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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: SPOKANEMarch 21, 2010Bryan DavisDavid LoubeauMark TurgeonSPOKANE, WASHINGTON Purdue – 63 THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and have an opening statement from Coach Turgeon and then take questions for the Texas A&M student-athletes. COACH TURGEON: Well, all losses hurt. Some sting more than others and obviously this one really stings. It was just two great defensive teams just battling it out. And in the end they were able to make one more play than us. But like this group had done all year for me, we got down five and then we did whatever we had to do to get into overtime. Our last two and a half minute defense in regulation was as good as I've seen and I thought we had them in overtime and they just made some plays. We had some costly turnovers in the second half that led to some layups. In a game this tight, you can't give up layups but more than anything I'm sad because this has been one of the best years of my life. And coaching these guys has been so much fun. I'm really going to miss coaching this team. THE MODERATOR: All right. Take questions for the student-athletes. Q. Bryan, can you talk a little bit about your matchup with JaJuan and how that went and why you were so effective early and then the play right at the end where you weren't able to get the line with about 10 seconds to go or whatever it was? BRYAN DAVIS: I just kind of feel like coming into this game that we can kind of exploit their post defense because we had a little bit more size than they had. Early on we had some success and I think that kind of gave me a little confidence going into the rest of the game. And then the last play, just didn't get the shot in and they got the rebound and come down and scored. Q. Bryan, talk about that steal toward the end of regulation, the bounce pass, point forward play that you made to Sloan. I mean that got that -- that set up the overtime and that, to me that seemed like a senior that refused to lose. BRYAN DAVIS: I think it was a little bit of desperation, I think. I saw him, his cross over, he crossed and I was able to get a hand on it and then I was coming down the court and I heard everybody screaming that somebody was coming behind me and Sloan slipped and he was able to get a layup and that was a big play. I think we were able to get that stop and then take them to overtime. That was big for us. But it just didn't come right the way we wanted it to. Q. Bryan, take us through Kramer's final layup. You came over to help out and almost got it but didn't quite. BRYAN DAVIS: It was just kind of a defensive breakdown and I think we had been guarding hard for 44 minutes and that play right there, I didn't even really expect them to get the ball, I didn't know who was going to get it but I just thought that we were going to go out there and play and through you're defensive principles and he came down and made a quick move and I almost got there to get a hand on it, but he made a tough shot, to his credit. And then they won the game. Q. Either one of you, you guys had a lot of dunks, a lot of easy baskets, but then they also got some steals inside. Were they mixing things up a whole lot to and taking some chances there because of what you said about having the size advantage? DAVID LOUBEAU: Yeah, they were mixing it up. They were sending guys off our none shooters to come down and double and stuff like that. BRYAN DAVIS: Also I think it was to their credit they were playing some good defense and then us we were making some kind of lazy passes sometimes to the entry passes and passes to the lane but pretty much they were playing the same on the post, it just that they were able to get a couple hands on the balls and they were and they got to the ball quicker than we could. Q. Can you guys talk a little bit about the physical nature of the game, you guys diving for balls everywhere, Sloan diving into the press bench there towards the end of the game? Just the way the game went, that way, physically. BRYAN DAVIS: Well it definitely wasn't the first time we seen a tough team diving on the floor. And we knew coming into this game we were going to have a tough game for 40 minutes going in and having to battle on the boards and one of the things we talked about was winning the battle of the loose balls, the balls on the ground, making sure we get to them. I think we did a pretty good job of that until the end of the game when we didn't get the stop that we needed. Q. Bryan, you guys were up 40-29. What were you doing well? I think they went on a 14-2 run. What was happening, what did they do to get on that run? BRYAN DAVIS: I don't know if it was so much what they did, I think we got caught up and we didn't sprint back defensively well and they were able to get some good shots and some guys that hadn't been shooting the three very well was hitting 3's and we wasn't playing shots hard and they were able to make a big run and pull back with the lead. Q. Bryan, could you just talk about this your senior season and finishing like this and overall when you look back at D Ro's injury and what ya'll achieved since then. I know it's tough right now but could you kind of just look back on the season? BRYAN DAVIS: It's a tough season, man. Seeing D Ro go down was one of the hardest things I ever seen in my life. He's like a brother to me. Seeing him go down -- and knowing from when it happened that he wasn't going to be able to play with us any more, but we're a tough team and the way we responded from it was excellent, I think. The first day we came back to practice everybody was in, tuned into it, and it was even better just to see him there and encouraging us a little bit. It just, we just tried to pull it all together and I just think that it would have been a whole lot better if we would have came out tonight with a win. Q. Bryan, can you talk about the future? You guys are leaving this program in really good shape and guys like Loubeau and the younger guys. Talk about that. BRYAN DAVIS: The future is very bright. You have guys like Loubeau, the young guys, Chris and Naji and Ray, those guys came out there and played hard today. I think that just through Coach Turgeon and the other coaches on the staff, if they just listen to the coaches and do what they say, then they will succeed for the next -- well for as long as they're at Texas A&M. DAVID LOUBEAU: I think we'll just be perfectly fine. Defense is our identity and we'll just play hard and be a tough team. THE MODERATOR: Okay. We'll excuse the players and take questions for coach. Q. Could you talk about Kramer's layup and just how it set up from your standpoint? COACH TURGEON: It's so disappointing because we guarded so well in the half court all day. They went early. I don't know what he said, maybe that's what they were going to do, they were isolating on him, but with the score tied you usually go last shot, and the defense was so bad and kind of caught us off guard a little bit and Nate started -- Nate got out of step and he was able to get all the way to the rim. So good play by them, aggressive play by a senior, but really