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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: PHILADELPHIAMarch 20, 2009Josh CarterBryan DavisBryson GrahamDonald SloanMark TurgeonPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Texas A&M student-athletes. We'll open it up for questions. Q. Josh, being a senior, how big is this for you to keep playing? JOSH CARTER: It's real big. We were fortunate enough to win yesterday. We have the opportunity to play a No. 1 seed again. We're going to come out and play hard and hopefully we'll get a win. Q. Bryan, talk about the challenge of playing a guy like Thabeet, what you have to do to battle him. BRYAN DAVIS: I know Thabeet is a great shot blocker, like second in the country. It's going to take a lot of discipline down low when to take shots and when not to. He will come off his man and block shots, or he's on you blocking. Going to have to be disciplined enough to find the open man if he does come over and help. Q. Donald, how did playing in your conference prepare you to play a physical team like UConn from the Big East? DONALD SLOAN: It helped a lot playing teams like Kansas, Baylor, Texas, Missouri, especially. I guess you could say it's like a warmup game to this game. We'll be ready. We have a game plan that we'll go out and execute and I think we'll do fairly well. Q. Donald, you mentioned those teams. Who does UConn remind you the most of in the Big 12 Conference? DONALD SLOAN: To be honest, I'd have to say either Kansas or Missouri. They have the size, the athletic guards, play at a nice pace. All those things contributing to them, you know, being, OU, evenly being matched with UConn. Different faces, but the same type of skill level. Talent-wise, we've seen it before. Q. Josh, you mentioned No. 1 seed again. What can you take from that game last year? What does it mean to play the No. 1? JOSH CARTER: I mean, it's not really that different. I mean, you know it's a good team. But, I mean, we've played good teams all year. We just know we're going to have to battle the whole time. If we get a lead, we can't blow it like we did last year. We just have to compete and have a sense of urgency. Q. Josh, two years ago it was Louisville in Lexington, UCLA in Anaheim. Can you talk about the mindset you have to have when you're playing a second round game, basically a home game for the team you're playing? JOSH CARTER: You just have to go out and compete. We know they'll have a good crowd. Not too far away from him. We play on the road all year. You get used to things like that. You just got to go out and play hard. I'm sure we'll be ready. Q. Donald, can you talk- I don't know if you'll have him or not- about what A.J. Price means to their team. DONALD SLOAN: He's a leader, their captain, the general on the court for them. He's going to take some big shots. He's a very capable shooter. Creates a lot for their offense. What he's been for them since, you know, the other guard they had, Dyson, went down, he's been tremendous. You know, we have a game plan. Trying to keep him in line. But he's a player. He's going to make plays. He's going to make shots. You're right there with a hand in his face, contesting him each way he goes. I think we'll do fairly well on him; I have him some, a young player, Dash, has him and Derrick Roland, one of our main defenders. Q. Bryson, talk about your role in helping prepare this team. BRYSON GRAHAM: You know, it's been basically to keep the guys focused. We have a big task tomorrow. I think basically just make sure the guys are focused in, locked in, really pay attention to what coach has to say. You know, just stay poised. We know we can do this. We believe in ourselves and we think we can get this win tomorrow. Q. Playing without your coach, I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing, but what do you think that's like with UConn? JOSH CARTER: I mean, I think it's tough when you don't have the guy that you see every day at practice and things like that. I mean, you see your assistants, but they're not directing you like your head coach. I think it would be a tough situation. For them to still win by around 60, shows you how focused they are. I mean, they're a determined team, so... I thought it would be tough. DONALD SLOAN: I mean, yeah, I'd say the same thing. It's sad to hear his sickness. But glad he's well and back with his team. It's pretty much the best time of year. You know, for guys to be without their main guy, which is the coach, it's kind of hard to swallow. They went out and they got it done yesterday. Apparently they wasn't missing him too much, so... Q. Bryan, are you about as locked in as you've been all year? BRYAN DAVIS: I wouldn't say really like feeling it, but I'm pretty locked in. Trying to focus in on playing defense, and basically just doing whatever I have to do to help my team win, whether it's doing something on the court or directing something when I'm off the court to one of our younger guys that's defending. Q. Bryan, obviously Thabeet gets a lot of attention. Can you talk about Jeff Adrien, the challenges he presents for you guys? BRYAN DAVIS: I watched him play a lot this year. He's a pretty tough guy. He goes to the offensive glass pretty hard. He's going to be a tough matchup for me, I feel. But I think we'll do all right. We have a lot of guys that will be guarding him and he will have to guard us on defense, too. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, guys. We're joined by Texas A&M Coach Mark Turgeon. We'll ask you for an opening statement. COACH TURGEON: Well, happy to be back for another press conference. So it was a good win for us yesterday. I was really proud of our group. I know we talked about that after the game. You know, it was as well as we played in a while, both ends of the floor. I was pleased with that. Of course, now we're preparing for one of the best teams in the country. We're looking forward to it. Know it's going to be a tough matchup. But we're looking forward to it. