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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: OKLAHOMA CITYMarch 17, 2010Oscar BellfieldLon KrugerChace StanbackTre'von WillisOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA THE MODERATOR: Joining us on the podium are the UNLV student-athletes, Oscar Bellfield, Chace Stanback, and Tre'Von Willis. We are ready to go for UNLV. Q. Trey, can you talk a little bit about the defensive effort that's going to be needed to contain their guards tomorrow? TRE'VON WILLIS: Well, the key for us is we want to, you know, have the same focus on defense and really try to get after them and try to bother them a little bit in the backcourt and, you know, try not to let them run a lot of their offensive sets that they like to run. Q. For all three players, UNLV obviously went through some pretty tough times from the early '90s until just a few years ago. What does it mean to you guys to be part of the continuing revival of this program that was very proud program back then? TRE'VON WILLIS: Well, for me personally, it means a lot. You know, I've had a family like, you know, as well as relatives that, you know, was fans, and it's an opportunity to just, you know, keep building a big name for this program and, you know, keep trying to do some big things here. CHACE STANBACK: It's definitely a great opportunity for this program. A lot of people are looking forward to this game, to the tournament, and people are very excited around the community, and it's just great for us. OSCAR BELLFIELD: I mean, like they both said, I mean, it's a great opportunity for us really to take advantage of and like very fortunate, and it's a blessing like to be here and have this opportunity to really, you know, compete in this tournament. THE MODERATOR: More questions for student athletes? Q. How do you guys look to score on the second best defense in the nation for the past year, they only allowed 54 points a game? OSCAR BELLFIELD: Well, we're going to start out really with our defense, hope our defense brings our offense and then on the half court and just really compete to score, really compete to get open and just make opportunities and plays for each other. CHACE STANBACK: Yeah. Like he said, defensively, got to pick up the tempo, definitely focus on that defense starts our offense, and we definitely got to execute our plays well and look to make plays for everybody on the team. THE MODERATOR: More questions? Q. Again, for anybody who wants to answer, Coach Kruger, I think, is one of five coaches in the NCAA history to take four different teams to the NCAA Tournament. What does that say about him as a coach? TRE'VON WILLIS: He's a great coach. He definitely knows what he's doing, and he puts players in opportunity to make plays and when you have a coach that believes in your ability and can give you the motivation to go out and execute it, you know, it gets no greater than that. CHACE STANBACK: He definitely is the type of coach that doesn't let his team settle for less, and I respect that about him. THE MODERATOR: Do we have more questions for UNLV? Okay, guys. Thank you. We'll we're joined by Lon Kruger. He'll make an opening statement and then we'll have questions. Coach. COACH KRUGER: Really excited to be here. Really happy for the guys. This is a group that back in October not a lot was known who would step forward and who would assume what roles. They've meshed well together. They've continued to play better and improved throughout the year. The conference has been fantastic. Four teams in the tournament, it's great and we're delighted to be here. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach. Q. Coach, UNLV obviously had been through some rough times, not only on the court but off the court. When you were considering taking the job, how did you kind of pull those things over in your mind, and what lead you to think that you could come in and really turn it around? COACH KRUGER: We first talked to UNLV really didn't quite frankly have a lot of interest, and then Brad Rothermil (phonetic), who was the Associate AD at Kansas State when everything playing in the '70, he said the timing may be right, I think you need to look at it a little bit more carefully. And my wife, Barbara, and I did that and liked the people that were there. We love living in Las Vegas and been a place where you can recruit good players. That combination has made it fun, and we're enjoying it. Q. Coach, you always talk about how important every possession is and for your team to take them separately. When you're going up against a team that's second in scoring defense, how much more important is every possession going to be tomorrow, and has it been stressed more in the last couple of days with the team? COACH KRUGER: It has been. Each possession in a lower scoring game takes on a little added advantage. Coach Jacobson's group, they do a great job. They don't give up many good looks or points. Each possession does take on more significance, and that has been discussed a time or two in practice. Q. You've talked in the past few years about wanting to be more physical. You're playing a team tomorrow that kind of prides itself on the physicality of that. Where you are now, in the beginning of the year in those terms, and if you weren't playing them, you could sit back and admire as much as you like people that defend their defense? COACH KRUGER: In watching their tapes, they're very good, and, like you say, do appreciate the attention to detail they put forth. Their players are very disciplined. Coach Jacobson has them playing very hard and great conviction and take a lot of pride in what they're doing. I think our group is definitely tougher and more physical than we were back in October. We're certainly not to be confused with a physical team. We've improved in that area and long way to go to get better at it. But have made progress. Q. Lon, first question I was going to ask was about Northern Iowa Coach, Ben Jacobson. As a young coach, he was obviously looking for his first NCAA Tournament win. How does your life change when you're a young 30-something coach and you've been to the dance a couple times and other schools come courting you and calling you. What is the process like for a young coach? COACH KRUGER: Every case is unique, depends on a lot of things, but Coach Jacobson has done a terrific job. Not just this year, he's done it in prior years as well. He's consistently made progress with his program, and I'm sure he'll have -- entertain some opportunities otherwise, if he wants to. Not to say he should or will. That's for Ben to talk about. He certainly is impressive in what he's done at Northern Iowa. THE MODERATOR: More questions for coach. Q. Buy that same token, Lon, your name has come back up in the State of Iowa as a candidate for the Hawkeye job. Are you bemused when you see your name tossed around? COACH KRUGER: This day and age everyone's name is tossed around with all the Internet stuff and technology. I don't think coaches think too much about that, certainly not at this time. As -- it's just part of the business and just sign of the times where all names are thrown out. Q. Their MVP didn't even score I believe in the conference tournament final and you look at their numbers and there's just so many guys who score 9, 12 points, all those minutes. That's more difficult to scheme against or prepare for it? COACH KRUGER: It actually is. They've got four players in double figures. They've got three, four others very capable of getting 15 on a given night and have done that during the course of the year so it's not a club where you can say let's focus on one or two guys which generally is easier to do that when that's the case, but they've got a lot of guys that can score and again they've got the four double figure scorers, other guys, too that can jump up there and get 15. Q. Were there any specific things that you picked up coaching in the NBA that you were able to bring back and apply to the college game? COACH KRUGER: In the NBA you play around 100 games a year with the exhibition and regular season. Anytime you lineup that many times you're going to pick things up. Every year you hope to be little more experienced, little more aware, maybe pick up some things each year so pick-and-roll coverages, all pick-and-rolls that exist in the NBA, you hope to have picked up something. THE MODERATOR: More questions for Coach Kruger? Okay, Coach. Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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