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NCAA MEN'S REGIONALS SEMIFINALS & FINALS: ANAHEIMMarch 23, 2011Jim CalhounAlex OriakhiKemba WalkerANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Coach Calhoun. We will take questions for Coach. COACH CALHOUN: To state the obvious, we're very happy to be here as I'm sure that 15 other schools in America are to be in at this point, 40 minutes away from a final 8 and obviously 80 minutes away from a Final Four is an exciting thing, we have had an opportunity to be here on a number of occasions, never take anything for granted, they're always fun and it's what you start out working for at the beginning of a basketball season. We're a happy team. We understand that to get to Saturday we've got to beat a very good San Diego State team. They have terrific players who remind me a little bit of -- not a typical team in the Big East today, but a little more in the midpoint of this decade, 6'8", 6'9" athletes. A lot of them, up front, good guys, great players, well-coached and just a great basketball team with a great selection at the 3-spot and they've won a ton of games. They're a good team, we know that, and we're looking forward to playing them tomorrow at either 4:15 or 7:15, whatever your psychic clock says. Q. Coach, you mentioned you've been here quite a few times, can you talk about how does that help you in terms of preparation, not from a player's standpoint, but from a coach's standpoint, is there an advantage to having been here some times? COACH CALHOUN: The biggest advantage is who you bring with you. A couple of years ago when we brought Hasheem Thabeet and A.J. Price who plays with the Pacers, and Hasheem played for the Houston Rockets and very good players and experienced team, very exciting, but that's an advantage. In '04 when we brought Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon, Charlie Villanueva, Hilton Armstrong and Josh Boone, all went on to play in the NBA, they didn't need my wisdom. They just needed to play well. Bottom line is, if you can try as best you can, we do like playing Saturdays and Mondays in the Big East, and it's very difficult with all the hoopla in many, many ways to do that, but we try to treat it like that kind of a weekend, we need to, and we don't really get into deep thought of "This is it. If you lose you go home." And I don't think our words would ever come out of our mouths, we just say simply we've got to get this one to get to Saturday. It's a great business trip for us to California and we try and take care of Thursday, and then we look into Saturday. We know the other three teams and we know we don't have to worry about the other two until we see how well we can do against a very good San Diego State team. There is an advantage, no question, because I know if the first couple of years it was a little more difficult to try to navigate your way through the whole mess, and I've done that with just trying to bring it down to the San Diego State. I have no idea who is playing in the other regions, nor do I care. If you can be that finite to bring it in, it has worked fairly well for us. Q. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most shocking, how surprised would you have been that to be here on October 15th, looking back to October and somebody told you you would be here? COACH CALHOUN: Well, you know, we've been here before, as I said before, I don't know if I would be a 10 as far as surprised. Happy. Elated. But I'm the same guy, even though I suppose I have a somewhat dour exterior, at times, well, a lot of the times, and I'm the guy who had 16 miles to go on a bike and had nine broken ribs and kept going. Point being, it's the story of my life to some degree that, Bob, I don't stop dreaming about going. So I can't say it's a shock to me, because it isn't. We have now a kid who has evolved -- when I look at my players and this sometimes can be a conflict between them and myself, I never look at what they are, I kind of look at what they can be; and if you look at the kids who have had to go through our program, being a Ben, being an Emeka, these kids weren't big high school players, but I thought we had a chance to be something special but Kemba in my opinion had the chance to be something special, Jeremy Lamb, to come from a kid who's father beat us on a jump shot at Northwestern, to being a best freshman in the country, to other other doing so well and Shabazz being a 6' guard, you look two fold, you look at what things do we need to improve and worry about, and conversely, what things can they be. I'm happy. Elated. I can't tell you I wrote it down, because I usually try to write where I think we will be end of the season and we ended up at the end of the season losing 3 out of 4, tough one to Notre Dame in the last game, but caught fire in the Big East Tournament and won five games in five days and here we are. And we're playing the best basketball right now and everything that could happen good has happened good. Q. Can you talk about Kawhi Leonard and what specific problems he poses for you and if you've seen anybody quite like him in your travels this year? COACH CALHOUN: I don't know about this year. I've seen his kind of player before, he's multi dimensional forward who can do so many things. He likes to handle the ball. He can shoot it. He has