|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: RALEIGHMarch 20, 2008Milan BrownJeremy GoodeMarkus MitchellChris VannRALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA Q. This will be a question for all three of you. There's probably nobody on the planet who believes you guys can win. How do you guys feel about that? Does it bother you, and if it doesn't, why doesn't it? JEREMY GOODE: To answer your question, honestly I don't feel that there's any pressure for us coming into this game. If anything, it's them. But at the same time no, 16-seed team has beat a 1-seed. It's going to happen sooner or late. We just feel like if it's going to happen, why not us. CHRIS VANN: Going with what Jeremy said, the pressure is on them being the No. 1 seed. We have nothing to lose. Coming into the NCAA Tournament, we have nothing to lose and everything to came. We feel like we step on the court every time that we can win every game. We are going to bring that to the game and at the end of the game when the clock hits zero, you'll see. MARKUS MITCHELL: I guess there's not much more to add on to what they said. They are right, it's going to happen sometime, so why not us? We have a chance staring us right in the face, so we're just going to try our best and see what we can do. Q. Can you tell us what it's like for to you comeback here and play in your home state in the NCAA Tournament and were you a Carolina fan at all growing up? JEREMY GOODE: Yeah, I was a Carolina fan. I really didn't like Duke growing up. With that being said, it means a lot to me. Before the season, me and Chris talked and I told him that I would make sure that we got him any seed Conference championship, and that happened, and then we wanted to play a game ask prior to playing the game we wanted to make sure we got that win and make sure I got a chance to come back home and play in front of fans and family. Q. Can you talk about Coach Phelan? CHRIS VANN: He comes by practice all the time and gives me words of advice, maybe something he's seen in the previous game or home something. His name is stamped on the program, and it's Coach Brown's program now. But you know, he laid down the foundation for them. He's involved in the program a lot. He comes by practice with his grandchildren and there's just a lot of interaction there. Q. You really got things going this season pushing the ball up the floor, more up-tempo, and NC does that better than anyone in the country, are you comfortable to slow that down if you need to during the game? MARKUS MITCHELL: Yeah, we've been working a lot on our half-court sets. So I'm sure we'll be able to adapt to the change. But we really don't want to. We want to keep it like an up and down game, back and forth, because that's the style they play and that's the style that we're trying to play at. So hopefully we can stay at that level for 40 minutes. Q. Would you share with us just how well you know some of the Carolina players, what relationships you've had with them, and various high school situations like Will Graves and others? JEREMY GOODE: To answer your question, Will Graves beat me for Player of the Year in North Carolina, I believe that was my senior year. You know, I got kind of good relationships with a couple of players on the team. I mean, it's not like best friend things, but I mean, at the same time, we understand who each other are. I played, I believe, Taiwan two times my senior years and a lot of times in AE Basketball so we understand who each other are when we step on the court. It's just respect. Q. Can you talk about before you saw the bracket Pop up on Sunday night, what was your reaction at that point? JEREMY GOODE: Well I didn't think we would be in a playing game from the start. I thought we would be a 16-seed somewhere but I didn't think we would be in a playing game. Once they said that we were in the playing game, and I saw that we were in the east bracket, I was like, oh, man, I understand who we're going to end up playing now. But I mean, it wasn't more so concern that we were playing Carolina. It was more so, you know, where we were placed and end up beating Carolina. Q. For the two guards, would you talk about the kind of place that you played before Coach Brown went to up-tempo and what you were trying to do back then, why you think you went to the up-tempo? JEREMY GOODE: Well, there was never a time we weren't playing up-pace. It was just being more committed to playing up-pace. We always ran -- Coach brought me and several other players years older than me, he wanted to play the up-and-down game. He felt since he's a guard, that's what a lot of guards like to do. Once we bit into What Coach was trying to do and the principles of what will be required, we kind of start winning from it. And we stuck to it and it's got us here. CHRIS VANN: To go off what Jeremy said, yeah, we never really changed. It was just about executing and getting the ball in the hoop. Coach sat us down and made us realize he recruited us for a reason, and that's to put the ball in the basket. Jeremy averaged 20 points in high school as well as myself and our other guards. It was just about execution and everyone buying into what Coach Brown really wanted us to do. Q. Is this the highlight of your career? JEREMY GOODE: Not necessarily. I would say winning the NEC Conference championship was the highlight of my career. I came close several times to winning championships, several times, AE basketball or whatever. To say that I won a championship was a big highlight. This is up there with it, if anything. Not everybody gets a chance to play a team of Carolina's caliber in the NCAA Tournament. So I mean, this is right there up there along with them. Q. What do you think the feelings and emotions are going to be like when you start, and