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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: BIRMINGHAMMarch 22, 2008Jeff CapelDavid GodboldBlake GriffinLongar LongarBIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA THE MODERATOR: We'll get started and take questions for the student-athletes. Q. Blake, looking back at your season it seems like it's been a series of ups and downs, you've won five of your last eight. Talk about your season, some of the challenges, I guess and the fact that you're here in the second round of the tournament? BLAKE GRIFFIN: I think it's an honor to be here considering what we have been through kind of as a team. With injuries and players being ineligible. It kind of shows you what kind of team we have been, and I think we have done a good job of staying and fighting and not giving up. Even though we had some rough patches where we lost three or four games. I just think we have done a great job of staying together overall, as a team, and bouncing back from big losses or games that we shouldn't have lost trying to put a run together. Q. Blake and Longar, can you just tell me, talk to me about playing alongside each other. It seems like you two really work well together. How are you guys able to do that? BLAKE GRIFFIN: I think it's just kind of been a process over the season and all summer, kind of getting used to each other and I give a lot of credit to Longar for kind of taking me in and showing me some things that normally players wouldn't pick up on as fast. So he has kind of shown me the ropes a little bit. And, I think, at the same time, we both tried to help each other out a lot, as much as we can. It makes it easy because he's a good passer, so when he gets double teamed he can normally find me or any of the other guards, so I think that we both kind of take a little bit of pressure off each other. LONGAR LONGAR: Same thing he just said. Just playing along each other, it makes both our games easier. The double teams, you got two bigs that can pass out, work with our guards outside whenever we get doubled, we kick it outside or we pass it to each other down low. Rebounding, just trying to attract attention, and obviously, if he gets the ball, he gets doubled or if I get the ball, I get doubled and it frees him up or it frees me up. Q. Blake starting with you, can you guys give an evaluation thought on Louisville Cardinals as an opponent? BLAKE GRIFFIN: They're definitely a tough team, they get after you and play great defense. They have some big bodies and they also have some talented guards. So, we're going to have our hands full. But I think if we just do a good job of staying together and playing as a team and controlling the tempo a little bit and handling their pressure I think we should be all right. LONGAR LONGAR: We just got to handle their pressure. They press the whole game, they're real big inside, they have some really good post players, and even their bench, they're deep, they have six guys and they can go real deep in their bench. So we're going to have to concentrate on staying out of foul trouble, play our defensive principles and just contain them. DAVID GODBOLD: Like they both said, they're a really good team, they bring a lot of defensive pressure and they're not afraid to push it on offense at any given moment. So, we got to come out and be aggressive and try to get them to play at our tempo. They like to play fast and we want to pound them inside so we're going to just try to execute our game plan as best as possible. Q. Blake and Longar, you talked about handling a double team, do you guys feel like you've gotten better at that as the season has gone along? Because, yesterday, I think, Blake you hit Dave on a cut off a double team. Do you think you've got more comfortable passing out of double teams? BLAKE GRIFFIN: I definitely do. We both, I think, have come a long ways since the beginning of the year. I know I have. Just because I really wasn't used to handling a lot bigger guys coming at me at the same time. And our guards have done a good job of getting into open spaces and making it easy to find people and Longar's also done a good job of making himself a presence in the back side for me to be able to find him easily. Q. Blake and Longar, can you comment specifically on David Padgett what you've seen from him on film and what kind of problems he presents; their offense kind of runs through him. LONGAR LONGAR: I watched him play. He's a really good player. Really big, he can pass, he can really pass the ball. I think he's the guy that makes them go, he runs their offense real well, their guards are real athletic, so they're always cutting in and going to the glass, too. So, we just got to do a good job on him, he can score down low, rebound, and he runs the floor. We are just going to have to do a good job of containing him. Q. For any of you guys, the way that the Big-12 Conference has performed, I know the Big East is doing well, too, but getting out of conference, getting out of where everybody knows what you do, have you been able to draw a little bit of confidence from seeing the other teams have success and from the success you had last night? DAVID GODBOLD: Yes, it's always good when we're not facing another Big-12 team, to see them competing and do well. It kind of shows the Big-12 conference is one of those power conferences and right now they're having a good showing and just us