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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 14, 2010Devoe JohnsonTubby SmithLawrence WestbrookINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA Ohio State – 90 THE MODERATOR: We'll ask coach Smith to make an opening statement. COACH SMITH: First of all, I want to congratulate Ohio State. They proved why they're one of the best teams not just in this league but in the country. That's why they have one of the best players in the country in Evan Turner. I don't know, we sort of hit the wall in the second half there. I thought we gained some momentum going into halftime, but that wasn't the case. Q. Obviously a few minutes before the selection show, what do you think about what you all have done to make a case for an NCAA Tournament bid at this point? LAWRENCE WESTBROOK: Obviously today's loss was disappointing, but it's not in our hands. I think that we had a good run here, and we showed everybody that we're a good team. We've just going to have to hope and pray that we get in. DEVOE JOHNSON: Yeah, just like Lawrence said, I think that we came and had a good showing here at this tournament and beat some quality teams, so I just hope and pray we get in. Q. If you guys do get in, what you did here, do you think that -- what does that do for your confidence, being able to advance and maybe win the first game? DEVOE JOHNSON: Well, I just think we've been playing good basketball with the exception of today, but our confidence will be high. We'll see who we have to play and just get ready for them and try to come and play and compete against them. LAWRENCE WESTBROOK: Same thing, just gave us confidence having a good showing here. This was kind of like a tournament, NCAA atmosphere, so the young guys will be used to it, and just gave us confidence that we can play with anybody. Q. How much was fatigue a factor, especially with the run you had to get to this game? LAWRENCE WESTBROOK: For me personally, I wasn't tired. I mean, I don't think that -- Devoe runs the mile in like four minutes, so I don't think he was tired. You can't use being tired as an excuse when you have a game like this. They got hot in the second half, and that was the game. DEVOE JOHNSON: Yeah, I don't think physical fatigue was a problem. I think our mental fatigue kind of hurt us. I think we started making -- me especially, I had four turnovers on the night, instead of making some mental mistakes, the mistakes we didn't make early on in the tournament, and it cost us. Q. For both guys, Evan Turner, he gets a lot of attention, but when all four of those backcourt guys are going, how tough is it to face Ohio State? DEVOE JOHNSON: Well, yeah, they're four great guards. They kind of all spread out, all take it to dribble, shoot the three, so they're a great team in that aspect. LAWRENCE WESTBROOK: You know, they played good tonight. They're just tough to beat. Q. What did you learn about your team in the tournament? Guys like Colton put together a pretty good run of games, Devoe, yourself, you kind of stepped up, maybe raised your game to another level. Talk about what you learned about each other and yourselves. DEVOE JOHNSON: Well, we always knew we had these kind of talented players, and it's good to see guys stepping up. And that's what we're going to need from here on in, young guys, older guys that want to step up to be a real good team. LAWRENCE WESTBROOK: Same thing, I'm just happy for some of the guys. They got a lot of confidence. Colton played really well, and he's worked hard every day at practice, so I'm happy for him and everybody else. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Smith? Q. There's been some talk about expanding the tournament to 96 teams. I'm sure today you'd be probably in favor of that, but generally speaking, what is your view on that proposal? COACH SMITH: Well, I've been in favor for a while. I think it's a great -- one of the greatest sporting events in the world, and certainly here, and I think I mentioned before, there was 340-some Division I schools, and that's been expanded -- we keep expanding there, but we haven't expanded the tournament. Aggregate, make sure you expand and allow some more student-athletes to have a chance to experience this wonderful atmosphere of March Madness, so I'm in favor of expansion. Q. Could you discuss the problems that David Lighty presents to a team? COACH SMITH: Well, as you mentioned, with four guards like that that can do so many things, that are so versatile, take you off the dribble, shoot the jump, shoot the three, and they complement each other so well. All of them play 39 minutes apiece. Obviously they're well-conditioned, endurance and stamina, and you can see in their execution -- we were making runs. We made a couple runs the second half but they were able to keep us at bay or make a shot or make a play, get a stop. And Lighty is coming back off of having had to sit out a year, I'm sure he's learned a lot, but I've always been impressed with him, when you have the line that he's had, it's