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NCAA MEN'S 3RD & 4TH ROUND REGIONALS: MINNEAPOLISMarch 24, 2006Louis HinnantAl SkinnerCraig SmithMINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA THE MODERATOR: We will take an opening statement from the coach first and then questions for the student athletes. Coach, if you can -- we will take questions for -- actually, then we will -- no opening statement? AL SKINNER: No. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student athletes. Please raise your hand. Q. For Louis, can you just take us to that last possession when you had the ball? Did you get a good shot off at the end? Did you feel comfortable? LOUIS HINNANT: I thought it was the best shot we were going to get in the situation. That was a play we practiced every day in practice just about. Got a good look at it. They did a good job of contesting the shot. Q. This question is for Craig. Craig, it looked like you hurt your hand towards the end of the game. You had a tough free throw, but then you had the possession to put you ahead by 1 when you laid it in. Was that pure adrenaline going through it or were you confident having the ball there? CRAIG SMITH: It was pure adrenaline. I was in a lot of pain. I hurt my wrist. I felt confident being in that situation with the ball in my hands and I got a good look at it. Q. Louis, was it clear that your last shot beat the clock, and would it have counted if it went in? LOUIS HINNANT: I'm not sure. Once I seen the clock, there was some time left, that's why I had to force it up. I thought I had a little more time, but I am pretty sure -- I think I got it off, but I am not really sure. Q. This is for both of you guys. The theme from both of you guys being seniors is you didn't want it to stop. Is there any way to kind of put into words what's going through your minds right now? CRAIG SMITH: I can't explain. It is pretty tough. You know, we fought ourselves back into the game and, you know, we put ourselves up. They ended up making a great play, just getting a shot up, I guess. I mean, you can't really explain it. It is tough. It was a tough loss losing by one. Not much you can say. Q. Can you guys describe what happened when Sheridan got the lay-up at the end, what happened on the inbound, how he got so wide open? LOUIS HINNANT: I am not even sure. I haven't seen the play yet. Probably just a miscommunication, a wide-open basket. I haven't seen the play, so I really can't say what happened. Q. I wanted Louis to answer the previous question about the emotions at this time. LOUIS HINNANT: It's tough right now, you know, understanding, four years, you know, hard four years. Now it's over. You have to move on to something else hopefully. It is just tough, you know. This team has been -- we have been through it all and, you know, we put ourselves in some holes earlier in the season and we fall back. It is a good group of guys in the locker room. It's tough, you know, and that being the last game, I am going to play with those guys, that whole group of guys. You know, it is Craig next to me. We have been in every game together. It's just tough just to know that it's over. Q. This is for Craig and Louis. The effort that it took to get it into overtime, and then the blocked shot by Sean Williams, did you think that would be the thing that would kind of put you over the top? Did you even think about the first round game against Pacific? Did that linger in the back of your minds as you went to the huddle? CRAIG SMITH: We was just down by 3. If anybody had a good look at it, you know, they were going to shoot the ball. Obviously, Jared made a great shot. We had to lock up on the defensive end. Sean made a great defensive play. We felt the game was going towards us, going our way. I guess in the end we ended up losing. THE MODERATOR: Thanks very much, guys. You can take off. We will take questions for the coach. Q. Can you just, first off, describe the disappointment of having led by such a wide margin in the first, fought your way back from Randy Foye, it seemed like, and get into overtime and lose it by 1. AL SKINNER: Both teams are going to have a run, so we were a little surprised that they battled back. Obviously, the most disappointing thing is we just didn't do the things we had to do at the end, communicate. There was a little break down in communication, you know. They didn't have any more time-outs and I didn't think that they could -- obviously they could, but I didn't think that they could run a play that was going to give them a good enough look that we couldn't defend. We got a little overanxious, concerned about their perimeter plays running to them, and that's what led to Sheridan being open. It's just at the end we were being overly aggressive, and because of that over aggression, it led to an easy opportunity for them out of bounds. Q. I know you said that you were surprised they would run that play, but was that something -- AL SKINNER: I didn't mean to say I was surprised they would run that play. We had a good idea of the play they were going to run. It was, obviously, difficult for us to communicate that to the guys on the floor. It's just that I thought we were overly aggressive. I thought we understood what we wanted to do, but obviously we didn't get the job done. I was concerned about calling a time-out to give them the opportunity to run the play that we did know. Q. So you had practice defending that play? AL SKINNER: They hadn't scored out of bounds, the second half they hadn't scored. Again, we were overly aggressive. When they ran off the screen, both guys jump out on the perimeter guy and it left the backside open and, you know, again, we were overly aggressive. All we really wanted to do was being there to contest the shot. We were trying to deny the basketball. Because of that denial, it led to overaggression that led to the easy opportunity. Q. Al, can you just talk a little bit about the end of game situation that you just described, but it's an end of season now for Craig and Louis, ending career, what they mean to this team and this program. AL SKINNER: They took this program to new heights, I mean, as far as number of wins in a year, you know, the number of wins they have had throughout their careers. They raised the bar as far as Boston College basketball is concerned. Tremendous credit to those two individuals. You know, the thing about it is, unfortunately, this is going to stay with them for a little while, but the fact of the matter is when they look back, they will recognize what a great year that they had and a great career that they had. Q. Can you just talk about the turn-overs they were able to force on you guys with some of their quickness? AL SKINNER: There were times we were really pretty careless with the basketball. You know, we were trying too hard at times to run our offense and we didn't play -- and we didn't continue to attack the basket. When we attacked the basket, we were fine, but there were times in the game we got real passive, and what I thought were some careless turnovers. It is a credit to them that they are able to create those turnovers. The thing I am most pleased about, I think we do what we needed to do defensively. The shooting percentages were down. As it turned out, they only had one player in double figures. Overall, it was a great ballgame, great effort for us defensively. I am really pleased by that. They did what they had to do, they forced a couple turnovers and got a couple more opportunities. Overall, we pretty much accomplished what we had wanted to accomplish and that's why the ballgame was like it was. It was as closely played as it needed to be. They did some of the things they needed to, they did some of the things, and we did some of the things we needed to do. Q. Al, can you just talk about Sean Williams and his play down the stretch, especially the blocked shot that got you into overtime. Did you think about Pacific and how maybe trying to go to him to get you energized? AL SKINNER: I mean, no. We wanted him on the floor because he is clearly going to have a chance to impact the game. That's probably one of the mistakes that at the end of the game, he was on the ball trying to guard the ball out of bounds when he should have been on the floor, so that he could see and protect the basket, and that was a mistake that was made on their part because the way the defense was supposed to be matched up, everybody was supposed to match up with their man. If they would have done that, he would have been on the floor and possibly that play would not have occurred. THE MODERATOR: Thanks very much, Coach.
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