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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: SPOKANEMarch 16, 2007Aaron BrooksErnie KentBryce TaylorSPOKANE, WASHINGTON THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and have an opening statement from Coach Kent and then go to questions for the student-athletes, Aaron Brooks and Bryce Taylor. COACH ERNIE KENT: As I sit here and glance at stats, it was almost an identical game played by both teams. The number of shots, the 3-pointers made, the assists, the turnovers. And they're a very difficult team to play against. That style of play. Very similar to Washington State. But for us we're 17 games now coming down to single digits and we're 13-4 in those games and it just became a game that we had to grind out and finish off at the end and I thought we did a good job and went to the matchup zone to get back in the game. They're a tough basketball team, very well coached, and they should be proud of themselves for coming out here and battling like that. But the key at this level is just to win and move on and I'm proud of these guys for hitting the free throws, getting the stops. Maarty played great. Bryce Taylor, two or three big 3's in the second half to close it out. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Aaron, your previous two shots were blocked and then you took it in the key again. Were you pretty determined to get to the line at that point or had you put the blocks out of you your mind then? AARON BROOKS: Yeah, you got to be a competitor and go in there and try and make plays. My jumper wasn't falling so I had to get to the paint. You can't really -- yeah it was a great play, but I figured if I got in there again I could probably make a play. Q. Aaron, your opponent seemed to be very patient and very poised today. Were you at all surprised or worried that they were so close in the final minute of the game? AARON BROOKS: No, like coach said we have been through this before against a couple teams that we played. We have been in the Pac-10, we had a lot of games that was close. But the veteran leadership we have on this team helped us pull it out and that's what we expected. Everybody here in the tournament is here for a reason. They're a great team and we battled it out and we got the win. That's all that matters. Q. Bryce, last week in L.A. the team shot the eyes out of the basket. Today it was a little struggle. What was the difference? BRYCE TAYLOR: The difference was it was just a much more slower paced game. We didn't get to get up and down as much as we like to and that usually opens up a lot of open shots for us. But it slowed the game down and also they were scoring a lot and a lot of the time those shots come off stops for us. So when they're scoring pretty much it says here 50 percent of the time, so it's tough for us to get in a rhythm getting up and down and sharing the ball and playing like we usually do. So you got to give a lot of credit to them for playing their style and not letting us get up and down. Q. Ernie, you went with the matchup zone obviously before or after they scored on four straight possessions, was it simply how come you didn't come out right out of the gate with that zone? COACH ERNIE KENT: I felt like we were a little bit jittery out the gate. Just a little bit sluggish too. We played so doggone hard last week it's going to be hard to duplicate that energy early on. I liked the way the matchup zone gave us a chance to get some energy on the floor. Joevan came on the floor and we went on a 20-0 run there and got back in the game and got control of the game. So this team is very versatile. We used the matchup to beat Washington State and bash Washington, California. Man to man has beaten Arizona and USC. Both of them saved us today. We were sluggish in the first half. But to shoot 50 percent from the field and the three and a hundred percent from line in the second half. I thought we did a pretty good job of getting back in the game and closing out the game. But we knew it was going to be a grind. Q. For both guys, do you guys feel tight today at all? Did you feel the pressure of being the number three seed against a team that was seeded so high? BRYCE TAYLOR: I feel like just every team that comes out especially for us it's our first time here, so it was important for us just to get a good sweat going and see a couple shots fall. Just to make those pregame or early game jitters go away. So I feel like now we got the our first game out of the way and we have seen that it's going to be very competitive. So we have to start preparing now for a Winthrop team that plays a lot different than they played and we feel like once we get started in the second game it will be a different start for us. AARON BROOKS: I think that it was a little bit of pressure. We had a pressure coming into a lot of games this year. Definitely you don't want it feel it but it's there. So now that we got this game out of the way I feel we can just come out and play. I think that this is a good win for us. Next game will be better. Q. Did you get a chance guys to watch any of the Winthrop game? Were you in the Arena watching and if so just your thoughts on those guys? AARON BROOKS: I think they're a very athletic team. Great guard play. Veterans on the team. I think there's a couple they have some of the same people that we played my freshman year on the team. And they're just a good team all around. They like to get up and down. Our games kind of match a little bit. So it will be a funner game, we'll get up-and-down and shoot and play like Oregon basketball. BRYCE TAYLOR: Yeah, just over the course of the year I noticed a couple players from their team I believe their name is Torrell Martin and Bradshaw. I saw he had a great game today. So they just looked like they play with a lot of confidence and they feel like they have something to prove. So we know they're going to be ready for us on Saturday. Or Sunday. Q. Was this game not fun? The way they the way you guys had to play it? BRYCE TAYLOR: We always have fun playing. But it's just a different style. So of course we prefer to get up-and-down and be able to run and gun and share the ball and drive and kick. But at the same time they slowed it down and the most important thing for us I feel like I'm speaking for everybody, you just get fun out of getting a win. So we got that first game out of the way now, so just excited to be playing in another one. AARON BROOKS: I agree. Nothing else to say about that. That pretty much sums it up. Q. For Aaron, let's talk about those two free throws you nailed at the end of the game. AARON BROOKS: Oh, yeah, well this year I been in the position to shoot the free throws quite a few times. And it's kind of easier to shoot it when you're up a little, you know, when you're already up one. And my