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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: PORTLANDMarch 19, 2009Jon BrockmanVenoy OvertonQuincy PondexterLorenzo RomarPORTLAND, OREGON Washington – 71 COACH ROMAR: We knew going in the media made a lot of mention of them being a 13 seed, was it fair, was it not. Our concern wasn't if it was fair or not, because when you get into the NCAA tournament you're competing against 65 of the best teams in the country. However, that is a very, very good 13 seed team. Very good 13 seed. And I give our guys a lot of credit today for being a team. If we were not a team today that game would have been a lot more difficult. What I mean by "a team", defensively today I felt like it was maybe one of our better performances in that there were potential mismatches around the floor, but it never got that way, because it was as if everyone was tied to a rope together. And everyone was helping everyone. Everyone on this team today sold out and gave themselves for the cause of the team. Offensively no one cared who got the shots. We just played basketball. If you can get in a position where you're a team like that you have a hard time not reaching your potential, whatever that potential is. Today I thought we played to our potential, because we were a team in every sense of the word. And it required that effort to do what we did against a very good Mississippi State team. Q. Venoy, could you talk about the perimeter defense against Mississippi State. They had a tough time getting off a lot of three-pointers. VENOY OVERTON: We had -- No. 3 had a very good push and I didn't want them guys to set up and get comfortable at all. My job is just to pressure up, come off the bench and bring energy? Q. Quincy, seems like the big-stage game that you were going to have throughout your career. What do you attribute to the fact that you just seemed to have really found your rhythm the second half of the season? QUINCY PONDEXTER: I just think my offseason workouts's really paying off right now. I have really developed a really good work ethic and it's just paying off. And just staying persistent and staying with the team concept, it's helping me pursue good games. Q. Quincy, was this a game that you felt going in was one they would allow you to get a lot of opportunities to score, were you feeling coming in that you had to do that? QUINCY PONDEXTER: The makeup of the team with good -- their good post player in Varnado, and their good perimeter three point shooters, it kind of helped me have more of a confidence coming into the game because I knew they weren't the same physically as me. My teammates did a great job of finding me in a lot of spaces and helping me create. Q. Jon, like the coach said, there's so many great teams in the tournament. How good does it feel to get the first one out of the way and play so well as a team? JON BROCKMAN: It feels great just knowing we came in and we were focused more than anything. We were ready for the game today and came out and most everyone contributed in a positive way. The first one is always kind of a monkey off your back. And it's good to get that done and over with and you can start really concentrating and getting ready to get a little deeper in the tournament. Q. Jon, could you talk a little bit about the -- say the last ten minutes of the first half when you were kind of watching from the bench? A, how frustrating it is to be watching in that circumstances? B, how do you feel, seeing the team do as well as they did in your absence? JON BROCKMAN: You know, it was frustrating at first and as I was sitting there like, "man, I've got a pretty sweet seat to watch our team go to work." They came in and our bench was able to come in and not just maintain what we had started but they were able to increase it and get on a run. So I was just really proud of our guys the way they came out and we got in a little foul trouble and that didn't factor in at all. It didn't faze us. We were able to just keep pushing. And that's the adversity you've got to be able to handle when you're playing in a tournament like this. Q. Quincy, you really scored a lot of points in that stretch. Did you notice, Jon's out and your guards maybe weren't having their best offensive day at that moment. Did you feel like you had to kind of step forward there? QUINCY PONDEXTER: I didn't really notice. I was just playing basketball. I knew Jon was out. I knew he's one of our great scorers on our team. And I just wanted to pick it up for our team in a time of need. Q. Venoy, in your preparation for this game, they have a lot of tall, lean, quick guys. How did their size, particularly around the perimeter, factor into your preparation? VENOY OVERTON: You know, I feel like playing against a taller player, the advantage goes to the smaller guy, that you can get up in them. And there's not too many guys that's a good size that can handle the ball that well. I felt like with the defense I played I could really cause some havoc out there. Q. Quincy, about that first half stretch there when Jon was out of the game, how noticeable was it that Varnado was not in the back when you were going down the line? QUINCY PONDEXTER: It was very noticeable, I didn't have to alter many shots. But I think their big guys were still doing a good job of contesting, just not the defensive prowess of Varnado. He's a great defender and he does alter a lot of shots? Q. Jon, the crowd today was pretty clear very early on that they were behind you guys. There was some talk coming in about whether you guys would be the most favored or most hated coming in here. What did you think of the crowd today? JON BROCKMAN: I think it showed. We have a couple Pac-10 fans in Oregon. And just a lot of supporters that made the trip down. I was shocked. I was very surprised by the number of purple shirts that I saw in the arena. I expected there to be quite a bit. But that was just tremendous. We were joking around on the bench that it really did feel like a home