|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: WICHITAMarch 16, 2018Khadeen CarringtonAngel DelgadoDesi RodriguezIsmael SanogoWichita, Kansas Q. Guys, you're coming off this win you've probably been waiting so long for. How do you now refocus and play one of the best teams in the country? KHADEEN CARRINGTON: Yeah, I think we got a good win yesterday. But we got over it, and we're just focused on playing a good game tomorrow and focused on getting a W. ISMAEL SANOGO: Yeah, I agree with Khadeen. Just gotta watch film, study their plays and what the team does and just be mentally prepared for the crowd and everything. DESI RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. Ish said it best. Just be mentally prepared about going into tomorrow's game. We're going up against a great team. And we match up well with them, but obviously that's a great team, we're looking forward to just getting a great W. ANGEL DELGADO: Yeah, like the guys said, I think we match with them really good, so it's going to be a good game, and we just gotta play hard because it's one of the best teams in the country right now. Q. For all four of you, what do you like most about Kevin as a coach and how has he grown over time in that role? KHADEEN CARRINGTON: I think he's a player's coach. He kind of asks us what we like as opposed to just making us do something. He kind of gets everybody input. So I think that's the best thing about him. ISMAEL SANOGO: I love Coach's fire and passion for the game. He makes sure he instills that in us. And it carries over on to the court. DESI RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, Coach is a person that you can always go to and talk to, and he'll understand anything you say to him. And he'll make adjustments. Just having a person like that is great to play for. Excited that I'm playing for Coach for this four years. We came together and we didn't break apart and we've been together for four years and I'm excited for that. ANGEL DELGADO: Yeah, like the guys said, Coach is probably one of -- he's like my father. He always been there for me and for all these guys. And we cannot be thankful. I would not change him for anything, any coach in the country. Q. When you came aboard four years ago, Coach's job was kind of tenuous. He hadn't kind of started winning yet. Has he ever talked to you guys about maybe in a way you almost saved his career at Seton Hall? KHADEEN CARRINGTON: No. We never had that conversation. I mean, I think we did a great job. I also think Coach did a great job, too, sticking with us, and just believing in us. And it's a team thing. It's not just one person thing. ISMAEL SANOGO: Coach put us in this position to be successful, so he saved his own job by putting us in the position to be successful. Without him, we wouldn't be as good as we are now. DESI RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, definitely. You know, we just stuck by his side. He stuck by our side. He told us to trust him after freshman year, and sophomore year we've been successful since. So a person like that it's always good to take in and listen to. He knows a lot about the game. And when he told us to trust him, we did that and we've been happy since. ANGEL DELGADO: I think we gotta appreciate Coach, everything he did for us, except what we did for him because none of us was expecting to be in this type of playing in our senior year. So we just gotta be thankful for him instead of he being thankful for us. Q. Angel, I just asked six Kansas players what their thoughts were on Seton Hall, and they all started their answer with Angel Delgado. When you hear that, what do you expect from them tomorrow? ANGEL DELGADO: They're going to come really aggressive because I'm an aggressive player. But I just love how -- I don't like playing with guys that are soft. These teams are a lot of big guys, a lot of guys that can play really good. They got great players, so I'm just really happy to play with a team like that and great players like that, great coach. Q. Khadeen, a lot of great basketball players come from Brooklyn. Is there any common thread with basketball players from Brooklyn? And also, did you play more indoors or on the playgrounds growing up in Brooklyn? KHADEEN CARRINGTON: Yeah, I think it's a common thread. I think most guards from Brooklyn is real tough. We grew up playing outside. Yeah, I definitely played more outside than inside growing up, playing in the parks and things like that. So yeah. More outside than inside. Q. You guys are four-and-a-half point underdogs. A lot of people expect Kansas to win. They're at home. They have probably about 95 percent of the crowd. Tell me why you guys are going to advance and why you can pull this upset? KHADEEN CARRINGTON: Just staying focused. You know, we know we're playing against them, we're playing against their fans. But I think if we block them out and just focus on our game plan, that we can do something special. ISMAEL SANOGO: Can't get caught up in the numbers. I'm pretty sure a lot of people had North Carolina State winning, too. We just have to focus on the game plan and you know, execute. DESI RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, we play in the Big East conference, so you know, we're just approaching this game as any other. We play against great teams all year, so I think we're prepared for that type of crowd and the atmosphere. But we're excited, and our mindset gotta be to go in and win. We're playing a great team, but if we go in with our focus and go play our basketball, Seton Hall basketball, I think we'll be in great shape to win. ANGEL DELGADO: Like Desi say, we play in the Big East. When you play in the Big East, you always expect big things when you go to somebody else court. I think we're kind of used to that. We've been playing for all four years and great teams, so I think we're ready for the battle. Q. Rebounding isn't one of KU's strengths, and obviously it is one of yours, not just rebounding, but you're all big and physical. Can you just talk about using your big build, physical play to be able to gain an advantage off the glass? KHADEEN CARRINGTON: Well, we got the best rebounder in college basketball, but everybody knows that, so a lot of guards try to throw a lot of plays at him, and that forces us to rebound. And I think when the guards rebound, we can push and get easy buckets. So I think that will be a big thing tomorrow. ISMAEL SANOGO: Yeah, Andrew gets a lot of attention because obviously he's the best rebounder in college basketball. So that actually makes it easier for us to come in and rebound. Because teams are sending like three, four guys at him and leave us open. So you know, we just pick up the scraps. DESI RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, I know, Coach has been screaming on me a lot all season just to help Angel rebound the ball. But when you got him on your team rebounding the ball, you don't want to go in there and rebound