship with Coach Knight and Pat Knight. Q. Seems so often when these mid-major teams make a run is because some guy is playing out of his mind. Do you get the sense that Josh is going to be that guy or will we see balance? COACH BEARD: Balance. We won the conference championship in New Orleans to get the seed to this tournament, and Roger Woods was the best player on the floor. A couple games before that, it was Marcus Johnson. A week before that, it was Maurius Hill. So yesterday it was Josh's moment. But balance and unselfishness is the identity of our team. We've got four or five guys that can average in double figures. We have four or five guys more that can give it on any given night. Yesterday was a special moment that Josh embraced, but there were a lot of other things going on in those moments. There were guys passing the ball, screening for Josh, spacing the floor. There were 13 guys believing in Josh and that moment. I give Josh a lot of credit, but I also want to give our team a lot of credit for making moments like that possible. Q. I'm sure you're focused on this game. Has the bigness of the tournament crept into your bubble at all? You have most of the country now rooting for you. In the present now, has it come to you at all, have you checked Twitter, watched TV, noticed the largeness of the tournament? COACH BEARD: No, I haven't. I'm just a one-day-at-a-time guy. The media in Arkansas, they kind of are getting tired of hearing it. That's just who I am. It's a process. I study Nick Saban a lot with Alabama football. Obviously I was around Coach Knight every day for eight years. I believe it's a process. The reason we beat Purdue yesterday started way back in the spring with the way we recruit, the way we work, the way we do things right, the way we teach our guys and hold them accountable, the way our guys put in time in the gym. That was a product yesterday of our process. So today right back to the process. Specifically with Twitter and my phone, you know, another story in my life, chapter 36 here. I turned my phone off yesterday at 11 a.m. before the game. I turn it back on yesterday at about 8 because I wanted to check on my youngest daughter, Margo, who isn't with me here, Avery and Ella are, Margo is with her mom, and my phone had completely blown up, I mean, like just destroyed. I have no text messages, no calls or anything. I have no idea who contacted me. So if any of my friends or family or recruits are out there, I'm not getting a big head, I'm not turning into somebody else. My phone's not working. But I hope that you'll text me again so I can thank you for the text. If anything, I think it was maybe the big man upstairs taking care of me because it really eliminated distractions. I wasn't really thinking about my phone last night. Q. A couple of your players and assistant coaches over the last couple days have talked about your halftime speeches, not just the punching. Where did that come from? How do you come up with what you want to say? What is your demeanor like? COACH BEARD: It was a combination of a lot of things. The first coach that gave me a chance to coach the Division I level was Vic Trilli at the University of North Texas. He hired me as a young, unproven assistant. I learned a lot from Vic. One of the things I learned from him was just the power of giving your players everything you got every single day. I think as coaches, I heard some guys say, You only have a couple bullets, a couple shots. Do I give the speech today or tomorrow? Coach Trilli was not like that. You can motivate those guys every day, every day. I'm not a big believer in like motivational speeches, per se, but I am a big believer in telling the guys the truth every single time we talk. If that's perceived as a speech, so be it. Every time I talk to my guys, I try to give them every benefit of every doubt. Coach Trilli was one of the best I've ever been around, he used to play John Travolta Staying Alive before games, cranking on the stereo. Travolta walking down the street with the toughness, swagger, confidence in that movie. That was one of Coach Trilli's best. I believe in telling the guys the truth every day. I don't want to be one of these guys that worries if you do too much. To me no regrets. If we're going to do it, let's do it. I would never have a regret in life by saying, Well, I coached these guys too hard, I gave them too much information or I was too hard on them. I would never feel that way. But I would regret it if I said, I didn't coach those guys hard enough, I didn't give them enough information. That's where all that comes from. Q. The Iowa State matchup, seems like conflicting styles. COACH BEARD: It is in a lot of ways. Iowa State is one of the most explosive teams. I think they're second or third in all of college basketball in offensive efficiency. One of the first things we do in preparation is we like to look at the other team's fastbreaks, transitions. That's anywhere from eight, 12, 14 clips maybe. In last night's game they had 30-something breaks. It's pretty obvious what they're trying to do obviously: push the ball up the floor. That's going to be our first objective. Then they have some special individual players in the halfcourt. They space their offense with NBA spacing. We have a lot of challenges. On the offensive end we're going to have to find a way to score against them as well. Not sure what we're going to do yet. Hope I know by about an hour before the game tomorrow. We're continuing to work on it. If anybody has a suggestion, there's a lot of basketball people here, let me know in the hallway (smiling). THE MODERATOR: Thank you for your time. COACH BEARD: Thank you very much. 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
|