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

March 19, 2010

Jamie Dixon

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN

Pittsburgh Â– 89
Oakland - 66

DENNIS KRAUSE: We'll have an opening overview from Jamie Dixon from Pittsburgh and then questions for Gilbert Brown and Jermaine Dixon.
COACH DIXON: Really liked how we figured things out as the game went on and adapted to what they were doing and made improvements, especially on the offensive end, decision-making, and transition, as well as on our drives.
And as we got going, offensively we started making dump-offs and kick-outs off our penetration, and that's where we were getting the good shots, the layups, and that's how we were able to shoot such a high percentage. But very good job. I liked the balanced scoring and the decision-making we made as the game went on. And we did a good job defensively containing their penetration and guarding the 3s, which is what we wanted to do. We kind of let our big guy on an island with Benson. We made him earn it. But he's a very good player and they're a very good team, well-coached, play hard, good experience, and very good offensively.
So to hold them to 33 percent and 17 turnovers says a lot about our defense. They're very good, and they are very well-coached and happy with how our guys played.
DENNIS KRAUSE: Questions for the student-athletes, please.

Q. Yesterday the Big East took a hit. Do you guys pay attention to that at all? Do you know what the media is saying? The Big East struggled yesterday, and how do you come out reacting to that if you did pay attention to it?
JERMAINE DIXON: Well, we watched the games. We are student-athletes. We like watching basketball. The Big East lost some games, but that's not our main concern. We worry about what we have to do, and we worry about Oakland more than anything, taking it one game at a time. The Big East took some hits, but we're just going to go out there and do what we have to do.

Q. Kind of crazy watching the game, see you guys kind of made a difference with the big injury. And you were on a 29 and 12 run. You guys went into a huddle, came out of the huddle, what did you want to look for especially going into the second half?
GILBERT BROWN: I think our main concern was we started off the game plan a little sloppy. There was a lot of turnovers and we weren't moving the ball. Our offense was stagnant. I think once we made that adjustment coming out of the second timeout, just to move the ball around and play together, I think that's when we really opened up and were efficient as a team.
DENNIS KRAUSE: Thank you. Questions for Coach Dixon, please.

Q. Could you talk about Keith Benson, what makes him such a great player, his biggest strength?
COACH DIXON: The thing, I think watching film and seeing again in here in person was his hands. He has very good hands, the length and size is obvious. But he has good hands and he's well-coached. Keeps the ball up. And he plays with a very good point guard, too, so he's getting the ball at the right place, the right time. They did a good job of getting them the ball. But I think the thing that stands out to me is his hand. Soft touch, also. But you don't see him drop too many balls and he comes up with his length. And, oftentimes, you don't see those guys with the soft hands that he has.
A number of things make him as good as he is. But he's playing with good players. And we were fortunate -- I don't know if you call it fortunate, but he seems to be okay, Nelson took an injury there but was able to come back and play. But he's a big part of their team as well.
But he's around good players. They space it well because of their ability to shoot the ball and drive it. So I think it allows him to get isolated in the post and put up some numbers.

Q. The Bradley Center in years past has been the site of big upsets in the NCAA tournament. Did that cross your minds at all today and kind of breathing a sigh of relief at all?
COACH DIXON: Not really. I didn't know the history of it. The only history we're familiar with is when we played here a while back. I was going to say a short time ago, but I guess it was six years ago.
So that was really, for me anyways, it was a place we wanted to go, to be honest with you. When I saw the sites and where we were at, I figured Buffalo might not be a possibility, so Milwaukee, to me, was going to be the next closest place we were familiar with, and had just played here a couple of weeks ago and played well. So I thought we'd go that route.

Q. Not to harp too much on the Big East, stuff from yesterday, but is there any way you could have or chose to use that as preparation for today? Sort of like, "Well, look at all these teams from our league. This could happen to us." Anything like that?
COACH DIXON: Not really. We didn't look at that. Maybe they looked at it that way. I mean, to me if you go that route, you're not giving respect to Oakland. Our whole focus was how good they were, what they've done in their conference, and how they dominated the tournament in the three games they played.
I know you can go that route and scare them, but my thing is to speak to the strengths and talents of Oakland and make sure our guys know how good they are. And I thought we did a good job of understanding that, because this is a team that can really score. They can put the ball in the basket. And we had to defend to our utmost ability.

Q. Can you comment on the performances of J.J. Richardson and Dante Taylor?
COACH DIXON: Going into the game we were really going to concentrate and contain the drive and not let them hurt us from the 3-point line. So we didn't want to double team -- a lot of teams have double-teamed Benson. We knew going in we'd have 15 fouls to use with those three guys, including Gary.
And the main thing was make him shoot out over our bigger guys and keep him straight up. And I think we let him get to the free throw line a few too many times, but he got some at the end when the lead was pretty substantial.
But it was key for them. I think going into that game we knew that J.J. was probably going to see some minutes and Dante obviously always does and splits it with Gary. But they all got in foul trouble.
So between the three of them, I don't know what we had, but they all seemed to have three or four. We left them on an island, and I thought we defended him pretty well. And he's good, and it was a pretty good job by our post guys. He had to earn every one. He didn't get a lot of easy shots.

Q. There's a pretty lengthy break there when Nelson was down. What did you share with your team at that point? Did you feel that could be a turning point in that aspect there?
COACH DIXON: Not really. As he came back into the game, so we figured he would be back. But it really wasn't -- I didn't think we were playing very well offensively. I think we were driving. We were getting to the basket, we were missing some layups, forcing some shots, and I thought we should have been dumping them off and dropping them off as their big guys rotated over. That's what we did as the half progressed, and then especially in the second half, which enabled us to shoot, I think, 60 percent in the second -- 66 percent, I guess, in the second half.
So got a lot of layups off our penetration. And that was really what we were focusing on about that point in the game, because we were getting to the rim. We were getting in the lanes, but we weren't making good decisions, I thought, until really the ten-minute mark.

Q. You did allude to that injury earlier, too. Even though he did come back, it wasn't until the second half. What did they lose when he sat out the first half that they had before?
COACH DIXON: I don't know if anybody had seen the championship game where he had 36, I think it was. So we knew how good he was. They're a balanced team scoring-wise, but he has the ability to really go on some rolls from what we saw.
Obviously he's a very good player. We had a few guys with bloody -- there was J.J. had a bloodied nose and lip and so did one of our other guys, too, as well. So they had to come out of the game as well.
So there was two good teams -- they're a big, physical team. I think sometimes when you play teams from the one big conference, they oftentimes aren't as big. But they're big and pretty physical and old. And he's a fifth-year senior, Nelson, as are their juniors are fourth-year guys, and Benson and Wright. So they're a very experienced team.
DENNIS KRAUSE: Thank you.

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