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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: PORTLANDMarch 20, 2009Austin DayeMark FewJosh HeytveltJeremy PargoPORTLAND, OREGON Q. Jeremy and Josh, you guys ran into these guys last year up in Alaska, how different or how similar do you see this team from a year ago, and talk a little bit about the personnel. JEREMY PARGO: Once again, they're great guards. They can do a lot of things with variation of ball screens. They shoot the ball really well and they have bigs that rebound the heck out of the ball and play physical and I'm pretty sure that's exactly what coach wants them to do. JOSH HEYTVELT: I wasn't in that game, I was out with an injury. Like Jeremy said they're really physical on the boards and their guards did a good job of getting open shots on the screens and creating things for everybody else on the court. Q. When you were coming in to Gonzaga and making your choices about a college, what distinguished Gonzaga from everybody else you were thinking about? What do you think makes it different and special? AUSTIN DAYE: I had a wide variety of schools that I had a choice of going to, but I definitely made a good choice, I think, in the long run. Definitely just by the coaching staff and the school. The small classrooms. I think that helped a lot. And just my dad also helped me out with my decision, with my school of Gonzaga. He always told me every school wants you, but who really needs you. And I thought this was a school that needed my help and that's how I made my choice. JEREMY PARGO: My situation was a little different. I'm a midwest kid and for these guys to come out to the midwest and pursue the way they did was unbelievable. There were a lot of schools in the midwest that didn't want to touch me. And they came from the west coast all the way to Chicago to recruit an inner city kid, that some people told me I had no chance of getting in. And I felt I made a good decision and it's been working out ever since then. JOSH HEYTVELT: It just felt good for me. I'm from that area. And I came to camps in high school and it was just a good fit. I got along with all the guys that used to play at Gonzaga. I got along with the coaching staff and it's really helped me in the last few years to be here. Q. Jeremy, how do you feel like you match-up with their guards and what are some things you guys are going to try to do to limit their guards? JEREMY PARGO: I feel we match-up pretty well. We're not going to step out there on the court and run from any challenges or anything like that. But matching up with those guards and seeing those guards on film and watching some of the game yesterday they're really good. They shoot the ball well and they're pretty crafty off the ball screens. And they pretty much make right decisions every time off the ball screen or on the open floor. We have to take away some of the easy looks and not let them do anything easy out there. And not let them get comfortable, if you let a guy get comfortable that's really good, he can hurt you really bad. Q. Josh, Illinois much like you guys, had a bit of a size advantage last night. It's not something they took advantage of. How important is it that you guys really use to the fullest extent the size advantage you guys will have tomorrow night? JOSH HEYTVELT: You know, it's not only about the size. We have to do like we did the second half last night and pressure on defense. That's what created all the offense we had in the second half. And we know that's something we have to come out and do tomorrow. Even though they're a little bit smaller than we are tomorrow, their guys are physical inside and they rebound the ball really well, like a Tennessee. And we have to match those guys's intensity on the boards and play harder on defense than they do. Q. Jeremy, after losing the first two rounds or first round the last couple of years, how did it feel last night to come out and get over that lump? JEREMY PARGO: It felt great. Anytime you get a win it's always an atmosphere or a sense knowing you're going to have a chance to be successful. Anytime you get a win in an NCAA tournament it's a big accomplishment. The last few years we let the game get away from us, and last few years I've been the starting point guard. And I take a lot of the blame for that. This year we wanted to come out and focus on doing the thing that the coaches wanted us to do, taking away easy shots and creating shots for ourselves and play as a team. That's one of the things we did throughout that entire second half and in stretches in the first half. Q. Austin, what are your memories of last year's game with Western Kentucky, what stuck out to you? AUSTIN DAYE: They set a lot of ball screens. You have to be ready to show or help do what we're going to do. And we have to take advantage of our transition game, especially on the open court. Definitely try to get the ball inside to Josh, because he's been playing really well lately. And definitely he's our size advantage, and all around match their intensity, because they're a really good team and they can knock down a lot of shots at will, so we definitely have to be ready for it on defense. Q. Jeremy, I wonder if you could talk about the dynamic that this game provides in that Western Kentucky is in the position Gonzaga was eight or nine years ago, where they're trying to reach back-to-back Sweet 16's, validate and raise the level of its program. I know Coach Few has said you're not scrappy Gonzaga anymore, you guys are a national power. The role reversal may be them getting over you guys to elevate their program like you guys were a decade ago? JEREMY PARGO: I don't think it's a role reversal. Western Kentucky has been a team that's been good for a long time. This isn't the first time I've heard about them. This isn't the first time I've seen them. They have a great group of guys that execute and do everything the right way on the court to get wins. Last year you saw them go to Sweet 16 and have a chance to beat UCLA. It was exciting to watch those guys last year, because I know Brazelton and Courtney Lee. But they're just all around a good team. And I don't look at them as a mid-major or anything like that or chasing us or trying to do what we did or anything like that. They're a great team and they take advantage of the opportunities that they have. Q. Coach, Coach McDonald has talked a lot about modeling his program after you guys program and wanting to be where you guys are. How close do you feel like they're close to being a solid, every year program that has done some of the things you guys have done? COACH FEW: I think Jeremy summed it up best. I think they've