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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: WASHINGTON, D.C.March 21, 2008Joe AlexanderDa'Sean ButlerBob HugginsDarris NicholsAlex RuoffJamie SmalliganWASHINGTON, D.C. Q. For any of you guys, can you describe if there's any differences offensively between your offensive style this year as opposed to last? JOE ALEXANDER: Our offense this year is a little less structured than the last year, but the basic fundamentals are the same: Just move the ball, be unselfish, and shoot it when you're up. Q. I'm just curious what you knew about Coach Huggins before he got to West Virginia and did he live up to his expectations or was he different than you expected? JAMIE SMALLIGAN: I guess being from the midwest I've always watched Coach Huggins and the Cincinnati teams growing up. I knew he was a tough coach, an intense coach, a coach that really wants to win. I think as far as his philosophy, just known for strong rebounding, trying to out-tough every team and just a real solid defense. ALEX RUOFF: Like Jamie, I grew up near Cincinnati, so I watched Coach Huggins with the Bearcats. I knew how passionate he was and how intense he was. And he didn't let me down in that category. Q. Somewhat along those lines, you guys are a much better rebounding team this year than you were in the past. At the same time you're still taking real good care of the ball. How did that personality develop or that profile change where you're now really good on the glass, much better than you used to be? Da'SEAN BUTLER: I would just say it's lots of practice. He proves it every day. And he has a unique way of getting you to do certain things you're not used to doing. We just practice it every day continuously, we're working hard, harder on our offensive player, defensive player, whoever is guarding us and getting rebounds is just instilled in us now, just starting to rebound the ball. Q. What are some of those -- you say he has a unique way of getting you guys to do that. What does he do? Da'SEAN BUTLER: Just saying things, for example, if you don't get a rebound, treadmill, you know, you've got to run and you've got to do something. There's something you've got to do to get you to rebound or do stuff you don't think you'll be able to do. In all those things you just get it done. Q. You guys alluded to defense, and I guess you went from playing a lot of zone to a lot more man this year. Can you explain what that's been like to adapt to that physically. DARRIS NICHOLS: It was hard at first, when Coach Huggins first came in. He told us we were going to have to get better guarding the ball. And going from the zone, it was a struggle at first, but now we're putting it altogether. Q. What do you guys know of Duke and how do you think you match up with them? JOE ALEXANDER: I think everyone knows a lot about Duke. You see them play a lot on TV. I think we match up really well with them. JAMIE SMALLIGAN: I agree with Joe, I think especially when Wellington subs in -- we're small, I think Duke as well, doesn't have their traditional big guy up there. So I think it will be a fast-paced game and an aggressive game, especially on the glass and stuff. I think it should be a good match-up tomorrow. Q. Your previous coach for a couple of years, because the team had been successful, it was always speculation about whether he was going to stay or going to go. He left and went to Michigan. Do you think it's made a difference to the program who has a guy that has previous ties to the school and just might stay for awhile? ALEX RUOFF: I think that affects probably more the recruits to know that. I'm a junior and Joe is a junior and Darris and Jamie are seniors. So maybe that's more comforting to know there's ties to the school and he's going to be here. Q. You guys talked about the perceptions you guys had of Huggins, and now he's lived up to some of them. What has surprised you about the things you didn't know that were unexpected? DARRIS NICHOLS: I think people have a lot of misconceptions about him. He's a player coach. I think he cares a lot about his players, not only from the basketball standpoint, but in the classroom and in life. JOE ALEXANDER: No one really realizes that Huggins is a teacher first. And before the yelling and the disciplining and all that he's here to teach us basketball. I don't think he gets credit for how well he does that. Q. There are only a couple of coaches in this tournament who are in the first years of their jobs with their teams, you are one of them. What do you feel like the situation has to be like for you to be able to walk into a program and get to the tournament right away and get a good seed the way you have? COACH HUGGINS: You consider 7 a good seed? Q. Top 25. COACH HUGGINS: We have great kids. I think that's it. To be able to come in and make the changes that we made, you have to have good guys to do that. And they've done it very well, they've embraced it, actually. But the reality is, it's not a democracy, they don't get to vote on it, they don't get much choice. You can do it enthusiastically or you can fight it. And they have not fought it for a second. Q. Mike Krzyzewski was just in here and called you a survivor. I wonder if you see yourself like that. COACH HUGGINS: Have you ever been shocked back to life three times? I hope that's what he's referring