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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: RALEIGHMarch 20, 2008Jay GreeneBrian HodgesCavell JohnsonRandy MonroeRALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA Q. Talk about facing one of the top defensive teams in the country. BRIAN HODGES: First of all we want to approach the game from a defensive standpoint. You get this late into the season and you know that defense is a stable key in winning the game. We know when we run our offense and execute that we are capable of scoring no matter who is defending us. But we want to focus definitely on defense. Q. Can you talk about the Hartford game and coming back from the injury? BRIAN HODGES: Coming right back off the injury it was a struggle to get back in rhythm. Like I said after a couple games, Hartford being probably the most prevailing of all of them, I think I really did get back into a rhythm and my ankle felt great. Q. Can you talk about quarterbacking the offense and being the guy all year, and now against a very physical Georgetown team, are you ready to play 40 minutes and go against those guys? JAY GREENE: Yeah, we are ready for them. This is something you dream for since you're a little kid and this is an opportunity to showcase what our team can do. We are proud to be here and we are ready to play. Q. You've been at the school a while, and you have not come close to this before. What is that like to be on this stage right now? BRIAN HODGES: It's a great feeling, four years of hard work and determination Page off and four years at UMBC and to climax being in the NCAA Tournament, I can't express it. Q. For Brian, this is a new twist on a Baltimore/Washington rivalry; do you know any of the guys on Georgetown and what does that mean to you? BRIAN HODGES: I grew up against Ward and Freeman but it means a lot because I grew up rooting for Georgetown. They were the home team pretty much and they have always been the dominant team in the country. It's a great rivalry, me being from the area, it's a great opportunity to get a chance to play them. Q. Could you talk about the game, the matchups inside and how you're going to approach that, what you think about all that? CAVELL JOHNSON: We are obviously outsized with their center, Roy Hibbert. I feel like we need to take an approach to team defense when we are guarding him. We always take pride in our individual defense, but a big part of this, guarding him is going to be team defense. Q. Brian, you said that you played begins Hibbert growing up, how did you stop him and will the same things work today? BRIAN HODGES: Growing up was mostly in AAU and I don't think we did stop him to tell you the truth. (Laughter). I think we're going to have a better chance with UMBC and our team, knowing that we are going to have a better chance tomorrow afternoon of stopping him. He was a dominant force growing up, as well. Q. How many times have you guys watched that tape to watch how they slowed them down -- CAVELL JOHNSON: Two or three times we have gotten together as a team and watched those guys how they came out and went really hard at Georgetown. That's the kind of approach when you are scouting the team, you want to see how other teams approach it and try to take some similar approach in how they stop them. Q. You guys had talked a little bit about what Vermont did a couple of years ago. I wonder, did you learn lessons from that? Did you pay attention to that at the time and learn big in how to pull off an upset? JAY GREENE: I just think the first thing you can take from that is that it can be done. No one gives you a chance, especially no one else being a 15-seed, but we believe in our team. No 15-seed has ever beat a 2-seed that didn't believe they could do it, and that's the first step for us. We know we have a good team and we are not going to back down from Georgetown. Q. You talk about a great rivalry with Georgetown and I looked at the records and I don't think you've played them since about '88, am I wrong about that? Just wondering, is there any reason, have they just not wanted to play you guys? BRIAN HODGES: I can't comment on that. I have no clue about the scheduling, so I can't comment on that. Q. You guys, looking at the State of Maryland basketball right now, there are five teams from the state that made the postseason this year, three in the NCAA Tournament. For you guys, how do you feel the area has grown in the last couple of years and what do you think needs to be done to make sure that that continues? CAVELL JOHNSON: I feel like it's grown a lot in basketball, not just collegiate level but high school, as well. That's one of the big things is state schools have been able to keep state kids and recruit state kids. That has a lot to do with it. We all have a pride and passion to play college basketball in the state that we grew up in sometimes. Q. Can you talk about your attitude going into the Hartford game? It just seemed like you guys came out and were loose and having fun and got into big lead, was that true and what was the mood in the locker room and do you think you can carry that over to this big game on this big stage? BRIAN HODGES: I think we were pretty loose, we were playing at home and we felt comfortable and we played that way and that's how we came out with that big lead against Hartford. If we keep doing the same things that we have done all year that's gotten us wins, we're going to stick with that method. Q. Once you won, what did Randy do to get your feet back on the ground? CAVELL JOHNSON: The one thing that Coach has told us after every game is that success is never final. We keep our minds in the season and move on to the next game. He tells us to enjoy the moment, enjoy the win that we had, but then get ready till we come back and prepare for our next game. BRIAN HODGES: He brings us back down-to-earth, telling us to enjoy the moment, but also telling us that we are not finished and to take it a step further like in the NCAA Tournament. So we are not finished yet. JAY GREENE: Just to piggyback, he says never to be satisfied. We are excited and we are here to win. This is where all the hard work pays off, having this opportunity to represent our school here. COACH MONROE: Good afternoon, everyone. It's a tremendous opportunity to be one of the top teams in the field of 64 competing in the NCAA Tournament. Our team is extremely excited about being here. We are excited about playing, and we are ready to just throw that ball up and start playing basketball tomorrow afternoon. Q. You said you never cared who you were going to play, but a team with a large presence in the low post, how do you plan on handling them? COACH MONROE: I plan on having all the five players cover Hibbert and come off the bench and bite him in the kneecaps. (Laughter). Obviously he poses a problem to us but we'll come up with a couple defensive schemes to try to negate him, but I don't think you can stop him from scoring. He's done a tremendous job of conditioning his body and improving his offensive skills. We are going to work to try to contain him as best we can to negate probably his touches, and hopefully he can pass the ball back out to someone else who can make something happen. Q. Barbosa and Johnson