|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: PROVIDENCEMarch 17, 2010Ben AllenRandy BennettMickey McConnellOmar SamhanPROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND THE MODERATOR: We have the St. Mary's press conference. We're joined by St. Mary's student athletes, Ben Allen, Mickey McConnell and Omar Samhan. If anyone has any questions, we'll start off with questions for the student-athletes. Q. Congratulations. In the Atlantic 10, the league Richmond plays in, they're generally regarded as a difficult team to prepare for on short notice, match-up zone a little different offense. Wonder if you could talk about that a little bit. And if you found that short preparation time may be a handicap? BEN ALLEN: Yeah, definitely it might be a handicap, but we've been preparing the last couple of days pretty well, pretty extensively. We know they run the Princeton offense. And their defense is a lot of switching and match-up zones. I think we'll have our hands full offensively. But we have a good offensive team. And we match up well with them. And once we've had that preparation I think we'll be fine. Q. I know you've probably told the story a million times, how you go from Australia to the Bay Area, is it just because of Patty Mills, did you meet Patty Mills there? BEN ALLEN: Actually started at Indiana University. I was recruited there by Coach Rupp who was there at the time. I spent two years there and then transferred out to St. Mary's in 2007, that was the year Patty Mills got there. He was a pressure man, I was a redshirt junior. I sat out that year and played the last two years at St. Mary's. Q. Why St. Mary's? COACH BENNETT: I was on an Australian tour with a friend of mine, Lucas Walker, he was on the St. Mary's team, just transferred, as well, and he talked to me about transferring. I wasn't getting much playtime for Indiana, and I thought it would be a better idea for me to go out and get more playing time. Q. On Sunday you said you were going to watch as much video on Richmond as anybody could. How much have you watched and what have you learned from it? OMAR SAMHAN: I've watched a lot. I haven't been sleeping a ton lately. I learned a lot. They switch everything. There will be times when the point guard is guarding me, which I'm excited about. Defensively they switch everything and offensively they back-door Princeton offense. It's a lot to take in, but I think it's very guardable and I look forward to the challenge. Q. Could you estimate how many hours you've watched? OMAR SAMHAN: Ten, give or take. Mickey has been right there with me, popcorn and Richmond tapes. Q. Omar, can you talk a little bit about the experience in 2008 coming here and how that might help you for this week, just kind of knowing what to expect? OMAR SAMHAN: I think the biggest thing, we have a young team, the three of us are the only ones that have ever been to the tournament before. We talk about attitude. I think last year when we came here we were just happy to be here, we were excited we were part of the tournament. It was so much fun, we're in the bracket. This year is different, we want to win. We came with that intent. If we lose tomorrow, it will be a disappointment. It won't be, oh, we still had a good year, we'll still be disappointed. I think that's the biggest difference. If we hadn't been here before, we would still be happy to be here, but the fact that we've been here before and played in this game builds a lot and ads a lot to it. Q. Are you guys better than in 2008? OMAR SAMHAN: I think we are a better team. We lost two really good players, an NBA draft pick and Patty Mills and Diamon Simpson, but 1 through 11 we're much better. We really rely on each other better. We're relying on all 11 to go out there and do their part. I think as a team we're better and much more balanced. Q. Mickey, how have you guys handled this layoff that you've had? How anxious have you been since you played your conference championship game nine days ago? MICKEY McCONNELL: Yeah, it's been a long layoff for us, but after the conference tournament, as opposed to my first year when we went to the tournament, we didn't have to worry about getting in or not. So it's been relaxing the first couple of days, but it was nice we could get to business and get back to work and start preparing ourselves for this game. Early on in the week it was more about our own team as opposed to like what Richmond was doing. But I think the layoff's good, it gave us a chance to refresh a little bit. I think we'll be firing fresh in the game tomorrow. Q. Ben, do you or your Australian teammates have any connection with Richmond's player, Josh Duinker, have there been any communication between you? BEN ALLEN: No, I looked at the roster and saw there was an Australian, five of us and one of him. I don't know him. I joke I'm really old now, and I don't know any of them coming up, I'm not sure if the other boys know him, but it would be definitely something to know. Q. Ben, just to follow up on that question. Can you say who would be the most famous Australian to play over here, would you say? Who is the guy that was kind of like the pied piper in Australia, led a lot of people to come this way? BEN ALLEN: Andrew Gaze who played for Seton Hall, he played in the championship game. He won in nearly all levels. He went to the Spurs and won a championship there. But guys like Daniel Kickert, Adam Caporn who came through the St. Mary's program early on, Andrew Bogut who went through the Utah program, guys like that inspire all of us, and pave the way for the rest of us to come over and have good college careers. Q. Is it realistic to think you or any other double digit seed can win the tournament? OMAR SAMHAN: I think it's very realistic. It's what I plan on doing. So, yeah, it's -- why not? That's what I always ask people, because I said before, I'm planning on winning a national championship and people laughed. Someone has to win it, and there's 64 teams. Why not us? It's a very balanced field this year, there's not one or two teams that are just unbeatable I feel in my opinion. MICKEY McCONNELL: Yeah, definitely, I'd say it's not a stretch by any means. I think college basketball now the teams are kind of getting more even. And someone like the smaller conferences their programs are rising up a little bit. And they're getting better players, and I'd definitely say it's not a stretch that a double digit seed can win it. BEN ALLEN: Just to reiterate what those guys say, that's why they call it March Madness, any given day someone can upset anybody else. We're a 10 seed not a 16 seed, so we can definitely make a run in this tournament. Q. Ben, to look at your numbers at Indiana your first year, playing at St. Mary's. And this year looks like a pretty big quantum leap on paper. BEN ALLEN: Confidence is always the key for any player who wants to play well. You have confidence in your coach, the coach has got to have confidence in you. And that's definitely happened this year. I got more playing time. The coach is relying on me for some things, as well. It's nice to have that. Just playing with confidence is the big key. COACH BENNETT: I left my I Coach T-shirt back at the hotel, to match the I Assist, I Shoot, whatever shirt they have. We're excited to be in the tournament. We have some players that are going for the second time, that helps just having a little experience. We have a tough match up, tough team to prepare for. But just overall you're still playing, you're still alive. So anytime you're at that point this time of the year you're excited to be playing. Q. Why is Richmond difficult to prepare for? COACH BENNETT: Just both ends of the floor, their system offensively, Princeton system, for the most part, I mean, Mooney played at Princeton. We coached against him when he was at Air Force when he was there. So they're a little less Princeton than they were at Air Force, but still that system is different. It's totally different. So that takes time. And then the way they defend is whatever you want to call it, match-up zone or switching man, it's -- we haven't seen anybody who's run that. I don't know anybody else who runs it other than the guys who played or coached at Princeton. Those two things are difficult. Middle of March and you're seeing something you haven't seen the whole year. That's why they're tough to prepare for. And they have good players and well coached. Q. Your reaction that you had to be sent all the way across the country, A. And B, I saw you play last year against Providence, how different are you without Mills, who obviously kind of dominated your team? COACH BENNETT: Our reaction was -- I mean obvious, your first reaction is, oh, that's a long ways to go. We play on Thursday. We're playing a team that is not easy to prepare for. So I think just getting shipped out of the west was -- we weren't pumped about it, but your second reaction is, let's go. Let's go play, we're in it. We have a chance to win a game in the NCAA Tournament against a good team and see what you can do from there. You have to keep things in perspective. You can't worry about that stuff, where you're seeded, who you're seeded against, all that. You can only be concerned with what you can control and what we can control is how we play. That's our approach to it. We're a totally different team than we were last year. We had path Mills was a good player, we've lost 7 of our top 9 from that team. As Omar was saying, we're not rebuilding, we're remodeling, so we remodeled. It's a different team, different look. Ben Allen is a different type player that, shoot, coach a guy like Ben, six-eleven guy who plays like a point guard and facilitates your offense. So we're different. We're big. We're slow. We can really shoot and pass. Last year we were quick and athletic. We could pressure you into turnovers and things like that. So we're just a different team. Q. You mentioned after the Gonzaga win that that was obviously a huge step for your program, you kind of busted down that door. Now that you're here how important is it to get threes a one tournament win for that program to take that next step? COACH BENNTEE: It's important. I don't know how you gauge how important, but it's important. Every step you can make is important. And so here's a chance to do something we haven't done yet. Actually it hasn't been done at St. Mary's in 52 years. It's obviously not easy to do. But we have an opportunity to do it and I think it's hard to put yourself in a position to have an opportunity to do it. I think it's hard to -- I know it's hard to make the NCAA Tournament. We did that. We won a conference tournament championship. Now let's see what we can do. We just want to put our best foot forward when we're out here and play our A-game against a good team again. Q. I know it's tough to prepare for Richmond but is it a little easier than A, if you had to do it Thursday to Saturday with only one day to prepare and, B, without having Kyle on your staff? COACH BENNETT: Yes and yes. What helps us a little bit is our guys, they seem to be more grounded this year as far as being in the NCAA Tournament. I think a lot of it has to do we won our conference tournament. We knew we were in last Monday night. We had some time to come down off that high, so to speak, as far as winning the conference tournament and knowing you're in. We had four or five days before they announced the pairings. Once they announced the pairings I think we were on a compete mode again, getting ready to play. I think that helps us to be more ready to play