it; just let him get it all. I know Coach been drilling me to get in there and help him. And he said when I rebound when we get out and push, we find open shots for Khadeen and Myles like that. That's my focus, going to help Angel rebound tomorrow. ANGEL DELGADO: Yeah, it's going to be really good going against these guys, but when these guys rebound, like what they just said, we play good. Khadeen got a lot of rebounds, Desi, Ish gotten rebounds. It was great. Because they was sending two guys to box me out. So every time we get rebounds we play great. So if everybody on the team can rebound, I think we got a great chance to win the game. Q. You touched on how battle tested you are playing in the Big East, four games against one seeds already. How does this challenge with Kansas compare to taking on Xavier or a Villanova? And then for each of you, what concerns you the most about Kansas? KHADEEN CARRINGTON: Yeah, we played Xavier twice. We played Villanova twice. Those are two great teams. Repeat the question again. I forgot, bro. Q. How does the challenge compare to taking on other one seeds, and specific to Kansas, what concerns you? KHADEEN CARRINGTON: I think with Kansas you just gotta limit Graham. And that's on me because I'm starting on him tomorrow. So just limit his shots, make everything hard for him, because everything goes through him. So I think if you cut off the head of the snake, you know, it's going to be hard for them to do a lot of things. ISMAEL SANOGO: Like most one seeds, they never beat themselves. So you gotta force them into making turnovers and messing up. So that's what our focus is going to have to be. We know they're going to run their offense sharp. They're going to be crisp, and we just gotta get them out of their rhythm, not let them run their stuff. DESI RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, I think if we contain the ball, I know their guard play is real tough. We've seen teams like that in the Big East, like I said. Every night in the Big East, you see a different team of guards, play four guards out. But I think it's just our focus is to go in there and defend. I think if we make them uncomfortable, I think we get them out their offense, and like Khadeen says, slow down Graham because all the offense runs through him, I think we'll be good. ANGEL DELGADO: Yeah, everything the guys say is great, but we gotta stop people in turn season today. They get a lot of threes in turn season. If we play good a turn season difference, I think we're going to be able to give them a hard time tomorrow. Q. Khadeen, to use a New York analogy, Kansas basketball out here is like the New York Yankees in New York. What kind of atmosphere do you expect in this arena tomorrow? KHADEEN CARRINGTON: I expect it to be real loud. You know, the fans are going to be into it. Their team is going to be into it. But we're going to be into it also. So I expect a great atmosphere tomorrow. It's going to be a fun game. Q. Khadeen, Graham is obviously one of the best players in the country, he's a Naismith finalist. What kind of challenge is it for you? You obviously faced Jalen Brunson, you've faced some of the best point guards in the country. What do you think it's going to be like facing him and how excited are you about this challenge. You're going to obviously be Primetime. Everyone is going to be watching. KHADEEN CARRINGTON: I'm really excited. He's a great guard. I also faced great guards all year. We've got Brunson in the Big East, we got the guards from Marquette, Colorado, from Providence. So it's just another test for me and also for my guys. So I'm excited for the matchup. Q. Angel, we're going to be showing the game tomorrow tonight in Dominican. I'd like to ask you if you can answer in Spanish. Message for the Dominican people who are going to be watching tomorrow night the importance of the game. ANGEL DELGADO: I respond to you in Spanish? This is the first time they asked me that. (Laughs). (Answers in Spanish). MODERATOR: Can we please have Angel say that in English. ANGEL DELGADO: I'm really excited to be part of ESPN International because that's what I grew up doing. I grew up watching, too. And it's really exciting to see my family be able to see me clear. I'm just ready for the battle and representing every Latino out there. Q. So you come from a country that's just crazy about baseball, but basketball is growing. (Question in Spanish). ANGEL DELGADO: (Answer in Spanish). Now in English? (Laughs). I'm really excited for how the basketball in my country is growing because before, we only talk about baseball and baseball every single day, nobody talk about basketball. Now they -- a lot of guys from the DR come in here and have the opportunity to play in this type of level of basketball has got a really chance to make the NBA, and I'm really happy to see how the basketball is growing in my country. Q. Guys, everyone back home is pretty excited about what you guys did the other night, but the question I'm getting from fans and people is can they do it again, can they knock off Kansas. Could you each tell me why you think you can win this game and move on to the Sweet 16? KHADEEN CARRINGTON: Yeah, like I said before, I think if we stay focused, if we play our brand of basketball, you know, box out, get rebounds, run-outs and also kind of contain them, I think we can get the W. ISMAEL SANOGO: And it's March. This is what March is all about, upsets, you know, great basketball and all that type of stuff. You know, we are a veteran team and we are facing another good team. We're just going to come out here and compete and battle, and I feel like if we give it our all, we can come out there and beat them. DESI RODRIGUEZ: Just like Ish said, it's March, anything can happen. But if you've been watching Seton Hall basketball all year, I feel like we got better as a team. We came closer. We practiced a lot. We pushed each other to get better, and as the year has been going on, we've been getting better as a team winning games. I know I've been out for a few games, but I'm getting back in the rotation slowly and I'm happy for that and I'm ready to take on this challenge. ANGEL DELGADO: Yeah, it's two great teams playing basketball. It's not about who is better and who is not better. It's all about who will win in the last minute, who will win the game. So we just gotta go and play hard, go I have our all and leave everything on the floor because at this time of year we don't have nothing to lose. You lose, you go home. Q. Angel, you mentioned you thought you match up well with Kansas. What specifically do you think makes it a good matchup for Seton Hall? ANGEL DELGADO: Yeah. They're physical. They're a physical team. I watch a lot of film, and they're a physical team. That's something that is really important. So that's how we play, that's how we like to play. So that's why I say it's going to be a great matchup. 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
|