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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: KANSAS CITYMarch 20, 2009Dave NealGreivis VasquezGary WilliamsKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI KEVIN KLINTWORTH: Maryland student athletes, Dave Neal, Greivis Vasquez, and Landon Milbourne. Q. Hi guys. You're well aware of Memphis's reputation. I think that their senior class is something like 136 wins over last four years, most in NCAA history. When you see tape of them, how good are they? DAVE NEAL: I mean, they're a great team. They got a great coach, and I mean, it goes back to the discussion of them playing Conference USA and the competitives they play against. And I mean, they're long, they're athletic, and they remind us a lot like Wake Forest, a team we just recently beat. We've watched tape and seen what they're weaknesses are. We're going to be ready to go to war with them for 40 minutes tomorrow. Q. Agree? GREIVIS VASQUEZ: Well, I think it's going to be a fight for 40 minutes. You got to give them credit. They're pretty good. They've got a pretty good athletes. Their conference is pretty much questionable. They don't have tough games. But I still believe they're good. I don't want to underestimate them because they got a great coach. It's going to be a fight. They got to know it's going to be a fight. It won't be easy for them to beat us like that. Q. Dave, I don't know if you've been used to this in your college career, but I asked them about you, and you're one of the guys they said that they need to stop. How does that make you feel, that they're aware of what you can do? DAVE NEAL: I, mean that's pretty cool. I guess with the season I've had, you can't -- I mean, you can't -- I had an outstanding senior year, and my first three years I've been kind of been quiet. I've got a chance the to play a tournament this year, and I mean, I shot the ball extremely well throughout the season and I've showed that I could score points in a hurry and from the 3-point line with some of the games I've had this year. I've been playing well right now. My shots are falling even probably better than it was in the beginning of the season. I mean, it's kind of cool that a team like Memphis, I'm one of the guys they said they need to shutdown. I'll play hard tomorrow and be doing what I've been doing the whole season. Hopefully I make it tough for them to shut me down. Q. Greivis, they called you crafty. Do you like that description? GREIVIS VASQUEZ: I don't know what that means. Q. Creative. GREIVIS VASQUEZ: I mean, I like it. I'm here to play basketball. I love the challenge. I love to compete, and it's going to be a big time game and it's going to be a great competition. Q. What were you guys -- question of, what, Roburt Sallie, ten 3-pointers. You did a good job yesterday in your game of shutting down their long range shooters. What do you have planned for him? DAVE NEAL: He's a great player. I think we talked about him this morning. He shot I think 50 percent from the 3-point line for the season this whole year. With him playing, I think he was averaging like 15 minutes a game, which that's averaging like four, three, four 3-point shots a game. 50 percent, that's pretty good. When he comes on the court, we're going to have to find where he is the whole time. He was hot last game, so we're going to go into the game tomorrow thinking he's shooting the ball as well as he shot yesterday, and I mean he's a good player. They got great athletes. They're capable of doing that. If you're hot and you're a shooter, you can stay hot the whole game. He did a great job yesterday. We've watched the tape from yesterday. We know he can shoot it. So we're going to find him whenever he's on the court when we're playing defense. Q. Greivis, for those of us who don't cover you, how did you learn the game? How did you develop your game, were you watching ESPO Spanish on TV? GREIVIS VASQUEZ: My father used to take me to professional games in Venezuela. I started to have, you know, some interest and, you know, in the game and then I started to take it serious and to the point that I wanted to go to college here. It's just like a dream come true, you know. Actually, I'm here playing in the NCAA Tournament. I mean ten years ago, I never thought I was going to be here. So it's pretty cool, you know, and then we got a couple guys back at home that used to play at school here and they played professional back at home. They were kind like my idols. I still look up to them. That was when everything started for me. Q. Greivis, you mentioned the Conference USA today which Memphis plays in. How do you think your conference, the ACC, stacks up against Conference USA? GREIVIS VASQUEZ: Our conference is pretty tough. I didn't mean to disrespect their conference. We have tough games night in, night out. Every game we play in the ACC is tough. Every team can beat any team. Georgia Tech beat Wake Forest when Wake Forest was the No. 1 team in the nation or something like that. We beat U.S.C. but, you know -- I mean, our conference is tough. I think our conference, the Big East, toughest conference, but that's my opinion, you know. Their conference, I mean -- you can say it's tough, but I don't think as tough as our conference. So, they need to play against some good competition. We're pretty good. