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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: RALEIGHMarch 22, 2008Vincent HunterJohn PelphreyDarian TownesSonny WeemsRALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA Q. Playing the No. 1 team and in their backyard, just talk about the challenge and also the opportunity of playing them, doesn't happen that often? SONNY WEEMS: It's a great opportunity. They are a great team. As you see they are the No. 1 team in the country, and it will be a great challenge for us. You know, we are playing them in basically their home court and their fans will be here, so it will be a tough challenge for us. Q. Do you guys basically feel it's a road game for you? SONNY WEEMS: No. We think so, all of North Carolina Blue we'll see throughout the gym, and we'll take it as a road game. VINCENT HUNTER: I think it will be a tough time playing North Carolina in their backyard but we'll go out and play together as a team and try to do our thing. DARIAN TOWNES: They just about said everything. Q. Kind of on that point, but I saw it on the first half of the North Carolina/Mount St. Mary's game, you were sitting behind the basket watching, what's going through your mind as you see the atmosphere and the crowd and you see the way the crowd responds to them? SONNY WEEMS: It's like, man, watching North Carolina, plus, they have their fans here and they are a great team. We just think in the back of our minds, it would be a tough competition for us, a tough challenge for us. Q. About a year ago, you got a new coach, and then you got another new coach, and just a lot of change going on at once. How did you get warmed up to Coach Pelphrey and what was the beginning like? VINCENT HUNTER: It was a big change for the whole team, a coaching change like that, but with our style of play right now, we are used to this style of play, so that's good for us. Q. For all three players, because there was such an emphasis on finally winning the game at the NCAA Tournament, how hard is it going to be to emotionally, with that behind you, to kind of really regroup and get ready for this one? VINCENT HUNTER: I don't think it's just that, or winning our first NCAA game. It's just the thought of playing North Carolina. If you can't get ready to play North Carolina, then you don't need to be playing college basketball. Q. Could you describe your style of play, because Roy and them said they could not really compare you to anyone that he had played, so could you tell us what Arkansas basketball looks like, and also, what did you do well to beat Tennessee? SONNY WEEMS: We have multiple styles of play and we can press you and get up and down the floor. Our team, if we have trouble with our press, we have a great halfcourt game and with great bigs up front with Darian and Stephen and Charles and Mike, we can play a halfcourt game, also. The key to beating Tennessee, we just matched their toughness. They come with a lot of intensity and a lot of fire in their game, and we just matched it. DARIAN TOWNES: We got to start off early. We can't start behind and try to use all our energy against North Carolina. They are a great team and had good guards and got good post players. We just have to tomorrow from tip-off and go all-out. Q. Just talk about the challenge of playing Tyler Hansbrough, the challenge, what you have to do to maybe not shut him down but keep him from going crazy? VINCENT HUNTER: I think Tyler Hansbrough is a good player but just have to play team defense on him, can't try to stop him but try to slow him down. DARIAN TOWNES: Have to match his intensity, hard-fought player, he goes for everything on the offensive rebounds, so you have to match his intensity and just play harder than him. Q. Can you talk about what it's like to go up against Stephen going up against and you blocking shots? DARIAN TOWNES: It's tough, and he's one of the good shot-blockers and he's steel tough going against Steve and blocks my shots all the time and by him blocking the shots, I know that it will work in the game. So it's great going up against somebody that's good on the defensive end. Q. Have you watched North Carolina much this year, and also Ty Lawson, their point guard, is he anybody you know much about? What are your impressions of him? SONNY WEEMS: You can't help but watch Carolina. Every time you turn on the TV, they are on ESPN. Ty Lawson, he's a great point guard. He's quick off the bounce. He's the motor to their team. If you let him get it going, it could be a tough day for your ballclub, but man, he's a great point guard. He's one of, it not the top two, one of the best point guards in the nation. Q. Apparently your knee was okay last night; how is it feeling today, any problems with it at all? SONNY WEEMS: I'm feeling great, man. I feel like I'm at 100%. I'm still doing a lot of treatment on it, but if we had to go out and play today, I could still go out and play. Q. Can you comment on the way Darian plays when he has a challenge like a Tyler Hansbrough, or the big challenge, so to speak? VINCENT HUNTER: Darian steps up to the plate any game, any player. So it will be exciting to see him and Tyler go at