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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: NEW ORLEANSMarch 20, 2010Tweety CarterScott DrewLaceDarius DunnNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA Baylor – 76 MODERATOR: Coach, your thoughts on the game. COACH DREW: First of all, want to give a lot of credit to Old Dominion. I thought it was two teams fighting their guts off out there. That is March Madness. That is the kind of basketball you expect in the NCAA Tournament, and they deserve a lot of credit. Just so proud of our guys. Old Dominion made that run in the second half, and we knew they would because they're a great team. And we were able to persevere down the stretch. We just give God the glory. MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Just what it means to you to get to the Sweet 16, but I guess specifically to do it here? TWEETY CARTER: First of all, I'd like to thank God for giving us this opportunity to come out here in Louisiana and play back home. And, you know, this win means a lot. But, like I said the other day, can't celebrate like I want to because we've still got work to do. But I'm going to enjoy this win. You know, just stay focused and get prepared for St. Mary's. Q. For most of the year Josh has been the big clumsy guy that sets screens for you. But tonight it seemed that he really may have sparked you guys? COACH DREW: Josh appreciates that, by the way (smiling). TWEETY CARTER: Well, to other eyes he's been that, but we always looked at him as our rock down low. You know, he holds us together, believe it or not. He comes out and play whatever minutes he's got, he's going to come out and play. That's what I love about him. He always comes out and plays hard. Nothing bothers him. And him being as calm as he is has allowed us to be calm. LACEDARIUS DUNN: Basically the same thing. Josh meant a lot to the team, you know. Just being the monster that he is, and just bringing things to the team. I think today he just came out with something else on his mind. You know, he just did a great job, getting all the offensive rebounds and the putback, and not only that, but finishing with the fouls when all the pushing was going on. But I think he came out and contributed a lot to the team today. Q. You guys were getting almost every shot you wanted it looked like early as a team, but then second half started with some turnovers and you weren't getting the good looks. Did they make some kind of adjustments, or what was going on there? TWEETY CARTER: I thought we didn't come out with the same intensity. We had a ten-point lead coming out. And the fight that Old Dominion had tonight, you know, a great team's going to make runs. As long as you withstand them runs and pull it back together, I think you'll be all right. It's something that you don't want, but it's college basketball. It's a 40-minute game. You're going to have teams that make runs, and we've just got to learn how it handle it. LACEDARIUS DUNN: Yes, well, the same thing. Early in the game we were getting great looks, but both of us just take responsibility to knock them down. In the second half they did kind of tighten it up a little and came out and tried to make it a little tougher. But I think we did a good job of executing and making things happen, only if we could take away some of the turnovers. Q. When things got tight there in the second half, how valuable was the experience of playing the kind of game you did against Sam Houston? Were you able to call on some experience from that moment? LACEDARIUS DUNN: Well, yes, you know. Sam Houston did a great job of containing me and keeping me from doing the things that I do well. But today, you know, when it got tight, we just learned to just stay solid and stay within our game. Not try to do things out of our game or try to make nothing happen that we usually don't do. So I think we did a great job of that during the end of the game. Q. You do your fourth foul at a crucial point. They went ahead 58-56 right there. You managed to gather yourself, didn't foul out. Can you just talk about what's going on right there? How do you gather your thoughts and your composure and do what you need to do for the rest of the game? LACEDARIUS DUNN: Well, just staying solid and not getting caught up. I think on that play I went on and fouled him and not give up the bucket like I did. But, like I said, stay focused and stay solid. And I knew I had four fouls and I couldn't afford another one. So I knew my team needed me out there, so I think I did a good job staying on the court helping my team. Q. You guys were the targets of the triangle and two in the first round. How much of a relief was it to be defended more conventionally this time? Was that kind of a relief for you guys? TWEETY CARTER: It was great. But Old Dominion played a good defensive team. They're long, athletic. You know, they did a great job second half containing. We just wanted to come out and play Baylor ball, and I think that's what we did tonight. LACEDARIUS DUNN: Yes, not saying they're training to this game really relaxed me more than it did when I first went against Sam Houston State. I think they did a good job of coming out and defending. Like Tweety said, they're long, they have great legs, they do a great job getting in the passing lane. But I think I got the shots I wanted and made the best of it. Q. Kind of an historic moment going to the Sweet 16. Can you just talk about what that means to the program? TWEETY CARTER: It means a lot. That's the reason why I came here to be a part of something special. You know, all through the season we were doubted. As a team, as a family, he we found a way to win. We found a way to win big games. We found a way to come out here and compete. I thank the program for their support. As long as we've got that and God on our side, we're all right. Q. Talks to the balance a little bit, but Ekpe doesn't score the first half. Anthony really kind of stepped up after struggling a little bit that first game? TWEETY CARTER: I say this a lot, but that's the great thing about this team. Any given night one of us can step up. You know from being left open against Sam Houston State and to come out and knock down some big threes for us, that was great. That shows you he's a guy that can make shots. Ekpe is a guy that's going to come out and play no matter how he's playing, no matter what type of points he's got up. So any given night we can have a guy step up, and Lace was the hot hand tonight. Q. How much pressure is it now when you were playing here before the home group? Is it a whole lot of pressure relief now that you're going to the Sweet 16? TWEETY CARTER: No. You know, I didn't come in here with pressure. I asked God to just let me come out and play my game and not try to come out -- because all my family members are here -- not try to come out and do something that I don't usually