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NIT POSTSEASON

April 1, 2008

Andy Kennedy

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

COACH ANDY KENNEDY: I think I just experienced a coach's worst nightmare, you come into the big stage and you start the game the way we did. I was proud that our guys continued to fight and tried to get back in the game the second half. But the whole way it was obviously insurmountable.

Q. You said yesterday you don't play physical and if you get out-rebounded you won't be in New York long; true?
COACH ANDY KENNEDY: I know there was a big emphasis on that yesterday and the days preceding the game, who was going to be more physical and I think they answered that question early. We missed a lot of shots early at point-blank range to, missed eight field goals in the first half, we were out of our rhythm and a step slow and for whatever reason, we dug such a hole that it was very, very difficult to come out of.

Q. What did you tell them during halftime to basically turn it around?
COACH ANDY KENNEDY: I didn't speak to them. I mean, we're six months into this. I think we all realize what the deal is. If we wanted to keep playing, I thought we were going to have to play a near perfect half. We talked about that. We just came out and were much more aggressive.
We came out early, we were just so tentative and it could have been the fact that we were missing easy shots, we seemed to be a step slow.
As I said in my coaching, it was a coach's nightmare, everything that went wrong could go wrong and Ohio State is a quality basketball team and took advantage of it as good teams usually do.

Q. Just talk about the physical front line and their athleticism.
COACH ANDY KENNEDY: I think their size bothered us. But size has bothered our front line all year, our inability to score over size has been an issue. And if we don't put our bodies on their bodies and negate some of that length at the rim, you know, these have been issues that have bothered us in the past, and again, I thought Ohio State was much more aggressive at the rim. Obviously we knew Koufos was a very, very skilled player and could hurt you in a number of ways and he did just that.
They didn't really surprise us with a lot of the things they did. I think Jamar Butler is their engine and every time they needed to make a play, it went through him and he responded and that's what you hope your seniors would do for you and that's exactly what he did.
For us to score 20 points in a half is so unlike us and a 24-point mountain is a very hard one to climb.

Q. Looked like y'all struggled with the pressing the first half; what was going on there?
COACH ANDY KENNEDY: Just being tentative, I'm afraid. We had some uncharacteristic ball-handling mistakes. Again, for people that haven't seen us play, I'm sure they are wondering how we got here, but typically we are pretty good rebounders, and get out-rebounded by 13, and we typically don't turn it over, and we turned it over 21 times and we can usually score more efficiently than we did from the foul line and from the floor, and as a result of that, we couldn't overturn the deficit.

Q. Was part of that due to loss of composure on the stage?
COACH ANDY KENNEDY: I'm afraid the situation may have overwhelmed us a little bit. I don't really have an explanation for that, why that would happen, other than obviously I know our kids wanted to play well and I know they wanted to perform well. We have won six of our last seven coming in and the only loss was the buzzer-beater at the Georgia Dome, and we were playing pretty good basketball and just going into a hostile environment.
This was a neutral site setting and sometimes kids can get caught up in the magnitude of New York and Madison Square Garden and it was something that was new to us, and we didn't handle it very well.

Q. Just talk about the season and how it wrapped up. Do you think this team reached their potential?
COACH ANDY KENNEDY: I don't know. It's hard for me right now with the emotions and the questions as to what just transpired to really put things -- to be objective about our season. But I do want to say, you know, we certainly raised the standard early in the season to go from nowhere to being 15th in the country and to get off to a 13-0 start and at one time be sitting 15-1; we certainly had a poor month of February and we dug a tremendous hole and I was proud our guys continued to fight. They continued to fight tonight. We just didn't make enough plays early in the game to give ourselves a chance.
I did think that this team had an opportunity to get to postseason play. Our goal, obviously, like every team's was to get to the NCAA tournament. But I was proud once the fact that we saw once our future was the NIT, we embraced that and played it as long as we could.

Q. With that slow start, was there ever a feeling of, oh, no, here we go again? This is something that's happened multiple times. Is there a reason for it?
COACH ANDY KENNEDY: If there was one guy; if it was poor perimeter shooting -- it was everything. Honestly it was a coach's worst nightmare when you come in -- and we talked about this yesterday at the end of the day, you want your kids to come out and get off to a good start and relax and play the game. Don't get caught up in the magnitude of the game.
And I'm afraid the way we started, it really, you know, one thing went to another; whether it be the turnovers, and it was very untypical for us to get destroyed on the glass when they were getting second, third chances. Even when we were getting stops, we couldn't get the ball. Obviously the second half we played where we made some shots we were able to get a little more offensive rhythm but the first half we had no rhythm and a lot of that can be attributed to Ohio State and the zone that they played. And a lot of it was we didn't take advantage of our opportunities.

Q. How much of it was the wing play of Turner and Lighty?
COACH ANDY KENNEDY: I thought they were both exceptional. I thought their whole team was exceptional. I think they really played well. They certainly took the challenge. They had 20 offensive rebounds. I don't think that that's occurred to us all year, maybe they were quicker to balls, and when they needed to make plays, they stepped up as a team and made plays. It wasn't just one guy.

Q. What do you say to your seniors, going out with a game like this?
COACH ANDY KENNEDY: It's hard. We'll meet again obviously before we depart. It's hard. I told them we appreciate what they have done, this group, the seniors in this room, those kids have been a part of 45 wins over two years, and again, that expectation was very, very low for both groups and they certainly exceeded that expectation. For that, I'm proud. They set a foundation and have given these young guys an opportunity to experience some things that hopefully will bode well for the future of our program.

End of FastScripts

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