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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 16, 2008Dave BlissDennis FeltonSundiata GainesATLANTA, GEORGIA THE MODERATOR: We'll ask Coach Felton for some overall comments on the game and then we'll take your questions just for the four student athletes and then finish up with Coach. COACH FELTON: I can't hardly find the words to describe how happy I am for our players and how grateful I am to them for showing all the perseverance they've shown and see it culminate this weekend. Just extremely proud of them for the way they persevered throughout the tournament. There was nothing easy about it, playing against great teams, great competition, and just very, very -- just proud of them and happy to see -- especially for Sundiata and David, just can't hardly put into words how I feel, especially for those two guys. Q. This is for David and Sundiata. Can you talk about where you guys started this year with Coach having to kick two guys off the team? What were your feelings at that point, and can you contrast that with now and how you've gotten from there to here? DAVID BLISS: Yeah, it was kind of a big disappointment at first, obviously with those guys not meeting the expectations of our team. But we moved on, and we kind of took it on ourselves to keep the team together and keep fighting, and we've wanted to make the tournament ever since we came in as freshmen. Kind of a roundabout way of getting there, but we did it. SUNDIATA GAINES: It was kind of disappointing, as Dave said. But at the same time, we had to believe as a team. You know, sometimes media and different other people may think just because you lose your two best players you don't have a chance, and they kind of counted us out. It definitely was a tough year because we had to fight through a lot of adversity, but that's what makes winning this SEC so special, just the overall team effort, and we just built good team chemistry, especially coming down the stretch. If we didn't believe in ourselves, we would have never had a chance. Q. Sundiata, how are you today? I know your hip hurt last night. COACH FELTON: My hip is fine. It was all right -- I mean, it was kind of bruised last night, but I knew that was the last thing I wanted to worry about was my hip. My team was more important. I could fight through a little hip injury. We just had to win one more game. That's what I did, and I'm going to rest on it now. But I'm just happy we won the game. Q. For any of you guys, what do you think about your draw in the NCAA Tournament, Xavier? I know you don't know a lot about them yet, but what do you think about your draw? DAVID BLISS: I mean, we're just excited to have a chance to play in the tournament. Don't know a whole lot about Xavier yet, but I'm sure we'll do a thorough scouting report on them. I know they had a lot of success this year, so definitely it will be another challenge for us and one we're looking forward to. BILLY HUMPHREY: We were just really looking for our ticket to get into the NCAA. I think I speak for everybody in saying we didn't really care who they matched us up against, we just knew we were going to take it by the hands and walk with each other and try to advance like we did in this tournament. Hopefully we can play for another championship. Q. For Dave and Billy, adrenaline is part of it, but at any point during the course of the game did fatigue become a factor in light of the games you've played back to back to back? DAVID BLISS: It was a little bit of a factor. I had to signal Coach a few times to give me a blow. But I kind of do that anyway (laughter). I don't know, I guess I've got a lot of experience (laughing), but I don't know, it was definitely tiring. We were just so determined at that point that we just kept saying, we made it this far, we might as well go ahead and finish this thing. BILLY HUMPHREY: Like Dave said, we had nothing to lose, and nothing was worth being an excuse, the injuries, the fatigue, any of that. At any given point in time it didn't matter. We just knew we had 20 more minutes, 15 more minutes, 10 minutes to play and win this championship and shock the world, and that was on our mind, and we did it. Q. Can you put into words what it means after four years for you and Yata to get this kind of payoff that you didn't know -- you weren't sure was going to come? DAVID BLISS: I mean, it's been unbelievable. All the things that we've been through over four years, it's been really trying on both of us. But we've kind of stuck together no matter what happened and kind of known that at least one person was going to be there no matter what happened. You know, it's just so rewarding for us I think after all we put into this. I'm sure Yata feels the same way. But just taking a stake in this program and being proud of it and just having that all pay off this weekend was just tremendous for us. THE MODERATOR: Fellows, you can be excused back to the locker room. Thanks for coming. We'll continue on with questions for Coach Felton if you will raise your hand. Q. Terrance is a guy who you have been very high on for a long time now, and in this tournament it seemed to really come together for him. Can you talk about what he's meant to you and perhaps why that has come together for him? COACH FELTON: Well, in this tournament he really started to play with a good degree of confidence offensively, and he hit some timely shots starting with the Mississippi game. He hit some really, really timely shots down the stretch of that game, which was seesawing down to the wire. That probably did a lot for Wood with his own confidence. I also think he along with all of his teammates benefitted from some more patience and presence for teamwork as a team offensively in the first place. I think there were a lot of stats that went in our favor in this game, but probably the biggest one is the fact that out of 23 field goals, we assisted on 18. You know, so Sundiata struck a really good balance of creating for himself and his teammates and started moving the ball better and better. But Wood, really he made some big shots. He raised up and made some big threes in this tournament. Of course he was four for five from three today, and a couple in the first half were momentous, and a couple in the second half were back-breakers. They were all very, very big baskets for us. Q. They cut it to three and you guys still -- everything that could have gone wrong it seems like the last two