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NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOURApril 3, 2010Gordon HaywardRonald NoredBrad StevensINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA Butler – 52 THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and get started. Coach Stevens, if you could make a quick opening remark. COACH STEVENS: Well, obviously I didn't think 15 for 49 was a great way to approach this game, and I never would have dreamed we would have won if we shot 15 for 49. But our guys did a great job defending in the last 30 minutes of the game. Really locked on, made it difficult. I think Michigan State had 21 at the 10-minute mark of the first half, and after that, scored I guess 29. So guys really, really dug in. We had a lot of guys that had to and did a great job. You know, this team and this program has been built on guys ready to come in and contribute to the good of the team. It makes me proud to be their coach. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student-athletes. Q. Ron, when Howard goes down and Matt goes down, you guys aren't making any shots, what's going through your mind out there? RONALD NORED: Nothing different. We have 15 guys who are ready to step in and play at any moment. I thought the guys who came in did a great job. Rallied around each other. Shel is all, Matt is out. We want to play for those guys. We're here for each other. I think that's why we've gotten here to this point. Q. Ron, when you went to the free-throw line toward the end of the game, what went through your mind? RONALD NORED: I just thought they were going to go in. I've been practicing all week, practicing for the last few weeks to knock 'em in just because I've been so terrible in the first five games. So, you know, I just thought if I focus, I did my routine, took a deep breath, knocked it in. My teammates believed in me. My coach believed in me. That's all it was. Q. Gordon, take us through that final Michigan State possession when they got the ball, Draymond Green down low. Did you get a piece of that ball? GORDON HAYWARD: I mean, it was a lot of help from my teammates, I think. But just tried to hold my ground a little bit. I don't know if I got a piece of the ball or maybe a piece of his arm (laughter). Just glad that we got that stop. I think Ron came up with the rebound afterwards. I think it was just kind of fitting that the last possession we had to get a stop. That's what we've done all year is try to guard people. So for us I think it was fitting that we won the 'Butler Way'. Q. Ronald, I think you were 3 for 12 in the tournament from the line. First of all, are you aware of that? RONALD NORED: Yes, I was (laughter). Q. You said you just went through your routine. Can you tell us what your routine is and how much did you really practice free throws in this past week or two. RONALD NORED: I really did. I saw actually a picture of me shooting free throws in warmups from San Jose or Utah or one of 'em. I was short. I shot so many short. So I just wanted to kind of get my elbow under and just finish high, and then flick my wrist. It looks like I'm aiming it. It feels like I'm aiming it rather than shooting it. All week, when our coach, Coach Shrewsberry, he was working with me on finishing through and finishing high. That's been the difference. And thanks for reminding me that I was 3 for 12 (laughter). Q. Gordon, can you talk about the rebounding. Michigan State, that's their strength. The big one and the free throw miss. GORDON HAYWARD: For us, we're just trying to keep them off that. They were so good going to the glass. It's tough when Matt goes down and he's such a good rebounder for us, and Shel, he rebounds a lot for us, too. But I think a lot of it was just the mentality of our team to come in and say, I'm the next person up. I think one rebound that stands out to me, I missed a three, and Shawn seemed like he came out of nowhere, grabbed that offensive rebound and passed it back for a score. It was a complete team effort on the offensive and defensive end. A lot of times when you see a person who actually rebounds the ball, you need to look at the other people because they're the ones getting the rebounds. It's a team rebounding game for us. Q. Gordon, team rebounding notwithstanding, the last rebound, what were your thoughts? Take us through the play that if you could get that rebound, and what it means, Butler in the national championship game. GORDON HAYWARD: Well, I missed the block-out the time before, so just tried to go up there and secure it. That was my job. That's what we've talked about all year, is do your job. I was the cleanup the glass. The other two were to box out. I was supposed to go up and get it. I just tried to do my job there at the end. As far as us being in the national championship game, it's what we've strived for since the beginning, since the fall when we did fundamentals on defense. The whole year we talked about the next game. That's what we're focusing on. So just real