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

March 20, 2010

John Groce

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND

Tennessee Â– 83
Ohio - 68

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by Ohio student-athletes D.J. Cooper and Tommy Freeman along with Head Coach John Groce. Coach, would you please make an opening statement.
COACH GROCE: You know, obviously difficult game for us today. Tennessee deserves a lot of credit. I thought Armon had a great point the other day when he said the beauty of this tournament is not a playoff series or anything like that, it's a one-game deal. And the key is to play better than the other team you're playing on a particular day. And Tennessee played better than us today. We didn't have it.
Certainly they had a lot to do with that. We knew going into the game that protecting the paint was going to be very important, and they out scored us 58 to 12 on paint points. So obviously they were able to impose their will in that area and did a terrific job of that. I thought that was the biggest difference in the game.

Q. D.J., it seemed like anytime you or Armon or anybody tried to drive there were two or three defenders right there. How important was it for them to keep you out of the paint?
D.J. COOPER: They did a real good job of keeping us out of the paint. They knew that Armon liked to get to the paint, distribute the ball, so the coach and the staff over there did a real good job of keeping us out of the paint.

Q. Tommy, could you just touch on their defensive plan and the way that plays off their length and athleticism and give us a sense of how tough it is to initiate certain things you guys like to do offensively when facing that?
TOMMY FREEMAN: They down the ball screens, which was -- they forced our guards to go towards their baseline, toward their big, that we were setting the ball screen with. Coach had us ready to go against it and they have some long guards. So their size and length were able to keep our guards on the sideline and obviously they wanted to -- obviously they felt comfortable when we would throw it out to our bigs with letting KVK or DeVaughn try to make a play rather than Armon or D.J. They had a pretty good game plan. And I think that's one of the few times we saw that game plan this year.

Q. D.J., how frustrating was tonight just trying to get something going on offense? Explain how tough it was out there on the court?
D.J. COOPER: It was tough. They just played real hard defense. They jumped the ball screens. We kind of put some of it on ourself. The guards didn't wait at times for ball screens and stuff like that. But it was frustrating playing against a good defensive team like that, a bunch of older guys. They had the better team tonight.

Q. Tommy, with Tennessee they're not only very long and athletic, but on the offensive end they're very balanced. Would you talk about how hard it is to prepare for a team like that?
TOMMY FREEMAN: It's the same thing with our team, I think, and the MAC is hard for teams to prepare for us. They have multiple weapons. Any guy can hurt you on a particular night. Just all match-ups. They were able to get some points in the paint early in the game. They had some guys running in from the perimeter and tipping balls in and keeping them alive. They shot it really well tonight. All the credit goes out to them. They just found the weaknesses in our defense and were able to exploit them.

Q. Did the fact that they were very athletic and got to you quicker than your last opponent affect your shooting in the sense that you felt you had to get the shot up quicker and that affected the amount of shots that you were able to get? ?
TOMMY FREEMAN: I don't think. Georgetown is a pretty athletic team just like Tennessee is although Tennessee has some bigger guards. Really if you get an open look, it doesn't matter really who is flying at you. But I think just the way that they were able to take the ball out of our play makers hands for the majority of the game really hurt our effectiveness on the offensive end.

Q. As great as the last two weeks have been, can you guys kind of sum up the experience you guys have learned and what was the lesson learned or what do you take from the last two weeks and apply it moving forward?
D.J. COOPER: It's a great experience, especially being a freshman. Just makes you more humble, makes you more hungry and makes you know what you have to do for next year, for the guys coming back. It's a great feeling. But to lose like this isn't a good feeling, it's just going to make us more hungry in the springtime and in the offseason to work on what we've got to work on.
TOMMY FREEMAN: With D.J., it's been a great feeling, a great ride. Everybody doubted us coming into the MAC Tournament. Just the way that our team came together with KVK leading us is just a tribute to all the work he's put in over these past four years. We all kind of came together and played for KVK and just wanted to get as many games for him as we could. It's just been a great ride. And for everybody that's returning, as D.J. said, it makes us hungrier, and gives us a taste of what the tournament is like, and just makes us want to come back next year.

