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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: SPOKANEMarch 16, 2007Tim FloydTaj GibsonNick YoungSPOKANE, WASHINGTON THE MODERATOR: We have the USC student-athletes and coach Tim Floyd. From the left we have Taj Gibson and Nick Young. We'll start with an opening statement from Coach Floyd. Coach? COACH TIM FLOYD: Well, we played a very good Arkansas team. And I know our guys were concerned, they watched a lot of film this week. Games like against Kentucky and Vanderbilt games. At Florida, where he this played them to seven. And we had a lot of respect for them coming in. I think our guys were disappointed with their performance against Oregon the last time we played. It's as good a defense as we played this year. I thought we were very solid on that end. I thought that every guy, I thought that the job that Nick did on Weems was important. I thought the job that Lodrick and Daniel did on Beverley was important. I think Taj having an understanding of who those guys were, Beverley and Weems and Ervin and him providing help along with Cromwell and Wilkinson was important. I thought the job that we did on the defense board was what we were most concerned with. We did great there. And played very unselfish offensively. THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions for student-athletes. Q. Guys talked a lot about their size and maybe how that was an advantage and yet you out rebounded them by 13. Can you just address that? NICK YOUNG: We just working hard. It's tournament time we went out there and tried to give it our all. We were a little disappointed how the things went in the finals against Oregon so everybody just came out there and fought tonight. TAJ GIBSON: Coach stressed to us if we want to win this game we have to play defense and get all the rebounds. As many rebounds as we can. On the defensive end. We just came out real hungry because we let a lot of our fans down in our hometown in the championship game at the Staples Center. So I had to bring it. It's one loss and you're out. Q. Were you guys aware that no five seed had lost before this game and that usually one loses a year. Were you worried about that a little bit? NICK YOUNG: We have been hearing that all week. About how 12 seeds always beat the five seeds. But we didn't try to pay no attention. We just went out there and if we win or lose, keep our heads up. And we went out there and tried our best. TAJ GIBSON: Coach just stressed to us that keep the rules of our defense. And we should be okay. If we come out and play sluggish, then they will, it would have been an upset. But he did stress this week to just play hard and go let it out. Because it's one loss and you're out. And it's the NCAA tournament and the winner goes on, loser doesn't go on, loser goes home and watches on TV. Q. Taj, a lot was made about the size like you said, but points didn't come really easy for you today. Were you surprised at how easy it was? TAJ GIBSON: Not really. I was worried about getting my teammates open. It was not about one person, it was all about getting my teammates involved and if they get open shots and the shots go down, that's just happy with me because we just want to make it to and keep producing each round because each team is good and another one come out it never comes down to any individual. We try to play as a team. The more we play as a team the better we'll be. Q. How much was Ryan in your guys thoughts tonight and when did you get a chance to talk to his mother? NICK YOUNG: He's been on our minds all year. This is a great thing for us to go out there and do this year. And in honor for him. He's a great person, he's always will be remembered by all of us. And we miss him. So we just went out there and fighting and using him as our sixth man every game. TAJ GIBSON: Just thinking about him. Thinking about if we had him, would they have even gotten that many points. Because he's right now if he was here, I don't think any guard would get it past half court. Q. Did you guys watch any of the Texas game and what are your initial thoughts just on Sunday? NICK YOUNG: They're a powerhouse program. They're a great team. Got a lot of great players. They run and gun. So we just got to go out there and play our best and try to get some key matchups. TAJ GIBSON: It's going to be a hard fought game. We got a lot of respect for those guys over there. And just have to do our homework and prepare for the next game. Q. Taj, have you got a chance to even now to think about Durant and inside and what that's going to be. You can see Nick is already laughing knowing that was coming? TAJ GIBSON: I think about his presence and then I think it's not just one guy, it's other guys on the team. Like Augustin and Abrams. So in the back of my head it's I'll be thinking about him, but we know that that's a whole unit. There's other guys that play just as well as him. So we have to do our homework and just think about the game. Q. Coach, how strong do you think the team's composure was first tournament game for all of them. COACH TIM FLOYD: Really pleased. When you go in with a group that hasn't been there before you have no idea what's going to happen. And first six minutes of the game very concerned. And you look back on it, they had us down and five or six down and we were trying to find ourselves. Maybe a little tight. This experience should help us on Saturday. These guys played to win. They didn't play with any agendas in mind. Playing on a national stage, playing big games. They have done that in our conference. I think playing in our league helps us for games like this. We were very pleased with them. I thought their unselfishness and their commitment to helping each other defensively and commitment to getting five guys on the glass was the real key. Q. Taj, this is kind of a follow-up on the earlier question, but obviously everybody knows Kevin Durant. You're kind of the same height, same body style, did you ever stop and think this year any time like how you might matchup with him or? COACH TIM FLOYD: He might not be matched up with him. We may have somebody else on him. TAJ GIBSON: Like coach said, we're just trying to play as a team. Whatever coach says, goes. So if that chance comes, it doesn't really matter. Just as long as we get the W and we're just going to play as a team because it takes five. NICK YOUNG: W. Q. Coming off the Pac-10 game, championship