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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: SPOKANE

March 15, 2007

SPOKANE, WASHINGTON

THE MODERATOR: We have Arkansas players. We have Gary Ervin and Steven Hill. We'll start down here.

Q. I know it doesn't directly relate to you, but based on the football game that USC and Arkansas played, you guys are sports fans, could you talk about that a little bit being in your mind and maybe wanting to pay back or wanting to beat USC in basketball. Does that affect you at all?
GARY ERVIN: I don't think it affects us at all. It's kind of two different sports. We kind of know the rivalry that's been going on for the past two years with the football team. It's just a game that we feel we have to win to just advance to the next round.
STEVEN HILL: I agree with Gary on that one. It doesn't affect us. We're all friends with the football players. So we'd definitely like to get it back, obviously.

Q. I'm just curious what the last few days have been like for you guys hearing a lot of critics out there saying that you guys didn't belong in the tournament.
GARY ERVIN: After getting off the plane we kind of got home and just watched the television for a little while. We listened to everything the experts were saying.
The matter of fact is we're in, regardless of what anybody has to say, and we're going to go out there to win ball games and not worry about what anybody else has to say but our coaches staff, and teammates.
STEVEN HILL: We've been surrounded with a lot of negativity for the past two or three weeks. We're kind of used to that at this point. We've definitely come together through that. It's nothing new for us. We're just plugging away.

Q. What's your body clocks like after being in the Eastern Time Zone last week and then make the trip out here.
STEVEN HILL: I personally feel good. Any time you got a three and a half hour flight you're tired. It wasn't really hard to adjust last night. I think we'll be ready to go with no affect from that.
GARY ERVIN: The best thing that happened for us is we didn't have practice as soon as we got off the plane. Our team is well-rested. We're just excited being in the NCAA tournament. We feel we have a lot of basketball left in us.

Q. I'm wondering, you guys have studied USC's play in the last few days. Do they remind you of any other team you faced throughout the SEC or conference play?
GARY ERVIN: I believe kind of like Mississippi or Vandy. They're a good shooting team. In some ways they're like Mississippi State in that they have a great point guard.
STEVEN HILL: They're an athletic team. They put a lot of shooters on the floor, a bunch of athletes. We have to be ready to play that sort of game.

Q. How important is Charles Thomas to this team?
STEVEN HILL: He's big for us. Obviously he had 18 points, 18 rebounds. We missed him against Florida. We did have Michael Washington step up. He made some good points, contributed very nicely for us. I think he's going to be ready to play. Even if he's not 100 percent, I think we have guys who can supplement and play well.
GARY ERVIN: Charles is a very important piece to this team because of some of the things he can do, like play inside and outside. His health is the key right now. We have a lot of depth in the front court. We're not going to be too much worried about that. We hope by game time that he'll at least be 80 to 85 percent.

Q. You guys talked about for a while you were fighting just to get into the tournament. Talk about now how important it is for you to get past the first round.
GARY ERVIN: Well, for the past three weeks we've been fighting to get in, just get some wins in. We've just been playing like if we lose one game then our season is over.
So we've been our best for the last past three weeks. We know what it takes to win a basketball game and advance to the next round.
STEVEN HILL: Definitely even the SEC tournament that's in our mindset. We had to -- we did that, four games in four days. So hopefully we have that mindset again tomorrow.

THE MODERATOR: We have Stan Heath from Arkansas. If you'd like to make a couple opening comments.
COACH STAN HEATH: Well, I tell our guys that we get on you, we chew on you, we push you to get to this point, to get to the point where we get a chance to play in the NCAA tournament.
Now that we're here, it's your season. It's your season to survive, to advance, to win a game, to make a name for your university. So we're excited about being here. We know we play a very good SC team that has great guard play, that defends very well, that shoots the 3.
We really feel like it's a unique match-up in that we have size advantages. They have speed advantages. And yet we've played against that before. And I'm sure they've played against size before. It should be a great basketball game.

