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

March 18, 2011

Mike Morrison

CLEVELAND, OHIO

George Mason Â– 61
Villanova - 57

THE MODERATOR: We're joined now by George Mason head coach Jim Larranaga and student-athletes Cam Long, Mike Morrison and Luke Hancock. Coach, an opening statement.
COACH LARRANAGA: Well, I thought the game was really pretty. Both teams executing at a very high level. What was the final score, like 88-86 something like that? It was an unusual game, I think, for both teams. And, you know, kind of like a prize fight where both guys punch very, very hard, and you don't really get great results and by the end you're just fatigued and trying to battle through it.
And we kind of ended up being the last team standing. How proud I am of these guys sitting next to me and those guys in the locker room, to be able to overcome, you know, what I would consider a very rough game for us.
We're normally a pretty team. We shoot the ball extremely well from 3. We share it. And this was anything but pretty.
But it's really not important whether it's pretty or not. What is important is advancing. And we survived. We've advanced, and now our focus is on enjoying this game today and then start getting ready for our opponent on Sunday, tomorrow.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Luke, you took the 3-pointer there, 57-56, you were down. Was that your option all the way, or were you looking to penetrate and kick it off?
LUKE HANCOCK: No, I'm not the first option to shoot a 3. Mike and Ryan were coming up to set a double screen, and I was going to go off of that and look for Cam in the corner.
I kind of set my man up and he went back a little farther than I thought, and just kind of shot it.

Q. Cam, what was the difference, do you think, in the last two minutes? You guys had -- as Coach said, you hadn't played well, there wasn't a lot of rhythm there. But what turned things in the last couple of minutes?
CAM LONG: Like I said, togetherness. We came together more as a team. First half we came out a little sluggish, a little jitterish, and I guess just the excitement is what took over.
But second half we was able to calm down and we were down 10 with four minutes to go. And what we did, we just came to the huddle and discussed with each other, hey, just calm down, pick it up on D, and rebound around the floor. And that's what we did. And that's how we were able to come out successful.

Q. Luke, it seemed like before you took that shot, you kind of paused and almost like looked around and waited to see if you would take the 3. What's going through your head at that point? Just take us through that.
LUKE HANCOCK: Just I guess that I was that open. I wasn't the first option coming off the screens. I was definitely looking to penetrate and pitch, we got such good shooters on this team.
But I definitely hesitated a little bit. It's a big shot, so...

Q. Mike, you had some really big plays in those last three minutes, some forceful put-backs, shall we say. Did you sense that -- I know they spurred you on, did you sense that your teammates picked up any forward momentum from those plays?
MIKE MORRISON: We had a tough stretch. We had a few turnovers, and we were struggling a little bit, and first it was Isaiah's 3 that cut it down to three, then Ryan's and-one play from Luke that got it tied. So we had a few plays to get us going before that. But the put-back definitely gave us a lot of energy. And it was our defense to get us through the stops, to get us through the struggle.

Q. Luke, you said you hesitated when you took the shot. What did you feel when you let it go and watched it?
CAM LONG: Money, baby.
LUKE HANCOCK: Money. Money. Definitely not money. I was kind of hoping and praying. That's about it (laughter).

Q. Mike, it was 20 points in the paint in the second half to their six. How did you and Ryan rely and especially Johnny penetrate in the second half?
MIKE MORRISON: We just kept fighting. First Johnny, he had a great game. He had a lot of finishes. He had a lot of energy, played great defense. And Ryan's always going to be a scorer, even when he's struggling. And we kept battling, and things worked out for us.

Q. Luke and Cam, what was the difference that you guys had defensively in the second half on Fisher and Stokes?
LUKE HANCOCK: Just he lit us up in the first half, and I felt like it was kind of on my shoulders. He hit a lot of big shots. And I wasn't playing good enough defense. I wasn't trusting my teammates enough to be able to guard their man and I was helping too much.
In the second half, they just told me that they were going to guard theirs and I don't need to help as much. And they believed in me to stay on him and keep guarding him. And luckily he didn't fry me like he did in the first half.
CAM LONG: I can agree with Luke. He definitely picked it up the second half. He just didn't give him a chance to look at 3s. And I as well picked it up. But then Ike definitely. Ike, when he picked Corey Fisher up and didn't let him go anywhere really, he gave him a tough time. Corey Fisher couldn't get any easy shots, and me, Mike and Ryan, we controlled the paint. If they did get beat, we made sure we was there to take a charge or just there to make them force up shots. So we just didn't make it any easier.

