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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: CHARLOTTEMarch 18, 2011Jim FerryC.J. GarnerJamal OlasewereCHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA North Carolina - 10 THE MODERATOR: We're about to start with LIU with Jamal Olasewere and C.J. Garner. COACH JIM FERRY: I thought our kids played their hearts out tonight. I thought we played extremely hard, extremely physical. We really tried to grind this game out into very talented and big, you know, North Carolina team, and you know, we normally don't foul this much. We lead the country in differential. We get to the foul line most in the country. We make significantly more free throws than our opponent attempts. Our size and how physical the game got, it lead us to fouls. I thought that was uncharacteristic of our team. The reason we've been able to win on the road is because our philosophy has traveled in regards to not fouling and getting fouled. We did a good job and we got -- we usually get 30, we got our 25. We worked to get that. We couldn't keep those guys off the line. A credit to North Carolina. I mean, they really stepped up with confidence and made those. The kid Zeller, felt like he made every one. John Henson who is not a very good free throw shooter, he made 8 for 10. I thought we competed the best we could. Again, you know, we out rebound people that crazy, but it was real hard to keep those guys off the glass. We fought as hard as we could. I thought it was a tribute to our guys, how hard we played, and that's what NEC basketball is, it's a good league and some good players. Guys really compete. I couldn't be more proud of our guys. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the athletes. Q. Jamal, Zeller scored 25 of his 32 in the second half. Did it seem to you like they were going to him as the game got close there when they needed it, and what did he do that made him so effective? JAMAL OLASEWERE: Well, he got to the line. Credit him. He's a good player, great big man. But, yeah, I felt like they did go to him in the second half. He attacked us a lot. What can you say? He did a good job. Q. C.J, this is for you. When you guys made that, cut it to 10 in the second half, did you guys run out of gas, did you feel like you ran out of gas? What do you think stopped the momentum for you guys? Was it them feeding the post consistently like that towards the end of the game? C.J. GARNER: To be honest, I can't really tell you what happened. I can't say our guys stopped or anything. Maybe we didn't get another -- we didn't go on another run. We struggled at that point in time in the game. It happens. Can't really do much about that. Q. Jamal, a lot was made of the fact that you weren't happy with a 15th seed. I wonder if you feel like you proved anything here even in a loss. I don't know if there's such a thing as moral victories here. You made them play to the last minute. JAMAL OLASEWERE: I hope we did prove something. We played as hard as we could. We gave North Carolina a fight, they are an ACC team and number two seed. I feel like we did. We proved a lot going into this game even though we lost. Q. Jamal, you guys got off the a slow start, the shots weren't falling. Did you think you guys were a little bit out of sync early, maybe a little nervous? JAMAL OLASEWERE: No. I mean, we just missed some shots. After that first one, we really got after it and went at UNC. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for the student athletes? Okay. Thanks, guys, head out. Congratulations on a great year. Questions for Coach Ferry. Q. How tough was it to contend with their size inside? COACH JIM FERRY: Extremely difficult. We don't see size like that. I don't think there's many teams in the country that are that long, and again we're a team that we go inside a lot and we get fouled. I mean, how many blocked shots did they have? They had ten blocked shots. We're not used do that. That played -- I heard you asked Jamal missing some shots early. It plays when you're not used to seeing size like that. It bothered us around the rim. It actually bothered us when they closed out on our perimeter shooters. For us to beat these guys tonight, we were going to be able to make some 3s because they're so long inside. They did a great job of closing back out on their length with our shooters as well. Q. As you look back on there season, what are some of the highlights and things you're going to look back on? COACH JIM FERRY: Just the kids were fantastic. When you see a group of guys from all over the country bond the way this group bonded, sacrificed the way they sacrificed, played so unselfishly for the big picture. We had five guys averaging in double figures. We didn't play anybody over 27 minutes a game. We had a kid on the all rookie team that started every game as a freshman. I didn't start him once this year, brought him off the bench. Never say boo. These kids bought in. I think nowadays it's kind of rare. I think it's such a now society with these kids. I have four ever my own. I don't raise them the right way either, I guess, because they're pretty spoiled. But to see a group of kids like this come from all over the place and bond together. There was a reason we're able to win 27 games. They allowed the depth to do what it could do because they got sacrificed for one another instead of allowing depth to tear you apart. This was the most unselfish group of young men I've ever been around in my life. Q. Henson and Zeller both had career highs. I think it's probably the length issue. Could you talk about how those two were able to score so much? COACH JIM FERRY: Again, I think a lot of it was their size. I thought we did a pretty good job on John. He's really improved. He's got that herky-jerky move. He's able to change in the air. He got fouled and he made his is free throws. He was 8 of 10 from the foul line. He's a 48 percent free throw shooter. That's a credit to the kid. Those guys do a great job of running to the rim on missed shots. They didn't shoot very well from 3. Then they run to the rim, and it becomes their bigness against our toughness. We came up a little bit short on that. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Okay. Thanks, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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