and prepare. And then absolutely having Kyle on our staff, he coached there for us for a year. He's familiar with that system, and that's huge having that. They are not the same as they were at Air Force, so it's different. They have a different team. So some of it's the system. More of it's the team, who can do what for them. Their guards are good. They can shoot the ball well. They do a lot of things well. Having Kyle on the staff in this game, having Kyle on staff, period, it helps us, but in this game especially it helps us. Q. You've probably been asked this a lot and I apologize for having to get you to go over it again. It's not unusual for have one foreign player on your team, you have five. Can you talk about how that came about and why St. Mary's draws Australians? COACH BENNETT: You know what? I think good news travels fast and I think the first kid who came over here, Adam Ca porn came over and it was a fluke deal. We just happened to have a scholarship. And we took him really sight unseen. But he came over. He had a great experience. He started for us. I think he took the news back to the kids back at the institute of sport, and his friend, the one kid that we got after Adam was Daniel Kickert, and then Daniel ended up having a great career. And so I think they had a good rep over there. And the basketball community is not that big. So it's not like there's hundreds of players over there that are good enough to come over and play. There's maybe 10 to 15 a year. And so once you get in that, it's a small pool. Once you good get in there and have a good name, it makes it a lot easier. After that they were able to get Mills and Mills kind of opened up the flood gates as far as that goes because he's such a big name and a guy all the kids look up to. If it was good enough for Pat and Daniel and Caporn, I guess the rest of them thought it was good enough for them. Q. We were talking to Ben when he was in here just an while ago, his numbers the first three years at the college at level were modest. You look at his numbers now and it represents a huge break off for him. Did you anticipate that much growth and why is he better than last year? COACH BENNETT: It's easy to explain why he's better. He's getting more minutes. You get minutes you can put up numbers. I say that to the coaches and the players all the time, if you don't play you're not going to get confidence, you're not going to have good numbers. I've never seen a guy do it sitting on the bench. When he got his opportunity finally this year, he had an opportunity before, but when he finally -- diamond left, there are minutes he had to play for, so when he had his opportunity he was prepared. And I think he and Mickey are the two most improved players in our program from last year. They really made big jumps. They needed to make big jumps. We wouldn't be sitting here today if they didn't make big jumps. He's a unique player. He's a 6-11, point forward is what he is. He really has a great understanding of the game. He can see the game well. He guards a five-man, but we have Omar, so he has to find a way to guard a four-man. We make that work the best we can. But offensively, he makes Omar good. He makes Mickey, he makes all those guys good. He really doesn't care if he scores, he just cares if we score. He'll score when we need him to score, but that's just kind of how he can see the game. He's a special player. On the offensive end of the floor he's a special player. I don't know if I'll ever coach another one quite like him. I'm glad he's had the year he did and credit to him. He put in the time and got himself in shape and made the changes he needed to for us to have a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament. Q. What are the expectations of a double-digit seed in the tournament? COACH BENNETT: You know, we were just talking about this at dinner last night. The way the NCAA Tournament is now, 1 and 16, those are ones that have never been beaten. There's been a few 15's. But those are pretty much the ones -- you get a 1 or 2 seed you have a decisive advantage. I don't know if there's much advantage once it gets down to 5, 12, somewhere in there. 3, 4s, there's so much parity in college basketball now, just -- you don't know. You see three upsets, you see four upsets, and once it gets to 5, 12, that's almost a 50/50 game. And I do think the 7 through 10's are 50/50 games. We could have been a 9, we could have been an 8, depends on who is reading the resumes, I guess. And it could be flipped as far as I'm concerned who's a 7 and who's a 10. And not to say we're any better. I think it's even. 7 through 10, throw them in a hat, pick one, move one to the East, move one to the West, and there's your pairings. Q. Does Richmond's back-court remind you of any other team you faced this year? COACH BENNETT: Their back-court is really good. Any back-court that has two guys who can really score and dominate their team, Portland is a little bit like that. Gonzaga is like that with Matt Bouldin, those are the two that come to mind. Yeah, they're like that. They're good. They can both really score. The point guard, he just -- he's hard to scout, because he can get to the basket. He's very quick and he can make tough shots. That's why they're not more of a straight -- that's why I think they don't run just a straight Princeton system, they have a guard that is unique and very talented. They have two of them, but he's more of a penetrator that can use on balls and things like that so they use him that way. They have a balanced team, too. They have some other guys that compliment those guys that spread the floor shooting-wise. So they're more than a two-man show, that's for sure. But that is a good back-court. 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
|