pretty impressive. Q. This is a team that basically returned a lot of guys that made the NCAA Tournament last year. Can you just talk about the group that a lot of those guys returning, Devoe and Lawrence and guys -- how do you think they've grown since that NCAA Tournament game, and what they can take into the tournament if you guys make it? COACH SMITH: You know, we've -- looking back at last year is hard, but you hope a culmination of the year of playing in the Big Ten against the type of competition we've had to play against and in the last four days, playing the competition we've had to play, not just the experience from last year's NCAA Tournament, I think we'd play well in the NCAA Tournament. We're never going to have to play four games in a row again, so right away I could see the fatigue on us, either mental, as Devoe said -- physically you think you can go and you're ready. I've coached in -- this is the second that I've coached in, I think, one back at Kentucky, and it's a challenge. That wall, it'll hit you at a certain point in time, and you're hoping that other guys will step up and make plays. I know Blake, he's probably completely dead. His shot I don't think was barely getting to the rim, stuff like that, because he's having to work so hard. A team like Ohio State makes you work too hard at both ends of the court because they're so long, athletic, strong at the offensive end. They can beat you in so many ways. They do a good job of switching. So when you have four guys that can guard anybody on the court, it makes it tough. Q. Do you think you've done enough to earn an NCAA Tournament bid? COACH SMITH: Well, we did go 9-9, and I don't pay a lot of attention to that to be honest with you. We try to focus on doing what we have. But we've played a pretty competitive schedule. We've played a -- we got hot at the right time, these last few games. I think it's a great story line, guys that have had to overcome some adversity this year. But I think the most important thing is I do think we're one of the best 65 teams in the country. Q. You said after yesterday's game that you were primarily concerned with whether your team would give its best effort today. How close do you think they came to that? COACH SMITH: Well, I think we always give it a great effort. It was just unfortunately you run into a team that shoots 65 percent, like we did yesterday in the first half, and that's what can happen to you. So we had a tremendous effort. You could see that we were sort of hitting the wall. When guys make those threes from there, when you're playing tough defense, it takes a lot out of you, and that's why we have to have guys step up. We had some people step up. I'm happy for Lawrence Westbrook. I'm happy for our seniors, Damian and Devron because they all played well and they've been a part of something special getting to this point, and hopefully our underclassmen will appreciate that and come back and do even more next year. Q. Devoe made the All-Tournament Team, and he kind of was your best player here through the week. Just talk about what it's going to take maybe for him to raise his game to another level and become an all-conference type of guard. COACH SMITH: He's got to get stronger. He's got to get stronger. That's his biggest weakness right now. But he has great stamina. He's very competitive. He's got to get comfortable in handling the ball. Sometimes he has a tendency because of his competitiveness to want to do a little too much. But he's made that transition to the point guard spot very well. I'm happy for him. He deserves to be on the All-Tournament Team. He did a -- he pretty much pulled us out against Michigan State, and he's played against some great competition here. That's a great accomplishment on his part. Q. Ohio State, they seemed to go in spurts, and in the second half they didn't miss a shot in forever. What were you thinking at the time? You've been a part of great teams. Maybe speak to how that just has a snowball effect, just keeps going. COACH SMITH: Well, you're right, we probably should have changed defense. They did a good job of changing defense on us late in the game. We were trying to make a run. They extended their defense and went with a 1-2-2 there, and that caused us to have to take more time. But again, they can -- they have so many weapons. We were trying to -- really, I thought we could utilize our bench and kind of wear them down, but we never could get into a -- they're good in transition as far as transition defense, as well. We never could get it to the basket or attack the rim like we wanted to, and it just seemed like they were much more -- I guess much more -- not better conditioned, but you could say they were fresh. And you could see that we weren't in that latter part of the second half. I think that's why they got a lot of open looks, and I think that's what happened to us from a physical as well as a mental standpoint. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you. End of FastScripts |
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