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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: PORTLANDMarch 18, 2009Jon BrockmanJustin DentmonLorenzo RomarPORTLAND, OREGON Q. Being in Oregon there's going to be some Duck fans, probably some Gonzaga fans. Do you think it would be more hostile than geography would suggest? JON BROCKMAN: I don't think -- it would be no more hostile than when they come up to our arena to play us, there's not that much distance. Who knows, maybe one of them will root for us, because we're in the same state as Gonzaga and in the same league as Oregon. Q. How does this feel compared to your freshman year, going through all the procedures and everything? JUSTIN DENTMON: It feels good. My freshman year we didn't win a PAC-10 championship. It feels good knowing that's what I built. And coming back to the tournament, just a mind-blowing experience for us as well as the young guys. So we are happy and grateful to be here, but we still are not satisfied where we're at. Q. You talked about maybe some hostile fans, how glad are you you're playing so close to home, and you're going to see plenty of purple out there? JON BROCKMAN: It's definitely a blessing to be this close to home. We have a lot of fans. For me personally, a lot of family and friends who are going to be able to make the trip. A short drive down here. We expect to have a good turnout. From what I hear a lot of people are coming down. I'm sure there will be a little bit of purple walking around here tomorrow. Q. Talk about this match-up with Jarvis, have you faced anyone similar to him and how do you prepare for him? JON BROCKMAN: He's a very unique player. I've played against people who have a lot of skills he has. But I think he's got pieces from different players all put together. He's unbelievably athletic, great shot blocker, great timing, obviously. He's unbelievably active. And everyone talks about his shot-blocking, but watching him on the rebounding aspect of the game, he gets his hands on a lot of balls, keeps things alive. He's going to be a fun person to play against. I'm looking forward to it. Q. Just curious, how much did you learn from Brandon Roy about how to be a leader in a program and how much personal responsibility or pressure did you feel to keep the program at that level? JON BROCKMAN: As far as learning from Brandon, I think J.D. would agree that we learned a ton from him, just the way that he conducted himself every day in practice. Would pull the younger guys aside and would really be an extension of the coaches, but also be the supportive factor, be really supportive and encouraging, but also know when to get on people. I learned a lot of that from him. And I think that's the biggest thing that I've taken away from what I learned from Brandon. Seems like a long, long time ago he was here. It definitely left a lot of responsibility for us when they left. And I feel like it's great to get back to this point. This is the way it was when we came in and through a lot of hard work we've gotten the program back to where it belongs, in the NCAA tournament. Q. Can you address what kind of influence Coach Romar is in the locker room? JUSTIN DENTMON: He's very get-to-the-point type of guy. Things aren't going well, he comes in and starts talking about what we need to do to fix our mistakes. He encourages the guys who don't play as much, tells them that they need to still be encouraging us on the bench because we get our energy from our bench. And when we win he just tells us don't be satisfied with winning, want more. And I think a lot of players really take a lot from him. A lot of coaches you win, they keep coming to you and telling you don't be satisfied. We're not good yet. We're not as good as we can be yet. So we need to keep playing towards that. So I just admire the way that he can transform a team from being not in the NCAA tournament two years ago or last year and making it to the tournament this year by changing the things and his coaching style, changing the way he obviously treats his players. Q. Jon, you mentioned before, seasons before about the Lopez twins at Stanford and the shot blocking. How different is Varnado or is he the same challenge-wise? JON BROCKMAN: He's close. You get by the Lopez twins, you get by one of them, and the other one is standing right there, so it's like double trouble. He does a great job for shot blocking, not just jumping for everything. A lot of times when he blocks a shot he is the first jumper, but he can time it to where he's not getting caught up in the air. He doesn't let people get his body. A lot of times with the Lopez twins because they were more bangers, you could get to their body, it was just the fact that they were so big and there were two of them that they blocked the shots. But he definitely keeps space, and doesn't let anyone get up inside of him and is able to make a play in the ball when it's in the air. COACH ROMAR: I asked Jon and Justin if they answered all the tough questions already. They said they did. They told me not to fall behind the stage, YouTube material. So I survived that part. We're fired up to be here in the NCAA tournament here in Portland. We're excited to get an opportunity to play tomorrow. We've not been in the tournament the last couple of years and we've got a lot of new faces from the last time that we were here. Our guys are pretty excited about it. We're looking forward to playing. Q. What have you done differently this year to get the team back to the tournament, personally? COACH ROMAR: I think we have different personnel, mainly our guards. I think we have probably quicker forwards than we've had in the last couple of years, which has enabled us to play better defensively. With our guards and across the board I think we have more play makers. So I think the personnel that we have has allowed