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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: ANAHEIMMarch 20, 2008Michael ClarkJames GreenEric PettyStanford SpeechANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: Coach Green, the floor is yours. COACH GREEN: Let's concentrate on a couple things. How good UCLA is and what a class group and, you know, they're big, they're strong. When it comes to us competing against a team like that, it would be very difficult if we were at our best. You know, what you saw was no indication of what went on with this group of guys throughout our conference. Obviously, there is a tremendous difference in the levels. And we don't want our guys to feel like that this was their season. I'm very proud of these three guys, and the other guys in the locker room, and it will be a lesson for the guys that are coming back. But it also will be a lesson for the guys that are going on to graduate in terms of how to compete and make something happen throughout your league play, how you relate that to life, and, also, the experience that we had. It was a situation that we hadn't been in, and we didn't respond and show the best of our abilities in that situation. But, even so, we have nothing to hold our heads down for. Obviously, when you talk about the stats, we didn't get back in transition and gave them easy baskets. We had some quick shots and couldn't get second shots. We also gave up the rebounds to them, and obviously when you do that on a team that's so much better at every position player-by-player all the way down the bench, you're going to get beat. And the score could be -- this score, it could be worse; it could be less. Obviously it's going be very difficult to win that game. We give them a lot of credit for being able to play every single possession as hard as they possibly could knowing that the game was as such. So you are talking about a very disciplined, hard-nosed defensive minded, skilled offensive team in UCLA. So my hat's off to them, but the I still love my guys, and they all will be successful. Q. Stanford, you knew obviously it was going to be a tough match-up, but just what was it like once you were out there with their bigs and trying to contend with their defensive pressure? STANFORD SPEECH: Well, mainly the defensive pressure wasn't that bad; it was more of the banging, bumping around. We don't see a lot of that in our conference. And, you know, it was kind of hard to adjust. In our conference we get the little ticky-tack fouls, and out there you had to play through it. And so the defensive pressure didn't bother us, it was just the contact, the physicalness of the game. And, you know, those guys, man, they're great. You know, most of them played McDonald's All-American games, and they know how to play. So like Coach said, we played our best game; we probably still would have lost by 10 or 15. Q. This is for all, was this a good experience for you guys? You go up against UCLA, you said they're all McDonald All-Americans. Is this something you can take something from later on in life? ERIC PETTY: Well, yes. UCLA's a great team, probably one of the best; probably the best we've played all year, and we played some top teams. It's a great experience. I'm Junior. I'm going to take this and learn from it and put it into what I got to do next year and come back and make us a lot better. I can use it and teach some of this to the newcomers that are coming. MICHAEL CLARK: I feel like Eric. Me, too, being a Junior and coming back next year, it will help me learn what I need to get better at for preparing for next season, being able to tell the new incoming freshmen what it takes to get here. We're very happy to get here, but at the same time look down on the loss, feel like we could have played better. Q. What will you tell people when they ask what Kevin Love was really like, what it was like to play against him? ERIC PETTY: I guard him. I guard some big men this season, and he is physical. Oh man, for a freshman, he's got an outside game. To be that big inside, I mean, man he's going be great, I know that; he's going to be great. COACH GREEN: I think most of our guys, if they feel some of what I feel, it looks like we spent one day playing and coaching in the NBA playing against him. THE MODERATOR: Any further questions for student-athletes. With that, thank you very much. Q. Coach, that ball got stuck there early in the second half. Were you kind of hoping maybe they don't get it down and we can just kind of get this thing over with? COACH GREEN: You know, that's a difficult play, but we worked on that. (Laughing). Our whole plan was to delay the game as much as we could, and that was a great play. I mean, I was really a little bit excited about it, hoping they would be a little bit distracted. Q. Maybe it's not the right time, but talk about how far you think UCLA in your mind can go in this tournament? COACH GREEN: Well, you know, it's really -- they can win the National Championship. Whether they will or not, obviously, will depend on how some other people play on that particular day. To win a National Championship, it's hard to predict who will win, because I think there's a lot of good teams out there, but I know they're very capable, you know, because they have all the parts, and they play with the passion that you need to play with in order to get there. So I think they have a great chance of doing it. Whether they will or not, you know, just depends. Some days you shoot it a little bit better, some teams come in and do some different things against you that maybe will exploit some weaknesses, but we couldn't see those weaknesses for sure. There will be some teams that will do a better job in some areas than what we could do. For instance, getting back in transition. That's something that will get the them in a half-court game offensively, and then being able to play against their bumping and grinding and having a guy that can play a lot in the post area that maybe can come out and defend out on the court also, those type match-ups. You never know who they'll match-up with throughout the tournament. THE MODERATOR: Any further questions? I think that will do it. Thank you very much, Coach. COACH GREEN: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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