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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: DENVERMarch 16, 2011Kevin AndersonJustin HarperChris MooneyDENVER, COLORADO THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Richmond student-athletes. We'll go ahead and take questions. Q. You guys were a 7 seed last year. Came in with pretty high expectations. Did that raise the pressure on you and do you feel like this year maybe there's less pressure because your a 12 seed? KEVIN ANDERSON: No, it's not really a pressure thing. We're happy to be back here. Last year we got bounced early in the first round against Saint Mary's, a great team. With that experience, I think being here last year, that's definitely going to help this year just being more accustomed to everything, how things go, practice schedules, the similar schedule we had last year. So I think experience will definitely help. Pressure has nothing to do with it for this year at all, even being a 12 seed. JUSTIN HARPER: Yeah, I would also say it's not so much pressure as it is, you know, just having experience and all these guys having been here last year, what we went through, losing in the first round last year, coming back motivated to continue to advance. Q. Justin, is there anything in particular that you did differently this year in preparation for the game from last year? JUSTIN HARPER: No. I wouldn't say anything differently. I probably would just say a different mindset. You know, you kind of get caught up in making it back here to the NCAA tournament. We were kind of excited about it last year. This year we're here to handle business, just really focused on making it past the first round. Q. I think I read somewhere that after the Temple game you played touch football to keep things light, you won seven in a row. What kind of things do you do to keep practice light? Is that the makeup of your team? JUSTIN HARPER: You know, we just have a real close-knit group. We're like family. That was absolutely a great moment for us after losing to Temple the way we did. They're a great team. By coach allowing us to go out there, have some fun, kind of like brush it off, it was really refreshing for us as a team, like mentally as well as physically, to have that day away from basketball to kind of get focused. Try to realize what we have ahead of us, what we were able to do. KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, it definitely took a lot of disappointment away. Temple, they beat us pretty good at their place. I think coach didn't want that one loss to kill the rest of the season. It definitely helped us. Got us refocused. Kept us focused on what was ahead, not letting that one game kill the rest of the season. Q. Justin mentioned how motivating that was last year. How did it motivate you in the off-season? How did it shape you guys, the team that you have now? KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, it's definitely motivation to get back here. Being here the first time last year, you're kind of caught up into being in the tournament because you hear so many great stories about getting to the tournament, once-in-a-lifetime thing, you may never get back there. That all goes into, one, to get back here again. This year is another focus. We were here last year. We want to accomplish greater things than we did last year, not just happy getting here. We're looking to do great things in this tournament, make a great run. JUSTIN HARPER: Yeah, the motivation is definitely there. It carries all the way from the off-season, all the preparation, just keeping that in the back of our minds. If we get this chance to make it back to the NCAA tournament, we'll try to do even more than last year. Q. Justin, have you ever played basketball in this elevation? If so, what did you think? If not, what have you heard about it? JUSTIN HARPER: The past couple days I've heard a lot about just being a mile high, getting adjusting to the altitude, all this other stuff, how it's important to make sure you stay hydrated, drink a lot of fluids. Everybody is telling you that. Really, I just think it's in your mind. You just got to be ready to play no matter where you are. Q. Kevin, for years Richmond was known as one of the great giant killers and Cinderellas. Have you won too many games to be considered that anymore? Have you shaken that label? KEVIN ANDERSON: We're a 12 seed now, so I'm not sure we've shaken that label. We have won great games throughout my career here at Richmond. Have we shaken it? I feel we've shaken it. Maybe to some people, they may not think we've shaken it, still think we're considered a giant killer. Doesn't really matter because at the end of the day, you have to go out and win big games, not-so-big games. You have to win games in order to get here, in order to be a great team. Q. I know you weren't born when Richmond first started building that reputation as a giant killer, but what do you know about some of those upsets and history? Does that reputation still stick around Richmond? JUSTIN HARPER: Yeah, I've learned more and more since I've been at Richmond about the history, Richmond beating Syracuse that year. Just all the great stories surrounding our school. It kind of motivates you. We really push ourselves, you know, kind of shake off the giant killer and really be focused on a great team. We're just constantly having to prove ourselves year in and year out, and I really like that. KEVIN ANDERSON: Just along the lines of what Justin said, I've learned more, a lot, too, every year playing at Richmond. As we get better as a team, you learn about the other great teams in the past that we didn't learn about before coming to Richmond and things like that. We are trying to shake the giant killer thing, the mentality out of the Richmond program, because we've done a lot of great things since we've been here. Like I said, at the end of the day it's all about winning ballgames, whether it's big games or not-so-big games. Q. Justin, when it comes to defending Vanderbilt, they've got a number of different guys who can score. Where does defending them start for you? JUSTIN HARPER: We know they have a great shooter in Jenkins, a great guy down low. We got to be focused in on staying on the shooters, not giving them any wide-open shots, anything easy getting them going, as well as being tight and surrounding the big guy down low, not letting him get anything easy as well. KEVIN ANDERSON: Like Justin said. It also starts on transition. Man, they push their ball up the court so easy, get so many easy threes and easy shots because they move the ball fast in transition. They move