do. I just give credit to him for allowing me to come out and play the style that I know how to play. And that's tough. You know, whoever got the hot hand as a point guard, find them and get them the ball. Just grind and come out with the win. As long as we continue to do that, like I said, we're going to be all right. Q. What are your thoughts about you guys being left in the round of 16 and Texas and Kansas being gone? TWEETY CARTER: That's Kansas. COACH DREW: I don't know if they know Kansas lost. Q. Kansas lost. TWEETY CARTER: That's Kansas. You know, we Baylor. So we're going to continue to focus on us and just get prepared for what we've got next. Q. You were kind of denied being able to celebrate the postseason win in Louisiana in high school mainly because of your buddy over there on your right. Does this kind of make up for that now? LACEDARIUS DUNN: Here we go, here we go (laughing). Yeah, yeah, it do make up for that. It does. We can put that behind us and throw that away. But it was a great win. You know we're going to make the best of it. We're going to celebrate. But we're going to refocus and get ready for who we've got to take on in Houston. Q. Significance of the program picked to finish 10th in the Big 12, now you're going to the Sweet 16. Brag on yourself. COACH DREW: Well, not going to brag on myself at all, but I'm going to brag on our players. I think they deserve all the credit. They have great leadership, great togetherness, great chemistry. And I think the big question our teams wants to know is are you going to be in Houston with us (smiling)? Q. The players were talking about Josh being just always there, but you couldn't have imagined that he would have that kind of half that he had. What got him going? COACH DREW: Actually, Josh has those kind of moments in practice, and he's had them in different spurts of the game in games this year. He just hasn't had them on as big a stage as today. Again, in the Big 12 he's battling Cole Aldrich, he's battling Dexter Pittman, he's battling Bryan Davis. So those are quality big men he's going up against. Tonight he was going up against quality big men as well. The difference is we needed him to come through for us. And I think you saw a senior that didn't want to play his last game and be there for his teammates. And those six offensive rebounds were huge. Q. What were you thinking when Old Dominion comes out and makes that run? It almost seemed like the players kind of lacked a little bit of energy. What did you tell them to kind of get back on track? COACH DREW: I would rather than say we lacked energy, credit Old Dominion. I mean, they came down, and let's face it, Finney hits two big threes. They go 4 for 6 in the second half from three. All season long that hadn't been their strong point. Their strong point had been inside. They stepped up and made plays. We turned the ball over, and that was our bad. And that led to them getting back in the game and getting a run in. When we stopped turning that ball over, that changed things as well. So our turnovers hurt us early on. Q. Can you talk about Tweety's floor game. No turnovers in 37 minutes after maybe a game where it was not the typical Tweety in the first round? COACH DREW: Well, I think as a coach you see growth in your players. Sometimes other people might not see it because you're not around them all the time. Tweety Carter is a freshman. Maybe if he weren't involved in the offense as much either passing the ball or scoring it, like in the first game, we would have shut down on defense. Tweety, being the leader and the upperclassman that he is, he played a tremendous defensive game that first game for us. And I couldn't be more proud about that. Because without that we wouldn't have been in this situation today. Now today I think everyone got to see what he does on both ends of the court. And, again, eight assists, zero turnovers, really controlled the tempo. 5 for 11 from the field. A lot of minutes played. So tremendous job. Q. Seemed like, and I'm not sure what the numbers were, but seemed like in the first half they were getting a lot of points in the paint. Second half seemed like it shifted a little bit, and you all were getting more points in the paint. How did that shift like that? COACH DREW: I think the big thing was we started missing threes. We were 2 for 11 in the second half, and we could do two things. We could keep shooting them and hope they would go in or we could change and start attacking the paint more. I think we went to the latter; we started attacking the paint more and did a good job of getting offensive rebounds. I think Tweety getting to the paint, Lace getting to the paint, changed the momentum in the second half and then obviously Josh's rebounding. Q. Can you talk about the full court press in the second half, and did you like the results your players gave you? COACH DREW: I think A.J. Walton when he came into the game -- we pressed first half as well -- but he's so energizing on defense because he just has another gear as far as being able to create havoc on the defensive end. When he came in I think that give us gave us a lift and a spurt. And I think that helped with us reestablishing momentum as well as not turning the ball over. Q. You talked about Josh's rebounds and points of the he was also setting some great screens out there and stuff. Can you just talk about his all around play? COACH DREW: Well, Josh always sets screens. He's always very unselfish. We have a stat called screen assist, and he has a ton of screen assists. Great on ball screener as well. So Josh was doing what he normally does, except he added more dominance in the paint as far as those second chance points for us, really in a critical time when we needed them and had to have them. And that gave everybody else confidence, too. Q. Kansas is out, Texas is out, you're in. Your thoughts? COACH DREW: Well, for a league, I wish both of them were still in. Disappointed for both of them because they're quality teams and we'd like to have seen them go further, and like to have seen an all Big 12 Final Four and Sweet 16. At the same time, happy we're still alive. We control what we can control. And very excited to see the excitement and joy for our players. It's like a proud dad on Christmas day. You see your kids excited with the presents they got. That's how it was with today's win. Q. Dale was sitting behind you? COACH DREW: He started coaching in the beginning of the second half. I said come on, Dale (laughing). Q. I was going to ask you, what did he say? And I saw I think big Collis was sitting there with him and he played -- COACH DREW: We were looking for Collis' boys to put in. They could have helped. I talked to him briefly before the game. I'll see him afterwards. Again, he's a great fan. Great family friend. And we love him. End of FastScripts |
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