|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2009Calvin BrockMike DavisTrent MeachamBrett WeberINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA Illinois – 60 THE MODERATOR: We'll take an opening statement from Coach Weber. We'll then take questions just for the players and then we'll finish with questions for Coach Weber. COACH WEBER: I guess, first, as far as Chester goes, he sustained a hand injury on Wednesday in practice. Very sad for him. Obviously sad for our team. Our doctors and trainers, after meeting with the hand specialist, we felt the only way we could get him back next week was a minor surgery which he went through yesterday. He did come out fine from the surgery. He came with us on the trip. He's been with us. He even asked to play tonight. But obviously we weren't going to let him do that. We fully anticipate that he'll be back with us next week, wherever we are, and so that's it for that. As far as the game, I challenged them about expectations from the beginning of the season. I don't think anybody thought we would be second in the Big Ten, 24 wins. And I think tonight after Chester went down, it's human nature to think we're not going to play well. So I challenged them to step up and take a major step and be special. We needed people to be special. I think that's how it happened, some guys off the bench took the opportunity and made the most of it. Calvin's very good defense on Harris really frustrated him. Jeffrey Jordan came in and gave us good minutes. Dominique, Alex came in, made a couple plays. I think the bench took advantage of the opportunity and our second half, the defensive intensity, either they got tired or frustrated or both, we got on the run. Trent made great shots, Mike Tisdale, Mike Davis made the big basket when they were on the run. You knew they wouldn't quit. They knew this was it for them. I would hope -- they've had huge wins. Yesterday was important for them, and I would hope that Michigan is in the NCAA with seven other teams from the Big Ten. Q. How much did Chester's presence and positive attitude impact you guys to get ready to play this game tonight against Michigan? TRENT MEACHAM: I went to his apartment Wednesday night, and he was already talking about what do we need to do? These guys gotta step up. Everyone's got to step up. He's been a coach for us all season. And that's just continued. Q. Mike Davis, could you talk about that as well, just sort of the impact of not having Chester, a guy who's really been an anchor on this team and what that did to kind of get you pumped up? MIKE DAVIS: Before the game Chester came to my room, told me go out there and play hard. If you play hard, everything will take care of itself. That's what I did. He told me just play hard defense and your offense will take care of itself and don't worry about missing shots. That's what I did tonight. I played a good game and my teammates came through and we came out with a victory. Q. Mike, the crowd was really into this one. How much did it feel like it was at Assembly Hall tonight. MIKE DAVIS: Felt great. Felt like we were at home. Michigan didn't have as many fans as us. The one half of the whole side was all orange. That's big for Big Ten Tournament game to have a home court feeling and the crowd was great. They were loud the whole game. And we won the game. Q. Mike, the traffic you usually get was pretty much there tonight, but you got hit from the outside. Did you just get it going and made it easier to shoot from the outside too? MIKE DAVIS: Coach told me post up, there will be a little guard on you. Novak, he's about 6-5, and I just shot over the top of him all night. But my shot was falling like you said. My teammates did a good job finding me and my shots fell. Q. First half it was mostly Mike and Demetri and you got in there in the second half. Was there something at halftime that you guys talked about to get you guys open? TRENT MEACHAM: We said let's pick it up, defense and offense, I was able to hit a couple. Mike Tisdale got going, and I just think we stepped it up a little bit. Defense pushed the ball on offense, and we were able to make some shots, some plays. Q. Calvin, the first two times you played Michigan, how much did you guard Manny Harris in those two games and how much did you attack him and block him today? CALVIN BROCK: The two games I didn't guard him too much, got caught in transition a couple times. Coach and Chester told me to get into him, try to make him put the ball on the floor, not let him square me up and shoot 3s on me. That's what I tried to do, and I had great help in defense from my teammates. Q. You know Chester as well as anyone here, how is he handling this whole situation, how is he feeling about it? Did he remain upbeat or did he get down after