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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2008Scott DrewCurtis JerrellsKevin RogersKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI COACH SCOTT DREW: We want to give all the credit to Colorado, they won the hustle points. They did a great job taking it to us. I thought the first half we tried to speed the tempo up, tried to get in the passing lanes and got away from our game plan which was to make them play through us. They did a great job executing their offense, got a lot of open 3s and a lot of lay-ups. The second half we did a better job holding them to 29%. In the overtime, they just -- overtimes, they just executed better than we did. Q. C.J., did you feel like y'all had your usual intensity at the start of the game? Or was it a little off? CURTIS JERRELLS: At the beginning, it took for them to get a good lead on us to actually start playing, you know. That's been something that we had trouble with early on, but not lately. For some reason we did it again today. Q. C.J., you guys were coming into a completely different situation this time being a 5 seed, a team that everyone expected to win. Not a 11 or 12 seed. Did that alone make a difference in y'all's mind in terms of the preparation? CURTIS JERRELLS: Probably. But Coach talked about it. We tried our best not to think about it and just want to continue to be the hunter and not the hunted. We wanted to take care of business tonight but didn't. Q. Kevin, did you just kind of feel just team-wise, you guys had some opportunities, another case of missed opportunities in this game? KEVIN ROGERS: Like Curtis said, we just -- we didn't take care of business. We came out a little flat, you know, against a team that wants to win for their seniors. It came back to bite us. You know, we were well-prepared. You know, again like Curtis said, we just didn't come out and execute. Q. What kind of defensive adjustments did y'all make at halftime to get them from 72% in the first half down to 29% in the second? CURTIS JERRELLS: We just played defense. We played no defense in the first half. That's why they were able to get the back doors and the easy lay-ups and all the transition. I mean, we knew they were going to do all of that. We weren't focused. It really wasn't an adjustment, it was just we started playing defense. KEVIN ROGERS: Just like Curtis said, it really wasn't an adjustment. You know, we just came out and we knew we had to play defense for us to get back into the game. Credit those guys for making big shots, though. But, you know, it was just a lack of focus in that first half. Q. C.J., you've gone up against Richard Robby before. When he's on like that, how difficult a matchup is he? CURTIS JERRELLS: It's kind of difficult because he's also pretty big but, you know, I gave up some back doors. Like I said, we were prepared. We knew they was going to do that. It was just playing bad position. When you give a good player, easy, early, looks, it is hard to stop them down the stretch. Q. Guys like Digger Phelps on ESPN say you guys still had work to do to get into the NCAA tournament. Do you feel like you're in the tournament or is it going to be nervous for you on Sunday? CURTIS JERRELLS: I think all season long we've took care of business and did what we had to do. You know, although we lost tonight, we're still pretty confident. It is out of our hands now. We will wait and see what happens on Sunday. KEVIN ROGERS: Like Curtis said, we've handled our business the entire season. It is not in our hands anymore. All we can do is wait and watch on Sunday. Q. Kevin, did they do anything against you different defensively? It seemed like they limited your touches this time. KEVIN ROGERS: I don't think it was anything different. You know, our guards got off to high starts, so I was just trying to get in and make a couple plays when I was open. But I don't think they did anything different. It was just a matter of me making plays. THE MODERATOR: Guys, thanks for coming. We will now take questions for Coach Drew. Q. It seems like there was a very concerted effort on y'all's part to drive more to the basket in the second half. While that's good, that seems to get away from what y'all normally do. Do you think y'all did that too much? COACH SCOTT DREW: That's one thing that's great about tape, you can look at tape and find out. I do know when you shoot 2-10 from 3 in the second half, that promotes you to drive more. If we're hitting those shots, then I think we shoot. Instead of driving, you are driving and kicking. Now that's opening things more up. But all game long we really struggled from 3, and that's obviously our biggest strength or one of our biggest strengths. Q. Did you feel this was a game all the way from there at the end of the regulation into overtime, just a game of missed opportunities, you didn't have some chances? COACH SCOTT DREW: Disappointing from the first half standpoint because we had a game plan that had just worked, just up there, executed it, won on the road. We come back and then all of a sudden we get a little giddy, get out of position, give up some lay-ups and that opened Pandora's box. Second half, all we did was did what we were supposed to do and what we did up in Colorado. Again, one thing we tried to do was force tempo and maybe that's why we were out of position a little bit more in that first half. And then second half we got back to playing how we should have, which is again make them make shots over us instead of giving them those open looks and back-door cuts. Q. I just wanted to get you to elaborate on the first half defense and what went wrong there. Was it just a matter of being out of position? COACH SCOTT DREW: I think you go into a game with a game plan and for some reason we didn't execute it and that's always the coach's fault. So, again, our first thing was to take away back-doors. We gave up back-doors. The second thing was to take away 3s. We gave up 3s. Second half we did what we needed to do and obviously that's 29% from the field. That should have been like that for both halves and not one half. That's a frustrating thing. I got plenty of time to watch tape and figure out why. Q. How comfortable are you going to be between now and Sunday about your team's chances of being able to go on and play in the NCAA? COACH SCOTT DREW: I felt very good coming in with the body of work we had done and from what the experts were saying, the ones that understand it and follow it and do the most. Anyway, we'll have to see what they say now. I know one thing, when you are winning, you don't have to worry as much. Now, we're in a position where all year long we haven't had a so-called bad loss. But in a conference tournament, a 5 seed shouldn't lose to a 12. So, again, hopefully they look at the body of the work and not one game. Q. Scott, can you talk about -- is the worst thing you can do is let a guy like Richard Robby get on a roll and talk about a senior coming through at a big moment? COACH SCOTT DREW: Richard Roby has been an all-league player for four years for a reason. We knew he was going to play well. He did the last time and he does against most people. But 32 points and 12 rebounds, that's a little more than we'd like to give up. Again, if we took away the easy ones, then everything would have been manageable. I thought Marcus Hall was just as important with his 25 and 10. I think every coach that coaches against Colorado knows just how good those two are. Those are two excellent players. Q. When you get to the NCAA tournament, it's basically a six-game season. A lot of teams that lose a game that probably feel they shouldn't lose, kind of use that as a some righteous anger going into that tournament. Are you kind of excited that maybe, hey, it is a six-game season now. We got that out of the way, we have nowhere to look but forward? COACH SCOTT DREW: I think no coach likes to lose but at the same time I do know it focuses a team more and that's the situation where I know if we're in the tournament, we will definitely be more attentive and more sharp to begin the game, that's for sure. Q. Scott, how big of a challenge has it been to get this team to play the kind of defense you want this team to play because obviously that's been a battle for you guys? COACH SCOTT DREW: I think the big thing with our team is all year long we've approved defensively, but when we don't make shots in first half, I think sometimes that we let our offense dictate our defense. And, again, good teams don't let that happen and that's something we continually work on. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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