|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: SPOKANEMarch 19, 2016Phil MartelliDeAndre' BembryIsaiah MilesAaron BrownSpokane, Washington THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with questions for the student-athletes. Q. DeAndre', you kind of have a rep of being the best player in the country that no one knows about. I think most of us have gotten a crash course in your game, but what do people need to know about you and your personality? DEANDRE' BEMBRY: Well, I'm a team type of guy. The team's first to me. I guess I'm a secret, or I guess I was a secret, but these guys know that I was always the same player, I was always this confident. And I'm just trying to win games and it doesn't matter what way it comes. If I have to score the ball or if I have to pass the ball, I'm just trying to figure out ways to win the games and that's what I've been doing most of my career. Q. What do people need to know about him, do you think? ISAIAH MILES: I think that last night people got a glimpse of it, but his fire and his mentality. He's a competitor, and he wants to win. I think that a lot of people definitely got a glimpse of just how his demeanor on the court, he's a competitor. He wants to win. He wants to win every game. I think me and Aaron, we feed off of that and that definitely -- and it's always the team. We try to match his energy and match his fire. AARON BROWN: Yeah, one thing I can say, one word I would use to describe him as a player, is selfless. Because he shares the ball, usually you see a superstar and it's like, okay, they're going out to get theirs. It's like he really goes out of his way to get us going before he gets himself going sometimes. And those kind of players are special, and we really appreciate that. Q. I want to go back to that game-winning assist you had last night. One of the options on the play would have been you driving to the basket. But it just seemed like really quick into the shot clock you wanted Isaiah to be able to hit that game-winning three. What was going through your mind there? DEANDRE' BEMBRY: It was either a pick and pop or me driving to the rim. The defense came both -- they both jumped on me, and I just made a simple pass to Isaiah Miles, that's one of his best shots in his career, but that's pretty much it. He hit so many jump shots like that throughout his career, just wide open jump shots, and I think it was just a bigger moment for him. He knocked it down for us, and I'm glad that he did. Q. What was your reaction after that shot, after his first game winning shot? DEANDRE' BEMBRY: The reaction was get back on defense. It was about six seconds left, or seven seconds left. Plenty of games where you lost in a matter of point seconds, five seconds, so, definitely, get back on defense and try to get a stop, and that's what we tried to do. Q. Obviously, that last-second shot by Cincinnati was called off. Kind of a two part question for all three of you. After winning an emotional game like that, and then seeing how Oregon handled Holy Cross, would you rather be in the position that you are, where you had that last-second win? Or would you rather have dominated your opponent going into this second game? AARON BROWN: I think the controversy is good, because it helped us grow. So, we grew some last night. Because earlier in the year, we would lose games like that. I thought it was good for us as growing and learning. We learned a lot from last night and if we can transform or put that into this Oregon game, we will be a lot better off. ISAIAH MILES: We grew last night from that. But I think it also shows that we have a lot more in the tank and a lot more to show for tomorrow. Last night probably wasn't our best defensive game, and I think we can play a lot better defense and hopefully, we get a chance tomorrow to show -- step up on that side of the court. DEANDRE' BEMBRY: I would say it doesn't really matter. We won. We'll take a win however, especially when it's a win or go home, you'll take any type of win. It would have been fun to go into overtime again. Cincinnati's been in so many crazy games like that throughout this year, but I'm happy it didn't count. But like I said, a win is a win, and we definitely will grow from it. Q. I was curious, do you have a favorite player that you tried to model your game after? DEANDRE' BEMBRY: I try to model my game after so many different people. Q. Like who? DEANDRE' BEMBRY: You can go from Scottie Pippen to Steve Francis to Tracy McGrady. It's just so many different people I try to model my game after. Try and get bits and pieces from each different type of guys. You can ask these guys in practice, if I do a fade away or something, I'm like, "Kobe", or I say "T-Mac" or little things like that. But I try to get bits and pieces from different guys, no matter if it's a point guard or a center. Q. Isaiah, same question for you, who do you try to model yourself after? ISAIAH MILES: Definitely one of my favorite players in the hometown kid, Carmelo Anthony. I grew up watching him. Always had a smooth stroke, always