disappointing to guard that well and just give layup the way we did. You tell the guys that they're probably going to go to Johnson, probably going to go to Moore, but you play by your principles and that was a little disheartening. Q. Can you talk about Sloan's game today? It seemed like his shot just wasn't quite there and what was going on with him today? COACH TURGEON: Well give them a lot of credit. I thought they're defense was -- we played against a lot of good teams, including West Virginia, and played them early in the year, but Purdue's defense is the best defense we have seen. There's some good defensive teams in our league, but that today was as physical and relentless of a defense that we played against all year. And then they keyed on T and he got some good looks. Sloan got in the paint, he got some good looks. It just wasn't Sloan's day. It was Sloan's year, but it wasn't his day. He had a great year, it wasn't his day. But we put him in position and we wanted him having the ball at certain times down the stretch and there wasn't a lot of help around him. Except for the post guys scoring, there wasn't a lot of help. Some guys could have stepped up and made a shot or two, that would have taken a little bit of pressure off Sloan. But we didn't do that. We missed some wide open ones that we made Friday. But I think Purdue had a lot to do with that. Q. Talk about the defense, coach. What was the most disappointing thing that they were able to get some transition baskets and some really easy ones, especially Kramer early and then with their steals and stuff? COACH TURGEON: Yeah, they had 10 or 12 fast break points which is, we wanted to have that at four or six. That's what we talked about as a team. It was one of our keys, transition defense. Couple steals led to layups, those are the disappointing things. But we gave up one to start the second half to Jackson and then two to Kramer and then the rest came off steals. But in a game like this you got to, yeah, you can't give up layups, you got to make them earn everything and that was the disappointing thing. But for the most part our transition was pretty good. Q. The reason behind Nate being in the game at that point? COACH TURGEON: Yeah, well we had David in and the possession before that I think the end of regulation, I can't remember all the possessions, but we had put Nate in to guard Kramer. We felt comfortable with Nate guarding Kramer there. And Nate's done it for us all year, Nate rebounds well for us too. We just thought it was a better matchup than David guarding Kramer. It didn't work out that way, obviously, but no matter who we had in there, David or him they were going to drive him, and that's what they tried to do. And it just didn't work out for us. Q. How would you judge, because obviously you did have the edge inside, how would you judge how well you played in there and getting the ball to those guys? And what they did once they got it. COACH TURGEON: Just okay. It was okay. Bryan's 17 on 17 shots. But I thought he was really good. I thought he was great defensively. I thought he rebounded, I thought he was great. Loubeau was okay. Made a big jump hook late in the game, but could have been a little bit tougher. They were real physical. They foul with their body and they're really good at it or well it's not a foul if you don't call a foul but they're really good at getting to the bodies and our guys struggled with that at times. But without our two post guys today we had no chance. So they really helped us. Q. Follow-up on Bryan, coach, just kind of his -- I talked to him about it just now, but his kind of refusal to lose as a senior. COACH TURGEON: Yeah I saw that in a lot of our guys today. And we're tough. It's going to take a really tough team to beat us. Purdue's tough. And they were just a little bit more resilient in the end, they made one more play than we did. But, no, Bryan made a lot of plays, the steal that you're talking about and the layup, two seniors making plays, I like that. I thought Sloan's defense was pretty good most of the day. I thought Dash Harris was tremendous defensively on Moore, 15 points on 17 shots and Moore probably hit the biggest shot of the game. You could say Kramer's but we're up two and they got nothing going, he shoots the baseline jumper and goes in, that was a big shot. We could have maybe built it up to four and been a lot of, a lot less pressure on us up two and the ball. And that was a big shot. But I thought Dash Harris was great. But Bryan, seniors were great all year for me. They were great leaders, role models. I'm so proud of how far those guys have come. And then to lose D Ro and have to not go with a guy that you planned and finishing your career with, it's been a pretty good year and a lot of it because of those two seniors and what they did for us. Q. Purdue running a four guard offense, Johnson I imagine has a big target on his back you want to get him in foul trouble as shot blocking guy inside, you did that early, did you feel like you continued to push that issue enough later on? And secondly, when Johnson I know he can make the mid range jumpers, but do you feel it's a victory for you when he's taking 17, 19 footers? COACH TURGEON: Well, when he's taking those and we're not playing him it's not a victory, but the one he took in overtime and Bryan played it high and almost, you know, that's good defense. We had a couple shots where we came off and we didn't play it, so, no, we pushed it inside. That's what we do. And we weren't making a lot of jump shots so we tried to go inside but they're good at getting through screens, they're physical, they helped just enough and it's hard to beat a really good team when you shoot 35 percent. That's what it comes down to. I mean we missed some shots that we have been making here lately. We have been pretty good with those. But, no, I thought we did a great job on Johnson, I really did. First half, I thought we were physical, got him pushed out and he had the big block in there late in the game, but for the most part I thought we did a nice job with him. Q. You guys were up 11. It looks like you might have a chance to run away and then their bench comes in and does the job. Was there a little bit of adjustment there by your defense or was it just the thing where they just hit some shots? COACH TURGEON: We went up 11 and stole it, missed the layup, Sloan misses a layup, could have went up 13. So they cut it to nine right there at the timeout. So it was nine and our bench was great the first half, our bench wasn't as good the second half. Maybe I didn't play them as much, I don't know, but whenever they went in I thought had to use a timeout to get our starters back in. And their bench played well. Byrd was fantastic. Two threes, 2-2 from three. Their bench played well. Little guy came in, 21, 24, had a big three. Their bench played well in the second half and I thought we were a deeper team, but today their team was just as deep or even deeper than ours. And that could have been the difference. THE MODERATOR: Okay. Thank you, coach. COACH TURGEON: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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