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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: SPOKANEMarch 18, 2007Craig BradshawChris GaynorGregg MarshallTorrell MartinPhillip WilliamsSPOKANE, WASHINGTON THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement by coach and then go to questions for the student-athletes. COACH GREGG MARSHALL: It's, when this magic carpet ride comes to an end it ends rather abruptly and it's not an easy thing to accept. Certainly don't have to like it. We ran into a very hot team today. Especially two hot guards that played very, very well and shot it in from very deep. They played better than us. We did not execute offensively and they had a hand in that as well with their defensive switching and intensity. That doesn't take away from the year that we have had and what these guys to my right and every one in that locker room has accomplished. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Craig, you just talk about they were putting a lot of a few different guys in there on you and only able to get up about six shots or so. Talk about their defense and what they were doing to try to slow you down. CRAIG BRADSHAW: I guess they were switching a lot. On top of that though fronting. It was kind of difficult to get the ball inside. And if they did throw it in, there was help there to steal the ball. So it was just frustrating for me. Like you said, six shots. But I'm proud of my team and we have had a great ride. Q. Torrell, when Craig only gets six shots did you feel like you needed to take a little bit more on yourself and felt like maybe you forced a few things? TORRELL MARTIN: I felt that we should have got the ball inside more tonight. I don't normally take forced shots. A lot of my shots are in rhythm and with set place so if they didn't fall, that was it. But ultimately tonight a lot of the switching that they did caused a lot of different angles and it kept us from getting the ball inside. But we definitely should have went inside more and got Craig some more looks. Q. Chris, Tajuan Porter started at the second half. Did he extend you, it seemed -- I was sitting at the far end and couldn't tell, but it looked like some of those jumpers were pretty deep. CHRIS GAYNOR: Yeah, he's a great player. He really had his stroke going tonight. Just got to give him all the credit. His shots went in and ours didn't. Q. For any of you guys when Oregon got to the point where they were throwing it and running it up and trying to push the pace a little bit, did it wear you guys or fatigue you guys at all? TORRELL MARTIN: I personally wasn't fatigued and I don't believe my teammates were fatigued. We really crashed the boards with three offensive guards, I mean one guard and two big men, so a lot of times we would be in there crashing and they would have a two on three break or something like that but as far as fatigue I don't believe that played a factor in us getting back on defense. PHILLIP WILLIAMS: Same thing. They, I remember one time one of their big guy had a run out because we're in their rebounding trying our hardest to get another shot for our team and there's really nothing you can do about that. We have seen -- we have to go as hard as we can go. When their number one guy breaks, it really he just breaks down our defense. Q. 8-31 from the 3-point line tonight, was it a matter of defense or just shots simply not falling or just kind of break it down for me. TORRELL MARTIN: It was one of those games where like Chris said they made their shots, we didn't make our shots. A lot of my shots were open and a lot of them were mismatches and shots I normally knock down and same as Michael Jenkins and Chris Gaynor. But I mean you can't control how many shots you make, all you can do is play hard and try to get to the next play. I believe that's what we did tonight. But ultimately their shots went in and ours didn't and that was the difference in the ball game. Q. Torrell, right at the end of the first half you were up 27-23. I think you had, and by my count you had 10 possessions six turnovers, it seemed like everything sort of fell apart at that point. Was that the turning point for you in the game do you think maybe? TORRELL MARTIN: In the first half that definitely gave them momentum swing going into the half time. That's uncharacteristic of our program of the turning the ball over so many times like that in a row. And we just looked a little rattled and we just needed to calm down. Drey making the shot before the half gave us a little boost going into it only putting us down four and we came out the second half and tonight we just didn't execute. That was just a key factor. We didn't play like a veteran program. Q. Craig, can you remember a team switching so much down low on you and what, why does that switching make it so difficult to get it inside? CRAIG BRADSHAW: We played a lot of teams that switch. But I guess with them that they always had weak side help. And like I said on top of that they were fronting. I guess we just shot the ball too much played their style and tried to be up and down with them. Yeah, it's just frustrating. But I'm not saying it is my teammates fault. I give all the praise to them, they helped me out for my season, they brought me up, and they keep on passing me the ball, so