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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 14, 2009Tom IzzoGoran SutonTravis WaltonINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA Ohio State – 82 THE MODERATOR: We'll have Coach Izzo make an opening comment. We'll do questions for players and finish with questions for Coach. COACH IZZO: I'm trying to decide am I more disappointed with us or more impressed with the way they shot the ball, but I just didn't think we played our -- our defense wasn't as good and that's been pretty good. And our offense, we thought early we had some good shots and we didn't make them. And we missed a lot of free throws, missed a lot of shots. They made a lot of shots. Better team won today. So disappointing, because I don't think we gave it our best shot. But at the same time we looked a little tired out there. And we're going to go home and regroup and see if we can make another run. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the players. Q. Travis, can you just talk about what they did to your defense today and why you guys seemed to have so much trouble, giving up open shots? TRAVIS WALTON: First off, they did a great job executing. They made shots pretty much. They came off, cut us hard. And our coaches, like always, give us a great scouting report how to guard them and what we should do, what our business should do and what our guards should do. Today it was on the players. We didn't execute the game plan out. Coach said you've got to give credit to them because if you are open you've got to make that shot. We had some open looks and we didn't make ours and they made theirs. So they played the full 40 minutes. Even when we made our run in the first half and the second half, they made shots, players made free throws also for them. So it was a good game for them. Q. Following up on that, did the jump shots they made in the first half kind of change what you guys were doing in the second half, and open some things up on the drive for them? TRAVIS WALTON: No, not really. I think we kind of stuck to our game plan, but you're making game shots you've got to change it up a little bit. You want to press up on them a little bit. I think when we did press up in them, Evan Turner wasn't creating problems for us early in the second half. He started the second half he had some good buckets and we started to have to help out on him, which we was kind of afraid of early on, but he didn't do that early. Like I said, they made shots. Diebler made big shots and Buford had a great first half hit one or two shots in the second half. But, like I said, you've got to take your hats off to that whole team, because from Lauderdale to Turner, they all did a great job today. Q. Travis, you mentioned that Evan wasn't getting his shots early in the first half, what was the defense then in the second? TRAVIS WALTON: I think he started to attack even more. He started to pass the ball, create for other people. And as you create for other people, then it opens up for you. So early on he was creating and passing and often getting other people's shots. And you couldn't cheat off him as much. In the second half, the start of the second half he kind of drove into the hole and he got a couple easy baskets. And he also got to the free throw line and made some free throws. Q. Goran, you said yesterday you think the best basketball is still ahead of this team going into tournament play. What encourages you about this group despite a loss like this? GORAN SUTON: Coach said it's not how good you are and how good you play, but we've been up and down, but at times we play some of the best basketball. And I think if we can really buy in and do what we're supposed to do, we can really step our game up and make a run in this tournament. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Tom, with you guys losing, North Carolina lost, the league champions in five of the six major conferences have lost before even making it to the finals of their conference tournament, does that indicate this is going to be a wide-open NCAA Tournament, or is there something to be made from that? COACH IZZO: You know, I'm not sure. I don't know what other teams go through at this time of the year. I've been a 1 seed in this tournament and a 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament three or four times. And each time it seemed like something different happened. As I've said, I've been a 1 seed and gone to a Final Four and been a 5 seed and made it to a Final Four. So I think it's the ability to stay focused when things happen. And sometimes the end-of-the-year accolades come and different things come and I think everybody wonders why coaches are paranoid. It's hard to be 18, 19, and 20 anymore. And there's so much exposure and so many things happen that keeping focused I think is the key. And those that can keep their teams the most focused have success. I did not think we played that well yesterday. And I did not think we played very well today. And so I don't know how North Carolina played. I watched some games the other night and saw how some teams played. Nobody's looked unbeatable, if that's your question to me. But my eyeball is through the TV. It's not there in person. But I was surprised by some of the losses and some of the tournaments and I'm sure those guys are sitting there surprised at some of the ones in this. To me this is not totally surprising. I did not think there was a big margin even though we won the league by four games. I did not think there was a big margin between first and ninth as we proved by getting beat by ninth at home. But nationwide I think parity is here to stay, guys. I think it is. I think anybody can beat anybody on a given night. Q. Following up on that, did you detect any lack of focus coming into the game? COACH IZZO: For our media, I've been concerned about our instability, and I called it a lot of different words. Some probably wrong words. But I think I've said I did not think we were a smooth team even though we kind of battled our way through some things. And it's been for a couple of reasons. We just haven't been able to get a rotation down, and that was one. And I think the other one is you know when you're struggling -- we're awfully young. Durrell Summers, we need Durrell Summers and sometimes when young guys struggle, they don't handle it as well as veterans that struggle. So have I detected some things? Well, sure, but in talking to other coaches, I think everybody's detecting something all over the country, as Pat said, nobody's -- teams that we thought were invincible have gotten beat on a regular basis. So we weren't one of those that we thought are invincible, and I'm just