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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: BUFFALO

March 18, 2010

BUFFALO, NEW YORK

THE MODERATOR: Okay, joined now by student athletes from Vermont. Comes in with a record of 25-9. Fourth appearance for Vermont in the NCAA tournament and first since 2005. I'm joined by closest to me Marqus Blakely, Evan Fjeld and Maurice Joseph. All the way down on the end. So as we've done all day, please raise your hand if you have a question. We'll take questions for these student athletes right now.

Q. Marqus, we'll start with you. Now that you've been here for a day or two, what's your impressions of being in the NCAA tournament for the first time?
MARQUS BLAKELY: I mean coming from Vermont, it's a lot different. We chartered a flight out here, brought everyone with us. So I mean it's a lot different. Something you can get used to. Hopefully Evan and some of the underclassmen will be able to get back to this point and experience it again.

Q. Does the Syracuse zone people talk about all the time, have you guys seen many zones, have you seen anything like their zone, and what do you think makes it so tough? Any of you guys can answer that.
EVAN FJELD: I don't think we've seen anything like their zone, played against it, because they're the only team that really runs the 2-3 zone all the time. They play it a little differently than other people. And they're so used to it, they're very effective in it and they're long and athletic which is hard to simulate in practice.
We've been preparing for it. And hopefully we'll make some shots from the perimeter as well as try to get the ball in the middle and maybe feed Marqus down low and hopefully we'll have some success against it.
THE MODERATOR: Maurice, Marqus, anything to add to that?
MAURICE JOSEPH: Going along with what he said, they're long and athletic. You know, they've got Andy and Scoop and Brandon Don out there. They're long and they disrupt a lot of people, kind of take them out of their comfort zone, what they want to do. They extend it really high on the wings so guys are really pushed down on their offense and guys are taking 25-foot three-pointers as opposed to 22-foot three-pointers. It's hard to penetrate. They close up and you're scratching and clawing and all that stuff. It's a really tough defense to play against and prepare against. It's tough to simulate in practice because they're so athletic and so long on the wings and it's a matter of really executing, being sharp and hopefully making the open shots.
And I think the biggest thing is getting paint touches. Getting the ball into the free-throw line and I think teams try do that a lot but not many teams are successful doing it. But I think that's where the weak spot is. If you can attack that, that will open up shots on the perimeter. Hopefully we knock down some shots, get it to the free-throw line and see what happens.

Q. Maurice, just saw your brother Kris out there in the hallway. I was wondering if you had seen him yet today and during this past week how much have you talked or texted since Sunday night?
MAURICE JOSEPH: I haven't seen them. I saw them change in the locker room. They rushed us in here. We have been talking ever since the selection show. We've been in contact every day, pretty much discussing what family is going to do in terms of tickets, how we're going to get everybody down here. We're so happy we're playing against each other. Our city is happy we're playing against each other. We've been talking quite a bit. I don't know at what point I'll see him. We're excited to get to see each other.

Q. How many family members are going to be able to make the game?
MAURICE JOSEPH: We have 12 tickets, 12 people are coming. Other people bought tickets. I'm not sure who is coming but our core group will be here.

Q. Do you guys remember watching the 2005 game?
MARQUS BLAKELY: Yeah.
MAURICE JOSEPH: Yeah.

Q. Can you talk about that? Was there a reason for you guys to come to Vermont in the first place?
MARQUS BLAKELY: Well, yeah. No one really could forget that game. When you get recruited by Vermont, that's the first thing that sticks in your mind. I mean, they just played a hell of a game. And no one really thought that they were going to be able to stay in it. I mean, a lot of people are counting us out tomorrow too. So anything can happen on any given night.
THE MODERATOR: Anybody else have any memories from that game?
MAURICE JOSEPH: I was committed to Michigan State at that time. I was actually at the game, the game when Michigan State knocked out Vermont in the NCAA tournament. I was cheering for Michigan State. It was a great story. I remember the media coverage. T.J. hitting that shot and Jermaine had the game of his life that game. People don't remember that. Jermaine was incredible in that game. I don't think he missed a shot the entire game. So transferring here was -- that game definitely did stick in my mind because I saw them play. They actually played in Vermont my sophomore year. I knew a little bit about the program. So it was -- that game was definitely a staple not only in the basketball program but in the Vermont community as a whole.

Q. With that '05 game and of course with your brother, it seems to be more intrigue coming into a 1-16 matchup than there normally is.
MAURICE JOSEPH: Right. It makes an interesting story. I don't know what the history is, but I think it might be -- has to be -- can't be that many times two brothers on opposing teams matched up against each other in the first round. It makes the story a little more interesting. But the biggest story here is there's a game to be played. It's going to be Vermont Catamounts against the Syracuse Orange. When the ball goes up we're going to try to make history.
THE MODERATOR: Other questions for Vermont?

