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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: BIRMINGHAMMarch 23, 2008A.J. GravesMike GreenBrad StevensDrew StreicherBIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with an opening statement from Coach Stevens and then take questions for the student-athletes. COACH STEVENS: It was a great college basketball game between two pretty darn good teams. And we came out on the short end, but due to no, certainly both teams played valiantly and played with terrific effort. And I think it was just a game of inches on a lot of occasions. We didn't get a couple bounces that we probably needed to go our way to finish it off. But I have great respect for the way that Tennessee plays, I think they play extremely hard. I think they put you in touch positions and they get a chance to move on. But certainly I am proud as I could be of our guys effort. I told them in the locker room that it's more than a game when you have five teammates like these seniors have been. And that's what we talked about. THE MODERATOR: Take questions for the student-athletes. Q. For A.J., you maybe have not had a lot of time to reflect, but even in defeat do you think you've, Butler's made it pretty clear that you're one of the top teens in the country, this team was ranked number one just about three weeks ago and you took them into overtime. A.J. GRAVES: Well, yeah, I would hope so. That's something that we're trying to do here is trying to create, add to what tradition that has been established over the years. This isn't the only time Butler's been to the tournament, they have been here before and won some games. To get paired up with Tennessee in the second round, to play a very challenging team and to put them into overtime, that's tough to do. And a lot of teams didn't get to do that. Q. Mike, Tennessee obviously has really good shot blockers, athletic guys inside that can jump. Did those guys get you thinking, have you second guessing your shot when you drove to the basket? MIKE GREEN: Sure, it happened a couple of times. The other times it was just me and the rim and I failed to finish. Those shots that I've been making all year long and for one reason or another they didn't go. All of them didn't go today. Q. There were a lot of point characteristic numbers, 18 of 28 from the free throw line, guys missed a couple of easy ones. How much of that was Tennessee's size and athleticism and how much of it was you guys just had one of those games? MIKE GREEN: I think you got to give credit to both. Tennessee has some athletic guys that contested a lot of shots and at the same time sometimes it just don't work your way. And I think it was both today. Q. A.J. in that last minute of overtime it looked like you had a pretty good path to the basket and then did it seem like Smith just came out of nowhere to block that? Because it looked like that was going to be a tying field goal. A.J. GRAVES: Yeah, I thought I had a clear way, we ran a high on ball and hesitated and I thought there was an opening and I took it. And I did see someone out of the corner of my eye and that's why I tried to, I didn't go all the way to the rim, I tried to, I lofted it in the air to see what would happen. And he got it. So that just happens. Q. All you guys, what are some of the things that you guys have shared with each other as seniors, in the few minutes after the game, after a very emotional game? DREW STREICHER: I would say the consensus was just thankfulness. How much fun we have had going to work every day with each other. Just going to battle with each other. How we have all come together. We have got three transfers and they came from all different backgrounds and just how we were able to come together and really just be like a family. And how much fun we had and playing off each other, it's just been quite a ride. MIKE GREEN: Drew pretty much summed it all up. We just gave out hugs and a bunch of thanks and pretty much talked about the season in short. Q. A.J., most of the game if you guys are aggressive with the ball, drove to the hoop, you could maybe get a free throw. The last two minutes if you were aggressive going to the hoop, you got fouled the official said you got to put the ball in the basket, they weren't going to let you go to the free throw line. A.J. GRAVES: I think that's the nature of the NCAA tournament. You got to go, if you're going to go to the basket you need to put it in there. You can't expect calls. And I don't think we were expecting calls. We were just out there just trying to play. And that was kind of our strategy towards the end was to try and go to the hoop and if we got fouled, we got fouled. If we didn't, we were going to try and get the layup. And we had shooters spot up on the perimeter and Tennessee decided to stay tight a few times and that's why we kept driving it in there. But those just didn't go down and like Mike said, sometimes that happens and sometimes that's because of the other team as well. Q. For any of the players, you guys have been always been very humble, very respectful and really don't make very many statements about what you think you might do. But can you say now, can you, it seemed like there was that sort of a you know stated belief that you all had that you really, you thought you could go to the Final Four and win a national championship. Is that, did you have that feeling deep down that you could do that? MIKE GREEN: Definitely. Why wouldn't we? We played our hearts out. We play our style of basketball and it's been very effective. We came up short a couple times. Four times out of a possible 34 times. So there's no reason for us not to think that we're good enough to play against any team in this tournament. And we dropped one. DREW