hard on the offensive set. It's so hard. Whether they're going to set screens, or coming off the screen, they have great shooters and they have great size inside. So it's going to be hard to guard them because you have to guard them both inside and out. Their big man, he's a beast in there. We can't let him get lobs. We can't let Jenkins get 3-3. And Tinsley and the rest of the guys, Taylor is a great player. I think it starts with getting back in transition. Q. When you say you want to shake the giant killer thing, are you saying that you prefer to be looked at as a giant that needs to be killed? JUSTIN HARPER: Not necessarily be looked at as a giant, but just recognized as a great team, knowing that we've done great things in our careers here at Richmond. Just being recognized for that, I think that would be a great honor and a great label for us to have. Q. Before the brackets were released, there was talk of you getting a 10 seed. Obviously you got a 12. Is there any more motivation to prove them wrong about your seeding? JUSTIN HARPER: Definitely. There's a lot of motivation there. Just knowing that what we accomplished towards the end of our season, winning seven straight, also winning our conference championship, that factors a lot into what the committee looks at picking the seeds. We just really thought about that as just using that as motivation going into the NCAA tournament, using our momentum to keep us going. KEVIN ANDERSON: It's definitely motivation for us. At the end of the day, we're here. We could have been unfortunate like a lot of other teams and not been here. If we didn't win the conference tournament, we could be on the outside looking in. We would have liked a better seeding, but we're here so we have to play now. THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student-athletes at this time. We'll continue with Richmond head coach Chris Mooney. Coach, if you want to begin with some opening remarks, then we'll open it up for questions. COACH MOONEY: Obviously, we're thrilled to be here, looking forward to the game against Vanderbilt tomorrow. For me personally, it's great to be back in Colorado. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. We talked to your players some about shaking that giant killer label. Has this program accomplished too much to be considered a Cinderella any more? COACH MOONEY: I think it's different now than when it happened, when it started to happen in the '80s, late '80s and early '90s. I think we have accomplished a lot. We've changed conferences. We were in the Atlantic-10. I don't necessarily know if it applies anymore. I know people don't mean it negatively about us, but I don't think it necessarily applies anymore. Q. You lost two players from last year's team. It was only two, but it seemed to be an important two. How did you make up for that and get to where you are? COACH MOONEY: Well, those two guys that we lost, [] David Gonzalvez and Ryan Butler were extremely important to us. Long-time starters. Very important pieces to our program as we built it. We felt that last year we had a good depth of talent. Even though some guys who weren't playing as much, maybe were backing up Ryan or David, were really good players. I think they've shown that as they've come in this year. I think the talent level is the most important thing you can create in a program. We felt that it was strong then, we feel it's strong now. Not that we didn't miss a beat. But those guys I also think, they were good enough players to have an impact on the program beyond them just playing. They brought a competitiveness, winning attitude, things that last longer than their actual tenure. Q. You came in last year, you were a 7 seed. Seemed to be high expectations. David and Kevin were on the front stage of USA Today. Did that seem to create pressure then, and is it an advantage in a sense to be a 12 seed this year, to be almost a continent away from Richmond and playing with less pressure? COACH MOONEY: I don't necessarily know if there was added pressure last year. That was our first really, really good season. Maybe by the time we were in the NCAA tournament, we were well-known. Certainly, like you said, there was a lot of attention on us. I don't know if there was any added pressure or if there's less pressure this year. I think for us, as coaches, therefore as a program, the matchup is a lot more important than the seed. No matter what, you're going to play a really good team, a great team most likely, in the NCAA tournament. We're just looking forward to playing. I don't think that we can get too caught up in who was in or who was left out or where anybody was seeded. We just need to go and practice well today and play well tomorrow. Q. Where do you start in defending Vanderbilt? Who do you focus on first, Jenkins, Taylor, Ezeli? Do you have a plan of attack? COACH MOONEY: We're working on that (laughter). You know, they really can score the ball in a variety of ways. Jenkins has been called the best shooter in the country, and probably is. Ezeli is really a dominant force inside, somebody we're going to have to pay attention to. Taylor is a great athlete who can do a little bit of everything. I think, number one, we have to try not to let them score easily, try to be back, try to make it where they have to work a little bit to score and not just throw the ball inside or throw it for a quick three easily. It seems they really can feast on that, whether it's turnovers or rebounds, where they fly the ball up. I hope that we can be successful at that, trying to get them to run a little bit of their halfcourt offense. Other than that, every guy on the floor has the capability of scoring. A couple guys can score in bunches. It's going to be important to defend the three-point line without ignoring Ezeli inside. Q. Do you need to keep them in the 60s or below? Is it trouble for you over the 70-point mark? COACH MOONEY: I don't know about that. We've won games in the 80s and the 70s and 60s, and they've probably done the same thing. I think it depends on, you know, as the game is going on, the feeling during the game. If they score very easily, like anybody, it's going to be too hard for us. If we can make them work at it, make them work to score, then I think -- they thrive when it's in the open floor and when they're really moving fast. I haven't really seen when it hasn't been like that for them, which is a credit to them. They can kind of force the issue in the game. Hopefully we can just a little bit slow them down - just a little bit. Q. You seem to have an uncanny sense of when to pull back with this team, scheduling the touch