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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: ANAHEIMMarch 20, 2008Louis DaleSteve DonahueRyan WittmanANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: We will open up with a statement from the coach, then questions for the student-athletes first. So, Coach, whenever you're ready. COACH DONAHUE: Obviously played a very good basketball team. I was extremely impressed with Stanford, and just speaking to a lot of their teams they played this year, everybody you speak to talked about how disciplined, how hard they play. I think that's what you saw in the first half. I thought they did a terrific job. Occasionally you walk into the situation, I was telling the guys, that you can get a team that doesn't respect you. You know, then we're dangerous. I think the first half they came out and really guarded us, made it tough on us, and I thought we missed some shots we normally make. But for the most part Stanford just played a terrific basketball game. THE MODERATOR: Open it up to questions for the student-athletes. Q. Wanted to get your thoughts, if you think that Cornell has faced a team that defends with as much length as Stanford did today on the perimeter shots? RYAN WITTMAN: Um, you know, probably not. They've got quite a few guys, Fields and Hill, who are pretty long on the perimeter. So then, you know, they have the two seven-footers down low. So even if you shot fake and try to drive in the lane, they can alter shots as well. But, you know, they've great defensive team, probably one of the best defensive teams we've played all year. Q. I'm just wondering, for either of the student-athletes, if you feel like you guys would have been a better match-up or had a better chance against a different type of team? Obviously, your height advantage doesn't play as well against the Lopez twins and what Stanford brings to the table. RYAN WITTMAN: You know, they're obviously a really good team. They do have a height advantage over pretty much any team in the nation, but I think it was difficult for us to block out. They're one of the best rebounding teams in the country. I think it was difficult for us at times. You know, there were a lot of possessions, especially early in the game where it seems like we played pretty good defense. Then they get the offensive rebound and put it back in. But that's how they beat teams. Q. This is for Louis. How do you put this year in prospective? A lot of you guys are coming back. And sort of what you were able to do, break Penn and Princeton's strangle hold on the Ivy League even though it ends like this? LOUIS DALE: We had a great season. Something to be proud of. And I think this game that, you know, we just played today, kind of let's us know that we need to get better for next year, and that it's still going to be difficult to make it back here next year. And I think that's what we're going to focus on. And, you know, we're going to try to get better each and every day in the off-season. And hopefully we can improve our season next year. Q. Can you comment on what Jeff Foote has meant to this team since he came on board in December? LOUIS DALE: He's meant a lot to our team. He's a great defensive presence back there, especially in the Ivy League. And he's a great offensive rebounder and scorer. So, you know, this year he's helped us out tremendously, being a shot-blocker and someone who you can pass into the post and who can score and can also find open teammates. I think he's made us a tremendous team this year. And, you know, we look forward to the future. Q. Louis, I wanted to ask you, I think you missed your first ten shots. I might be wrong on that, but, you know, a tough shooting day obviously for the team. How much of that do you think was Stanford playing tough defense and how much, if at all, do you think it was being at the NCAA tournament, being on a higher stage, you know, for the fist time? LOUIS DALE: I think they're a good defensive team. They're very physical in the perimeter. I think that played a part into it, too. And so you had to work hard to get past the perimeter defenders. And then there's two seven-footers there waiting to block your shot. So it makes it kind of hard for someone to just penetrate and, you know, get an open shot. And I think that played into today's game. THE MODERATOR: Any further questions for the student-athletes. All right. Thank you, gentlemen. Now questions for Coach Steve Donahue. Q. Kenny Brown played four minutes in the PAC-10 championship game against UCLA. Obviously he was a big factor today. Did you anticipate that? Was there very much attention paid to him, you know, this week as you were preparing? COACH DONAHUE: You almost have to pick your poison here, and my feeling was that once they saw what we were doing, that they would go to some more shooters, Fields, you said Brown, also they play Hill, Shiller. I thought they would do that. We were scraping from the perimeter. We just couldn't afford to leave another big and double from the post. And I thought we did -- you know, it's funny. These guys played the game plan. I'm disappointed in the results, but the game plan, and someone mentioned the stage here having an affect on them, I really don't think that. I think Stanford really had -- as I said in my opening comments, they have respect for you. They play hard, disciplined, and that was the difficult part. And my feeling was, if they brought in shooters, then our strategy's going to be really hard at that point. And they made us pay for it. Q. Steve, you guys played Duke, played Syracuse this year. Did either of those two games prepare you for the kind of length your guys had to shoot over? COACH DONAHUE: You know what, Brian, it wasn't even the length. I said this to Coach Johnson. His kids play this style, it's almost a brand, it's Stanford basketball. No matter who you are going against, they're not going to allow you to beat you with your better players. They get physical with you. Duke is a team, and someone mentioned a match-up. To be honest with you, a match-up like a Duke would have been better for us. A team that's going to try to challenge us full court, let us get loose for some shots, make us feel good. When you got to grind it out in a half court set against a team like this, that's a difficult match-up for us. So this team was way different than those two teams strictly for the defensive ability. They're disciplined. Besides all the length you are talking about, I respect that they play us as hard as they did. Q. Coach Donahue, what was your message for the team during half-time and even after this game? COACH DONAHUE: At half-time, obviously we're in a difficult thick. And I want to try to win four-minute segments. Let's try to get it down to ten with ten to go. That didn't happen obviously. But I thought if we could make some shots early in the first half -- second half, excuse me, we came out and ran and executed a three for Ryan in the corner. I thought if we could start making some shots, maybe they'll press a little bit. But they didn't do that. And towards the end of the game, every timeout, which is obviously very long in the NCAA tournament when you are down, especially this amount, I just talked about our pride, and our heart, and so many people that have supported us, and they expect us to go out and play. And these guys did. They played their tails off. They did everything I could ask. I'm more disappointed in myself that I couldn't come up with another way, another strategy to help us compete against a team like this. But in reality that's a very good team that played very well today. Q. Coach, can you just speak about the crowd. Coming here to California, I thought myself that we'd be outnumbered, Cornell would be outnumbered, but it seems as if Cornell was just as loud if not louder than the Stanford fans? COACH DONAHUE: It's been an amazing run. And a lot of it has to do with the people that have supported us. And I've been at these events a lot as a fan and as a coach at the University of Pennsylvania. Never did I see that kind of support. I mean, not only did we sell our tickets, but, obviously, there's a lot of people and alum in the area that came out to support us as well, which is great. I mean, it's an unbelievable university with great people. Proud that I coach at an institution like this, and I would have loved them to have a better effort. But I think they understand that this was a very good basketball team that we faced. The other thing I say is, we are very young. All these guys that you saw, six out of seven are sophomore-eligible. This is their first experience, not only just for the experience thing, but strength. As we get older and tougher and bigger, we'll play better next time when we're here, I'm positive of that. THE MODERATOR: Any further questions? All right. Thank you very much, Coach. COACH DONAHUE: Thanks. End of FastScripts |
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