us to play a little more the style that we've played a few years ago. Also this is the first time in three years that we're more of a veteran team as opposed to a really young team, like we've had the last couple of years. And although Jon Brockman and Justin Dentmon play a lot of minutes, Quincy Pondexter is a junior that's played a lot of minutes. I think that's enough to be able to lead the right way. As opposed to the last couple of years we did not have those upper classmen who were our premier players out there leading. So I think that's made a tremendous difference. Q. Jon was saying how much he learned about being a leader in a program from Brandon Roy. How have you seen him grow in that role in the last couple of years? COACH ROMAR: No. 1, he's always going to lead by example. He's one of the best I've seen by leading by example. He's an All-American candidate, but he practices every day as if he's trying to earn a scholarship. He does a tremendous job of picking his spots out there on the floor where he is encouraging and exhorting guys to become better, while at the same time where he senses that the team is really slacking off he will get guys together and he's not afraid to get in their face. And they can never say, well, look at you, you don't always play hard. He always is a great example. So I think innately he's a pretty good leader, but then when he was a freshman under those other guys, kind of tutelage, he learned a lot, as you said, and as he said. Q. Can you talk a little bit about the match-up with Jarvis and the challenges his shot blocking ability brings? COACH ROMAR: He's the type of player that many will see the shots that he does block, but you tend to forget the shots that he doesn't block that he changes. And on the third tier, the shot that he didn't change but you just were looking for him somewhere. And you weren't able to focus on making the basket. So when a guy can block shots like that, they have a tremendous impact on the game. Q. Can you talk about the rest of the Mississippi State and what kind of match-up problems they might present for you? COACH ROMAR: They have about 500 guys that can shoot the three. They're all over the place. And they're not just spot up shooters, they can put the ball on the floor and make plays. When you've got a big guy in the middle like they do, and he's surrounded by multiple shooters and penetrators, they make for a very, very difficult cover on the defensive end. They're also pretty scrappy. An advantage a lot of times with smaller, quicker teams can have are more than just being able to beat their man. They can close out to you quickly. They can beat you down the floor. When there's a loose ball, they can get to the loose balls quicker, because of their speed and quickness. There are a lot of advantages they may have, where some people say they're undersized, how do they survive? There are some positives to the makeup of their team, as well. Q. Could you talk about what are your impressions of Dee Bost, and the match-up with Isaiah Thomas? COACH ROMAR: I saw him play in high school. I saw him put a lot of points up on the board. He was very, very aggressive offensively. I've seen a guy who picks his spots now and can be aggressive offensively and can score points when needed but does a really good job on the open floor of finding his teammates and getting them off the basketball. If you don't cut him off, he's going to score a basket. And if you do cut him off he's going to find one of his teammates. I know from following from a distance, it's been a work-in-progress from him, moving from a scorer to a point guard. But I think he's done a tremendous job making that adjustment for his team as a freshman? Q. With a great shot blocker on the other team, do you change your approach for attacking the basket, trying to get to the line as much as you guys do or do you keep doing what you normally do? COACH ROMAR: No, I don't think we can change our approach. You cannot, cannot be tentative. Not that he's a bully at all. But if you're tentative at all with a bully, he's going to bully you all night and all year, probably. I'm trying to think of if I ever got bullied in high school. You've got to be the aggressor. You can't back down. You've got to go. Knowing, just like the bully, you probably are going to get hit a couple of times, but you've got to hang in there and hopefully you will get your share. One more comment. I did not call him a bully (laughter.) Hopefully I won't read and get interviewed and say I heard you refer to him as a bully. He's not a bully, he's a tremendous young man. Q. Just wondering if you can talk real quick about Scott Suggs and besides being a freshman, what might have kept him from earning more minutes this year? COACH ROMAR: Only maturation. Scott Suggs is going to be a tremendous player for us. I think he could be an all-conference performer for us. Just this year, just some things, some adjustments that he was kind of making on the fly, as the season is going on. And if we had ten, 15 more games, you might see Scott Suggs probably break his way in there and play. But he's going to be a very, very good player for us. We're very excited we have him. He's very versatile. He can play three positions out on the floor. He can guard three positions out on the floor. He can do a lot out there. Q. Mississippi State's coach was actively recruiting Oregon fans today. Are you worried about the turnout of Oregon fans since we're in Portland? COACH ROMAR: No, I just know how loyal Northwest fans are. And I know the loyalty of the Oregon fans. I know the loyalty of the Gonzaga fans. I know the loyalty of our fans. So I'm just pretty positive that they'll all cheer for the Northwest teams. I just kind of took that as a given (laughter.) End of FastScripts |
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