the injury? CALVIN BROCK: He was positive about the situation. He was one of the loudest cheerleaders on the bench tonight. He makes everybody play hard and we feed off his energy. Q. Trent, did you guys kind of prove something to yourselves about being able to play without Chester tonight? TRENT MEACHAM: He's been a huge part of our team. But we got a lot of guys that can step up. Jeff came in and played great, defensive pressure. He can do a lot of things. Calvin stepped in in the starting lineup, was great all night. We have a lot of guys, all season it's been different people stepping up on different nights. Now with him out for this tournament, everyone else has just got to step up their games a little bit. Q. Trent, Calvin, as the seniors on the floor tonight, did you guys feel like you had to pick up a different role, a leadership role more than you usually had to take without Chester there? TRENT MEACHAM: I definitely think so. Because he's such a leader but he's still leading us from the bench. But on the floor just trying to be a little bit more vocal and bring that intensity that plays with and that passion, and hopefully be a leader out there on the court. We need that not only from myself and Calvin but everybody. Q. Calvin, talk about being the defensive stopper tonight. What's that role like for you? CALVIN BROCK: I mean, I think I played decent defense on Manny, but I'd like to thank my teammates because the help defense was there. He got by me a couple times and my teammates were there to stop him, so it was great defense by the whole team altogether. Q. Calvin, just talk about getting a win tonight after the two losses to kind of give yourselves a positive note as you go to the NCAA tournament, even regardless of what happens the rest of this tournament? CALVIN BROCK: I think it was a great confidence boost. Like you say, we lost the two previous games, we came out with a chip on our shoulder and we played hard. We did it the whole season, couldn't get two wins in a row. The two losses made us want to get a W tonight and hopefully continue. Q. Trent, can you talk about how strong you guys came out in the second half and, I guess, what changed? TRENT MEACHAM: We played I think okay in the first half. We were up 1 and Coach said when we went up to Michigan we were up 1 at halftime. They took it to us in the second half, it was reversed in Champaign. We wanted to step it up, got started on defense, got some steals, pressured them and took them out of their stuff and we were able to make some shots. We can just do that, keep that pressure on defense. That's what we've got to hang our hats on. Q. This is the eleventh time Illinois's made it to the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament. Last year nobody expected you to get there. What are your thoughts of the opportunity you have moving on to Saturday to play? CALVIN BROCK: I think it's a great opportunity. I mean, you get a chance to get more wins, to hopefully help us out with our NCAA tournament bid. But it's also a step closer to getting a Big Ten Tournament championship, which that's our goal right now. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Bruce, what is Chester's injury? Is it a broken bone? And what was the surgery? COACH WEBER: It's just a hand injury. And the doctor wanted -- he just felt that to keep it stable, they had to do the surgery and make sure it stayed in place. And he thought that was the best way to get him back. And the thing is with Chester, two years ago he tore his MCL in the Big Ten Tournament. We didn't tell anybody. He ended up playing with a torn MCL when our doctor said it's probably physically impossible to do it. He's torn his quad. Doctor said he actually played a game with a torn quad. You could actually stick your hand in the muscle in the groove. And he played, finally he told us about it. And he ended up -- they said it would be six to eight weeks. He played three weeks later. So if anybody can play next week, Chester can play, and we anticipate that happening. But right now this gives some other guys opportunities and they did a great job. I thought our defense, somebody asked about the second half. I think our defense picked up. We got shutouts. We really got transition. And the kids kept coming, huddled, they're tired, Coach. And we were able to beat them down the courts. Good kick aheads, Mike Davis ran and Calvin ran and Trent hit those couple back-to-backs and gave us the big lead and got the crowd into it. Q. Coach, you just mentioned transition. Did you anticipate that going into the game, that that would be there? And the follow-up to that is did you like what you saw? Did it make you nervous? COACH WEBER: No, I want to run -- I've been asking to run all year. A couple of our guys don't always