it and hopefully he'll get the best of him. SONNY WEEMS: Even if we were playing today against Amare Stoudemire, Darian will show up. He's one of the best post players in the nation and we know Darian is going to show up and give us his best game. Q. Have you heard much about the game over the years where Arkansas beat North Carolina? VINCENT HUNTER: Yeah, I've heard about it, we had that game posted in the office, it's a big challenge for us, I think it's going to make history if we do this. SONNY WEEMS: I've heard about it but we haven't paid too much attention in the past. This is our year and this is our time, so anything in the past, you know, we really don't worry about it. We try to control the future and the present. Q. You said North Carolina is on ESPN every day; is that an intimidation, or is it frustrating for all of the rest of America to have to see them day after day? SONNY WEEMS: No, it's not frustrating because you get to see a great team play, and you know, everybody in America enjoys watching North Carolina play. They have a great team and they are a great ballclub and it's a compliment to those guys. COACH PELPHREY: We feel very fortunate last night to still be here today. Great basketball game and tremendous respect for IU and their team and the year they had. Our challenge now will be a short period of time to get ready for the best team in the country who has got great, great coaching. Coach Williams is phenomenal. Doesn't need me to run down his accolades for anybody to know that. North Carolina is certainly a proud tradition with winning championships and players. And I think, too, any time you go in 33, 35 ballgames, there's a level of overachieving amongst the team and amongst the program, and they have been tremendous all season long. Our season obviously will be to digest a lot of information and then collectively as a basketball team, each and every one of us be a little bit better than we have been to have a chance. Q. Could you tell me why Steven Hill is such a good shot-blocker? COACH PELPHREY: Well, yeah, it's what he does. He's seven feet. He's athletic, he's got good timing, he has a toughness to him where he's resilient in terms of -- to keep going to try it. Sometimes if somebody gets scored on or dunked on or whatever, they kind of get discouraged. He has no fear at all about coming back and trying it again. He understands who he is and what he does well. He's a special, special defensive player. Q. You're playing the No. 1 team in the country, and on top of that, you're playing them in their home state where they are 22-1 in NCAA Tournament games, I know how much you like those stats. Talk about the challenge of not just playing the No. 1, but playing them in their backyard, and it's also a great opportunity because you don't get to play the No. 1 that often. COACH PELPHREY: This will not be the typical NCAA neutral site game. This will be a road game for us. I mean, I don't think anybody is going to dispute that. We understand that. Don't have a whole lot of choice in the matter. It's not like it was a scheduled game for us and we feel very, very fortunate to be part of the NCAA Tournament and we feel very fortunate to have this opportunity tomorrow. It is what it is and we'll go in and compete. We understand the records that a program like Carolina has, 22-1 is just mind-boggling. Yeah, when you play at Carolina in one of these programs, there's a good chance you're going to be No. 1 and there's a lot of people having a chance to take a shot at you. No, it's not every day you get a chance to play the No. 1 seed in the whole tournament and it's not every day you get a chance to play North Carolina or Indiana in the NCAA tournament. Quite honestly as a player I grew up wanting to be in an environment many like this. As a coach I'm excited to be in an environment like this and not discouraged or fearful about this at all, and it doesn't scare me and it doesn't scare our players, I don't think it will. This is what makes this thing special. Q. I don't know how much you've had a chance to look at Lawson's game last night or see how he's played, but from what you've seen, does he look like a guy that's got a gimpy ankle that's favoring anything? COACH PELPHREY: Not too much to me. Again, I'll be in there check a little bit more by game time with him and I look at those, I think they had three great players. He's one of them, tremendous speed, play maker, play maker type, nobody is faster than that in Carolina, he makes the thing go. And certainly Hansbrough with the Player of the Year deal. You know, only problem I have with Hansbrough is he's my son's favorite player and I'm still not sure how that worked out. But there's some issues there that I will have to work on later on when this thing is over and done with. And Ellington. Those three guys are just tremendous, and everybody else on their basketball team, you know, is really, really good. All of these guys have their pick of schools to go to and I'm not singling anybody out here, but they are tremendous. I think when you have three great ones, you have a chance to really compete and rack up wins and compete for championships and