Q. Who does this team remind you of in the SEC or that you've played?
COACH STAN HEATH: A combination of Vanderbilt and Mississippi State. They don't have the maybe the Jamont Gordon that just gets to the rim on you so quickly, but a little bit of them, a little bit of Vanderbilt.
The way they shoot the ball. They have probably two guys, maybe even three guys that have the ability to make guarded difficult shots. Young makes tough shots. And Stewart can make tough shots from the 3-point line as well, not just 2's but 3's. That is unique.
And when they get it going that way, they're hard to play against. We can do a great job defending them in those situations, it's definitely a chance for us to maybe get fast break opportunities or at least control the tempo of the game.

Q. Stan, where is Charles' status, and how effective do you think he might be able to be tomorrow?
COACH STAN HEATH: He wasn't 100 percent. He was able to do some things today, and he was able to go some extended type minutes of offensive/defensive work. I don't think he's going to be more than a 20 minute guy. I'd say somewhere between 10 and 20. But he's got another day to get treatment, to put ice on it, to do all the different things that could maybe give him another 20 percent of recovery.

Q. Does he start? Would you like him in there because he's the veteran?
COACH STAN HEATH: I haven't made a final decision. I'm leaning towards not. I'll make a final decision probably right at game time. We definitely have worked with Michael in that position over the last few days.

Q. Sonny Weems and Nick Young really seem like a lot of the same kind of player. I'm sure those two will be matched up on each other quite a bit.
COACH STAN HEATH: Sure about that, huh?

Q. Are they maybe going to be matched up against each other I guess maybe I should ask. What similarities do you see between them? Sonny, what kind of difficulties do you see with him having to guard Nick Young?
COACH STAN HEATH: It's funny. When we first got the draw that we would be playing USC, I got a couple calls from I think newspaper writers or media, and the question came up twice who's going to guard Nick Young. And I kept thinking myself it's odd for somebody to keep asking me that question especially so early. And I really couldn't figure out why. I watched the films. I watched a couple of tapes and I saw some games where I thought, man, he's a good player. And then I saw some other games and I said, wow, this kid can really make it happen, he can really play, and he can do a lot of different things out there.
He is a difficult match-up. They sometimes play him as a 4-man and sometimes play him as a 3. Sonny is a potential candidate to guard him and probably is a guy that gives us a good match-up. If Charles were 100 percent, he'd be another guy that I wouldn't be afraid because in some ways he's got a little Derek Byers in him for the guys who know who he is. Charles guarded him. We have to have some guys ready to go against him. We have to be ready to look at different schemes and matchups just to slow him down a little bit. He's not a one-man team. He is really good. We're more concerned about guarding USC than we are just one particular player. I don't think one particular player, and I could be wrong, is going to win the game by themselves.

Q. What have you identified as keys to the success in this game when you break down the film? Are there a couple of elements that you think are really important besides scoring the most points, obviously, to win this game?
COACH STAN HEATH: I think the 3-point shot is a big part of their success. When they have that going and they shoot a good percentage already throughout the year, and they have three guys, Pruitt, Stewart, Young can make them. And they have a couple other guys that can throw some in, too. But those are the main guys shooting them and making them. When they have that going, they're awfully difficult to beat.
Guarding the 3, and they'll make some. They'll make some tough ones. But making them as tough as possible I think is the biggest key for us. At the same time we have a size advantage. We have to make sure that we have a balanced attack with our big guys being involved in this basketball game not just defensively but offensively.

Q. I just talked to Patrick, and he says he hasn't been pleased lately with how he's played. Would you talk about that and talk about his season, too.
COACH STAN HEATH: Patrick is a kid that he wants to do well. He's very competitive. He's very fiery. For the people who have never seen him before, you'll be in for a treat. But it's all good, and it's all in good taste. He's a competitive person.
The SEC tournament was a war. I told our team, I said, you guys are prepared for this because you've been in an elimination game for the last three weeks. We had to win every game we possibly had and still we weren't sure it was enough. But it was ultimately. And the last couple of games during the SEC tournament, probably game 3 and 4, Patrick probably lost a little bit. It's not even fair. I play the kid about 36 minutes a game. He's a freshman, in his first year of experience. To play four games in a row, that wears you down.
I know he's being hard on himself. I'm not being hard on him at all. I don't have any doubt in my mind Patrick Beverley is going to bounce back and be a good basketball player out there on the floor when we take the court tomorrow.