STREICHER: I think that we can play with anybody. I think we showed that all year. That's definitely our ultimate goal. We're all pretty disappointed we didn't reach that. That's been our ultimate goal for the whole season. So we had the mindset that we could do that and obviously we're disappointed. THE MODERATOR: Okay. You guys can head back to your locker room. Thank you, guys. Take questions for coach. Q. Bruce Pearl said that he thought it was both unfair and an unfortunate thing that two 30 win teams were facing each other in the second round. What were your feelings along those lines? COACH STEVENS: You know what, last week we just decided this is what's been given to us and we got to go out and play and compete. And we just heard the question about, did these guys believe that they could play with anybody or beat anybody in the country and the answer was yes. So we said whatever the bracket may be, we're going to go compete. And it just so happened that Tennessee was our second round opponent. I think Tennessee is an obviously, if they were ranked number one in the country in the RPI and number one in the country three weeks ago, that I think they're a Final Four caliber team. So I was proud of the way our guys competed and I don't really have any thoughts on the draw per se. Q. Could you talk about what Tennessee did differently against Pete Campbell as opposed to what South Alabama did in the first round? COACH STEVENS: I think that I was in here towards the end of Bruce's press conference and obviously they were switching ball screens to avoid rotating, so to avoid losing him more often. And I thought Mike did a great job on more than one occasion of just breaking the guy down off the top, a little action where we isolate Pete in the corner and Mike's got a decision to either take it to the rim or kick it out. And Mike made the right decision a lot tonight. That was without a ball screen too. So that was how Pete got some of his looks and then obviously you take some things away when you switch and as you get to playing the best teams in the country, they do a formidable job of being able to contain your guards, even with their bigs. It's very few, very select few that can do that. And Tennessee is one of them. Q. You talked yesterday about how important it would be to maintain your poise throughout the game. When you fell behind 13-2 how did you guys sort of hold it together? COACH STEVENS: We talked about it last year it was 22-9 at Madison Square Garden. You know, they are a tremendous team of runs. And you just have to weather some of that and then you have to just keep playing the game. This is a long, a long game. And I'll tell you this about this team, we haven't been out of a game in a long time. In fact, I don't know, I would have to think back to last year, maybe one was double figures. But this team's had a shot to win it at the end almost all the time. And all four times this year. You know, you think about what this group's accomplished in two years, it's absolutely incredible. And I'm proud to just be a small part of it. Q. It seemed in the first half that possible you weren't taking shots deep in the clock. It seemed like you were shooting earlier than we had seen you at least Friday anyway. And making a comeback do you think fatigue played a factor in the free throws at the end? COACH STEVENS: I think we were -- I'm not sure, but I think we were perfect from the line in the last six or eight attempts. I'm not sure about that. I think we were 8-14 at half time and then 10-14 in the second half. So I don't know that it played a factor in that, but it probably, I'm sure it played a small factor in the game as a whole and that's the way Tennessee plays and they do a great job forcing tempo and it makes it difficult. Q. You mentioned how Mike went to the goal so frequently and trying to draw the defense and so forth. Was he perhaps late in the game and during the overtime perhaps trying to take too much of the game upon his own shoulders and not passing off to people as he was going to the goal? COACH STEVENS: You know, you take what the game gives you. And they're not going to leave our shooters. Obviously Coach Pearl is familiar with our system and as Pete hits a couple in the first half they become even more consumed with him. And you got to get it in there and make plays. Mike did a great job of doing that. He missed a couple that he usually makes, but that's the way the game goes sometimes. Q. Did you see the replay? I know you're upset when on A.J.'s shot that was blocked -- COACH STEVENS: I was upset but I didn't see the replay. Q. You didn't see it? COACH STEVENS: No, I didn't see the replay. Q. You said you felt Tennessee was a Final Four caliber team. Did you feel like your team was a Final Four caliber team too? COACH STEVENS: You know what, I've never really gotten into -- I feel like we can play with anybody on any given night. I think the group last year proved that when they got beat by the national champion. I just think Tennessee, like a bunch of other teams, has a great shot to make it there. There's a lot of parity in college basketball and we're not really focused on -- and we have said this before, we haven't been focused on the end result all year. We have just been focused on the next game and, you know, we thought we could compete with Tennessee and I'm so proud of our effort. You think about the fact that we went to overtime with probably the number one or number five or whatever they are, one of the top eight teams in the country, easily top three or four teams in the country easily. And we shot 36 percent. THE MODERATOR: Okay. Thank you, coach. COACH STEVENS: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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