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

March 19, 2011

Brad Stevens

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Butler Â– 71
Pittsburgh - 70

MODERATOR: We are joined by Butler Head Coach Brad Stevens as well as junior guard Shelvin Mack and senior forward Matt Howard. Coach, if you could make an opening statement maybe your thought process about the last couple sequences or two.
COACH BRAD STEVENS: I just heard Jamie and one of the things that is very clear and needs to be made very clear is we're not a better basketball team than Old Dominion or Pittsburgh, we just had the ball last. And I think that's just what happens sometimes, and you have two really good basketball teams that are very evenly matched. And he's a heck of a basketball coach. Those kids played really hard. They were really hard to stop we couldn't guard them.
And you talk about the last sequences, and I said this on CBS, you hate to see a game end that way. But I asked Shelvin, did he think he fouled him, and he thought he fouled him and Matt thought he got fouled. So that was the way the game ended.
I thought we played really hard. I thought we took some punches. We were down five after we had a big lead, and we could have folded and these guys don't fold.
They are bulldogs in every sense of the word.
MODERATOR: We'll open the floor up for questions for the student-athletes first.

Q. This is for both of you all three of you: In general, do you believe that end-of-game situations players should decide games or is a foul a foul in the first five minutes and the last ten seconds?
SHELVIN MACK: I think if it's a foul it should be called a foul no matter if it's 0.2 seconds left on clock or 39 minutes left on the clock. The game is played for a full 40 minutes, I think it should be refed for a full 40 minutes.
MATT HOWARD: I think it's pretty hard to argue with what Shelvin said. As much as it would have hurt and really stung quite a bit if we would have ended up losing the game, if a guy gets pushed out of bounds and it is a foul it should be called that way.

Q. This is for Shelvin: Shelvin, did you mean to just kind of keep the offensive player in front of you or side of you? And what did you think after the referee did call a foul? It must have been pretty traumatic moment at least for a second or so.
SHELVIN MACK: Yeah, first reaction was make him pick up the ball. When he threw I was running to sideline, trying to move out the way, but it was coming towards me. I put myself in the best situation to make the ref make a call. Once the call was made, I realized that it was the dumbest mistake of my life. It was a crazy one minute for me. A lot of emotions involved in it. Still time left on the clock, and we was able to get the win.

Q. Matt, were you surprised they contested the rebound? Because obviously in that situation the game is won or lost at the free-throw line and it's probably going to overtime if they don't contest it. Were you surprised that he fouled you?
MATT HOWARD: Yeah, I was really surprised. And I knew we didn't have any timeouts, so when I grabbed the ball my reaction was to look for a guard up the court somewhere. I felt his arm come across me and so just threw the ball towards the rim.

Q. Matt and Shelvin, you've obviously been involved in some tense, dramatic NCAA Tournament games over last two years, can you sort of quantify and compare what that last flurry was like in comparison to all your other experiences, Shelvin?
SHELVIN MACK: I just talking to Matt, it's been the craziest weekend of my life basketball-wise. Win two games on game-winners coming down to the last play of the game. I had an up-and-down feeling the last minute of the game because I had probably the worst foul in Butler history, but then the dude from Pittsburgh made up for me. So that got to be all right.
MATT HOWARD: Yeah, you win two games by three points, it's gonna be pretty crazy. Like Shelvin said, this is by far the craziest weekend of basketball, and the type of games that you really play for. You know that obviously you'd like to really play your best and blow teams out, but with such great teams you know it's going to come down to the end, and these are the type of games and moments that you play for as a competitor.

Q. Shelvin, two questions: One, during the time when the officials were resetting the clock after you committed the foul, you were having a chat with Brown at the foul line. Can you relay a little bit of that conversation to us. And second, given how well you played the entire night, do you think that will cause your teammates to not give you quite as much of a hard time about the foul or are you a dead man walking?
SHELVIN MACK: I'm a dead man walking. They're giving me a hard time right now. A teammate Ron, he had a dumb foul earlier in the year and we lost the game sort of like that.
But at the free-throw line we just had a regular conversation. I just asked him where he was from. (Laughter). Simple question, just talk to him a little bit. He responded back. There's no trash talking or anything like that.

