|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
DICK'S SPORTING GOODS NIT SEASON TIP-OFFNovember 27, 2009Derek GlasserHerb SendekNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK THE MODERATOR: Coach is going to start with an opening statement and we'll take questions. HERB SENDEK: Questions, anybody? Q. Your impressions on that second half? They seemed to go stone cold for ten minutes. Was that your defense doing all that? HERB SENDEK: I think any time there's a run like that in basketball, it's usually a combination of factors. Most certainly our defense got better. Then it was the first half. We had a very good defensive effort in the second half. And at the same time, you know, for that kind of run to occur, they missed some shots that in the first half they were knocking down. But from our perspective, you know, Arizona State's side of the ball, we were much better in the second half, and our defense allowed us to get back in the game and eventually win. Q. What did you guys gain as a team coming here, playing Duke, playing LSU and how does it help you going forward? HERB SENDEK: We try to participate in an event like this every year. It's always extra special coming to New York and playing in the Garden. It's a wonderful experience for our team. And I think anytime you play against outstanding competition like we did this week, there's always a lot there to learn. And so we'll continue to watch the tape and take all these experiences and try to build on them. Q. At 5-1, what are you happy with now and what needs to improve as you go forward? HERB SENDEK: It's early in the season for everybody. Traditionally this was the first weekend of basketball. Teams were playing their first game either today or tomorrow for years. And now we've already played six games. But it's still early. And we have to get better across the board on a broad-based front right now. Q. Talk about Eric and just what he was able to do. This is what you kind of envisioned for him, wasn't it? HERB SENDEK: Yes. I think it says a lot about him as a person. Because let's face it, he didn't have the best of games on Wednesday night. You can only imagine there was probably some extra burden for him to play in that game. That wouldn't be easy for anybody. It wasn't the best of nights. And then the first half kind of was a continuation. And so in midstream to kind of check that and all of a sudden play a terrific 20 minutes helped put us on -- he put us on his back in the post and rebounded and finished with 17 and 8, three assists. Had some nice passes to cutters. I think when you're able to turn it around midstream like that on a stage like this, it says a lot about you as a person as much as it does about you as a player. Q. What happened Abbott? HERB SENDEK: I don't know the extent or the details, other than he got a cut I think near or on his eye socket. He was having a hard time seeing and he was in quite a bit of pain. But I think he's going to be okay. But I don't know categorically yet the extent or the details. Q. Did they take him to a hospital? HERB SENDEK: I don't think so. We have a team physician here who is attending to him along with our athletics trainer. But needless to say it was really scary because, you know, we had just welcomed him back. He just now working his way back into the lineup. And when he went down, you know, sprawling in pain, I had no idea what happened. I didn't know if it was his knee, his ankle, what happened. When I got out there, it still wasn't clear right away. He wasn't saying much. He was kind of more just in anguish. THE MODERATOR: Anything else? HERB SENDEK: You made Derek walk all the way down here and didn't even ask him a question? Q. We're doing you first. We knew how portable you were. HERB SENDEK: Was I pretty good today? Q. You were good. HERB SENDEK: Did you get some good stuff? Q. I wrote some things down. HERB SENDEK: You can probably win the Pulitzer with some of those quotes. Q. You were better than Belichick today. HERB SENDEK: I was? Q. No doubt. HERB SENDEK: That's always been my goal. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Derek. Q. Derek, talk about the PAC-10 a little bit and the fact that certainly kind of taking its hit so far. I know you are worried more about yourself than anything. Look at what's happening around the PAC-10 right now and say to yourself, you know what, maybe we have a shot here to do a little better than we even thought before the season started. DEREK GLASSER: Well, before the season started, our goal was always to win the PAC-10. A lot of people doubted us because we lost James (Harden) and Jeff (Pendergraph). But I still think we have a lot of talent on the team and we're a very competitive team. Our thing is we play defense. As long as we play defense like we did in the second half of this game and the first half of the Duke game, we're going to be able to compete with anybody. Q. What was Coach's reaction at halftime when they shot 60 percent on you guys? DEREK GLASSER: I'm not sure if I can say some of those things. But, you know, none of the coaches were happy. They came in the locker room and let us have it. They gave us a little spark and we answered in the second half with really keeping them off the offensive glass and trying to double down on Tasmin and Storm, because they were really hurting us on the glass and in the post in the first half. Q. Can you just assess the team's mind-set coming in flying across the country, playing in the most famous arena and all that jazz, what you set out to do, what you did do and maybe what you left on the table? DEREK GLASSER: Our conference tournament is in the Staples Center. I think playing in that arena and normally we play games in U.S. Airways where the Suns play. So I guess it is the most famous arena. But, you know, I think Staples Center is a little nicer than Madison. That's for sure. Q. It's newer. DEREK GLASSER: Yeah. We came here to beat Duke. I don't know if we had them, but we kind of felt we let that game get out of our hands. They're a very good team and they made the shots down the stretch. But not winning the first game, we had to get out of here winning one. We couldn't lose two games. So right when the game was over, we turned the page to LSU and we knew we had to beat LSU and go 1-1 back home. I think overall it was a good experience for us, especially to play a team like Duke. Just to see where we're at as a team. And I think it was overall a good experience. Q. Talk about Eric and his importance to this offense, especially with Jeff gone, he seemed like the most likely to give you post offense and the post presence. It looks like he's done that in the first six games. DEREK GLASSER: I'm going to hit on what Coach said. It's hard to rebound after a game like he had against Duke. I don't know what he had, eight turnovers or whatever it was. Especially playing against his old team, he came back and had a great, great second half. And he was one of the reasons why we were able to turn it around, his defensive presence and rebounding and able to put the ball in the hole in the other end. THE MODERATOR: Anything else? Thanks, Derek. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|