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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: PROVIDENCEMarch 17, 2010Armon BassettD.J. CooperJohn GroceKenneth Van KempenPROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Ohio student-athletes, Armon Bassett, D.J. Cooper and Kenneth Van Kempen. Q. Kenneth, playing against a guy in Monroe who does not only all the things a good, big guy does, but is an excellent passer. Talk about how that added dimension makes it a tougher guard or tougher assignment for you guys? KENNETH VAN KEMPEN: It's going to be tough. But we take it as a challenge. We try to prepare for him. And for me and the other bigs, we do whatever we can to stop him. We'll see tomorrow how we're going to. But I think we're going to see how it's going to work out. Q. Is he little bit unique in that's the first type of big guy you've seen with that type of skill set, being able to make his teammates better? KENNETH VAN KEMPEN: No, I don't think he's the only one we saw this year. But he's a complete big man. What you said, he has pass and he can go off to dribble in a low post game. He's tall, too. He's probably the tallest big man that was able to do that this year. Q. Armon, you've had an interesting journey over the past few years. Can you talk about what it's like to get back to the tournament in light of that. ARMON BASSETT: No, just got to thank God to keep on blessing me, had some hiccups, but I am glad to come out of those and weather the storm and I'm just happy to be here again. Q. What has this experience been like for you? You've had time to think about what this means to Ohio University and to Bobcat basketball, can you put that into words? KENNETH VAN KEMPEN: When we came back to Athens, it means a lot to the community. They showed us a lot of -- you saw that when we had the reception. It means a lot to them but it means a lot to us. It's a great atmosphere to be in, especially for me as a senior and never been to a stage like this, so that's nice. But we're not done yet, so we try to keep on going. D.J. COOPER: Like KVK said, just excitement around the campus. It's a great feeling being a freshman. I've never been, in the regular tournament, but now to make the NCAA Tournament it's just a great feeling. ARMON BASSETT: Just to add on that, the fans in the community supporting us, just from where we came from, we was 9 and 9 at one point, and just I don't know how to find the right words for it. But this group of guys just managed to rally. And we got high at the end of the season and we never stopped believing in ourselves and that's why we're here now. Q. D.J., you're a pressure man, you've played at a high level all season, haven't backed down, but obviously this will be the biggest game, biggest opponent you've faced all year. What have you gotten from the others in trying to stay within yourself on a big stage tomorrow night? D.J. COOPER: From Armon, just leadership, he has experience, he's been here before, he played in big time stages, like that. Coach Groce, he always kept me calm, whenever I needed something like that. And just keep me calm and confident. Q. Has it been a struggle at times this year to dial it back a little bit, to stay in control and not get overwhelmed? D.J. COOPER: At times, you've got people calling you, stuff like that, telling you how good you are, stuff like that. But Coach does a great job telling us we really haven't did anything yet. Q. This most certainly would be an upset, but you're planning on doing that. How does this get done? ARMON BASSETT: Well, we obviously have got to play well. Hopefully we can get some shots to fall for us and try to push the pace, what we do well is run. And we've got to try to slow Monroe down and really just try to put it altogether all the way around the board. We've got to do everything good. But we're playing good right now. We think we can. KENNETH VAN KEMPEN: Yeah, you know, we've just got to keep going, what we started play together as a team and work hard and keep them running, what Armon said, I think, we'll have a chance. Q. KVK, what's the toughest thing about Monroe? You've got a chance to study him. What's the biggest challenge you've got facing a guy like that? KENNETH VAN KEMPEN: You know, he's, just what I said earlier, he's really a complete player. It doesn't matter where he is on the floor. He can catch you off the dribble or post you up. I think if he's got you too deep you're kind of -- you're in a really big problem. So you have to keep him a little bit out of the paint. But I think what I said the hardest part is just that he's so complete and he can do a lot of things to help his team out. So that's it. Q. D.J. and Armon, if it comes down to the last shot, which one of you takes it? D.J. COOPER: Armon, he's got the experience. It's not who's better than who, it's about the team right now. And he's been hot the last six games, so why not let him take the last shot. ARMON BASSETT: I guess it's whoever is more hot at the time. He's taken a couple of shots at the end of the game. If he feels like he can make it and he gives it to me then I'll let him shoot the last shot, too. THE MODERATOR: Now joining us, Coach Groce. Any opening comments, Coach Groce. COACH GROCE: Just obviously thrilled to be a part of such a special tournament, excited for our guys and excited for the way that we've been playing here late in the year. They've worked very hard to get to this point. I understand that it's a tremendous challenge tomorrow night against Georgetown, but one our guys are looking forward to. Q. How much of a match-up problem does Monroe present for you guys? Just on tape, what does he look like to you? COACH GROCE: He looks like a great player. He's been impressive on film. He's a mismatch problem as you alluded to in that he has the ability to play both inside and out. He's very good in the high post. I think what makes him special is he's such a gifted passer. He makes guys around him better. He's obviously a terrific rebounder, as he's almost averaging or right at a double-double. We'll have our hands full with him but looking forward to the challenge. Q. Obviously you're a big underdog and that's nothing new for you guys lately. How do you build upon what you've done the last two weeks and get that to carry over and get your guys to believe they can win tomorrow night? COACH GROCE: Every time our guys take the court have that belief and we prepare