Q. Luke, you went through a stretch there about midway through that second half where you scored, I think it was about seven points in maybe three minutes. Can you take us through that stretch? You ignited the crowd and everything else there.
LUKE HANCOCK: I'd say teammates trust in me with the ball in my hands. They do a good job of setting screens and making me open for shots. And then I'm always looking for them. But if I can get in there and shoot one or catch a rebound and try to put it back in, it works out.

Q. I'm sure most of you -- you were attracted to George Mason obviously as a result of what happened in 2006. But you have to live with that until now. So the question is: How important is it to get a win in the tournament so you won't be -- the school won't be a one-hit wonder?
CAM LONG: Well, I mean, we just gotta keep going. Gotta keep playing hard. They made a good run. We're definitely somewhat in a resemblance, like everybody always says. We're somewhat in resemblance. But we're still doing it in our own way. We fought hard to keep it going and get past this one game.
MIKE MORRISON: We've been forced into a lot of comparisons. The '06 team. And this is why it's my favorite shirt. I just like to ignore what everybody says and just worry about my own team. This is one of my favorite shirts here because I knew you were going to come in with the '06 question.
This is our team here, two different years and two different teams. We are trying to do what we have to do for ourselves, you know.
LUKE HANCOCK: I think Mike said it best. Just trying to do our own thing, make our own name.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach.
COACH LARRANAGA: I think to answer the question you asked him, I think he was interpreting what you were asking as this year being a one-hit wonder. I know you weren't referring to that. The program. And the nice part, in my mind, is we were the NCAA Tournament in '99 and 2001, 2006, 2008, 2011. So even though people remember '06 the best, and that's fine with us, because it causes great memories when you do something that people think is extraordinary, that the experts say it couldn't be done. And yet that team, in '06, quite frankly, didn't believe in the experts, they believed in themselves. They believed in their capabilities to play against all the top teams in the country and felt like the NCAA Tournament was their opportunity to show that.
And I think what these guys are saying is, yeah, they don't want this tournament to be just one and done. They want to make memories of their own.
They want to do things that, okay, the '06 team did, but they weren't on the '06 team. They're focused on being the best that they can be this year. And I think the way we battled back today, as I said, there were times I called a play in the huddle and we'd go out and we wouldn't run it.
And I can't tell you exactly why. Maybe the circumstances, maybe the defense made a guy change his mind. And eventually -- I didn't call a time-out with under 30 seconds to go because I figure if I call the play and they don't run it, I'll be upset. Now, I figured I'll leave it in the players' hands. They've done a great job all season long of making good decisions.
And thank goodness it worked out for them. I feel good that Luke was confident enough in himself to make that big shot; that Mike Morrison and his teammates played great defense to stop Villanova when the game was on the line.
And as Cam Long mentioned, Isaiah Tate's defense throughout that second half was outstanding. And I think he energized the rest of the guys.

Q. Jim, been a long time since you've been at Bowling Green. Anybody from those days to share the success with you?
COACH LARRANAGA: I would say at least 50 former players, parents of former players, former coaches, I got text messages. One of my assistants right now is Michael Huger, First-Team All-Conference player at Bowling Green. He stays in touch with all those guys, so all the guys he played with, and then on my last few years, Anthony Stacey and Shane Kline-Ruminski and Vada Burnett, all the guys who live in the Cleveland area were hitting us up all the time wanting tickets. Former players never want to pay, so they hit us up for some tickets, which was great because we had a lot of our BG guys here.

Q. You mentioned about '06 and the players not wanting certain plays that you called tonight. But you pushed right buttons in '06. What did you say at halftime to the guys? And to start the second half you actually whistled and got out in the huddle. What did you say in the huddle then?
COACH LARRANAGA: First of all, in the locker room, I told our guys that we were very passive in the first half. Didn't even look like our George Mason team at any time during the course of the season and that we needed to be the aggressor. We needed to attack them with our defense and with our offense. We needed to share the ball and do the things we'd done all season long.
That the expression we use all the time was very, very true today. It's not who we play or where we play, but it's how we play. We weren't playing George Mason basketball.
And we called for a play. We went out, and the very first play didn't run it. I said, Oh, my goodness. It's amazing the emotional state that kids are in.
You know, we haven't been to the NCAA Tournament with our freshmen, sophomore, juniors, only the two seniors have been there. And they've been great all week long telling our guys to relax and enjoy it and just play our game.
It's easier to say; much, much harder to do. And then when we huddled to take the court, I ran out on the court and said, hey, I want us to be the best, be the best that we can be and come out and play like we're capable of playing. Just a reminder.