moved around with the ball, he's great without the ball. Same with Reggie Miller, just moving without the ball. Yeah, I definitely grew up watching him and that's what I try to model my game after the most. Q. What kind of outside reaction did you hear from the world, whether it was back home or anywhere else in the world after last night? ISAIAH MILES: Just a bunch of different reactions. Just from either calling me the Prophet Isaiah, people calling me, texting me, saying, thank you, thank you. Guys mad at me for messing their bracket up. Guys telling me, they're going to eat a Baconator in honor of me. Just a bunch of mixed reactions, but all positive and all motivational. Q. Do you remember where the Prophet Isaiah came from? I mean like in the last day, who was calling you that? ISAIAH MILES: Oh, just a bunch of, like, St. Joseph's fans were tweeting out to me saying that. Q. Looking at the lineup for Oregon, they got a bunch of players sort of like you, that's what they talked about, too, about their versatility, a bunch of wing type players, 6'-5", 6'-6", 6'-8". For all three, how do you guys feel about the matchup? AARON BROWN: I personally like the matchups, because like you said, across the board, they're similar to us in style and height and weight and stuff. So I think it's going to be a very, very good game tomorrow. ISAIAH MILES: Same what Aaron said. We matchup to them pretty well. They don't have one guy that's too big like Cincinnati had DeBerry. He was hard to get off the glass, but they don't have a guy that is hard to stop. We'll just try to come and play our game and just be strong. DEANDRE' BEMBRY: I just think that it's going to be a really good game. Very fast and up-tempo type of game because even their centers dribble the ball and shoot threes. So it's very similar to Isaiah when he's the five and then we run Aaron at the four sometimes or pop him out when he's in, so there's going to be a lot of shooting, a lot of running, and I'm looking forward to it. Q. Before yesterday have you guys watched the Ducks at all? Do you know -- did you know anything about them coming into this? You don't, I'm guessing, you don't get the Pac-12 Network. AARON BROWN: Not at all. From what we see on ESPN like high-lights and stuff, but other than that. Q. What did you think of them when you saw the highlights? AARON BROWN: I thought they were a fast team, I really didn't see much. I just would see scores and box scores and like man, they're kicking butt. Other than that, no, I haven't seen any, anything. ISAIAH MILES: No, I haven't watched them until this morning when we watched scout and watched their film. I haven't watched -- that's probably the first time I ever seen them play. DEANDRE' BEMBRY: Yeah, same thing. We were too focused on the season we were having and we weren't really paying them that much attention, but now we are. Q. Do you guys like playing someone that you don't know anything about? When the bracket was first released were you looking at it thinking that would be a really fun matchup for us at some point or do you care? AARON BROWN: I really don't care personally because once you get between the lines, it's you and them. And none of that matters any more. So, that's how I look at it. Once we get playing tomorrow, it's us versus them and we got to be ready to go. ISAIAH MILES: To me, I think it's really exciting playing a new team getting out of the A-10, who we seen guys multiple times, we played guys multiple times, so getting out of that and playing a team that you never played before, it kind of showed us, shows where we lineup at and it's like a test for us and I think we're all ready to step up to that test. DEANDRE' BEMBRY: It's definitely another test for us. We don't want to go home. On film they look great as a team. They're a good team off of penetration, all the guys can shoot well, so I'm just looking forward to getting it going. Q. A lit question. Are you worried about their uniforms blinding your eyes? AARON BROWN: They do have some funky uniforms. I will give them that. But I don't think that's going to distract us in any way. ISAIAH MILES: No, I was talking to Marie she said it's going to be crazy out there with our burgundy, their bright yellow, it's going to be a hard game to watch visually. But, no, just go out and play. DEANDRE' BEMBRY: Yeah, just got to be ready. Definitely watched those guys, they always have some crazy jerseys on every year. I would look forward to if we could switch Nike uniforms, and get some wild jerseys like that, some bright colors, that would be fun. THE MODERATOR: Variations of burgundy, maybe. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. We'll have Coach Martelli up in a moment. (Pause.) THE MODERATOR: All right. We'll take questions for coach. Q. Looking at the lineups, a lot of forwards, a lot of wings with an ability to do a bunch of different things. Both teams like the up tempo. What do you see with this matchup, especially with their lineup? COACH MARTELLI: Well, their size is of grave concern. Brooks and Cook really score the ball. Benson's assist to turnover, I think I've raised -- the two times I've talked to my team, I think I've taken it from 5-1 to 6-1. I think the last time in the locker room just now I think I told them it was 8-1, it was the most unusual assist to turnover. But he's perfect. He knows what his role is for their team. I think they're faster than we are, but I do agree with your assessment about the tempo of the game. We would like the game to be at that tempo, maybe not to 80, like they want to get, but 75 is all right with us. 76 would be all right for us. And I don't think either team is a knock them out, three-point shooting team. So this is going to be about straight line drives. And they have the added advantage or component to their game where the lobs, you can't guard the ball when it's that high in the air. So, they're deserving of a No. 1 seed. I did not know, I will admit, I did not know that they were No. 5 in the country in the final polls, but they deserved that. And they're a team that you could see in Houston in two weeks. Q. How have you seen Isaiah handle success this year, his personal success? COACH MARTELLI: That's a really great question. Because the flip side is, I saw him last year handle disappointment, and he didn't handle it very well. We played Denver last year. We set up a little wrinkle for him, last second shot, the ball went in and came out, and we lost. And I don't think he made a basket the next three games. He was despondent. Now, the other thing that he did last year, is he was into all these gyrations, this thing and whatever this thing is, and he did all those things when he made a shot. Well, you're supposed to make a shot. You practiced the shot, you're supposed to make the shot. And this year, he's a happy year guy is the way I would describe it. It's the success breeds success. But his attention to detail academically has been superb. He'll graduate in May. He makes eye contact. Just, this is just a wonderful story for him and for us, because our younger players can end up emulating what he has done in this year. Q. You've said yourself that DeAndre' has kind of been flying under the radar. Yesterday they called him on the broadcast the best player in the country that no one knows about. He's really, really good. I don't understand how he's kind of flown under the radar. COACH MARTELLI: Well, I think you fly under the radar when you win 13 games your sophomore year. But if you go back, think about this, in the Atlantic 10, which is an extraordinary league, extraordinary, with extraordinary players, extraordinary coaches, venues that are second to none, commissioners and administrators, this is serious, serious basketball. He won an Atlantic 10 championship when he was a freshman, he was the co-Rookie of the Year, he comes back his sophomore year. Calling it the way it is, if we were better, he was the Player of the Year in the Atlantic 10 last year. He's the Player of the Year pre-season, he finishes that goal. He makes the all defensive team. Although we -- I've made him give that trophy back. Because in the last week he gave up 47 to one guy and 28 to another guy. So he's not accepting that award. We're going to save the league money by telling them, you can keep that trophy. He's not flown under the radar in the basketball world. All 30 teams came through, multiple times they have come through. He's going to have a chance, as long as he decides, he's going to have a chance to go to the combine and be measured. And maybe one more win and people will realize when you wrote out your All-American Teams, he should have been on one of the three All-American teams. Q. What's your favorite thing about him? COACH MARTELLI: Well, obviously, we share the same hair products, he and I. So that's my favorite thing about him. My favorite thing about him is, he talks to me. He doesn't talk at me, and I don't talk at him. We talk with each other. And in a lot of these situations today, young guys don't like to talk. They don't like to kind of open themselves up to kind of, not touchy feely, but they don't want to open themselves up that you might sense some vulnerability. That's not the way it is with him. He talks to me, and I will be eternally grateful for that. Q. I know yesterday -- COACH MARTELLI: Good job by the way. Q. Yeah, thank you. COACH MARTELLI: Keep the feet on the ground. You know what I mean? You don't have to put them over the chair. You're my man now. You're my man now. Q. I know last night you were kind of hearing about all the buzz and how people were celebrating in Philadelphia. Were you maybe able to experience that last night? COACH MARTELLI: No, I didn't get much of what went on in Philadelphia. I got about a 10 second clip from a building on our campus that they call the Perch, where the kids watched the game. I got all kind of reports that they shut down City Line avenue, which is the main Street between our campus and the Lower Merion side of campus. I don't know if that's true. But today, it's been -- the texts and the e-mails from people saying, I