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PACIFIC-10 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2011Bob CantuMarcus SimmonsNikola VucevicLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA ARIZONA – 67 THE MODERATOR: An opening statement and questions. COACH CANTU: I know you'll have a question for me. I just first want to start out by saying Kevin O'Neill is not only our head coach, but he's a great friend of mine and he's a great person. He really is. And I've worked for a lot of good coaches, but I truly value my friendship with Coach O'Neill. It's unfortunate he wasn't able to coach this game, but I'm really proud of the effort our guys gave. I thought we really fought, and we played really, really hard and really defended. I think anybody out there that was watching this game tonight can see that we can compete with just about any team in the country. We did come up short, but I did appreciate their effort. They started getting a way a little bit from us there and we were able to get stops and cut it back down. But all in all, I thought our guys really fought, and I think we've really grown in the last three weeks as a basketball team. Q. If at all, was Coach O'Neill being absent on the sidelines a factor in tonight's game as far as the mentality of the players? COACH CANTU: You know, yes and no. I think when you watch the game our guys really competed. Obviously he wasn't standing there calling the plays and he wasn't there. But we went through everything as if he was there. I think the guys played remarkably well and they played hard. Obviously we would have liked to have him there, but the fact that he wasn't, I think the guys really stepped up. Q. What time did you find out that you indeed were going to run things tonight? COACH CANTU: Found out about 3:00 o'clock. Q. Like you said, you ran things as though he wasn't there. Did you put any of your own touch on the game? COACH CANTU: I ran one play that I used to run. I laughed and said KO is saying, "why is he running that play right now?" I ran two plays that we hadn't run before. One that I had run with Tim, and one that I had run with Henry, and another one I had run in junior college. I felt that if we ran something different, they wouldn't expect it. So we threw a couple extra things in there, and a couple worked and couple didn't. Q. For the players, just describe what it was like this afternoon when you found out that KO wasn't going to be coaching you, and sort of the emotions that you felt and how you had to kind of get yourselves together to play the game? MARCUS SIMMONS: We knew it was going to be tough. But me being a senior, I had to talk to the players and we knew we had to go out there and compete and we knew the game plan. So we just had to move forward and go out and compete tonight like we did. Q. Being a senior, any anger at all that your head coach, in what could be your last game, your head coach not being here, taken away at the last minute? What were your feelings when you heard about it? MARCUS SIMMONS: There was no anger. We have a great coaching staff behind Kevin O'Neill. So I knew moving forward our coaches would help us out a lot. Coach Cantu did a great job tonight helping us out. So I just wanted to come out there and play. I hope it's not my last game. NIT, NCAA, either or, I mean we'll do great in either tournament. Q. What do you feel Arizona did differently in this game than at the Galen? NIKOLA VUCEVIC: They just played like they always do. They shoot the ball really well. I think that we gave up way too many open threes and we didn't box out well and they got a lot of offensive rebounds. They're the type of team that tries to get easy baskets, and we gave up too many of them and that cost us the game. They're a great team. They're the best team in our conference, and they played very well tonight and we have to give them credit. Q. Was it strange to not have KO on the sideline? Just talk to me about what that experience was like. NIKOLA VUCEVIC: It was different. When KO's there, he yells a lot, and we didn't hear a lot of yelling today. I have to say that our coaching staff did a great job of preparing us. They didn't have a lot of time to get together and do it, but they did a great job. And Coach Cantu did a great job of controlling the game. It was his first time, I think -- was it -- it was his first time, and the rest of the guys, the coaches were great. It was tough for them, probably, to do it because they're not used to it. They did a great job preparing us. So it was different, but I think with them we still did a good job. Q. Can you talk about the fronting that Arizona did on Nick and keeping you from getting position? It seemed like when you caught the ball out you were pretty far out and not able to make any moves? NIKOLA VUCEVIC: That's something that most teams do when they play us. They try to take me out of the game. We're used to that. We've been through that before and we've won games with people doing that. We were ready for that. Our coaches told us they were going to do that and we prepared for that. Every time I catch the ball and they'd come double team me I'd kick it out. And couple times Marcus made a couple threes. That's what we have to do. As the game went on I think they double teamed less and we were hitting shots. Q. Career high 20 points, it seemed like a lot of times they were leaving you open whether it was to double another guy or what not. Did you notice that and how were you able to capitalize on that pretty much more than ever before in your college career? MARCUS SIMMONS: I'm a defensive player, for one. They were leaving me open, and I just want to take good shots. If I felt like I was uncomfortable shooting the shot, I didn't shoot. I just wanted to play within the offense. And tonight just lucky to knock down shots. Q. Give me your best NCAA resume pitch? COACH CANTU: Well, my philosophy is when you're selecting 68 teams, you're trying to find the best 68 to compete for a national title. If you saw us play throughout the season you'd have to say we're one of those teams. Why are we one of those teams, because we've shown we can beat good teams. We have seven Top 100 wins. We've beaten Texas who people were talking about as the No. 1 seed a couple weeks ago. Arizona at UCLA, Tennessee on the road. Other people I can't remember right now. My point is that we have some great wins. Everybody's saying we've got bad losses. I personally think that great wins mean more than the bad losses do when you look at the big picture. I really feel that we can compete in the NCAA Tournament. We've played with teams that are going to be in the tournament. I think we had a good showing tonight, and anybody that was watching the game tonight would have to call this a good loss. If you're on the committee and we were on the border, you'd have to say well, this team played well without their head coach. We feel they can compete in an NCAA Tournament. We're hopeful, but obviously we won't know anything until Sunday. Q. Going back to last night, did you have any contact with Kevin last night after the incident, and what contact did you have today with him? What was his demeanor? COACH CANTU: I talked to him briefly last night. I was over at the games, scouting the games over here. Got some text messages and walked over there and heard there was an incident, but didn't have any idea really what was going on. This morning we met with the team and kind of told them what was going on. But no one really knew what was going to exactly happen. So we met with the team and the staff, and kind of prepared just to go out and play regardless. Then we got instructions at 3:00 that that's what we were going to do. The guys responded. They played hard. I could see in their eyes they really wanted to compete, and I'm just proud of their efforts tonight. Q. Knowing that you hadn't been a head coach since way back at Mission Prep, did Kevin O'Neill have any advice for you or anyone have any advice for you going into this one? COACH CANTU: Yeah, he said you better win (laughing). No, just kidding. He didn't say that. I've worked for some good coaches. In junior college, the guy I got worked for got thrown out of the game and suspended and I was the head coach the following game. I think we played Santa Monica City, Marvin Menzies who is at New Mexico State. So that was my experience as a head coach. I've worked for great coaches in my ten years at SC. So I felt prepared. When you have a good team of great kids that are coachable, it makes your job really easy. The coaching staff was tremendous, and it just kind of flowed. I just happened to be the one standing up. But it's about the players, and it's about the seniors. I thought they represented us well tonight. Unfortunately, we came up a little bit short. But I feel like we still have some games to play. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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