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

March 19, 2010

Mike Lonergan

BUFFALO, NEW YORK

Syracuse Â– 79
Vermont - 56

THE MODERATOR: Joined now by Vermont Head Coach Mike Lonergan, as well as student athletes Marqus Blakely, closest to me, and Evan Fjeld at the far end there. Vermont finishes up an excellent season 25-10 record. We'll open, as we have, with an opening statement by Coach Lonergan and take questions from the student athletes.
MIKE LONERGAN: I want to congratulate Syracuse. I thought they played great. You know, I thought if we could have made shots, we could have stayed in the game and made it a little more interesting. We did not shoot the ball well against a great team like that. You have to really make open three-pointers and open jumpshots.
I'm proud of our guys. They hung in there. Got down 12 at halftime. We were getting blown out; 12, 14, whatever it was. We had some open looks and couldn't do it. They made their shots and they played a great game. I wish them the best of luck and hope they make it back to the Final Four.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. Go ahead and raise your hands if you have questions for our student athletes.

Q. Marqus, can you talk about how difficult this may have been? It was not a neutral site by any shape or form. How tough was it to basically play an NCAA road game? And when it was 25 and it looked like the doors had been blown open, what did you guys do to summon that run and make it a game again?
MARQUS BLAKELY: Well, you know, come into this type of atmosphere, I mean, Vermont 3,200 people and coming out here and playing in front of a couple of thousand people, and the small percentage is Vermont fans, I mean, it's a lot different. I mean, you just got to go out there and give it your all. Try to put it in the back of your mind that you are playing the number one team in our bracket. I mean, just to go out there and compete and once they did get up 25, not to let my teammates kind of get discouraged and quit, because that's not what we're about. Going out there and just giving it your all for 40 minutes.
I told all the young guys you only get one chance in college. You have to play every game as hard as you can for 40 minutes.
THE MODERATOR: Other questions?

Q. I guess for either Marqus or Evan, what stood out to you about Syracuse, their athletes? What impressed you the most about them?
EVAN FJELD: They're all good. Everybody they play, only six guys in the rotation, really played tonight. But all of them can play. All of them can shoot. All of them rebound. They are really good in the zone. They get out in passing lanes and they make it difficult for you. I was kind of surprised how -- I knew how good they were. But I didn't realize it like Scoop Jardine and some of these guys that don't get the publicity that Wes Johnson gets or (Arinze) Onuaku or Rautins, how good they actually are. It's tough when everybody on the floor can play like they can.
MARQUS BLAKELY: I mean, I was surprised how fast they got out after a missed shot. We missed a lot tonight. I mean, it seemed like once they got the rebound, they were just -- there was somebody at half court and there was somebody at the other three-point line. It was tough to crash the boards and get back in transition.

Q. Marqus, what can you take away from this NCAA tournament appearance for you? This is your only one, and this is it for you for your career in terms of collegiate basketball.
MARQUS BLAKELY: Well, I mean, I wish, I wish every teammate the best and hopefully they can get back here. My freshman year we missed it by one. I just hope they don't have to experience that and they'll be able to get back here soon enough.

Q. Those dunks there in the end of the first half, that's kind of like where you've been all your career in terms of the highlight reel. Was that kind of nice for you to do that on this stage?
MARQUS BLAKELY: Yeah, I mean, it's kind of just read and react. The zone was kind of high, pushed up towards half court. So I mean just seeing that and reacting is kind of what happened. I mean, the dunk is just as special as a pass. I credit Nick Vier for seeing that and throwing a good pass.

Q. Evan, can you talk about the mindset of the team at halftime. It was a 25-point game and now it's a 12-point game. You guys clearly went into the room with some momentum.
EVAN FJELD: It seemed like they were about to blow it open. Marqus came with a couple of dunks and it kind of settled us down. We realized we could play with them. We're going to have to make some shots, we're going to have to improve defensively. It wasn't going to be this blowout like it looked like it was going to be. We wanted to circle the wagons, regroup and hopefully go out and have a better effort in the second half. But we came out, didn't really make shots. They came out and hit threes. It's tough when they shoot whatever, 10 for 22 from the three-point line. We kind of -- we need to shoot better and we need them to shoot worse if we're going to pull off an upset like this.

Q. Was there a moment out there for either one of you guys where you were able to step back and think, "I'm at an NCAA game, I'm having fun"? What was that moment like for you guys?
MARQUS BLAKELY: When we first got here and we walked into the arena and just to see how huge it was and knowing that it's going to be packed with Syracuse fans, it was kind of -- you had to realize that you're there now. It's not playing Stonybrook and 1,500; packed gyms, screaming fans like this is the real deal. The fact that we went out there and kind of just never gave up. The scoreboard might show something different, but I mean I'm proud of all my teammates. I want to thank the fans too. They've been great all four years, and the coaching staff here has been great. There's nothing really that I can change. I just wish Syracuse the best and hopefully they'll win it all.
THE MODERATOR: Anything to add to that, Evan?
EVAN FJELD: I think I stepped back when we came out of the game at the end. We kind of got our butts kicked by Syracuse. But I was a little disappointed, but I realize that's not what really matters.
I had a great year. Full of ups and downs, obviously, if you know. Just to experience this, especially at this time going through my life, and having these guys here with me I wouldn't want anything else. It was a really great experience. I'll never forget it. Hopefully I can come back next year with a different result sitting up here at the podium.
THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, appreciate it. Great season. We'll open up the questions for Coach Lonergan at this time.

