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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2008Dwayne CurtisDavid HuertasAndy KennedyATLANTA, GEORGIA THE MODERATOR: We'll ask Coach Kennedy for some thoughts on the game and then we'll take your questions for the two student athletes. COACH KENNEDY: I thought it was a tremendous game. I wish I could have enjoyed it. Unfortunately I couldn't. But both teams came and played extremely hard, and they made one more play. I give Georgia a lot of credit for the way in which they attacked us throughout the course of the game. I thought at the beginning of the second overtime for the first time in quite some time, I thought we had momentum on our side, and we couldn't take advantage. I give Georgia credit. Q. Dwayne, if you could, could you take us through the last few seconds and how they were able to get the break that they got? DWAYNE CURTIS: Yeah. Well, it was either me stopping the ball or letting them score, and I had to try to make two plays in one, stop the ball and try to get back to Bliss, and he just got it off, and he didn't even come down with it. He just got it off in the air. It was kind of fast. Q. Your shot was really on tonight. Take us through your game and talk about how you felt out there? DWAYNE CURTIS: I mean, just like Coach tells me every day, get your feet dry, and every time you're open, let it go, and that's what I did tonight. I mean, you fall today, try to make plays for the team. They just made more plays than we did at the end. That's why they came out with the W. Q. David, the three free throws at the end of regulation, Coach Kennedy called timeout after the second free throw. What did you think about during the timeout? What did Coach Kennedy tell you during the timeout? DAVID HUERTAS: I just tried to relax, breathe, exhale, tried to step up and make the free throw, try to win the game. Q. Dwayne, assess where you're at for the NCAA Tournament now? Is this still a situation where you feel you can still get in somehow or is it something where you might on Sunday not even watch now? DWAYNE CURTIS: I don't have any comment for that. I'm sorry, I'm just overwhelmed. I don't have a comment for that. THE MODERATOR: Fellows, we'll excuse the student athletes. You can return to the locker room. Thank you very much. Questions for Coach Kennedy? Q. I guess the same question that I asked Dwayne for you. COACH KENNEDY: I think you know the answer to that. I think we all know the answer to that. Realistically, I mean, I can say it, we're not going to the NCAA Tournament. You know that, I know that, everybody knows that. Q. Andy, a loss like this obviously can affect a team one of two ways. Just what do you think about your kids, how they'll react to this, and what was the locker room like immediately afterward? COACH KENNEDY: They're devastated, and they should be devastated. I was telling them, we preach all year about being good stewards of your opportunities, man. I mean that both throughout the course of the game such as tonight, they had opportunities and we had opportunities, and typically the team that leaves the fewest plays on the table is the team that's going to win. We also talk about life and how life is going to give you opportunities and how you have to make your own. I thought this team did a tremendous job of putting ourselves back in a position where tonight's game had tremendous significance for us. Unfortunately we didn't get it done, and as a result we're very, very disappointed in where we're going. It'll take a couple of days. It'll take me longer than that, but kids are resilient, and we'll have an opportunity to play again somewhere some day, and hopefully we'll prolong the season as soon as possible, most especially for those four seniors. Q. Along the same lines, about your postseason destination, I would point out to you there's about 20 or 25 bubble teams that were going into this thing maybe for three, four, five spots depending on how you look at it, and a lot of those bubble teams lost today. COACH KENNEDY: No question. Q. You and the two Arizona schools are the only ones out of that whole cluster of teams that have five wins over RPI top 50 teams. I'm not saying your going to the tournament but, I'm a little surprised you don't hold onto that last vestige of optimism because of that statistic. COACH KENNEDY: I appreciate your optimism, but I'm just trying to be a realist, and for us to be 7 and 9 in the league and not to do what we needed to do -- many people, there was a number, to get to The Finals, you have to win two, you have to win three, but I know we have to win one in order to stay in the equation. Q. Could you discuss the inbounds play there at the end? COACH KENNEDY: Just couldn't contain the ball. Obviously you want them to -- you want them to catch it and go in away from their basket. They made a play in the open floor, didn't contain the bounce, he was going full speed at the rim obviously. Our players were very tentative because they didn't want to foul so they're backing off while still trying to stay in time. He made a tremendous shot. I haven't seen anyone take, but 16, 17 footer off the glass. Was it inside the lane? About 15, 16 feet, right, it was kind of a catch, and he kind of just shot it in. For us, I thought our opportunity -- they controlled the game. They had the momentum for the most part. We got it to around eight, seven or eight, with about eight minutes to play, which was very reminiscent of where it was last Saturday in Athens. We closed the game very strong. And then I thought for the first time in an hour and a half, two hours, we had the momentum, and we just didn't get it done. We missed free throws, and we gave them the ball. We had possession of the ball a number of times, and we gave it to them. I'm a big believer in you get what you deserve, and I thought tonight that Georgia deserved to win. Q. Could you talk about David's win, and it's 31 games into the year and this is the best he's played? COACH KENNEDY: He's played well over the last two or three weeks. He's had his moments, but I think he's really settled in. He made open shots for us tonight and three big free throws and then Chris followed that up with three more big free throws at the end of the first overtime, made shots for us, kept us in the game. We really only had two guys that responded offensively like we needed them to from a percentage standpoint. He certainly was huge for us. Q. There's been a little bit of a perception this year with the SEC that the league is a little bit down as opposed to most years. What are your impressions now having gone through the whole gamut of it? COACH KENNEDY: I think initially -- and again, I've said this, and I hate to put so much of this on Kentucky because it's unfair to Bill and it's unfair to Kentucky but it's reality. People when they think about SEC they look at what Billy has done because Billy Donovan has made Florida such a national power with what they've done the last few years and they've got a whole new cast of characters because those kids are playing professionally. People had to get to know these young Gators, and then Kentucky had a very un-Kentucky like November and December based on injuries and a number of things. Immediately people said the league is down. If you're going to count this RPI, which I think is way, way, way out of control, and hopefully something will be done with that in time, but last year we were the No. 2 rated RPI team in the country, this year we were No. 4 rated RPI league in the country. Granted, we don't have Florida who was a national power for the last two years. There's still some very good teams in this league top to bottom, everybody has got good coaches, everybody has got good players, and it is such a fine line between winning and misery, and fortunately we're on the bottom of that line. Q. What did you mean when you said RPI is way, way out of control, too much stock put in it? COACH KENNEDY: People are smart, not me unfortunately, but a lot of those coaches they figure that thing out, how to schedule. I think there's just been so much placed into that number that it needs adjusting. Q. You may have addressed this. The two times that your two guys stepped up and made the three -- COACH KENNEDY: For a team that doesn't shoot free throws, granted, the two guys that made them are our best two free throw shooters. Chris had a very un-Chris Warren type night, with you that's a freshman. It's our fault for putting so much dependence on him at this stage in his career. He didn't play the way that we've all known, at least guys that have seen us play a number of times know he's capable. We hurt ourselves in a number of areas, and in a game like this when it was back and forth and both teams were stepping up and making play after play after play, those things at the end of the day have a tendency to settle, and unfortunately we left too many plays on the table, and I give Georgia credit, tremendous effort and really fought us, fought us, fought us and made the one last play. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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