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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: MINNEAPOLIS

March 22, 2009

Chris Wright

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA

Kansas Â– 60
Dayton - 43

MODERATOR: We are now joined on the dais by University of Dayton student-athletes. From my far left, Charles Little, Marcus Johnson, Chris Wright and Head Coach Brian Gregory. We will begin with an opening statement from Coach and then take questions for the student-athletes.
COACH GREGORY: Obviously, disappointed for this season to end. Because this has been such a great group to be around, not just when the season started, but back in -- a lot of these guys with the bus trip home last year from Columbus after losing in the NIT quarterfinals.
Our defense and our rebounding kept us in it a lot of the time today. And give them credit, their defensive game plan was good. And obviously when a talented team like Kansas sticks to a game plan like that, they will be hard to beat. And that's exactly what happened. Just couldn't make enough shots. Credit them on that.
And just kind of, you know, maybe physically wore down a little bit at the end. Just missed shot after missed shot. I heard Bill talk. I think he's right. I thought we had some good looks early and throughout the whole first 30 minutes of the game. And then, you know, you have five or six of those possessions in a row and they score on the other end. And now six-, seven-point game is 13, 14, 15 points and that's exactly what happened.
But give them credit, they are a talented team. Those two kids obviously are great players. But our guys, you know, we've never worried about the score. We've worried about how hard we've played and how competitive we've been.
And I am proud of the guys today, too, because they played extremely hard. We really did. So you just build on this and look at some things and move forward.
MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Charles, Congratulations on a great career first. Just wanted to know your emotions and feelings as you left that final time.
CHARLES LITTLE: I know it was disappointing because we lost, but most disappointing because I will not be out there with those guys in spring and summer. And just the day-in and day-out things of being on a team. It just sucks that it's over.

Q. Charles, can you talk about Aldrich's ability to affect shots inside? Not just blocking but altering them?
CHARLES LITTLE: Yeah, I mean, one of our greatest strengths is our attacking the basket. You know, you get past the first guy and you look up and there is a mountain in the middle of the lane, you know. It would be kind of frustrating.
But he was down there, he was just down there and he's big. So it is hard to get a shot over him. When I did, it wasn't a good shot. And he altered a whole bunch. And so he's a great player and he played his game.

Q. Chris, can you compare Cole to other big men you faced this year? Where does he compare to those guys?
CHRIS WRIGHT: That was the first time, you know, in one game I got my shot blocked or altered that many times. So it's hard to compare, you know, Cole obviously to anybody. He is a unique player where he can just stand there and block shots without jumping off the ground.
And he did a good job of getting his hand on almost every shot we took in the lane. So it's really hard to compare him to anybody.

Q. Charles, I noticed when you were going through the line that Cole stopped you and said something to you. Do you recall what he said?
CHARLES LITTLE: He just told me to keep attacking. I loved how you attacked and sorry your career's over.

Q. This can be for any of the guys. When you guys missed a few shots early on, did it seem like that affected maybe some open shots later on for you guys?
MARCUS JOHNSON: No, I wouldn't say it affected us. I mean, you know, Coach tells us those shots are not always going to fall but I still have to be aggressive and take shots no matter what.

Q. You know, even as poorly as you guys shot at times, it was really like a four-point game there early in the second half. I guess what happened there, you couldn't get over the hump?
CHRIS WRIGHT: I would just say going into the second half, I mean, we was only down six. We knew we had to come out with a lot of energy and continue to attack and continue to play our defense. But there was just times when we would get a turnover and a steal, or an offensive rebound and we just couldn't capitalize. And, you know, they took advantage of some of our turnovers or shots that we took. They was able to finish down low. And the shots we took, they just didn't fall.

Q. Any of you guys. Just at the start of the game they jumped out on you quick and then I think got a 10-point lead. Were you guys maybe rushed or anxious a little bit or a little jittery or a little different feel than Friday?
CHARLES LITTLE: I think we was just kind of -- we were anxious and didn't slow down. We had a couple off the rebounds, and a couple of shots at the basket we kind of rushed it. Maybe with Cole being down there, big person down there, just try to get it off quicker so he doesn't block it, or we just didn't take our time down there like we usually do.

Q. Maybe for Chris and Marcus. You know, reflect a little bit maybe on this season and what's ahead for you guys next year.
MARCUS JOHNSON: I mean, we had a great season, you know. Made great strides as a team, individually, players, too. But, you know, we just kind of don't want to dwell on this loss, but just have to learn from it, you know. And, you know, get in with the coaches and, you know, do some film watching and try to work on stuff that we needed to work on this year. And basically just get better.
CHARLES LITTLE: Yeah, I mean, to piggyback what he said, it was a great season and this is a hard pill to swallow losing. You want the game to continue to continue. This is a road you hate to go down. But if you don't learn from the mistakes that you made and the loss, you know, what's the point of even starting the season next year.
That's what it's all about. Just being a student-athlete and being a competitor, you have to be hungrier than you were the year before because it's going to be hard for us to have the same type of season. We have to work a lot harder if we want the same results or even better results.
MODERATOR: Okay, gentlemen. Thank you very much. We'll excuse the student-athletes back to the locker room. Questions for Coach.

