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NCAA MEN'S REGIONALS SEMIFINALS & FINALS: DETROITMarch 28, 2008Brian ButchMichael FlowersBo RyanDETROIT, MICHIGAN THE MODERATOR: Coach Ryan, we'd like to have you give an opening statement, then the student-athletes will be available for questions. COACH RYAN: I'd just like to congratulate Davidson on a great, especially the second half, did some really good things, hit some tough shots. Unfortunately for our guys, our last game is played without one of the key parts. I really wish Trevon had been healthy. It would have been a better game. I don't know who would have been on the left-hand side at the end. But I feel unfortunate for the seniors that, again, you know, it stings. We had a great year. Big-10 championship. All those things are great. And I'm so proud of 'em. But, you know, you always like 40 more minutes. We're not going to get it. We're not going to get it on the court. We can get it somewhere else, but just not going to get it on the court. Q. Michael, could you talk about trying to two-guard Stephen Curry. MICHAEL FLOWERS: It's not so much guarding him. It's, you know, making sure you're in position to get through those screens. I think they did a good job of running him off of double screens, sometimes even triple screens. They did a good job in the second half of making sure he's -- they had the ball, he's coming off at least a couple screens. He doesn't need that much time to catch the ball and release it. You know, that's what their game plan was and they executed pretty well. Q. Brian and Michael, when did you feel the shift in the second half? Was there a significant turn of events you can point to that the game started to turn the other way? BRIAN BUTCH: To be honest, not really. We've come back from big deficits all year long. So for us, me personally, I felt like we were always in it. I felt like we just needed to make some plays, and we didn't make any plays. They kept on making plays. Might have been a progression. At one point, I didn't say, Oh, we're out of this game. I don't think anybody in that locker room thought that either 'cause we've made comebacks. The to win 30 times in a season, you've got to find different ways to win. We've found ways to come back, found ways to win. But tonight we just didn't make enough plays. Q. Brian, obviously towards the stretch you had to start forcing the three action because you were down. Seemed like you were pretty comfortable shooting the three-pointer. Talk about the so-called depth perception problem, you seemed to be okay with it. BRIAN BUTCH: Yeah, that wasn't a problem. They did an excellent job of not letting our guards penetrate on the kick out. In the first half, our guards penetrated, they found open guys, we had good looks. We were shooting the ball fine then. Just because we didn't hit it in the second half doesn't mean the depth perception played any factor. It's a basketball court. By no means was that any reason why we didn't perform in the second half. I think that was probably one of our worst halves of basketball. We picked a bad time to play it. That's not taking anything away from Davidson. They forced us to play that bad. So they did a great job. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, student-athletes. We'll continue with questions for Coach Ryan. Q. What are your thoughts right now? COACH RYAN: Just, again, about the guys, the last game, the seniors, what they've been through, how well they've played, what they've answered, the way we've shot free throws at the end of games. Last three, four minutes of games, we were shooting over 80%. I just kept thinking, Look, we get a couple of those threes. We didn't take that many threes in the second half. I heard a comment when I was sitting back there about shooting threes. How many threes did we shoot? What does it say on the stat sheet? Q. Six. COACH RYAN: That's what I thought. Does that sound like a lot of threes? We got to the free-throw line. We played Wisconsin basketball on the offensive end as far as getting to the free-throw line, trying to get some fouls on their guys, moving the ball around. We just couldn't put it in the hole. We had a stretch of three or four of those threes where we were wide open, we could cut it down to 9, 10, somewhere in there. Then you start looking at possibly going after some foul shooters, the weaker guys. As it stayed 14, 16, 18, you don't all of a sudden just go out and whack away, because that's not going to bring you back. It just doesn't work that way. What am I thinking? I'm thinking of all the things that happened in a stretch there where they made some tough shots. We knew Curry could score 30-some points and we could still win. And between the two of them, as far as Richards and Curry, they could get 40 to 50 points, and we'd still have a chance to win if we hit some shots. But if the other guys are going to go five for five, two for two. I mean, give those guys credit. They came up with huge shots even in the first half to keep it right there at even on the two threes that - what's his number? Starts with a B. Bryant Barr. Two huge shots for them. You know, Michael did a pretty good job of chasing Curry and trying to force some things. And Curry had to make the shots. He made some tough shots. But so did some of the other guys. I thought they got a lot of contributions when they needed them. And that's how you get to keep playing in the NCAA tournament. You have to have those things occur. If the other team's struggling a little bit, you get somebody that's hot, they play on. What I'm thinking is, if somebody for us hits a few shots, I just thought that Hughes coming off the game he played against Kansas State, and the way he practiced, the way he's been playing, you know, you can say what you want against Texas with him not being on the floor, that's in December, you know, our guys will never say it, but, you know, it wouldn't have been a bad thing to have a penetrator, a guy that can take care of it. And, unfortunately for him, he wasn't able to contribute. I tried him in the second half a little bit. He just couldn't go. So I just feel a lot of pride in what this team has accomplished and the way our fans have supported us and the school. That's been great. But, you know, we're a vulnerable team. We showed that earlier in the year. Playing from behind is very -- I'm always positive about playing from behind, but there's certain teams you can play from behind against better. You know, these guys didn't foul three-point shooters, and that's how we got into our last game that we were behind. These guys were to the task. With Richards taking care of the ball the way he was, I mean, we said he was the best point guard that we'll face, and he was. It's not always about the points, it's about what he delivers, and he delivers. He can be my mailman. Q. When did Trevon hurt himself? What did he actually hurt? COACH RYAN: Well, we don't discuss injuries. But it was about seven, eight minutes I think into the first half. Exactly how I'm not sure. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. End of FastScripts |
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