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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: WASHINGTONMarch 17, 2011Matt HowardBrad StevensShawn VanzantWASHINGTON, D.C. Butler – 60 MODERATOR: Coach Stevens, if you could make an opening statement and then we'll open it up for questions for the student-athletes first. COACH BRAD STEVENS: I was just talking to Coach Taylor as he walked out of the waiting room there. Two really good teams playing a really hard-fought game. I think that's kind of what you envision the eight, nine game in an ideal world to be. Both teams came out shooting the basketball well. Both teams kind of unusually found their defensive rhythm later and after the fact. Sometimes it goes the other way in a first-round game. So that's that. We were fortunate to win because we had the last possession. That's about it. MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes first, please. Q. Shawn and Matt, could you just walk through that last possession. Obviously, Shawn, I'd like to know if you tripped or what quite happened there. And then, Matt, how the ball got to you and what was your mindset going from there? SHAWN VANZANT: First of all, I read the play wrong. Should have gave it to Drew a lot earlier. I thought he was sailing but he was posting up. But I was tied to the basket and I tried to step back and shoot a jump shot. I moved my leg. I don't know if I stepped on his foot or what. I was all falling down, trying to get the ball to the basket, and hopefully one of my teammates could grab it and score. And luckily they did. MATT HOWARD: I think a lot of credit has got to go to Andrew. He made a great play keeping it alive. And my guy I think went with him on that jump. And it's pretty easy when it's just you and the ball and the rim throw it in. But I didn't really -- I was thinking that there wasn't going to be any time. I was trying to get up as quickly as possible, and fortunately we had just enough time. MODERATOR: Other questions for Shawn and Matt? Q. Matt, you and Andrew played incredibly long stretch of this game in foul trouble. How were you able to really maintain that level of energy and the play that you did under those circumstances, especially down the stretch? MATT HOWARD: Unfortunately, that's sort of been my MO through my career. Been in foul trouble. And so you learn how to do that and just trying to take spots.and to be honest, I just put it in the back of my mind and I still try to play as hard as I could. Our bench was huge. I think you can see in some of the numbers, I mean, Garrett did a great job. Five offensive rebounds is huge, and that may in itself be a separator in this game. MODERATOR: Other questions for the student-athletes? Q. Could you guys quantify more me how having been in the NCAA Tournament, won five games, helped you as the clock went down. How experience sort of carry you today? Shawn? SHAWN VANZANT: It definitely helps you a lot. From last year, playing in tournament and winning games, I think playing all year in close games helps you at this time of the year. But a lot of our guys that played big minutes tonight and Garrett Butcher is a particularly big force, so it definitely helps you. MATT HOWARD: We were in this situation a lot last year. Obviously in a different situation, but even after they scored and tied the game, there was -- I had no doubt that that's the way you gotta play. I had no doubt we were going to win the game. I didn't think that we were going to win it in that way. That's not what I was thinking. But when you've been in those situations and been through the battles and the close games and won them different ways, you just -- you have confidence that you're going to be able to pull it out. MODERATOR: Other questions for the student-athletes? All right, guys, you guys are all set. Thank you. Congratulations. We'll take questions now for Coach. Q. You mentioned the word luck. For all that goes into these games, all the preparation, all the hype can you talk about how sometimes it just helps to have a good balance? COACH BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt about it. I thought -- like Shawn said, I actually thought Andrew was open on the duck-in, but Shawn, to his credit, sometimes it's there, but sometimes the pressure is such that you don't feel like you can deliver it and it's better not to throw it away at that time. But when Shawn started his drive, my first thought was: Andrew's got this guy sealed, Shawn's going to lay it in and we're going to win the game. And then on the way, Andrew's guy did a really good job of releasing, showing to Shawn, Shawn tripped, Shawn made an unbelievably high-IQ play to throw the ball in the air, because Andrew's guy had shown Andrew, tips the ball, keeps it alive, he's jumping with Matt's guy, Matt lays it in. It was a huge play by Shawn Vanzant. We were trying throw it on in on a duck-in to Andrew or a flash to Matt. It's one of those situations where you'd love to call timeout because there's 25 seconds left. We had three left, but they change defenses so much that at least we knew what they were in, and so our guys did a great job of executing. It didn't look pretty, and that's not exactly the way you want to end, by any means, but they were in the right spots and made a great play. Q. I apologize for asking a question about another team, but I figured you'd be good for this. Coach K said today that Kyrie will play some limited minutes tomorrow. Since you're the last team to play them with him, how does he change their lineup and do you think that makes Duke a favorite to repeat? COACH BRAD STEVENS: I can't quantify the loss of time. That's the one problem. If he's with no rust, he's probably the top point guard chosen in the NBA draft if he wants to go. So he obviously makes that team, who's already really loaded, like, super-loaded. I know this. We've gone into games one time in my four years as a head coach knowing that we were going to guard multiple different ways at each media timeout just to stay in the game, and that's what we had to do against Duke. They were unbelievable with him. Q. Coach, I know the game just ended, but having won the way that you did, do you have any sense right now or did you get a sense in the locker room or there on the court that, hey, this could happen again? COACH BRAD STEVENS: I do think there is some validity to winning that way, and there's no question that we were only 40 minutes into the NCAA tournament, but nobody will be more tournament tested by the second round than we will have been, or third round. But I think that you have to believe and you have to give everything you have together. And if you do those two things, you got a shot. And our guys have proven time and again that you got a shot, and that's all you want. Q. Brad, based on what you said, I'm assuming that the play all along was for Shelvin to be the decoy to give it up to Shawn, and when Matt made the shot, was there any doubt in your mind that it was going to count? COACH BRAD STEVENS: I didn't even think about whether or not it was going to count. I thought that was good for sure. What I did was to get our team together. I was ready to sub Khyle in because I thought that we would -- if there was any time coming back on the clock, we would need a guy on the ball. And so we just tried to huddle, which it wasn't all that crisp, our huddle, but we just tried to huddle and move on to the next play, because you can celebrate, celebrate, celebrate, oh, yeah, you gotta guard again. We wanted to be thinking, hey, let's hold the celebration for a split second and figure out what we need to do next. Q. (Off microphone) COACH BRAD STEVENS: I mean, there's so many options, and what I saw them in was a zone, and so we wanted to move the ball, we wanted to space them, and how they rotate is how they rotate. But I thought the best thing we could do is throw the ball inside, because when Andrew got the ball deep with his back to the basket, he was pretty hard to guard today. And the other guy flashes Matt Howard. And then you got Shelvin kind of spaced to the wing opposite, you gotta pick your poison a little bit. MODERATOR: Other questions for Coach? All right, you're all the set. Oh, sorry. Q. Shelvin just mentioned Bryce Drew. This is going to be a play that's going to be seen for 20, 30 years probably. COACH BRAD STEVENS: Yeah. And obviously we've got a great deal of respect for Bryce. But the one thing I will say is it's a play that everybody will see and talk about, and anybody that's been around our program for four years, Matt Howard has won a lot of games here, and it's very little surprise to those of us that are around him every day from a preparation standpoint and from a finishing standpoint. It just happened that the ball found his hands, but his motor allows him to find the ball. And I think that that's what's unique about him. MODERATOR: All right. Coach. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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