disappointed we didn't play better. But I would agree with Travis: Ohio State really made some shots and played awfully well. Q. Coach, although I'm sure you're pleased with how much depth you have, is it getting to a point where you'd like to see more consistent and productive play from guys like Kalin and Raymar, your other starters? COACH IZZO: No question, I think that's very important in tournament time. You have to have some guys you can rely on. And I still feel for Raymar in some ways, because he's battling back, but along with when you miss time, you lose your confidence in your shot and doesn't matter even if you're Travis Walton, everybody wants to be able to make shots. I really thought today -- and this takes nothing away -- but I thought in the first half we had a lot of good shots. I thought the second half we didn't have nearly as many good looks. The first half I thought we had a lot of good shots and they just didn't go down. Even Kalin had some good shots in the second but they just didn't go down. When we had a chance to cut it down, we just didn't make the right free throws. You need consistency out of your best players, there's no question about it. Q. Tom, you've been talking about time possibly running out on this team. How nervous are you getting that you aren't building to the peak you should be at this time of the year? COACH IZZO: I'm not nervous, because it is what it is. I've said that the whole season. You can't just snap your fingers and expect something to change that hasn't progressed in the right fashion. But I'm not sure a lot of other teams aren't in the same boat. We still have a couple of things to our advantage. We normally check very well. We normally rebound very well. We almost always have depth. We still can play big/small, slow or fast. Those things will be -- like everybody, you always look forward to the NCAA Tournament more than your conference. We've played some of these guys three times and they know what gum you're chewing just like you know what gum they're chewing. And I think that's going to help everybody in every conference, to be honest with you. The more publicity you get, the more games on TV, the better the scouting is and the better people know you, and I think that has something to do with why games are a little crazier and a little tougher. Q. You mentioned just in the past about how you needed Allen and Summers down the stretch to really get that together, and neither one of them were there today. How much, again, does that prove the importance of having them do things in this case? COACH IZZO: I think you remember Diebler, last year or early this year, was missing every shot and today he made a lot of shots. You need your shooters to shoot well always. I was pleased with how Allen other than his shooting. I mean, his defense is getting better, he's going to the boards, he's starting to do the things we need him to do. But he missed some shots and he missed some good shots. He took a couple bad ones late. For the most part, I had no problem with most of the shots taken. We just missed them. I watch him make every shot in practice. I watch him make every shot in shoot-around and Durrell was been struggling and he was the guy on fire for half the year, half the Big Ten season. That's the way it works. And, remember, those guys are still young. We're in an era where we think a sophomore is old because everybody should be leaving school. That's the rare air, the rare breed that do that; most guys have to mature. And I think we have some guys that have to do that. Q. When you go into halftime and you're only down by 5 and Turner hasn't scored at all, is that a confidence booster at that point or are you more worried that he's going to go off at some point? COACH IZZO: I wasn't worried that he was going to go off. We had a good game plan on him. I think Travis was right, we didn't change everything. But I do think we have to extend ourselves in the second half when we got behind. I thought a critical -- I don't know what the score was, 7 or 8, when their 3-point play they got underneath when Suton, I thought, had a charge. And then once he got to 10, I think we started extending, which is right up Evan Turner's alley, because we didn't do it the first half and I thought we shut him down. But I agree with Travis, too, that I think Turner did more the second half, but they could put the ball in his hands and just let him dribble because there wasn't the same necessity to maybe score at a more rapid pace. So I think it was a combination of both. He was more aggressive, but we did extend a little bit more. We had no choice, just because of the way they were playing. Q. You're plus 6 on the boards, plus 10 on points in the paint, plus 4 off turnovers, plus 1 on fastbreak and plus 7 off the bench and you lose by 12. What -- COACH IZZO: Probably should have been more than that. 15 turnovers, that's one, and we just missed shots. Chris was I think 2-for-11. I think he had some pretty good shots. I guess we only had 10 turnovers. So I can't use that one. I mean, we were 27-for-71, 38 percent. I think that kind of says it all, because when you do that you get more chance at offensive rebounds, things like that. But we do have to play better and the NCAA Tournament's another chance. I'd be remiss if I didn't try to straighten out ESPN that if you talk to any of our writers, I'm not pleading or begging anybody for a 1, 2 or 3 seed in it; in fact, I could care less what we get. I'm shocked of how that took a life of its own when you could talk to any writer in here and I've said all along that -- I said we don't even deserve a No. 1 seed. Now we've made it easy on them. But more importantly it's not like we're the only team that struggles once in a while. There's teams with better players that are struggling once in a while. And my job in the next week is going to be see if we can get our guys back together. You shouldn't be judged on one game on a plus or a minus. The way this in and out has changed, one game seems to make a difference in 30. I mean, not for us but I think some of the teams that are going to lose out because of one win or one loss in the tournament, that almost seems ridiculous. I think Jay Bilas had it right today when I listened to him, why should one game -- I don't mean it for us -- I'm talking about some guys I feel for right now, guys in our own league, you earn your mettle over time, and we've earned our mettle. We've had a hell of a year. I'd like to finish it off by making a deep run in the tournament and we're going to see if we can do that. So thank you. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. End of FastScripts |
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