as the Oklahoma basketball team, we want to just kind of prove that we're a good team, too. We're from the Big-12 and we want everybody to kind of look at us as we're a good team in the Big-12 and to try to get some exposure for us, too. BLAKE GRIFFIN: I've been pleased with how well everybody in our conference has done. Obviously K State beating a higher seed and I think it just kind of shows how like David said, how tough our conference is. But at the same time we're also trying to prove a point like he said that we feel like we belong here and we feel like we can compete here. Q. Longar and Blake, it would appear and I think even Doctor Schnebel said you guys are as healthy as you have been all season and do you agree; and Longar how much of a difference does that make in your game; and Blake talk about your health status too? LONGAR LONGAR: A big difference. Three weeks ago if you asked me I was still going through it, but right now I'm getting healthier. Just the healing process has been great. Just doing treatment, making sure that I'm just taking care of my body, it requires a lot of just focusing on just getting treatment, basically just to get better; and my trainer has been doing a great job just doing that; and I'm getting healthier every day. BLAKE GRIFFIN: Definitely, I say the same thing. Just kind of day by day we're starting to get healthier and healthier. And that definitely helps out being able to take a beating down low and then being able to come back the next day and practice hard or play hard again. So, I definitely think that we're starting to get closer to a hundred percent. The closer we get to that, the better off we'll be. Q. Kind of to follow-up on that, when we heard about those injuries they sounded very serious, yet you guys came back so fast. How were you able to do that? Do you have some sort of magic healing potion over there? BLAKE GRIFFIN: I don't know about the potion, but we have a good training staff, A.B. and -- Alex Brown, our trainer and Doctor Schnebel, our team doctor both do a really good job of getting us whatever we need and making sure we're getting treatment and concentrating on getting us back as fast as possible, but at the same time, making sure we're safe to play. So, you kind of have to give credit to them for staying on us so much and for getting us in the right place at the right time. LONGAR LONGAR: They do a great job. As soon as I got hurt they were just getting me in, three treatments a day, making sure that I'm taking the right supplements, just to keep my body right. I drank a lot of fluids, making sure that everything is good. But the most important thing, like I said, is just being able to get to rehab, more than once, you know, three times a day. And Alex Brown, he's done a great job with both of us. Q. David, this is for you, yesterday Phil Martelli admitted that he had to defend OU to beat them. He would have to concentrate on Blake and the inside game and maybe another shooter, leaving you pretty much open and you countered with 25 points. If you were Rick Pitino, looking at that, how would you defend Oklahoma and do you think you have added to Louisville's defensive woes, so to speak? DAVID GODBOLD: Just looking at our team, I know the strength of our team is always been the big guys inside. So, just as another head coach, I would say you're still going to have to stop the big guys inside. They're obviously going to be a presence. Hopefully, they'll still demand a double. And if that does happen and I do get left open again or any guard, hopefully the guards are just ready to step up and make shots. I just got lucky the other day just being wide open and the post men did a great job passing it out. But maybe we'll see something different where they're playing one on one where they have a big man. Q. You would invite that again though, wouldn't you? DAVID GODBOLD: Yeah, I would invite it, but I know it's not going to happen again, so I'm not worried about it. Q. All three, can you explain how, at times, this team was really, really good and at times it's really, really bad? DAVID GODBOLD: Just a lack of focus coming out from the jump is when we're really bad. Not playing as a team, not being mentally and physically tough. That kind of makes us not play bad but as you can see, in our previous game, everybody came out aggressive, a lot of energy, everybody stayed together and no matter how many runs St. Joseph's put together, we stayed together and nobody went off to the side and thought about themselves. So if we just play as a team, and play with a lot of energy, we'll have a good run, hopefully. LONGAR LONGAR: I believe it's just whenever we start getting away from our game plan and start to do stuff that we're not capable of doing, just trying to take guys one on one and not play together as a team -- that's when we really do not perform. We are more effective when we play as a team. And if we do that, we're tough to beat. BLAKE GRIFFIN: I think it's definitely like David said, a lack of focus. We come out and we're all focused on one task, and playing together as a team, and defending, getting down and really defending hard and not giving up basically any easy baskets, I think we're a lot better team and that obviously shows at times in games when we make big runs. It all starts with our defense, too. So, I think that's something that we definitely need to concentrate on and that's what makes us