in that way, certainly have great respect and humility for all of our opponents. I think our guys have really grown to do that late in the year and that's part of the reason we've matured and been able to play some really good basketball. But our guys have been an underdog and have carried a chip on their shoulder really going back to January. So in some respects it's kind of old hat a little bit. Q. Obviously you've prepared for these guys, or this kind of offense before, as even John the third alluded to earlier. I know you're not giving away secrets. But what is a key about going against this offense, I'm talking about Georgetown? COACH GROCE: The first thing they do obviously with the offense is they get great player movement. They run a lot of their entries and different things that they run are through Greg Monroe. And again he's such a mismatch problem as we alluded to earlier and can really play inside and out. Their guard play is terrific, with Wright and Clark and Freeman on the perimeter, their team shot 40 percent from the 3 in conference games, which is tremendous, 38 overall. They've really got you in a grip a little bit in that you've got to make decisions on how you're going to defend Monroe within what they do offensively. And then obviously you have great respect for their perimeter play with some of those guys shooting numbers. Some of those guys, if not all of them, are playing their best basketball all year, run to the title game. So again we'll have our hands full. Q. You're a guard-driven team and with D.J. playing so well throughout the season. Have you given him any extra direction or extra attention this week in terms of letting him know not to try to do too much in the biggest game of his young career? COACH GROCE: Obviously both he and Armon have a lot of -- one of the things that I think both of those guys do good is they have a lot of swagger. D.J. has played in big games before. And I've not necessarily given him any special attention or extra instructions. We've talked briefly but one of the things I've tried to do this week is stay as routine as possible. I think that's important, game in and game out, that I stay consistent with them. And we've tried to do that probably as much as anything. Q. Obviously going against a guy like Monroe is not just one guy on him, it's a rotation or a group of guys. How important will it be for your bench especially for a guy like Asown Sayles to come in and give you solid minutes against Monroe? COACH GROCE: He's been terrific throughout the course of the last few weeks. He understands his role, and takes pride in it. I thought the minutes he played on the championship game on Saturday night were huge. He had a couple of big put backs that helped put us over the edge. Really we need everybody to be able to play. In a game like this you've got to have great contributions from everybody playing their role at the highest level that they can possibly play it. Q. I was asking you a while ago, you've seen this offense before. How different is the one you saw, you're getting ready to play against in the 2007 Final Four. Obviously the personnel dictates what they're all about more than anything else? COACH GROCE: It does. There certainly are some similarities but there's also some differences. Coach Thompson does such a terrific job. They're so well coached that he's going to do a great job within his offense of making sure that he puts his players in positions of strength. He's done that with their personnel within the offense. That stood out to me when I think about watching the film back in 06, 07, compared to now. He's certainly made some adaptations that really fit his personnel and make them difficult to defend. Q. I know this was an emphasis this week, but talk about how your guys have embraced the feeling of not being satisfied, of trying to maintain that edge and not just being happy to be here and where you're at? COACH GROCE: Well, we've talked about that, obviously, and one of the things I think that has allowed us, again, to play good basketball here late in the year and that we've matured a great deal, really, over the last month and been able to take one practice at a time, one game at a time, prepared one game at a time and kept their focus really centered. We've certainly done our best job to do that this week, as well. And again in an effort to stay in that same routine that's allowed them to be successful over the last several weeks. Q. Your first NCAA Tournament as a head coach. Are you feeling butterflies? Are you feeling different than you did sitting there with Thad Matta and those guys, what are you feeling, sensing? COACH GROCE: I have less hair. Certainly and a lot of people have asked me the question during the week, have had a lot of help in terms of in this situation, whether it be Thad or some of the other mentors and coaches that are in my coaching family. The experiences have helped. They really have. Just having a feel for what even today is going to be like, the day prior to the game. Having a great feel for that. So I'm blessed in that regard. No butterflies yet, maybe a few tomorrow. I think my grandmother used to say to me if you don't have a few then you probably don't have a pulse. Obviously I'm as excited as our kids are to be here and to have an opportunity to represent Ohio University and all of our alumns and our student body and just the number of players that have reached out in the last several days, just too many to name. The pride that our people have in Athens and at the University and with our alumni and just to see that we've been able to touch a lot of those people has been a pretty neat thing. Q. You mentioned your conversations with various coaches. Other coaches have also talked about that Mike Rice and Jay Wright talked about their previous connections, others have brought it up as well. How important is that coaching network at this time of year? COACH GROCE: Well, it's really important. The one thing I've always tried to go on feel a little bit and have a great pulse of where our guys are mentally, physically, emotionally. But certainly some of those past experiences have helped. I talked to Coach Matta frequently and obviously his relationship has been helpful to me for a number of years. So the fact that we've been in the situation before where I've been previous certainly helps. End of FastScripts |
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