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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: WASHINGTON

March 16, 2011

WASHINGTON, D.C.

MODERATOR: We're now being joined by the Butler student-athletes, Matt Howard, Zach Hahn, Shawn Vanzant.
We'll open it up for questions for the Butler student-athletes.

Q. Matt and the rest of you guys, can you just address, you guys are kind of old hands at this now, this NCAA thing. How excited do you still get and how much do you draw upon the experience of each previous year now?
MODERATOR: Matt?
MATT HOWARD: I think it's always special. It's always exciting to get back here. There's only a limited amount of teams, and you don't always get a chance of being in it, so it's special every time.
ZACH HAHN: I think playing the last couple years in the Tournament can definitely give you some experience just with playing in the same kind of gym. There are always the big NBA-type facilities, and that can be a lot different for teams that haven't been here before, just all the excitement, the media.
So for us, it's kind of secondhand now, and I think it just plays -- allows us to play more calm and relaxed and have fun.
SHAWN VANZANT: Like they say, I'm just lucky to make the NCAA Tournament four years in a row. Just a pleasure being here and I'm just enjoying the moment.

Q. Part of our question, and I am curious, you guys have a reputation now for making these miracle runs. Is that something that you like having or is it a burden because people will look at you, expecting big things from a No. 8, 9 seed?
MODERATOR: Shawn, you want to go first?
SHAWN VANZANT: Yeah. I don't pay attention to what people say, but I kind of like being the underdog and playing with a chip on my shoulder and just taking it a game at a time.
ZACH HAHN: I don't think that it really matters what anybody says. We're here just to win one game at a time and take it -- continue on as far as we can possibly go.

Q. Can you guys talk just a little bit about what that run last year has meant for the school, the program? How has this year been different because that happened, do you think?
MATT HOWARD: There was a lot of times when we go into some places and it seems like there's maybe even a little bit higher level of excitement than usual, and that's great. I think it prepares us for situations like this where we can get in a different or a tough environment and play through it.

Q. This is for any of you who care to answer. How much do you know about Old Dominion, and what in particular do you think you're going to have to do especially well against them, if you could just speak to the challenge that Old Dominion poses?
ZACH HAHN: Obviously we've prepared to the best of our abilities. We've watched a lot of film, studied their specific moves that their guys like to do, their tendencies. So for us, from what we've seen so far, a big thing for us is gonna be blocking out, making sure they can't get offensive rebounds and really eliminating post play and just offensive rebounds.

Q. Have teams this season approached you differently than maybe they have in past years because of what did you last year, and have you gotten any sense so far, just in the little bit of time that you've been here in town, that there's a different feel about your presence here and the way other teams or people are approaching you?
ZACH HAHN: I wouldn't say that since we've been here, anything has really been different. I can say that you can feel just in the atmosphere, the crowds that the other teams bring. Like during our regular season and the Horizon League that they were a lot more people there. And for Butler in the past, we've always been a team that has a target on our back in our league. And I think it just -- with last year's experience, it just raised that and made the target a little bigger. But since we've been here, I think it's pretty typical of what we always expect for the NCAA Tournament.

Q. Matt, they're the best rebounding team in the nation statistically. That's gotta come with some vulnerabilities, though. How are you going to -- there's gotta be some things you can advantage of.
MATT HOWARD: There is advantages if you get them off the glass. I think first and foremost, you have to make sure you're doing your job and get them off. But, yeah, if they're crashing four or five guys, that is leaving the other end vulnerable.
But obviously they've done a great job getting them, and they have a guy I think that has almost four offensive rebounds a game, and that's fairly unheard of, especially from his spot.
So, yeah, they do a great job of getting there, but if you can get them off, that may leave some opportunities in transition.

Q. Do you guys still feel like underdogs? And do you anticipate that starting with Old Dominion, obviously, teams will start looking at you the way that you guys usually approach games as in, hey, we want to knock off the team that almost won the national championship last year?
SHAWN VANZANT: Once again, I don't really pay attention to the media too much, but kind of hard not to hear what people are saying. And I think I've always felt like the underdog. And going to last year and this year, I still feel like the underdog, so I like that feeling of playing with a chip on your shoulder and just going hard every game.