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Q. Dave, you compared Memphis to Wake Forest. What can you take from your win against Wake Forest in the ACC tournament? How do you translate that to tomorrow's game against Memphis? DAVE NEAL: The biggest thing I think we did against Wake Forest that pretty much sealed the win for us was the way we controlled the boards. Memphis and Wake Forest, they're both teams that rely a lot on their second chance points. And with a team that's athletic like Wake Forest, they drive the ball and take some tough shots. They've got some big guys who can jump out of the gym and jump over your back. I think we'll do a good job of controlling the boards on the offensive and defensive end. We've got a great chance ever winning the game. Another thing that we're talking about, they've got some good shooters and great drivers. We've got to know the tendencies of each of the guys. We're playing a driver, we're going to give him some space and kind of play off him, because lot of their game is based off dribble penetration, dropping the pass off, and kicking out for open 3s. If we do a good job keeping them out of paint, I think tomorrow will be a great chance for us to win the game. Q. Greivis, yesterday's game you shot -- you had an air ball. Then -- they steal, got a layup and had to give it a little -- you've seen the play -- you seem to play with a lot of emotion. How much do you realize that maybe opposing fans just don't particularly like you? GREIVIS VASQUEZ: That doesn't bother me, you know. That's who I am. I did this (indicating) to the wrong crowd. It wasn't to my crowd, to the other crowd, you know, and when I shot that air ball, I knew it was going to be an air ball because the ball was wet. I was laughing inside of me but, you know, that's who I am. Sometimes people question me and judge me for the way I play, but I keep going like that. I need to use my emotion to be able to play hard and well. So as long as I keep playing the way I'm playing, I don't really -- that don't bother me when people hate me, when people talk about me the way I play and stuff like that. That's how I get going. I'm going to keep doing it until something bad happen to me, but I don't think it will. Q. Dave, just playing with Greivis, can you tell the way he is on the court, how much does that fire everybody up, even though it's kind of -- kind of him maybe interacting with the crowd, but how does it get you guys going? DAVE NEAL: I think agree Greivis, the more he's doing all his showboat stuff, the emotion feeds off the rest the team. I've been saying this from day one. When he's hooting and hollering at the fans, talking, that kind of feeds off at us and gets us playing hard, too. He loves the game. As he said earlier, that's how he gets going. When he's playing well, the whole team is playing well. So it's always good to see him doing that because when he's doing that, he's having a good time and playing well. If he's doing that tomorrow the whole entire game, that's a great sign because that means we're going to play well and hard for 40 minutes. Q. Greivis, what do you know about Antonio Anderson? GREIVIS VASQUEZ: I don't know much. He's a driver. I'm horrible with names. If I see his face, I will tell you. That's something that I got from my family. I'm horrible with names. Overall, every player from Memphis, they all the can drive pretty good. Antonio Anderson, Tyreke, outstanding driving the ball. So we got to really play good team defense and then rebound the ball pretty well so we have a chance to win the game. Q. This is for Dave. Looked at the Memphis/Northridge film. Did Northridge give you a blueprint how to beat Memphis, especially with the zone they played in? DAVE NEAL: They did. I think the biggest thing playing against Memphis is you can't be intimidated. They've long, athletic and they got great players. Northridge played their game. They weren't intimidated by Memphis. They said we're going to come in here and execute our game plan as well as they could, and I think they did a great job. Northridge is a good team. I think they got worn out by Memphis's talent and the athleticism that they have, but we saw they struggled against zone. We would rather have Memphis shoot as many 3-pointers as possible, rather than having dunks back and shooting in the paint. We watched the film. We knew they struggled against the zone. You see us play in a little bit of zone and little bit of man. The biggest thing that we've talked about is you can't be intimidated by Memphis. I think they've won 25 in a row, but we know we're going come in here. We're an ACC school. We played against great teams this year. We beat great teams. So there is no way we should believe intimidated that we can't come in here and win this game. KEVIN KLINTWORTH: Any more questions for Maryland? Thank you, Guys. Coach Williams is now in the interview room. COACH GARY WILLIAMS: We're looking forward to playing against the No. 2 two seed. Memphis has a good basketball team, a team that's been consistent in terms of how they play, very good defensive team with good, long size. They're not just big. They have a good length to their team. We're coming off a good win for us against Cal. We really played with a lot of energy, especially in the second half and, you know hopefully, you know, as you get into the tournament, you continue to play well. You can't have any letdowns, especially against a team as good as Memphis. Q. Coach, Dave Neal just compared Memphis to Wake Forest. What team compares that you've played thus far to Memphis, and how did you translate what you did earlier to a team like Memphis? COACH GARY WILLIAMS: Well, I think that's a pretty good comparison because of Wake's size compared to Memphis. They have big people, but they're both long. Both those teams are very long, and they both had really good seasons that we had to play against. You really have to be on your game. We have to make up for some things when we play against a team like that. Hopefully, we'll be able to do a good job and continue to play well. Memphis will certainly try to take us out of what we do, just like we did with them, and that's the key is to be able to do the things that we do pretty well. Q. Gary, Northridge kind of give you a little bit of blueprint of how to beat Memphis because Memphis was 1 of 13 for 3s besides Sallie. COACH GARY WILLIAMS: But one guy went 10 for 10. Kind of makes