atmosphere. The crowd was behind us. And it was just -- they made it a lot more enjoyable being there supporting our team. Q. Venoy, you took an NFL-caliber block there, then came back a few minutes later and it seemed like you were talking a little bit and then you had a nice score. Can you just describe the sequence? VENOY OVERTON: Actually, no, I actually wasn't even talking before that. But after that hit, you know, I think he woke me up a little bit (laughter.) I just felt I didn't want to let that get in the way. I wanted to show how much a warrior I was and bounce back up, just kind of like Jon did. So this is a warrior team. Q. Jon, can you describe what happened on that, the TV showed your mom really worried for about two seconds. JON BROCKMAN: First of all, she's worried the entire game. She can't really watch it. It was actually the same as that play that happened in practice in preseason. It was kind of a high rebound, out in the middle, and I just went up, got undercut a little bit and went down right on my arm. I think I was surprised -- at first I was thinking to myself, all right, something has to be hurt from that, I bounced off the floor. Then once I realized I was all right I got back up and ran down the court. Q. Jon, you went at Varnado really physically, really early, two straight possessions. Did you want to test him? You knocked him back two feet on one play, and ushered him out of bounds the next time. Were you testing the limits today? JON BROCKMAN: Just our deal today was we wanted to go right at him. He's an unbelievable shot blocker. If you give him any room, like we did a couple of times, he's going to throw it all the way back to half court. So just try to close in that gap and for the most part that's what I try and do every day. Q. Talk about kind of on a night when -- a day when the guards, your starting back court goes 4 for 20, seems like whether it was the bigs or guards, you got contributions to make up for that? COACH ROMAR: Kind of what's been happening with our team the second half of the year. There was a stretch early in the year where our guards were really shooting the ball very well. And they were really carrying us at that time. Since then they haven't been as consistent, but Jon Brockman and Quincy Pondexter and others have really stepped up and helped us out. It was no different today. I thought Elston Turner came off the bench in the first half and did a tremendous job in helping us sustain what we had early on. Q. Quincy Pondexter: What is the difference in him now and before? Was it just a matter of he needed to mature? COACH ROMAR: I think sometimes we, in this age of one and done, two and out, lotto, we expect everyone to prove how good they really are, based on what they get done as a freshman. And there are outstanding freshmen around the country. There are those that play one year and go to the NBA. But everyone is not like that. And unfortunately I think we write the young men off too early because they're not this one and done guy early. What Quincy Pondexter, to me, has done is simply matured. And there was a time when that was the normal progression. You play as a freshman, you help your team, you get better as a sophomore, and then when you become an upper classman you really do some damage, if you're that type of talent and you have that type of ability. I think Quincy put in a lot of hard work. This thing just didn't happen. He worked his tail off. He's been consistently working. He's a junior now, he's older, he's matured a lot. He's found his way. Today was not an aberration, Quincy has been playing like this for a month now, he's been playing really good basketball. And today they didn't have great size and strength guarding him and I thought he took advantage of the situation. But the difference in Quincy Pondexter is just like a normal maturation progress, that if you have ability and talent it can happen for you. Q. There's positives you can take, obviously, out of winning, when your starting guards don't have good nights. As you go further on is that concerning that there's been a few games where Justin and Isaiah aren't hitting a lot of shots? COACH ROMAR: : There's going to come a time, it may be Saturday, when we need to be clicking on all cylinders. Because of our ability to defend here in the last stretch we've been able to overcome poor shooting nights by some of our players. And tonight was no different. Today was no different. If we don't guard then maybe it gives us more problems, but because we're able to do a decent job defending, we're able to get by, and other guys have been able to step up. We talked to our team on the first day about how important defense is. And as great as Michael Jordan was when he played with the Bulls, there was times when he was getting double teamed and triple teamed and the manager was guarding him, and he didn't score in certain stretches, nor did the Bulls. But because they were so good defensively they would get deflections and steals, Michael would get a dunk and the next thing you know they're back on again. But the defense would sustain them in down times. And I think that's happened with our team. But as I said, there's going to come a day when we're going to need production from everyone. Q. Since you mentioned Saturday, could you tell us a little bit about what challenges you know of now that rest in getting ready for Purdue on such short notice? COACH ROMAR: : They will not hand us the game, that's for sure. They're the type of team that you're going to have to take, put your arms around it and take it. It's going to be a tug and you've got to take it from them. They will not beat themselves. They're as fundamentally sound as any team we've played all year. They're very physical. They're strong. They're tough. They don't take bad shots. They just pass the fundamental test in all aspects. That's what -- that's the type of opponent we're about to face on Saturday. End of FastScripts |
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