	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

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

March 18, 2011

Jordan Printy

CLEVELAND, OHIO

Syracuse Â– 77
Indiana State - 60

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Indiana State head coach Greg Lansing and student-athletes Jordan Printy and Jake Odum. We'll start with an opening statement from Coach Lansing.
COACH LANSING: I didn't think we played particularly well, but I think that has everything to do with Syracuse and the style that they play. And I thought when we cut it to 42-38, we turned it over a few times and really didn't give ourselves a chance.
At the start of the game we weren't attacking. We were moving and getting the ball inside the zone and doing what we wanted to, but we just weren't quite aggressive enough. And, again, that has everything to do with the Syracuse defense.
But I want to just thank my team for what they've done for me and my first year as a head coach. It's been an unbelievable ride. I've never been around the quality of character of the group that this group has. These two guys sitting next to me as well as the seniors and Aaron Carter, Isiah Martin and Jake Kelly, and I just want to thank them and our fans for what we've gone through this last month.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Jordan, can you talk about just how difficult Carter was to find a space on the outside to get a shot?
JORDAN PRINTY: It was difficult. I think in the first half we came out a little too passive, passing around the perimeter. Once we started attacking more and kind of figuring out the zone, I think we got some good looks, just some of them didn't go down for us tonight.
But overall I thought that we attacked it well after the first part of that first half.

Q. Jake, I know a lot of times you guys this week were asked about how you would attack the zone, and several times Coach Lansing talked about how we play on the defensive end will have just as big an effect on the game. Talk about the defensive challenge you had tonight.
JAKE ODUM: It was tough. Syracuse is a great team. It's hard to simulate the style of play they do in practice, because they're so athletic and so long.
But like Jordan said, after the first ten minutes of the game or so we kind of buckled down and settled in a little bit and picked it up on both ends of the floor.

Q. Jake, you were battling inside a little bit. Just from your perspective, how tough was it to guard a guy like Rick Jackson, just through everything? You guys were double- and triple-teaming him. He was getting to the line and just kind of at points dominating the game inside. Just talk about how tough it was as a whole to guard him.
JAKE ODUM: Extremely tough. He's an NBA-type player. He's big. He's physical. And he can pass well along with that. We had to be careful when we chose to double or not. He's a great player, and Myles did well down there tonight with it, and we just couldn't make some plays.

Q. When it was 42-38, not only do you chip a big lead down to four, it seemed like confidence and a little bit of mojo. From that point on, from 42-to-38 until the end, what do you think in your mind really was the difference from that point on?
JORDAN PRINTY: Like Coach said, we had some turnovers right when we cut it to four that led to some easy fastbreak points for them. I mean, we battled back. We got down there in the first half. And that's what our team has been like all year long; when stuff happens, we battle back. We're proud of our effort, but things didn't go our way after we cut it to four.
JAKE ODUM: Yeah, like he said, we just didn't make some plays, some shots didn't go in, and we let that kind of affect our defense and our rebounding on the other end, which we can't do against a team like Syracuse.

Q. This team has a lot of important pieces coming back next season and beyond. Can you talk about what this experience means and how you can kind of put it in your pocket and apply it to success in the future?
JAKE ODUM: To me, this makes me want to work harder. I'm ready to get back in the gym for next year.
You know, you play the game to win and go as far as you can. And you can't just settle for making the tournament. You gotta pick it up in the off season and do what you can to come back and do the same thing next year, but maybe make it a little bit farther.
JORDAN PRINTY: Like he said, we had some success this year. I think we did some good things. And that's only going to make us more hungry in the offseason and help us out for next year. So I'll be excited for it.

Q. Sort of piggybacking off of that for both of you guys, when you did cut the lead to four or the deficit to four, how much did you think that we might be able to pull this off, we might be able to really do this?
JAKE ODUM: I thought we could do that the whole game. You gotta go in the game thinking you can win. Even when we were down 17, if we gave up and didn't think we could win the game, we wouldn't have cut it down to four.
So we cut it down to four and we didn't make plays and we turned the ball over a few times, and just kind of came out flat in the last few minutes of the game.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach.

Q. Greg, you did the best you could to simulate Syracuse's size in the paint. But just kind of elaborate on the difficulty of trying to contain Jackson and Joseph to a point, just -- that was kind of the challenge throughout that entire game?
COACH LANSING: Yeah, we worked as hard as we could at it. But, as Jake said, he's just really good. One of the best centers in the country. His skill level -- he's unselfish, too. He doesn't take bad shots. He finds guys when they're open.
We tried to start out not doubling him because Myles -- Myles is a very good post defender, he really is, and he works very, very hard, but he got a foul or two early. We had to come and help him. So we had to start doubling. We tried to wait until he bounced it once to come get it, and then he just makes the right plays and makes the right passes.
If you're sending two bigs to double-team him, there's somebody open for a rebound. And that allowed them to get some second-chance points.
But he's just an outstanding player. He really is. I'm more impressed with him. I watched a lot of tape, was very impressed. But watching him there on the sidelines, he's just very impressive.

Q. You guys really seemed to attack Brandon Triche at the top of the zone. What did you see on tape that made you think that was the best ways to attack the 2-3?
COACH LANSING: They kicked a lot of balls loose. We had 14 turnovers, and when you get by them -- we tried to say you weren't really going to be able to split those guys and get by those guys, just kind of draw an extra defender and get the ball moving.
I really thought early we were getting the ball into that high post area a lot, we just weren't trying to attack it from there. We wouldn't even face the basket, we just kicked it back out of there.
But then when we started ball screening a lot it's hard to do. Those guys, when you set a ball screen up top, they're on their own, they have to get over it or get under it. It's hard to do when you've got a guy like Myles setting a ball screen. Those two up top, I think they caused a lot of our turnovers with their active hands.
That's the way they play. They're going to give you an angle and a spot, but their hands are so active, and we didn't handle that very well. But I really think we attacked it pretty good for the most part. It's just that they're awfully good and their length certainly affected us.

Q. Coach, after going six of 13 from 3-point range in the first half, did Syracuse change anything up? Because obviously you didn't shoot the ball quite as well from the outside in the second half.
COACH LANSING: They did a better job with the ball screen. I thought there was the last ten minutes of the first half when we got back into the game a little bit. We were getting in there with our penetration off the ball screen. They fought it a little harder and we turned it over a little bit too much, and they closed so quick.
And I think they just felt like we were really going to continue to fire those, so they -- they could leave one guy in the middle, we weren't threatening the basket enough. They were blocking shots in there, and we missed layups in the first half.
So I think they really told the other four guys on the perimeter of it just to really try to take away the 3s and run us off that 3-point line and let whoever was in the middle of that zone just protect the basket.

Q. Same question as for the players, a lot of important cogs are back for this team. In this stage of the team's development, what does this NCAA Tournament game mean despite the loss, and what can it mean for the future?
COACH LANSING: Well, you know, you wish you could do it every year. A team like this, I'm just glad they got to experience it. Obviously for me you're getting in the business, you want to win championships.
I want to win a conference championship regular season next year and I want to win the tournament next year and I want to get into the NCAA Tournament.
So I really like everybody we have coming back. We just have a good group of guys. This group is going to work hard. They go hard in individuals. They go hard in practice. They got a taste of what maybe the NCAA Tournament is about. So I know they're going to work.
And I thought some of our guys, especially Jake Odum, I thought he showed that he belonged tonight. And with him, the ball in his hands for the next three years, I certainly like our team.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297