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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS & FINALS: HOUSTONMarch 25, 2010Ben AllenRandy BennettMickey McConnellOmar SamhanHOUSTON, TEXAS THE MODERATOR: St. Mary's Head Coach, Randy Bennett. Begin with a few opening remarks. COACH BENNETT: Just we're excited to be here. Looking forward to playing tomorrow night and it's been a fun ride. We'd like to keep it going. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Bennett. Q. I wonder if you have run across many players in your career who have the overall athletic ability of LaceDarius Dunn? And just talk about him from a guy who's got to see him tomorrow. COACH BENNETT: We've played against some good players, so we have good players in our league and over the years I've coached. We've played pros, All-Stars, the whole deal, so we've played against good players. Dunn is -- he's one of those guys you might do a great job of defending him, and he still might score. He might do everything you can, but he can make tough shots. Really good shooter. I think he's a good competitor. We've watched him enough on film. We know he's a tough match-up for anybody. Second leading scorer in the Big 12, you have that on your resume and you're a pretty good player. Q. When you took over, the year before you took over this program about nine years ago, you had only won two games. What is the challenge or what are the challenges of building a program from that starting point to where you are now? And what kind of cornerstone, when you are in a situation like that, do you kind of build upon? And one other question is: What kind of timetable did you set for yourself as to when you would arrive? COACH BENNETT: Yeah, a lot of questions there. I'll just put it this way we had gotten in the NCAA Tournament in '04-05. It was my fourth year there. I wouldn't have expected to be there that fast. Things had to go about perfect. In our first three years I think we averaged a little over 14 wins, the next three years we averaged just a shade under 20 wins. The last three years we've averaged 27 wins to this point. So there's been -- it takes time. You get to a level and then you may -- after we won in '04-05, we took a little dip because we brought in a bunch of freshmen who are, now some of those guys are seniors now. So that happens. At our level that happens. At every level, UCLA, North Carolina, they can all have a cycle. If you lose a lot of guys off a good team, you might have a dip. That is the remarkable thing about this team is we lost a lot, and these guys were able to put it together. The pieces fit just right, and we don't have that much talent. Our depth isn't great. We have six freshmen playing on this team. So it's not the team I would have thought that would advance to the Sweet 16, but they have. Just that's sometimes the way it works. So contrasting that, Baylor has done an unbelievable job from where their program was seven years ago. If you would have told anyone in the country they'd be sitting in this position from where they were at seven years ago, no way would they have believed you. They've done an unbelievable job. Q. I was looking on your roster and I noticed you have five guys from Australia. I just want to talk to you about that connection. How did those guys end up there, and what did you use to lure them to your program? COACH BENNETT: You know what, it was just the relationship among the players in Australia. One guy came over, Adam Capehorn. He had a great experience. He brought in Daniel Kickert. He had a great experience. He helped bring Mills, a kid named Carlin Hughes, Lucas Walker, and then we had a brand name over there in Australia and we do now. It's something we've targeted. We didn't target it at first, but after we've had some success recruiting there and we knew we were pretty strong in the Australian community of basketball, we recruited that area hard. I have an assistant on my staff, David Patrick, who is a great recruiter. Grew up there and has played with all those guys and knows all those coaches, and he's been instrumental in this. He opened up the floodgates over there for our recruiting. Q. You were talking a minute ago, Coach, about how you guys have kind of developed your program where it is. But one thing about what's happened with your success and other teams in this tournament is the gap between so-called mid-majors and the other teams has kind of closed. How has that gap closed and what have you done to be able to do that with your program to close that gap and not be recognized as a mid-major but somebody that can play with these guys? COACH BENNETT: The gap has closed in college basketball, it's been closing. You don't see the -- because of the draft rule in the NBA -- this is my theory, nobody knows for sure -- because of the draft rule, the NBA All-Stars, the starters in the pros, those guys get plucked out of college pretty quick. The NBA guys know what they're doing. They know what they're looking for. So the parity is there. You don't see teams that have James Worthy, Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins as juniors, seniors anymore. That doesn't happen because just the way basketball is set up in this country. So now it is who has guys returning, who has the most seniors? That is how the mid-majors closed the gap on the high-majors. High majors can still get -- the highest of the high-majors can still get the McDonald's All-Americans. Like Villanova had six of them, and we don't have one. So if guys work hard, they can close the gap on those kids. The way we've closed the gap is we have good players. We may not look like we have good players, but we do have good players. People always underestimate that. We've had good players for a while now, so we have good talent. Those guys work hard and they have great attitudes, and they stick around and play through their junior, senior years. They're hard to beat, and they're as good as the so-called high-majors. Q. You guys have had success against zone defenses a lot this year, but is Baylor's defense unique just because of their size? I mean, are they similar to any team you guys have played this year? COACH BENNETT: They're similar in