I can't complain. Q. In retrospect over the your whole season, you guys have achieved a lot. And a lot of accomplishments. You put Winthrop on the map. You got that first victory. You beat a rated team. You were ranked in the Top-25. Can you talk a little bit about that? CHRIS GAYNOR: Like Craig said, I'm proud of our whole team. These three guys here and their great, they have been like brothers to me since I stepped on the court. Losing them is going to be real tough. This season was just, it was great. You can't complain. We had a chance to advance and into the Sweet 16. Who would have thought Winthrop could do that beside the people from Rock Hill? You know, and I think that everybody knows who Winthrop is now. Like you said, we're in the Top-25, never been done, this whole season was just making history time and time again and tonight we just ran into a great team. PHILLIP WILLIAMS: Looking back it really was a great year. Getting to the Top-25 was definitely one of my personal goals that I had for this team. I felt we were capable of doing it. But it was just a fun year too. I remember going into places like Missouri State and Mississippi State and sticking together as a unit and in a hostile environment. Just pulling out a gritty win there. So my teammates this year were a special and unique group that I'll definitely miss. Q. Torrell and Craig obviously you guys have something to look forward to with Portsmouth coming up, can you guys talk about that a little bit, what you guys have to look forward to with your NBA futures. TORRELL MARTIN: I probably haven't even had a chance to think about Portsmouth, because I've been so focused on trying to win, but I'll sit down and look at it. I guess it's time for me and Craig and Phil to think about what we got to do for ourselves. Winthrop university has gave us so many opportunities and now we have the opportunity to play professional basketball, so I plan on working on my game, working harder, working on my weak points and my strong points and going into the PIT, you know, and displaying some talent for these scouts and seeing where that take me. CRAIG BRADSHAW: I'm just really excited to go. Of course I'm going to train. It's pretty soon. So I'll be in the gym probably this week. It's ongoing for me, it always has been. And I'm just going to keep on trying to get better. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you, guys. We'll take questions for coach now. Q. How much of a factor was the defense that Oregon played and were you expecting them to be quite that tenacious and switching quite that much? COACH GREGG MARSHALL: To be honest, no. Yesterday in the one day that we had to prepare we prepared more for the matchup zone that they employed quite a bit against Miami. And in a short turn around that's the case. If we had two or three days to prepare and maybe had we had that, maybe we would have been able to work on it more and better. But you got to give them credit. They did a great job with their man-to-man. And they only went zone, to my knowledge, one or two times in the whole game. I think that they got out of the zone when Torrell hit a jumper in the left corner and I guess they blew an assignment or whatever, but they didn't need to, their man was that good. And we talked about and we have gone against teams that have switched and denied and whatnot that way, but not -- we have generally executed a little better. Our shooting percentages were down our turnovers were up, especially in the first half. And the game was at a pace for us in the first half but they did start playing a little quicker in the second half. And they made some shots and Porter got really hot to start the second after half and they pushed it to 10 and basically that was the game. Q. You said you turned over the ball seven times in the first half. Michael Jenkins was having a bit of a rough game. And he's one of your big guys and you took him out and you took him out of the game and how do you feel about that situation therewith his play? COACH GREGG MARSHALL: He's a great player. He's had a wonderful year. I didn't take him out because he missed shots, I took him out because he had two fouls. He got a second foul fairly quickly in the first half. And that may have played a factor. But he had some pretty good looks that he normally knocks down and he's had a great, great year and tonight wasn't his night. But they have all had great years. This is a team that has done things that can never be duplicated. Because they have been the first to do this, the first to have go you know defeated in our league, the first to be ranked in the Top-25, the first to win a game in the NCAA tournament. The first to sell out our coliseum. Which they did three times. So they as a team and our program and for that matter the university that we represent, Winthrop, our community, Rock Hill, the league that we represent, the Big South, none of, all those things are on very solid ground and maybe at their high water mark, their peak, if you will, in terms of what, how they have come together and achieved and been able to attain special things this season. Q. You mentioned it before the game that you wanted to take Brooks out of the game as much as possible. But what about Porter? Did he surprise you with what he did? COACH GREGG