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ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 11, 2011

Ruben Guillandeaux

ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY

Temple Â– 96
La Salle - 76

MODERATOR: We're joined by La Salle head coach Dr. John Giannini and La Salle student-athlete Ruben Guillandeaux. We ask Coach Giannini to make an opening statement and then we'll take questions for Ruben. Coach?
COACH GIANNINI: Well, I didn't think this was possible, but I actually came out of this game even more impressed with Temple than I was before. And as I said, I didn't think that would be possible.
Our defense wasn't always good, but even when it was good, boy, they made great plays and tough shots and they played good team ball at the end of the shot clock. They made good individual plays. So again, I just tip my hat to them.
I don't think we played very well at all. 15 turnovers in the first half and the fact that we just couldn't stop them, as 96 points shows, are two huge problems.
So it's disappointing to end the season on a game you don't feel good about, but Temple had an awful lot to do with that.
MODERATOR: Questions for Ruben?

Q. Ruben, you're coming to an end of a five-year career. Speak of your emotions.
RUBEN GUILLANDEAUX: Disappointed. You know, I really thought that we can come out today after such a great win against Saint Bonaventure and put forth a better effort as a team and give them a better shot at it and make it a much closer game, where at the end of the game, give us a chance to win with the play here and there. But I'm just really disappointed that it didn't turn out that way.

Q. Ruben, your team struggled all year on defense. Do you have any theories on why?
RUBEN GUILLANDEAUX: No. I think it's just focus and effort consistently, possession by possession.
MODERATOR: Ruben, thank you. You can go. Thanks. Questions for Coach Giannini?

Q. John, it's been a frustrating year and it's a frustrating box score. There's things you were able to do well. You shot the ball well from the outside. You rebounded well, and yet the things you didn't do well killed you, and that's sort of the story of what you've seen.
COACH GIANNINI: Well, you answered your own question. And it's a good question and it's a good answer. We do certain things well and certain things very poorly.
We're not a good passing team, and with the exception of Tyreek Duren, who I think is wonderful. And defensively, it's -- I'll go to my grave scratching my head over this team defensively. I mean, we spent a hundred percent of our time in the spring and the fall on defense. We didn't do anything offensively until October 15th.
So you know, I often say that Temple is as good a defensive team as there is in my opinion, but if we were to go out there and talk about how to cover a back screen, how to cover a down screen, how to cover a ball screen, I mean, our guys could put on a wonderful instructional videotape; but for some reason, in competitive situations, it's a very low carry-over. And frankly, I have some theories, but I'll never really understand it. But you're right, passing and defense are problems.

Q. John, from what you went through last year, you have an appreciation for what injuries can do to a team. How much do you appreciate what Temple has been able to do with the guys that they've lost this year?
COACH GIANNINI: It's unbelievable. It's just absolutely unbelievable. I just -- as I said, I didn't think I could be more impressed with them, but sitting here, I am. They just do things right.
I mean, you know, you see when we did play good defense and we did take them deep into the shot clock, they don't turn it over and they keep working and they usually end up with a good shot, and then even with when they don't, my goodness, they made some really tough individual plays.
For some reason, if we don't turn it over, we're capable of scoring on them, but their defense is good as well. They have good players, but they're -- I hope I get this quote right -- their sum is definitely greater -- the whole is definitely greater than the sum of the parts. And the parts are good at that, but the whole is even greater.
Great, good kids, good players, and wonderfully coached and old school all the way.

Q. Coach, can you just talk about the effect of the turnovers versus the defense for you? What do you think was the bigger factor and what did you try to do to maybe adjust at halftime?
COACH GIANNINI: Yeah. I think that they were equally a as damaging to our outcome today. In terms of the turnovers, there's -- you know, there's not much we could do. We have aggressive kids, and as soon as you take that away from them, we're really worse, quite frankly. We wouldn't able to score 76 points or shoot 53 percent from the field against a good defensive team.
So I know at times I gotta grit my teeth, and you could imagine how gritted down they are now. But I gotta grit my teeth and bear with some of those turnovers.
But defensively, we tried to energize ourselves. We tried to cover the ball screens a little bit differently. And, you know, and then unfortunately we really didn't provide much of a deterrence to them.

Q. What did you see the positives that you can build on and build on for the upcoming season?
COACH GIANNINI: Well, I think you talk about, you know, the point guard position being important. I think he's a really good guy to build around.
And, you know, the other guys, we didn't have our best games. Earl Pettis has been battling some really bad dental problems that we decided, and the dentist along with us a couple weeks ago, that it would be better to wait until after the season just a because -- and I think that really took a lot out of him. I don't think Earl has been his normal self, and I think he's way better than what he's shown.
And I think like kids like Sam and Cole will continue to grow. I'm really excited about the young big guys that we're going to coach next year. I think we're going to have excellent role definition, and I think we're going to be very coachable. And I think we have some players that can be outstanding.
I don't want to toot anyone's horn before they even play a game for us, but there's some people that I think could be very good.

Q. John, in these four years you've coached a lot of games against Lavoy Allen. He gets a lot of credit for his rebounding, but tonight he gets six assists, has three steals. How would you assess the kind of player he is and how difficult he is to stop?
COACH GIANNINI: Well, I recruited Lavoy as hard as humanly possible, so my background with Lavoy goes real far back. And I would really say that he's had wonderful coaching through high school, through college, Frank Sciolla in high school, and obviously the staff at Temple, and he's absorbed it all. He's automatically in the right place. He automatically knows where people are and he always understands what they're trying to do.
I think his basketball IQ is super high, and that's a positive reflection on him and Coach Dunphy and the staff at Temple and Coach Sciolla.
MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.

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