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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: DENVERMarch 20, 2008Keith BenjaminJamie DixonLevance FieldsDENVER, COLORADO THE MODERATOR: Joined now by Pittsburgh. Coach, if you want to begin with general thoughts on the game. COACH DIXON: Yeah, I thought it was, again, we knew how good a team like Oral Roberts was. A very experienced team. Very experienced in the NCAA tournament as well. So this was a team that was going to come out and play. Was looking forward to the opportunity, as we know. I was very proud of how we played, how we played early especially. I thought our offense was about as efficient as could be execution-wise, decision making. Levance, Keith, Ronald did a great job executing and finding the guys for open shots. Gilbert gave us great minutes off the bench. Our perimeter was very good. We really played against a very good defensive team. We really executed. We shot the ball well. We took good shots all the way through. I thought we did a great job on that part. Defended them well on the perimeter, which is what we really talked about doing, guarding their three-point shooters. I thought it was a great game for us. Thought we played very well against a very experienced team who has been here before. There's not a lot of teams like that. That's a very good team that we played well against. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student-athletes. Q. Levance, it seems like you struggled a little bit with your shot since you returned from your injury. What was the difference today and are you still getting stronger? LEVANCE FIELDS: Like coach said, we took good shots. You know, for most of my shots, I think open was good, open looks. I shot over my legs, was able to get some lift. We went down for me. When you see the ball go through the basket, it helps your confidence. I'm a very confident guy either way. But I've been missing since I came back, like you stated. I was able to knock down open shots today. Q. Yesterday you talked a little bit about injuries, how that affected practice. How have things changed in the last few weeks? How much has that helped you get on the run you're on right now? KEITH BENJAMIN: It helps a lot. We've been doing a lot of things that we normally don't do at practices. Now to be back in full strength, we get to do our block-out drills and shell defense, which helps us with our rotation. Being in the right spots on the defensive end. And it's helping us gel together as an offense because the offense is getting better also. Just having the full team out there ready to practice and guys knowing what they have to do now just makes everything better and much easier on the court. LEVANCE FIELDS: Like Keith said, you know, due to injuries, we just couldn't do what we normally do at practice. A lot of times we was just coming in, it was film and shooting, not able to do a lot of contact stuff. So that's probably the reason why we weren't able to do the job on the rebounding in a lot of games. You know, now since we got everybody back, we've been out-rebounding teams, getting back to how we used to play on defense. Like Keith said, just more help on our rotation. Because of practice, we're getting to do it. Now we're more used to it in a game. Q. There was an 18-0 run in the first half. They came out with a lot of energy and momentum. How big was that, to have that run, give them a dagger early? KEITH BENJAMIN: The run was real big. We came out, we tried to match their energy. We was feeling it a little bit, feeling the air, getting used to it and stuff like that. The game was moving at a real slow pace. As the game kept going on, they had a lot of energy still. We started getting the ball up court faster. Started noticing their transition defense was starting to break down. We started making great the right passes like we normally do, just getting great shots. That's really what it was. Eventually we started to break they back. We just kept grinding them and taking the best shot possible. LEVANCE FIELDS: For the most part, the coach did a great job on the film, scouting report with them. They said they're a high-energy team. But as the game goes on, they wear down. Like you said, they came out fired up and ready to go. We took they first blow and kept punching back, they fell down and couldn't keep fighting. As we got the lead, we didn't settle. As Keith said, we kept getting great shots. The more we made them, the more you could see them deflating. Q. I know you caught a few minutes of that first game. Can you talk about the matchup tomorrow, what you've seen from Michigan State so far? KEITH BENJAMIN: We just know, just from watching the whole year, that Michigan State is a great team. Every team has they ups and downs. They're playing great basketball right now. They have great players, great coach. We just looking to match up with them, however be the matchups. We just going to go back to the hotel, get our scouting reports down, see where our advantages are, see what we can do to stop them, come back and be ready to play basketball on Saturday. THE MODERATOR: Guys, thank you. We'll continue with questions for Coach Dixon. Q. The early run, the players were asked about it. What did you see