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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: OKLAHOMA CITYMarch 18, 2010Kenny BoyntonBilly DonovanChandler ParsonsOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY- 99 COACH DONOVAN: Obviously coming in having more respect for BYU and their team. I think I said before, I think when you get to this time of year and you get to this point in the season, I think one of the most disappointing things is to walk off the court and your players to walk off the court feeling like they could have given more. These guys, I don't think, could have given any more than they had physically and took a lot out of us to come back whatever it was, 13, 14 down. I thought the differences in the game was the fact that their depth I think over the 50-minute period, we had a hard time scoring I think because of fatigue, and I think Kenny had an unbelievable game and he really carried us. And I think as a freshman goes, to sit over there on the sidelines and watch him not only guard Fredette the whole entire game but then to have the offensive night he had and shoot it the way he did from the 3-point line was remarkable. I thought Chandler really made a lot of terrific plays, did a lot of good things for our team. I just thought as the game was unfolding, I thought their ability in regulation and in overtime to sub defense, offense, really was a difference. I thought their depth in the backcourt where they're bringing in Loyd and Tavernari and other guys with their depth. And I think Walker and Boynton, both those two guys, have got to defend and we're relying on them offensively. I think it took its toll over the course of the game. I was proud of the way our guys competed and fought. It was a disappointing loss, but I felt like coming in to Oklahoma City, I wanted to see how our guys responded after getting into this tournament, and I couldn't be any prouder than the way they came out and responded. We had our chances and certainly BYU had a chance to put us away midway through the second half, and our guys wouldn't allow it to happen and they kept battling and fighting. So good for that. I'm proud of them, and I don't think there's any question that next game, BYU it will be interesting to see how they can come back physically, because I think even all of our SEC games, this was the most physical game we played all year long. The NCAA Tournament is much, much more physical than it is during the regular season, and our guys I think stepped up and handled that challenge and so did their time. THE MODERATOR: Questions for student-athletes at this time. Q. For both the guys, just how frustrating was the loss considering you guys had a chance to have the last shot in both regulation and the first overtime? KENNY BOYNTON: I think in the first -- right before the overtime, you know, Chandler shot, I think he had a great look. It just bounced out, and I think in the other overtimes we had great looks but they popped out of the rim. CHANDLER PARSONS: Yeah. It's very disappointing. We only wanted to keep playing and advancing, make our season longer, but, you know, BYU is a great team, and we definitely had our chances to win the game, and, you know, really they're a great team and we fought hard, but it wasn't enough. Q. Kenny, could you just talk about heating up a little bit in the second half? What changed for you and what got you into a rhythm? KENNY BOYNTON: I just wanted to do whatever I could to get our team back in it, and, you know, we fought back hard, and I just think they're a great team, and whenever we try to fight back, you know, they kept battling, too. Q. Kenny, can you talk about there was about four minutes left in the game, you came out, and you were -- you looked really tired. You had your head down on your hands on your knees, and just how fatigued were you and what was it like chasing Fredette around there for 40 minutes? KENNY BOYNTON: Fredette is a great player. They actually run everything through Fredette, and I was tired, you know, late in the game. Every play he either passes or runs through to get the ball. He's a very good player. Q. Chandler, could you see how exhausted he was on the court and also during the timeouts? And what did you think about his effort chasing Fredette all day? CHANDLER PARSONS: Yeah. I mean, obviously, all of us were tired. Double overtime games can take a lot out of you. We tried to battle through that and keep playing. What Kenny did, the resiliency he showed through how tired we were, to carry us in the comeback and knock down the shots in a huge time really showed a lot about his character, and he really got us back into the game, and we started to get some stops. You can't complain about the looks we got at the end. We fought hard. Everyone was tired. They were just as tired as us. Q. Chandler, can you talk about the last shot and going into -- it looked good when it came out of your hands, did you think it was going to go in? Also, Jimmer was talking about how he teased you about don't make any game winning shots. Can you talk about that little banter about that? CHANDLER PARSONS: Before the game he said "Don't make any game-winning shots," kind of joking around. We had a play where I came off a double screen and kind of curled in the lane and the guy, Loyd, was on me. I felt like I had a good look and shot it. I felt good. I thought it was going to go down. It rode out. It happens. I'd like to have the shot again. Q. For both guys, you were really struggling early in the second half, they got up 13. How