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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: JACKSONVILLEMarch 20, 2010Steve DonahueJon JaquesAlex TylerChris WroblewskiJACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA THE MODERATOR: Questions for these gentlemen? Q. For either one of the seniors, a lot was said about how it would be so great if Cornell/an Ivy League team could win a game in the tournament, so could either of you talk about how that was just never enough coming into this season? ALEX TYLER: I think we had high expectations for this season, and definitely getting that win was incredible for us and our League. But we know we have a job to do when we're here, and we're not satisfied with just one win. JON JAQUES: Yeah, basically yesterday we were very excited with the win. I think now that it's a new day, especially we just finished our practice, preparing for Wisconsin, our mindset is completely focused on Wisconsin and we were really excited about the game yesterday. Now we're definitely mentally prepared for our next game. Q. For Chris, against Wisconsin you're going to be going against a guard in Trevon Hughes who's really good about getting in the lane, scores most of his points from inside the arc. Talk about the challenges going against a guard like that and what you think the match-up is going to be like. CHRIS WROBLEWSKI: Yeah, I think it's going to be -- obviously he's a great player. He's a great talent. You know, he can score in a variety of ways, getting his shot off, whether it be pull-ups or threes. Like you said, he's a really strong, explosive guard, similar to Louis in a lot of ways that he can get into the paint. I think going up against Louis every day in practice is going to help me a lot. But I don't think it's like a one-man thing at all. I think it's going to be all five of us, and I think Geoff Reeves is going to have to step up, and he's going to do a great job on him, as well. But I think we play great team defense, so we're just going to have to do that again. Q. Can you compare Temple and Wisconsin? Do you feel like they're similar teams? And can you expand on which ways they may be similar, which ways they may be different? JON JAQUES: Yeah, they're both great defensive teams, I think. I think from what we've seen, Wisconsin might pay attention to their three-point shooters a little bit more. We'll have to work to get open shots, I think. They both have large front lines. And I guess Temple, we did a bunch of different things to treat that. So I think they're similar, but at the same time different types of teams. One is A 10, one is Big Ten. It's a different game. I think our confidence more than anything from yesterday's game will help us in tomorrow's game. Q. This is for Alex or Jon. I mean, so much was a goal this year to win a tournament game. You've done that. What has the 24 hours been like trying to either breathe in that air or refocus on the idea that you've got another game to win here, to play? ALEX TYLER: We definitely enjoyed that last night, especially with our friends and family all around. We took it in, but now we're here, and we're all focused on today and what we have to do. And I think that's where our mindset is at right now. JON JAQUES: Yeah, pretty much the same thing. I think it's obviously a special moment for our program and I think for the whole league in general. At the same time, I think we know we're talented enough to advance in this tournament. So if we play well tomorrow, we should have a good chance. Q. This is for any of you guys. Is it helpful after having such a convincing win yesterday against a defensive-minded team, is it helpful facing another defensive-minded team instead of maybe a match-up where it's kind of more of a run and gun? Talk about that as far as preparation. CHRIS WROBLEWSKI: Yeah, I think when you get a win in the tournament, you definitely have more confidence going to the next game. But I think -- I don't think we were lacking in any sort of confidence. We played the schedule we did this year, so we would have the belief in ourselves that we could progress in this tournament. And I think we made Temple kind of play our style of game, and hopefully we're going to be able to get Wisconsin to adjust and adapt to what we want to do. Q. For any of you guys, this was a request from an outside source to ask this question. Could you guys elaborate on the tournament "Hatorade"? JON JAQUES: Of course, I'd love to. I believe "Hatorade" is something you might either drink or absorb, I guess, that people outside your program might be, I guess, exposed to. I'm trying to give a scientific way of explaining this. I don't know, it's just something people who don't respect your program, I guess, and don't think you're -- just belong at this spot. I think we have proven, though, that we do belong here in the tournament, and hopefully no one is drinking any "Hatorade" against us. Yeah, that's about it. Can you guys expand on that? ALEX TYLER: That was perfect. Q. Alex, can you kind of address the type of player Jon Leuer is for Wisconsin and maybe players that you guys have seen over the course of the year that are like him in any way and what will be important to containing him on Sunday? ALEX TYLER: He's a very versatile big. He can step out and knock down a shot so we're going to have to close him down well. He also goes after the boards really well. We're going to have to do a great job in all aspects because he can knock down big shots, as we saw, and I think we are just going to have to play really overall very physical against him. Q. Chris, this is a follow-up to your other comments. What is it that you all want Wisconsin to adapt and adjust to what you all do that might be different than what you got Temple to do? CHRIS WROBLEWSKI: Well, the coaches discussed how the Wisconsin -- all the teams they play in the Big Ten, they play in a great league and everything, but I think those teams are very different from ours. Whereas at one point in time we can have four shooters on the floor, I don't think the teams they play against, I don't think they're used to guarding teams that cut really hard and pass well and have five really skilled players on the floor at one time. So I think they're going to have to adjust to that. Q. Again, regarding your success yesterday, I was curious about all the national attention in the media that you've been getting. I'm wondering if