a better team. Q. David, you guys, as a six seed wise, you were a favorite in the last game and now you're an underdog in this one. Your thoughts about playing the underdog role, is there an advantage in this tournament we see what happened in Tampa suddenly underdogs are winning everywhere, is that something which gives you confidence and the whole seeding issue at this point, your thoughts on that. DAVID GODBOLD: Well, just looking at the last game, from what we seen and what we heard, we were the underdogs in that game also. So we used that as a motivation and now we're the 6 going against a 3 and once again we're the underdog again, so we're going to try to use that to our advantage. But we know that they're a great team, they're not going to over look anybody, no matter if they were the six or if we were the three, they're going to come in aggressive and I know their coach is going to have them ready to play so we just have to be the same way and we just have to want it more. Q. Blake, can you just talk a little bit about the success you Beasley, Love, other freshmen have had to, are you guys as amazed by it as us older people are or is it just the way you are playing? BLAKE GRIFFIN: I think that coming in, I knew that guys like Michael Beasley and Kevin Love and O.J. and Derrick, I've been around them and I watched them play, I played against them, I played with them, so I kind of knew what they could do and I figured they would do pretty well, but I really didn't know how well overall our freshmen class would do. And it has surprised me a little bit with how many guys have stepped up and played big roles on their teams and done so well and had so much success this year. THE MODERATOR: Okay. Thank you, guys. We'll have coach up here to make an opening statement and then take questions. COACH CAPEL: We're excited to still be playing. We get to move on, play against a very talented Louisville team who was tremendous last night in every facet of the game, offensively, defensively, making threes, we're excited about the challenge. Once again, we'll just like we were yesterday, no one will expect us to win, won't predict us to win, but we'll show up and we'll play and we'll see what happens. So we're excited to be here, excited to be one of 32 left, and we'll see what happens. THE MODERATOR: Start right here with questions. Q. Talk about specifically challenges of stopping this Louisville Cardinal team. What impresses you most about them? COACH CAPEL: They made shots from the 3-point line at a high rate yesterday. That's something that they haven't done all year long consistently. They are very capable shooters, but that's something that especially as they headed into the Big East tournament that they struggled with a little bit. If they're making shots like that then that makes them even tougher to beat from beyond the arc, one of the things they do, they do such a good job of harassing you and pressuring you and creating scoring opportunities from their defense. We're really going to have to value the basketball, be strong, make good passes, and we want to look to attack their pressure, we'll attack it in a smart manner. And we can't take bad shots. We have to understand the tempo of the game and understand what's going on in the game to figure out what kind of shots we get, if and when we break their pressure. Q. Can you talk Louisville's bench play. The last few games they have been bringing Earl Clark off the bench it seems like, just talk about their bench, I think they go like nine deep? COACH CAPEL: Well it happens when you have pros to come off the bench. Earl Clark is a pro. Sosa is a kid that started for them a lot. They're extremely talented all across the board. And they have a good number of big bodies, big athletic bodies they can throw at you and with the style in which they play, constant pressure, mixing up their presses, I think that it's probably good for their team to play as many guys. But they're good, they're good all across the board, starters, I think that some of those guys got some really valuable time with Padgett being out early and some of those other guys, I think Palacios was out early, so some of those guys got some valuable minutes, which has helped them. Q. Do we over simplify things when we say if your guards play well and your team plays well? COACH CAPEL: No. It's usually that's the way it's been for us. When we get good guard play, we usually play well. Yesterday was a really good example of that. I thought our guards played really well, we were able to make shots which towards the end of the game that opened up where I think because of the threes that David had made, where they stopped doubling off of him, they allowed us to get one and one in the post. And we feel like when we have that, with Blake and Longar, we like those guys chances to score. Q. I wonder if your youth is an advantage in any way being a coach and interacting with the kids? COACH CAPEL: I don't know. You have to ask them. I don't know what they will say. But I am who I am. That's one of the things I learned very quickly when I was named head coach at VCU at 27. And probably one of the best pieces of advice I got, it came from my dad, and probably a day later in a conversation with my college coach, and it was don't try to be anyone else but you. And that's what I try to do. I'm 33, I like a lot of the same things our guys like, my players like. Does it help? I