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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: LITTLE ROCK

March 20, 2008

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS

THE MODERATOR: We have with us from the University of Oregon, Maarty Leunen and Bryce Taylor.
Questions, please.

Q. Does Mississippi State remind you guys of anybody in your league? Is there a team that they remind you of?
MAARTY LEUNEN: Yeah. I think little bit like USC, just because they're really athletic pretty much at every position and the way they play defense, how they like to get up, try force turnovers, and they got a great shot blocker just like USC does. It's something that we've played against. So I know they got different style of play, but they most resemble USC for us.

Q. How important do you think three-point shooting will be in tomorrow's game since State has the good shot blocker?
BRYCE TAYLOR: We would say that three-point shooting is important for us every game because it's something that we like to use. We shoot a pretty high percentage at it. I think we were first in the PAC-10 at that. So pretty much all the games that we shoot a high percentage from three.
I think we're pretty successful. It's something that we don't like the rely on too much because, you know, if you have an off night, then it can kind of take you out of the game. You know, we always hope we're shooting and knocking down our shots. Gives us a better chance to win the game. But, at the same time we're still going to go in there and try to challenge the shot blocker and put some pressure on the defense.

Q. When you guys look at the scouting report on Mississippi State, do you think the key with them the play of Charles Rhodes inside or Jamont Gordon done outside?
MAARTY LEUNEN: Well, they're both going to be outside on us. Are you talking about them on defense?

Q. Both ways.
MAARTY LEUNEN: Just both?
BRYCE TAYLOR: I think they're equally important because they both average close to 17. So our job is just to try to limit both those guys and don't let them go off for huge games against us. Because Rhodes is more of an inside presence and Jamont, he likes to attack, but at the same time he can shoot the three ball. He's real aggressive going to the basket. Since they're the opposing team's highest scorers, it's going to be important for us to try to somewhat slow them down and not let them go off for huge games.
THE MODERATOR: Any other -- anybody else have a question?

Q. If both of you could answer this. Just the experience factor, you guys have been here before, how key is that going into tomorrow's game?
MAARTY LEUNEN: I think it's pretty huge, especially when you get to this point in the season. It's kind of a new season for everybody because everybody starts zero and zero. It's one and done.
We kind of been through it. Most of our guys have been through it last year know the pressure and the jitters of the first game, just trying to get that out of your system.
So we've been here, made a deep run. So we got the experience, we know what it takes. So hopefully we can capitalize and use that as our advantage for tomorrow's game.
BRYCE TAYLOR: Yeah. I mean same thing that Maarty said. Just the experience factor. It's important for to us make sure we get those jitters out as early as possible so we can play our best basketball. And we know how it feels just to get that momentum behind us, and, you know, hopefully if we can get that first win, then we feel like anything is possible.
Experience, especially in the tournament, we feel like hopefully that will play to our advantage.

Q. For either guy. Do you keep up with what's going on in other parts of the country during the season? I mean, were you aware of Mississippi State, or do you know how they play or anything like that?
BRYCE TAYLOR: You know, just as a fan of basketball, you try to follow everywhere, but I wouldn't say that I followed any team particularly closely in the SEC probably outside of Tennessee because they're probably on national TV the most. But the only thing I really knew prior to us scouting them was just about Jamont Gordon and the type of season he had last year and the type of season he's having this year and the effect that he has on his team just at that point forward position.
As far as style of play goes and everything like that, I didn't know too much coming into the past couple weeks or past week when we just started to learn about them.
THE MODERATOR: Anyone else?

Q. Maarty, if you had to describe the season in general for the team, how would you describe? Up and down or how was it?
MAARTY LEUNEN: Yeah. Coming in the season if were you to ask me if we would have been 18 and 13 or 18 and 14, whatever we are, I probably wouldn't have said that, but that's how sometimes things go, and we battled through our ups and downs. I know we've been a little inconsistent at times, but to make to it this point, we're happy. That was our goal at the beginning of the year is to make it to the NCAA Tournament. So we're hoping to make another great run like we did last year and be real competitive.
It's kind of disappointing how things went, but then again, if we made it to this point, not too many teams can say they made it to this point. We're looking to capitalize on that.
THE MODERATOR: Guys, we appreciate your time very, very much. Best of luck to you. It's great to have you in town. Thank you.
We have Ernie Kent, head coach of the Oregon Ducks. Coach, if you would, opening comment or two about being here and then we'll open things up for questions.
COACH KENT: What a wonderful city. I've never been here before, and the people have just been terrific. I had an opportunity to take my team over to Central High and have those guys see that over there. I just thought it was fantastic for those guys to just understand and experience that.
We feel very, very lucky to have the opportunity to be here in this city, obviously in this venue and everything else. It should be a good tournament for us.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Coach, Mississippi State has one player that's had NCAA Tournament experience. You've got several. Will you talk about that and how important that is?
COACH KENT: Well, it might be important up until the buildup of the game just because of dealing with the media and walking out on that floor right now and having an open practice like that, the one-and-done mentality of the tournament and everything else.
When the ball goes up in the air, players play. It's really going to come down to which team is prepared and which team is on its game and has its confidence and goes out and plays.