days, with Sundiata fouling out, they get momentum going. Was there ever a point where you thought about the wall that we all talk about, or worried about the wall and thought it might pop up? COACH FELTON: Well, as a coach you worry about things turning against you all the time, and that's your job as a coach. So you're always trying to think ahead and stay ahead of that wall with having something that can be helpful to your team, whether it's just what you say to them, how you say it, and/or strategy, finding a way to change things to turn the momentum around. So that is an absolute constant worry. When you're running up a 17, 19 point lead in the first half I'm worried about when they're going to make their run and cut it to 10 and thinking about what may be the best response to that adversity when it comes because you know it's going to come. You don't ever count on a team not responding against you, not competing, and letting the momentum continue to fall your way. So that's constantly what you're doing as a coach. You're trying to -- you're worried about what's the next thing that can move against us and how to counter it. Q. How important do you think it was that you got the delay on the tipoff from the original 1:00 p.m.? You got to come back at 3:30. Was that valuable to you for rest? COACH FELTON: Well, I know personally I couldn't stay awake last night trying to watch tape and get ready to get our team ready for Arkansas this morning. So as hard as I tried, I just kept dozing off, dozing off, until finally at 4:30 I gave in and went to bed. When I got back up sometime between 8:00 and 9:00, I didn't feel very good. The shower helped. At that moment I did think to myself that we were blessed that the tipoff was put off a couple of hours, and I was thinking to myself how much a difference just that couple of hours makes because if we're playing at 1:00 versus 3:30, it's a huge difference in how early you have to get up in the morning to start your process of getting ready for that tipoff. So I was very, very thankful for the fact that we got that two-and-a-half hour delay. Q. With the mental and physical fatigue of the weekend, do you think that will alter how you prepare this week? Will you maybe try to take it easy and get some rest this week as you go into the NCAA Tournament, maybe different than you would have otherwise? COACH FELTON: I think it's always the same for a team that wins their tournament championship. Well, it's always the same. If you even make it to the final game in leagues like the SEC, the Big Ten, the ACC, where our tournaments end so late and so close to the National Tournament, it's always a concern about the turnaround time and not only getting rested but getting ready. You know, I've been lucky enough to be involved with three of these before leading into the National Tournament, but those were in the Sun Belt where we finished earlier. So to answer your question, I don't know that it'll be so different. I mean, we'll do the logical thing from the standpoint of making the best use of our time, of mixing rest with preparation. I know that all of us -- I'm certain that all of us, we can't wait to get out of here and just have a chance to relax immediately following our responsibilities, obligations here this afternoon, because you can only imagine how exhausted everyone is. Q. The adversity you went through in the last several days, then winning a championship, in what way can you anticipate how this might impact your basketball program? COACH FELTON: Well, it's going to really help us a lot because we've grown some championship stock through this tournament. The experience of winning, the experience of winning a championship is priceless, and especially when you have to do it in the manner that we did it, where nothing was easy all year long. We fought incredible adversity all season, and continuing through this tournament. So our returning players for the first time will have that kind of championship experience to draw from moving forward into the future. Q. What was your reaction to the seeding when they showed you on the big screen it looked like you were thinking you didn't get much respect in the seeding? COACH FELTON: I have no idea what we're seeded. I can't see that far (laughter). I could barely read Xavier. What were we seeded? Q. 14th. Coach Felton: 14th? I really couldn't care less. I didn't care where we played, who we played, seeding. We're just eternally grateful to be in the tournament. Q. How much of a concern was Sundiata's hip coming into today? I mean, was he hurting all the way up until tipoff? COACH FELTON: No, he didn't allow it to be an issue at all. When I got back to the locker room after doing all of this yesterday, you know, he was as happy as he could be, looking forward to playing today and looking forward to finding a way to finish the game after fouling out the two previous games. You know, he's not used to that. He's played all season. I don't know if he's ever fouled out. If he has, it's only been -- it's been a very, very rare occasion in his career, even though he's been a 35-minute-per-game guy. So that was a real new experience for him yesterday. I think he felt -- you know, he just felt like he was saved by his teammates to be able to get a chance to play another day, and he was determined not to let that happen again today. Q. For all the oddities and things that happened in the last few days, this being at the site of your big in-state rival, was it surreal, this net-cutting ceremony at Georgia Tech? COACH FELTON: Not really. Everything about this situation has been bizarre, but where we played, no, it just didn't -- it didn't strike me as ironic at all. To be honest with you, I'm glad that we were able to use the facility. It was about as convenient as you could get to be able to move just down the street from the Dome to here. I'm glad it was able to be worked out. You know, I'm glad we were able to come down here. I think it was easier than just about anywhere else we could have gone outside of the Phillips Arena. Q. Amidst all the back-slapping and hand-slapping that was going on. Afterwards you got a big bear hug from Damon. Is there anything you can share with us about what he said? COACH FELTON: Obviously he was very excited about winning and winning another Georgia championship. THE MODERATOR: We'll end on that note. Thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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