Q. For Matt, I'm wondering if you could give us some insight into Coach Stevens. For somebody so young, his record is really quite remarkable. From your perspective, what is the essence of what makes him a good coach?
MATT HOWARD: I think he does -- he can sort of break a game down in two different ways, and one is preparing your team to play. And I think he does a great job and our coaching staff do a great job of getting us ready to play each game, and not just the ones that may seem important to the outside.
And then second, I think he manages the game really well and understands the strategy within the game. And when you put those two together, you're going to have a pretty good coach. And as players, you feel like you got a great chance to win every time.

Q. Just to stay with Coach Stevens, how strange was that, that incident last month with the contact lenses and then that whole situation? Was that just another obstacle or how was that for you guys, that whole situation?
ZACH HAHN: I think just with the way this season has gone so far, we've had a couple struggles, and that was just something that when we started playing basketball the way that we're used to playing and Butler basketball, it was just something that was thrown in there. And obviously people have to step up, and I thought Coach Graves did an amazing job that second half of making us feel like nothing had changed.
And so we're glad Coach Stevens is back, obviously, but no worries. When one man falls, someone else will step up.

Q. Matt, is there a pressure to live up to what you guys did last year? Because everyone's going to compare, whether you want to or not. I know last year is last year. Just want to compare what you do now to what you did last year.
MATT HOWARD: I think it's pressure if you let people saying that affect you. You need to look at it the other way.
The year before, we lost in the first round, and, you know, a lot of people expected us to do the same thing. So there's pressure no matter what situation you're in if you let that get into your head.
But if you're focused and prepared in the right way, then all that talk and pressure goes out the door, I think.
MODERATOR: Thank you.
We're now joined by Butler Head Coach Brad Stevens. Coach, if you can give an opening statement about the team's excitement going into the tournament.
COACH BRAD STEVENS: Well, I think you hit the nail on the head. I think you're always excited to be here. I don't think you ever take it for granted. We think it's the greatest sporting event that we can be involved in, and to get a chance to participate in it and get a chance to try to play well again is certainly something that we're looking forward to and are excited about.
MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Stevens?

Q. Shawn was saying that he tries to still cultivate the underdog mentality and approach games like that. Do you think your team is still an underdog, and do you try to sell it that way to them, or do you also try to have them prepared to sort of be taking everybody's best shot after what you've accomplished?
COACH BRAD STEVENS: I think we try to focus on just doing our -- doing the task that we have in front of us to the best of our ability.
That being said, I do think they do know how to use the remote and also how to access the internet. And so I don't think -- I think certainly they see when people pick against them and all those other things. I think that that's part of being a competitor, having some pride and those type of things.
But I think one of the things that we didn't ever want to say last year was that we weren't the underdog or that we weren't a mid major, whatever they want to call you from a resource standpoint. We're a basketball team with some pride that wants to go out and compete at the highest level, and these guys have given us a chance to do that again.

Q. Brad, did you have to talk to these guys about the challenges of living up to expectations based on what they did last year? Did you address that?
COACH BRAD STEVENS: We talked about it a lot, but we tried not to talk about it in terms of living up to the expectations from last year, but more in terms of living up to the standards of our program. And the standards of our program are what I would consider the highest of expectations.
And human nature may not have allowed or may made it more difficult to live up to those, but I thought our guys did a great job.
And when we were 14-9, nine games ago, and we had lost a couple of close games, but weren't far away from being a good team, playing pretty good basketball, had a lot of individual talks like that because it wasn't about expectations. It was about doing tough things together and staying the course together and understanding that this is part of the whole athletic experience that ultimately makes you better when you leave, but is really hard to go through at the time.

Q. Brad, looks like Old Dominion zones quite a bit in addition to their rebounding prowess. How important is it to make perimeter shots against a zone like what Old Dominion does or is it more important to attack the zone elsewhere so you don't have to rely so much on the 3-point line?
COACH BRAD STEVENS: I think our team has a nice balance and I think that that's the appropriate way to attack. I don't think you can become consumed with one or the other. But certainly every team that I know of and every coach that I talk to, in an ideal world, you want to play from the paint out and you want to play inside out, because that opens up things for the perimeter.
Now, certainly you have to take what's there and you have to take what's given, and I do think we've got a team that is able to score on the interior but can also shoot the basketball. Tomorrow we'll have to do both to have a chance to be successful.

