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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2007Gary ErvinStan HeathDarian TownesSonny WeemsATLANTA, GEORGIA THE MODERATOR: Coach, would you begin. STAN HEATH: I thought we played very well today, as well in that second half as we've played all year. South Carolina, we were worried about them because I know Tre' Kelley has the ability to just dominate a game. And I give our defense a lot of credit for just trying to make it tough for them. Trying to just make him take as many tough shots as he could. And I thought our players really stepped up and responded. We were good on the boards. We were phenomenal just taking care of the basketball. If we could do that all year long, we'd win a whole lot of games. So hopefully that is a start of us continuing to make progress in this tournament. Q. Gary, four turnovers, that's a lot lower than you've been all year. What is the reason for that? And did you sense you guys being able to take care of the ball like that coming in? GARY ERVIN: Coming into this game, Coach just told us if we can control the basketball, we'll win this ballgame. We did a good job of that. And every time we don't turn the ball over, we'll win, and we played as a team today. Q. For Sonny, when did you find out you were going to be covering Tre' Kelley, and can you talk a little about the assignment there? SONNY WEEMS: I think I found out at the Vanderbilt game, and I was like hey, it must be crazy to have me guard Tre' Kelley. But, you know, I've got confidence in myself, I'm a great defensive player, and I think I did a great job. It wasn't all about me, you know, it was a team effort. Q. Can you expand on why you thought it was crazy, I mean, just the match-up? SONNY WEEMS: Because he's a smaller guard, he's a good dribbler. And I think, you know, we guard a great guy like that, he's going to have problems. I thought I was going to have a lot of problems guarding him because he's a lot quicker. But I think I did a great job. Q. Kind of for everybody, I guess start with Gary, but you guys were really going there in the second half. It was 12 shots in a row you guys made, what was going through your head the whole time? Did it feel like you could do anything, and nothing would go wrong? GARY ERVIN: Coming out of the half, we knew we were up seven points. We were going to try to make a big one run, and coming back, they hit a big three, and we just answered that. And we came out and fired on defense, and it gave us easy opportunities to score on transition. DARIAN TOWNES: Oh, we just came out real strong after that. Playing hard basketball. We just wanted to get right back at them and just beat them like how we did today. SONNY WEEMS: We came out, after we hit that three, we came back into the game with a high intensity. We wanted to come back at them and try to match their intensity level, and I think we did that. Q. For any of you guys, maybe with Darian, start with you, I know you guys aren't keeping tally marks on how many consecutive baskets you make, but what was your mindset when that streak was going on about midway through that half? DARIAN TOWNES: Just keep pushing the lead off more and more. We saw we were up by 20, we just wanted to keep attacking them, and just going right at them inside and out. Every shot that we took it went in. Everybody on the team played real good. Everything was real positive, nothing negative today. Q. Darian, just talk about how y'all kind of wore them down inside by running guys at them, and just keeping the pressure on them going inside. DARIAN TOWNES: We got a lot of depth than what South Carolina has. They kind of played their starting five throughout the whole game, and it was kind of wearing out when we had that run. We got a lot of transition baskets and a lot of fast-break baskets. Every shot that each player shot it went in, and we just played real hard and wanted to beat them. Q. Gary, Sonny, can you y'all talk about what goes through your head when Darian gets a steal, runs the floor, gets a dunk. When Steven dives on the floor, tips it to Beverley, how much more does that make y'all get going? GARY ERVIN: Well, we get going, and it sparks us when our big guys run the floor and get in the pass lane and get steals. Dominate on the floor. Coach has been asking that from the guards throughout the whole season. And our big guys kind of showed us up this afternoon. SONNY WEEMS: Oh you know, it kind of fired us up. We're used to Steve doing it in practice, but when Darian's doing it, it's kind of a surprise, and it gets everybody pumped up. So it's kind of great when Darian does it. Q. Gary, any thoughts on playing Vanderbilt again so quickly? GARY ERVIN: Well, we know we beat them on Senior Day, but that win is behind us. It's a new season, and they're a very tough team. We know we're going to get their best shot. And we're going to go back to our hotels and prepare for them. Q. Just for Sonny or Gary, can you talk about Tre' Kelley as a player and defending him. This was his last game. Just what it was like to go up against him. SONNY WEEMS: You know, it's great going against that player. He's a pro. So it's great guarding a player like that, because he's very good, you know. And I give credit to Stefan Welsh because he helped me out a lot with guarding him. It was all about a team effort. And I think we played good, quality team defense against them. THE MODERATOR: We've got to excuse the players. You can return to the locker room. Q. Can you just add to sort of when you started thinking, how far back did you think, I'm going to change the defense if we see South Carolina again, on Kelley, specifically? STAN HEATH: Right after we played Vanderbilt. That night it was an early game. We got back early enough where I was able to watch some film not only on the plane, but watch some film at home. And I just felt a taller defender would be a better match-up against him. He just has that ability to stare you down, get you to drop your hands and just raise up and shoot it. And I realized that we probably weren't going to stop him. But I just wanted him to have to take tougher shots and really work. I think Sonny doesn't give himself enough credit of how quick he is, and how athletic he is that he can bother people. Hopefully this is one of those games where his confidence grows defensively when he has to match up against other players. Q. Stan, what in particular did you see about everybody