Q. Brian, you talked about how good they are at the 1 and the 5. But did you think that they'd have to get more from those other guys to beat you? They got a loss from those two guys obviously. But didn't you think that the other three guys were going to have to give them more than what they gave them?
COACH GREGORY: Yeah, I didn't think we'd only score 43 points, though, you know. And those 16-72 from the field. So if we don't do that, then, yeah, they have to get some more from the other guys.
You know, Reed gave them some stuff off the bench in terms of the six free throws. I thought a big point in the game was Mario Little hit five straight points. We had two miscoverages on the ball screen stuff in the first half.
We were struggling, you know. Didn't get off to a great start. You know, as I said, we are not pretty. There's no question at times we're down right brutal offensively. But the fight our guys showed to hang in there. He scores those five points. I look up and we're down seven, you know. And if we get stops and have proper coverages then, you know -- but so when -- they're a really good defensive team, we're a really good defensive team. Five, six points from a couple of those guys are big points, are crucial. And they become even bigger when you think about how well, you know, Collins played and how well Aldrich played.
So as they advance and maybe play some teams that are a little better offensively than us, they will probably have to get some more. But maybe they won't play teams that are as good defensively as us so they may have a little easier time getting them.

Q. Coach, just wondering if you could reflect on the progression that Charles has made as a player and as a man from the time that he's arrived from Cleveland until now.
COACH GREGORY: Well, you know, I told him, you know, there was times if I told him that we'd be in Minneapolis in the Dome playing in the second round of the NCAA tournament and that that's where his career was going to end, he would have never believed me, you know.
And so the final destination of his last game speaks volumes for where he's come as a man. Because he has grown up. He will graduate in May. He will go overseas probably and play professionally. He's ready to do that. He's matured enough that he can do that. He's a guy that is fun to be around and is, you know, going to be a big part of this program because that's what we do now. Our former players are actively involved and so forth.
He knows, I think, some of the lessons he learned. I think he can help some of these guys. These two guys up here. I think a big key today was, you know, us not being able to make those one or two-dribble pull-up jump shots where everything has to be taken to the rim, taken to the rim. And this is the first game we played against a caliber a team like this, this Kansas.
You know, sometimes you play those teams and they say they can't, we're going after them, they can't beat us. But we can. This Kansas, and to Bill's credit, had a very good game plan with really talented players to boot. And so we couldn't make -- we're not a great pull-up 18-foot-shooting team, and Charles is obviously an example of that. Hopefully you will talk to Chris and Marcus about that because they have to get better at that facet of the game and we have a lot of guys that have to get better.
So really proud of Charles, you know, and the progress that he's made. Every bit and more so as a man than just as a player.
But you look at the last 10 games here, we wouldn't be playing today if it wasn't for Charles Little.

Q. Brian, looking past the scoreboard in this game right here, what's two or three things that should be remembered about this team I guess?
COACH GREGORY: I think you hit a good point right off the bat. We never evaluated our team, our program, what we were doing by the scoreboard. We're just very fortunate that 27 times we had more points than the other team. And that kind of takes care of itself. And we're not going to do that today. We're not going to let, you know, in particular the last eight minutes of that game to deter us from what we are doing.
I think we've taken some great steps in this past year in this program. Not only by the commitment by the players, but, also, the culture and the environment that our players are surrounded in every day. And they've obviously helped create that.
You know, I just know that this bus ride to the airport and the trip home we're going to have guys thinking about what they need to do to get better now. And that they tasted a little bit and it's pretty good. But I think they want more, too.
And the one thing is, I mean, I've been through it enough now, this is hard. It's hard to get in. It's hard to win a game. And it's hard to advance. And you have to do a lot of things.
We've made great strides individually and as a program since that trip home last year from Columbus and the NIT quarterfinals. The challenge now is that same jump isn't going to be good enough because we've gotten better. So as you keep getting better, the room for improvement is smaller. You have to work that much harder. And that's going to be the big challenge. The guys are going to get a couple of weeks off to think about that, and then get back to work.