do it. About the last three weeks we started drilling practice, we do 15-second shot clock. And to make you run, you have no choice but to run and we play little games, three-, four-minute games with 15-second shot clock to get some transition, get some easy baskets when we have struggled scoring because we walk it up, get in the half court set and don't make shots. We've got pretty good athletes. Mike Davis, Calvin, Demetri, that's one thing that Jeff did was push the basketball which put them on their heels. And Demetri talked to me. He said, Coach, their legs will be tired. I went through it last year. And it's hard. It's hard each game to play the next game without the extra day rest. So I think that we probably took advantage of it a little bit. Now we'll see if we can react tomorrow. Q. Same thing I asked Calvin. Just how important to get a win so that you're not going into NCAAs with three -- especially with Chester not there? COACH WEBER: You know, I gave him a goal way back at Christmastime at 24 wins. And we've had a good season. But we were a little bit short of the 24 wins. We had our chance last week. We didn't take care of it. It's kind of one of the goals we set, and I challenged them today. And that I did the Matto, our play-hard chart, I did the T-shirt with 24 plus 41 on the Matto. If get 41 on the Matto, usually we win games. We're playing hard enough and it will get us into 65. I said we've got to finish the equation, and tonight we finished the equation. Now I gotta get him to be a little greedy and see if we can keep going. Q. Bruce, the injury to Chester, is this optimism talking or reality that he's going to be ready? COACH WEBER: I think if it was any other kid I would say we probably have no chance at somebody playing. But I'm telling you, Chester asked us if he could do warm-ups and try to play today. And he's a little off of it. He's a little out of the box sometimes. And you guys have no idea what he's played through. And those are just two examples I gave you, because those were the most extreme. But he's played when no one else will play many, many times and he's practiced when many people wouldn't practice. If he can do it, he'll be out there. I don't have any doubt. But maybe this will help us with some other guys getting some minutes. And I've probably said it to our media many times, if I have one shortcoming probably not as confident with the bench, and now I have no choice. They rose up tonight and took advantage of the opportunity. Q. Early in the season most of Mike Davis's shots were face-up jumpers and run-outs. Now he's getting back to posting up, getting the ball down low and scoring more like a conventional big guy. Can you talk about his development as a player? COACH WEBER: He doesn't like the physical contact. He doesn't have the body yet. But the one thing we kept -- whether it was Iowa or Michigan, all week we've talked about getting in the post. Because they usually put a smaller guy or they switch. They switch on defense, and we actually put a couple little sets in to get it in there, and then Tisdale flashing to the high post which they did. Mike made a great high-low entry to him one time. I'm happy he's finding -- just don't have to hit those 17-footers, 15-footers. You can get other ways of scoring. He got run-outs today, a put-back, a face-up, the hooks. He's diversified his game a little bit and he hadn't played real well against Michigan the first two times. So double-double today and the one big shot when they had the run and that wasn't an easy one. That was huge for us to kind of quiet their run and allow us to finish off the game. Q. Is there a fracture in the hand? COACH WEBER: It's a hand injury, that's all I'm going to say about it. That's Chester's wishes and we're just going to move forward from there and hope we can get it back. He's a tough critter, and I hope he's in there somehow. It's his senior year. If he can get in there, he would. He wanted to start tonight and me call timeout just to mess with some people. But I didn't want to take a chance. Q. Bruce, do you think winning tonight like you did, does that signify to the NCAA committee to maintain your seed? COACH WEBER: It was one of our challenges and goals tonight. I didn't bring it up too much to the players, but mentally I'm thinking this is a chance. We can show, hey, Michigan's a good team. They've beaten Duke. They've beaten UCLA. They've beaten some pretty good folks. If we can do it on a neutral court without -- I think people would think he's our MVP or the heart of our team. I think it shows a lot for our kids. And then we have another challenge tomorrow. Get to hang around a little bit and play another game and see how we keep making progress. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|