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NCAA MEN'S REGIONALS SEMIFINALS & FINALS: HOUSTONMarch 28, 2008Tom IzzoDrew NeitzelGoran SutonTravis WaltonHOUSTON, TEXAS COACH IZZO: Well, it's hard to figure out how you feel after a damn good year, and we just didn't have a very good first half, and that's probably one of the understatements for the year. I think you have to give a lot of credit to Memphis. I listened to John and I feel bad for him that he has to defend his team; as I said all along, all of us have warts, all of us have things that we're good at and things that we are not good at. I said during the week, I'd take his 35 wins and be a bad free throw shooting team. And sure enough, yeah, I kept dragging that game on and fouling them. John is a good friend of mine, figured might as well stick it in the media's ear and let them make 75 percent tonight, and just fouled him and maybe he wouldn't have to keep defending maybe the one average part of their game, because they defended us pretty well. They rebounded very well, nobody has done that to us all year. Nobody scored that many points. I think the only thing I will say to our credit at halftime, as you can imagine, it was very difficult, and I have a lot of respect that my players hung in there and cut down to 14. And even though you and I know that Memphis was not playing the same brand of ball then, it wasn't easy to do and I credit these guys, and I'd like to say that you know, Drew and the two seniors, had a phenomenal career, that unfortunately ended too short. But the better team won, they played well, and hopefully we'll learn from this and move on. Q. Did they do anything different defensively than you've seen all year? DREW NEITZEL: No. They did a great job on me. Didn't get a lot of open looks. You know, they did a good job. They have got Taggart was stepping up pretty hard sometimes. I got a few slips to Goran, he got some easy buckets in there. Anderson did a good job on me and made things tough. Q. Was it hard to believe what happened in that first half even while it was going on, just how well they were playing? TRAVIS WALTON: They started out the game, you know, making every shot and playing great defense, and, you know, we didn't compete in the first half. With that type of team, if you don't come out and compete, those things happen. And they was up by 30 points on us in the second half and I thought we did a better job of competing. And like Coach said, they were playing us well and we cut the lead down but it was the first half that cost us the game, or pretty much the first five minutes. We didn't stick to the stuff we had planned doing at the beginning of the game, and it hurt us. Q. Can you talk about what you're going through now, knowing that this is your last game? DREW NEITZEL: I don't know, I've got a lot of things going through my head. You know, my career is over as far as a college basketball player. You know, it's tough, something that you never want to face, but you've got to sometime. You know, going to try to spend some time with my teammates and reflect, talk about all the good times. You know, I just appreciated everything they have done for me, and stuck with me through the good, the bad, and I had a lot of great memories in my career. That's all I'm really worried about right now. Q. When you watch a team from the outside, when you're on the bench at home, and you see possession after possession, teams going back and forth, but you're involved in this game tonight, what goes through your mind as far as looking for the next shot, or are you looking for the next stop? TRAVIS WALTON: You know, in this game, just looking for the next stop. They came at us fast, and we talked about not turning the ball over, and we knew if we got into a fast break with them, it wouldn't be a good sight. We didn't compete like we should have in the first half but give credit to Memphis. They did a great job of knocking shots down, beating us up on the boards, they out-touched us tonight, so you've got to give all the credit to Memphis for playing a great game against us in the first half. But we did compete better the second half, but you know, with that type of team, if you don't come out strong in the first half, it's going to be very, very hard to come back and to make it a game. Q. I know this stings really bad right now, but once you get over the Sting in a day or two, when you look back on your four years, how will you remember this and what are you going to look at? DREW NEITZEL: It's been a great ride. You know, I'm so thankful, so blessed for the opportunities that I've had to wear this uniform for four years, and like I say, you never want it to end, but I mean, it has to sometime, and like I said, it's a great ride. I've learned a lot from Coach Izzo and my teammates over the years, played with some great players. You know, it's been great. Like I said, I'm blessed. Q. Goran, I know it's not even a bittersweet situation for you, but what can you take out of this game and start looking forward from here? GORAN SUTON: Well, it's been a great year, the fact that we won 20 games, but we didn't won a championship and that hurts. But we've got to take the experience from this game. Drew is the only guy to end his career in this game. We're just learning and hoping to be back here next year and going further in the tournament. Q. Do you ever rebound getting out-rebounded that badly in the half, or being that far behind in the half? COACH IZZO: No, I don't, I really don't. I think Travis said it best. I don't know why we looked like -- again, I don't want to take nothing away from Memphis. I think enough people have tried to take enough away from them. But I'm not sure -- I heard Mike Krzyzewski say, "That wasn't my guys." It started with the first backdoor play. We had kind of really talked about them doing that right off the bat, and they did it. And we just seemed to be walking in quicksand early. And I think, you know, it's almost like a divorce; I'm sure both par ties were either at fault or aided to it. They played well and we played bad and it was an ugly combination. I think at the first time-out, we were getting out-rebounded 6-0. We just weren't very sharp early. I think some of it is the only player that has played in this type of game before, really, was Drew. None of our other guys have, and I think it showed. I was disappointed in that, but the better team won. Q. The time-out, not so much inspiration or instructions, but was there any rotations or whatever -- from the outside, it was possession, position, and you all