double-doubles. He's a Lowry selection in my opinion. He's a match-up problem from day one. Hopefully on the other end we can match him a few times playing smaller and try to cover his post-up ability, but he's probably one of those kids in America, the kid from BYU is a great player, great scorer, but to me he's the guy with maybe the bigger basketball future, he's really, really good. He can do so many things. You're 100% right what you hoped with, he's a tough, tough match-up, because if you go power he's going to take you outside, and if you go small he's going to take you inside. With the way that his teammates are playing, get a couple of double-doubles themselves, he's a heck of a match-up problem and can cause some sleepless mornings. I've been waking early in California, but the thought of him can -- instead of a 5:00 wake-up, he's more of a 4:00 wake-up. Q. Coach, being across the country, did you even know much about the San Diego State program before this week, and have you learned anything that surprised you since the match-up was set? COACH CALHOUN: Well, first thing, I'm a basketball junky so I kinda watch everybody and try to figure out, you know, teams, and I enjoy watching basketball games. I've seen 'em play three times, when they were on at 10:00 or something of that nature and watched them. I guess the thing I've learned the most is just how good they are. They would be good wherever they are, Big East, Big 12, they're just a really good basketball team. The thing we don't bring into this is experience, except for Kemba, the thing they bring into it is four or five seniors, depending how many they play, and they're really good. These are really good basketball team. A lot of times you get an athletic group like them, and when they open up, they're great in space, they play well when they run. But Steve puts them into situations where they can execute very well in the half-court so they're a double-edged sword to play because if a team is a wide-open team you try to slow 'em down, and if they're a half-court team you try to speed them up. But I think they play sometimes as well in the open court as they do in the half-court set and that makes them very difficult. The more we looked at them, the more we talked about them. They would be a legitimate team in any league in the country. Q. Coach, can you talk about the challenge of playing a team so close to their campus, 100 miles or so and do you think that will be a distinct advantage for them? COACH CALHOUN: We played UCLA in Oakland and they went on to win a national championship that year in 1996. We played George Mason on their campus, oh it was the Verizon Center, my bad, make sure I keep those advertising dollars coming through. We've played an awful lot of people, it seems, we played North Carolina in the final 8 in Greensboro, that was the year they gave out stats at halftime with just North Carolina on it (Chuckles.) No, that's a memory thing that happens to you occasionally. But we seemed to have an awful lot of that. I think quite frankly we've always opted to go away, it was the fourth or fifth time out west, and playing out west we've been fairly successful. Three officials, 10 kids, playing basketball on the court, the house -- the first time we got to the Final Four was '99 against Gonzaga and Phoenix, and I swear to God if there were 18,000 in the building, 17,500 were rooting for Gonzaga, so we've been exposed to that before. I don't know that it hurts you, I always think it helps the other team, though, if they get down a little bit, it helps the other team. Q. Coach, I wanted to ask you, you and Steve Fisher I think are the two senior coaches left in the tournament? COACH CALHOUN: What does "senior" mean? Q. 68 and 65. COACH CALHOUN: Thought I would clarify that. Q. I wanted to know if -- it would appear to be stylistically you're a little different, have you had much contact with him over the years, how well do you know him and what accounts in your mind for your longevity? COACH CALHOUN: My longevity is stubbornness, purely Irish stubbornness, won't give in, I don't know what afflicts Steve to keep going, but that's my excuse. I think the love of the game, I think you do something you like and when you end up doing this after 39th year as a Division I head coach, and to be honest, one of the happiest years I've ever had in coach and go it hasn't been necessary well an easy year for me personally with some unfortunate deaths, my sister-in-law, and my college roommate who he was very close to, other factors. But this team has made basketball so much fun. It's what I do. It's who I am in many ways. I am many other things. I'm a father, a grandfather. I hope I'm a lot more than just a basketball coach. But when it gets down to it that becomes yourself. So therefore, I would assume it's the same thing with Steve. I would assume he continues doing this because of the love of the game and the love of the kids and for us to find a team like this, we were in the Final Four two years ago. I really liked that team. It was a fun team, Jeff, A.J., those guys, but this team with its seven freshmen, couple sophomores and Kemba. It's been the most fun coaching them. They have the most resilience of any team I've coached. I was upset with them early. We didn't lose a lot early, but when we lost I went into the gym I kept telling