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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS & FINALS: HOUSTON

March 26, 2010

THE MODERATOR: Coach, opening comments.
COACH PAINTER: First of all, I thought we had the game at the pace we needed to have it to win. I thought we had to be selective and when to attack in transition and try to get baskets. Also then probe the defense.
With that, you get concerned with their pressure defense and taking care of the basketball. I thought our guys did an excellent job of probing the defense, and trying to get E'Twaun and JaJuan in scoring positions. But also trying to be patiently aggressive through that. I thought we did a good job with that.
We knew it was going to be hard on the glass against Duke's team. But only having seven turnovers, we knew we could offset that. We needed to make a few more just to be simple about it. We needed to step up and make some more shots. We needed to get Duke to play from behind, and we were never able to do that.
Then obviously, our struggles and giving them second chance opportunities really did us in. Any time you get out-rebounded by 21 in a basketball game it's going to be awful tough to beat that team.
But I'm proud of our guys. I thought we had a great effort. I thought we did some really good things defensively. I thought we made a huge jump in terms of being efficient offensively, though some things didn't go down for us.
We had some real good looks at the basket and we just needed some of them to go down and they didn't. But proud of our guys for their effort and everything they gave this whole year.

Q. Even though you guys lost tonight, 29 wins tie the school record for wins in a season. Can you just kind of put this season as a whole in perspective?
JaJUAN JOHNSON: You know, this team, we had a great season. We had a lot of adversity, but this team never quit. A lot of people counted us out. We just stayed together as a team, and, you know, just moved forward. A lot of people didn't expect us to make it to the Sweet 16 and win the Big Ten.
I think this team just did a good job of coming together through adversity and just going through.

Q. I know nobody looks back or thinks about what might have been or could have been, but at this moment or going forward, do you ever think how differently this season maybe could have gone if what happened in Minnesota didn't happen?
JaJUAN JOHNSON: You know, it's kind of hard to think that way, honestly, just because you know it did happen. Things are -- at that point you feel like things are going really well.
Like I said, our team did the best job it could just coming together through all that that we had, all through the adversity and Rob's injury and things like that. But things obviously would have been a little different, but we had to deal with the cards we were dealt.

Q. You talked about how you didn't want to be embarrassed this time around when you played these guys. You feel like you really did go out there and play and hustle throughout and you can be proud of that effort this time around?
E'TWAUN MOORE: I definitely felt that we came ready to play today. It was a hard-fought game. Guys came and sacrificed some things. Came out to play hard. I don't think we have nothing to be ashamed of today with our effort. We came out to play, we came up short, that definitely wasn't our goal, but we definitely gave a good effort.

Q. For about 30 minutes of this game it was basically a one-possession game. They had that one little run from Nolan. Did you feel like there was anything they did to make that happen? And you answered with a three right out of that. Did you think you had kind of recovered from it immediately?
E'TWAUN MOORE: Yeah, they definitely went on a little run. Once they went on that run, it was definitely hard for us to catch back up at that point. But we just had a few breakdowns, ball screen breakdowns, communication type things. I definitely thought we were going to come back, but we fell a little short and that was it.

Q. Can you just comment, both of you, give a minute of comment on what Chris and maybe some of the other seniors meant to this team and some of the things you all did this year.
E'TWAUN MOORE: Our seniors, man, they definitely did a great job for us. The whole time I was here, it was great playing with them. They definitely raised our level of play.
When we first came, they were stealing the ball from us, pushing us around and everything. We were like, Whoa, this is how college is going to be? They did a great job getting us better as well as their selves. They just meant a whole lot to the program, and hopefully they'll be successful with their careers.
JaJUAN JOHNSON: Yeah, you know, our seniors are great. Like E'Twaun said, on the court they really just raised our level. Even though we weren't seniors they did a good job preparing us for what's ahead.
Off the court you couldn't ask for better guys either. I just remember when we were younger, freshmen, they didn't hesitate to give us ride places or just really look out for us. Take us under their wings, really. They were what you want in seniors, really, if I was a coach.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Painter.