in your team? What adjustments did you see you made from the early moments to really put the game away in a hurry? COACH DIXON: I thought we missed a couple easy shots, good shots. You're not going to hit them all throughout the game. We missed some open ones to start. They hit a couple threes. We were really worried about their shooting. Ehambe and Jarvis, especially. So they got a couple open looks. I think he hit three threes, two early, Ehambe, those were big. Again, we felt good at that point because we were taking good shots, we were getting good looks. We did that really consistently throughout the game. Eventually you're going to get on your run when you continue to take good shots. We were controlling the rebounding I thought from the beginning. And, again, we just wanted to continue to make 'em take tough shots and eventually we would get our transition game going. I thought we got a lot of stuff going in transition. We made some very good passes, made the extra pass, too, once we got some penetration and dump-offs for layups. Again, they may have been up a couple early, but I felt good about what we were doing. So it's a 40-minute game and you just got to continue to do things right. Q. There are some teams that as the season goes on maybe don't need as much practice, need a little bit of rest. Why has this worked for you guys? COACH DIXON: I think it was a combination of things. First of all, the numbers was our biggest obstacle. But also we have four freshmen in our rotation of eight. So that was a challenge in getting them better was one of those things. I knew throughout the year, even before the injuries, that we were going to have to do some things to continue these freshmen for them to improve. We were considered a young team going into this year. So then when you lose your two most experienced guys, this was going to be an opportunity for our guys to really continue to improve. So it's a combination of things. Healthy, youth that we had, and that are contributors. And then, uhm, we had to get better. We had to play better than what we were doing. Yeah, usually you pull off in the summer. We had to get through. We had to get through. We were playing seven with seven guys, seven scholarship guys, guys with numerous injuries of those seven. We had to survive that part of it and really point to really those last four games in conference play is what we talked about. Q. Fields was one of those guys that was injured for a while. He had a great game today. Can you talk about what he means when you have him on the court? COACH DIXON: There's a combination of things. First of all, he's our point guard. He brings a lot of energy. He runs the show. He's a good decision maker. I mean, all those things. But the thing, really depth having another perimeter guy. Our guys were playing minutes on the perimeter that we've never played guys at. Keith was averaging 36, 37. Ronald there was, too, for a stretch. We just normally don't do that. So, again, that was part of it. Plus those guys were both injured at the time when they were playing all those minutes, fighting through that. So obviously he's a great player, Levance. He brings a toughness to us, as well. He's always been our leader, along with Mike. They were our two leaders coming into this season. But I think just having another perimeter guy gets underestimated. Again, it's allowed us to just have more flexibility in games. Q. I don't know if you remember this one specifically, but it was in the first half when you were on a little bit of a roll. Levance looked like he had an open look and he actually decided to pass, made a turnover. You called a timeout pretty shortly after that. What was the timeout about? COACH DIXON: I think actually it was a combination of things. I thought fatigue. We just weren't seeming to be moving up and down. I know we had a pretty big lead at the time but I didn't like what we were doing offensively. We can live with that. He jumped in the air. His assist-to-turnover ratio is off the charts. Very few mistakes. But again, I can take unselfish mistakes, too, even more so, and that's what it was. So he jumped in the air. Guy thought he was coming at him and he recovered back to the other guy. I think we got a little stationary. You have a timeout to use or you lose it in the first half. So it's a combination of things. I think it worked well. I think the timing was good for us in what we needed to do. We had gone up and down a couple possessions, as well where we hadn't been as good -- they hadn't really made a run, but I didn't like what we were quite doing offensively. THE MODERATOR: Any initial thoughts on Michigan State for Saturday? COACH DIXON: I haven't looked at them. One of our coaches has looked at them, done all the scouting. I really don't know too much about them. I've seen them play a couple times during the year. Obviously I have great respect for their program, their coach, Coach Izzo, he's a friend. We know how good they are. You know, it will be obviously a game I'm sure a lot of people are interested in watching on Saturday. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. COACH DIXON: Thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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