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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: WASHINGTONMarch 16, 2011G.W. BoonMike MuscalaDave PaulsenWASHINGTON, D.C. MODERATOR: We're now joined by the Bucknell student-athletes G.W. Boon and Mike Muscala. We'll open it up for questions from the media for our Bucknell student-athletes. Q. Either one of you gentlemen, what's it like playing the Big East champion. Is there a certain stigma associated with that and how do you feel about this prospective challenge? G.W. BOON: I think it's a very big challenge for us definitely. They had a great run in their conference tournament, and congratulations to them for that. But it's another tournament. We had a great run as well, and so I think it will and great match-up for us. We're ready for it. MODERATOR: Anything to add? MIKE MUSCALA: What he said. Q. They did have a great run, but they had to win five games in five days, and that often taxes the Big East champion. Do you have any hope that maybe they'll come in here a bit drained from what they had to go through last week? MIKE MUSCALA: I'm sure we wouldn't mind it, but I'm not thinking that we're counting on that in any way. We're going to out -- we're not worrying about that stuff. We're going to go out with our game plan, and we've had some good practices leading up to this, and I think we'll be ready to play. Q. Along that same line, in terms of the Big East Tournament, they had to beat four ranked teams in four days to accomplish that feat. Did you guys -- were you spectators at all? Did you watch any of the Big East Tournament and if were you were watching, were you thinking, oh, my gosh, this is amazing what they're doing? G.W. BOON: I actually did get to watch one or two games, but you just kind of watch it as a fellow college basketball player. You don't really, like, wow over it too much. But we're not worried about them being tired or anything like that, because we're like 20 years old. They will be ready to play by Thursday. So we're just going to be prepared with our game plan and we'll go out there and play the best that we can. Q. Mike, can you talk about playing a couple of UCONN's big guys, Alex Oriakhi and Okwandu off the bench. Have you faced similar type guys? Obviously Okwandu is much big bigger but Alex played the majority of the minutes. MIKE MUSCALA: Definitely be a big challenge. They're very good players. Very physical. Very good rebounders. And that's going to be one of the keys to our success is keep them off the glass. Kemba Walker does a great job penetrating, getting to the rim, but they do a great job cleaning up all of his misses. So that's been our focus is being able to keep them off the glass. That's going to fall on the shoulder of me and G.W. and all of other big guys, but also on the guards to come in, if we're boxing them out, to come and get the rebounds, and that will help our chances a lot if we're able to do that. Q. How much did you guys watch Kemba Walker during the course or at least get to see him a little bit during of the course. At the end, how many of a crash course have you guys had in the last few days? G.W. BOON: I mean, we're college basketball players. We've been college basketball fans all our lives, so of course we keep up with all the teams and we watch all the games throughout the year. So I've seen him play a number of times. Of course, the past few days, we got to analyze his game, I guess, alongside our coaches as they have gone through our film study and whatnot. So I think we're pretty familiar with his game and we will be ready definitely by the time we step on the court. Q. You're watching Selection Sunday as a team. You see your name come up against UCONN. Just knee-jerk initial reaction seeing yourselves paired with UCONN. MIKE MUSCALA: At the time, the moment was so surreal, I think just the fact that we're all celebrating, it didn't really sink in. And then I think as the day went on, we started thinking about the match-ups. And just being here, you know, is definitely a dream come true. But like Coach said, Bucknell just doesn't come to tournaments just to enjoy the ride. We come here to win games. So I think that's what we've been focusing on. Q. G.W., you all have had a lot of success when facing a real big scorer, and a lot of that has to do with Bryan Cohen. What does he do so well that ties up opposing scores? G.W. BOON: Bryan Cohen, he's an unbelievable defender. He moves his feet well. He has good size. Six-five, 200 pounds, and so he's really physical with a lot of guys, but he's still quick enough to move his feet. And so he gets guys to take a lot of tough shots, a lot of shots that they're not really comfortable with. So his defensive presence and prowess has really been unbelievable for us along this ride. And defensive player of the year two years in a row, we couldn't ask for anything better, so I think we have a really good chance at slowing down Kemba a little bit with him on him. Q. When you guys beat Kansas, obviously shocked the world was the reaction. Are those days over? Do you come in here feeling like there's no such thing as a lower seed necessarily, quote, shocking the world when they win a game here? MIKE MUSCALA: I think we don't -- it's not on the top of our minds all the time. We definitely know the players from that team, and they've definitely given us a lot of pointers and telling us to enjoy every minute of this experience. But it's not something that we're always thinking about. That was in the past, and if it wasn't for that win, I could probably say I wouldn't be here. They really put Bucknell on the map, and but that was in the past and we're here to make our own history. MODERATOR: Any other questions for the Bucknell student-athletes? Q. Mike, Coach Paulsen said a lot of the offense goes through you and that's when you guys really started to take off. What do you bring down low that Bucknell didn't have before? MIKE MUSCALA: I think I just bring more a low-post presence that we were lacking in the beginning of the year and a little bit last year just because I wasn't quite as comfortable down low. And I think now, even if I'm not necessarily scoring a lot, I'm able to, during league play, drew some double teams and find the open man. But everybody -- we had such a more distinguished low-post presence this year, not just me but everybody combined. G.W. and Enoch and Colin and all of those guys have done a really good job inside and that's really helped us a lot this year. Q. You guys just said that beating Kansas was a different team and it was in the past and you know all those guys' stuff. Nonetheless, how often have you guys heard about that game from the moment you guys qualified to get into the tournament? G.W. BOON: Oh, yeah, the comparisons have been there pretty much the whole year really. And then when we won it, everybody was just harping about it all the time. I actually got a chance to talk with the star player from that team, Tyrel Reed, a few weeks ago, and he told me that, yeah, you guys are getting compared to our team and everything, but this is your year. Make your own legacy. And