any of you guys on the team have read coverage of you in the past 24 hours, like if you've seen the New York Post, the cover today, and any reaction to that? Or do you try to avoid seeing any of this coverage to try to focus on today? ALEX TYLER: It's hard to avoid all of it, but for the most part we try to stay within ourselves and within our team. We've been getting a lot of coverage all year. Having a lot of seniors, having a veteran group like that has really done a lot for us in staying focused on what we have to do. Q. This is for Jon. Again, kind of dealing with the style that you're going to see, how much of preparing for Temple helps you prepare for Wisconsin since they are such -- they're both such great defensive teams? JON JAQUES: It might help a little bit, I think. Well, they're both great defensive teams. They both have different strategies, I think both have different philosophies and that sort of thing. We prepared to play against a physical, rugged type of team from a big conference, but they both present different challenges. The keys for us will be probably the same against Temple, just to execute on offense. Like Chris said, we try to make extra passes, cut really hard, set screens, that sort of thing, and hopefully that will do the job, because I think Ivy League teams put an emphasis on that, maybe not as much as the Big Ten teams do. Q. I guess for any of you guys, playing an Ivy League schedule, are you used to putting the emotion from one win away and playing on the next day? While it may be a bigger stage, do you think playing the Ivy League schedule for so many years is going to help you get ready for this Wisconsin game tomorrow? ALEX TYLER: I definitely think so. An Ivy League game, win or lose, you kind of have to put that in the past and move on to the next game as quickly as you can because it's coming up the next day. So I think having that the last four years, we'll be focused and ready to go tomorrow. Q. Chris, with that "Hatorade" thing, I assume you guys play the no respect card a little bit. Did you kind of blow your cover a little bit yesterday, and with as complete a performance as you had, does that change things for you guys? CHRIS WROBLEWSKI: You know, I don't think Wisconsin is coming into this game, second round of the NCAA tournament, I don't think they're going to take any opponent lightly, whether it be us or if they were playing another high, major team. At this stage in the season, I think any team is going to be giving it their all and playing -- laying everything out on the court. And that's what we're going to have to do tomorrow, as well. Q. Forgive me, this is kind of a lighthearted question, but I don't know if any of you guys watch "The Office." There's a character on there from Cornell and who's very proud of that. I don't know if you guys watch the show, but how exciting would it be if there's a mention of what you guys are doing on the TV show? ALEX TYLER: It would be kind of cool. I know they mentioned Nathan Ford on the football team once, so if we could get a shout out for our guys, we'd all enjoy that. JON JAQUES: I don't watch "The Office" that much to be honest. I'm more of a "Lost" guy myself. But that would be cool, I guess. (Laughter) THE MODERATOR: Guys, thank you very much. Good luck to you. Coach, if you could give us kind of an opening thought about the upcoming game and then we'll field some questions. COACH DONAHUE: Well, I think we obviously have a daunting task again to play a great defensive team in Wisconsin. Bo Ryan has done as good a job as anybody in the country in developing a program over the years that he's been there. This is one of his solid basketball teams, especially defensively. We're going to have to do a lot of good things on offense to make sure that we get good shots, and you've got to handle what they bring offensively, as well. Q. You said the other day that Coach Dunphy was kind of the quintessential Philly coach. Kind of sounded to me like you were describing Bo, as well. How does Bo fit into that? COACH DONAHUE: Well, I don't know if a lot of people even know that Bo is from Philadelphia, and I think I said yesterday, we're neighboring towns right outside of the city limits, and so I, being a basketball nut my whole life, I've known Bo. Bo has done an unbelievable job in terms of climbing the ladder of coaching and doing it in a way where he made great sacrifices early in his career to do what it took to get to the next level each time. He was a very good high school basketball player, and he's exactly -- you know, I almost say like Philadelphia has a couple things in common with coaches: Nobody likes turnovers, and that's a John Chaney thing, and I think it's a Bo Ryan thing, it's a Fran Dunphy thing, and obviously his team has played a -- I think they try to make things as simple as they can and grind it out and just be tougher than the opponent. That's something that we love to take pride in in Philadelphia, and I think Bo obviously does that in Wisconsin basketball. Q. How does your team reflect that, as well? COACH DONAHUE: Well, when you're at a place like Cornell, I don't necessarily think you can recruit exactly the type of player that you're going to build your program around. I think you've got to build to the strengths of the personnel that you're able to acquire. So I would hope that we're the stringiest defensive team in our conference. It's not true every year, but I take pride in our defense. I think we take care of the ball. I think we play intelligently. I think we play tough. I think we compete. I think we can grind it out when we have to. And I'm not Bo Ryan. I've got to play Steve Donahue basketball and try to instill that in my players. Q. You don't have a lot of time obviously to prepare for this game, but Temple and Wisconsin both kind of have the same identity, so how much does that help as far as preparation for this game? COACH DONAHUE: I think that's a good point. I think they have a lot of things in common: The pace of the game, kind of a set team and kind of play until the end of the shot clock on the offensive end. Offensive rebounding is a key for both those teams. They guard you. They kind of guard you similar, but there's some distinct differences, trust me. I think you've got plenty of time in the sense that my assistants had a scout all week. It was Wisconsin. He broke down them, got tons of film. You put a game plan -- in the Ivy, we're used