not turning the ball over? Four turnovers, that's way lower than you could have even expected, so I know you're pleased with that. STAN HEATH: You know, it's funny, when you're in a game there are things happening you don't even realize are happening. I saw it at halftime, and I saw the stats and said, wow, we only turned it over a couple of times, and never thought about it again until I saw the end of the game. We only turned it over four times for the game. It's just like the shots, you're talking about consecutive shots, I have no idea of us making that many shots. You just get caught in the moment of what you need to do defensively and offensively. So you don't really think about those things. I thought as a whole, looking at it in general, I thought we're playing really well right now. We're playing like a well-oiled machine offensively and defensively, and those were my thoughts. Q. Stan, I know you're playing well defensively, but is it realistic to expect Vanderbilt to shoot 61% again, the way they've been shooting the ball all year? STAN HEATH: Is it realistic? Anything's possible. I know they're going to be very aggressive shooting the three. They're a great three-point shooting team. I know it's going to be hard to keep them at those kind of percentages. I also have confidence that I think we have the number one defensive field goal percentage defense in the league. So I think we're capable of doing some things that maybe some other teams aren't able to do. Q. Coach, in the locker room several of your players said that you made it a point to tell them that this week was not about you, it was about them and extending their careers. Can you talk a little about how you've had to address that with them? STAN HEATH: I don't think there is a whole lot to talk on that. You know we just live in this world right now that's internet and talk, and media, and this, that and the other, when you're 18-, 19-, 20-year-olds you get distracted quickly if you start listening and reading things. My primary goal is to keep our guys focused on the task at hand, just let whatever happens, happen. When we're playing together, we're playing hard out there and we're having a little fun. Those are my three words I've been talking to them the whole time. When we're doing that, we're a pretty good basketball team, and that's the way I wanted our team playing, that is it. Q. You talked about extending the lead in the second half, and your two starting big guys are on the bench, and the guys came off the bench. You extended the lead with your back-up big guys on the floor? STAN HEATH: Well, it's a little deceptive about that. Michael Washington might be playing as well as any of my big guys right now. Because he's a freshman I just don't start him, that's all. And Darian, we all know Darian can really get it going at times and he can be one of the tougher post guys to defend in our league when things are clicking for him. So we have a lot of depth at that particular position. It's one of the strengths of our basketball team. I thought we utilized it pretty well today, going inside and trying to attack them in the paint. But there is really no fall-off. You can look at all four of my big guys and make an argument who is your starter, who could come off the bench, and you wouldn't be wrong. Q. Stan, you guys have 19 wins, 8 wins against teams with 20 or more wins, playing one of the toughest conferences in the country. Do you think that should be enough right now to get you an NCAA bid? STAN HEATH: I don't know. I know that I feel in my heart if we played in some other conferences, we'd have a lot better conference record right now. I feel we did do quite a bit in the non-conference season improving ourselves. I think sometimes when you beat teams that you know are going to be in the tournament, you do well. I think that says a lot about your team itself. But I think we've got to continue to win. We just can't leave it to chance. We've got to win games and that's the attitude I'm taking. Q. Stan, just in general, what are the biggest challenges for trying to beat the same team twice in a span of five days? STAN HEATH: I know one thing, that they weren't happy, and I know that there'll be a little extra motivation for Vanderbilt to play very well against us and go after us. They've had some extra days to prepare for us, where we've totally been focused on South Carolina. The only good thing is we were their last game, so in a way if we play somebody way back when they only had a day prep, it might be a lot harder. We've got our hands full. Derrick Byars is as good as it comes in our league, and Shan Foster. They've got a lot of weapons, lot of experience. They run very good offense, they play hard defensively. It is a sound, sound basketball team. So we've got to throw that game away, other than trying to figure out what we did well in the film and take some things from there, learning-wise and preparation-wise, but we've got to play for 40 minutes. Q. Stan, Sonny said in the locker room he was kind of surprised when you guys came to him and said, "You're guarding Kelley." Talk about the strategy of that. Obviously it worked out great. STAN HEATH: I'm glad he never told me he didn't have confidence himself to do it, because it would have made me a little bit more reluctant. I just thought, you know, we don't have the tallest guards. We have relatively smaller guards on the perimeter. I just felt we needed a bigger presence to keep a hand up on him when he was trying to go one-on-one. It wasn't one particular guy. Stefan and Sonny did a great job, but there was a lot of switching and helping out. There were a couple times we went to the basket and blocked it. There were a couple of times we messed up and dropped off the scores, too. We just felt if we could cut off the head, it would give us our best chance to win. We didn't cut the head off, but we put a little sliver in his neck at least. Q. Steven's hustle play, was that the spark that got you going? STAN HEATH: I thought that was the play of the game. To see a big guy like that, lay it out there, dive on the floor, and I didn't think he had much of a chance. That was an unbelievable play. And Pat got the benefits of scoring, but it was that play that made it go, and I do think it gave us a lift as a basketball team. I saw guys jumping up and down and fired up about it. It gave us a good spark. End of FastScripts |
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