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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: CHICAGOMarch 18, 2011Austin FreemanHollis ThompsonJohn Thompson IIIChris WrightCHICAGO, ILLINOIS VCU – 74 GREG GREENWELL: From Georgetown we have head coach John Thompson, III, student-athletes Austin Freeman, Chris Wright, and Hollis Thompson. We'll start with a statement from the head coach and then take questions from the student-athletes. COACH THOMPSON: You know it's hard when you get to this point and the season's over. And you end up -- I end up thinking about the players, most of them, in this specific game right now. We've got a group of seniors, Chris, Austin, Julian, Ryan Dougherty. Four years goes fast, and they've given a lot and worked their behinds off. And that's tough. You know, a lot will be said about what this group did or didn't do in their four years in the postseason. But they've given a lot to the school. And I just want to thank them. Q. Chris, yesterday you guys talked about not overlooking VCU. Did you feel like that was the case tonight, or were you guys just simply outplayed? CHRIS WRIGHT: No, they outplayed us. They shot the ball well, and they beat us. Q. Chris, you played out there a full game. Was your hand an issue at all tonight? CHRIS WRIGHT: No. Q. For Chris and Austin. Obviously, they shot well from three-point range. Was that just them on a hot night, or were you guys missing assignments or confusion on defense? What was going on? CHRIS WRIGHT: They -- I mean, they've been doing that all year. They've been making shots. We're not taking nothing away from them. They played better than us, and they deserved to win. Q. For Chris and Austin, I know it's an emotional time right now. Can you put into perspective your careers here at Georgetown. Obviously, you didn't accomplish exactly what you wanted to, but what's your emotional state right now? How do you think -- how do you think you could look back at these four years here in time, a week, months from now? AUSTIN FREEMAN: I feel like me, Chris, Julian, Ryan, we did what we can to try to help this program. We did the best we can. Plain and simple. That's it. Q. Can you just talk about their defense and what that did to bother you guys. HOLLIS THOMPSON: I mean, they played a pretty good defense, and I think they forced us to miss shots. So they did what they needed to do. Q. Since the final four run in 2007, you guys have won one NCAA Tournament game. Do you have any thoughts to what's led to you guys' recent struggles in postseason play? COACH THOMPSON: I think that, once the season is over, now it's over. As the coach, as the head of the program, you go through introspection, and we'll take time, and I'll do that. As I said in the opening statement, I said this -- a lot will be discussed about this group and what they have and haven't done in the postseason. We'll evaluate that. Like I said, right now my thoughts are just with the four seniors that, for the last time will be wearing a Georgetown University jersey, and that hurts. That hurts to see them go. That hurts them. But back to your specific question, we'll figure it out. Q. Coach Thompson, last year, I think Ohio, they got a little bit disrespected by some of the media coming into the game, same thing with VCU getting in the first four. A lot of people say they didn't belong in the tournament. How tough is it to play a team like this that's so fired up to come in and take you down? COACH THOMPSON: That's the nature of the beast. That's part of this tournament. Once you get to this time of year, every team is good. There are no bad teams in this tournament. So it is what it is. Q. Can you talk about Rozzell's performance a little bit. Was that a product of just him being on, or was defense off a bit? COACH THOMPSON: Both. He clearly was on. But as Chris or Austin -- I forget who said -- he has shot like that, and they have shot like that for large parts of the year. You know, we clearly did not protect the three-point line as we needed to against a good shooting team. That was not a surprise that they can put the ball in the basket. We just did not do a good job. That was part of what we wanted to do going into it. You can sit here and analyze who didn't rotate, who didn't do this, why it didn't happen. We gave good shooters open shots, and they made it. Q. Could you talk about your team's three-point shooting kind of slid toward the end of the season. Was that a product of the looks not being as good, or were shots just being missed? COACH THOMPSON: I don't know. It's probably both. Clearly during the stretch, when Chris was out, we didn't get the quality -- the kind of shots we had been getting during that specific stretch. Tonight -- you know, I said it a couple of weeks ago. It's just the way the stars were aligned. Austin's 0 for 7. Jason's 0 for 3. Chris is 0 for 6. We're not going to win too many games if all three of those guys have nights like that. Unfortunately, it happened tonight. That's athletics. That's part of the game. It happens. Now, I have to give VCU all the credit in the world. They came in here, and they executed what they wanted to. And so I want to congratulate them and wish them success as they move on. Q. For you experiencing it on the sidelines, can you compare this game to the one a year ago against Ohio? COACH THOMPSON: Stating the obvious, it's easy to compare. It's the first round. You have a difficult loss. It hurts. Q. Do you think playing three games in about a three-week period affected you guys tonight? COACH THOMPSON: No. We can't start looking for excuses like that. I think you have to give the guys in the other locker room the credit. And just what they did, what we didn't do, I don't think that -- if nothing else, we needed that time for Chris to get somewhat healthy to be able to be out there and participate at all tonight. So I don't think that's it. The schedule is, the timing is, it is what it is. It's going to be like that in one way, shape, or form, unfortunately, good, bad, or indifferent every year. GREG GREENWELL: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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