don't know. I don't think it hurts. Because I do think there is a line. There's a line where we draw, where I draw with them where they have to understand that I am their coach. But I do want to be a friend to them, I do want to be someone that they feel confident and comfortable coming and talking to me, talking to me about anything, whether it's coming to my office, I don't have an office hours, they don't have to set appointments, they can just come in and see me. And we sit down and we talk about whatever, really. Whatever's going on in their life. And if it's something about basketball or they just want to talk about anything, so, sure, I think it helps. Q. You only had nine turnovers yesterday as a team, and how much better have Blake, Longar, because they have been doubled a lot this year, have gotten getting rid of the ball out of doubles and not turning it over to your shooters? COACH CAPEL: I think they have done a very good job, like you mentioned with how much they have been doubled all year long. Especially Blake. I think that's helped him get better. He's gained experience really probably from the first game, especially since we went to New York, and we played Memphis and Webb, from then on I think Blake's been doubled just about every game we have played. And in some form. Whether it's post to post, coming from a guard or whatever. So I think that's helped. But I think that we have done a pretty good job in and knock on wood, I hope I don't jinx this, but I think we have done pretty good job of valuing the ball all year long. Hopefully that continues tomorrow. Q. Some of us got a chance to drop over to the Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham this morning and could you address briefly what the Civil Rights Era might have meant to your discipline of college basketball? COACH CAPEL: Well, it means a lot. There's a program that ESPN has been showing, Black Magic, that's phenomenal. I get emotional as I was watching it. And you just see the things that people had to go through, people of color had to go through. It's a shame that people had to go through that, but people look at athletes as heroes. I look at those people as the real heroes. I look at people like my grandfather, who organized citizens in North Carolina and did different things like that, just so people could have basic freedom. I think now people take that for granted. I know some young people probably take that for granted and don't really understand, because they never had to go through anything like those people had to go through. I didn't have to go through it as much. Because some of the things that my grandparents and great grandparents and people went through and my parents even so to speak went through. So it means a lot. It means a lot. And like I said, those are the real heroes. And when I look at the opportunity that I have to be ahead coach, I know when I was named the head coach at VCU there was a lot made about that, being 27, I had quote unquote I had not paid my dues. That's what I heard. And I would constantly say, you know, Ben Joe paid my dues, Coach McGlendon, Big House Gaines, those guys, because of what they had to go through and endure to allow myself or Tubby Smith or Paul Hewitt, guys like us to have an opportunity to be head coaches at major programs. And you look at Coach Chaney, Coach John Thompson. Those guys like that -- Nolan Richardson, those guys that paved the way and had success and allowed opportunities for guys like myself to be on this stage. Q. Would you talk about the journey this year for your team, it looks like just looking on paper; it's been a kind of an up-and-down situation with injuries and other things? COACH CAPEL: Well, it has been, but our guys have continued to fight and persevere, I've really enjoyed coaching this basketball team. I think we have grown so much since the beginning of the year, last year was difficult for all of us. But last year's team was really like coaching a team full of freshmen because we really didn't have any experience with a new coach coming in, these guys are learning so many different things. Our returning guys, I think, got better over the summer, and I think experience last year helped them out but then I think we got an influx of energy from our new guys. Obviously, we have a special talent, I think, in Blake, but then Cade Davis; just the energy that he brings, Tony, Omar Leary, one of the things I think that had helped us with earlier in the year was we were able to have really good competitive practices as we started going through injuries, I think that maybe that had something to do with our play being inconsistent because we were very inconsistent in what we could do in practice. Some days we would have eight guys, some days we would have ten. Some days we had a manager practicing with us trying to do some five on five stuff. As we have gotten here, especially this week, in preparing for this tournament, we have been pretty healthy, probably been as healthy as we have been and so we were able to have good practices, which I think led to us playing well yesterday. Hopefully that leaves us playing well tomorrow. Q. Can you talk about David Padgett and how their offense kind of runs through him and how you planned on defending him? COACH CAPEL: Well he's a really skilled player. I think he's probably a really, I think he's a very under rated passer. And his feel for the game allows