did you get to that point or what were they doing defensively to fluster you, and how did you get it altogether to make that comeback that you did? KENNY BOYNTON: I think early in the second half, when the second half started, we were rushing it and I had two early turnovers, and we were just trying to drive and we were driving for no purpose. We were throwing the ball out, and no one was there. I think later in the second half, we calmed down, and that's what got us, you know, open shots. CHANDLER PARSONS: Yeah. We knew coming into the game that they were a physical team, and they definitely showed that. I think in the beginning of the game, we really moved the ball well and kept our spacing good the first half. As the first half kept going on, we didn't execute offense as well as we should have, and we didn't keep the ball moving like we had in the beginning. THE MODERATOR: Last couple of questions for the student-athletes. Q. You guys return just about everyone except Dan Werner next year. What do you think this loss and really this season will do for you guys going forward next year? CHANDLER PARSONS: Obviously, we lose a lot when we lose a guy like Dan who has been through it. I think coming out here and getting a taste of this is really going to help us for next year coming back as a team, coming back tougher and stronger and hardened from our experience this year, as well as improving our individual skills and chemistry. Besides that, I think we're going to have a really good team next year. KENNY BOYNTON: I think we come back next year with a lot of experience, you know, and I think we'll come back more of a hungrier team. With this loss, we'll only build on it for next year and hope we get back in the NCAA Tournament, you know, again and make some more noise. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Okay, guys, thank you. Questions for Coach Donovan. Q. Billy, the last play at the end of the first overtime when Boynton fired the ball down there and obviously Dan thought there was less time, could you just talk about that, that one of those plays when you go to bed tonight, you'll think about? COACH DONOVAN: There was a lot of them. I think the one play that was really, really big was the one that was in regulation, we were up by 4 and I think Emery hit a 3-point shot that cut it. It was a really highly contested shot. They jumped out on Kenny, the play you're talking about, and I think we had a 2-on-1 on the backside, and I think he tried to get it down there, probably wasn't the best of passes, and, you know, I think Dan wanted to make sure we had something at the basket. It wasn't probably the best possession that we could have had, but there was other, you know, just plays like that, you know, and we don't have, coming into those situations, a guy who you can put the balls in his hands and ask him to break them down. We ran two guys at Boynton to try to create some space. He dragged their big guy. He had two guys on him and trying to get the ball back to the post there, and he just wasn't able to do it. You wish you would have maybe gotten a better shot in that situation. I thought the one before, I thought Chandler, at 6-9, was a 12-footer over a smaller guy, had a pretty decent look. We also -- I thought some other key plays in the game, too, were we were up by 4, and I think we had two, three straight trips where we had some pretty good looks by Walker and somebody else that we just -- we couldn't knock it down, and our 3-point shooting percentage today was probably right on target where we've been all year, along 31 percent. We did have some chances, and they capitalized and were able to make some shots, you know, in key situations to keep themselves hanging around. I also thought Kenny did a great job on Fredette and maybe in regulation, when he made that lefty drive layup, but that was big because we had gotten a couple consecutive stops which helped. Q. Coach, you've been around for a long time as a player and coach. How tough was this loss for you today? COACH DONOVAN: It's always hard to lose this time of year. It's always very, very difficult. I think it becomes, much, much more disappointing when you don't feel like you could have played -- there's plays in the game that we probably could have done a little bit better. I'm sure that they probably feel the same way, but I thought physically our guys laid it on the line the entire game, and I thought we showed tremendous resiliency, toughness because we've had some games where we've gotten down by 13, 14, 15 and battled back to 2, 3. We actually battled back and took the lead. I thought the thing that really was challenging for us is Dave was able to substitute the last two minutes and take Fredette out and sit him and he never had to guard, and really they just utilized him on offense, where as I think with Boynton and Walker, having to guard Fredette and Loyd and Jackson, all their perimeter guys, it was really those two guys playing both ends of the floor. It's hard to ask those guys to shoot the ball at the level you need them to, where a guy like Fredette is resting and they're using some of the other guys to really play defense. That's what makes them a good team. They have a lot of depth, and I didn't think their depth was a factor, you know, the first 40 minutes -- the first 40 minutes, but I thought as we started to get the last ten-minute mark and Boynton fouled out, we were trying to hang on physically a little bit there. It's disappointing from that standpoint. There's certainly things we could have played