against Oregon, did you guys feel like this was a statement game you needed to make? In this first round? TAJ GIBSON: Not really. Coach stressed to us that game's behind us. It's NCAA time, one loss and you go home. And he just kept stressing it's to us all week we're just going to adjust and do our homework and get over that game. Make up our mistakes, and come out and play hard defense. Because that team that we just played is a good team. They will probably beat a lot of top seeds in this tournament. NICK YOUNG: Just been watching film all week and just getting ready. We try not to put so much pressure on ourselves after that game. Wasn't trying to go out there and do too much. Just went out there and just gave it our all tried to play as a team as much as we can and try to get a W. Q. Nick, you've been wanting to play in the tournament for so long how is does it feel to get that furs one and advance? NICK YOUNG: It feels great. I was out there a little nervous in the beginning, because my first time I playing out there in an environment like this and after like the first five minutes we started getting it going and I started to get in the zone and things started to flow for us. THE MODERATOR: Okay. Thank you, gentlemen. Questions for coach. Q. What were your thoughts about the whole 5-12 thing? You were going into the last people and it hadn't happened since 2000. So did that even cross your mind? COACH TIM FLOYD: No, it really hadn't. I'm telling you you never think along those terms. Everything was geared towards Arkansas and everyone we talked to in that league just had so much respect for them. Their talent. They kept talking about their talent and their length and their size and their ability to change shots. Their ability to get out and run and the different defenses they threw at you. And we hadn't really played anybody quite like them in our league. And that always concerns you. Plus the idea that you're, you got a new group playing on the stage for the first time. Those were the concerns. Q. I don't know if you had the chance to watch any Texas tape but what are your feelings about Durant and how do you go about stopping him, slowing him down? COACH TIM FLOYD: I don't really have a plan for him right now. You start thinking Texas while you're playing Arkansas then you know we would be on the charter right now heading home. We'll go back and watch some film tonight. We have until 4:45 tomorrow to try to think about how we're going to go play. We understand that he may be the best individual who's been in college basketball in many years. But we also understand that they have four freshmen and one sophomore who grew up in Big-12 play. And they got better and better and better as the season went on. They got a great belief system in winning. And they're going to present all kinds of problems for us. In addition to Kevin. So we'll just have to go on a few hours sleep tonight and give it some thought and try to come out with a plan tomorrow. Q. How much of their cold outside shooting was your defense versus them just simply not making shots? COACH TIM FLOYD: I think our pressure was outstanding tonight. I thought Gabe Pruitt was great. I thought Lodrick Stewart did a tremendous job on Beverley. I thought Daniel Hackett was at times the most intense player on the floor. I thought he just really brought a tremendous amount of energy to this game. I thought he was outstanding. Taj, I'm so proud of him because two months ago he was just worried about guarding the guy he had and he should have. He's a freshman. But he was he had a great purpose. He and Sean and Keith too, those three perimeter players, and I thought we just played well collectively. Q. What about your thoughts on Ryan? Did he cross your mind tonight? COACH TIM FLOYD: Well, you know, his mom was in my hotel room for 20 minutes this afternoon. We had a good visit. We talk to Paulette all the time. It's every day. It wasn't because we were in the NCAA tournament, it's every day. We think about that kid every day. And how much he would enjoy being here. Q. You were talking about Taj getting better. How much is he ahead of maybe where you thought he would be at this time? COACH TIM FLOYD: Yes, he is. He is just outstanding. We have got three terrific perimeter players. Really five. Y'all didn't see much of Dwight Lewis tonight but he started 12 or 13 games. Those kids can all play. But we had good perimeter play a year ago. He is really helped change this program and our team. We can throw it into him and he's unselfish, he's a great passer out of the post. He's a guy that can get himself to the line, can finish shots, he's on the boards he jumps more than one time. He's a multi bounce guy. And he's got great length. He's changed us rebounding wise. I remember our last game in the Pac-10 tournament last year was against Leon Poe and Cal, I think they out rebounded us 20. And we haven't had many of those nights this year. Q. Was the lack of quite tonight just because Hackett was doing so well on defense? COACH TIM FLOYD: Yeah. And it's quite, if we had thrown him out there chances are he would have done the same thing that Daniel was doing. We just called Daniel's name and I just was knocked out by how he played. So there was no reason to change just to get a guy into the game. I got all the confidence in the world in Lewis and he knows it. And who knows, he may play 35 minutes against Texas, it's just how we have done it all year long changing our fifth starter and our first sub. I think that's why our bench is so good. I think it's why Hackett has played so well and Wilkinson and Cromwell. And these guys are growing up. We have three freshmen play a lot of minutes. But it just wasn't, there wasn't any real reason to make a change just for change's sake. Q. Now that you can look back a little bit, did that loss to Oregon maybe help you focus for this game? COACH TIM FLOYD: Oh, I don't know. I know that might not have helped the players, but it helped me understand that we weren't guarding anybody and we went back and I don't think we shot a ball this week all we did was he defend. Because we couldn't get back against those guys, we couldn't stay between them and the basket and we were pretty good in both those areas tonight. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thanks. COACH TIM FLOYD: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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