up for it. I thought Northridge did a great job. I thought they were really well prepared in that they played the way they played all year, and I think that they made some adjustments for Memphis, but they just went right out and played their game. They didn't try to say well, Memphis is this or that. They tried to play their game. They did a great job, obviously, and I think that's a lesson for everybody, you know, that if you're in the NCAA Tournament, you must have done some good things during the year, and this time of year, you can't change a lot of the things you've been doing since October. So hopefully, you play well. That's I think, for me anyway as a coach, I try to get my team to play well, then you make adjustments for Memphis, but, you know, we have to do a good job if we expect to beat Memphis. Q. Coach, how does this tournament compare to the '94 tournament where you were a 10 seed and faced a No. 2 seed in the second round? COACH GARY WILLIAMS: I'm trying to remember it, first of all. That was all new to us back then. That was the first year we went to the NCAA Tournament after four years of sanctions from the previous administration. We were very happy to be in the NCAA Tournament. We started two freshmen. They were Keith Boot, my assistant coach right now, and Joe Smith, who is still playing in the NBA. They were really good freshman. We beat a good St. Louis team, Wichita, and played Marcus Campbell an the University of Massachusetts. I remember John Calipari was the coach then. We played a really good game that second game because UMASS was really good that year and we were able to get the win. I'm not sure that has a whole lot to do with what we have to do tomorrow. The only two faces that are the same are Calipari's and mine. We'll see what happens. Q. Gary, Vasquez does a lot of emotional antics on the court and then in the locker room talks a lot to the players. Are y'all for that, or do you wish he would kind of notch it down a little bit? COACH GARY WILLIAMS: Well, I think everybody is different. You know, we all come up from different backgrounds, and Greivis has been a great player for us this year and his emotion has help helped us get to the NCAA Tournament. Nobody is perfect but, at the same time, I'm really glad to be coaching Greivis and, you know, some of the things that have been made about what he's done has been -- have been exaggerated, and there's been reasons for other things that's happened. So I enjoy coaching him and I'm looking forward to playing with him tomorrow. Q. Gary, Vasquez, his press conference, he was trying hard to compliment Memphis. He said Memphis hadn't played anybody in 16, 17 games and kind of questioned their conference. Any thoughts? COACH GARY WILLIAMS: Memphis has some good wins outside their conference. They've played some good teams. They've gone and played teams. You know, they're in Conference USA. I think any conference when you go on the road, there's tough games. I've been in Big 10, ACC, Big East, America West. Road games are tough in all those conferences just like the ACC. I'm sure they were in tough situations. When you're in Memphis, you're the giant. Everybody gets ready to play against you. I'm sure they saw a lot of the teams's best games this year in conference play. So, when you get to the NCAA, you know, everybody looks for reasons why teams should play well, why they shouldn't play well. Basically it's your team, your players, what you've done. Memphis has an outstanding team. They're the No. 2 seed for a reason and we're the 10 for a reason. It's going to be a very tough game. Anytime a 10 plays a 2, it's a tough game, but I think we've been playing really good basketball lately and hopefully that will help us tomorrow. Q. It's been a lot of years, like you said, since that '94 tournament. How much more important is it nowadays for a coach to cultivate an image for recruiting, to be an ambassador for a University, 24-hours news cycle. COACH GARY WILLIAMS: What happens because of the visibility you get when you're a basketball coach now, you've become more than a coach in a lot of places. Whether you like it or not, you become a fundraiser for the University. If you have a hot basketball team, that really helps in admissions applications for that year. Kids look at that. They get a chance to see your University a lot more now with all the outlets that they can pick up information from. So all those things are really a positive for your school. I think, you know, that there are more things just what's that, 15 years? Just in 15-year period, there are more things that are tied to, you know, a basketball program nowadays connected to the university than there may have been before. Q. Coach, you guys did a good job yesterday of shutting down a good 3-point shooting team. Tomorrow you go against a guy who is 10, 15 beyond the arc. I'm sure you watched the film. What were your impressions of Roburt Sallie? COACH GARY WILLIAMS: I was really impressed. I think he -- coming into the game, if you look at his stats, he was averaging, I think five points a game or whatever going into the game, and I thought Northridge did a good job in preparing for Memphis. You can't prepare for that. In other words, first round of an NCAA Tournament, you can go by what you see on tape, by what you see from stats, and here comes this guy averaging 5 points a game, he makes ten 3s. That was a surprise. Obviously we're aware of that now, and he's a very good shooter. You watch him shoot. He's got a good stroke, looks like the ball should go in when he shoots. Hopefully we'll be aware of him and can do a job defensively at least where we give him some pressure when he goes to catch the ball. KEVIN KLINTWORTH: Do we have more questions? Thank you, Coach. COACH GARY WILLIAMS: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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