so that's what we're focused on. Yes, we acknowledge the wins of the past, and I think that's a wonderful thing, a wonderful history that our program has. But we're here today to make our own statement and our own legacy. MODERATOR: Any other questions for the Bucknell student-athletes? We're now joined by Bucknell Head Coach Dave Paulsen. Coach, if you could, an opening statement about some of the excitement heading into the second-round game. COACH DAVE PAULSEN: We're really excited to be here. We've had a marvelous season. Since December 1st, we've won 23 out of 25 games, and I said to the local media: This group of guys I have been fortunate enough to coach, I've never had a group that's been more coachable, worked harder, been more resilient or focused every single day in practice. And our unselfishness is really a hallmark of our team. We really have a lot of guys that we spread the ball around and get contributions from everyone. So it's been a great fun ride. We're excited to be here. We know we have a very, very tall order ahead of us. But I think our non-conference schedule that we played, I think our guys feel like they belong here. MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Paulsen? Q. Coach, what makes Bryan such a good defensive player. I imagine he will be drawing Kemba tomorrow. What makes him such a good defensive player, two-time defensive player of the year in your conference? COACH DAVE PAULSEN: The first thing is he embraces the role, which is not something that most guys want to do. And we sat him down after his freshman year, and one of the things that we try to say: Is there something you can do that can be the best in our league at something? And you could be the best defensive player in the league, and he's embraced that and kind of relished it and he's gained confidence from his teammates in doing that. For our league, for our level of play, he's got a great mix of size. He's a pretty -- for a -- he's a six-five kid so he's got good size to bother shooters. He's pretty athletic. He's got decent strength, and he's in good defensive posture all the time. He's in a defensive stance and he relishes the opportunity to do it. Clearly his task tomorrow night is the biggest one he's faced. Q. Can you just go over watching tape of Kemba Walker and what challenges you do see him present, and have you played anybody like that this year? COACH DAVE PAULSEN: You know, we've played against some pretty good guards. The guards from Villanova are very good. Reggie Jackson from Boston College is a terrific guard. But nobody quite the likes of Kemba Walker. And the challenges is not only obviously is scoring ability, his ability to take over games, but watching the Big East Tournament games. Pitt and Louisville and people like that spent so much time and focus on him that the front-court guys for UCONN got a ton of offensive rebounds at key junctures in the game So it's a double-edged sword. You want to be focused not only with the guy assigned to Kemba but with your team defense to try to contain him, but there's a real danger in -- he had a couple of dishes for dunks late in the game against Louisville, but then a ton of offensive rebounds that were surrendered by really good rebounding teams in the Big East. So it's a real double-edged sword. And the other thing is he gets to the foul line. He really gets to the foul line and does a great job coming off ball screens and finding the hip of the big guys who are hedging and certainly got a lot of calls in the Big East Tournament as well. Q. Coach, what are some of the things that you need to do to give yourself the best chance to win? COACH DAVE PAULSEN: I think the thing that we try to stress to our guys is we have to do the things that prevent us from losing. I think the reason we've been such a good team since December 1st is we haven't beaten ourselves; that we've played good, solid defense; made teams take challenged shots; we haven't turned the ball over; we haven't given up transition baskets; we've made our free-throws. And those types of things give you a chance to be successful. But I think that's the big thing with UCONN is magnified times five. We gotta stop them in transition. We've gotta keep them off the offensive glass and we've gotta keep them off the foul line. Q. Coach, I wanted to take you back to November when you started this season 2-6, you mentioned how you really challenged yourselves to the non-conference schedule. And then after the Wagner game, you went on to win 23 or 25. What happened after hitting 2-6 that you've not got to this point and really improved as a team? Was there a specific instance that you were able to get where you are right now? COACH DAVE PAULSEN: Well, we felt like we had a chance to be a pretty good team. We felt like we really challenged ourself in a non-league game, in a non-league schedule. But with no disrespect to Wagner, which I think had some really good guards and played well, that was a game we should have won at our place. And we really challenged our guys. They were practicing hard, they were focused, but just to come up with those little extra effort plays, to get stops, to get things done, we really, really attacked our guys physically for the next two, three weeks, and challenged them to challenge each other and to confront each other. When somebody missed the one box out -- sometimes kids are -- I coach great kids, like unbelievably great kids, but sometimes they're not always the most likely to challenge each other and confront each other if somebody didn't box out or take care of the ball. And we really stepped our competitiveness level up in practice, and that carried over to some good wins. Q. Coach, you talked about UCONN being a tall order. Your kids were in here, not awed at all. Can you talk about how important it is for you that your team not only thinks they can win but actually expects to win? COACH DAVE PAULSEN: Well, you know, I think we'll rest on our non-league schedule. We opened at Villanova. We were in the game, down six with about six or eight minutes to go. First game, couldn't really score. Got on a plane. Went to Marquette. We were up ten with ten minutes to go, and I think our guys looked around like, oh, my gosh, like we maybe can beat these guys. And then we didn't and they were mad. Not, well, we gave -- there was no sense of moral victory. We should have won that game. And I think playing those people and saying, you know what, we can play with anyone in the country, our margin for error is clearly smaller when we play UCONN, but we can play with anyone in the country. It's a confident, self-assured group. They're fun to be around. I don't think they're going to be in awe of the experience. And everyone -- we talked to our guys after we won the conference championship. Every guy in that room and every coach in that room is at Bucknell not just because Bucknell is going to NCAA tournaments in the past but because Bucknell has proven you can go to NCAA tournaments and win. And that's why they're all here. MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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