Q. Was it the kind of hornets nest you expected? What was it like to deal with all that orange and all that noise?
MIKE LONERGAN: It was awful. I've been worried about this all week. I was like, man, I just -- I felt like I was going to be at the Carrier Dome too, 19,000, whatever it was. Pretty impressive. I came -- came to see Matt's dad and see his mom. Try to get used to the atmosphere. It wasn't crowded. It wasn't the same. I tried to bring them late to the game so we didn't get here too early. Even watching some of the second half Florida State game, just seeing all that orange, I was like, we're going to have trouble. We got off to a bad start. Kind of expected. We settled down. We just couldn't make shots. But I didn't -- it wasn't about playing Syracuse. I didn't want to play Syracuse in Buffalo. It was a great experience for our guys. They're the better team. Whether we're playing here or anywhere in the country. When you play great team like that, you have to make shots. We didn't and they did. I'm a man to man coach. I play man to man 99% of the time. We had to play zone tonight because we couldn't guard them. They scored against the man, came out the second half, made four of their first five threes and the one they missed they got the offensive rebound. We tried everything and nothing really worked. But it was a great atmosphere. I watched the game on TV today at the Bradley Center. Pittsburgh was playing. It looked like it was a third full. This was unbelievable. The Orange fans, they do a great job. I know all about them. They have tremendous fan support.

Q. Only nine turnovers today. Are you happy with the way the guys took care of the ball? Didn't really make any mistakes. Obviously the shots weren't going down. Seems like there wasn't a lot of careless turnovers.
MIKE LONERGAN: I mean, we were talking all week shots, not turnovers. They played 2-3 zone. You shouldn't turn it over that much. We had some silly ones. I didn't think we were -- we got beat pretty good. But I thought it was -- it wasn't because we kept turning the ball over. We just didn't make shots. Even our good shooters, wide open, I kept thinking, "the next one will go in, the next one will go in." They did a great job taking our inside game out of it. So I'm happy we didn't turn it over. Neither -- they turned it over a little bit. They had 24 assists. They really shared the ball well. They did a great job. I give them all the credit in the world. I know we didn't turn it over -- we didn't play well. We really didn't.

Q. You talked a lot coming in, you didn't want the guys to have any regrets after this game. And after listening to Marqus and Evan's comments, are you satisfied that the team really reached their goals this year?
MIKE LONERGAN: Yeah, I think so. We lost 2,000-point scorer Mike Trimboli. Great player. Taylor Coppenrath. We lost a lot of offensive firepower. We were the second worst three-point shooting team in the American East and we still won 25 games. We were down 25 in the first half. I said this could be 40, so we cut it to 12.
We were feeling pretty good at halftime. They came out and lit us up again. I told the guys, I'll never yell at you for missing shots. We had open shots. So I didn't think we played scared in the second half. I just didn't think we played well. And that has a lot to do with their defense. But also we were missing shots all year. I'm happy we didn't pack it in. An I don't think we gave up or anything. But I would have liked to have given Syracuse a better ballgame tonight.

Q. I know it's always hard to put it into words only a few minutes after the season ended, what's your assessment of this season and the careers of some of the seniors, Marqus in particular?
MIKE LONERGAN: I thought we had a great year to win 25 games at our level. We played our first ten games on the road. It's hard to get home games. We have great fans and we're pretty good. So it's really hard. Our team lost to Cornell by eight without Garvey Young. We played a pretty tough schedule. We beat Rutgers. Beat a good Buffalo team up here. We had lost three in a row one point this year and our guys came back. We were one win away from winning the regular season which was one of our goals.
I couldn't be happier outside tonight to go to Hartford, tremendous fan support we received. Catamount Nation came to Hartford. We got two wins and we got a home game. And with Evan's mom passing away, it was one of the hardest weeks of my coaching career.
These guys did a great job supporting Evan. He was unbelievable. He's strong young man. I'll never forget the season. I'm all about winning. I love to win more than anybody, and I hate to lose. The University of Vermont, I think the athletic department school is about more than that. These guys taught me a lot this year, especially the last couple of weeks. I was happy for Evan. He had a great year. They were able to cut down the nets and make the NCAA tournament. The matchup was tough. And I was worried about it all week, trying to keep the guys loose. But we didn't reach every goal, but we reached a lot of them.
I'm going to be bumped out tonight and for a couple of weeks. You know how I get. I'll be down. But keep working harder recruiting. This summer I'll have a smile on my face. These guys did a great job. We have one first team all week player. And we have a lot of good players. But to get this far with just one really great player, that shows me that we were a team that won with rebounding and defense. So I think to win 25 games, I'm pretty pleased. I'll be a lot more pleased in a week.
THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Coach? One brief announcement. Coach, I want to thank you and congratulate you on a great season.
MIKE LONERGAN: Thanks. Thanks for the host city here. It was great.

End of FastScripts

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