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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: DENVERMarch 22, 2008Jamie DixonLevance FieldsSam YoungDENVER, COLORADO THE MODERATOR: Joined by Pittsburgh. Coach, if you want to begin with thoughts on the game. COACH DIXON: Well, I'm very proud of our team, have been all year. They've been through a lot. Even today they were down, they battled back. Down 10, took the lead in the second half. Made a great comeback. Put ourselves in a position. I think we were up two with the ball. Had a couple good looks. Didn't knock 'em down. But I'm very proud of these two guys, especially how much they battled, played, got through a lot of different things. I'm very proud of us. I don't think we played our best game. We obviously didn't shoot it well. 2 of 17 from three. I thought we took some good ones early. We took some good ones at the end. We got out-rebounded. That was a problem. But I thought we took good shots throughout. But, again, had the lead, some things never seemed to go our way at the end. Seemed like everything went their way. Took care of the ball. Had nine turnovers, four or five of those were moving screen calls. We really did a good job of taking care of the ball. But they seemed to have got the breaks at the end, went from a two-point lead for us, just some things went their way. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, coach. Questions directed to either of the student-athletes. Q. Levance, their coach said the game plan was to keep you from penetrating, getting to the basket. Did they do a good job of that? Was your shooting difficulty for the team more about what they were doing or you guys missing? LEVANCE FIELDS: You have to credit what they did. Obviously with they scheme for me, they did a pretty good job. But like coach said, we felt we had some good looks in the first half, and even in the second half, but they just didn't go down. They still had some late-contests. Got to credit them for continuing to play hard, not just giving us easy shots. Shots we normally knock down just didn't go today. Q. You came in here with so much confidence. Can you talk about the suddenness of it being over, how you maybe didn't see this coming. LEVANCE FIELDS: It's tough, you know. Obviously we was on a roll. But all along we knew it didn't mean nothing because any time in this tournament if you didn't do the right things, you would be eliminated. Michigan State is a tough team. I don't think this is your normal second-round game in a tournament. But obviously this was the game. We battled. They battled. But, like coach said, they out-rebounded us. That was something we couldn't afford to happen. That helped them to prevail to a victory. SAM YOUNG: I don't know. Felt like a lot of shots that we normally make, we missed tonight. Felt like they played a good defense. I guess I credit their coach. I think they had a great scheme. As far as their defense was concerned, I thought they played great defense. But the shots that we were able to get good looks at, we didn't knock them down. I just think when you in a situation when you playing in a tournament, sudden-death, you couldn't afford for that to happen. Q. Levance, could you tell us, from your perspective, what happened? You got called for a charge. At the end you were laying down grabbing your leg. What happened on that sequence? LEVANCE FIELDS: Well, I just twisted my ankle a little bit. But that was it. At first it didn't feel good, but as I got up, I could put weight on it. So that was a good thing. As of right now, I'm fine. I just twisted it a little bit. Q. What about the play that led up to that? LEVANCE FIELDS: The charge? Q. What happened there? LEVANCE FIELDS: I was trying to go to the basket. Lucas did a great job of positioning himself. I thought it could have went either way. But they got the call. Like I said, he did a great job of positioning himself so it was a charge. Q. Levance, talk about the future of this team with three starters potentially coming back for next year. Your thoughts on next season. LEVANCE FIELDS: Well, it's tough to think about that right now. But, like you say, three potential starters coming back. Pretty much our nucleus, the three guys you're talking about. As long as we work hard this summer, learn from this, get better, like we did this summer, hopefully stay injury-free next year, we should be fine. Q. Sam, can you reflect a little bit on what you accomplished this year. I know it's tough right now, but... SAM YOUNG: Yeah, it is kind of tough right now. But at the same time when you look back on the season, we'll be able to come to things that we were able to accomplish, I'm very proud of the team and I'm very proud of myself as an individual. I mean, the coaching staff and everybody. I feel like after a certain point in the season, a lot of people counted us out. For us to continue on strong, win the Big East championship, get to this point in the tournament, I think we showed a lot for ourselves. THE MODERATOR: Guys, thank you very much. We'll continue with questions for Coach Dixon. Q. Looked overall like you guys played pretty good defense. Neitzel just hit tough shots. Is that the way you read it? COACH DIXON: I thought in the first half, that's what we went into halftime thinking. I thought we were in pretty good shape considering we didn't make some open shots and they hit some tough ones. Neitzel hit a couple at the end. The shot clock kind of shot them at the end and knocked them down. All in all I thought in the first half I felt pretty good, considering what we had shot, the shots that they had made. Second half, you know, they got some layups in transition. Seemed like every missed three turned into a long rebound and a breakout for them, especially the one play where we were up two, had an open three, turned out to be a run-out for them. Quite a difference there. So I felt like defense was good, not great in the first half. Put ourselves in position to step it up. Again, can't say enough about how we battled back. Things going bad, we're down 10, turn that thing around right away after a timeout and get back and put ourselves up two, put ourselves in a good position. You know, we just -- just seemed like nothing seemed to go right at that point. We just obviously -- some things went the wrong way. You know, we took care of the ball. We got nine turnovers good against a very good defensive team. Like I said, I think pretty much all of them were a moving screen or a charge call or, you know, a carrying call. So, I mean, we took very good care of the ball against a very good defensive team. Could have shot it better. But made our free throws. They made their free throws. They were nine of nine. I think the difference really came down to them making some threes and we didn't. Q. This wasn't the way obviously you wanted to see Benjamin and Ramon go out. Ronald didn't shoot well. Keith didn't score. Talk about your disappointment for those two guys in particular. COACH DIXON: Yeah, I mean, I'm not a guy that's going to look at this game. I'm going to look at their careers, what they did for us, the leadership they gave for our team, really everything they went through, from being a young team you recall in the year, to even younger when we they lost their two most experienced in Levance and Mike Cook. Then two other guys go down. I think Keith came so far this year and did so many great things for us. You know, I mean, those things far outweigh what happened tonight in my mind. Every time I think about them, I mean, you know, I think they had some good looks, some shots. But they battled. They brought us back. Keith made some big plays to put us back and put us up two. Just seemed like the momentum was going our way. For whatever reason, seemed like everything seemed to go their way from that point on. But they were strong all year long in different ways. Levance -- I mean, Ronald is quieter, but just doing everything right. Keith really brought a lot as far as commitment and confidence. I can't say enough about how much those guys did, how many games these guys won over their careers. A lot of games. I don't even know what it is. They go home with a Big East championship. But a lot of disappointment because I thought we could have played a lot better tonight. I thought we could have. They played good, to their credit. But, again, we just -- I thought we could have done a few things a little better. I'm sure they feel the same way, though, too. Q. It seems like you're always going to be judged on your last game. That's what people remember the most. Is that fair with this team? COACH DIXON: I don't know. It depends who the person is and what. You know, I know these guys and every day what they gave. And our concentration, our commitment the last couple weeks, things we did. I mean, today our preparation for their stuff. I didn't feel like they hurt us really in their plays or execution and plays. We knew everything they were going to do. We were prepared. You know, just everything, we were so ready to play, like we have been these last couple weeks. I mean, things just seemed to be coming together. Again, this is a good team. We're up two. We got the ball late in the second half. We hadn't even been shooting it well. So, you know, yes, I mean, you can think about the last, you know, eight minutes or so when nothing seemed to go our way. But these guys had a great year and, you know, we had so many great wins that people will remember. This is a loss that will hurt because I think we could have played better. THE MODERATOR: Thanks very much, coach. COACH DIXON: Thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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