Q. When it's a one-seed versus a 16th seed, I know it's a cliche saying you have to take it one game at a time or one possession at a time, but in this case, you really have to, I'm assuming, that maybe break this game down into two-minute segments or five-minute segments and develop some motivation like that; is that maybe how you guys look at it?
MAURICE JOSEPH: I don't think you look at it in segments like that. I think we look at it as playing a solid 40 minutes. Going in and making every possession count. I don't think we look at it in segments per se. We want to really be sharp in everything we do. Obviously you can't afford to take bad shots or turn the ball over. They'll turn that into easy buckets. We're more looking into it as a solid 40 minutes of basketball as opposed to little segments. We need to play well for 40 straight minutes.
MARQUS BLAKELY: I mean one thing we want to do is kind of control the tempo of the game. They're a great team when they get out in transition. If we're able to take good shots and kind of slow them down and make them run their half court offense, I think the game will be a lot closer.

Q. Evan, did you guys get a chance to watch the Villanova game today? Do you draw any inspiration from that? All three of you guys?
EVAN FJELD: Hopefully we get a better whistle than Robert Morris did. It was a great game. I feel bad for Robert Morris. They played their hearts out and just to come up so short. Nobody will remember that it was that close, 10, 20 years from now, they will just have lost in the first round. It was a great game. I loved watching games all day. There have been no blowouts. Every high seed needs to be on the upset alert, I guess.
THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Joined by Vermont Head Coach Mike Lonergan who brings his team into an NCAA game for the first time that Catamounts have been in since 2005. So, Coach, great to have you here. We'll let you open up with a statement, and we'll take questions.
COACH LONERGAN: We're very happy to be here, and Buffalo has done a great job as host city. We're having a great time so far. It's my first Division I NCAA tournament. I've been to nine as a Division III coach. I looked around the room today, the meeting, not only every other coach has been to this big dance. I think they've all been there three times or more. So I felt a little bit inexperienced amongst all those great coaches. But our players are excited. We know we have a heck of a challenge. Might be playing the best team in the country in their backyard. But we're very happy to be here. Hopefully we'll play well.
THE MODERATOR: Go ahead and open it up to questions at this time.

Q. Coach, just looking from today, I was just coming out of the locker room and the guys were talking about seeing Robert Morris hanging and some of these 13, 14 and 15 seeds playing tight or playing the games close. Not that they needed more motivation, but to see this, what do you think that does to give them confidence that pulling off the upset is possible?
COACH LONERGAN: I think it should give our guys some confidence. You definitely worry about some guys being intimidated by the atmosphere and everything. But Robert Morris hanging with Villanova and all the games seemed to be close. Hopefully they'll all be close tomorrow as well. But I think that's good for our guys. I think my hope is when the ball is tossed up, we kind of forget who we are playing and play hard. They definitely have been watching the games. We want them to be excited about the NCAA tournament, being a part of it. I'm glad that no one got drilled today and our guys started thinking too much about that. I think the way the scores have been going is good for our guys to see.

Q. Coach, it's been a long trip on the road this year. You guys had a lot of road games to start the season. A lot of road experiences. Obviously it's pretty much a road game for you guys tomorrow. Is all those experiences going to help you in this hostile environment tomorrow?
COACH LONERGAN: I hope so. We always pride ourselves on playing a great non-conference schedule. We've traveled a lot. The travel here was easy because we got to take a plane and charter which is a lot of fun for our guys. But I don't think we have played in any atmosphere that we'll see tomorrow night. We travel well and we'll have some fans here and right behind our bench. That will really get the guys fired up. But this is definitely going to be a Syracuse Orange crowd. But some of our guys really react well to that. About a week left in the season we had the best road wins in the country. I think we finished second. We're a pretty good road team. We also know Syracuse has a great team, Hall of Fame coach. We're going to have to be at our best to make this a competitive game.

Q. Can you just basically break down Blakely; what makes him such a gifted and talented player?
COACH LONERGAN: Marqus is a great player. I think he's the only player in the country that leads us in all the major statistical categories. He creates matchup problems with big guys who aren't quick enough to guard them. He jumps over smaller guys. Not only does he have tremendous athleticism and jumping ability, he's strong. He's a very strong young man. He's a great passer, can handle the ball. The only weakness in his game was his free-throw shooting which he has improved on a lot this season, his outside shooting. But what I like about him is he doesn't really rely on an outside jumpshot. He plays to his strengths and he definitely has many strengths. So I think he's a great player and I'm very happy for him that he's reached most of his goals this year.

