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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2007Geary ClaxtonEd DeChellisMike WalkerCHICAGO, ILLINOIS COACH ED DeCHELLIS: You know, I thought we got off to a great start and we got sort of stuck on 13 points for a long time, and Illinois made their run. That hurt us. In the second half, I thought we came out, and we played okay and we had a chance to win the game, and that's all we've ever asked is our guys give us a chance, and we did that. I thought the factor in the game was obviously Chester Frazier making perimeter jump shots and making threes tonight. He hasn't really shot many on the year, and he did a great job of making some big-time shots for them. Sometimes that's the difference in a game. Q. Mike, just talk about your second half. It seemed like just about everything you put up was going down. MIKE WALKER: I got it going a little bit. You know, you get down 10 or 15, I think a little more pressure goes on the shooters and the shooters have to step up and make shots, and luckily today they went in. Q. Mike, is it a little disappointing when you make shots like that when Chester Frazier is going off the way he did tonight? MIKE WALKER: Yeah, like Coach DeChellis said, that's not something we expected. You scout guys all season long and you know they do one thing and then they come out and they play big. He stepped up. He's a player in the Big Ten. He's going to step up and make shots, and I think that was the difference. Q. Mike, Chester shooting the way he did, did that remind you of some other games that you guys have had this year? MIKE WALKER: It seems like a lot of games that we've been in, someone comes up and steps up and hits shots for the other team. It's frustrating. Sometimes you can live with it when it's a guy who's shooting 40 or 45 percent for three, but the guy who's not that great of a shooter but does other things great, then he steps up and hits shots, sometimes it's a little bit frustrating. Q. Geary, did you see a change in their attitude? You got them down by 11 real early, and it kind of looked like you guys could maybe continue that. What did they do sort of attitude-wise to put themselves back into it? GEARY CLAXTON: I think they just came out a lot more aggressive, especially on defense, really pressuring us and getting into us. With Chester Frazier making shots, you know, they were feeding off him and Warren Carter. That's how they got back in the game. Q. Geary, what does it mean that you guys were able to get back in it in the last few minutes? GEARY CLAXTON: We didn't stop playing. We didn't quit. We kept playing until the end. We just came up short, but I think we gave a good effort tonight. Q. Geary, could you just sum up the season? It looks like this is sort of the end here. GEARY CLAXTON: Yeah, it was disappointing for us, but it's in the past now, so you've just got to move ahead, move forward, work hard in the off season and look forward to next season. THE MODERATOR: We can finish up with questions for Coach DeChellis, please. Q. Ed, you guys made a decision to really pack in zone. Did you just feel committed to that no matter what? COACH ED DeCHELLIS: Well, they really did a great job of manhandling us inside, (Shaun) Pruitt, (Brian) Randle and (Warren) Carter just killed us and killed us on the glass. So we thought that we would try to take that away as best we could. Now, they're good players. But we thought we would try to make somebody else step up and beat us, and tonight they did. (Chester) Frazier has, I think, made seven threes in the Big Ten season and he's got five tonight. We rolled the dice. We tried to push out on (Rich) McBride a little bit more and he didn't hurt us, but give the other kid credit. He came in and made some big shots. But we tried to not let them beat us with twos this time and make them make threes. Chester Frazier was the X factor. He played very well, and give him credit, he made some big shots for them. Q. Are those three-point shots a theme to the season when you look back on it? COACH ED DeCHELLIS: Yes, in a way. But we made some ourselves. We had ten, they had ten. We made some big shots tonight as well and had a chance. It was a little disappointing for me because I couldn't get them on the free-throw line. We can't get to the free-throw line. We tried to drive it in the second half. When we did get there, we missed some crucial free throws I thought, which was tough for us. Sometimes you've got to roll the dice, and we thought if we tried to take their post away as best we could and keep them off the glass that they couldn't make threes all night, and tonight they did. That's the sign of a good basketball team. Illinois is a very good basketball team, and Bruce (Weber) has done a great job with them. But that's kind of how it's gone for us. You play pretty well and then somebody out of nowhere comes in and makes some big shots against you. It's frustrating. But that's the way it's gone all year. Q. Could you talk about Mike (Walker) tonight and in the second half of the season? He started to find his shot a little more the past four or five games. COACH ED DeCHELLIS: You look at the numbers and he shot the ball well here the four or five games. We needed somebody to make some shots. We weren't shooting the ball very well. Mike stepped up and made some big baskets for us, so we kept trying to get him the basketball, and he continued to make some shots for us down the stretch, which was very important. Frazier was making shots, we have a guy making shots. Mike got out and did a great job tonight and ran the team very nicely. He and (David) "Mooch," (Jackson) and even Danny (Morressey) played a little point tonight. They all pitched in. Q. Sort of the same thing I asked Geary, what does it mean that you guys were able to come back and get within two as opposed to maybe losing by 12 or so? COACH ED DeCHELLIS: Well, we've been a very resilient team all year. They got us good at our place and we've had a couple games like that. Indiana last week on the road was not good, but for the most part our kids have fought back and been consistent that way. They've shown some resiliency even in the non-conference season. So it's something to look at. But I would be disappointed if we didn't come back and play hard and try to make a run at this thing. THE MODERATOR: Appreciate your time, Coach. Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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