|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 8, 2018Keith DrambotRene Castro-CaneddyWashington, D.C. Richmond 81, Duquesne 68 KEITH DRAMBOT: I think, you know, kind of disappointed with just how we played over the last month, really. Our guys gave us everything they had. But I think the biggest thing is, this is -- I'm not an architect, but that's pretty much what I am right now. I have to build this program for the future, and we made some baby steps this year. We laid a little bit of the foundation, and then we kind of died on the vine. But we went from three wins in the league to seven; we went from ten wins overall to 16. But you know, just disappointed. I'm not used to sitting in this chair and being knocked out in the first round. So we didn't play one of our better games. They played well. Our deficiencies really showed tonight, which, you know, is disappointing. Q. How does it feel to be part of this process that Coach was just talking about, where building things up and laying a foundation as a guy that's not going be to be here going forward; do you feel like you're leaving Duquesne in a better place than you found? RENE CASTRO-CANEDDY: Yeah, through my beginning years, I struggled. I think I was very blessed to get this coaching staff. I think we laid a foundation. We had an improvement from three to seven wins, but I definitely think for the future, definitely going to be top in the league. So I think I tried to lay a foundation. I'm just blessed to meet this coaching staff because they really helped me have a good senior year. Q. This is a team that was defense first, maybe the last month, as Coach alluded to, maybe not as much success on that end. Why do you think that is and how can this team moving forward continue to make defense their identity? RENE CASTRO-CANEDDY: I just think we didn't focus on our habits. I think at the end of the day, we always play like in spurts, and I think our habits really got us. Whether we built it in practice or stuff, it was just some of our habits. Like our whole team just not really focusing on details, on scouting reports. I think we kind of just did that the last month and it kind of bit us. Q. What is it about Richmond's style of play that just seemed like you couldn't get comfortable today and find a rhythm? RENE CASTRO-CANEDDY: I think they run Princeton offense, so it was a little bit difficult. Most of the guys can pass, shoot and difficult, so I think it was just difficult for us to guard. It was just a unique style of offense that's really hard to guard, and they have great players in it. Q. Like you said, you guys improved a lot this year. Do you think the team exceeded your expectations of what you thought you were going to be able to do coming into the season? RENE CASTRO-CANEDDY: I guess so. We were picked 14th and we came in tenth, and once again, we had a couple of heartbreaking losses to URI at the buzzer; St. Bonny's at home at the buzzer, and so those are the top two teams in the league. For sure we exceeded a little bit, but still much more improvement for the years to come for them. Q. Just wanted to ask two questions. One, how does this tournament prepare to your previous conference tournaments in other conferences? And Richmond put up 18 points without a single senior scoring. Is this just a nice young team or do you see them taking steps for the years to come?? KEITH DRAMBOT: Can you repeat that? I was laughing to myself when you asked the first question. Q. It's a nice young team in Richmond, they made 81 points without a single senior going. Obviously you guys are building, as well, but do you see this as the start of something really nice for Richmond? KEITH DRAMBOT: So the answer to the first question is: This tournament stinks because I'm used to playing in the Championship game. So I'm not used to getting knocked out this early. That's facetious; please don't print that. I mean, it's a good tournament. The one advantage that MAC has is they play in one spot every year, Cleveland, so everybody knows it. Good venue like this, professional arena. I think that's an advantage. That's just my take on it. But I guess when you live in Akron and Cleveland is a half hour, you really like that venue. It's a well-run tournament. It's a very good league. The second part of the question, obviously they have a good base to be championship level. At some point, they are going to have to get better depth, just like us. But he's a really good coach. He's really good at what they do. Like that's hard. You know, we had as much problem guarding him, but we couldn't -- the matchup zone is an issue, too, because you have to attack that thing inside and if you can't score inside, it becomes an issue, which gave us problems. So everything was on the perimeter. It had to be finesseful, which I really don't like, but you know, that system allows to you play with better people and it also allows to you play with worse people. So they can play fast but sometimes they play slow. And obviously they have got a good post player which really helps them -- helps the rest of them, because you have to protect the inside first, but they are -- you can tell, you know, he's a true Princeton guy, you know. Like it's no -- it's not fake. He's from Princeton, so he knows the ins and outs better than the people that run that stuff that didn't go to Princeton or played for Pete or those guys. Q. With 32 games in this season, may or may not be in the books, what are you looking at from a learning experience that you maybe had as a learning lesson that you can apply to this season moving forward? KEITH DRAMBOT: Well, first and foremost, just so we're clear on this: I'm competitive, so I'm not very happy. I really didn't -- I didn't really like the way we played at all. I hated the last month. But I also signed up for it. We're going to have a brand new team next year, obviously, with ten new guys. So we're going to have some -- a few more blocks, hopefully, to build our building, figuratively, and literally. So the good part is, I learned the league a little bit. You know, in the MAC when you've been there as long as I have, three different times, I pretty much knew what coach was going to do what, when and how they were going to play every single play we ran. Whereas this year, I really didn't know anything. I sat at the wrong bench at Rhode Island. I was on the wrong side of the floor. So like this is all new for me. Even at 60 years old, you feel like you're a first-timer at times. So look, we learned a lot more about the league. I have a really good feel for what the league is now. The interesting thing about the league is it's diverse. So different people play different ways, but most of it is on the perimeter. So that's one thing I know for sure. Q. It looked like Eric was really struggling tonight. Why do you think that was, and what does it do to the rest of the team when he struggles, particularly with rebounding? KEITH DRAMBOT: When Eric Williams has struggled this year, we haven't been very good, and so, you know, again, this is all new for him, too. That's his first conference tournament, and his first four minutes wasn't very good, right, and it affected hip. Again, the game of basketball involves handling adversity and handling prosperity, and that's an area that he's going to have to improve on is handling adversity. When things have gone well for him, he's been really good, but when things have started slowly for him, he's had some rough nights at times. So most of his is just building better practice habits and just maturing and being able to handle those things, and that's coaching, as well. Q. Talk about Kellon Taylor, what he brings to the table and what are your expectations for him going forward? KEITH DRAMBOT: That's a really good question. The thing I like best about Kellon is he's competitive. I think maybe the most competitive of anybody on our team, and the other thing I really like about him is he's emotionally engaged and the Pittsburgh people know I've said that before. He has a mouth and he opens it, and he thinks he's good, right. And so you know, he's a football player playing basketball, but he's a good basketball player. You know, we laughed in the locker room, we said, well, why does Kellon play good defense? And the answer is, because he has to, because he really isn't very good on offense, right. He gets a lot done but he's just a tough kid. Obviously comes from a winning program, and generally guys that have come from winning programs know how to compete. 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
|