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions. Q. Can you talk about what Derrick means to you defensively, to have somebody like that on your team, and what his assignment might be for tomorrow? COACH TURGEON: That's a great question. I don't think he gets enough respect in our own leg, let alone nationally. He has guarded all the best players all year. At our place at home, AJ Abrams had one field goal against him. He's been very important to us. Of course, he'll guard Price tomorrow. He does a good job. What he's done is, he's really matured. He's always been a great athlete, always played great defensively, taken a lot of pride. But he plays with a lot more intelligence on defense now, plays most of the time without fouling. He guards the screens the right way most of the time. Takes a lot of pride in it. And it's nice to have. It's nice to have a guy that just really dials in. Then we also -- Dash Harris, a freshman has come on. Whenever Derrick is out of the game, Dash assumes that role for us and has done a fantastic job with it. We wouldn't be where we are without D-Ro. He made a lot of plays down the stretch and always guarded the best perimeter player. Q. Can you talk about the similarities you see between the two teams. COACH TURGEON: Well, everybody keeps talking about that. They look a lot taller than we look (smiling). I had to leave so I could sleep. I saw them right out from warmups, I didn't want to watch any of the game, they looked so big. I hear a lot of national people saying we match up with them. We'll see. We'll see tomorrow at 3:30. But we have a couple big guys. They have a couple big guys. They're a little taller at the three position obviously with Robinson. But there are some similarities. Both like to play man-to-man defense. Both try to really pound the ball inside offensively. Play inside out. You know, they're a heck of a team. So if people are comparing us to them, I think that's good. You know, I don't see a lot of similarities outside of that personally. Q. Could you put yourself in Jim's position yesterday, having to watch his team, not be in the arena. You're all control freaks anyway. COACH TURGEON: I don't know how he did it. He's a veteran and he has a lot of confidence obviously in his team and his assistant coaches. But it still had to be hard. I felt for the coaches that had to coach the games. Talk about pressure, 1-16 game, head coach is gone. Coach Blaney did a good job of preparing their team. They've been through it a lot the last couple years obviously with Coach Calhoun in some health problems. I think that's why he has who he has on his staff. I think he feels very comfortable with him. But, no, that would not have been easy, especially the first seven or eight minutes when it was still kind of close. Then I'm sure he relaxed a little bit, for him. Q. Talk about how your team has responded and has played all year when they've absolutely needed to, their character. COACH TURGEON: We just have gotten better. We were a very good team early. We were winning games early, we were 14-1, but we weren't very good. We beat Arizona, LSU. Went down to Alabama when Alabama had Steele, Alabama played a heck of a game. We weren't a great basketball team. Like you said, our back was against the wall in the Big 12. We got a lot of character. We got a lot of fight. We got a lot of determination. We're not always pretty. Yesterday we shot the ball well. We don't shoot the ball well all the time. We don't dribble the ball well all the time. We don't pass the ball well all the time. We just kind of figure out a way to win. That's what I like about this team. So there is a lot of character, a lot of grit, a lot of determination. And, most importantly, it's been fun for me lately just because of the progress we're making, which is fun. We're just getting better on both ends of the floor. Q. You've talked especially in the conference season about the mental toughness your guys have. Can you talk about how that's manifested itself in the second round of the tournaments, even before the last few years before you got here? COACH TURGEON: Yeah, I think any team that gets to this point is pretty, mentally tough. Probably physically tough, too. To get to this point, you've usually gone through a lot. And obviously our program in this round, the last four years, we lose at the buzzer to LSU, we beat Louisville in Lexington, which was a great win for our program, then we lose at the very end to UCLA. Now we're playing another No. 1. You know, we're going to have to be mentally tough tomorrow. There won't be a lot of- I don't know how many UConn fans, hopefully Villanova snatched them all up and there won't be a lot of UConn fans here. We'll have to be tough mentally. We're excited about playing the game. But the mental toughness comes to doing it right; are we going to be mentally tough enough to block out every time a shot goes up? That's what it's going to come down. We weren't that mentally tough enough yesterday. We gave up some second-chance points. If we want to have any chance to beat UConn , we've got to do a heck of a job on the boards. That will be part of our mental toughness tomorrow. If we want to have. Q. You mentioned rebounds. Talk about how your bigs match up with them, Thabeet and other guys. COACH TURGEON: Yeah, they got three bigs they feel comfortable with. We hope to play Loubeau more tomorrow. We didn't think the matchup was good for him against BYU. So hopefully he can give us a few more minutes tomorrow against UConn. Yeah, it's going to come down to -- you know, the most amazing thing to me about UConn and the season they're having is their free throws. I'm sure you guys hear it because you follow 'em. They've shot 800 free throws, 815 throws going into yesterday, and their opponents have only shot 388. That's simply amazing. We have to figure out a way to stay out of foul trouble against those two bigs and try to get them in foul trouble, which they don't do. I think that's the reason they've had the year they've had this year. But, you know, I think we match up pretty well against them in there. They're obviously two really good players. This will be a challenge, but our guys will be excited. Q. Have they changed much since the guard went down? COACH TURGEON: I can't tell you because I haven't watched any film when he was playing. Didn't do me any good. I just watched films here lately. You got to ask them that. All I know is when they rolled into Louisville, I don't know if it was late January or early February, everybody was saying this was going to be our national championship. They were playing at a high level. I'm sure they've changed. He made some threes for them. He was a big-time guard for them. But I haven't -- I can't answer that honestly because I didn't waste my time watching film with him in it. Q. Are you rallying around just where you are in terms of being in Philadelphia, the city of the underdog? You're a big underdog coming in. COACH TURGEON: Are we? We were an underdog yesterday. I love this city. I don't think there's any question. I spent some time here with Coach Brown. One of the best years of my life. So I've been bragging about the city a lot, pretzels, cheese steaks, all that stuff. Our guys have kind of warmed up to that. I don't know if I'm going to throw that Rocky line on them tomorrow before we start or not. We'll see. Our guys know what's at stake. We know we're not favored tomorrow to win the game. We understand that. But that's why you play the games. We're looking forward to the opportunity. We feel blessed to be here. A month ago we didn't know if we were going to be a part of this tournament. Now we've won a game and we get to play a big-time program that's been good for a long time and we're looking forward to it. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. End of FastScripts |
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