was at such and such a place, I was at a school social and the place erupted. I got a text from the Boeheims, who are friends of ours, saying they were in St. Louis and it was crazy. And I'll just give you this. And this is not like me, because I don't -- I don't really think of myself this way, but this morning at five o'clock in the morning, I got a text from Calipari. And at 5:05 I got one from Geno Auriemma. They were both looking for suggestions for their games today, to see if I could give them some ideas on a last-second play. Geno needed it because up 50 at half. He needed a last second play. But Calipari told me that he thought it was a big deal that the Catholics could advance. So, that win touched a lot of people, none more than the Philadelphia story, when you have Villanova in the afternoon, you have Temple with that crushing loss, and then with St. Joseph's. Philadelphia loves college basketball, and they love winning. Q. I know you said yesterday your son was let go from Delaware. Were you able to talk to him after the win and what was he telling you and feeling? COACH MARTELLI: He told me that on a bad day, we helped. So thank you for asking. Q. I think a lot of people who watch this tournament and love this tournament don't fully understand how stressful it is for coaches. Tony Bennett collapsed, Sean Miller is sweating through his shirt the other day. Can you have fun during this or is it like the most stressful time of the year for you? COACH MARTELLI: You could have a lot of fun, but you have to look at the faces of the people that are around you. I think that if you let on that it's stressful for you, it brings stress to everybody around you. And at the end of the day, we're playing a game, and the coaches calling it the way it is, we get paid a lot of money for this game. But if you can see the faces of people and the joy that's coming from their eyes, that makes it all worthwhile. Stressful is a good word. I haven't been to sleep yet. I was up -- I stay up all night after every game, win or lose. So, this has been no different and, yeah, that puts a lot of stress. You need the people around you, your family, if they're with you, or your support staff who are with you, to get it that you have these idiosyncrasies and that it has to be treated normally. That -- like, for us to watch more than half an hour of tape on Oregon would be letting our players know that this is bigger than just a game tomorrow. So, I have a lot empathy for coaches. But I do think that if you can take in the faces of the people around you, that then it's -- you can relieve some of the stress. And you have to have something. You have to have something, whether it's read the newspaper. Q. So what's your thing? COACH MARTELLI: Whether it's to walk around, whatever it is, I'll never ever forget this, I'll never ever forget this scene. In I understand Indianapolis I was in a workout room looking out on the street in I understand Indianapolis and I saw this guy walking up the street in a gray T-shirt and gym shorts. And it was Brad Stevens. He was about 19 years old, he was going to coach in the Final Four in his hometown and he's walking down the street and Seth Greenberg was next to me and I turned to Seth and I said, what are you doing on a day of a game? He said, I'm on my ninth cup of coffee. He said, what are you doing? I said, I'm in my room, I'm praying to saints that the Catholic church doesn't even recognize, because I think they might have an influence on the game. And here is this kid is walking down the street. So, you know, to each his own. But it's a tremendous way to make a living. Q. How much do you think people on the East Coast know about this Oregon basketball team, the guys earlier were saying that they don't see a lot of the games, they're on late at night, it's hard to get the Pac-12 Network, do you think your people in your part of the country know a lot about them? COACH MARTELLI: No idea. No zero. And that's -- this is my livelihood and I'm saying to you, until I heard on the broadcast that they had finished the season No. 5, I had no idea. I knew this: Dana Altman, when he was at Creighton, we played them one time in the Palestra, we still haven't guarded them. They scored as many points as they wanted to. And I knew what a fabulous, fabulous coach he was. But if you said to our players, did Oregon win the PAC-12 or did Arizona? They would lean to Arizona. As would basketball people in Philadelphia. It's not disrespectful, it's just, at a certain point in time -- all of you are fans -- at a certain point in time, you have to be honest. You turn the TV off. You can't watch any more games. So, Big Monday, at midnight, is no longer Big Monday, it's Tuesday morning. So, they're fabulous. They're as good -- up close and personal, I know what Villanova looks like and I know Villanova could end up in Houston and I know Oregon could end up in Houston. So to the fan in Philadelphia, or the East Coast, they have no idea. THE MODERATOR: All right. 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
|