my assistants "they're too happy" and they weren't too happy. They were looking forward to getting better, and Kemba does help with that. I know Steve fairly well, on Nike trips as much as anything else and I knew him when I was at Michigan, and I would think we have a good talk relationship. Beyond that we're separated by 3,000 miles and I haven't seen him that much he left Michigan. Q. You just mentioned before that you think the kid at San Diego State might have a better future than the kid at BYU. Where does Kemba match up in that? COACH CALHOUN: It's going to be bias, but Kemba's future is anyplace. We leave the Georgetown game in Big John, who I happen to be -- Kent Milbrook, when I got down in college, he was my roommate and he was the second year it the Celtics and he said "You know that little guy you have? He said that's Alan Iverson at times." And you know what, with his 42, his 32, all the points he's scored, he does have that scoring mentality. His nickname in high school was "Easy Pass" because he was just a great distributor of the basketball, and he's proven that in other games with double figure assists. At 6-feet, 185 pounds there isn't anything he can't do and the greatest thing he can do is lead a team and impose some of his will on his teammates. Most people can't transmit that. That's a hard thing to do and I've had great players, and some can. But Kemba can do so many different things to me defensively on the ball, pressure, rebounding, he averages 6 rebounds a game. I think he's the most special of three really great players we just talked about. I think he's the most valuable by the way, too, because of the guys around him don't have a lot of experience he has given them an awful lot. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. Q. Kemba, during the Big East tournament, one coach left you off the first team ballot and throughout that entire time we heard a lot about Hansborough, throughout this tournament we've heard about Jimmer, and I'm wondering why do you think you're getting overlooked? KEMBA WALKER: I don't think I'm getting overlooked, and I'm not really trying to pay attention to that stuff. I'm just trying to play basketball, win games and get -- bring that national championship back to Storrs, Connecticut, so as far as the accolades and stuff, that will come. I'm not big into that stuff. Q. Kemba, Mombo Jones was telling us yesterday, he called you his "best friend." I don't know if you could talk about your relationship? KEMBA WALKER: He's like my brother. We played against each other and with each other, we have a great relationship. He's like my little brother. Whenever he needed advise and stuff we talk and stuff like that, so, yeah. Q. He said you guys were so close that you're one of the few guys that he doesn't talk trash to? KEMBA WALKER: And that's surprising, right, he talks a lot of trash. I haven't played against him in a while and I'm pretty sure if we play against each other, you know, in the tournament there will be some trash talkin' between the two. Q. Kemba, do you think San Diego State will have a slight advantage, big advantage being so close to their campus, 100 miles or so? How do you block that out when seemingly everybody is against you? KEMBA WALKER: You know, I definitely think that they'll have a lot of fans, I don't know about an advantage. I'm pretty sure we will have a nice little fan base because our fans travel very well. We're just going to play basketball. You know, we've been in some tough places this season, we went to Texas, tough place, we won that game, we pulled some big wins out on the road this year so as far as that, I think we'll be fine. ALEX ORIAKHI: I don't think it's going to affect us at all. At the end of the day it's just basketball and we're not going to listen to the fans or nothing like that, so I don't think it's going to affect us. Q. Kemba, can you talk about the importance of Alex's play tomorrow against San Diego State, particularly slowing down their frontcourt guys. KEMBA WALKER: Yeah, Alex is very important for this team. He's been playing well as of late and when he's enforcing his presence in the paint, it makes it hard for teams to beat us and San Diego State rebounds the basketball very well. They are extremely athletic and if Alex and the other "bigs" do a great job containing those guys on the rebounding I think we'll be fine. Q. Kemba, can you talk about the reason behind Jeremy Lamb's continued improvement over the season and his play particularly recent, what do you think is behind that? ALEX ORIAKHI: It's hard work, that's a kid that is in the gym literally every day, working on his game, after games he's in the gym, so I think it's the hard work playing off. He's a good kid and he loves the game. He works hard. Q. Kemba, have you seen Jimmer play? What's your assessment? KEMBA WALKER: Yeah, I got a chance to watch him play a couple of times -- well, not really, just ESPN, really, I never got a chance to sit down and watch his game. But I know he shoots from half-court, I know he don't miss. He's just -- he's tough to guard. I don't know, he's just extremely tough to guard, he's getting 50 points sometimes it's unreal. But he's a great basketball player. I got a chance to be with him with the USA team and I got a chance to see him play at that time, so, yeah. Q. Who is the