Q. Can you compare Cole's performance today to some of the best big-man performances that you've seen?
COACH GREGORY: Obviously he was dominant around the basket. There's no question about that.
You know, he's able to alter shots, change shots. The thing that he does and no one mentioned that I think he does better than anybody that I've seen in recent years is be able to alter the shot and then still get the rebound. You know, because he's not the most agile guy but he has great hands. So a lot of times guys -- like we have guys that can block some shots, but then they're never around to rebound on the back side or whatever. And he does that and that's why he got 20 rebounds.
You know, as an assistant, I have seen some pretty good big men. There was a kid my first year at Dayton, a kid from St. Joe's who plays in the NBA now, I can't even remember his name. Do you remember the big kid, the 6-10 kids, Jones. Dwayne Jones or something. He was a good shot blocker, great timing, big and strong.
But the one thing that their defensive game plan today depended so much on Aldrich to do that. If he doesn't do it as well as he did today, obviously the score may be closer, it might even be a little bit different. So the thing that was impressive to me, that's exactly what they needed to win, and that's exactly what they got.

Q. Brian, all things considered, when you walked off the floor at halftime, you had to feel pretty good about yourself. Number one. And, number two, if a team can make Kansas shoot jump shots, they can be had. Would you agree with that?
COACH GREGORY: Well, I think we're pretty good defensively and we have been all year long.

Q. But they got a lot of layups.
COACH GREGORY: Yeah, and they got a lot the last what, nine minutes, eight minutes, you know. I mean, they got them throughout the game, too, but that's kind of where they extended. Because I think -- I don't know what the score was, but seven or eight minutes to go it is still an 8-point game. By the grace of God we make a couple of 3s, who knows what happens.
You have to keep them in front of you. There's no question about that. But it is easier said than done. Collins is really good off the ball screens. And they set so many of them and at so many different angles. Especially one-day prep it is tough to simulate exactly all the different coverages that you need on that.
I thought we did a good job of closing out on Morningstar and Reed. You know, guys that can make those shots. I thought we did a great job on Taylor, who I think has been playing the last five games, he has been playing very, very well for them and will be a heck of a player for Bill.
Because guards like that, you know, when he was at Illinois I saw the progression of those guards that he had, you know, took Illinois to the national championship game. But I think he's going to be good.
Everybody needs to shoot a little better, you know. But, you know, if they shoot well, then they're really, really good.

Q. Brian, I just wanted to, you know -- what you said earlier little bit. Winning in an NCAA tournament game, do you feel like now with the proof the guys have it can really snowball for you, what you demand from them?
COACH GREGORY: You know what? When you get to this point, the players are going to be the key in that. You know, because to get to take another step as a program, it's going to be the players that are going to have to be demanding that from each other instead of the coaches demanding it from them.
In the initial steps of building the type of program that we all want, the coach has to take the lead on that and do it step-by-step. And this is how you do it, okay, you guys are coming back here at 9:00 tonight to shoot, you know. And setting up all that stuff. And did you watch film today? All of the different things that -- you know.
The next step now is for our guys to be doing that on their own, and to be London Warren and Marcus pulling Chris Johnson and Paul Williams into doing that.
You know, we didn't shoot many free throws today. I wish we would have shot a few more to be honest with you. But, you know, we can't shoot 65 percent from the free-throw line next year. You know, that's one area that if you just said one area right now we have to do a better job of that, and that's locking down the correct rhythm, rotation, whatever you've got to do.
And now you've got to spend time. The only way to get better is time. You need time and you have to spend time and now it's up to our guys to push each other to make that time.

Q. Coach, you started talking about your feelings at halftime. How did you feel at the half?
COACH GREGORY: I said we're down six, you know, we missed some quality shots. Obviously, I thought there was times we could have maybe drove through contact a little more aggressively. I thought we bailed out on a couple of shots. I wasn't happy with that. If we are going to miss it, at least, you know, draw some blood or something, you know what I mean? We've got do that.
We had I think 11 or 9 or 8 offensive rebounds, nothing to show for it.
You know, I think they scored 11 points the first four minutes and 16, 17 maybe the last, you know, 16 minutes or whatever. So I thought our defense was pretty good. We wanted to shore up our ball screen coverage. And I thought, you know, our defense was good up until the eight-minute mark. We got a little extended and stretched. But, yeah, at halftime I was pleased with where we were at.
The one thing I thought is the reason we are only down 6 and we haven't played that great is because we are pretty good. And if we can do a couple of things, like I said, just make a couple of shots, you know, it could be a little different. It's not that we're that -- at times we struggled to shoot the ball.
And, as I said, give Kansas credit because a lot of times a team of that caliber will play us and just say we're better than them. And you know what? A lot of teams have found out that they're not when they just say we will pressure you, we will do all this stuff. We're not going to have a specific game plan. Give Bill credit because it's the first team that had a specific game plan in terms of different ways to guard us. And we had to make some shots in order to, you know, get through that game plan and we just didn't make enough shots to do it.
MODERATOR: Coach, thank you.
COACH GREGORY: Thank you, guys. Thanks everybody.

End of FastScripts

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