Q. You all got it to six a couple of times the second half, did you sense them turning up the intensity, what did you sense changed after that?
D.J. COOPER: We got a couple of stops a couple of times. Even when we got the stops they got a couple of tip ins, a couple of put backs, and the ball bounced their way. We were down five at one time and they got a big 3 in the corner.

Q. Is Tennessee maybe the toughest match up you had in terms of perimeter defense? They did a great job of that all season long?
COACH GROCE: Maybe right up there. I'm just trying to reflect back on all the teams that we played. They're certainly one of them. You don't see too many teams, regardless of our league -- I know even in previous places I've been at in different leagues that have a two and three man that are six foot seven each. That's pretty unique. I think Tommy alluded to that.
But their perimeter defense, I was aware going into the game that they were -- I think teams were shooting right around 29 percent against three with them which was 8th nationally. And they do a terrific job of that and obviously have done that all year.

Q. First ten minutes you were able to hang with them, and they hit you with an 18-2 run. Looking back on it, when did you see what went wrong for you in that stretch?
COACH GROCE: We had a tough time defending them. We played 37 games and only four times I think, maybe it's five, has an opponent shot 50 percent against our defense. And one of them was at Tulsa. We lost by a point; one of them was at Pittsburgh, and one of them was at Miami of Ohio, and we lost and we were up 9 at the half. When I look at the stat sheet and see Tennessee shot 57 percent, I'm not surprised. It's tough when a team shoots that type of percentage.
Some of the high percentage shots they got late in the game we started scrambling and gambling a little bit because of time and score, to try to increase the number of possessions in the game. Even with that, they still shot 58 in the first half. Just too high a percentage. You're not going to have a lot of success when teams shoot that type of percentage against you.

Q. When you look back on this real quick, this last run, was it a remarkable experience or was it the culmination of things coming together at the right time, how would you sum it up in a nutshell?
COACH GROCE: Obviously right now I don't feel real good. I don't like to lose. Maybe tomorrow when I wake up I'll reflect back on it. Right now usually what goes through any coach's mind is I'm not thinking about the MAC Tournament run right now or the win against Georgetown, I'm thinking about what we could have done better to play better. But maybe tomorrow when I wake up I'll have a chance to reflect back.
I do know that I'm awfully proud of our guys for not flinching numerous times during the season when really their backs were cornered against the wall, when maybe others had given up on them. No one really gave us a shot in the MAC Tournament. And obviously the NCAA Tournament gets so much publicity, and you can't keep television from your guys. And no one gave us a shot on Thursday night.
So our guys -- I'm most proud of the way they responded to those situations and were able to handle themselves with a lot of character and class and respond and belief.

Q. You guys definitely had a great run this season, but I'm pretty sure you're not completely satisfied. What have you learned as a coach from this experience to take with you in the next season and in the offseason?
COACH GROCE: Well, I think one of the challenges regardless of what you do in life is to try to learn from every experience that you have, that's good or bad. We'll certainly, as I mentioned there, be reflective and evaluate what we did, what we liked, what we didn't like, try to learn and grow from it and continue to move forward and to move our program forward. We're always interested in getting better.
I think if you standstill or like you said you get satisfied or as Jim Tressel used to say, swallow poison which is success, you swallow too much of it, it will gobble you up. We'll make sure that we don't do that. We're excited about the run that we had and very grateful for the opportunity. But realize that we also have a long way to go.

Q. Tennessee's defense aside, against Georgetown you guys hit some closely guarded shots, some deep threes, was maybe this one of those afternoons where you just didn't quite have your shooting touch?
COACH GROCE: We didn't have it. Certainly Tennessee's defense is terrific, as you mentioned. I think the biggest indicator to me is us going 14 for 26 at the line. That's not us. And the two guards going 4 for 13 at the foul line that are above 80 percent free throw shooters. That's not them. Not to take anything against Tennessee or try to indicate that just that difference alone would have won us the game, because there's certainly other aspects of the game that are involved in the outcome. But that gives me an indication that we just didn't have it.
And obviously we'll take a look at the film, think about how we approach the game and if we're fortunate enough to be in this situation again see if we can have it.

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