|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2009Talor BattleJamelle CornleyEd DeChellisINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA Purdue – 79 THE MODERATOR: Coach, if you'd start us off with an opening statement. COACH DECHELLIS: I just thought Purdue played very, very well tonight. They shot the ball extremely well from 3, and, you know, they just had it going offensively. We just didn't have any answers for them defensively, and I thought they just played well. I don't know if we just -- we didn't play bad. I just thought they played really, really well. So credit to them. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Talor or Jamelle. Q. You guys played obviously last night and they came in fresh. How much of a challenge did that present to your guys and how much of an advantage was it for them coming in fresh? JAMELLE CORNLEY: To be completely honest, we thought we had the advantage with shooting in the arena last night, coming off of a win. We understood they had lost three out of their last four conference games. So we really thought we had the advantage. We're a momentum team. So regardless if we played last night or not we really thought we could come out and put on a great showing tonight. Q. Jamelle, talk about whether or not you believe that you guys have enough in your resume to make the tournament? JAMELLE CORNLEY: We were just outside talking about it. And it's a situation where it is absolutely out of our hands. And that's the bad part from a player's standpoint, is that we want something else. We wish there was something else that we can do. But honestly I think we do. I think that everybody looks at the strength of schedule issue and, again, that's out of our control. But we got a great record against the Top 50. And we just hope that that's enough. I think we've had a fairly successful year, a pretty good year, and we'll see come Sunday. Q. Talor, how tough is it when they're playing the type of defense that they do for the whole game, pressing, trapping, how demoralizing is that? TALOR BATTLE: It was just tiring. I feel like really playing -- I played 40 minutes but really like 80 because they pressured me full court and then I have to turn around and guard at the same time. They do a great job at that, just wearing you down and it's hard to go 40 minutes trying to bring the ball up, and that slow pace, that's tough because they try to speed you up. Credit to them. They do a great job at that. Q. Jamelle, what was going through your mind in the last -- in the middle of the second half? You were pacing back and forth like a lion. I was back there talking to some of these guys and they really admire your fight. What was going through your head, if you can describe it? JAMELLE CORNLEY: As a senior you want to leave everything out on the court. And this was my last game here in the Big Ten Tournament. And I just want to go out with respect. I wanted to make it respectable, and I wanted to leave everything I had out on the court and I expect the same thing out of my teammates. But I think they understand -- I think they understand why I do the things I do and why I try to leave everything on the court. I hope once they become seniors they'll understand why you have to leave everything out on the court. But that's just the way you should play the game because you only have 40 minutes. You're not guaranteed to play all 40 minutes. So while you're out there you might as well play as hard as you can. Q. Talor, you talked about their defensive pressure obviously. You still put up 65 points against a very good team. Were you satisfied with your offensive output or do you think you could have done more defensively maybe to shut them down? TALOR BATTLE: Offensively, we could have executed a little better. But we scored -- like you said, we scored 65 points. But, I mean, defensively, you know, we definitely -- Coach mentioned they played a really good game. But we could have done a little more. We gave them a lot of open shots. They did hit some tough ones, but still the open ones, transition baskets we gave up. We could have did a better job at that. But Coach was saying in the locker room, 35 points at the half, you think we'll be right there with them. But they got 51, that's the most we gave up all season and the most they scored. So we did a poor job at that. Q. Talor, they have five days' rest, you guys have 26 hours. What do your legs feel like and what do you think their legs felt like? TALOR BATTLE: Man, I'm young. My legs felt good going into the game. I was excited. I mean, there's no excuse. The fatigue thing, there's no excuse. You can ask all the guys. We were ready to play. They just came out. They had a lot of fans behind them and they just shot the ball great. Credit to them. Not taking anything away from Purdue. They played a heck of a game. Q. Either of you guys, will you be watching what's going on around the country for the next 24, 48 hours? TALOR BATTLE: I won't. JAMELLE CORNLEY: I'll be completely honest, I probably won't. I'll make myself sick if I do something like that. But I'm going try my hardest to keep an open mind and try to be as optimistic as much as possible. And it's in someone else's hands now, and we'll see what happens. