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NIT POSTSEASONApril 3, 2008Etienne BrowerGary ForbesTravis FordDante MilliganNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK COACH TRAVIS FORD: Very proud of these guys. It's been a very fun year, and a great year, and you know, tonight's game, we played well. I thought Ohio State played great. To be honest with you, it's one of the best games I've seen them play. They are a great basketball team, great players, great coach. I thought it took one of their best efforts to beat us. They shot the ball tremendously from the 3 point line, they made plays, they withstood some of the pressure that we caused on both ends of the court which a lot of the teams have been able to do so that's a credit to Ohio State. I'm just disappointed that there's no practice tomorrow. I'm just disappointed I can't coach these guys tomorrow. That's the thing that's hit me right now because I have just really, really enjoyed coaching this team, and it's been a lot of fun. You know, it's no coincidence, when you have fun and you have good kids, that success follows. And that is what's happened to this UMASS basketball team this year. We have great kids who love each other, who work hard every day, who have embraced each other, embraced the system and they have had fun playing the game. You know, I don't think there's any question, I don't think anybody would say they probably achieved a lot more than anybody thought when we started back in October, no question. I can't be as proud of a team as I am of these guys. Q. Gary, you said you wanted to leave UMASS better than you found it; do you feel like; have you accomplished that? GARY FORBES: Yeah, I think so. Definitely would have liked it to be better, to be the first team to win a championship. But you can see by the fan support that came out, we made a difference since I've been here. A lot of fans have came out, supported us, and this has been a great roll. Q. What was the feeling at 68-68 and what did they do to counteract that? ETIENNE BROWER: A lot of times the score was pretty close, there's so many times that we don't even look at the clocks, Coach will bring us into the huddle. Doesn't matter how much time is left or what the score is, we call it "blacking out" where you just go in there and try to play as hard as you can for as long as you can sustain it and sometimes we don't remember what's going on. We just played as hard as we can, you'll be just breathing heavy, you don't know what score it is. We didn't even know if we were up or down, we were just giving it all we had I think. At that point it was just they scored a couple baskets and a couple plays where we mistimed it or whatever it was, but they are a solid team. Q. Were you impressed with the way they were able to not wear down and continue scoring? COACH TRAVIS FORD: Yeah, absolutely. You've got to give Ohio State credit. I thought a couple times we had them. I thought a couple times our press, our style of play was going to kick in. But I thought we gave up a few too many easy layups here and there that really allowed them to probably rest for a second to score easily; whereas, we've been doing a good job when we've come back to making teams take tough shots. Obviously when you take jumpshots late in the game against us, usually other teams legs are very tired and causes them to miss but they were getting a lot of layups and things like that that allowed them to stay in the when we were making our run. They played well. I thought tournament was going to go 3 for 3 from the 3 point line, that was not something I had planned before we played the game. Give them credit. That's how you win championships. They played well. We played well. Both teams played hard, and you know, you do have to give them credit. They had a little bit left in their tank. Q. Dante, you've been here longer than the other two seniors; as disappointing as this is, has the UMASS experience been what you hoped it would be? DANTE MILLIGAN: The UMASS experience has been great. I can't say enough about what Coach Ford has done for me personally and also everybody else here at the program. I definitely believe that we are leaving the program in better shape than it was, and we can only just hope the best for the future. Q. You talked a lot about it, but it doesn't matter if shots aren't falling and things, but in the second half, they were falling so well for you guys for a while; did it feel like a couple stretches where if only one of the 3 pointers would fall? COACH TRAVIS FORD: You feel that way when we've been missing before; you hope they go in. But I never thought for once it was going to determine the game or not. You know, we made enough 3s to win the basketball game. We just gave up too many 3s. We just gave up way too many 3s and that's something that we have been doing a good job of is making 3s, but not allowing our opponents to make 3s. And again, we just gave up too many layups late to really allow our style, our fatigue -- usually fatigue sets into play but we gave up too many layups, their size. Their size I thought bothered us in the last ten minutes of the game. But our guys played hard. Again, Ohio State is a great program, and I thought they played one heck of a game, they did. I've watched in 24 hours, I've probably watched 10, 12 games that they have played. I've not seen them shoot the ball quite like that, and that's giving them credit, because you know, where we have been usually the team to score 56 points in the second half or 50 or 60 points in the second half; they are the team that came out and, you know, I don't think there's question that they probably talked about UMASS usually fatigues other teams and don't let it fatigue us and let's get the ball down the court. They did a good job of it, very good. Q. Did Dante's foul trouble hurt? COACH TRAVIS FORD: I don't know how much. Dante was playing good basketball, I know that. It really could have helped having Dante in there the way he was playing but I thought our other guys did a terrific job. I thought Gaffney with the circumstances of his injury, he gave us some good minutes and Bonner played well. I don't think it was the reason why they came back. You know, I do think it would have helped if Dante could have played a few more minutes. End of FastScripts |
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