Q. I was wondering how often you get a chance to talk to Gordon Hayward and also wondering what it's been like for you as a coach to deal with a situation that you talked a lot about last year, that this program has never really had to deal with a player leaving early to go to the NBA and having the rest of the team come back and do you what did?
COACH BRAD STEVENS: It wasn't the rest of the team because we lost Willie Veasley and Avery Jukes too, who both played huge roles for us. Maybe as proud as I've ever been of a team after that conference championship win the other day, to go through the regular season the way that they did and to go through some ups and downs but then to play our best basketball at the end again, to stay together, to not lean on what wasn't there, but try to become the best with what was there.
And I've said this many times. What we lost in Gordon and Willie and Avery and really specifically Gordon and Willie on the defensive end was versatility like none other. You could guard 1 through 5, you could make a mistake, they could cover, all of those different things.
Now we had to become better in our technical work and it took some more time. And we've got four guys starting right now that either weren't playing a lot or are playing a new position in our starting lineup. So that's been an adjustment.
But they've done it, and that's what makes this so exciting to be here and sitting here and talking to you because it's a really hard thing to do to win a conference championship and to come and represent your league in the NCAA Tournament, even though sometimes we take it for granted because we've been to ten in 15 years and five straight.
As far as talking to Gordon, I keep in touch with him. I ordered the NBA League Pass for the first time in my life. I've watched more Utah Jazz games than I have in my entire 33 years combined before this and have enjoyed every minute of watching him and cheering him on from afar.

Q. Brad, I'm curious. You mentioned before when you were 14-9, was there a game, was there something in practice, was there any particular turning point where you thought things kind of fell into place for you guys?
COACH BRAD STEVENS: You know, I actually thought it fell into place the week before we played Youngstown, the week of practice leading up to and then in the Youngstown game. We held Youngstown State to 62 points. And traditionally, Youngstown State has been a very hard team to guard for every team in our league, and especially at home. They scored a really high clip. And we defended. We went through a run in the last five minutes, didn't score, and lost the game at the end and just didn't execute well at the end was the bottom line.
But we kind of got back to who we were, and that was very encouraging. And so 48 hours later or 36 hours later, we beat a really good Cleveland State team and kind of took off from there.

Q. Segueing off the question about Gordon, you've got another player Shelvin Mack, who may be in the NBA someday. I guess what kind of counsel have you given him and have agents and so forth and like try to get a hold of Shelvin? Has that been a big nuisance, or have you been able to manage that so it hasn't been a distraction?
COACH BRAD STEVENS: We have a process in place that we use to manage those things. And thus far, from everything I can tell, it's been very manageable and very smooth.
With regard to whether or not he'll play in the NBA, when, and all that stuff, certainly I think that he'll have a great chance to. There's no question about it. He's a very, very good basketball player. And we'll sit down after the year and go through all those things.
And one of the things that you have to do is you have to look at: Are you ready to be productive and are you ready to be a productive player at that level? Because your window is small for being productive and ultimately maximizing your time there. And so that's the question that you have to look at every time.
And the other question is: Do you have a ceiling or do you have a side where they say: We're going to pick you very, very high, or do you see yourself being a very, very high pick?
If you're in that situation, then that becomes even more difficult decision, like Gordon was last year. I mean, we thought that Gordon would be picked between 12 and 20, and it turned out it was conservative because he was picked ninth.

Q. Coach, people talk about the Final Four effect on a school and a program or just having some success in the NCAA Tournament, things like applications of the school going up maybe in your case, and having players express interest in the program who might not ordinarily have done it. Have you gone through any of that in the last year?
COACH BRAD STEVENS: The basketball program I don't think has changed a whole lot from the standpoint of we've always targeted guys we thought would be very good players and people to represent our school at Butler and that's what we'll continue to do within our recruiting.
One of the things we've always said, we don't care what they're ranked. We care what kind of college basketball player they'll be and what kind of person and teammate they'll be.
As far as the school goes, there's no question that -- it's just increased awareness and interest. I don't think there's any other way to say it. And it really makes you proud as a coach.
And I don't think it just happened because of the fact that we got to the national championship game. I thought our guys did a wonderful job of telling the Butler story every time they sat behind the mic here in the NCAA Tournament last year and as they've really gone through the season.
Other thing I've been really proud of is how many times do you see teams split apart or fingers being pointed after you make a run like that and things don't go perfectly the next year? That never happened this year. Our guys handled themselves as well during tough times as they did during the very best of times. I thought that was really, really encouraging and another great testament to Butler and the kind of student that it attracts.
MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

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