Q. I wondered if you just want to talk about how your team did, about your team after Robbie's injury and how they came back and kind of had to change up a bit and different guys had to start taking over.
COACH PAINTER: Well, we had to play a little bit differently. Obviously, you saw when JaJuan Johnson got in two fouls. Then Bade had three fouls and I'm constantly running guys back and forth just trying to get to halftime instead of playing the game. I think that's a little bit tough to do and frustrating at times to do. We didn't have a lot of depth on our front line.
You know, Rob really balances us offensively and defensively. He does a good job. He kind of completes our puzzle. He passes the basketball. He's a facilitator at 6'8", 220. He's a good rebounder. He just does a lot of little things besides shooting 85% from the free-throw line, 45 from two, and then he shoots 40 from three.
At that size he allows JaJuan Johnson to be one-on-one. He makes other people make a decision between him and E'Twaun Moore who you're really going to try to stop.
I think you see tonight with Duke, with Singler, Smith, and Jon Scheyer. Then you see with Purdue, and they had those three guys. We had kind of a one-two punch in terms of scoring. Since Rob's went down, whenever somebody has stepped up and scored for us, we played pretty well. When Chris Kramer steps up and scores, we're in a good position. When Keaton Grant steps up and scores, we're in a good position. Tonight we didn't have that third scorer, and that really hurt us. That's kind of how it's been.
You know our guys are going to lay it on the line. They're going to defend and play hard. Tonight I thought we were efficient in terms of taking care of the ball and having seven turnovers. But when you get up into that kind of size, the ball needs to bounce our way a little bit more, and today it didn't. They got a lot of those rebounds.

Q. You had had kind of knocked them back for most of the first half. But the last three or four possessions were huge. How big was that in turning -- I don't know if momentum is the right word -- turning that game around and kind of giving them some life?
COACH PAINTER: A lot of times when that happens somebody comes out and punches you in the mouth in the start of the second half and gets it going, and you never recover from that. That didn't happen in this game. With ten minutes to go, it's still a possession game. So that's what your main worry is as a coach. Is that going to lead to something bigger, and it didn't.
It still wasn't important. We were hiding Johnson, and then had to take him out of the game. Then we really talked about -- we had a timeout at 1:45. We talked about being patient and taking care of the basketball. Almost playing the end of the half like it's the end of the game. And we throw the ball away. And Nolan makes that shot at the end. They make another play at the end, and Barlow makes a great block in that stretch there at the end of the first half.
But we didn't play smart basketball. We didn't take an opportunity to get that rebound, and Nolan Smith got it and he scored it. I think that hurt us at that time, obviously.

Q. Not so much in terms of knockout blow. But kind of waking up the sleeping giant and getting them going. Did you see a difference in them after that?
COACH PAINTER: Not really. I thought the game was won on the glass. Their effort on the glass won the game. I thought we did a good job until shots went up to be honest with you.
You know, you don't like to make excuses as coaches. But we've got to do a better job. We have to do a better job boxing out and going to get the ball. I don't care if we're playing four guards or not.

Q. Regarding Chris, if you could also comment on what he meant to the program and Coach Krzyzewski mentioned afterwards it was very emotional. Earlier in the game how was his health physically? It looked like he got sick early in the game?
COACH PAINTER: Yeah, he got sick in a couple timeouts. But I think he just drank too much Gatorade. I'm not sure it was the flu or anything of that nature. He's a tough kid. Like I said, he needed a couple of those shots to go down to get him going. Playing kind of a different role at this time.
But Chris Kramer's a rare bird. You're not going to see too many of those guys in college basketball. He just lays it on the line every single night. He'll do anything and everything to help you win. We're very fortunate to have him at Purdue.

Q. It's so difficult in this sport to assemble a special team that can do special things. To have it taken away at that one point and not completely, but you lost a good part of it. But when you're going through it, you just have to grind it out and figure it out. As you look back over the next week or months will it be frustrating to look back and think about what might have been?
COACH PAINTER: I think it would be frustrating if you didn't come out and play hard. Our guys continued to play hard. A lot of what you're asking is now asking us to speculate what would have happened at the finish of the season. Would you have lost that home game against Michigan State? Would you have lost to Minnesota? You probably would have a different seed in your tournament so you would have played different people and been in a different spot.
With the loss of Rob Hummel and the loss to Michigan State, if you looked at the seeding, we would have been a 2 seed, because that's what our resume said. We would have been somewhere different playing different people. Doesn't mean you can't get knocked off in the first round either. Because you've seen how crazy this tournament is this year.
But it's frustrating because Rob is such a special piece to that puzzle. It's just the thing we didn't have in this that is my fault is we weren't going to plug in another Rob Hummel. But we needed to plug in somebody with experience that was 6'8", 220. As a coach, people always say why do you stockpile? Why do you recruit? This is why. Because when guys transfer, it kills you. When guys get hurt, it kills you.
If you don't have the next physical body to at least hurt you and go in there and rebound and be serviceable, it's hard. When the guys we were throwing in there were 18, 19 years old in the first year of college basketball, and that's a difficult thing to do.

End of FastScripts

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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS & FINALS: HOUSTON

March 26, 2010

JaJuan Johnson

E'Twaun Moore

Matt Painter