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

March 19, 2010

Kevin Jones

BUFFALO, NEW YORK

West Virginia Â– 77
Morgan State - 50

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everybody. Joining from us the victorious West Virginia Mountaineers who improved to 28-6 on the season. To the far end there Kevin Jones, next to him Devin Ebanks and Da'Sean Butler as well as head coach Bob Huggins. Coach Huggins, let's start with our players. Let's take questions for our student athletes. Please raise your hand and we'll get a microphone to you.

Q. For Devin and Kevin, did you have any visions in the early going of what happened to Georgetown last night? And what did you two in particular do to kind of take charge there?
DEVIN EBANKS: I kind of thought about the Dayton game too from last year.
Started off 10 points to our zero. Just trying to get it going with my teammates. Let's go. Can't have another close game. We have to step on the -- during the game we stepped it up and broke it out to a big lead.
KEVIN JONES: I thought the same way Devin do. Just thinking about last year's NCAA tournament game. I definitely didn't want to end it off like that. I'm just glad we got our minds right and at the end of the first half and going into the whole second half, we just do what we needed to do to win.

Q. Devin, can you talk a little about your defense on number 11? He really never got a chance to get off in the game.
DEVIN EBANKS: Holmes is a great player as far as his team and his coverages. Watching tape with him the last three days, I really tried to study his moves to the basket. Two dribbles in, step back, create open shot. I was trying to eliminate his touches. When he got the ball just stay in his face and not let him get a clean shot off.

Q. Do you think your size and your height against him -- he's quick -- but you were able to neutralize him?
DEVIN EBANKS: I try to use my length. I'm taller and way longer than he is. I try to keep my hand in his face and not let him get a clean look at the basket. And if he did get a clean look, just keep it in his face so it'll be difficult to make the shot.

Q. Kevin, you got on a little run there where you scored about 8 or 10 points in a row. Were you calling for the basketball there? Was everybody looking to go to you there?
KEVIN JONES: I mean, yeah, I felt in the beginning I wasn't being aggressive enough. I had to go and still play team basketball. But just be a little more aggressive. I mean my shots was falling. I was just in one of those zones and I'm glad that it worked out for my team that -- and it got us back into the game.

Q. Devin, Kevin, Da'Sean, did you all pay attention to what happened with the BIG EAST teams yesterday and what a struggle it was for them or were you so concerned about your own situation that you didn't really pay that much attention to it?
DA'SEAN BUTLER: We're our own team. Granted we're in the same conference and we wish our conference teams well. We're a different team from everybody else. We do different things. At the end of the day we had to worry about ourselves. But they had their games. Their games were all close as opposed to -- aside from Villanova, everybody else was pretty much even teams. They were all even compared to Villanova and Robert Morris. We came in and didn't want to leave early. We wanted to take care of our business. So we did.

Q. This is also for Da'Sean. How important was it, though, in that sense that you didn't have your "oh, no" moment and the team rallied while you were being double-teamed and really taken out of the game in the early going?
DA'SEAN BUTLER: To answer that, I kind of give everybody else the same answer when they say how does it feel to be on a team from this year compared to last year. We had a good team last year. But everybody was so young. I kind of felt that I had to do a lot more. This year we have a team. Everybody has matured. The freshmen are now sophomores. And upperclassmen understand their roles and things they can and can't do. It's a lot easier for me to go out there and play and make that one more pass to Devin and Kevin and Wells and Truck and Joe too. Everybody can score. Everybody knows what they can do. So it's a lot -- it makes it easier on myself and not to worry about scoring.
THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for West Virginia student athletes?

Q. Da'Sean and Devin, could you just in that vein you were talking Da'Sean, can you talk about the progress that Kevin has made this year? You two guys were all BIG EAST pre-season. Kevin's really picked it up. Can the two of you talk about what he's done for the team this year and today too?
DEVIN EBANKS: Kevin is the perfect example of student athlete. He works hard on and off the court. He put a lot of time in the summer. Now it's paying off. It paid off for him all season. That's why I think he has produced the way he has. We need his strong play the rest of this year for us to make a deep run.
DA'SEAN BUTLER: Same thing Devin says. Kevin has been the hardest worker on the team consistently during the off season and during the season as well. So it only goes with the territory as far as him being consistent during the season. He's been our most consistent player all year-round. As far as rebounding and scoring and just guarding his man and doing all the things -- all the little things that he does. And off the court, he's generally an excellent person to be around. I'm just glad he's on our team.
THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thanks for your time. Congratulations. At this point we'll open up for questions for Coach Huggins.

Q. Coach, in a similar vein to you, what was your reaction to the slow start? What did you tell them? Was there any mention at all of what has happened to some of these other BIG EAST teams in this tournament?
BOB HUGGINS: No, we didn't mention anything like that. We just -- we've done this -- we didn't attack them. We were playing pitch and catch on the perimeter. We started some games that way. I honestly thought we were ready to play. We just didn't do a very good job of attacking their 2-3 early. I think after the first media time-out, we did a much better job of doing what we're good at doing.

Q. Do you feel like rebounding was the key to getting it turned around?
BOB HUGGINS: We didn't rebound it early. We have to rebound it for us to be successful, we have to rebound it. But we -- you know, we have to throw it where we're good at scoring it too. There's days when some of our guys shoot the three pretty well. Then there's a lot of days they don't. We just try to ham-and-egg it to the one that's making it that particular day. But the core of what we have to do is put pressure on the rim. We didn't put any pressure on the rim. And that was my -- my conversation with them had a lot more to do with us putting pressure on the rim than it did anything else.