MARSHALL: No, he didn't surprise us. If you watched videotape like we have watched in the last 48 hours, I mean he's a great player. How he got out of Michigan, I don't know. The guy can really shoot it. He can handle it. He's not as fast I don't think as Brooks, because I coached against Brooks as a freshman and I remember if you go back, if you check the archives, I was very, very complimentary of Brooks as a freshman. And I just said, man, that guy is really good. So he's gotten me twice now. He's got me as a freshman and I praised him and now I'm praising him as a senior and who knows how far he can go. But Porter is somewhat like him. Not diminutive little guy, but just a big heart and he hits big shots. Q. Any theories as to why we're seeing all the top seeds advance this year when there are usually some lower seeds advancing as well? COACH GREGG MARSHALL: Not really. I think George Mason last year making the run that they did woke up some of these giants and said, hey, you know, the Winthrops and the VCU's and the George Masons and the Gonzagas look like they're here to stay. And the hype that our program generated this year starting in mid February was unbelievable. And it's a great, we're appreciative and we're honored for people to talk about us being the next George Mason, but then the flip side of that is to have to wear that into battle. You're not going to sneak up on Notre Dame, you're not going to sneak up on Oregon. But to be honest with you, there's a lot of good players and a lot of good teams in every league in the country. And that's what makes the year that we had so special. My assistant, my graduate assistant, he's a GA, he's a first year coach, his name is Dana Ford, he played at Illinois State for four years, and last night he put his arm around me and he goes, are all years in coaching like this? And I almost laughed. I said, no. And I just wrote down 29-4 and I said, do you know what that means? He goes, we have had great year. We have won a lot of games. I said, yeah, and I wrote an arrow and I said 4-29. That's what the people that have competed against us are as a collective unit this, to this point in the season. So it's a great, it's been a great run. And I guess Butler now will have to carry the flag as a mid major into the rest of the tournament, but next year's another year. Q. Is this a little bit of a kind of a pick your poison type of thing in terms of defending the ball screens with Tajuan and Brooks able to just pull up and shoot long threes, if you step out they're going to blow by you and go for layups can you speak to that the challenges that you face in that regard? COACH GREGG MARSHALL: Well there's a handful of ways to defend ball screens. We choose to hedge most ball screens, which is the guy defending the screener he shows his full body and tries to alter the penetrating path of the dribbler, if you will. You can trap it, you can press up, which is put your chest perpendicular to the screener's shoulders and try to push him out as much as you can with your body and not your hands. But we try to do that with Leunen early, we wanted to hedge on everyone else, press up on Leunen and all of a sudden Brooks is hitting 25 footers behind the screen. So you're right, you have to pick your poison a little bit, because he is so quick and he can finish with his right, his left hand, he's just a very, very good player. Q. What about that run I mentioned earlier at the end of the first half where you had the ten possessions, six turnovers, seemed like that kind of took, messed up every, all the rhythm that you had? COACH GREGG MARSHALL: Yeah, we had a lead and I don't know what our lead was, but we ended up going in the half down four. So it wasn't the end of the world. But you know how turnovers affect me as a coach. So thank goodness I didn't have a whistle around my neck because we would have been on the line doing some sprinting, I would have a couple technicals and probably been kicked out of the game. So yeah it's just not very characteristic of our team. We came out better in the second half and only turned it over four times. But still didn't make any shots. But we got to get quality looks when you play the tempo and the way we play. Q. Do you think the predominant question is not going to be where is Winthrop, but what's next for Winthrop? COACH GREGG MARSHALL: That may be. I know that some fans from out here as we walked in were chanting where is Winthrop? What state are you in? So and there may be some more people out there like that. Either they don't get a newspaper or they don't have electricity and don't have a television, so that's, we'll win them over one at a time, but the bottom line is what's next for Winthrop? That's yet to be seen. I no he that like I said, the program's on very solid ground. We red shirted all of our freshmen. Didn't burn any of their eligibility. They had a year in the program. Kids are getting stronger, bigger and more skilled. And we got three new guys coming in. And we're very excited about them. Who knows. I think we can surprise some people next year and have another great year. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you, coach. COACH GREGG MARSHALL: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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