will it be difficult playing a Carolina team that's very used to this type of thing? And secondly, was that a prediction earlier, when you said you'll see what happens when the clock runs down? CHRIS VANN: Oh, yeah. I always say that when we step on the court. You know, it will be difficult because I mean, I'm pretty sure it will be a packed house. I know for a fact it will be a packed house. Coming into this building here just now, their practice was, you know, it was full. But yeah, I'm pretty sure, you know, once the ball is tipped and get to the first time-out; the first one to get relaxed is who is going to be successful. I'm pretty sure they have been in many a tough games and games that's been sold out. It will be the first for us, but Dayton got us to the first step. Dayton, there was a huge crowd on hand there and we'll just relax and get into the game after the first time-out? Q. Do you think already playing a game in the NCAA Tournament will be a help since the other top seeds haven't? MARKUS MITCHELL: Sure, since we played in it, yeah. (Laughter) hopefully that's the first step. Maybe that's the way to go. Q. There's been so much talk about your up-tempo offense, but throughout the season, you've been a pretty solid defensive unit. What's the key to the type of defense that you play? CHRIS VANN: We are a defensive-oriented team that we strive off our defense and our defense leads to good offense. But we were one of the best defensive teams in our Conference and, you know, when you limit the other team to points, of course you're going to win the game. We are going to bring it out here tomorrow and I mean, show the world exactly what the Mountain defense is all about. Q. Are you basically a full-court, pressure team all the time? CHRIS VANN: We mix it up a lot. We try to keep the offense on their heels, nothing too steady, nothing, I mean -- you'll figure it out eventually but there's nothing like being on the court. We'll switch it up from man-to-man or zone or full-court press. We have a different -- numerous -- a number of different types of defenses we'll play to keep the opponent on their heels. MARKUS MITCHELL: Like Chris said, we'll try to use our defense to kind of fuel our offense. So we know if we can get stops and turnovers, that's an easier way and a faster way to get the ball to the only end of the court rather than taking it out. Along the front line, we have Sam Atupem, he's probably the best defender in the front core we've got. He's a great shot-blocker and a lot of the times, the guard is sending a man his way, so that helps cause turnovers, as well. Q. Would you guys talk about the kind of offense you want to play? When you make this alleged change or not a change, was there any input from you guys to Coach Brown to say you want to go more up-tempo? Was it strictly on his end or was it partially on your end? MARKUS MITCHELL: Well, that was his goal from the start. So I would say it was all his end. I guess he figured that we would love to play that way, anyway. He really doesn't restrict us on the shots we take or the decisions we make out there. He really just let's us go out there and play. It was really all his decision, but like, he has the backing from everyone. So it's no hostile towards it I guess. CHRIS VANN: The up-tempo game we play I think makes it difficult for the defense. I feel that Jeremy Goode is one of the fastest point guards in the nation, so if he's ramming it down your throat, it's hard for the defense to set up. I think him pushing the ball tomorrow, you know, to keep Tywon on his heels; if he's on his heels, I think that will be good. JEREMY GOODE: Along with what they already said, Coach brought the sinkers in, there's four sinkers, me, these two and Sam Atupem. He changed the play book around several times throughout the year just so we could be more inter -- I don't really know how to -- so we could be more into the offense, so it would open up opportunities for everyone. He drew up a couple of plays, and a couple of plays led to more and more plays eventually. But he changed the play book around so we could benefit from the way he wanted to play, and once he did that, I mean, it's helped us out a whole bunch. COACH BROWN: We're really excited to be here. Proud of my guys's efforts to get to this point. Everybody is obviously maybe a little bit more on their toes because of who we're playing, so we're ready for Friday. Q. I want to get to you look back a little bit instead of looking ahead. What's it like following a mainstay in that every decision you make, whether large, small, good, bad, just people are going to say, well, that's not maybe how Coach Phelan would have done it. How has that been? COACH BROWN: Actually, there has not been as much of that as probably you would think. I don't know if that's because there's a small school because Coach had so much power, told them not to do that. (Laughter). It was a good situation for me to be in because I was able to work under him as an assistant coach. So actually I went from looking at him just as my mentor that we turned into friends, as well. So it was when I was afforded this great opportunity to be the head coach after him, most people say you want to be the coach after the coach, but here, Mount St. Mary's took me in like family. I graduated from Howard University, but I feel like I have two alma maters. I feel like Mount St. Mary's and Howard, they have treated me that special. And then I just wanted to make sure that everything we did both on and off the court that Coach Phelan could look at us and say he was proud of what he saw because he worked so long and so hard to build up the reputation at our school. Q. You guys win with defense, we understand that, but a lot has been made about the switch to an up-tempo