a little bit better, shots maybe we had a chance on, Chandler's shots that didn't go in, a couple they went in. They gave us a chance to come back being down 13. We won the game, they're probably looking at how do you give up a 13-point lead late in the half. There's so many things that I think you want to walk away from a game like this, saying you know what, we gave everything we had, and I really felt like we did, and we gave everything that we had physically, and I don't know what much more those guys could have done physically. As a coach, you know you're always going to break down every minute detail of what happened in the game and figure out ways to get better, but I was really proud of the way our guys competed at the level they did, because, like I said, it was by far the most physical game we've been in all year. Q. Billy, how did you try to kind of settle them down, down 13. I saw there was a lot of communication on the bench. What were you doing? COACH DONOVAN: I think sometimes our backcourt of Erving and Kenny just being young, they think sometimes there's 9-point plays out there. If they shoot it from somewhere as fast as they can and they go in a hurry, they actually get more than 2 points. I was just trying to tell them we got to just execute on offense, we got to slow down, and we got to take our time, and, you know, I thought our pick-and-roll was really causing some problems for them because they were constantly changing coverage. And then I thought our big guys adjusted to some of the double-teams and then we had better spacing when they would double-team. And then we went on that run there where they were kind of maybe in a bind because of what we were running offensively put their defense in a little bit of a difficult situation because they couldn't double the post. And the way the floor was spaced, we were getting pretty decent looks and Boynton was able to knock down several, Erving made a couple. We made a couple drives to the basket. Those things add up. I think they started to settle in, and they played and we did a better job. I thought Erving had a couple really good looks where maybe he hadn't gotten those kind of looks maybe in some SEC play coming down the stretch. He had some pretty decent looks, and we weren't able to knock them down. I think Fredette does a good job because defensively he has -- he does not exert a lot of energy on defense, but he plays really, really good position defense, you know, and you know, for us defensively, we need because of the scorer Fredette and Jackson are, you couldn't sleep on those guys. But, you know, I thought for most of the game, we actually did a pretty good job on Fredette and I thought Boynton did a good job. It's hard to sit there and say look at the stat sheet, the guy scores 37, you did a good job on him. We only gave up three 3-pointer shots in the first half. Our defense wasn't bad. They're a pretty explosive offensive team. They've got the largest margin of victory of anybody in the country. So they're an explosive team that can come back in a hurry. And when we took the lead there in the first half, they did a great job coming back. THE MODERATOR: Last two questions for Coach. Q. You talked about in the last three years, losing a lot of guys to the pros. Are you maybe relieved now that it looks like maybe forward you can have your nucleus back? COACH DONOVAN: Yeah. I've got to do a better job, you know, providing a little bit more depth to our team. That's definitely something we need. We need depth in our backcourt. We need another body in our frontcourt. I don't think it's anything that those guys have any level of responsibility for. I mean, I did not know what to expect this year coming in with basically a freshman point guard and in Walker, because he never played there before and Boynton as a freshman 2 guard and having no subs for those two guys and really not another handler. I've got to try to find a way to add some depth to our team. I think that's going to be important. I think the nucleus of guys coming back I'm excited about. Dan will be a big loss. There's a lot of things he does to our team that, you know, we really can rely on him. Hopefully Murphy can make a huge jump and become a much better player. Looking at what we've got coming back, I'm excited about the nucleus of guys coming back. THE MODERATOR: Last question. Q. Loyd only averaged a little over 4, but I'm sure on tape you saw glimpses in games where he could do something like that. As much attention is given to Fredette, can you talk about what you might have thought he do to you if people didn't watch him closely? COACH DONOVAN: Maybe their conference tournament he had 18 points. So he's a very, very aggressive -- they play much, much faster when he's in the game. Fredette to me has got good command, good pace. When they bring Abouo in and Loyd in, the intensity level goes up. I think that that actually put more pressure on Boynton and Walker because now you're chasing Fredette around for 35 seconds and now he comes in, Fredette is resting, and this guy is coming at you full speed. It makes it really, really difficult. But I don't think maybe people will be surprised with the number of points he scored today, but I was not surprised at all of his level of aggressiveness because he really had shown that we had -- we had talked a lot about that going into the game. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. COACH DONOVAN: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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