that's what they have done. Q. Since there's such an emphasis on winning a tournament game -- (inaudible)? COACH PELPHREY: I don't think that's part of the equation, I really don't. You know, I hope that I'm not mistaken and misjudging my basketball team but we're playing Carolina; it's the NCAA Tournament. Six of these guys, they don't get a chance to put that Arkansas Razorback uniform on anymore. As far as I'm concerned, that's not just another jersey. It's a special piece of cloth. There's a lot of people that work hard on a daily basis from a coaching and a playing standpoint. Over achieving, giving their heart and soul to make it special and to be a Razorback, and for us to be satisfied with the first-round win, that's not good enough. Now if we go down tomorrow with all guns blazing, that's okay, but we need to -- I'm expecting those guys to play better tomorrow than they did yesterday. Q. In the back, Gary Ervin has been the guy that's been criticized for turnovers and being able to control at times; how has he been for this season and how important is he for you to advance in this tournament? COACH PELPHREY: Gary I think has done a good job for our basketball team. I think that all these guys, for any success that we've had, those guys deserve the credit. You know, my focus in coming into this basketball season was to help these guys over achieve. I wanted them to become selfless and more of a basketball team and if that meant that I had to do less so the team could do more; to get them okay with that and to embrace those types of things. Because the thing I realize is that they have had a level of success over the course of their careers at Arkansas. They have been to the NCAA Tournament. Gary Ervin has never not been to the NCAA Tournament. He has been criticized and you turn the basketball over, you should be criticized for those things. At the same time there's a lot of very positive things that he does and if it wasn't for him and his play, and his ability to sacrifice for the good of the basketball team, we would not be where we are today. Q. You've played for the winningest program in the history of college basketball. When you think about if you flipped it for a second and you think about what it's like for those Carolina guys when they put on that uniform and to have everybody shooting at them, what was it like and what can you recall being in a program like Kentucky where you're it, man? COACH PELPHREY: There's a tremendous commitment level that you've got to have because every single night, somebody wants to measure themselves up against you. And some guys find that as pressure; some guys find that as motivation to get prepared. I think playing in a program that can crush them, or they can't handle it, other people thrive on it. It's not so much the winning or success or the failure; it's about the thrill of competing. There's no doubt about it, you go on the road and play at someplace, it's a .500 basketball team, they are going to play like they are Conference champs and may turnaround two days later and lose to somebody that has a worse record than them but on that night you're getting their best. I kind of like it because I think that across the board, it forces you on a daily basis to bring your hard heart, your lunch pail and go to work. I think whenever we get challenged in those ways, it brings out best in us. It doesn't mean you're always going to win or that you'll be the biggest or the best, but when it's all said and done, you've got to know how good you are. Q. Seems like Sonny's two best games this season, I think last night obviously and the South Carolina game were games in which he was driving and hitting that mid-range jumper, have you been pushing him to do that all season? I guess just explain why he's so dangerous doing that. COACH PELPHREY: We certainly don't want him falling in love with the three-point shot but every one that he makes, they are not going to get back. I'm not sure what the final numbers but Sonny I think for the SECs, he shot over 40 percent which is an incredible number. I believe they may have started like 0-for-13 or 0-for-17 to start the season. Yeah, we love it when Sonny is in the mid-range play someplace shooting that basketball, but because of his size being 6-5,6-6, because of his athleticism, he has the high release and ability to tilt on his shot in certain directions and still make it. There's several reasons why he's able to get that off. I think the other thing last night was that they are kind of running him off the 3-point line, and we were very fortunate to get the floor space correctly. I thought those guys made some good reads and got him some extra passes and with the exception of the one play until the second half where he tried to take it where there was three white shirts in front of him, I thought he made as good a reach to get to those shot opportunities as he's done all year. Gary found him a couple times all year, and he and Pat did a good job getting down to the corners. I think there's a lot of things that go into it with the success that he's had. One, he's got a tremendous amount of God-given ability. That mid-range game is a