in late January. Would you talk about why you did that, and how responsible that is for the finishing kick you had? COACH BROWN: I think it's absolutely been huge for us in the fact that we were really -- we knew we were playing good enough defense to win games. But we weren't playing good enough offense to win games. So it actually happened after a home loss to Sacred Heart that really myself and my staff were just so tired of scoring 50-some points, and maybe allowing a team to score 62, and we still were losing some games. And it was something that I always wanted to do, and I think it was partly me just letting go of the reigns a little bit and I talked to the guys and brought the captains in and the seniors, and pretty much the first thing I did was just cut Jeremy Goode loose and just told everybody to keep up. Q. Along those lines, what do you do when the opponent does what you do, maybe get better than anybody else in the country in terms of pushing tempo? COACH BROWN: In this situation, that's pretty much probably the dilemma is how much you are going to play the way you normally play with tweaking and making some of the adjustments to try to combat a team that has better athletes. So, you know, obviously I'm not going to say what we are going to do. But we are going to try to make our guys feel as comfortable as possible playing, because I think if we totally switch, I think it will probably throw us off even more than if we just -- when the ball goes up, we played the way we played, they play the way they play, and we'll find out what happens when the clock says zero. Q. How much good preparation do you think the game in Dayton is going into this as opposed to say 16-seed coming in cold? And what parts of the stat sheet have to look the best for you to be competitive tomorrow? COACH BROWN: Well, I think it will be beneficial to us because we had a six-day layoff before we played the play-in game, so I was nervous about that. I thought we wouldn't play great offensively maybe for the first five to eight minutes in that game, and it lasted a little bit longer than I would like. But our defense showed up, and so we were able to get through that, so I think that's a positive that we are able to get back on playing every three days. As far as the stat sheet, they are very good at playing in the paint, and I think that's probably where this battle is going to be won. And that's in terms of rebounds, scoring in the paint, some things that might not show up, loose balls. Probably whoever benefits more so the stats that work out in the paint is probably going to control the game, and that's going to have to do with their transition as well as our transition; because if they get easy layups, we have to make sure we control that. Q. When you look at your players, you look in their eyes, do you see players that believe they can win this game? COACH BROWN: Yeah, absolutely. I think first and foremost, that probably had to come from me. The first thing we said before we practiced Wednesday was every time we huddle up, nobody put their hand in here and say Mount like we usually do if you don't think we can win. And I wouldn't do our program, our kids, any justice, if we went all this time believing in each other, and then believing in me, and then I get to the stage on Friday and don't believe we can do it. Now, it's going to take a tremendous effort, there's no question about that. We're going to put our best foot forward and believe in the dream that we can get it done. Now that's why I keep watching the board today. No upsets yet. (Laughter). Q. Where were you the night that Marseilles and Hamilton beat Iowa State, and might you have a tape of that in the luggage somewhere? COACH BROWN: That's probably going to show up on the video clips tonight. I was actually at home watching that game. You know, that was a special feeling. It was good, because really it started at the Selection Show when they told Hamilton and my brother that they were announced that they were playing Iowa State. The first thing I turned to them and said was, "I think you all can beat them." And he said why and I said, "They don't have a dominant big man." My brother has not called me yet to tell me. (Laughter) He thinks they can beat them because they have a dominant big man. (Laughter). We'll see if -- we'll show up with a rock and a slingshot, man. Q. Would you talk about Hansbrough and how much you've seen him play, and what do you think of his game? COACH BROWN: Well, it's a little bit different watching him now, as an opponent, as a fan of college basketball, obviously I watch as many games as possible, and like the way he plays with his effort and just how competitive he is. Watching him on tape scouting him, you get to get a little more appreciation for how skilled he is and how much he's worked in the past year on expanding his game to shoot jump shots. It's even looking like he plays so hard, but he's maybe even learned how to control a little bit more of that than he has from his freshman year to his sophomore and sophomore to junior. He's a really good player, I don't know when it's going to come out, but I would expect he's got as good a chance as anybody to be named Player of the Year in the country. Any time you're playing against somebody with that level of talent along with his competitive spirit, it's definitely going to be a tough test. Q. Sorry to go off on a tangent, but you've been voted by some publications the best-dressed college coach. Is that something that you take pride in? (Laughter). COACH BROWN: No, I think that's just fun. It's really good. I guess you have to credit Mount St. Mary's for that that I have enough change in my pocket to buy myself a nice suit every so often. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|