transferred into your place with only one year of eligibility remaining, and that's an unusual type of thing, especially two of them at one time like that from one place. How much did you weigh that situation before going along with it? COACH MONROE: I weighed it tremendously. Usually as a coach, you kind of don't want to do something like that, but once I got a chance to meet both Ray Barbosa and Cavell Johnson individually and found out who they were as people, young people, I got tremendously excited and said, they deserve an opportunity. Yes, they were very good basketball players, but sometimes when young people transfer, they are transferring for a reason, and to get to know both those young men who are class acts, quality human beings, well respected at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and well respected within the community, it was a no-brainer to me. If they were not good people, quality people, trust me they would not be at UMBC. But the quality of their character was enough for me. Q. Can you talk about Brian Hodges and what he means to this team and how happy you are for him that he gets this opportunity? He's been there with you since the beginning, and what a career he's had. COACH MONROE: Do you have a couple Kleenex? Because you're going to make me cry. As I said last week when we won the America East Conference Championship at our place, Brian Hodges is an integral part of everything we do, whether it be on the basketball court or whether it be in the university or whether it be in the community. He's been terrific. He's one of most humble human beings I've ever met in my lifetime, and I've had the good fortune to be an assistant coach for almost 20 years, and I have not met a more humble human being. You almost have to pull it out of him to say that he's a good player, because he just doesn't do those kind of things. He kind of let's his actions speak through his work, and just to watch Brian grow from the first year as a freshman to his sophomore year and his junior year and now his senior year, it's just been very refreshing and rewarding as a coach and a privilege to say, I coached a young man like Brian Hodges, and also to have a young man graduate in three years is just phenomenal. He's going to go on to be very successful in the business world, and I hope he doesn't forget his old coach and university and drop us a donation from time to time. (Laughter). Q. On Media Day, your guards -- on Selection Sunday that is, your guards seemed confident that they can exploit Georgetown's guards; how confident are you in the matchup? COACH MONROE: I'm confident in our guard play. I think this time of the year, just being at La Salle University knowing that when we had good guards, we were very effective, and I think we have some very good guards. We have Jay Greene, who is the straw that stirs the drink for us. You have Ray Barbosa, who is a prolific scorer. Brian Hodges can flat-out score. These guys I think are ready to play, and they are excited about being here and looking forward to competing against Georgetown. Q. I have sort of two separate questions. First, why has this program been unable to reach this level in all these years? What's been the biggest struggle trying to get players there? COACH MONROE: Well, I wish I had a magic wand so I could just answer that question for you outright. But I don't. But I will say this. In order to get to the top, it takes nothing but hard work, determination and just a stick-to-it-ness which we have had over the years. We have had some opportunities which we came up short sometimes in the different league that is we were in, probably went to the semi finals and fell short, but that's the nature of post-season play. You know, I've seen some good teams this year, that had very successful season, but just fell short in Conference play. That doesn't mean those teams weren't very good. We've had some good teams in the past but we just fell short in the NCAA Tournament. We've had some good teams since I've been an assistant at UMBC, but it just wasn't meant to be. Q. A little bit different, it would seem normal to me for Georgetown to have scheduled you every now and then over the years just because you're so close geographically; it's pretty common, non-Conference schedule. Why have you guys -- you've only played once, I think it was '88. COACH MONROE: Probably because of conflicts within our schedule. That has a lot to do with it. You have to try to find comparable dates that will match both teams' schedules and a lot of it had to do with that. Q. Over 20 years? COACH MONROE: Over 20 years, yes, yes. (Laughter). Q. How do you feel playing so many games over the course of a season prepares you for an opportunity like this? COACH MONROE: I think to be in those kind of games tests your will and gets you to see that you can play in games like that. Sometimes you get teams that play in blow-outs a great deal of the time, and they don't know how to play in close games. So I've seen good teams struggle, especially in a tournament of this magnitude where it's one-and-done, and they don't know how to respond when they are playing in close games. I think that will help us because we have played in so many of those games as you've alluded to, and I think that's built our confidence a great deal. Q. Will you hope to get the crowd into it a little bit? You know how these things work, if an underdog has a chance, sometimes the crowd goes for them; is that one of your goals? COACH MONROE: I wouldn't say that's one of my goals. I think it's a nice thing. I think we have a tremendous crowd coming down here to support us, but I think they have been supporting us throughout the season. They have been very consistent and I think that will definitely help us. I think, you know, our guys, seeing that we are going to have a good crowd come down here, I think that will definitely help us. But it has not been one of the goals of mine. My goal is to make sure that we play to the best of our abilities tomorrow against Georgetown. Q. What can you tell your kids -- because you've been here before. What can you tell them to help them deal with the grand stage here and what this is all about? COACH MONROE: Well, as I told them the last few days, hey, let's do what helped us win 24 ballgames this year. We are a good basketball team. You know, the bottom line -- what this team has been able to do, I think they have been able to do a very good job of focusing, and I think this time of the year, focus and concentration along with execution and performance is of extreme importance, and when they can do those things, they are a pretty good basketball team. And I have been able to see that within this group the last few weeks, especially. Q. There's five teams from Maryland in the postseason this year, and four of those coaches, yourself included, African Americans. How do you feel the climate for hiring minority head coaches has improved since you've been in this business? COACH MONROE: To me a coach is a coach whether you are white, black, blue, green or yellow. I think what it says is we are capable of doing the job to our best of our abilities, and we can only get better. End of FastScripts |
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