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NCAA MEN'S 3RD & 4TH ROUND REGIONALS: ST. LOUISMarch 25, 2007Aaron BrooksErnie KentBryce TaylorST. LOUIS, MISSOURI MODERATOR: Representing the Pac-10, the Oregon Ducks, NCAA Midwest Regional runner-ups. And like in previous post game conferences we're going to ask the head Coach Ernie Kent to start off with a statement on the game then go to questions for just the student athletes. Coach, please. COACH KENT: It's very difficult at times to put into words how much a team grows and how much they develop and everything they've went through. And this team has been through a lot over the course of the last couple of years. And I couldn't be prouder just how well they represented not only the University of Oregon but how well they represented themselves as men and how they carried themselves through the season through the Pac-10 tournament and through this NCAA tournament as well too. Florida is a great team. I thought they battled extremely hard. We battled them hard as well, too. Everybody talked about the size difference and those things. At times it was a factor but at other times I thought this team did a nice job of playing with a lot of guts and a lot of grit, as well, too. So they're a great team to move forward to the Final Four. But I'm proud of my guys and how they represented themselves and our university. Q. Aaron, obviously very disappointing to end this way, but when you look back at the season as a whole, how would you say that the season went? AARON BROOKS: It went pretty well. I think we quieted a couple of critics. We showed what we could do. People were down on us the last couple of years because we didn't play to our capability. And they had a reason to a little bit. But a lot of things went on behind the scenes and we heard a lot of negative stuff about us and he with just grew from it. So it's been a big growing experience and I'm proud to be a Duck. Q. Were you surprised that they didn't go down low as much and that they were doing more perimeter stuff like you guys usually do? BRYCE TAYLOR: You know, we tried to do a good job of taking away their easy looks down low just by scrambling and staying in front of the bigs. So we caught ourselves helping down a couple times, which we got burnt by Humphrey and Taurean did a good job coming off screens and shooting behind the big man. So we knew they were capable and we just didn't do a good job of taking away those easy three point looks. AARON BROOKS: Like what he said, we didn't do a good job with the ball screens. I think the ball screens really killed us in the first half, then they got the big guys going. Big guys started playing in the second half and started rebounding and they fed off the energy of the guards because the guards were doing a good job. And the big guys did a good job of finding the guards open when they were open for shots. Like they've been there in that position before. That's why they're the champions and they won the game. Q. Aaron, in their totality, what impresses you the most about Florida? AARON BROOKS: I can see in this game they had -- they were still hungry. What impressed me is probably Noah's energy. Even though they've already won a championship and been to the Final Four they had the energy and poise to repeat and get there. They played hard. They play with desire, the same desire that we had to win the game, they matched it pretty much. Another thing is their big guys are agile and they're able to move with our guards a little bit and that affected us a little bit. Q. Aaron, what did you tell Tajuan after the game or during the course of the game? AARON BROOKS: Keep your head up. Tajuan is the type of kid when he comes out and plays, misses his first five or seven and gets down. You have to say, the next one is going in. I know Tajuan. He was down about the game. He got us here. He's a key part to the reason why we're here, and you just gotta be there for him and support him. Because this one game can really affect him in a negative way. I told him just look at the positive things he done this season and how he's really helped this team. He helped me a lot he helped everybody a lot. So I think that's the one thing I let him know that we're grateful for having you and regardless of how you played this game, just keep playing. Q. Aaron, if you had to fill out a bracket right now, who would you pick to win the national championship? AARON BROOKS: Who is in it? I know three teams, who is the fourth? Q. Either the winner of today's game, Carolina or Georgetown. AARON BROOKS: I don't know. I don't know. I think it's going to be a good game between Florida and UCLA, the two teams that play hard. I guess we just have to wait. Q. Can you reflect on your career at Oregon since you're the lone starting senior? AARON BROOKS: I had fun. It's been a road. I've grown a lot during these four years. And I just love my teammates, regardless. We've been through so much together and I just love my guys. There's nothing I wouldn't do for them. I'll give up whatever I can for them. And we've been through so much and we all helped each other. We pulled together. And this is family. And when we say family, we mean it. We've been through a lot of stuff, a lot of BS, all that just -- that made us stronger and tighter. I just can't wait to get back to the locker room and be with these guys still. We're always going to be family, so it's not a parting. Q. Were you surprised you didn't get a call there with 25 seconds to go? AARON BROOKS: The way the game was going, I'm not surprised. But that's the way it goes. Q. Ernie, can you imagine not winning a game when you hold a team like that without a basket for the last nine minutes? COACH KENT: You know, I've said all along that this is a very good defensive team. And someone asked the question about their big guys. We did a great job of fronting their big guys. We had great weak side help and probably rotated a couple times too much, which gave them a couple of wide-open 3s because we really didn't want to give them as many 3s as they got in the ball game. But it is surprising because I thought we just performed with a grit on defense that allowed us to play with them. When you're playing the defending national champion you have to come at them and it's got to be a battle there and you wish you could have battled a little more, few less fouls and everything. But they're national champions and they play very, very hard. And Aaron mentioned this as well. I think when they got to that one game before the Final Four, whatever was missing before in terms of -- I've heard people talk about them not being as focused, they're one game away from the Final Four, we knew we were going to get a focused basketball team and one that was going to play very hard. Q. Tajuan got a lot of open looks. Was it as simple as the ball just not going in the basket or was there something else to it? COACH KENT: Having done this for a long time, you can talk about a guy where he shot himself out maybe in the first game or whatever. But it was just that simple, because he was wide open on probably about 80% of his looks. So as Aaron mentioned, he's done such a great job all year long and you can't fault him because we would not be here today. He's had some spectacular performances. He's been very, very consistent. Probably the