unique thing that people don't have a whole lot of it and his size and athleticism help him a whole lot with that. The rest of it is an understanding of himself of where we are supposed to be from a strategic standpoint and his teammates making him better. Q. Just wonder if you can give us an update on Welsh's ankle, and if he can't play, how does that work out? COACH PELPHREY: We've got an appeal in the NCAA to see if I can get into the game if he doesn't play. I don't know, if we played today, he couldn't play. Dave England, our trainer, is terrific. They will work the rest of the day and through the night and tomorrow to try to get him ready to go. I would say at best he's doubtful. Our rotation, you know, certainly that's where we are weak anyway, we don't have a lot of guard depth there. But any time that you put a uniform on at the University of Arkansas you've got to be ready because you might find yourself in the game. My dad always told me, "Your time's coming." And I tell those guys every single day, you don't know when, you don't know for how long; but if he doesn't play, it's going to provide an opportunity to somebody else, and you'd better be ready to go. Q. With one day to prepare for the top-ranked team in the country, with this week did you plan at all or scout, and coach Williams talked about being up at 2:45 at night and nodding off trying to watch the tape; were you up later doing anything like that? COACH PELPHREY: No, I didn't look ahead to Carolina. You know, our assistant coaches are obviously making preparations and doing some preliminary stuff. They watched the game. I had the chance obviously to review our game last night. I think everybody is up late this time of year. But I think we'll be prepared ready to go. Bottom line, the team that plays the hardest, executes the best, and it will be the best team with the best attitude will put themselves in a situation with a chance to win. Q. Could you encapsulize just for a moment you drew from Coach Sutton, Patino (ph), and Donovan and whoever else might have been a factor in what you do as a coach? COACH PELPHREY: Well, I've been very fortunate and blessed. I was not the most talented guy in the world. I know when I walked up on this stage, you were really impressed with my physical abilities. But I did love it. I wasn't afraid to work. It meant a lot to me. Coach Sutton brought me to college basketball as a player and as a coach, I will always be eternally grateful to him for being a huge part of my life. And Shawn, his son was my roommate. I can remember as a player, when we were playing together at Kentucky, we would be on the road someplace, and we would be watching a game and he would take one team and I would take the other and we would go back and forth and coach our teams. It's something that we've been doing and I just have a phenomenal relationship. I think they are as good of game coaches, as the game is going on as anybody I've ever been around. Coach Sutton has an unbelievable ability, he'll pick eight of us out of this room and figure out what those eight guys can do a lot faster than anybody else, it's just amazing, and then win 25 games. As good as he is as a coach, he's even a better human being. Coach Patino (ph), gave me a college career. Before him, I had played very little. Coach looked at me like my teammates, like the glass was half-full, as opposed to half empty. That was unique for us. Everyone was always telling us what we couldn't do as opposed to what we could do. I don't know if Coach Patino (ph) believed it or not but he did a great job of selling it to us. He taught us how to work. There was no stone unturned. A lot of people think that the 20-odd rule (ph) came because of Coach Patino (ph) and I'll be honest, I won't dispute that because I know what it was like for the first two years there. The amount of time that we put in just to get ready for games was off the charts. He had us convinced that this rule came in to try to hold us back to keep us from not getting to the level we could potentially get to. I loved the style of play, I came to learn that one-on-one was not a selfish thing, it was a great thing in basketball if I can take it and get two guys guarding me, now I can finds my teammate. I wasn't very good at a lot of things but I did understand passing and I really -- that really helped me as a player. Billy, you know, is -- and I've said this many times. He is probably the most influential male in my life outside of my father and my parents were the best two coaches I've had and I am very fortunate they are still living. But Billy, you know, called me on the phone one day and when he got the job and said, you want the job, come, and boom, I'm off. I'm sitting at the desk and I'm like what do I do, I have no clue. Next three weeks, I'm at the corner of his desk trying figure out what to do, recruiting. I didn't know how in the world I had the patience to do that with somebody, but that's Billy. Just a phenomenal human being, ridiculous in recruiting, we all know what type of coach he is. I need all those guys. I don't want to be Rick Patino, I don't want to be Billy Donovan, I don't want to be Eddie Sutton, I