Q. When Luke kind of pauses there when he's got the ball in his hands for that shot, is that one of those "no, no," and then it goes in and it's a "yes" type of shots?
COACH LARRANAGA: Actually, what Luke didn't tell you is he pauses all the time. Normally he shot fakes, he holds it, he's reading defenses. When you go back to the 3-point play, did that tie the game or put us ahead, Ryan Pearson's? That tied it. If you look at that play, that's Luke Hancock. He drove off the ball screen, Ryan rolled, and he held to see what they were going to do defensively, were they going to stick with him or were they going to go with Ryan.
When the guy guarding Ryan stayed with him, he held it long enough to see if Ryan could catch the ball inside. And Isaiah Tate's man left him to go play Ryan but he played behind him, which gave Ryan a chance to seal him, catch it, score and draw the foul. Great decision by Luke. It wasn't just his shot and his ability to kind of read the defense.
So that pause, it's kind of like beautiful music. If you just play the piano, you just bang on it, it's that pause in between that makes the music beautiful. And in Luke's case, it's what makes him a very, very good decision-maker.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about the recruiting of Luke Hancock? He said the assistants saw him in a much better light than you did originally.
COACH LARRANAGA: My assistant coaches saw Luke Hancock play. He was at Hargrave Military Academy. They told me I needed to go down and watch him. I went with one of my assistants, we went down, I watched him play for two hours. He scored two points in the entire two hours.
When I had a chance to talk with him afterwards, because it was a contact period, I told him, Luke, my coaches, my staff thinks you're terrific. Based on what I saw today, I can't offer you a scholarship. But I will tell you this, I trust my assistants and they believe you can play for us. So we'll come back and I'll take another look. And he said okay. And I never got a chance to get back. But my assistant coaches did. And they called me from Hargrave and said, Coach, we have to offer this kid.
And so that night we called him, after study hall, and I offered him a scholarship. And he came up and visited and committed on the visit, I believe. It was on the visit.

Q. Jim, you look at the seeds and the color of the uniform, the team that was supposed to win won, because you were the -- of course I know it's 8 and 9 so there's not much difference. But if you look at the profile of the programs, I think a lot of people on the outside who aren't as involved as you are are going to say that was an upset. Do you think that this was an upset, or going back to what you said about the progress of your program, was this what you expected?
COACH LARRANAGA: We have the utmost respect for Jay Wright and the Villanova program. Their tradition, it goes back generations.
They were in the Final Four my senior year in college. So that's a very, very, very, very long time ago. You can throw in a couple more verys there. But our program, since my staff and I arrived in 1997, have been able to take advantage of the incredible growth of a great university. We're only 40 years old. And in the last 14 years since I've been there, the school just gets bigger and better in every category. We've just finished spending $1 billion on building new dormitories. We built a new hotel on campus, faculty housing, classroom buildings.
The place is awesome. And it's awesome that way because we have great leadership at the top. Our president, Dr. Alan Merten, and athletic director, Tom O'Connor, have done a great job of laying the foundation for someone like myself and my staff and our players to kind of piggyback off of their efforts.
And so we don't have the history of a Villanova yet, but we're trying to build that kind of tradition. And yet I don't know any school that's 40 years old or younger that's been to the Final Four or been to the NCAA Tournament as many times as we have.
And in addition to that, our league has gotten tremendously better. When I first got there, you know, it was a good league. We were a one-bid league, now we're getting two, sometimes three bids. So we're very excited about that.

Q. How hard was it for you in the second half to put Cornelius on the bench and go bigger? And can you explain the decision-making and why you went ahead and did that?
COACH LARRANAGA: During the NCAA Tournament, there are time-outs that are a little bit longer, substantially longer, actually, than during the regular season. And a lot of times in my mind, and this has nothing to do with Andre Cornelius or Ryan Pearson, two starters who didn't play nearly as much in the second half as they normally do, if I find a combination of players that are working well together, I'm going to stick with them.
So Isaiah Tate was doing a great job defensively. Johnny Williams was doing a great job at both ends of the floor. Luke Hancock and Cam Long were sharing the ball handling responsibilities, and Mike Morrison was anchoring our defense.
I didn't feel the need to make changes. And it's something that I guess is just a personal preference.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

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