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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: SACRAMENTOMarch 17, 2017Dana AltmanDylan EnnisDillon BrooksSacramento, California THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon. I would like to introduce now the head coach and student-athletes from the victorious Oregon Ducks. Coach, I will leave it to you to get us started. DANA ALTMAN: I thought we did a lot of good things. We had a really bad stretch there for four or five minutes. Much really got it going there and really hit some tough threes. We gave him a couple easy once to start and then he hit some tougher ones and we had some turnovers there that didn't allow us to move the ball like we wanted. For the most part, I thought our guys moved the ball pretty well and made plays for each other. I thought we played hard for most of the game. Again, just a little stretch there where they got it going but they're a very good offensive team. Their guys have hit shots all year, and it's not a surprise that they hit ten threes because that's is something they have done in 20 ball games now. Q. Dillon, second time around, this year as opposed to last year, what was the sense of your confidence level coming in, and how did it play out for you? DILLON BROOKS: I feel like we got a confidence bunch. Guys are ready to play from 1-12. We got confidence in each other. Last year we made a great run, and we had a veteran leadership, but this year I feel like we got a confident bunch, and, you know, thinking about one goal and one goal only. Q. Your thoughts on the arena, the venue, and how do you like your team? Do you feel like you're still climbing and getting better at this point in the season? DANA ALTMAN: First of all, beautiful arena. Sacramento has been great to us. The downtown where we're staying, everything is very nice. I love the arena. I think it's first-class, locker rooms, everything about it. People have been great. So first of all just very appreciative of the community and how we've been treated. You know, we've made progress, and I think a lot of good things there in the game today and obviously you've got to survive and advance. If we wouldn't have had that stretch there, that four-minute stretch I would have been really happy. Good ball game. Got on the floor, didn't get anybody that many minutes, Dylan Ennis, 36; but hopefully we saved a little bit for Sunday, because we know we will have a big challenge there, Rhode Island, Kansas State, two good ball clubs. So we know we're going to have a challenge on Sunday. Q. Dillon Brooks, can you talk about your game today? Looks like you were involved in all facets of it. DILLON BROOKS: I was trying to get my teammates going. I remember in the Arizona game I was in attack mode and not looking for my teammates to get involved. I made a decision that I wanted to get my teammates involved and get 'em going. You see the result, we won by 20 and guys got it going. It opened up for me. Then with, you know, Jordan out and Chris out, I was trying to get some blocked shots and I got a couple there. I just tried to play, you know, an all-around game for my team and to advance and keep going as far as we can. Q. Coach, can you talk about the identity Dillon Brooks brings to the team when he's on the floor and maybe the identity both of them bring to the floor when they're on the floor together? DANA ALTMAN: They give us a level of physicality, them and Jordan, our three most physical players. I think that's really important. Dylan Ennis had seven rebounds, something I've been barking at him about a lot. We need that kind of presence when we are playing three and four guards Dillon Brooks is a guard/forward, so when you are playing four guards or a small forward like Dillon you've got to have all guys on the boards. So I think the level of physicality they bring is a good thing. Every now and then, you know, they've got to get that ball moving and trust their teammates a little bit. We've got a lot of guys that are very confident in their ability to score a basket, and sometimes it gets stuck on one side and we don't quite get the ball movement that we need. Other than that, they've been great to work with and they've won a bunch of games for us and their leadership has been awfully good. Q. Coach, Kavell got into foul trouble today. What does he need to do to avoid ticky-tack fouls to keep him out of foul trouble and how important is for you guys to have him down the stretch? DANA ALTMAN: Six rebounds in 14 minutes was very good. You can tell he's a good rebounder. I thought his defensive work was pretty good. He's been watching Dillon Brooks and picking up those cheap fouls just like Dillon does; and, I -- no, Velly gave us a lot to do, and if he wouldn't have taken that basket off the board and that was in that stretch where we made a lot of mental mistakes. I thought he played pretty good. We had him hedging some ball screens. He got out there a little far on one and made a mistake there, but the more experience gets, he will continue to get better and better. I thought he did his job today. He did get a couple of fouls, but I thought he was contesting the shot pretty good. It could have went either way. Q. Dylan Ennis, what did you guys show about your depth? Chris is over there dancing and whatever he can in a knee brace and you guys went out there and showed the depth