most consistent guy when it came to scoring the ball over the course of the last 15, 16 ball games on this team and everything. So he missed some shots. He felt bad. We told him in that locker room don't even worry about it. Use it as a learning experience because he's going to be a great, great player, he's going to set or break a lot of records before he leaves the University of Oregon. Q. This has been a tournament where the 1 and 2 seeds are all going to go to the Final Four. Do you think it's a random kind of thing or do you think that there's a larger pattern or reason here? COACH KENT: I would say the committee did a great job. I think you got one of the better balanced years in college basketball. And even though everybody has emerged, No. 1s have emerged and all those things, they're all good teams moving forward regardless of the winner of Georgetown North Carolina. We've played Georgetown and UCLA. We've beaten both of those teams. They're both really good teams. You've got teams with size, depth, tradition, history, all those things are right in place. So it should make for one great Final Four. Q. Did you feel like maybe they took your fast-pace style of play and threw it back at you a little bit? COACH KENT: No, we weren't fast enough is what I thought in the game. There was several of the timeouts, media timeouts we talked about let's get running. We didn't feel like we got up and down the floor as much as we wanted to get down the floor. Because I thought we got fatigued getting up and down, we didn't get out. It was such a battle defensively to keep those big guys off the boards and keep them off the block. And then all of a sudden you have to turn down and run down the floor hard. We hit the wall a little bit. I'm proud of the guys where they gutted it through and played it. I don't think they beat us at our own style at all, in no way. So I don't think there are a ton of transition points by them. There was not a ton by us. Probably more by us than them when it's all said and done. We got them to turn the basketball over. They hurt us on the boards because some of the 3s came off second shot attempts. We did a good job neutralizing them and had them pinned in underneath and a foul was called where you couldn't get the rebound and run them. So there were opportunities. And we did a good job and thought we were able to get out and run and couldn't run for something that happened off the ball and everything. Q. We all saw the way the title game turned out last year, Florida and UCLA. Can you look having played them both this year now and looking at this year's UCLA team, break it down for us? COACH KENT: I think this year's UCLA team is probably tougher mentally because they've been through the grind a second time now. They've been through a much more grueling Pac-10 conference that has gotten them tougher mentally as well, too. They're probably more together having gone through it the second time as well and obviously they're going to know what to expect from a Florida team getting there. I still think it's going to come down to defense. If they can defend Florida in the inside, at the same time taking away those great three-point shooters on the outside, they'll have an opportunity to play with them and win a game. It's just going to be a great battle between those two. But Florida is one of those teams, they can get out run you in transition, get looks, got a great shooting team. But UCLA is a much better basketball team this year than they were last year. Q. Yesterday you talked about your experience from the last time you were in the Elite 8 and what you did differently. Was this time to try to get them more rest. What do you take out of this Elite 8 experience for the next time you're here? COACH KENT: Bring bigger guys to the battle. Particularly the low block that will be a focal of ours. Our style of play is what we are. We've got a great style of play. And when you look at what we did in the Pac-10 tournament with this basketball team and the roll they've been on the last nine games, it's incredible. Battled well today. When it was all said and done, we know what we need. But we don't have the tradition as some of the teams that are sitting in the Elite 8, but we have a lot of things to offer. And it's just a matter of recruiting, recruiting. But I got a great core of guys coming back and hopefully we'll be back here a little bit bigger, little bit stronger next time around. Q. Can you talk Florida, seeing them in person, seeing them live and up close, what sticks out about them and maybe anything that was faster, better than you expected? COACH KENT: No, they're everything I expected because you've seen them enough. I saw them at the Final Four in person when they played last year. And they're big. They're probably longer than what you expect when you get on the floor and start to play with them because they've got size and length on top of that as well. But they're as every bit as strong and physical and deep and as athletic as you thought they were. They shoot it as well as you thought they would. That's why we knew we were going to be in such a battle with them, knowing how hard they would play with that size and athleticism and talent on the floor. When you get that kind of talent on the floor and get them to play hard, you're in a pretty good situation there. There were no surprises at all. If anything, I thought from our perspective we battled them really tough today and I thought they responded really well. Q. They're as good as advertised? COACH KENT: Yes. Q. Do you think that the way they were able to get the open looks outside was just because you were trying to keep those big guys from getting the ball inside? Was that a byproduct of it? COACH KENT: If you think NBA, you got two 7-footers down there that neutralize each other. You can play behind them behind in the post and push them off the block, and they may score points but they kind of neutralize. In our situation, we had to keep the ball from coming into post, force you to front, which had a rotating guard on the weak side for lobs and that gave them an opportunity to skip the ball to shooters on the other side of the floor. So we talked about letting them beat us in fact with their big guys and taking the three-point shot. We got caught up in a couple of rotations where they saw three point shooters on the weak side, and I feel like we gave them too many three point shots in the game. When you look, two is much better than a three, particularly if you have seven 3s versus seven twos. You're still minus some points in your favor on that. If anything that got away from us, we gave them too many three point shots. And that was due in part because of our rotating down defensively and trying to shut down the big guys. I don't know how many people are from St. Louis, but you did a tremendous job at hosting this event. The weather felt like you were in Florida. Maybe that was, too, more relaxing for Florida to be in this weather and everything. But just a tremendous, tremendous job. This is a great city. People are really, really friendly seemed like they were excited to have this event here and hopefully got well entertained here with this event being here. MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. End of FastScripts |
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