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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: WASHINGTON, D.C.March 20, 2008Rick ByrdJustin HareAlex RenfroeWASHINGTON, D.C. COACH BYRD: Well, certainly this is a disappointing moment for our team and our program and our young men, to put forth the kind of effort we put forth, to be so close, so very close to getting a huge win for our school and then you have to go in and talk to a bunch of kids who are crying and lost the game. We lost the game by one. But that one-point loss, while it's unfair in a way, because it doesn't measure the effort our kids put in, the mental toughness they had during the game. If we'd scored earlier, if I had run a better out-of-bounds play, if Justin's shot had gone in, we probably wouldn't have played any better, but we'd be still celebrating out there and the world would be talking about us. But we played just as good as that. So it's almost a seeming unfairness that the outcome doesn't measure how proud I am of this team and how hard they played and how well they played and how much they tried to do what we asked them to do. I'll say one more thing before I forget it. Duke is, I think, the premier program in the last 20 or 25 years and they don't win accidentally. They made two or three huge plays that made a difference. They made a great defensive play on the out-of-bounds play. Q. Was there a moment early on where you guys could sense that this could be a game for you? This wasn't the usual lopsided game? JUSTIN HARE: Yeah, I just thought in the first half we played well. We were right in the game. It was back and forth to start. And even going into halftime down seven, they got to the line a lot more than we did, and they got some free throws in front of us. But we felt we could compete out there. I think we just took that confidence to the second half. ALEX RENFROE: You know, I've been thinking that we could compete since before we got here. I think it just started after we won the championship and just watching film and seeing that they were a team that was very similar to us. I was like, I mean, we have a chance. It depends on whose shots are falling and whose aren't. I thought we had a chance, and especially when the game got flowing. We were in it back and forth like Justin said. The one time I thought it was getting away from us, we took a second, calmed down, stayed in the game. So I always thought it was going to be a good game. Q. Could you just take us through what happened on the inbounds play. Was there some kind of miscommunication or something? ALEX RENFROE: I can do that. We drew up the play -- COACH BYRD: Not just draw it up, we'd been practicing. ALEX RENFROE: We practiced and it's worked before. We've been through that a couple of times. The play was for me to throw a lob toward the center of the lane in front of the rim for Shane for a tip-in or whatever he could do with it. There was a lot of pressure on the ball and I didn't really get a clear look, should have been smarter and called a timeout or just taken my time, just to look a little longer before I made a silly pass. But they just made a great play on it, they were physical. And I think it just took us out of our play. So I think the bump -- the bumps did, just took us out of our play. And I threw a pass that I expected to be open, but I guess when you're playing a team like Duke, you can't really expect those things because it's a great team. Any great team I don't think you can just expect to run a play and it just go perfect. It's just a bad read, silly pass, should have called timeout. COACH BYRD: If I can jump in there. It's almost a play that has to be there. It's very hard to read it. It's almost you just have to go ahead and throw the pass. If you wait to see if he's open on a little lob play, then you're probably too late to get it to him. And you just take a chance. My second-guess part of that is that we had an extra timeout. I should have run a play. I thought about it my whole life. I've been there before a bunch of times thinking about, Should have run a play to try to get a layup, even if it wasn't there, call the timeout and then run one you had to take a chance on. I didn't do a good job. That is our last second play if you're down by one or two. We practiced it and like he said, they physical'd their way through our screen and it looked awful because Shane got -- I'm not saying he got fouled, but he got moved up so high, so I don't think it was Alex's fault. He's got to throw the ball up there, the way we run the play. ALEX RENFROE: Thanks, Coach. COACH BYRD: Talk about your defense later (laughter). Q. Could you speak to what coach said about coming so close and how you think that might linger with you guys, to be right there with Duke and not be able to put it away. ALEX RENFROE: It's a heartbreaker, I'm not going to lie, it's a heartbreaker. After the game I was speechless, I know I had a big part in the loss, so there's not too much you can really say. You were that close, and just to go home and think a couple of weeks later, Man, maybe we should have been playing Saturday or maybe I should have done this or maybe I should have done that. I mean, it's just a lot of things going through your mind after the game. So of course I feel like -- it's basketball, it goes back and forth. It's never going to be always your way. So it's basketball, it's kind of what you expect. But at the same time when a loss happens like that, one point, when you had it, 20 seconds left in the game, it's a heartbreaker. JUSTIN HARE: I agree with Alex, being one point and losing the game is nothing but a loss. We played great. I'm proud of our effort and the way we played, but at the same time we'll be remembered about the team that almost did it. That's hard, going out that way. Q. The last shot, it seemed like you got a pretty good look, and pretty good shot off, did you think it was going or did you have a chance? JUSTIN HARE: It's such a tough shot. I'm about half court and I just wanted to try to get a shot off and have a chance. When you're looking at that, I thought when it left my hands it may, but when you're shooting a half court shot, your chances of making that are slim to none. My goal there was just to try to get a look and get a shot up and you never know what will happen. Q. Duke has such an aura about them. What was it about looking at them on the tape that made you feel like you can hang with these guys, they're really not much different from us? JUSTIN HARE: I just think that a lot of it has to do with style of play. They're not as big as some of the teams or some of the teams they've had in the past. They like to shoot a lot of 3's. They're similar style of play. So I thought we matched up well with them. And then seeing them on tape, we just thought we could play with them. I think we have a pretty good team and we've got a good group of guys and we're deep. We pushed the ball. So we thought we matched up well with them. ALEX RENFROE: You know, I think it was more of a whole Belmont thing. We were all so confident we could hang in that our confidence took it from there. If you go into a game and you're not very confident about it, it's easy for the game to just get blown out of proportion. But seeing we're so confident and we believed in ourselves and teammates and coaches and Belmont as a whole, we just felt like we could be in there. It starts back at school before you leave for the game and in the locker room and just hanging around the hotel room when you're talking to your teammates. I think that's where it starts. Q. Was this the best you guys played all year, when looking back on it? JUSTIN HARE: I think so. I think this is the best -- Xavier was good earlier in the year, and Duke was the best we played, and playing a one-point game in a NCAA Tournament, I think that's probably the best team we've played so far. End of FastScripts |
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