you have; and for you, Dillon Brooks, Jordan Washington was a load on both ends and took some charges and how did you keep pushing him and going at him in the paint? DYLAN ENNIS: Chris out, it's tough for us. He brings so much especially on the defensive end, but we have a job to be done. Like Coach says, it's not going to be one person who does what Chris does. It's going to be all of us, whether that's two more rebounds or two more steals, you know, just shot blocking. It does show our depth not only on the offensive end because that will come but on the defensive end. I think him being out if all of us can step up on the defensive side we will be fine. DILLON BROOKS: Jordan Washington is a terrific player and he showed it today. He was hitting mid-range and he was going to the rim and he is a big load down there; but, you know, he got in foul trouble and we knew he likes to foul a lot and we limited his minutes and he still with, like, 20 minutes he had 20 points or 22 points. He's a terrific player. We were just trying to get him into foul trouble and go at him on the offensive end. Q. How did the chemistry change when Chris went out? Was it noticeable today? Is it just "next man up"? Was there much of a change on the floor? DYLAN ENNIS: I don't think the chemistry changed at all. Chris, him being on the sideline is just like him being on the floor chemistriwise. He's physically not there, but he's so much a part of our team, encouraging us. Obviously having him out there it's a different look. But if all of us stay on the defensive end and all of us stay active on defense, then, hopefully we can makeup for him being out. Q. Coach, moving forward now, what's the schedule tomorrow? Will you practice? How much benefit is it from your experience last year playing again in just a bit more than 24 hours? DANA ALTMAN: Well, we'll walk through a lot tomorrow. It will be a light practice. I think we benefit because we have so many situations like this in the Pac-12 where we play Thursday, Saturday, just a one-day break. So our guys are used to it. If they take care of themselves we will be ready to go on Sunday. Q. Dana, can you talk about the way you guys ended that first half after they had closed the gap and gotten within 1? DANA ALTMAN: Again, we have some really explosive periods where I thought we were really focused. When we dropped down just a little bit it slipped on us pretty quick because of their offensive abilities. I thought the way we ended the first half and started the second half, our focus and our ball movement, making maize for each other was really good. I think the second half started with them in a zone and we kicked it into high post to Dillon and he popped it out and got Payton a wide-open three. So end of the first half beginning of the second half I thought we made place for each other and had good movement to the offense. The only time we got in trouble is when the ball stuck on one side, but when we moved it and made plays for each other we looked pretty good. I really was happy with the way we ended that half because I thought our ball movement was good and I think they scored one of their last six or seven possessions, I can't remember the exact stat. But it was 1 for 6, I believe, to finish that half. Q. Coach, you shot 63% in the first half and a lot of those baskets were coming in the paint, easy layups. What made the difference? Obviously Iona is not that big other than Mr. Washington, but you were able to get some easy baskets. DANA ALTMAN: Yeah, our transition, we had 16 fast break points, so our transition really helped us get some easy ones. We kicked it ahead and guys got some easy baskets. We had 48 points in the paint which allowed us to get to the rim, but I thought transitionwise that's what got a lot of those easy ones. We were moving the ball side-to-side and then driving it. We had the defense spread on a lot of those opportunities which, you know, like I said, once we got the ball moving side-to-side and got the zone spread our guys were able to get to the rim. Q. Seemed like in the half court and the transition the idea to get to the hoops since they didn't have a shot blocker in there was easy? DILLON BROOKS: They were letting us go to the rim, and we were attacking really hard and that was part of the scouting report, get it into the lane and if they stop us make a play for one of your teammates or if you have a wide-open layup, make the layup but we were getting to the rim, straight line drives and making plays. DYLAN ENNIS: I think when we attack our basket not just to finish but to make plays for our teammates instead of settling for jump shots it keeps that aggression. Our team has always been aggressive to the basket and always tough to stop and I think with all our offensive weapons and our bigs down low if we can keep attacking the basket and keep making plays for each other then we will be good. Q. Dillon, were you surprised how easily your were getting layup after layup in that first half? DILLON BROOKS: I was surprised and Tyler was surprised. He could have had a dunk, and he didn't know it. But their coach was telling the bigs not to step up and look for the drop-off, and I guess that was their scouting report. But we took it to the rim, and we were finishing pretty well. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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