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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: NEW ORLEANSMarch 18, 2010Preston BrownGilberto ClavellBob MarlinNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA Baylor – 68 MODERATOR: Opening comments from Coach Marlin. COACH MARLIN: Had the game right where we wanted it with four minutes to go and had the basketball, had an opportunity to get a lead, and it didn't happen. Our defensive game plan was good the entire ballgame. Our guys fought hard. We did not shoot the ball very well today, especially from three-point range, and we knew we were going to have to. I thought we battled them on the glass and did the things we needed to do, but we just didn't make enough shots to win the game. Congratulations to Baylor. It's their first NCAA win in I think 50 years, and they earned it. MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. In the first half you got a lot of mileage out of getting the ball on the high post and going to work there. They seemed to adjust a little bit to that. Talk about maybe what they did defensively in the second half. GILBERTO CLAVELL: They just -- first half they had the middle open every time, so in the second half they all came. Their guards just came faster to the middle. And their center was coming up more, so I wasn't that open, and they were coming fast every time. And it was kind of hard because I had to seal them first to get the ball. But it's our front. So they made the right adjustment. They did good. Q. Wanted to talk about y'all came out and knocked down some shots early. Kind of jumped out to a lead. How much did that calm you guys down? After that it seemed that you guys were just there the rest of the way? PRESTON BROWN: It helped us get into a groove and realize that we needed to play ball. I thought after that everybody started playing. Nobody was nervous anymore. Everybody just started playing like we usually do. That helped out a lot, though. Q. In spite of the poor shooting, you guys are in a tie game with three minutes left. Where do you think things went wrong for you guys during those last three minutes? GILBERTO CLAVELL: I just -- well, I don't say like it went wrong. It's just like we didn't knock down shots. It didn't went in. We had good looks every time. Like we used to shoot, we shoot over 40 percent all the time. But this time like the ball didn't went in. We didn't get the right shot at the end. But that's the only thing that went wrong. Like we didn't get the ball in the basket this time. PRESTON BROWN: Like he said. We didn't hit any shots down the stretch. We had a couple of key turnovers that really hurt us and they converted on them. That was it. Just like that it happened. Q. You guys played a good defensive game. Talk about what they did defensively for you guys when they were struggling offensively. GILBERTO CLAVELL: It's pretty large. You see they have a 6'10" and 7-footer. So it's pretty hard. To get like open looks in there. Because it's so long toward your arms, you know. So it's pretty tough defense. When they get to man, we execute right and they run back to the zone. It's just too long, it was hard to get open. PRESTON BROWN: I thought they contested us really well and kept us away from the basket a lot. We were having to take jump shots more than we usually do instead of going to the rim. I think that hurt us a lot on the inside, and we couldn't get to the basket like we needed to. Q. How much did you all feel like your quickness kind of caught them off guard? Because it seemed that that really countered their length out there on the court? GILBERTO CLAVELL: Yeah, before the beginning of practice we said we had to run the floor because they were big. They're big, but sometimes they're kind of slow. So we just ran the floor every time. Ashton got to the basket every time, Crow penetrated, Preston and me, you know, we used our advantage. That's what kept us in the game. PRESTON BROWN: It definitely helped us. Like he said, they're long and they're kind of slow getting out and getting back in. So they come out and you just pump fake, go around them. That opens up the guards for shots. It helped out a lot. Q. You guys went, it looked like, a triangle and two on LaceDarius and Tweety. Talk about what you guys were able to do against those two. GILBERTO CLAVELL: Our main focus was get the ball out of their hands every time, you know. So we did a pretty good job, Josten Crow, Ashton Mitchell, Corey, we did a great job on that. We just shut them down. But like we said, it's a team effort. We didn't shoot the ball well. We did our part on defense, just the offense didn't execute. PRESTON BROWN: We thought those two were really good play makers and we wanted the ball out of their hands. That's why we ran triangle and two. And our guards did a great job I thought for most of the game. They kept the ball out of their hands the best they could. They switched on the screens and it was really working well, I thought. MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Marlin. Q. They mentioned the triangle and two. You guys never ran that often this year. What kind of inspired that? COACH MARLIN: We put it in over at the rec center in Tulane two days ago. Just to take the ball on out of those guys' hands. And I thought our guys executed pretty well for what little practice time we've had. But we thought it gave us the best chance to win the game defensively and keep the blocks covered. We've made a couple of mistakes, but for the most part our defense was plenty good enough. Q. You didn't shoot well at all, particularly from outside. But you were right there. You had control of the game. In a sense do you think you let one get away? I know they're the heavy favorite, but? COACH MARLIN: They're obviously 14 versus 3. In an earlier game, the lower seed won this game with Old Dominion and Notre Dame. And we felt that we would beat Baylor. We went in, and again, they're