to. I don't think about it, because if you think about it, it has a tendency to bother you. No, I'm going to tell you an interesting deal. When I was in the ambulance the guy who was in there was Calipari's cousin. John grew up in Coraopolis. It's gospel truth. And his cousin was the guy in the ambulance. And there was a couple of things that went on. But basically what he said is we're not going to let you die until John beats you at least once (laughter). Q. I was asking Mike about stereotypes earlier in the game and he sort of seemed the guy that was over the pristine program. And you obviously get a different reputation. Do you think those stereotypes are fair and they don't see the gray area enough? What would you say about them? COACH HUGGINS: It is what it is. 1992 we went to the Final Four with Duke, Indiana and Michigan, with all the blue bloods. And I had whatever I had, ten junior college guys. What nobody really cared to find out was that they were double transfers. They were guys who started someplace else and the coach got fired or left or whatever and so they went somewhere else. And even though my guys were the most articulate guys in the whole tournament, they were funny. They were absolutely terrific, people still wrote that we didn't do it right. Now, Corey Blount just got his degree after 12 years in the NBA, because it's important to him. But people don't care about that because the convenient thing to do is look at numbers and not look at people, and what people have accomplished and what people do. And that's what I've always said, I'm very proud of those guys. And I'm in my hotel room and Corey calls me two nights ago, and he said, Coach, I just finished, finished my last class. I said, Are you going to walk? And he said, Absolutely I'm going to walk. And I said, I'll be there. And that's what people don't get. Q. Do you feel like you're the same coach, the same guy that was here in this tournament with Akron that first time or are you vastly different from that guy? COACH HUGGINS: I've matured. I was a young guy. And I didn't have a clue. And we were the last seed in the tournament, because we played Michigan who was the No. 1 seed, which I guess makes us the last seed. Hopefully I'm a little smarter and I've kind of grown up a little bit, but I haven't changed dramatically, no. Q. Have you ever coached a team that you saw or suspected might have been intimidated by the mystique of an opposing team, going against a Duke team like this? COACH HUGGINS: Generally they're more afraid of me than they are who they're playing. No, I don't think so. We just talked about Akron playing Michigan and you would have thought we would have been, but we weren't. We went out and went after them, just like we kind of line up and play all the time. Q. What goes through your mind when you hear about or you watch on film a game like the one Duke had last night playing a lower seed and going right down to the end of that game? COACH HUGGINS: I'm glad it was Mike rather than me. Mike deserves it (laughter). Q. In watching the tape of that game, what did you think of Gerald Henderson's performance and who do you anticipate checking him? COACH HUGGINS: Well, the hard thing about playing Duke is they're all good. If we worried about Gerald Henderson, then somebody else, Paulus is going to beat us. They've got so many guys that are capable of having big games. It could be the guy who's the 9th or 10th guy on their bench. They're all really good players. Mike give them great freedom to kind of express themselves and kind of do what they do. They've got great players. So we're not going to go in and say we have to stop Henderson. If we do that somebody else is going to jump up and bite us. That's the way it is. Q. Can you talk about your relationship with Mike and where it started? He says nice things about you and him beforehand. Is it true you go on his radio show occasionally? COACH HUGGINS: Well, he's so dry and boring that he needs somebody to kind of give it a little bit of life. So I try to help him every chance I get. That's just the kind of guy I am. Can you imagine listening to him for an hour? It would be brutal, it would be awful. That's why he has guests. I don't know, we've been -- we go back a long way. We've been friends for a long time. You know what people don't realize about Mike is he really is pretty smart and he's got great wit, you just don't ever see it. But it you ever get with him he's a lot of fun to be around. You wouldn't think that, but he is. He's a lot of fun and we've had great times. He's a hell of a basketball coach. I admire what he's done on the basketball floor and I admire the kind of person he is off the floor. Mike's a good guy. I think that gets lost sometimes. Mike is still the guy that grew up in Chicago, went to Weber High School, same guy. And that's what I appreciate. He hasn't changed. Some people change. Mike hadn't changed. He still has the same friends. Those guys that he grew up with at Weber are still his friends. They still come and hang out. To me that's very admirable. I grew up in a town of 500 people, two stoplights and nine bars and those people are still my friends. So I admire people who kind of stick to their roots and stay grounded. And Mike has stayed totally grounded. End of FastScripts |
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