Coach Pitino and their staff and their team to run stuff through him. And it's not just on the block. They pull him away from the basket and dribble hand off or have him screen. He does such a great job of knowing when to cut, when to slip screens, knowing when to hit guys for back door passes, he just has a great feel for the game of basketball. And that's something that's really rare in today's game. Not many kids now have feel any more. And he's able to do that. We have to do a good job on him. But you saw Louisville last night, they're a really good team, even if he's not able, he picked up two quick fouls and their offense still kept running. They have so many talented guys, you can just go on and on about the talent that they have amassed on their roster. Those guys play really hard. I think that they're selfless, and they're good, they're really good. Q. On the flip side of that question that you got there, can you see how some might think it's a big challenge for you going against a 55-year-old coach who has taken three colleges to the Final Four? COACH CAPEL: No, I coached against Coach Knight. (Laughter.) I mean, if it were just like me and Coach Pitino one-on-one, I'd love my chances there. (Laughter.) If we were on the court playing; but no, it's not. It's not about that. It's Louisville against Oklahoma. I coached against some Legends. You look at Coach Knight, you look at a guy at Virginia University, when I was at VCU, Dave Robbins, who was probably the best coach I ever coached against, and how many national titles he's won on the Division II level. So, no, I'm not intimidated, I respect the heck out of the man and respect what he's done, every where he's been, but I'm excited about our team being able to play Louisville. Q. You win a first round NCAA tournament game, and in your second year I'm just curious, from your perspective, where you feel like this program is now? It's had so much success in the past. You look at 20 years ago when these two teams played in Birmingham and it was the number one seed then; is this program what you thought it was coming in or have there been some pitfalls that you have had to kind of overcome? COACH CAPEL: We have had to overcome a lot. But it's nothing that's been unexpected. Any time you take over any new program, the majority would say about 90 percent of the time you don't hear many coaches saying, "Oh, that's easy. This is easy. This is easier than I expected." Usually it's some kind of challenge and obviously we faced some with some NCAA stuff, some restrictions on recruiting, some different things like that. But the thing that I've always told our guys is that you can't make excuses, you have to figure out a way to make things happen. I have a poster that my wife got me for Christmas of Jackie Robinson. And I got it framed under it, you know, no excuses, make it happen. And it says don't complain, find a way, that's actually what it says. And I was watching the story a special on Jackie Robinson when he first went to the Brooklyn Dodgers, about how he couldn't complain. It was in his contract that he couldn't complain. And you look at the pioneer that he was for all black athletes. There's no reason to ever complain. You have to find a way. That's life. You are going to go through pitfalls, highs and lows in life and life is not going to slow down. You have to figure out a way and we found a way to win some basketball games this year through all the adversity we've faced. Whether it's injuries, whatever came our way, we found a way to get here and to be here and to be one of 32 teams or I guess 31 left, Duke just lost, so be one of 32 teams left playing. So we're excited about that and look forward to it. Q. You talked a little bit about Blake. Can you kind of comment on how he's so big, so athletic, the matchup problems he presents for other teams. COACH CAPEL: That's why teams double him. Usually, you don't double a guy that you don't think can hurt you. And so he is a guy that can hurt you, teams have to have a game plan for him. Usually that means doubling. We're interested to see if Louisville will do that tomorrow. Like I said, in watching the tape on them, that's not something that I've seen them do a lot. They play a lot of zone, which kind of negates that a little bit. But in transition defense they have usually gotten back to man-to-man. And so he is a guy, because of his strength, his size, his athleticism, he's gotten more comfortable as the year's gone along with playing with his back to the basket. That's something that was a challenge for him when he first got to school when we first started playing because he's getting doubled now in college, you can imagine how it was in Oklahoma high school basketball. He was getting quadrupled, I guess. Even in AAU when he played. He really has -- it's very frustrating for him, but the thing I've tried to tell him is look, man, hopefully for the rest of your life you may not get single coverage. That means you're pretty doggone good. And it's something you have to adapt to and find a way. Now when you run the floor in transition they can't do you believe you there. They can't do you believe you on the offensive rebound. So you have to figure out different ways to have an impact and he's done that for us this year. THE MODERATOR: Okay, thank you, coach. COACH CAPEL: All right. Thanks. End of FastScripts |
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