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NCAA MEN'S 3RD & 4TH ROUND REGIONALS: NEW JERSEYMarch 22, 2007Jeff GreenRoy HibbertJohn Thompson IIIEAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY Q. Coming off a BIG EAST Championship we have seen a lot of teams going into the NCAA tournament and basically fizzle out early; how have you guys been able to avoid a letdown? ROY HIBBERT: For us we know that the BIG EAST tournament is over with. This is another tournament that we got to deal with so we couldn't look back at the past and just remember what we did there. We had to move on and take it one game at a time and work our way up to the position we're in now. JEFF GREEN: Coach has been stressing making sure we stay focussed and not look in the past. Try to get better every day. Q. Are you surprised playing Vanderbilt first season, surprised seeing them at this point? JEFF GREEN: Not at all. They are a great team. They are an all around great time. People who score in and out people who can do a lot of different things. I am not surprised that they are here. Good team just like us. They worked their butt off the whole season they deserve the position they are in now. Q. Talk about when you were kids, what Georgetown might have meant to you if you were aware of the Hoyas back then and what it means to you guys now to be able to kind of connect with that old history that Georgetown meant to a lot of people back in the day? ROY HIBBERT: It means a lot to me, you know, I used to watch Georgetown games on TV when I was younger. I remember big John Thompson coaching, always used to wonder why he wore a towel over his shoulder. I went to a couple of games I was in high school and 8th grade. It means a lot to me to be able to represent Georgetown every day, wear it on my chest. And compete with my teammates and the coaching staff. It means a lot to us. JEFF GREEN: Just like Roy said, it's an honor to put on the Georgetown Jersey, all the great players who came out of this program. The things that they are doing now to help out the community, it's an honor just to wear the Georgetown across your chest. I am grateful to play for this team and this program. Q. Jeff, Coach Thompson has you moving around all over the place. What was your reaction when he told you a few years ago that that's the kind of roll that he envisioned for you; what do you enjoy the most playing this type of offense? JEFF GREEN: My first reaction was I was kind of shocked because high school I was mostly post player, so just him changing my position, coming here I felt like, you know, it made me a better player, you know, to show all my abilities to pass to shoot to do different things on the court. I am glad that he put me in the position I am now. Ever since my freshman year. I am grateful that he gave me a chance to get on the floor and play multiple positions to show my true talent. Q. Going back at least 25 years to the days of Ralph Sampson, a lot of big guys want to be small guys, want to show the world they can do other things. Those thoughts ever cross your head, a lot of big guys don't want to perform the duties of being a big guy. You seem comfortable? ROY HIBBERT: I like sitting in the post and back to the basket, hook shots, jump hooks everything like that, I will add different aspects to my game like a mid-range jumper, if my defender is backing off me. I am going to leave all the dribbling and 3-point shooting to Jeff and John and Ty, I haven't taken a 3 in my whole career. I don't plan on it unless I need to. It's fun going up banging around the post, obviously banging around with Aaron Gray, he's having a good season. I like what I am doing so far, I am not going to change my game. Q. Jeff, how did you wind up at Georgetown? I heard Roy helped convince you and chime in with what you said to convince him to come? JEFF GREEN: Well, it was a choice between either Maryland or Georgetown and I met Roy in the summer All-Star game on the same team both sitting on the bench. He knew that I had a chance to go to Georgetown. Gave me his words, why I should go there, convinced me, coming on my visit the guys that were around me were a great set of guys, so right there that team chemistry from the beginning on the team visit, that's what made me choose Georgetown over the other teams. Because the team chemistry and the coaches got along well with the players, just that bonding moment that I had when I came here, kind of made me choose Georgetown. ROY HIBBERT: I saw what type of player Jeff was, just seen him glide through the air during that All-Star game. At the time Georgetown needed a lot of help at the time, so I think Jeff helped out a lot. Obviously he put the program on his shoulders and look what we have been able to do these past three years. I am grateful he came and working through stuff, but we have a lot of work to do still. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. We're joined by Coach John Thompson III. COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: We're excited to be here. Fortunate to be here. Hopefully we can play well while we're here. Q. When you played Vanderbilt four months ago, did you feel like at that time Vanderbilt could become a Sweet 16 type of team, any surprise to this? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: There's no surprise at all. Just if you look at going -- I remember preparing for that game. They beat us last year, just they are extremely well coached, extremely talented. We're talking about the first game of the year though so at that point, you know, it's a lifetime ago and they are significantly different and improved since that point and we're significantly different team also. But no, it's not a surprise. Q. Your experience at Princeton. What was it like trying to put that offense in place and get these kids to kind of buy into what you knew so well from your time here? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: What was it like? It was not a big experience. We are an extremely willing group. This is isn't a democracy. They don't have a choice as to what we're going to do. It's playing basketball so it's not a question of buying in to what we do. It's a guy who puts guys in positions to have some success, to do things on the floor, to be able to grow and improve in every aspect of the game; dribbling, passing and shooting. It's not more complicated than that. Q. What would a Final Four mean to you? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: I think that that's a question to be answered when and if we get to that point. Right now all of our energy is going into Vanderbilt tomorrow. Q. I asked Coach Stallings the same thing earlier, the fact that you guys are relatively familiar with each other now having played twice in the last couple of seasons; does it help or hurt either side? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: What did he say? (Laughter).. What did he say? Q. He said that he thought it might be more beneficial for you guys because they don't know how to stop you, but you may have an idea how to stop them? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: I don't know about that. I don't think -- in many ways, I don't think that it's relevant, you know, they are a very good team. They have the capability and the ability to adjust and adapt in terms of game preparation and in terms of on-the-fly, during the course of the game. So like I said, we played them the first -- it was their first game of the year, our second game of the year. We're much different and they are much different now. Personnel-wise do we have a slightly better understanding of them? Possibly. But the same is true both ways. I don't think it's advantage or disadvantage for either team. Once you get to this time of year, regardless of who you are playing regardless of how many times you played them or regardless of whether you have never seen them before, you are going to play against a very good team that's well coached, that feels good about themselves, is playing well right now. Everything else gets thrown out the window. You have to just come prepared and hope you play well. Q. You guys have dealt with the pressure of expectations all season. How has that changed through the tournament; do you address it at all? How do you keep your players from feeling it particularly against a team like Vanderbilt? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: All year I have said and told our kids, let's not think about expectations, because what others expect in -- is irrelevant. We have to go into our gym. We have to improve, we have to come out and play, and so whether it was a couple of years ago where people thought we were going to be awful or this year, at the beginning where people thought we were going to be very, very good, expectations are irrelevant. It's the players, the coaches, the managers, we have to just get better. We have to improve, go out and play the games and what happens, happens, and what people want to talk about is what they want to talk about. I try to encourage our guys, just tune everything else out, let's just improve and get better and everything else will take care of itself. Q. Playing Vanderbilt last couple of years have you noticed a progression and a difference in Derrick Byars? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: In looking -- he's playing at a very high level right now. But I felt that way as we prepared for him last year, so I think that as he is -- sitting out the year and then coming in and playing with the group that he's playing with, the past two years, that's probably a better question for Kevin, but he's playing at such a high level right now, whether it has been a progression or not, I am not sure, but I am looking at where he is right now which calls for concern. Q. Wondering with the progression of the programs since you got there and, of course, the pressure that came with taking the job, how have you evolved as a coach since you moved on to Georgetown; where are you today that three or four years ago you would not have been the same coach? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: I am not sure about that. In that, I think I am doing things the same way, you know, just -- I don't think I am going about my business or the preparation for my team any differently than I did when I was at Princeton. I am sure there's been some growth -- I probably have to sit back and digest that and think about that to give you a better answer. But the way I am doing things is pretty much the same, I think. Q. Does your team go as Roy goes or Jeff goes, or how does that work? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: I don't think it works like that at all. I think that we -- they are the key. They are the hub, they are the focal point in what we do, but we have had success when they have not played well. They have had -- in my perfect world, do they both have great games tomorrow? Yes. But I think that everyone else, we -- our group is able to pick each other up. As the years progressed everyone else around those two has grown up and improved and matured, and to the point where we can figure things out collectively. So it's truly -- it's easy to pick those two out and say, hey, we go as -- one of them go or both of them go -- it's coach-speak but it's true with our group, it's been a team effort all year, everyone collectively has been able to pick us up when in times when it has been called for. Q. Do you get the sense that there's a different perception about this generation of Hoyas as there was when you were a kid growing up around the program, sense of fear or intimidation, just the way they played then as opposed to now; do you sense a difference in how people look at you? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: I don't know. You probably have a better feel for that than I do. I think we're just trying to figure out how to win games. Whether there's fear, intimidation along the way, that comes with winning games. But we're just as our group we're trying to win games. Q. When you are talking about Jeff and Roy and how they are the hubs but there's not necessarily one focal point, how much of that do you think revolves around the style of offense you guys run and running that Princeton offense allows a lot of different guys that key at different times? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: The discussion about the Princeton offense, you know, and what it is having unselfish players that are willing to help each other, that are skilled. So you can look at what we do and try to put it in the pigeonhole. You can look at what the Wizards do. You can look at what the Nets do. Look at what the Kings do, you can keep going. But it's just getting five unselfish guys that want to play together. Then each team -- the way we're doing things this year it is dramatically different from how we did things last year, but the line of questioning about the Princeton offense is the same. The way we possibly will do things next year will be dramatically different from how we're doing things this year. We have unselfish kids that work extremely hard, work extremely well together. So I think they do a very good job of figuring out where we put each other in the position to get quality shots. Q. The Princeton job just came open. Your assistant Sydney Johnson has been talked about as a candidate. Talk about is he ready for a Division 1 coaching job? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: Who has talked about him as being a candidate for that job? Q. Published reports last couple of days in the wake of Joe going to Denver? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: Has Gary said it? Q. Gary has not said it. COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: You know, all of my staff, my entire staff, I think one day they will all be very good head coaches. Obviously Sidney at Princeton is home for him, and one day sooner or later he's going to be a very good coach. Whether it's there or somewhere else, time will tell. 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