some ways to some teams we've played. I would say, yes. What makes their zone unique is their size around the basket. I think their defensive numbers are what they are because they're so big around the basket. So that will be interesting. I don't think their zone, per se is that much different. We've seen actually Portland plays a zone similar to it. So we've seen it. But their three man is 6'6", 6'7", and Baylor's 6'10", so they keep that back line pretty big. Q. Coach, can you tell us about Omar? COACH BENNETT: Omar's having fun. He's enjoying this, which he should be. He's a good competitor. He'll be ready to compete. I think Omar's -- yeah, Omar's smart. He knows this is the time to have some fun, enjoy this moment. Yet when it comes time to play, I think once we got back out here, we're kind of getting back in our bubble a little bit and ready to play. Back home it hit us fast and furious, so our guys enjoyed it. Enjoyed the media, enjoyed this special time with our students and on our campus, people in our community. But now we're back, game mode, compete mode, and that's where we're at. Yeah, O's smart. He knows the deal. He's having fun. I wouldn't take him too seriously with all his quotes, but he knows what he's doing. It's kind of fun to watch. If he gets too close to crossing that line, I'll reel him in, but he's been okay so far. Q. A minute ago you said we may not look like we're good players, but we are. Can you elaborate on that a tiny bit? COACH BENNETT: We're kind of slow. I don't know. I don't think people think McConnell, that's what they think of when they think of good guards, but they are. They can pass, dribble, shoot, go by you. They're very good competitors. Better than you think defensively. So I just think, I mean, Omar's the one they'd look at and say, hey, that guy's a player. Ben Allen's a good player, he's a 6' 11, four man who weighs 250, he's a very good passer, very skilled, has a great brain for the game. Yeah, I think we're skilled players. Q. When you say you're outside the typical mold of great players? COACH BENNETT: Yeah, I would. We're not the quick, lengthy team that can put pressure on you defensively. I think that's what you expect to see when it gets down to the Sweet 16, even the NCAA Tournament. Shoot, I've been guilty of that, too. Looking at teams and saying those guys are really good. They're athletic. They can get out and put pressure on you. Well, we can't. That's not our deal. But our deal is play more inside out, make you finish over us and then offensively just execute till we get a good open shot. But the thing is we'll usually make you pay when we get an open shot. That's the type of player that's good, too. Q. On the Australia thing, you guys obviously have broken ground over there, but it's sort of like when gold was discovered in California and then everybody else came in. Do you still have the franchise over there or are other schools starting to mine there? COACH BENNETT: There's been other people mining it, so to speak, for a while. I mean, Bogut. We'd like to have Bogut. We knew Bogut was good, and there's been a number of them. The kid at Vanderbilt, Ogilvy. We tried to get him and it was down to us and Vanderbilt. We don't get them all. There's other good schools. A lot of schools go over there, but those kids are not from the United States. They don't see it the same way as a United States kid does. They really don't care about the conference. They want to go to a place where they can play, and a place where they're going to fit in. Having other Australians at our program that have gone through it that can tell them about how it is at St. Mary's helps us. Q. Can you talk about trying to deal with Baylor's athleticism? Have you seen many teams that athletic? COACH BENNETT: I kind of answered this a while ago. Yes, we've seen other teams that are athletic like Baylor. Not as probably big at the three, four, and five. That's what I think Baylor is. I think that they're long, and they're big on the back line. Their guards are athletic. Yes, we've seen that. Villanova's pretty athletic. That's a pretty athletic team. So is Gonzaga, I would say Gonzaga's very athletic. A lot of our guys have seen some other teams in the past years that are also like that. USC's very -- USC is like these guys. They're very big and athletic. Q. When you walked into the building today on to the court, what is your first reaction? COACH BENNETT: This place is big (smiling). Pretty simple (laughing). No, I was curious to see what it was going to look like, but this place is -- they play football here, so it's a pretty big stadium. Actually it's nice. The floor's very nice. There's no dead spots in it. A lot of times when you have those floors there's dead spots and there's gaps, but the court's beautiful. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Can you just talk about the Australian connection, and kind of how you guys, just kind of how it came to be? What St. Mary's is viewed like back in Australia? BEN ALLEN: I know they've dubbed St. Mary's as Australia's team back home. That's kind of awesome having the support from the Australian public back there. I've done a few interviews on ESPN and the radio back there. I've just heard tremendous feedback from the people back home. Not just my family, but my friends and people I haven't spoken to in a long time. It's awesome to get that kind of support. As far as St. Mary's is started with Adam Capehorn and continued with Daniel Kickert and then Patty Mills as well. Those three guys have made a huge name for themselves at St. Mary's, and it paves the way for guys to come over and do the same thing. Q. Are you having any fun? OMAR SAMHAN: No, it's been a boring week (smiling). Q. With all fun that you have, coach was in here a minute ago talking about you know when there is a time to turn it on and all that. Talk about that line between having a good time and really enjoying the experience, and also the time when it's time to get serious. What you want people to know about St. Mary's, and what your anticipations are? OMAR SAMHAN: There's definitely a right and wrong time. I think that a lot of people don't know and just kind of talk too much, and I definitely