had a great run. And I think again, trying to -- ours is a unique situation and we found our niche and it's worked tremendously for us. And I think they're out there in the midst of doing a great job of finding theirs. They're a perennial NCAA tournament team. They win their conference every year. It seems like they always win 20 plus games year in and year out. They were in the Sweet 16 last year. So I think they've had a great run. It seems like they've got the blueprint that works for them figured out. Q. What will you focus on in your pregame remarks for the team tomorrow? COACH FEW: Taking advantage of the opportunity. It will be 32 of us left going into tomorrow and we've just got to make sure that you leave it all out there on the floor. We can't let anything be left in the locker room or be left at home, whether it's our confidence, whether it's our effort, whether it's our energy, whether it's our concentration, any of that. It's all got to shine fully tomorrow. Q. On further reflection, what triggered last night when you guys just literally -- not literally, but exploded in the second half after kind of piddling around it seemed in the first half? COACH FEW: I don't see the piddling around part. I see really, really tough games this time of year. I mean look across the board today. Pitt was in a barn burner with East Tennessee State. Memphis yesterday. And these are good teams. I think probably the solution to all of this is for the committee not to assign public seeds, because I think it really tends to confuse the people out there in the masses. I mean the coaches know that you're facing really, really good teams in this tournament. So you know you're going to be in for a tough, tough either grinder of a game or a high possession game that's going back and forth. And fortunately we were able to string some stops together, which we weren't able to do at any point in the first half or any point at the start of the second half. And that was due because primarily Akron is a great or a really, really good basketball team that had been playing great these last couple of weeks. And so I think that's probably happened in a lot of these first round games that you saw. I thought we were very efficient on offense in the first half and just couldn't get any consistent stops. And then were very efficient in offense in the second half and finally were able to string together some stops. Q. A lot of their guys have changed from a year ago. They changed coaches. Do you notice a great deal of difference when you watch them? COACH FEW: Yeah, I think it's totally, totally different. You've changed coaching staffs. Last year they pressed us in a variety of ways up in Alaska. Brazelton had the ball in his hands a lot. They ran everything pretty much around Courtney Lee, as well they should have. And it's still Western Kentucky on their jerseys, but their personnel has changed and what they're doing offensively and defensively is different. The main thing that's carried over is they've got a lot of kids who have experience playing in the Sweet 16 and have confidence winning games in the NCAA tournament, they know how to do it. Q. Coach, it seems like every time you're up there there's somebody that says, you know, Davidson or Akron or Western Kentucky wants to build their program to be like Gonzaga. Do you start to roll your eyes, is it a compliment, is it pressure, are you tired of it? COACH FEW: A little of all of that, I would say. Seems to be a tad bit redundant, it seems to be. But at the end of the day it's flattering. I think it's great, but I really think that, like I said, we have our own blueprint and our own niche that worked for us with a great Jesuit education and a great community that was just starving for a basketball program. And a situation where myself and our staff have been there the entire time. And my president's been the same. My athletic director has been the same. And in this part of the country. So it's hard for me to comment on what somebody else has got somewhere else. And like I said, I think Western Kentucky has done a great job of figuring their situation out. And it seems to be working really, really well for them. They made a great hire with Kenny. I knew him. I'm very, very close friends with Rick Barnes of Texas and I knew him when he worked at Texas. And so that was a great hire by them. And it's paid dividends, obviously. Q. Coach, that stretch in the second half where you guys went on the big run and it seemed like it was pretty complete for you guys. How close was that to what you were trying to do in the entire game the way you played in that stretch? COACH FEW: We'd like to do that for 40 minutes every game, but I don't think that's realistic. Not every shot is going to go in like that. We made a lot of big shots and if we didn't make shots we got ourselves to the free throw line. We wanted to do that. We knew Akron fouled a lot. They have all year and we thought if we could be strong with the ball and slow down and keep attacking them we'd eventually get rewarded for it. Again, the difference was we were able to string together multiple stops, which we had not done prior to that and that got our transition game going, and we're way better when we can get stops and get out and run. That's what these guys love to do. That's when we're playing our best. Ironically we came in, I think, with the second lowest field goal percentage in the country, defensive field goal percentage in the country, and it was a little out of whack at the halftime. They had shot the ball really, really well. On our offensive efficiency chart they were clicking along at 1.2. We like teams at .90. We had them down to 36 percent defensive field goal percentage, which is about where we've been all year. So finally we got it to kind of average out. So it was a great job with our guys, making adjustments after the second half. Q. Coach, what do you see your biggest challenge tomorrow in the match-up with WKU? COACH FEW: Wow, I see a lot of challenges. The first one being that they've been here and been successful in this game most recently, getting themselves to a Sweet 16. The fact that -- they're really clicking on offense, really clicking. The guards are making great decisions and they're making shots and they're shooting the ball, relaxed and comfortable and confident. And then their offensive rebounding prowess is impressive. For them to do what they did to Illinois on the glass, and they have been doing that is something that will keep you up at night. So I'd say those things right there are probably first and foremost in my mind. End of FastScripts |
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