Q. Just with Thomas possibly limited in the rotation, one, just kind of how do you feel Washington will react. And two, does a guy like Vincent Hunter suddenly have a role for a game like this?
COACH STAN HEATH: Michael? Michael just played against Joakim Noah and scored 17 points, and he didn't even know who Joakim Noah is. Michael doesn't have any fear about anything. Trust me. He's a gamer. He's excited about playing. He's so talented. He's still wet behind the ears. We all know that. He's still got some things to learn. I'm sure he's a guy that USC will probably try to attack him a little bit and see how he responds. Vincent Hunter is definitely an option. Playing small is possibly an option. Playing big and putting both my big guys out there is an option. I'm kind of a feel guy. I just go by the feel and the flow of the game. Pick my staff's brain a little bit on some things and figure out who's playing well and go with those guys.
You could see any of the above. If something is working real well, I probably won't try to fix it. Trust me.

Q. Can you talk about, I'm sure at one point in your career the goals were just rebuilding this program, getting the 20 wins, just getting to the NCAA tournament. Is this the point in your program do you think where it needs to go to the next level to start winning games and start advancing?
COACH STAN HEATH: Well, I thought -- building a program, sometimes some monkey wrenches get thrown into the building process. You lose a Ronnie Brewer or you don't get an Al Jefferson or someone leaves earlier than he's supposed to. It kind of changes things and you try to fight through that part.
Going through the season, yes, we did talk about making it to the NCAA tournament. Yes, we did talk about advancing in the NCAA tournament. That is still a goal. Was it in October or November, October when we had the media day, when I was saying that people were looking at me like I was nuts, like you must be crazy. You lost your point guard, 3,000 point scorers, your 1, 2, 3, and your back-up. You lost all four guys on the perimeter. So I had people looking at me like, you are absolutely nuts to think your team this year, with the SEC field as strong as it's ever been, and you're all of a sudden going to be a better team than you had last year.
I just felt over a period of time that hopefully things would come together. I thought we had good talent. I thought that my junior class would really step up and really be productive for us as time went forward. I thought Ervin would be a key component for us at the point guard spot. Fortunately, things worked out where we got in the field, which is one of the goals. We are, without a doubt, here fighting our tails off to win a game. We are not happy just to be here. We know we're a 12 seed. We know we're playing against a 5 seed. We know we're playing against a good basketball team. We know everybody doesn't think we should be here, but we don't care.

Q. You mentioned your junior class just now. Have you seen the guys with NCAA tournament experience, Steve and Gary, Charles, that really played NCAA minutes, have they been kind of tutoring the younger guys on what this is going to be like, telling them here's what to expect, here's how to react, those kind of things?
COACH STAN HEATH: I don't know what goes on when the guys are in the locker room or in the hotel room what they're saying to each other. I just look at it when we're on the practice court or when I'm with them in their presence, the example that's being set. Without a doubt the last four days have been incredible in terms of how we've practiced, how we've gone at each other, how we've been paying attention to detail, how focused those guys have been. And so I think it's either being said or by example the right messages are being sent. And that doesn't mean all of a sudden -- I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, but I can tell you and my staff and anybody who's watched us practice, they have been pretty sharp and pretty focused at what needs to be done.
I do think the junior class is setting a great tone with the example they're setting. And if they're saying things, they're saying the right things to each other.

Q. Just curious as to what your emotions were like when you heard on the plane, the pilot announced that you guys had been selected. What have your feelings been like the last few days hearing a lot of criticism about you guys being selected?
COACH STAN HEATH: Well, I was very -- I can't even put into words, just how excited and how good it felt for our team, for our program, for our fans. We're one of only four teams in the SEC now that have been able to go back to back to the NCAA tournament. And I think that's a great field to be in. I think it's Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas. The whole plane was elated. We all called The Hogs. Probably some people don't know what that is. We all called The Hogs. Our administrators were on there, too. Everybody was excited.
As far as all the other stuff, that's yesterday. If I'm spending time on that, we're not going to have a chance and my team won't have a chance to compete against USC. We've got to be right here on USC. All that other stuff, the committee members, that's all that's important. That's all that matters. Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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