knocked down a shot, they knocked down a shot, you all get a rebound and they get a rebound. COACH IZZO: Well, you know, it kind of just got out of hand so quickly. We called a time-out, and then there were a bunch of time-outs. Seemed like there were more media time-outs. I really felt like if we could keep it close -- you know, I almost hate to admit, that you had to have a game plan to follow, and you did, and I thought if we could keep it close and they had another explosion, and I was trying to save my time-outs for the second half, there's no way they would keep shooting. Out of the last two weeks, we had one team shooting 60-something percent that went 18-for-19 from the line, and give them credit, I don't know what they ended up shooting, 75 percent. You know, they just made free throw after free throw, and really they didn't miss any until the end. You have to give them credit on that. Travis was right, it was the first five or six minutes. Then it got worse that way, but the tempo and the game was kind of started right then. Q. You told us last week in Denver, you don't like to think about the seniors departing until the time comes. The time has come. Can you talk about Drew Neitzel for me, please? COACH IZZO: I can just say, I think it's hard for him to answer. It's a tough time to answer questions like that. I said all along, he's been the All-American boy. He's an academic All-American. There's only been four in the history of our basketball program. You know, he's overcame a lot. It was his dream to play at this level. You hate to see a guy not have one of his best games in the last game, but he should be remembered more of what he gave on the court, off the court, into the community; as you know, he did so many things in our community. It's funny over his career, he's probably won over a hundred games, been to the Final Four and started as a freshman; he's been to the Sweet 16, two other NCAA Tournaments and those a whole boatful for most people. Yet right now, we are looking at it like it wasn't great. In a couple of weeks, we'll look at it and say, wow, it was pretty special. Hard to comment on it now, but if you call me in a week, I'll probably give you a better answer. Q. Could you talk about the two good performances you really got from Allen and Suton tonight? COACH IZZO: Well, Suton was pretty good all game long. We felt like we could have gone to him even more. We didn't do a very good job of that. We did turn the ball over a little too much the first half. And Chris Allen started making some shots and even passed up some 3s, I don't know why, but I thought he showed his freshman age early in the game and I thought he really settled down after halftime and really competed on both ends of the court. There were times we had those three freshmen in there and Suton, so a sophomore and a junior, and that's a lot of our makeup for next year. I'm sure when I watch the film, I'll find a lot of good things in that, but I just keep reverting back to that first half that was so, so disappointing for us, and yet so good for them, that it's hard to maybe feel good about anything in the future, at least for a day or two, and then we'll get back on track for next year. Q. You've seen a lot of very good freshmen guards; where is Derrick Rose in that mix? COACH IZZO: Wow, after that performance tonight, he's got both -- Goran is very good in our league, but this kid has probably better point guard skills. He's got the size. He's got the linebacker body. He's got a mentality where he kind of seeks contact, doesn't avoid it. He's a great athlete. And tonight he shot it better than maybe he's even been shooting it. I'd put him up there as high as I could put him up there, plus he seems to carry himself pretty well. He's not talking anything, he's just doing his job. So I really had an appreciation for both him and Douglas-Roberts tonight. You know, this is going to be a hard team to beat in a lot of ways, and yet they are going to play a good team because we have already played Texas, so should be an incredible game. Q. Could you comment quickly on next year's team? COACH IZZO: Well, I think it's very positive since all three of those freshmen are highly-ranked players. The best thing that will happen is our freshmen will become sophomores and that's usually how they improve. The guys will improve. Suton and Morgan have to become more and more consistent and I think that will be the big key is whether they work in the off-season to become consistent. Being good wins you games. Being consistent wins you championships. I'm not real high on winning games right now, so for us to take the next step, I think we have to get that consistency. I know the 3 guys we've got coming in, especially Dahlman is an extremely competitive kid. It's going to make it a little harder for some of these guys where they will have to battle for their position, or there will be another freshman playing in front of them. Q. You have seen both Texas and Memphis; could you give us a feel on how you think that game goes Sunday? COACH IZZO: You know, we played Texas very early. They were missing the Johnson kid, and we played very well. I'm not sure they played us well, but I love Augstin. Those guards are really good and they say you have to win with guards in the tournament, and Memphis's guards are real good, too. Memphis has got some size on them. But those two kids are athletic that Texas has and Johnson, and who is the other kid, strong, tough, 6-7, James, and he's a very, very competitive kid. I think it will be a great game, and yet it will be interesting to see, was it our poor defense; was it Memphis shot so well; they have not been shooting the ball to that degree early. They got some fast-break buckets but the rebounding is what really bothered me. We haven't given up that kind of rebounding, and if they can do that, they are going to be a hard team to beat, because they are the longest team we have played, and have great length. They are very well coached, he doesn't just role the ball out. He does a hell of a job, he really does, and they are very solid defensively. I didn't think, you know, I thought we had some looks that we missed, but I also think that their length -- I thought Drew was open, but there was an arm. It was like my son with those rubber, you know, kind of rolled his arm out. I thought that was -- that bothered us some, and I'm sure it will bother, because Texas's guards are even smaller than ours. Should be a hell of a game. Should be a great sight. End of FastScripts |
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