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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS & FINALS: SALT LAKE CITYMarch 25, 2010Shelvin MackRonald NoredBrad StevensWillie VeasleySALT LAKE CITY, UTAH Butler – 63 THE MODERATOR: We have Butler representatives on the stage. We will follow our traditional format of a brief opening statement from Coach Stevens followed by questions directed to student-athletes. Once we've dismissed the student-athletes, we'll come back to Coach Stevens. Coach Stevens. COACH STEVENS: You know, I thought one of the -- obviously you always want to play well, and we played really well in the first half, had that 10-point lead. I thought we got a little tentative in our attack. But the poise of this group, the toughness of this group, to be able to be down four, Ron hits a huge three, seven seconds left on an out-of-bounds play, then Matt scores a bucket to put us up one after we got stops, I was really proud of their moxy. We've said this word over and over in Indianapolis and that is 'resolve.' These guys have resolve. Hard to measure, but they got it. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student-athlete. Q. Willie, what were you thinking after Butler missed so many threes and you made the one from the corner? WILLIE VEASLEY: Uhm, it was more relief just 'cause we kind of struggled a little bit in the second half to shoot. So, you know, it kind of made us wait a little bit because it bounced around and then went in. But it was just more relief. You know, got us sparked again on defense. We knew we had to continue getting stops after that. Q. Willie, when Syracuse had the ball coming out of the timeout just under four minutes, did you have an idea of what Syracuse was going to do with Johnson faking the screen? WILLIE VEASLEY: No. I mean, we went over some out-of-bounds plays in preparation. But I kind of figured he's going to go for a lob or something. When he threw it, he threw it low. Johnson was still behind me. I don't think he was ready for it when his player threw it to him. Q. Ronald, when exactly did you become a three-point shooter? RONALD NORED: Well, we knew they were going to obviously play the zone. So when we got back to Indy, I saw a lot of shots before practice, stayed after, shot after practice. Then in practice, I was more focused on my shots. That shot, I knew we needed it. I knew they were going to call the play where I was going to have to catch it. I wasn't going to pass it. I knew I was going to step in and knock it in. Q. Syracuse has such a vaunted zone. Could you ever have imagined winning a game like this when you shot well under 30% from the three-point arc? RONALD NORED: I don't think the focus was really making threes. I think we guarded. I think that's what we do. Whether we shot 60% from the arc, whether we shot 30%, it was our defense that was going to carry us. I think it did that. We made tough plays down the stretch. Some of our threes went in. Willie, I was praying that thing dropped and it did. We had to get stops. I think we did that. That's why we finished it. Q. Shelvin, coach said yesterday that the players haven't talked about the possibility of playing in the Final Four in your hometown. Do you think you will talk about it before tomorrow's game? Any way to keep it out of your minds? SHELVIN MACK: Yeah, it would be amazing. I know we got a good group of guys. We still focusing on the winner of this game. We going to enjoy the win for the tonight, get prepared for the game on Saturday. RONALD NORED: It's going to be a dream come true. We have another tough game with either Xavier or Kansas State. We're going to go back and prepare. We're enjoying this right now. We have a job to do on Saturday. If we get back to Indy, it sure would be a lot of fun. WILLIE VEASLEY: I don't know how much Indianapolis is on our minds right now. I know after leaving the locker room, just how excited everybody is that we're in the Elite 8. We got a couple days together as a team. Right now, before we can even think about Indianapolis, we got to think about either Kansas State or Xavier. Q. What were you able to do defensively that really just stopped Syracuse? RONALD NORED: I think we were just trying to be physical. I think Willie did a good job of being physical with Johnson. I was trying my hardest to be physical with Rautins. That kid, he's a good player. We were really going hard on the defensive glass. That was a big focus. I don't know how many offensive rebounds they finished with. I think it was a testament to our defense that we got the win. WILLIE VEASLEY: I think what Ron said, just being physical on the defensive end, that was something that we really stressed just because we know how talented Syracuse is. They have a lot of athletes. Their height advantage was another thing that kind of put us at a disadvantage. So we just knew that being physical and smart on both ends. Q. Did you feel like you were getting good looks? It seemed like you were getting good shots, just weren't making anything for the longest time. SHELVIN MACK: We wasn't too worried about focusing on that shot. Once we missed it, you got to move on to the next play, and just keep on the mindset that you're going to knock the next one in. So over and over, just kept shooting, and our defense carried us. Q. Willie, that three hits the front of the rim, then goes up for what seemed like an eternity. What was going through your mind? WILLIE VEASLEY: I was telling my teammates, at first I was already headed down the court because I figured it was going to go over the top and I missed it. I looked back, it came back down and went through. Just pure excitement. Just relief that we found that shot. I think it gave us a little cushion, not that we could relax, but we just had to start and defend. Q. Ever made a shot like that? WILLIE VEASLEY: That's a horse shot. I never made anything like that (laughter). Q. Your coach mentioned composure. There was a noticeable difference between your team and the other team at the end of the game. Can you talk about the team feeling towards the end of the game, and how much of that comes from your coach. RONALD NORED: Under any circumstance, I think we're poised. I think you have to be tough over the course of a game. I think we talk about whether we come out down 10 or up 10, it's still basketball, there's still many possessions left in the game. Syracuse goes up four. They made some big plays, some costly turnovers and stuff like that. But we're poised. Our team's thing is to stay together through anything, and