excited that the next game is going to be for the national championship. Q. After you guys got ahead 44-37, you went nearly 10 minutes without a basket. Did you have any sense that you had gone that long without a hoop? GORDON HAYWARD: It did seem like it was a long time. But for us, as long as we guard, we feel like we can be in games. That's what we've tried to do all year. We've gone through stretches like that before where it seems like we can't throw it in the ocean and we're standing on the beach. For us, as long as we guard, we feel we can still stay in the game. Q. Gordon, describe your basket about a minute and a half left. You talked about how that was the only basket over the last 12 minutes of the game. Run through that play. GORDON HAYWARD: Oh, like I said, I mean, whoever kicked it to me. Was that you? Ron kicked it to me, slid baseline, I shot that shot so many times, I felt like it was in. Shawn, like I said, came out of nowhere. Just flew in there. Was able to save it right to me. It was just an excellent play, excellent hustle play. Those plays, coach talks about it all the time, there's going to be plays in the game that's going to get you the win. I think that right there was definitely one play that coach might be showing forever on video clips. Q. Gordon, I noticed before the tipoff even started that you were out in the middle of the court staring, looking around, smiling, nodding your head. Can you describe what's going through your head. Ronald, comment on that as well. GORDON HAYWARD: I mean, I was just looking around, and with these guys, this is it. This is what we've all played for. This is where we should be. This is where we want to be. Just ready to go. Excited to get out there after this whole week of all this craziness, just ready to play. So just excited, ready to go, confident in my team. RONALD NORED: I think the same thing. You know, we've gone through a lot all week with the media, doing things, shooting cool things like music videos and stuff. It was time to play. So, you know, going out there, you could take a deep breath and say, This is it right here, this is what we've been playing for all year. We know we have a Michigan State team that's really good. We know we're going to have to be tough, physical, match their energy. I think we did that. Q. Ron, did you guys, during that long cold stretch, sense any fear that you were in position to win and were letting it slip away? How do you fight that when you get to the line like that? RONALD NORED: I think one thing about us is there's never a sense of fear. I think we're confident in everything we do. Like Gordon said, we've been through stretches like that all year. It's about overcoming those stretches. If we didn't score again and they didn't score again, we won the game. So it's just about getting stops. I think we did that for the most part. You know, people like Shawn making tough plays. Shawn had, I don't know, how many rebounds he had, but he was getting them when we needed them. And then Gordon finishing them up. Q. At the start when you were being introduced, I noticed Matt Howard ran out and gave a pat on the head to the Bulldog. Is that something you've done at all during the season, talked about at all? Personal good luck thing for those guys? RONALD NORED: That's what we do at every home game. When we run out, starting lineups, we touch 'Old Blue' on the head. Sometimes he barks, sometimes he bites. You have to play through it. But we've done that all year, yes. That's pretty common. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you very much. We'll continue with questions for coach. Q. Was Mack's problems cramps? Was Howard's head clear by the end? COACH STEVENS: I was told Mack was a little dehydrated. Howard bumped his head on one of the plays. We actually thought he was okay. He played for a couple minutes. Then he came over and said he wasn't feeling good. We'll know more tomorrow after our medical staff and trainers look at him. Hopefully those guys are available. If they're not, then somebody is going to have to step in and play well in their place. Q. Tonight there was a viewing party at Hinkle Fieldhouse. As soon as it went final, we heard it's crazy at campus right now. What do you tell your team between now and Monday to keep them grounded a little bit? COACH STEVENS: Probably stay away from campus (smiling). No, I think that's so exciting to hear. You know, this is all about promoting Butler. That's my job. That's our players. Came to be part of a special program. You know, we've talked about this a little bit last week. We might not have believed it when we said it, you know, in our first team meeting in the fall, but, you know, if we focus and do our jobs, then why can't we play for a national championship? That's been our focus all along. You know, again, I walked out of that room and I kind of thought, I hope we'll get a chance to do this. This is a great story. I've said this. One of our managers was filming practice and actually said over the