football game. Do you have any budding football stars? COACH MOONEY: Unfortunately two budding football stars (laughter). I think it's a veteran team. When you have a veteran team, you get to have a better feel for those guys because you've been around them for so long. We came back from a loss against Temple where we didn't play well, no one was very happy. It wasn't at that point in the season or their careers that we needed to try harder, necessarily. We needed to take a step back and take a breath. We went out and played football for about an hour on a beautiful Richmond day. It helped us relax a little bit, go in and play as well as we could the next game without any kind of lingering effects from the temple loss. We have played well since. It's also a matter that I can trust our team so much not to worry about how they're going to react to something like that, take advantage of anything like that. This is a very mature group, a group that has won a lot of games and has been in a lot of situations. Darien Brothers, who was a quarterback in high school, his football prowess has always been brought into question at basketball practice until he proved it that day, because he was terrific. He was by far the best player and the MVP. The coaches had a team that bailed out early in the tournament (smiling). Q. Does this Vanderbilt team at all remind you of the Saint Mary's team? COACH MOONEY: A little bit. Saint Mary's had the most productive center in the country, and he was the focal point of their offense. While Vanderbilt has a great big man in Ezeli, I don't know if he's probably the co-focal point in their offense. They are similar in their ability to shoot the ball from long range and their ability to score inside. I think there are some differences that hopefully we can show better tomorrow. Q. With four seniors in your starting lineup, guys who played in the tournament last year, do you see any difference this year in their approach to this tournament and their mentality? COACH MOONEY: Well, a little. Again, I don't want to suggest that we're just happy to be here last year and not worrying about the game. I think the experience helps you no matter what it is, especially on a stage like this where there's so much excitement, so much interest in what you're doing. We met on Monday after we got back from Richmond. We had won the championship and found out our seed and everything. Just talked about what we were trying to accomplish, how we were going to go about it, lay out the game plan so that we could kind of hit the ground running once we started to move and practice and travel and whatnot. I do think we're probably a little bit more focused just by virtue of having experienced it. Q. Going back to defending Vanderbilt, specifically Jeffery Taylor, how do you slow him down? Has your team seen an athlete like him this year? COACH MOONEY: Probably not. I mean, he's really unique. His highlight reel is very, very impressive. His speed and athletic ability. Usually you don't have a guy like that that can also make three-point shots. I think in the open court he's probably impossible to stop, incredibly great weapon. Hopefully in the halfcourt, again, he would be a guy that would be important to see how he plays in the halfcourt. I know he's a great player. I know he's also a tremendous defensive player. He has an impact on every game they play. I don't think we have seen anybody with his skill set this year. Q. Your rebounding, especially on the offensive glass, has been a bit of a surprise lately. Did you see it coming? Can this dominance continue against an SEC team? COACH MOONEY: Well, we have rebounded much better. It probably is, as much as anything, who's in the game for us. When Darrius Garrett is in the game, when Francis Martel plays a lot more minutes, those guys are good rebounders and we rebound better. Really, I think beyond that, we're probably led by Justin. When Justin rebounds well, it seems to have an impact on not only the game, but the rest of our team. He kind of leads us to kind of going after the ball. I think we can continue to rebound well. I think Vanderbilt is a very good rebounding team. But I do think that we can continue to rebound well. I'm not sure what the numbers will look like at the end of the day, but it is something we've emphasized, have improved dramatically. Q. The players talked about the effect of what happened in the NCAA tournament, how much it motivated them. Did you see that difference off-season, throughout the season? COACH MOONEY: Yes, definitely. We had a great season last year. The thing about the tournament, especially when you play Thursday like we did, it ends, it feels like you were hardly in there, couldn't kind of enjoy it. I do think our guys were motivated and talked all season. There's a lot of demands on a college basketball player, all the lifting and training, everything they do. I think that was a huge motivation for them to not only get through that but to excel at that. Not performing as well as we wanted to was a great motivation for us. Q. Give us a key on what you think have to do to slow down Vanderbilt? Your players talked about defending the transition game. Shooting percentage, is that going to be a factor? COACH MOONEY: Yes, definitely. The best way to slow a team down is if we can score ourselves. We've scored pretty efficiently this year, have shot high percentages both overall and from three-point range. We've gotten ourselves to the foul line a lot more than we have in the past. Our scoring is just as important as anything in trying to slow them down. Like I said, if it's an open-court game, I think they're a little bit too difficult to defend. But if we can score and then make sure we're back on defense, make them work for it, I think that fits our game plan a little bit better. Q. Considering the success you had after playing touch football, have you considered playing touch football more and coaching basketball less? COACH MOONEY: It's a lot more fun, that's for sure (smiling). Sure, I think those things are important. Again, the demands that we put on our players, there has to be outlets. There have been a lot of those for us over the years, big ones like a foreign tour, and small ones like touch football games, barbecues, whatnot. I think it's important. Again, especially with the group of guys that we have who appreciate it and who know how to kind of utilize it, I think that's very important. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. Good luck tomorrow. COACH MOONEY: Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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