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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: RALEIGHMarch 20, 2008Roy HibbertJohn Thompson IIIRALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA Q. UMBC's coach was asked how he would deal with you, and he said something about maybe asking his managers to run out on the floor and bite your knee or knees, and I just wondered, have you ever been bitten on the knee by a two-legged mammal and also is it necessarily a snap to deal with smaller teams? ROY HIBBERT: Well, I think smaller teams are a little bit pesky. They always like to run around the post. But I'm going to do my job to make sure I attract as much attention as I can so I can get my teammates opened and that will open up a lot of other things for my team and myself. Q. There's only been four 15-seeds that have knocked off a 2-seed. Has Coach talked to you about that to make sure that you don't take any team or any opponent lightly as you are trying to make a run deep into the tournament again? ROY HIBBERT: That's our philosophy from day one. You don't look past the schedule. Every team is a good team in the tournament. You have to take it one game at a time. They are an extremely good team and we are just going to have to go out there and play hard. Q. Roy, what has coming back this season done for your game and has there been a moment you've regretted? ROY HIBBERT: I've loved every minute of it. It's a about bunch of guys I'm playing with and I'm confident in. There's nothing like playing in the NCAA Tournament in your senior year. It's the way to go out. Q. Brian Hodges earlier said he played against you a number of times, and it's like a Beltway rivalry game. Is there local bragging rights at stake with some of you guys who have played each other in the past? ROY HIBBERT: Obviously it's going to be a tough game and obviously we know each other and we are going out there and play our hardest. I know some of those players on the team and I've played with them since I was a little kid. So obviously I know them a little bit more, but Georgetown, every game is a tough game and do whatever we have to do to win and we have to stay focused. Q. You've been on both sides of a game like this at Princeton and now at Georgetown. What do you tell your team, the mind-set of a team like UMBC has going into a game like this to make sure they don't have a letdown in these rounds? COACH THOMPSON: Roy touched on it when he was up here. Once you get to this time of year, every team is good. Every team is well-coached. Every team has found out and figured out and knows how they can have success. And so, you know, with us, the way we approach things and the way we approach things all year, the numbers next to our name, we let you guys talk about; this seed, that seed. They are all good teams. And so we have gone about preparing for this game as we have for any other game. If we don't play well, if we don't do what we should do, if we don't execute, we could have lost every game we played this year, and so this is where we are. Q. Last year there was a lot of drive to get to your first Final Four, and now you've been there before. How is has the motivation changed this year? COACH THOMPSON: There's nothing that's changed. You're playing 340 teams that want to win the National Championship in the country, and we are one of those teams. The fact that we had a little bit of success last year and the fact that we went to the Final Four doesn't change that drive and doesn't change the desire of our program from me on down to not only get there, but hopefully put ourselves in a position to win. Q. I think I read a quote from you once saying about Roy when he got to campus, he was kind of insecure, not very confident. How have you seen him change personality-wise and how has that affected him as a player, as a leader? COACH THOMPSON: Roy has gone through -- I think because of athletics, and these kids are under such a microscope that you think they are different. And the growth and maturation process that Roy has gone through, I think most kids go through from their senior year in high school entering college through matriculation through graduation. He's grown up. He came in as a young kid, unsure of himself, and he's grown up into, you know, a young man that's ready to graduate, leave school and go off into the work force. End of FastScripts |
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