Q. In that first media time-out, did the players realize what they were doing wrong; is it something that you told them?
BOB HUGGINS: Hopefully I helped them. I mean, they were fine. I think they understood -- and then we changed some things what we were doing too.

Q. Any thoughts on the slow start by the BIG EAST yesterday, and did you warn your players about that?
BOB HUGGINS: I didn't. I didn't say anything about it.

Q. Any thoughts on why the BIG EAST was -- started off slow and got upset yesterday?
BOB HUGGINS: I didn't watch any of the games. I'm a bad one to ask about those things, because I was watching tape last night.

Q. Coach, I was talking to Devin, is that a common thing for you to have him playing defensively, players like that, smaller and quicker? He really just took him out of the game.
BOB HUGGINS: He's played everybody. We put him on Scottie Reynolds for instance. We've put him on a lot of small guys. And Dev has good feet. He's got good feet but he has such great length. And I think the things that he was talking about, Reggie's step-back move, the step-back move is a lot better when you have somebody who's not 6'9", and as long as Dev is. He's done a really good job on smaller guys for us.
We usually but Da'Sean on the small forward and put Devin on whatever their better perimeter guys guy is. Unless their small forward is really good then we put Dev on them. He's accepted the challenge to go out and guard other people's best players.

Q. Bob, Casey came in two shots and he's been doing this a lot. What's working with him and how is his knee?
BOB HUGGINS: I didn't ask him. I don't know. I think it's all right. You know, because Casey's knees bother him a little bit, I try to go with Pep (Dalton Pepper) earlier. Pep didn't make any shots. We had to loosen it up a little bit. Casey -- he missed the first couple but then he made a couple. I think he's fine.

Q. It's not just threes. He had a couple of steals tonight, assists. It's not just a one-time thing now with him.
BOB HUGGINS: He's smart enough to know he'd better play. I think he's figured that part of it out. He better, when he gets in the game, he better play.

Q. Bob, could you address what I had asked earlier of Devin and Da'Sean about Kevin? From a coach's standpoint, his progress this year, what he's done and what he's meant to all this?
BOB HUGGINS: He had a great summer, I think, to start with. He was 215 pounds when he came in. I don't know what he is right now, but I know at one point in time he was between 245 and 250. He got knocked off the block before. He got pushed under the basket. And he's a big, strong guy now. I think that's one thing. And I think he's worked really hard at his skill level. He's worked at his footwork. Kev is a great kid. He's going to give you everything he has. Kevin is a guy who really enjoys being in the gym and really spends a lot of time in the gym. I mean, he's -- I think he's like Da'Sean was earlier in his career. Da'Sean still is. We have a day off, probably if you go in there at some point in time of the day, you're going to see both of those guys in there still working on their game.

Q. As big as Devin's job was on Reggie, didn't you also feel like you had a big advantage at the point? And did you maybe pressure them a little bit more than you normally do or is that about what you do?
BOB HUGGINS: No, we are what we are. We try to pressure all point guards. Sometimes we don't do as good a job as we need to. We wanted to do that. We want to try to take them out of what they want to run. If you let them run what they want to run, they're very, very good. We try to take them out of it a little bit.

Q. Bob, when it was 10-0, did you sense any panic from your kids? Were you proud of the way they kind of didn't deviate from their intended course?
BOB HUGGINS: They've done it all year. We have not been -- we have not gotten out of the gate very good the majority of games. For whatever reason, I'm not sure what it is, but I thought -- I thought we -- I thought we were ready to play. I didn't think it was a matter of us not being ready to play. I just didn't think we attacked them very well.

Q. Beyond the obvious of helping K.J. physically in the block, the way you talked about, there was a perception maybe he sort of physically tailed off the end the last season, postseason-wise. Do you feel like it helped him sustain his effort through postseason play?
BOB HUGGINS: Well, I'm sure being bigger and stronger and going through the rigors of a season, I'm sure he's better at it. We're also playing a lot better teams. We were -- we played the BIG EAST tournament. About then we played a very good Dayton team who has -- all those teams we played had bigger, stronger guys. So I'm not -- I'm not positive it was a matter of K.J. just breaking down physically. I think he just got outmanned from a physical standpoint. And then that hasn't happened at all this year. We've played pretty good people. And he hasn't physically got outmanned ever.
THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Coach Huggins?

Q. It's been a little while since anybody really pressed you for more than just token. Are you better at handling it now, and maybe is that why people have stopped pressing you?
BOB HUGGINS: I don't know why they've stopped pressing us, but we're ready to handle it. I can tell that you. We've spent a lot of time on it since the debacle in Cleveland, for a lot of reasons. Because I think there's going to be a lot of situations where we're headed at the end of the game where we're going to have to take care of the ball.
I don't know why anybody -- I think it helps us, to be honest with you, it opens the floor. It gives us a better chance to score. We can score with the floor open. I mean, I think that's when Da'Sean has big games. I think that plays well into Devin's hands. Mazzulla's hands. And so I hope people do extend their defense a little bit and spread it out a little bit. Basically, what we've done is played against people who have stood five guys in a line.

Q. Certainly, it's not going to hurt that you were able to rest some guys today.
BOB HUGGINS: Hopefully not. That's the first time in a long time we've been able to rest anybody.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks so much for your time.
BOB HUGGINS: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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