to that. We turn around and play every other night six times during the year. So I feel confident that we're ready to go. Q. Are there structural differences between the Temple and Wisconsin defenses, or is it simply the way the personnel is used? COACH DONAHUE: No, I think there is. I think there's different things that they handle ball screens, for instance. Wisconsin does something very different than what Temple does, and obviously we've got to make that adjustment. The way they handle all screens are different and how they -- Wisconsin chases you off that three-point line. If you look at the amount of threes that Wisconsin gives up compared to what Temple gives up, there's a dramatic difference. Don't think necessarily we're going to get 20 to 25 three-point looks tomorrow like we did against Temple. We may, but I would think that the way they play, they're going to force you to beat them other ways. Q. Could you just discuss Jon Leuer and what kind of problems he poses as an offensive player? COACH DONAHUE: Yeah, I saw a lot of Jon in high school, tried to recruit him. He's an academic kid and a talented, skilled big, and I've been -- probably the last time I saw him was his junior year in high school, now I see him in person yesterday. Just real impressed with his strength, quickness, ability to step away from the basket, plays hard. He's a terrific basketball player, as good as there is in terms of being that step out four in college basketball. He can make shots, and he's a guy that's obviously a force in the low block. It's hard to figure out how you're going to guard him. You're going to guard him with a big guy, then guys are going to have to be able to guard him on the perimeter, and obviously you if guard him with a smaller four man, but he's going to take advantage of you down low. I think you've got to be ready to guard him with all five guys. Q. How is Foote defensively out on the floor? I noticed he went out there some yesterday and didn't look totally out of place. COACH DONAHUE: No, Jeff is a terrific perimeter defender in terms of getting out on kids. He guards a lot of Jon Leuer type of players in our league. He'll step out and guard guys who use the three-point line. I think the surprising thing that people don't realize about Jeff is that he's a very good athlete, and he's getting better every day as his strength gets bigger. He moves laterally very well, he gets off his feet. He's coordinated. My fear is I don't want to get him tired or in foul trouble, so we've got to pick our chances of when we're going to put him on the other team's best player. But he's a very good defensive player in all aspects. Q. Some of the players were just talking about this in the locker room, how this season they've played against so many different teams with different styles, but they did say in the regular season in the Ivy they did face Princeton with the physicality that you're going to see tomorrow. Is that something that gets you ready for Wisconsin, or is there physicality on another level? COACH DONAHUE: No, I would say to you, I think Princeton is as good a defensive team as there is in the country. I mean that. They're physical. They're throw a line-up out there, 6'10", 6'9", 6'8", switch everything, chase you off the line, grind it out. You feel like you're getting fouled on every catch, and it's kind of what Wisconsin is going to feel like. We played two really hard-fought games against them. It's almost like you've got to understand it's going to be you go ugly at times and fight through that. It's not going to be a pretty game. We're not going to win any points for beauty here. Let's try to figure out a way to score a basket and then get back. But absolutely, more like Princeton than Temple. Q. So what was it about those Princeton wins that you can use against Wisconsin? COACH DONAHUE: Well, there's an ability that both teams have of getting in you on screens, for instance. Like we said, numerous screens we're rotating the ball back and forth across -- both of those teams just are dedicated to making it difficult to come off there clean, and not all teams do that. I think most teams try to do it, and it lasts for 20, 25 minutes, possession here, possession there. Princeton and Wisconsin do as good a job as anybody of physically getting in you so you don't feel like you're ever comfortable. My sense is that those games helped us. I think it helped us yesterday, and we're going to see that kind of stuff where if it's not -- if it's the first time you've faced anything like that, there's a period of adjustment. I think we're better off that we faced that in our league getting into this game. Q. Could you describe the way Jeff Foote looked when you first brought him in? COACH DONAHUE: Wow. I love talking about this because it's a lesson for me as a coach. But I saw him in our gym senior year for just briefly, and I was sitting with a couple Division III guys, and he was probably 6'10", 170, and he was -- shaved head. It was hard to imagine him being a college basketball player at any level. And true, none of those Division III coaches were willing to give him a look. And I obviously -- you see so many big kids, you always hope that maybe one has a chance, and you take a flier on him. You see it all around the country, all the programs, that the kids really unfortunately never really develop what you would hope. So Jeff went and did his academic. He was a great student and went to Bonaventure and came into our gym when we finally did get him. He was pretty good then, but he was still extremely thin. And what he did is he just dedicated himself, and I think it comes to -- basically what you just told you. I think he had a chip on his shoulder about how he looked, how he felt, awkward being as tall as he was, and he wanted to prove people wrong. That's kind of how he plays now. And to coach a guy like that that has an attitude, and then you fall back on he's intelligent -- there's times where I map up a play and I mess it up and he grabs the board and he redoes it, and that's your seven-foot center doing that, that's not your point guard. So he's just been an incredible delight to coach and be with. The stuff he does on the basketball court, I always say if he was 6'7", he'd be good. He'd be a really good player. That he's seven-foot makes him very special. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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