I think we did that. People from the bench were talking to us, telling us what we needed to do. Coaches were talking to us. It all comes from coach. It's not something that we started, Okay, stay together. Coach starts it. He's our head. He gets us focused. I think that's why we can be poised under pressure. Q. You haven't spent a lot of time in the locker room yet, but what is it like? It seemed like you were pretty reserved, like you've been there before, even though you've never been there before. WILLIE VEASLEY: Like we said earlier, it was pure excitement. Everybody is just excited, just relieved that we got to play, we got to go out there and show everybody just how good we are. SHELVIN MACK: You know, I think a great thing for our team is we've been playing together for two straight years now. We each know everybody's strengths and weakness. We've been there before in situations like this, down four, up four, through our non-conference schedule and our conference schedule. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. We'll let these three go and direct questions for Coach Stevens. Q. Going into the game, you probably had to worry about foul trouble. You won the game with Gordon not playing nine minutes in the first half, Howard missing six. Can you comment on that situation and the other guys picking it up in their absence. COACH STEVENS: Yeah, you know, I don't have a stat sheet. That would help. But I do think that obviously we've had to play that way all year, not without Gordon. When Gordon got his foul there, the one thing is I felt like we did a pretty good job taking care of the ball. We took some time off the clock in those situations. We were fortunate to score a couple times. We've got other guys that have stepped up and made plays all year. You know, those three guys that just left the podium, you know, those guys on the court, they're pretty good players. Q. Could you talk about what Willie's three-pointer that bounced around looked from your vantage point? COACH STEVENS: I don't know if it was Gordon or Matt, but I thought it was going to be tipped in anyway. I actually didn't know if somebody had tipped it in, to be honest. I guess it just bounced in because I was just watching them get possession. So I wasn't even watching the ball when it bounced up. You talk about a senior that doesn't get a lot of attention. Those people that have been around our program a lot know that Willie has been our rock. Willie had a 3, a tip-in and got a loose ball when the game was on the line in the last 20 seconds. He's a big-time winner. Q. I was talking about the tip-in. When he had those back-to-back shots, are you thinking, We're a team of destiny? COACH STEVENS: I don't think I was thinking team of destiny. I was thinking back to what I was told when I was little, eventually the law of averages will kick in. We missed so many shots. One of the reasons we didn't shoot well from the three is because Syracuse extended their zone. Those threes were challenged. Until we started driving it, getting it into the post, we weren't as effective offensively. Q. Brad told me before the game he didn't think you needed to hit a bunch of threes to win this game. Obviously you thought you could go straight at them. Did you think you could beat the No. 1 shooting that way? COACH STEVENS: Yes. I did not think we could win shooting three for, whatever it was, six. But we did hit three in the last few minutes. Those were all big shots. Ron's, Willie's, and Gordon's were huge, huge shots. But we felt like we could attack the interior. I don't want to take anything away from ourselves, but Onuaku in the middle of that zone is a difference-maker. And when you get Jackson in foul trouble, it's not the same. And he got in a little bit of foul trouble, and, you know, certainly we probably had an advantage there by Onuaku not playing. Q. All the guys are not talking about Indianapolis, going home. Is that a point of emphasis for you? Last year Izzo talked a lot about Detroit. COACH STEVENS: No, I'm going home on Saturday night or Sunday morning, whenever the charter gets here. We're going to Indy. I just hope we still have season left. That's the only way I've thought about it. You know, it's already daunting enough to play Kansas State or Xavier. You know, obviously we have a lot of familiarity with Xavier. Ironically, the game that I watched the most in scouting Xavier was their game at Kansas State. You know, two great teams. There's a long way away from playing in the Final Four. You know, I think anybody in this scenario now knows that you got to play for 40 minutes. The team that plays the best is going to win. Q. You won the turnover battle 18-7. Can you talk about what your players did well on defense and committing only seven turnovers. COACH STEVENS: If there was an area where we thought we could win with regard to a margin, it was that area, just because if you look at it statistically over the course of time, and what we did in the first two games of the NCAA tournament, our guys have valued possessions nicely. I think we have 23 turnovers in three games. So that's probably the main reason why we're still sitting here. Q. On the defensive end, what did you do so effectively? COACH STEVENS: Obviously we didn't extend the floor. But I thought we were pretty active. I thought we did a pretty good job of knowing personnel, who to help off of, those type of things. Q. The first couple rounds you played as a favorite, the better seed. Going up against Syracuse, did you feel more comfortable playing as the underdog? COACH STEVENS: No, I don't think so. I think we just try to play. We're just trying to play well. The better the team is, the harder that is. I do think this: there are no better seeds. There are higher seeds. Right now it's just about who plays good on a given night. Q. Rautins had four three-pointers. He got one in their halfcourt offense. Was that Ronald's defense? COACH STEVENS: He got fouled on one, too. He got five what I would call five too many and our guys know. We did not want to give him any. He's a hard guy to guard. He doesn't need much room. He's outstanding planting his right foot, raising up and shooting. He doesn't ever miss. I want to know if it's true that he only shot 41% from three this year, because I do not believe that, because every game I saw, he made every single one when he was open. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. COACH STEVENS: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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