Q. Did he ask you where you were from?
SHELVIN MACK: Yeah, I told him I was from Lexington. I had 3.0. Stuff like that. (Laughter. )

Q. This is for both of you: Can talk about the value of playing all the way through to the end? Because both teams were prepared for anything to happen basically those last 2.2 seconds. I guess specifically about Gilbert missing that last free throw and you guys being able to make something out of it.
SHELVIN MACK: It's important to play the full 40 minutes. I was talking to my high school coach earlier, back in high school teams used to walk off the court with ten seconds left. But we still played the full 40 minutes. I think it's a crucial point when you get older you start realizing there's a lot of possessions left in the game, so you have to play the full 40 minutes.
MATT HOWARD: I think this game is a really good example of the fact that anything can happen, and I'm sure, at least in my mind, I was thinking when Drew hit that shot and they don't have timeouts, they're probably not going to get a very good shot off and the game's going to be over, and who would have known there's two possessions left. So, yeah, you gotta play all the way through.
Three possessions, my bad. Let's correct it.

Q. Shelvin, can you elaborate on your offensive performance before the end. You just looked like you were in some kind of a zone and just really feeling confident. Was Pittsburgh doing something you didn't expect because it seemed like you had room to pull the trigger on those three-pointers time after time and really seemed dialed in?
SHELVIN MACK: They're a very great defensive team. Last night I asked one of the coaches for some film when they played UConn, how they were guarding Kemba Walker. I noticed they were there a lot on the catch but they really didn't have a presence on the ball. So I took that into consideration today.
MODERATOR: You guys are all set. Thank you.
We'll reopen the floor for questions for Coach Stevens.

Q. Brad, I know you're a pretty calm guy, but can you talk a little bit about your emotional swing that last 2.5 there?
COACH BRAD STEVENS: Well, I thought you our guys did a great job off the side out and they scored and made a great play. And you know you're between that a little bit because you are down one. How many guys are you going to send to the glass and how many guys you going to tell to get back, because if you score, you better be back, and if -- most likely you're going to have to go and try to tip one in.
They threw a pass out to Brown, and I thought both guys were kind of deciding to go for the ball. I thought Shelvin hesitated a little bit, and that may have created the contact. When I first saw it I wasn't sure.
But the first thing I do is I ask these guys and he felt like it was, and Matt certainly felt like it was. Matt, talk about a heavy play, right when Matt caught it, he threw through the ball at the other rim, and he got -- he certainly felt like he got fouled.
But again, I hate that we talk about the fouls and the last sequences because two pretty good teams playing a heck of a basketball game. It was physical and it was tough, and then there was a whole lot of skill on display through all that contact by both teams.

Q. Given the fact that you won six of your last seven NCAA Tournament games and five of those were so airtight, what has allowed Butler to win all these close games? Because you talk about the law of averages. It seemed like the law of averages would have prohibited that.
COACH BRAD STEVENS: Please don't take one away. I think we got seven. So but I will say this. It's -- I think it's fortunate to have the ball last. Like I said, we're not better than Old Dominion. We're not better than Pittsburgh. We just had the ball last.
We talked about the Xavier game last year when we picked up a loose ball while bodies were on the floor and laid it in. Does that make you a better team? No. We're just fortunate to advance because one thing these guys do is they play through the horn, and they'll always play through the horn. And I think that that happens because of 54. I think that that's Matt Howard's imprint on our program is you're going to give everything you have as long as you're out there every single day.

Q. Coach, I wanted to ask you in general about the concept of working the refs. When you express your displeasure at any juncture on a foul call, what's the effect? Is it just to vent or to show your players you got their back? Do you ever see an effect in that?
COACH BRAD STEVENS: I'm not smart enough to do that. I'm just a little bit emotional, probably need to control myself a little bit better. I think it's one of those things that -- I don't believe in that.
Those guys are -- they have to perform and they have a tough job, really tough job. And you're looking at things as a coach sometimes that may not be what they're looking at. And you may be looking at a cutter; they maybe looking at the ball, and you decide -- and you get mad about something that happened on a cut. Well, that's not what they're looking at. And so how you going to make a call?
They have a really hard job, and I really respect them. And certainly I showed too much frustration and emotion at times, and I think we all do, but the game is won by the players.

Q. You mentioned 54 and Matt Howard's imprint on the program, but can you talk about the other things he did tonight besides getting that last rebound and drawing that foul, the two offensive charges that he drew, the three-pointers the blocked shot early in the first half, just his overall contribution.
COACH BRAD STEVENS: I don't know how to quantify it or talk about it in a limited amount of time. One of the things that goes through your mind is what are you going to say in that locker room if it doesn't go your way with Matt Howard sitting there? And luckily I don't have to say that, at least for at least until we play again. And we're going to try or best to win and try our best to do everything right, but if and when that day comes and we're lucky enough to play four more, it's still going to be a hard day because everything that that kid does is -- I think he's made Butler better. Like how many guys can say that? He has made a whole university better. I respect him a great deal for that.
MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.

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