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Obviously those guys said that they thought they had an advantage coming into this game. What did you think as far as the rest issue was concerned? COACH DECHELLIS: I thought we talked about -- we tried to sell our guys on the advantage that we shot, we played in here, we had momentum. I thought that was all positive. I give Purdue credit. They just played well. They just shot the heck out of the ball. I think Keaton Grant didn't miss a 3 the first half. They had it going offensively from the perimeter. Then we pushed out and they got the ball inside. I think they had 20 points in the paint in the first half. I think their offense -- defensively we were trying to guard. Were we a step slow? Yeah, we were a step slow on some stuff. But I'm going to give the credit to them. Q. Have you ever seen Jamelle like that in the second half, like he was? He looked like he was possessed, like he wanted to start a street fight or something. COACH DECHELLIS: I've seen him in practice that way. We try to get him out at the 12-minute mark just to give him a quick blow. But he didn't want to come out. We thought we could give him a quick blow to make a run at the last 12 minutes. But he's a competitive kid and he has a heart of a lion. I love him dearly. He wanted to leave it all out there on the floor and I think he did, he just willed some of the balls into the basket. And I thought he played well and a lot of heart and toughness. Q. First of all, they jumped out with a big lead. Obviously their shooting got them out there. What were you thinking about in terms of trying to get caught up? COACH DECHELLIS: What were we thinking to do to get caught up? We didn't just guard them. I thought we didn't score early. And that put us in a little bit of a bind. But at the defensive end we were trying to guard them and we just didn't do a very good job guarding them. And they just made some open 3s and some tough shots, some hands in the face. But we had no answers for that. Q. And your thoughts about your team's opportunity to be in the NCAA? COACH DECHELLIS: Well, I think we have a great opportunity to be in the tournament. I think we've got 22 wins. We're 10-8 in the league. Got a lot of wins versus the top 50 RPI teams. We have some wins versus the Top 25. I think we're one of the best 65 teams now. We'll wait to see what happens on Sunday night. Q. When you're down by 20 plus, is it difficult to keep this team sort of motivated, to keep playing through it? COACH DECHELLIS: I don't know if it's motivation. I think it's pride. It's your character. It's your toughness. It's all the things that we talk about in athletics. It's easy to go the other way, but they haven't done that all year. And I told them to play hard and play the way we wanted to play, and the kids did that. And that's what all this stuff is supposed to teach people, how to pick themselves up off the ground when things aren't going well, continue to fight, continue to work hard. And that's what this team has done all year. They've been resilient all year. They've had big comebacks, made big plays to win games, and I wouldn't expect anything less out of them. Q. Why didn't you play the freshmen earlier being down so much with their 3-point shooting? COACH DECHELLIS: The freshmen earlier, because we felt like with the guys we could go with in terms of defense. And it just didn't work. Q. What do you tell your guys in the next 48 hours to do, basically, with everything outside of their control? COACH DECHELLIS: Well, I talk to the guys after the game about all the positive things that we've accomplished this year. We were 10-8 in the league, second time in the school's history we've had a winning record in the Big Ten. We have 21 regular-season wins. The most in the school's regular season history. We had wins at East Lansing, wins at Champaign. We had a lot of great things happen this year to this team. And those were all the positives I pointed out to this team. What happens over the next 48 hours, we can't control it now. I think we've made our case. We've won big games. We've beaten good people. And now the chips have to fall where they fall. Q. Coach, this was the first time you played Purdue with Hummel. Are they just so much better with him in the lineup? Is it almost night and day? COACH DECHELLIS: I don't know if it's night and day. I think he adds a dimension, perimeter jump shooting, that's important for them. And I thought you look at our bench points. Our bench, they really outscored us at the bench. It was 24 to 5 I think. And Keaton Grant was the guy who hurt us tonight. Robbie Hummel is a good player and I understand where you're coming from, but I thought their bench was really key for them tonight. Especially Keaton Grant coming off and knocking down all the shots that he did and kind of give him the cushion that they needed to play a little loose and a little free. But Rob's a great player. And he certainly adds a different dimension in terms of guarding him and a guy who can knock down shots from the perimeter, and has very good pass-through as well. 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
|