don't want to be one of those guys. When it's time to play, you better bring it, because if you don't, they revert back to this, he was having too much fun and he wasn't focused. So it's a fine line, if you talk like this, you better come ready to play. But I think it's good. I think it's healthy for our team. We're definitely the underdog and don't get a lot of respect. People think we should be scared for some reason, because we don't play in gyms this size, because we don't have McDonald's All Americans on our team. I don't even think I'm saying anything crazy. We don't need McDonald's All Americans to win. We don't need a huge gym to win. We're 11 guys that work hard and play hard together. I think that's what I want America to know and everybody to know, that we are America's team. We're just a blue collar team that works hard, brings our lunch pail and hard hat to practice every day and gets after it. 11 guys that believe in each other and work hard. You don't see that out there a lot. There are a bunch of guys out there running around, worried about themselves and their own fame and all that stuff. We don't have that on this team. That's why we've been successful to this point. That's why I'll keep talking because I know these guys will back me up for it. Q. You said that you're Australia's team, but from the rest of us it seems like you're Omar's team. Is that a sense that he is such a vocal leader that he sets the tone? BEN ALLEN: Absolutely. As you can see, he doesn't mind doing it either. So me and Mickey, yeah, we are kind of Omar's team. He does put us on his back a lot in games. He goes out and works as hard as anyone out there, which is awesome. This is what gets us the wins. So we definitely have no problem with that. Like I said, he loves doing this stuff, so we let him go. MICKEY McCONNELL: Yeah, to go off that, we just kind of rag him a little bit -- ride him a little bit, and let him lead us. We just kind of back him up for whatever he needs. He's definitely in the spotlight a lot. He's kind of accepted the challenge. So we're definitely right there behind him. Q. After the game against Villanova, Coach Bennett talked about how the transformation from Patty to you at point guard and how at some point you would have to make this your team and that you had. I was wondering if you could talk about your reaction when Patty left last year which put you in the starting lineup? At what point did you feel like this was your team? MICKEY McCONNELL: Yeah, definitely losing him was a big loss. Any time you have an NBA guy on your team, it's a big loss. But it was just an opportunity for me to kind of step into a bigger role and kind of take control of the point guard position out there. But we brought in a bunch of freshmen that are more than capable of playing. And we've just kind of surrounded Omar with unselfish players. I just think the main thing with our team is just everybody kind of contributes. It's not one guy. We kind of joke about it's Omar's team, but even he'll go as far as saying it's kind of everybody contributes to him getting baskets. We just kind of feed off of that. I think that it's more fun to watch us because we move the ball around the perimeter. It's not just one guy kind of taking over. Q. I saw your Twitter page the other day, and you were following Andy Katz, Diamon Simpson, and Taylor Swift. I was just wondering if that's what's going to be in your iPod, if you're going to be pumped for tomorrow's game with "Love Story" or if something else was going on that pumped you up? OMAR SAMHAN: Are those cameras on? I love you, Taylor. You should call me. I'm a huge Taylor Swift fan. I listen to her before games. People think it's weird. But there is so much emotion and excitement before these games, it just kind of slows you down. And it keeps me mellow, because I'm just like a time bomb waiting to go off. So it keeps me mellow. Taylor, I feel like she's singing to me sometimes. (Smiling) I love her, and I'm going to keep listening to her. Q. Can you talk about Baylor's zone defense and just their bigs inside? How unique is that for you guys and what do you have to do to be successful against them? BEN ALLEN: Yeah, Coach Bennett has explained to us that they play zone almost all the game. And we welcome that, you know. We had zone played against us throughout the season and we've done well against it. We've got great shooters. Omar's a great low post player. I can step in the high post and make good decisions whether to kick it out to the shooters or kick it inside too, so we welcome the zone. OMAR SAMHAN: I agree. I think that we have just such great shooters on the perimeter. Just make good decisions. Talking about the difference between Mickey and Patty and everything else. Mickey's basketball IQ is the best in this tournament, any player by far. I'm excited for the challenge. And we fooled Baylor and most of the country. They think we win because we have this great inside post player. It's not that, it's 100% the shooting. It's the threes. I didn't score the last six minutes of the Villanova. But all the headlines were Omar won. Omar was key for St. Mary's win. But it was these guys knocking down fadeaway bank shots from 50 feet. So we have such great shooters that I'm excited for them to zone us. It's going to be a quiet night for me. Because it's hard for a big guy to score in the zone when the zone is 6'10", 6'10", 7-feet. But we've got shooters that can make them pay for zoning us. Q. We talked after the Villanova game about the status of the guards you've played the last three or four games. How do the Baylor guards compare to those three or four? And is Taylor Swift also singing to you? MICKEY McCONNELL: I wish she was, but I definitely say these guards are up there with any of the guards in the country. They both score really well. They hit tough shots and we'll definitely have our hands full. But I think that the two games we've played so far and the quality of guards that we've played, that it's been a good -- it's been good for us because we play against guards all year, but the past two games we've kind of stepped it up a bit. End of FastScripts |
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