team got confidence in me to hit them so it wasn't really that big of a deal to me. We played great D after that and we shut them down and we got the rebound and Maarty hit two big free throws, so we got a lot of people that can shoot the ball at the end, it just happened to be me. THE MODERATOR: Okay. Thanks, gentlemen. Questions for coach. Q. Will your guys performance today cut it against Winthrop? COACH ERNIE KENT: I don't think Winthrop plays the way this team played today. This team made the game tough. Just because again they shortened down the game, limit your number of possessions, you milk the clock and it was a learning experience for a couple of these guys being on this stage. They played defense for 30 seconds and came down the floor and T.P., one, two dribbles, boom. I said T.P. you got to understand something here, we played defense for 30, they just played for 2. We need to control the tempo of the game better. So it was almost a learning process at this level on that stage and everything. But whether or not it will cut it, I don't think Winthrop you can get into this type of a game. I don't think they're going to play that way and we're not. So that's hard to say. I would like to think we need to play better and I would like to be satisfied with getting a game underneath our belt with a group that's never been here before. Winthrop has been here two or three times. So we're going to have to play better just in terms of a little bit more sharper in that game with Winthrop. Q. How much are you able to use the game two years ago to game plan against Winthrop? I think you beat them by 15 at your place? COACH ERNIE KENT: Well, some of those guys are still there. They are a veteran ball club right now. That's been to the tournament. And they are playing like they're on a mission. So we're going to have to up the ante in that ball game and we're going to have to do that and get ready to play and be in for a tough, tough ball game. So again, obviously everybody knows what's at stake, they do and we do. And we got a day off in between to kind of regroup a little bit and I think this team will play better the second time out having getting a game underneath their belt now. Q. You said they were jittery and sluggish, at what point did you realize that and what can you do when you see something like that? COACH ERNIE KENT: Well, the jitters I noticed right off the bat. Just because they were kind of reacting slow, more slow than what we did last week. Knowing your opponent and knowing the stage and a lot of energy and everything else. The sluggish part came because I thought we didn't do a good job of executing the game plan of fronting the post and taking the ball out of the hands of the big guys. We went to the matchup, the matchup gave us a lot of energy, we got moving. Our feet, we moved our feet, it gave us an opportunity to get them to miss. It gave us an opportunity to get in transition where we're at our best, able to run and I thought we calmed down and started playing a lot better. Once we started getting stops and getting out running transition but the start of the game, man to man a little nerves, we weren't stopping them, they were getting easy layups, so the zone really gave us an opportunity to get going on them and from that point on I thought we had control of the game, even though they were making runs back and forth at us, we still felt like we were in control of the game and we were going to win the game coming down the stretch. Q. Your guys are winning games almost with your defense lately. Are you comfortable with this situation for Oregon? COACH ERNIE KENT: Absolutely. We talked about that today. We heard a lot about their defense. You got to realize again we held them to 56 points. And we held USC down, we held Arizona to 50 points. We're a really good defensive team and Sunday is going to be another big challenge for us defensively. Hopefully with a chance to open up the offense a little more. But defense is the key. You got to set the tone that way and we did not do that in the first three or four possessions in our man and I thought we did that on our 20-0 run with our matchup zone. Q. Two things, one you had so much success with the matchup zone and what brought you out of it and at the end what defense were you in on Bramos' last shot? That was Joevan at the top that forced him to shoot over him, right? COACH ERNIE KENT: Yes. What brought us out of the matchup zone was number 24. He hit two or three threes on us. We felt like he was getting away from us a little bit so we needed to lock him down a little bit from man. We actually went back to the matchup zone two or three times in the second half and we just kind of, we wanted to throw it at them to keep them off guard a little bit. We have done a very, very good job winning at Arizona, beating Cal in Eugene, beating Stanford in Eugene, beating UCLA in Eugene, Georgetown at Georgetown, and I could probably name about six other teams in that 17 game stretch we had of winning single digits is going to what we call the switch defense. We put the same sized players on the floor. Brooks plays more 6'-5" even those he's six feet and we switch everything. So it's difficult to run ball screens, flare screens, get open shots, any pick and rolls we just switch, switch, switch, especially when a team needs a 3-pointer. And we won a lot of games with that down the stretch and really surprising teams putting bigger people on the floor. Josh and Williams and others down there at the tournament. That came out of our switching defense. So it was a good adjustment on our part and I thought it really put a lot of pressure on them and it took them out a little bit further than what they wanted. I think their first option was coming to the corner and 24 was the next option and Duke did a good job of getting pressure on him. Q. I know you the game was already in hand when that last three went in at the buzzer there. But what were your thoughts, what was the first thing that went through your mind? COACH ERNIE KENT: USC at home when they beat us, scored six points in something like three seconds and hit a shot like that. But really it wasn't necessarily escape, you sit there and say you do have a big cushion. Obviously it would have been a different situation in a 2-point game, 3-point game, if it were there a three point game we would have defended it differently. But having the lead in the game was just a matter of not letting them throw up a Hail Mary. And we would have done it differently if the game would have come down to that last shot, we would have defended it differently. If the game would have come down to that last shot. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you. COACH ERNIE KENT: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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