Q. Coach, with Mississippi State's inside presence, does that make your play, your ability to shoot outside more important tomorrow?
COACH KENT: You know, we know they have a terrific inside presence in there. We've heard all the numbers in terms of the shot blocking and all of that. In our conference, it's two seven-footers. I don't think you realize how big the Lopez twins are until you are standing around them. We played against Georgetown, and Nebraska has a seven-footer in there as well.
The key thing with us we're not necessarily inside oriented post up basketball team. We can put five guys on there that can shoot the three and shoot it really, really well and spread it out.
There are some things we're going to have to do to neutralize that to the best of our ability, but they do have that presence in there, and it is something -- the fact you and I are talking about it, it's something that's going on on those player's minds as well, too.

Q. I know your turnover margin has kind of gone down a little bit this year with Aaron Brooks not being there. How much of a problem has that been for you this season, and how lit be tomorrow in terms of taking care of the ball.
COACH KENT: We've done a good job after gotten into conference play. I think we make better decisions now in doing some things that way for being a running team. We don't really turn the ball over that much as much as we like to try to get and down. Our free throws has come up.
When you look at the NCAA Tournament games, I think things in terms of taking care of ball, shooting free throws, a lot of those little things are huge in these environments. You need to make sure you control that part of the game. That's going to be a big part of the game tomorrow.

Q. Ernie, could you just talk about LeKendric's development?
COACH KENT: I love LeKendric Longmire. He's made an unbelievable impact on that community. He's a first class kid, infectious smile. Does a great job in the classroom for us. He's a great sixth man off our bench. He has really grown quite a bit here in the last four, five ball games with his confidence and everything else. We worked him really, really hard last year. He did a good job of allowing us to work him. He really has developed quite nicely right now. I know he's excited about being back here. We want to make sure he doesn't get too excited, but he's a big part of what we're doing right now in terms of the success we've had coming down the stretch.

Q. You mentioned on Sunday I think after you got the ninth seed, you kind of felt like a weight was lifted off the should a little bit. Do you feel like your guys are loose and relaxed?
COACH KENT: Well, the fact that they've been here before, the fact that we kind of know what we're doing, we're trying to keep them loose. I think when -- we always talk about there being four seasons: The preseason, the conference season, and then the conference tournament. If do you all the right things there, it gives you an opportunity to go into the fourth season which is post-season play.
The first thing you do literally is throw the records out the window. When you talk about the one seeds and 16 seeds, things like that, maybe you can say that team is going to win. But when you start getting down to the matchups of where we're at right now, it really is understanding that anybody can go home after this ballgame. That's everybody from Duke, Carolina, right on down the line. You really have to have a sense it's the first day of basketball season, that type of energy that goes in there and just go out there and play with a lot of confidence and play.

Q. Everybody talks about matchups this time of the year. Your point guard is five foot six and their guy looks like a linebacker. How do you deal with that?
COACH KENT: I'm going to keep my five-six guy off their guy. He cannot guard him. That's a bad matchup that's on the floor. With TP, every matchup we have, it's a bad matchup or in most cases I should say in the PAC-10 where there's some awfully good players in that PAC-10 at that position. There's not a lot of guys he matches up with. We have to be a little bit creative in what we do defensively. He's not going to be guarding their point guard. He cannot do that. We've been in that situation before where we've had to take him off the ball defensively because the matchup is not in his favor whatsoever.
At the same time, he's not a bad defender for a guy that size because he is quick and pesky if he's on his game mentally where he needs to be. I've always told people they've got to realize that he is the guy that broke the PAC-10 single season three-point record last year that was set by Jason Capone. They've got to guard him on the other end of the floor also. He presents matchup problems to everybody else, too, because he's so quick and deadly shooting the basketball. If he's on his game, it will be a treat to watch him because he's a real specially gifted basketball for a guy that size being able to do what he does and not just from the perimeter. He goes inside also and scores. So really it's going to come down where he is at game time. That's a good matchup for us on the defensive end of the floor.
THE MODERATOR: Anyone else? Coach, thank you. Pleasure having you here. Look forward to seeing you again.
COACH KENT: Right. Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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