excited. They've had a great year. The Big 12 is a great conference. But we felt that we could come and get this game, and that is the attitude that our guys took into it. If we had had made a few shots, it certainly would have been a little bit easier. Normally they go in. Their zone, we didn't attack it properly at times. We felt like we could get the shots we wanted, but we didn't get them to go in. Q. Were you more or less happy that the shots they took, were they open, were they rushed? Would you have wanted a little more time to run off? COACH MARLIN: You mean our guys on the offensive end? Q. Yeah. COACH MARLIN: We got a little patient and threw it guard to guard. We didn't reverse it. We wanted to get the ball below us. We were trying to drive it some. Udoh's big and causes some problems. Wound up having a good basketball game, 20-13. But we wanted to get the ball below us and get it to Clavell. I don't think they made adjustments. I just don't think we attacked it correctly in the second half and maybe became a little impatient. We turned it over a couple times early in the second half and got on on our heels. Then we hit a couple. We could never hit two threes in a row it seemed like to get that momentum going. We had some go in and out the first half, and we've done that all year where it's contagious. We make several in a row and make a nice run. And we had an opportunity there when LaceDarius got his fourth foul, technical foul. We don't take advantage of that situation. We could have gotten the lead. Q. If someone would have told you yesterday that Corey Allmond and Ashton Mitchell would start this game O-fer, and you'd still be up 1 at the half, what would your thoughts have been on that? COACH MARLIN: I would have been surprised. For sure we talked about it at halftime. But it goes back to our defensive play. I thought Josten and Ashton did a great job defensively, and two very good guards. It was a wash, though, because we weren't making shots on our end. Back to the triangle, with our game plan we gave Anthony Jones some shots. It's exactly -- played out the way we wanted it to. I would have been surprised if you had told me those two guys were going to shoot 5 for 25 -- is that correct? Q. You've had a lot of success there for quite a few years now. To come so close to a win, sort of a signature win for the program with three minutes left and you're in a tie game and not to get it. Can you express are you satisfied with the effort? Are you a little bit frustrated that you came so close? Which way does it go right now? COACH MARLIN: We're satisfied with the effort. Our young men did a great job representing our university and playing hard and believed we were going to win until the last minute of the ballgame. We are disappointed that we didn't get it done. We had three goals going into the season. That was to win the conference championship, the No. 1 seed in our tournament, to win our conference tournament in an away game, and this tournament. We certainly had that opportunity with three minutes to go, and came within three minutes of reaching our goal. So there is disappointment. But we're excited about the future, and have good players coming back, Clavell, Crow, and the rest of our team. We'll be back. Q. How unusual is it for you to try a triangle and two or I guess trick defenses? COACH MARLIN: Very unusual. We haven't used it. I don't know that I've really ever done it. And to start a game in it was even more awkward for me as a head coach. We put it in and felt like it gave us the best chance, and, again, I believe it did. We did a great job on on those two perimeter guys. We left Udoh available at the free-throw line, and he missed some jumpers early, and he started putting it on the deck and moving. He can create, we knew that was a possibility. He made some plays and made enough to keep them in the ballgame we started zone. I've been at Sam Houston ten years and we've never started a game in the zone. If that answers your question. We've been in a few games, but we never started one in the zone. Q. It's been a great season for you guys and for the university. For the seniors in particular, what do you tell those seniors after coming so close to the third goal that you talked about and just barely falling short? COACH MARLIN: Just that they represented our university in the classroom, on and off the court, the example that they set, I'm proud of them. Our athletic director, Bobby Williams, spoke to them and talked to them about what they've done for our department. It's been a great ride. All of those seniors have driven the bus on different occasions. From Arthur Zulu to Preston Brown, to Corey Allmond to Ashton Mitchell. We wouldn't be here without any of them. I was a little disappointed with the way things went down with Ashton not having a good shooting night. I thought he played great defense and wanting to win and returning home. But it wasn't meant to be. Q. You talk about not being a zone coach or especially triangle and two. How did you talk yourself into it, first of all? Did you just anticipate doing it as a change of pace and you were going to get out of it, but it worked so well early? COACH MARLIN: Our staff did a great job getting prepared for this game. Sunday night after watching video till about 1:00 a.m. they came to me and said this is what we need to do. The thing that's even more awkward, back to your earlier question, we haven't run it. Gene Iba, who was one of my former bosses who was here tonight at the game, taught me how to coach man-to-man defense under Mr. Iba, the old Mr. Iba rules. For him to be here tonight and for us to play it, it was even more surprising to him. But it was the best thing for us to do. It was the best thing for us to do. And I felt like we did a good job of it again. It gave us an opportunity to hang in this game. Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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