Q. Congratulations.
COACH LONERGAN: Thank you.

Q. I'm sure for the moment the bracket came out and you saw Syracuse on there, you've been hearing questions almost non-stop and have probably had it on your mind all the time. How can that be used by you and by the players in any way, even in the basketball sense, in terms of the fact there's a team from the school that has seen what Syracuse has done and beaten them? Is there any way that that experience from five years ago can be used even if the guys there weren't a part of that?
COACH LONERGAN: They know it can be done. That was a great Syracuse team. That was a great Vermont team. Taylor Coppenrath, T.J. (Sorrentine) possibly the two best players in the school in the history of the school. That is a different team. Syracuse is the number one seed. So it's going to be a heck of a challenge and the game is in Buffalo. But at first I saw it, I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. I said that's a cruel joke having us play Syracuse. You look at the positives for recruiting, for selfish reasons, it makes my job a little easier that we've gotten a lot of great publicity. I get to play against -- against a Hall of Fame coach I have a lot of respect for. He's done a lot for Coaches Versus Cancer. I have a lot of respect. My mom died of cancer.
Jim Boeheim is friends with my former boss. I was a Syracuse fan growing up. Sherman Douglas from DC is probably my favorite college player, and Maurice's brother went to my high school. It's kind of neat. But that game five years ago, I think some of our fans think it's the greatest thing ever. Maurice was celebrating like we won the national championship when he saw it on the screen. But there's a lot of positives. The first few minutes I was a little upset that we were playing them. I want our guys to really enjoy this. We're just going to come out and try to do our best.

Q. Mike, could you talk about or explain big an influence Jack Bruin was to you especially early in your career?
COACH LONERGAN: Jack Bruen is like a second father to me. I have a great father. His name is Jack. My first son is named Jack after my dad and Jack Bruen. His wife, I still keep in touch with. His mom still lives and calls me. Still lives in the city. He's my mentor. A great, great man. A lot of people don't realize my second coaching job I worked for three years at Colgate, and actually snuck up to the Dome and saw Syracuse-Georgetown games, one of the great rivalries ever.
Coach Bruen, not only was he a great coach, he's a great person. I wish he could be here right now. He meant a lot to me. That's what's great about the sport of basketball. He's probably the best coach most people have never heard of. And a lot of people don't realize he got Colgate to the championship game before Adonal Foyle came and he did a remarkable job. It's not easy at our level. He went to three straight NCAA tournaments and tragically died of cancer. But he's a great man. And I'm glad you brought him up. I owe him an awful lot. I think about him every day.

Q. Can you just explain how much zone have you seen so far this year? And how is Syracuse's zone different from what you've seen so far?
COACH LONERGAN: Truthfully we haven't seen as much zone as I thought we would see. I always joked around with my assistants to say that to stop Blakely, I'm surprised we don't see more zone. Statistically we're the second worst three-point shooting team in the conference.
I was surprised going into the season with Maurice and Joey, I thought we had really good shooters. Marqus gets open shots for guys. The thing with Syracuse's zone, they play it all the time. They're used to playing it. They have a great coach. They've been running zone for years. And their length and athleticism is incredible.
It's not an ordinary 2-3 zone. It's really hard to get open jump shots. They can trap you out of it, do a lot of things, it's hard to get second shots. My concern is it's a way that might be harder to get Marqus the ball and it might be harder for him to score in there because of his size and we really need him to score points for us to be in games and to win basketball games.
So, the zone definitely concerns me. That was why the matchup, another reason I didn't like it. They're a zone team. But they do -- I'm a man-to-man coach. I tell you they do a great job with the zone. I talked to one of my friends, an assistant in the BIG EAST -- Rod Balanis, Notre Dame, four years at Colgate and ten years at Notre Dame 14 years -- he said this is the best zone he's ever seen them have.

Q. What's been your message to the team this week? And what's going to be your message to the team going into the game tomorrow?
COACH LONERGAN: I told them they have to enjoy this. The rest of their life they have to think about this. We had an emotional week last week. It's still emotional with Evan's mom passing away. We have a great group of guys. I'm happy for them we won the America East championship, the third year in five years being there. I felt great they finally got to cut the nets down.
The thing I want to stress is now that you're here, you don't want to have regrets saying, you know what, I didn't play well in that game against Syracuse. We could have done a better job. I want them as individuals to play the best they can probably play. We're trying to keep the scouting reports simple. They watch Syracuse on television all the time, especially with Kris Joseph. They're familiar with the team. I don't want them to have any regrets. If we're not good enough to beat them, fine. I want them to go out and give their all. I think they will be motivated to play as hard as they can.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks for your time, Coach. Good luck.
COACH LONERGAN: Thank you, appreciate it.

End of FastScripts

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