want to be me. But I do -- the thing I do admire and respect, and that I do want to have is the relationships that they have with their players. That's what I have with them and I'm pretty fortunate, if I were to need anything in terms of advice or somebody to be there for me in some fashion or shape, I could pick the phone up and all those guys and they would be there for me. Q. Presuming that Welsh cannot go, I guess is Marcus Britt the guy, and how ready is he? I know you've used him in spots this year. COACH PELPHREY: Marcus is fine defensively. He's probably played less with Stefan's development in terms of getting -- playing better. Stef has been a huge part of our success here in the postseason. It's not ideal for us not to have Stefan. But Marcus will be ready to go. And those other guys better be ready, too. Q. Can you talk a little bit about what makes Hansbrough such a special player and maybe how your guys -- with your depth can potentially counter? COACH PELPHREY: Well, I don't know about the second part of that question. We are going to try but we do need depth. We would like to have strength in numbers but a lot of times we have to go to that out of weakness because we foul too much. I think Tyler Hansbrough obviously has some physical attributes that he's been blessed with. He's not the biggest guy in the world. He's not the fastest. He doesn't jump the highest. He's not the most fluid, smooth guy. But I tell you one thing, he has got unbelievable heart, a passion for it, it means a lot to him. I can remember watching him play in high school and just blown away with just the disrespect he had for his body. He physically would put it on the line night-in and night-out. Certainly he does some things in terms of running the floor and dunking the basketball. He can make shots at 16, 17 feet and makes an unbelievable amount of free throws. He's a Player of the Year. He is a good player. He is ferocious, and that sometimes is a hard thing to develop a game plan for. Got to have some other hombres on the other side that's willing to try to match that and there's got to be an intellect that goes with it. You just are not going to go out there and do that better than he does. You have to have some thought in behind it. There will not be one guy that's charged with the job of stopping Hansbrough, but we'll try to implement something along the lines we did last night with Eric Gordon, you have to do this, this, this and this and everybody else make sure you get in there and you're part of the equation, too. Hopefully it can be our team versus Tyler Hansbrough and not just one guy. Q. A little bit off-topic, as a younger coach earlier in your career, does it help you in relating to players today, or is it a liability with anyone when it comes to recruiting? What's your feeling on that? COACH PELPHREY: Well, normally my whole career, I've been too young. Why would you gamble anything with him, you know, he's not going to be at this place very long, or I remember a big thing with Michael Miller was those guys don't have the experience to help your kid to where he needs to go. So I don't know, it's interesting you say that, now I guess it's a good thing that I'm young and I can quote unquote relate. The thing I would say is I like the fact that I've been very fortunate to be blessed and maybe have some experiences that people have had that are maybe 45, 50 years old. But I got to Arkansas and I'll be quite honest with you, those guys, they don't know I played at Kentucky. They don't know who I was. There's probably this group of guys out there right now that is like everybody else. In terms of recruiting and being a leader, it takes time, got to develop a relationship, they have to trust you. If they don't trust you, and you don't trust them, it's not working out. We've spent an enormous amount of time this year, our coaching staff who is very, very important for us to come in and coach every single day, to teach every single day, to try to build a relationship that those young men can hang their hat on and trust us, because for six of them, it was a traumatic change, and they had done things a certain way for three years and now there's another guy coming in here, how they view me, what's my role going to be, I was recruited with this style; if he recruited me, would he even like me for this stuff. I identify with that because I went through a coaching change and I went through some of those same feelings and knew where they were coming from. Coach Patino (ph) did not take the approach with me that guys go out and recruit every single day, let's make sure we get some really good players in here and worry about it when we get our guys in here. Those guys spent an enormous amount of time developing a relationship and foundation that we could trust each other. Our staff took that approach with these guys that they wanted to do well while they were here. That was important to me. Hopefully whatever age I am, I can continue to try to be a part of these young guys' lives, and if we can help them to improve off the court, off the floor and as people. End of FastScripts |
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