intercom, Hey, somebody picked us to go to the Final Four. We're good, but we're not that good. And you could hear it. I was watching film and I could hear him say it. It was pretty good. Maybe they didn't all believe me. But, you know, enough of them did that, hey, we're here. Q. You talked many times about how you could tell that Gordon was special when you recruited him. Is he exceeding your expectations the levels he's reaching now? COACH STEVENS: I'm pretty tough on him with my expectations. I think he's awfully good. I think he's awfully special. Ever since he walked on campus, you know, you knew that. Probably knew that a little bit before. But, you know, I guess once he exceeds them, then I probably won't be a good coach for him. So I'll just keep the expectations high. Q. You say the manager didn't believe it. Did you? I'm sure you say that same thing every year in the tournament. At what point did it go from 'Maybe' to 'This could really go'? COACH STEVENS: Last year I told our guys, because we were picked fifth in the Horizon League, I told our guys that's not what we're gonna do; we're gonna go out and we're going to compete for a championship and win a championship. When we got to the tournament, I felt like we played well against Louisiana State. We tried. But I didn't want anybody to feel like that was okay, just to try. I didn't want them to be satisfied with that. So I told them at the start of the year, I probably didn't do you guys right last year, and we need to shoot for everything we can. If we come up short, we come up short. But live trying. Q. When was that with the manager? COACH STEVENS: It was one of our first practices. You could hear it. You could just hear it over the film. He was up top filming. It was a great line. We laughed as a staff. We've given him a little bit of a hard time. But it was funny. Q. You told us last week in Salt Lake that you got some neat texts. The one you pointed out was the "Ollie, one more." Do you even have a second to think that might be happening when Ronald steps up there? COACH STEVENS: No, I didn't even think about it. You know what, I believe wholeheartedly in these guys. It's like when Shawn shot that free throw after missing one, hey, you know, we always talk about next play. If you chart Ronald's free throws under four minutes in his career, I'll bet you he's 80, 85%. It's unbelievable. That kid's a winner. He does everything that you need to do to help your team win. You know, he deserves all the praise he gets, because he is as big a character and winner of a guy as I've ever been around. Q. How much do you think maintaining some sense of normalcy this week was crucial today? Do you feel you were able to pull that off while still letting them enjoy the experience? COACH STEVENS: Yeah, I think our guys have had a great time with this experience and just even walking outside of our hotel in Indianapolis, the thing that just does my heart good, and certainly all Butler alums, Butler fans, are all the Butler T-shirts. I mean, you can't imagine how good that makes us feel. So that's been very cool. But our guys have done a nice job of being focused when they need to be focused and smiling and having fun when they need to have fun. We'll have to do it obviously for another 48-plus hours. Q. You never get too high or low. As you walked in, the CBS cameras had a good shot of you, holding your water, trying to keep your cool. What were your insides like? What was it like going out to 71,000 fans in your hometown? COACH STEVENS: It was cool. It was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. I'm interested to watch the next game, I'm sure the fans for both those teams -- looked like there was a lot of yellow and a lot of Duke blue. But, yeah, it was really neat. I tried to do my best not to focus on the 71,000 because once you do that, you forget about the 10 guys on the court. So that's what I tried to do the rest of the game. Q. You've answered questions all week about being calm, stoic on the sideline. You didn't look as calm or stoic on the sideline today. Is that the usual Brad out there or was that something a little bit different? COACH STEVENS: Uhm, I didn't feel like I ever got too jumpy. Maybe a little bit. But I really trust these guys. They're so much fun to coach. And when you've got a group like this that's so mature, we've only got two seniors that played in tonight's game. When you have a group like this that are so mature, that care so much, I actually sit there and feel like they're going to give us everything we have. As a Butler coach and Butler fan, I have no doubt I'm going to be proud of them at the end of the game. I think you take some peace with that and say, Give it all you can. That's what our guys are trying to do. I'm not going to lose my mind over little things. We're just going to try to be as good as we can. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. COACH STEVENS: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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