underdog in this game, is it you because you're a lower seed, San Diego State because they have far less tradition, is it you guys because you're less experienced? ALEX ORIAKHI: I think we're the underdog and that's the role we kinda like. We kinda like being the underdog and people are probably going to say we're the underdog because we're a lower seed and a young team but we thrive off of that and we use it to our advantage by playing harder. KEMBA WALKER: I don't think tradition plays a role in this at all. As far as that, doesn't really matter, we're going to go out and play basketball. Everybody is saying we're a young team but, you know, at this point, we don't have any freshmen, we're all basketball players. Q. Kemba, based on what you've seen on tape how do you think San Diego State would have fared if they had been in the Big East instead of the Mountain West this season? KEMBA WALKER: Wow, tryin' to set me up! (Chuckles.) Man, I think they would do well. It's a tough call, they're a great team. I think they will be one of the teams that's at the top of the Big East. ALEX ORIAKHI: I agree with him. Q. Kemba, what's it like or what goes through your mind when the game is on you, Texas, Pitt, something like that, what goes through your mind? KEMBA WALKER: As far as last second shots? I don't know, my teammates always tell me -- they give me a certain "look" it's like, "Kemba, win this game" just make this shot! So I'm just trying to, you know, stay poised and make sure and do everything perfect at that time so I can make that shot. Q. When you do it once is it easier to do it again or somehow easier? KEMBA WALKER: I don't think it's easier, it just happens, just happens, honestly. When we're in that situation, like I said, my teammates want me to take the shot, my coaching staff wants me to take that shot, my family wants me to take that shot, I want to take that shot, so I'm going to take that shot and I'm going to try to make it. Q. Your coach was in here a few minutes ago talking about how much fun he was having this year. For those of us who don't know him well and don't see him a lot that's not the image he projects, cut when he's having fun and does he seem to be having fun? KEMBA WALKER: He's definitely having fun, we winin'! There is nothing more fun than winnin'. He's extremely cool off the court. He is such a competitor and he has a passion for the game, that's why he's like that on the court sometimes. He doe what is best for his team. ALEX ORIAKHI: I think he's definitely having fun because he always says winning solves everything and I'm happy we've just been able too win lately and this team just responded to him in a great way so we've been compete and go playing hard so, you know, he can't complain because we're leaving it all out there on the floor. Q. Kemba, they were saying -- D.J. was saying a couple of minutes ago in a radio interview that they were going to have everybody runninging at you all game long, what are your thoughts when you hear that? KEMBA WALKER: That's nothing new. I've been having people run at me all season, and I'm pretty sure there is going to be tough defense on me but I'm going to take my time, you know, just try to adjust to whatever defense they're playing and do whatever is possible to get this win. I'm going to have a great scoring night, great assists night, great defense, something. I'm just going to leave it on the floor. Q. Kemba, thinking back to Maui, I know that's a long time ago, but did you guys surprise yourselves or did you have a sense of how good you were? How important was that? Setting up the season? KEMBA WALKER: That was big time. We had a lot of confidence going into Maui. At that point we didn't have anything to lose, so I think that's how we approached every game. We had our first game against Wichita State and it was a tough game but we were able to pull out win and it showed us how great of a defensive team we can be at times and we took the defense into the next two games and we was able to come out with those two huge wins. Maui tournament gave us the confidence to compete with the big dogs in college basketball. Q. Your coach was in here earlier and he said that Kemba might be the M.V.P. playing right now, and he talked about the seven freshmen and you have the ability to impose your will on the team. Do you feel the need to do that at times, and Alex do you feel when it's happening? ALEX ORIAKHI: Definitely seeing how he competes out there and how much he wants us to win, I think we feed off of that. When he's playing great out there the whole team place great out there. We just feed off of Kemba's energy and we try to do anything possible to help him out there on the court. I just watch him score all the points. KEMBA WALKER: I definitely at times feel it. For example, the Cincinnati game we were slows in the first half and the second half but I was able to bring a spark to the team and they just fed off me and we were able to come out with the big win. Q. Kemba, Nolan Smith said you guys were tight, have you talked at all since you found out you were coming out here? KEMBA WALKER: I haven't spoken to him yet but we're definitely good friends. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen, good luck tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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